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Hi friends! To go with today's hed gif, I wrote about Gustaf Tenggren, a Swedish immigrant to the US hugely impactful to mid-century illustration and animation. If you don't know about him, now's your opportunity. https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/gustaf-tenggren-artistic-chameleon?r=angu9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Thanks to Craig Nixon for doing the editing on this one!

And here's your meme chat: https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/83abcc96-f06d-4479-b88c-26f889cbb277

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Disney went to the southwest and liked the work of Native artists such as Pop Chalee. He tried to hire her and others to come work for him, but they all noped out.. No problem for Disney, he just stole the style for Bambi.

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Ah, I hadn't heard that. I HAD read, though, that Tyrus Wong was the concept artist behind Bambi, and had a difficult time of it being a Chinese-American at the notoriously discriminatory Disney studio.

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Her work is another "Want, can't afford."

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I rarely like Swedes, except for Wallander. I've heard of that Tenggren kid before though. People seem to like him, but they're mostly Swedish too.

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like

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Hey Martini! I won't be able to put up an evening Open Thread Chat today as I will be photographing Zyx and Mecca's wedding. Would you be able to throw something up at 4:20?

Thank you!

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does math, factoring in timezones

Yeah, I should be around. Have fun at the wedding!

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Thanks MG !

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Really excellent Tabs MG & CN! TY! 🤩💗💯

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The real irony here is that I've slept straight through TABs hours (again), just like in the .gif.

I guess I should go back to setting an alarm again...

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like

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Funny and talented! Good on U CN! 🤩💯

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Ta, Craig. You did a lovely job collaborating with our Martini Glambassador.

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💯🤩💗

Also much bliss in partnership to U & Mecca Zyx 🎶🌀🤩💗💯

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She does the real work. I just try to wield the red pencil.

Huh huh. He said "red pencil"...

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*bats eyelashes*

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Tabs can wait, sleep first! Thanks again for the assist 🤩

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I'm suprised I got through it, tbh. In the hour before, I was trying to find someone I follow on the Xitter, but couldn't remember his name. I was scrolling through 4,500 followers looking for him, and almost made myself blind.

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Nifty! FYI, for anyone in NE Ohio, there is currently an exhibit of [mostly] 19th century illustration at the Cleveland Museum of Art that is well worth checking out.

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How long's it gonna be up; I suspect my kids won't have the patience to see it, so I have to wait for school to begin :)

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Thanks for the learn!

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The Poky Little Puppy!!!!

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You gave far more than ten grins in today's piece. Truly delightful.

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💯🤩💗

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Read the whole thing. Tenggren evolution is certainly interesting, though I'm left wondering if I really would have liked him personally.

It also brought up the idea of the integrated immigrant. He didn't integrate with American culture so much as he dragged US artistic culture toward the Swedish. Like immigrant jews making bagels and Chinese creating fortune cookies, they weren't trying to be more American, but ended up creating distinctly American things that are now fixed into the larger culture.

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💗💯

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The underage intern thing was a little much.

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Indeed.

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Yeah, it's a stretch when it comes down to "the alcoholism thing is ok, but,...this?".

He was def a salty character. I'm not sure many liked him personally at all. Pretty fascinating story.

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Delightful.

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Thank you Martini! That was terrific.

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"Good morning, Nymph, Faerie, and Woodsprite... how may I direct your call"?

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I'm sorry, Diana Naïad is unavailable. Can I connect you with her assistant?

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Her assistant was eaten by a shark.

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I enjoyed that very much.

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Thanks Ellie!

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Martini, I told you not to use that picture of me! My hair looks a fright.

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Retired ag agent here. Dr Taber has the right vision to do good work for NC agriculture!

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Sarah Taber is doing great work, and I've learned a lot from her despite being on the opposite side of the world :)

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That last one, the Stayin’ Alive one? Allegedly these guys are part of a cult. It’s been written about in e.g. LA Times and there’s a recent Netflix documentary. I don’t know much about it but it seems interesting.

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The Harris/Walz campaign had a bit of fun with Chump's announcement of his latest press conference.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219336810

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"Per the disclosures, the only investments Walz holds are his retirement, pension, and life insurance accounts."

Not how I'd structure my retirement, but it's fine. Walz has his pensions from the National Guard (24 years, so 40% of his last 3 years' base pay) and the teachers' union (unknown). His wife has her pension from the teacher's union. They'll both be eligible for Social Security.

In other words, pretty standard for a middle-class American couple.

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One of my best photos, winning a contest with 9 other artists in Northern Manhattan to have our work turned into postcards. This one is titled, Heatwave Relief: New York Style . Of kids playing in the spray from an open fire hydrant in Inwood.

https://substack.com/profile/155618292-ziggywiggy/note/c-65567865?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=2knfuc

Off to photograph a wedding. Later you filthy fuckaducks!

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Kiss the lovely bride & groom for all of us!!!

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So I got called a commie, socialist, and Marxist last night on the internet by a young man I occasionally babysat when he was little. The trifecta. Besides the fact he was rude and disrespectful (and I told him I wasn't going to allow him to talk to me that way -- if he's rude again, I'm going to block him, because I don't need that kind of treatment from anybody, much less a "kid"), today I feel like I've been inducted into a sort of club. Or maybe gotten a punch card punched. If the punch card, what do I get when I reach 10 punches? And do "partial trifectas" count as a punch?

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Crazy RFK, Jr asks for cabinet position in Harris administration. Gift link.

https://wapo.st/3WMqfMX

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ITYM "grift link". yw.

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See, this is why I’m not that frightened by “artificial intelligence.” Because it’s so stupid. The end result is empty cars honking at each other in a parking lot.

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I saw the cringeworthy AI dance video and thought it was dumb, and that was BEFORE I realized they put Elmo's face on a black man which just puts the insult to a whole other level.

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Just saw a breathless headline from the Daily Caller that a newspaper is suing Google and the Harris campaign for "fake news headline" advertisements. Apparently they are upset that the advertisement quoted the article that it linked to, instead of having the exact headline the newspaper itself ran.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't quoting parts of an interview, article, or review when linking to that content sort of standard practice across many industries when you're trying to paint a positive picture? Like micro quotes from famous authors on the covers of other books.

The headline is also often edited after an advertisement is created, so demanding that an advertisement ONLY ever exactly match the current headline on an article might be a tall ask.

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Why do they think they have standing to compel advertisers to use their headline? Headlines aren't even IP, if that matters. The advertisers should tell them to go pound sand.

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…”trash palace and wife cemetery. “

That should be “trash palace and ex-wife cemetery/document storage”

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All the shit that would send Donnie up the river for like, forever, no questions asked, no spin that it's not as bad as it looks, etc.?

It's sleeping with Ivana.

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I'm not buying documents buried with Ivana; most of that stuff must be pretty dated by now. And wouldn't he want them handy, to sell? I don't think they could blame fresh shovel marks on landscaping.

And if he sold nuke secrets to one of our enemies, even if they pinky swear to be quiet...

Two can keep a secret if one is dead.

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No, the shit he never wants seen again got the deep sick treatment.

The dead girl/live boy stuff.

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Wouldn't he burn that?

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Oh. Right.

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So ghost robocabs are just like living robocabs? Driverless taxis are just like driverful taxis? I don't know about all this AI stuff. That old movie sucked too.

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Props for new word “driverful” now that we live in the future

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Help Sarah Taber.

She's trying to succeed a walrus-mustachioed, permanently ensconced Republican seat-filler who, while a "practical farmer" as required by the NC State Constitution, has cleaved close to industrial farming let family and -- this is important, *entrepreneurial farming* -- whither on the vine all across the "Summerland, where the Sun doth shine."

The pins are being set up for the best Democratic year in NC in more than a decade. And it would be a damnéd shame if the people elected a Democratic governor, improved Democrat's position in the General Assembly, won a few judgeships, but failed to elect a Commissioner of Agriculture.

As a final inducement, let me clue you in on how things work in NC -- it is a "long-ballot" state. L

There are *TEN* statewide elected offices:

• Governor (In 2024: dem incumbent, term limited)

• Lt. Governor (rep incument, running for governor)

• Secretary of State (dem incumbent, running for reelection)

• Attorney General (dem incumbent, running for governor)

• Treasurer (rep incumbent)

• Auditor (dem incumbent, not running -- ironic scandal)

• Commissioner of Agriculture (rep incumbent)

• Commissioner of Insurance/State Fire Marshal (rep incumbent)

• Commissioner of Labor (rep incumbent, not standing for reelection)

• Superintendent of Public Instruction (rep incumbent defeated in primary)

So what, you say? Every one of these fuckers is elected to the same four-year term, which coincides with the presidential election cycle. That's what.

It is *beyond difficult* for a challenging candidate to cut through all the noise of a busy election year -- especially when NC is classed as a "battleground state." It's tougher for a challenger to the Commissioner of Agriculture to cut through because, as you might surmise, many suburban and urban folks are sure the AgComm is merely a servant of rural and farm interests -- a 'Green Acres' character, complete with intelligent pet pig.

As savvy folks, you know that the position is about one thing -- POWER. Look what's wrapped up in the job:

• Commodity market promotion

• Weights and measures -- when you buy high-test is it really 90+ octane? When the pump says its a gallon, is it really a gallon? It's the AgComm who's responsible for making sure

• Surveillance for animal diseases, like *bird flu* -- which has big potential negative consequences for human health, as well as for farm economies

• Pass through stewardship of billions in USDA funding

• The operation of the NC State Fair -- which, as a someone who's a bit of an ag fair aficionado (eg, The Erie County Fair in Hamburg, NY, south of Buffalo, is easily the finest fair -- state or otherwise -- in this nation, BTW) is important. The NC State Fair in Raleigh is a sad collection of unimpressive, shabby buildings (except under-utilized Dorton Arena) that does not live up to its unmatched potential in location (the booming Research Triangle) and content to be the premier East Coast global showcase for a people who produce amazing agricultural research and lead the nation in the production of sweet potatoes (65 percent of US production), turkeys (15 percent of US production), strawberries, blueberries, peanuts and cotton.

But while we're celebrating that, know this: The number of farms in North Carolina *decreased* from 50,000 in 2012 to around 45,000 in 2021.

This was on the incumbent's watch. He's out on the hustings now, telling folks that everything is fine. Between that guy's megaphone, suburban apathy and the noise of a presidential election cycle, it's easy to see why Council of State incumbents are re-elected with a reliability that would shame Timex.

Also consider this: Josh Stein, Democratic candidate for governor, is going to need every vote he can get on the Council of State. That is no rubber-stamp government body. NC has a weak governorship. The veto power is hardly 25 years old.

The Council of State is, yes, an arcane largely unknown government body -- and the Republicans *love* that. The council's assent is needed to approve the governor's acquisitions and disposals of state property, approve property allocations, authorize taking on debt in anticipation of tax revenue, authorize the state treasurer to borrow money in times of crisis, create emergency funds, approve bond issues and more. If the governor exercises a power or authority which requires the concurrence of the council, they are required by law to secure the body's approval within 48 hours of exercising said power. The Republicans are administrative vandals. They've used their majority on the council over the last decade to gum up the works for gubernatorial priorities.

If Stein were to not win, and the execrable Mark Robinson were to be elected (fates forbid!), we'll need Sarah Taber on the council to do what can be done to rein in what will undoubtably be an extreme, Medieval agenda.

There's a lot to recommend Sarah. Particularly is the idea of expertise. SHE HELPS FARMERS BUILD SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES. Who better for the job? No other candidate this year, that's for sure. Out-of-staters need to help Democrats win this "obscure" office, which actually possesses awesome powers to shape the lives of people for the better.

Give: https://taberfornc.com/donate

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