James Mitchell
@plainfeather.bsky.social
Retired book publisher and author, medievalist, photographer, Soto Zen student, early musician, San Francisco resident since 1967, unrepentant hippie. Like Bluesky, life is plenitudinous.
Statue of Fallen Angel, by Manuel Meyer, in Valencia, Spain.
What is the Genius Loci Digest? I don't believe stories only exist in books. They're written into the places we inhabit. There are whispers within the walls. The world is storied - we simply have to learn how to read it. 👉 www.digest.andymarsh...
H stood up for academic freedom largely because, as opposed to Columbia, it was in a financial position to do so, and because Garber, unlike his predecessor, sensed the moment. Underplayed amidst the adulation are several significant H budget cuts that ensued.
"Escaping Criticism" by Spanish painter Pere Borrell del Caso, 1874. I wonder if he painted the boy climbing into the picture frame. #oilpainting
Silverpoint. No hesitation nor repetition of line, and necessarily no 'erasing'. Just joy and love
Jesse Locker@jessemlocker.bsky.social · 7d agoRembrandt, Portrait of Saskia in a straw hat, 1633, Silverpoint on vellum, 185 x 107 mm (Staatliche Museen, Berlin). Inscription, added later, reads, "This was drawn after my wife, when she was 21 years old, the third day after we were engaged 8 June 1633."
Now that we've got The Odyssey behind us and made Nolan rich as Croesus, it may be time for Hollywood to return to the adventures of Hercules, played here by hirsute Dwayne Johnson in 2014. Pelliculam novam de rebus gestis Herculis mandamus. #antiquity #hollywood
You don't come upon many original ideas on facebook, such as this from Sententiae Antiquae which potentially compares our current cultural situtation to the Late Bronze Age collapse (cf. Wikipedia). #bronzeage
Arnold Böcklin - Isle of the Dead, 3rd version - Nationalgalerie Berlin. Timor mortis conturbat me. #oilpainting
Arnold Böcklin ( 1827 - 1901): Self-Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle, 1872, oil on canvas, 75 x 61 cm, Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin #oilpainting
The recent discovery of a mounted knight in the Carina Nebula reminds us of our Bronze Age ancestors who also went looking for pictures in the night sky. #astronomy #cosmology
Striped dolphins still swim in the Aegean Sea and are as fascinating as ever. Photo by C. Lanfredi Tethys. #dolphins
House of the Dolphins, Akrotiri frescoes, Thera, Santorini. 1650-1550 BCE, several centuries before Homer. Photographer unkjnown. #antiquity #dolphins
Pindar wrote about striped dolphins, as did the German poet Friedrich Hölderlin in the early 19th century. holderlinpoems.com/poems/dolphi...
About the Dolphin
Hölderlin English translations
holderlinpoems.com
Drinking cup from Thera (Santorini) 1650-1550 BCE, National Archaeological Museum Athens. #antiquity #dolphins
This portrait of two Andean condors won the 2026 Patagonia photo contest for Mauricio Rossanigo. #ornithology
Artemis the cat was grumpy last weekend because of all the fireworks.
1940s Ford pickup truck with anthropomorphic headlight eyes I photographed on a street in Concord CA, 1960s. #wheels
I photographed the Hygenic Dog Food factory in the late 60s. It was down near the railroad tracks in Berkeley #dogfood
I remember clearly how the same conditions prevailed at the 200 years celebration 50 years ago, creating the biggest traffic jam in the city's history and superseded only by last night's. These photos from July 5th SF Chronicle. Oh well, I guess it wouldn't be San Francisco otherwise. #sanfrancisco
La ciudad de la flor de Lis, el 24 de junio, festeja la Fiesta de su patrón • Florencia, 2026.
In the early 1970s I broadcast this a couple times on KPFA in Berkeley on my July 4th radio show. It seems just as relevant 50 years later. #IndependenceDay www.youtube.com/watch?v=_319...
Jimi Hendrix National Anthem USA Woodstock 1969
YouTube video by Franck Theubet
youtube.com