Music Monday: All Aretha

On this Music Monday, we are paying tribute to the "Queen of Soul" -Aretha Franklin who passed away last week at 76. She was a music icon whose music will last forever:

Thank You Aretha Franklin for all of the wonderful music in our lives.

Origins of American Tattoo's

I was at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco and saw an exhibit that was so interesting. It was called "Lew the Jew and His Circle". Lew the Jew was one of the most influential tattoo artists in New York City's Bowery at the beginning of the 20th century. His circle in the Bowery District included Bob Wicks, Charlie Wagner and Millie Hall. These people were central figures in the creation of the American tattoo industry during the first part of the 20th century. Their contributions to stylistic and technical developments for tattoos impacted the medium for decades:

Here is some tattoo flash art by "Lew the Jew"

Tattoo Flash Art from 1905

The two drawings below are from the 1940's

Here the flash art done by others:

Bob Wicks 1930 Flash Art

1930's Millie Hall flash art-Hall was one of the most important female tattoo artists of the 1930's and 1940's

Lew the Jew would correspond (via snail mail) with San Francisco Bay Area tattoo artists "Brooklyn Joe" Lieber and C.J. "Pop" Eddy and share ideas:

The following are Lieber's shop signs from the 1940's and 1950's:

Here is a C.J. Eddy shop sign:

And some Lieber flash art:

I am not a tattoo person but it was really interesting to see some of the history around tattoos.

Cleaning Up the Phone: Planes and Cars

Just cleaning up the phone and some the pics I found it. Here are some pics of planes and cars:

Planes:

Cars:

This is the actual 1992 Ford Thunderbird that Alan Kulwicki drove to finish second in the 1992 Hooters 500 that clinched him (at that time it was called) 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Championship. He was an underdog, so on the front he took off the TH of Thunderbird and renamed it "Underbird":

More of the Mission

Just some more pics of the Mission District and the murals there:

And here some of the other cool things I saw in the Mission:

San Francisco's Mission District is a wonderful place and I know that I have only scratched the surface of what is there.

Music Monday: Animal Time

Music Monday: We are going to have some as we are going to try to get animals in the titles of songs:


Had to put this one in because it always makes me smile:

Now to the regular tunes:

And one of mysteries of life that I have tried to figure out for years:

Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday

Japantown Peace Plaza

I was in what is called Japantown in San Francisco and walked through the Japantown Peace Plaza. The plaza connects the two malls of the Japan Center. It was created in the 1960's:

The focus of the plaza is the Peace Pagoda. The pagoda was donated by the San Francisco's sister city Osaka, Japan in 1968 as a gesture of goodwill:

The Japantown Peace Plaza is a beautiful place to walk around and sit and relax.