What We Talk About When We Talk About Nice Things

We're going to the dogs this week -- at the Smithsonian!

A good Sunday to you all! After last week's festival of weird AI-generated cat pictures, we thought we'd try to bring balance to the Nice Things with a feature on dogs (despite our ridiculously low midichlorian count). You'll be relieved to know that this time, we're not going to focus on creepy artificial-intelligence-created doggos, although they do exist. (We also want to play around with a tool that allegedly will morph your dog into a cat, vice-versa, or even other animals.) Instead, we're gonna give you some dog art, via the collections of the Smithsonian .

The Smithsonian Goes Walkies

We discovered this site a few weeks ago via a tweet by the Smithsonian that we didn't save, but wowie, what a fine collection of puppers! They are ALL good dogs, from a huge variety of collections.

Here's the image the Smithsonian twote:  "Puppies in the Snow," by Isoda Koryusai (1778). It's an Edo-era woodblock printproduced for the Year of the Dog, 1778, with this interesting note: "WWII-era provenance." Oh? Tell us more, huh?

Puppies in the Snow Woodblock print  

From the Smithsonian American Art Museum, here's an untitled dachshund by Beatrice Wood (1932, watercolor on paper). We love its chill expression, the oversized tail, and the relaxed kittycat in the background.

Smithsonian American Art Museum  

How about this lovely home decoration from roughly 1850, a lithograph titled "The Fisherman's Dog," by James S Baillie, from the National Museum of American History.

National Museum of American History & Smithsonian Institution Archives  

The catalog notes are wonderful -- I wish every piece had a similar description! After some introductory comments on the popularity of lithograph prints in Victorian America and their construction of romantic sentimentalism, the description gets to the piece itself:

This colored print is a sentimental, outdoor scene depicting a young girl standing at water's edge. Next to her is a dog leaning over the water, sniffing a floating black hat. She is wearing a plain clothing. A thatched-roof clapboard house and rocky coastline is in the background. The reference to the fisherman in the title, and the black hat floating in the water may allude to a fisherman lost at sea — perhaps the girl's father.

This is absolutely the sort of thing we can imagine Mark Twain had in mind when he satirized the maudlin poetic and artistic endeavors of the late Emmeline Grangerford in Huckleberry Finn. It would fit right in with the other sentimental prints on the walls of the Grangerford home, and poor Emmeline's own works:

Another one was a young lady with her hair all combed up straight to the top of her head, and knotted there in front of a comb like a chair-back, and she was crying into a handkerchief and had a dead bird laying on its back in her other hand with its heels up, and underneath the picture it said "I Shall Never Hear Thy Sweet Chirrup More Alas." There was one where a young lady was at a window looking up at the moon, and tears running down her cheeks; and she had an open letter in one hand with black sealing-wax showing on one edge of it, and she was mashing a locket with a chain to it against her mouth, and underneath the picture it said "And Art Thou Gone Yes Thou Art Gone Alas." These was all nice pictures, I reckon, but I didn't somehow seem to take to them, because if ever I was down a little, they always give me the fan-tods. Everybody was sorry she died, because she had laid out a lot more of these pictures to do, and a body could see by what she had done what they had lost. But I reckoned, that with her disposition, she was having a better time in the graveyard.

Alas!

From the Smithsonian Design Museum, there's this nifty dishtowel, ca. 1950-1955, by Tammis Keefe, with many dorgs. Cheer!

Here, have another Edo era zodiac woodblock , "Bravery Matched with the Twelve (Zodiac) Signs: Dog and Hata Rokurozaemon," by Utagawa Kuniyoshi. It's a bit less precisely dated than the puppies: "late 18th-mid 19th century," and it has another of those "WWII-era provenance" notes.

Bravery Matched with the Twelve (Zodiac) Signs: Dog and Hata Rokurozaemon Woodblock print  

And finally, a more modern piece, from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center. "All Good Dogs" by Raya Bodnarchuk (1987, carved white pine).

And hooray, there are notes!

Luce Center Label
Raya Bodnarchuk emphasizes that she is more interested in animals as forms than as personalities. As the title of this piece implies, All Good Dogs is not a portrait of any particular dog, but represents all dogs. The animal is a "good" dog because it sits calmly, perhaps after being instructed to do so.

Luce Object Quote
"The shapes I like just happen to fit together in animal arrangements." Raya Bodnarchuk, quoted in Montgomery Journal, November 18, 1983.

You can easily spend hours looking through these images. And it's the Smithsonian -- these are allllll our dogs!

Also too, the Smithsonian just last week launched a new digital project, Smithsonian Open Access, featuring 2.8 free images and 3-D objects that can be downloaded and remixed -- yes, including via 3-D printing, for objects -- by the public.

 youtu.be 

Cool. And don't you dare go talking about the need to pare down government. This is what it does really well.

And if I ever come up short for Nice Things, I can just dive into some of the Smithsonian's million other digital collections! 

OK Dok, Get To The Cute Twitter Stuff!

You betcha!

y’all ever just watch a wombat eating grass? https: //t.co/2n6utZToRV

— Andrew Lawrence (@Andrew Lawrence) 1582952694.0 

Thornton is practicing for his new job teaching shapes to kindergarteners. Here's "circle." Okay, "oval." https: //t.co/BgIjE1U2qU

— Doktor Zoom (@Doktor Zoom) 1582911849.0 

The speeding Javelina, from Tucson. Best thing this week! Also, the many music remixes! 

A javelina was caught speeding near 22nd and Kolb in Tucson. https: //t.co/NPmuBvrATc https://t.co/X1F1StOYVG

— Hannah Tiede (@Hannah Tiede) 1582599074.0 

Kate Bush- Running Up That Hill https: //t.co/njvWE0IG1N

— javelina running to (@javelina running to) 1582674245.0 

Talking Heads- Psycho Killer https: //t.co/dAtjXCqMxR

— javelina running to (@javelina running to) 1582827065.0 

David Bowie- Modern Love https: //t.co/LzKk45xwxW

— javelina running to (@javelina running to) 1582996032.0 

Dreams- The Cranberries https: //t.co/J0GfkHzKxS

— javelina running to (@javelina running to) 1582927498.0 

Heart- Barracuda https: //t.co/uM3TCowGLs

— javelina running to (@javelina running to) 1582868942.0 

Blondie- One Way Or Another https: //t.co/51vWfyGJSV

— javelina running to (@javelina running to) 1582842675.0 

Led Zeppelin- Immigrant Song https: //t.co/6PAxd3ZJnN

— javelina running to (@javelina running to) 1582818579.0 

And of course...

Vangelis- Chariots Of Fire https: //t.co/t4RC8GXNkQ

— javelina running to (@javelina running to) 1582814482.0 

From NPR , an important Bald Eagle story:

Officials in Tennessee got a message from a concerned caller - our national symbol was in distress. A bald eagle looked injured near a road in the town of Bulls Gap. The Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency says officers went to the scene and caught the eagle. It was fine, just full - officials say too full to fly. Yeah, the bird gorged itself. It was in a food coma, something we can all relate to. The officers put it somewhere to digest in peace.

More birbs!

Do you still need evidence that birds are dinosaurs or is this good? https: //t.co/J9iuyefhWG

— Alicia Brunner (@Alicia Brunner) 1582489398.0 

A Tyrannosaurus scaring away several Dakotaraptors and Archeroraptors from the carcass of an Edmontosaurus (66 MYA,… https: //t.co/C6VMf7lEyE

— Zaragoz Rex (@Zaragoz Rex) 1582576384.0 

Not a birb. And unlike the javelina, an actual piggie.

The pig is smilling while being brushed????? https: //t.co/sB4FoOPc4f

— 🐀 politikus 🐀 (@🐀 politikus 🐀) 1582939345.0 

Tiny snek.

This is just the most precious thing ever https: //t.co/jHvDdCuOWl

— Oregon's Reigning Hand Washing Champion (@Oregon's Reigning Hand Washing Champion) 1582516686.0 

Jawrs. Assume Richard Dreyfus chose not to participate, or is holding out for the Goodbye Girl action figure, with realistic I don't! Like! The panties! Hanging! On! The rod! action.

We’re gonna need a smaller boat. https: //t.co/pVVyPoSwOj

— Jason Herbert (@Jason Herbert) 1582497257.0 

Which reminds me: I needa remember to tell you all about Historians at the Movies every Sunday! Watch a movie on Netflix and chat about it on Twitter with the hashtag #HATM.

It's like History Science Theater 3000, on Twitter! This week's experiment:

Fans of Historians At The Movies, we’re kicking off Women’s History Month in a big way! Join us this Sunday March 1… https: //t.co/gxViLQ59U7

— Jason Herbert (@Jason Herbert) 1582572120.0 

Do you need to read this new series of blog posts on the history of Cyberpunk ? PROBABLY! Excerpt:

* In a cyberpunk world, global megacorporations are more powerful than governments.
* Individual hackers and "high-tech low lifes" can wield disproportionate amounts of power within cyberspace and beyond.
* The new "stage" for the human drama has shifted from the "real world" to a virtual one, one inside our networks and our minds. The new frontiers for human society–technology, art, culture, and warfare– have moved into cyberspace.
* The "street finds its own uses for things" (Gibson). In a tech-saturated world, high-technology becomes folk technology, is present at every level of society and culture, and ends up being used in ways its creators never could have foreseen.
* We are all becoming cyborgs. Our technology daily grows smaller and smaller, ever closer to our person, and soon it will disappear inside of us.
* "The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed yet" (Gibson) — how rapidly stratifying economic and class divisions are creating a post-human world where the survival advantages of high-technology and bleeding edge science are only available to the rich and powerful.
* The world is splintering into a trillion subcultures with their own beliefs, languages, and lifestyles.

 Check it out for "Max Headroom" flashbacks.

Hairy Potter and the Philosopher’s Stoneware. https: //t.co/Mgc4Mntg7u

— Dick King-Smith HQ (@Dick King-Smith HQ) 1582569149.0 

Pupdates from ProPublica reporter Jessica Huseman and novelist Sam Sykes. You should follow both of them!

Trapped Walter in closet while moving furniture. He found a place to sit. https: //t.co/Pc0Khbn1WX

— Jessica Huseman (@Jessica Huseman) 1583014017.0 

Walter waiting patiently to get our keys in Austin https: //t.co/g9GRjuaLDS

— Jessica Huseman (@Jessica Huseman) 1583009022.0 

My mom is en route to Austin w Walter and let’s just say he doesn’t mind a car ride https: //t.co/F8tr6MG2fG

— Jessica Huseman (@Jessica Huseman) 1583001283.0 

Updates from home: Bosley and Lucille are friends ♥️ https://t.co/mXIDYkGwac

— Sam Sykes (@Sam Sykes) 1583004928.0 

Family sends this picture of Bosley contemplating within his Boscave. https: //t.co/DrPoZ7KW3O

— Sam Sykes (@Sam Sykes) 1582846122.0 

OK, that's all the cute we can handle today. Have a good day, you! This is now your open thread!

 (Also: "Horrible Pourable," could you please email me at doktorzoom at-sign wonkette dot com? I would like to put together a Hamper Cat memorial, with your permission. I'm so sorry to hear he's gone. He brought so many smiles to all of us!) 

[ Smithsonian Dogs / Smithsonian Open Access / NPR / Adafruit (cyberpunk history)]

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