Chimæra on the air!

Short notice, but I will be appearing on "Speaking of Art" with Ed Hoffman, on WAAM, Ann Arbor on Saturday, July 25th, 2:30 to 3:30 pm central time. We will discuss the state of the art and antiques markets, and the importance and process of the proper appraisal of cultural assets. Ed is always a bundle of infectious passion about these topics, so I guarantee it will be a fun listen.

Stream the show through the "Listen LIve" tab at the top of this page. I'll see what I can do about a podcast.

My Little Carranca

Back when I started working for Manion's International Auction House in early 1998, I hit it off rather well with my primary supervisor, Dr. Eric Johansson. He was, to put it mildly, an odd bird, and his eccentricity was more than a little off-putting to many people. For me it was what drew us together as friends.

Eric's encyclopedic knowledge of history was breathtaking. One moment he was rattling off an impromptu lecture to the entire research department on minute aspects of an obscure Roman emperor and his reign (usually inspired by a Roman coin coming through the auction), the next would see him ranting about Napoleon, arguing some point of philosophy, or reciting part of "Beowulf" in a Johansonian dialect of Old English - oh, did I mention the man spoke five languages - English, French, Italian, Swedish, and Old English fluently?

Anyway, as a token of friendship in those early days, he gave me a small carved zooanthropomorphic figure called a Carranca. I remember him explaining it's ghastly appearance was intended to ward off evil spirits among certain south American tribes. Well, as I didn't write any of it down, much of his explanation faded, but I've always been able to remember what it was called - even if I spent years after Eric's death in 2002 fruitlessly trying to research the figure with the spelling "Karanka." Derp. I've learned there is a retired Spanish footballer bearing that name, but of course found no information on my little fellow.

 
After years of brief whenever-I-thought-of-it moments of research, today I stumbled on the correct spelling and a bit of history about my little guy. Turns out there's a respectable amount of information about them out there, but precious little in English. These fierce looking buggers were originally carved figureheads for boats, intended to protect boatmen traveling along Brazil's São Francisco river, through the Nordeste (northeastern) states of Minas Gerais and Bahia.

Historians seem to disagree over the time of their earliest appearance, either late 18th or early 19th century. Originals were of giant size, and the vast majority of surviving examples are now only found in museums. My diminutive 5-3/4 inch tall figure was obviously produced for the tourist trade, but does include black painted chalk hair, a deep carved mouth with teeth cut in greater detail than the vast majority of carrancas I see are being produced. Mine appears to be a different and more sophisticated style. I suspect it dates back at least to the 1970's, if current online offerings and videos are any indication of the simplified patterns being produced.

Oh, if only mine was carved by Francisco Guarany!

(Part 1 of 4, in Portuguese)

Carrancas being carved

Background (in Portuguese)

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The Chimæra Chases a Tornado

I seem to be the only person I know that has still never seen a B-2 Stealth bomber, even though the 509th Bomb Wing is stationed just 51 miles to the east at Whiteman Air Force Base.

Perhaps just as odd is that even after living 47 years in the heart of Tornado Alley, specifically the Kansas City metro area, I have still never seen a tornado. But that nearly changed last Wednesday, July 1st. An EF 1 tornado blew through Lee's Summit, just a couple of miles west of our home - and just out of view.

 The system that spawned it was broad, active, and moved from the north to the south - not generally how we think of tornado-producing systems traveling. As my wife, children, dogs and guinea pig planted themselves - with provisions - safely in our basement, I headed outside with my cell phone camera.

Awestruck, I watched the clouds boil, darken, rise and descend. The darkest and most threatening area of the storm passed overhead and seemed to slow just south of us, centered somewhere perhaps as close as between our house and 50 Highway - a distance of just one mile.

As I retreated from the steady rain and sheltered under the overhang of a neighbor's house to the north, the seething mass began to organize and rotate as it pulled in other menacing clouds. Small funnel-like tendrils descended, danced and dissipated around what appeared to be the wall cloud of a larger vortex.

Seeing the system was continuing to move south, albeit slowly, I sensed no immediate danger - and I also knew the safety of our basement was just a five second dash away. I stayed out until the activity slowed and passed further to the south.

The earlier EF 1 tornado that had blown past the city's Police Department headquarters also destroyed a fireworks tent in the Lee's Summit North High School parking lot, tore away shingles from a series of strip mall businesses, snapped trees, and generally made a nuisance of itself. Fortunately no injuries were reported.

By the end of the evening, five reports had been issued by the Storm Prediction Center from around 6:30 pm until just after 7. All occurred in Jackson and Cass counties.

Venus - Jupiter Conjunction 2015

On June 30^th, the planets Venus and Jupiter were in conjunction – that is to say they appeared close together in the night sky - between the constellations Cancer and Leo.

Complicating the view here in Kansas City - apart from our garden variety periodic thunderstorm - was smoke and haze from Canadian wildfires in Alberta and Saskatchewan, riding the jet stream south.

Despite these difficulties, I managed to snap a few images over several nights with my cell phone camera. Watch as Jupiter and Venus converge and then part over successive nights, as Jupiter moves toward conjunction with the sun on August 26th:

June 22

June 22

June 23

June 24

June 24

June 28

June 28

June 30 (Conjunction: 1/3 degree apart)

°

1/3° apart

1/3° apart

1/3° apart

July 3

July 4

July 5