What would you do with a donkey?

Why do you think this guy is naked and what does he want with that donkey? Whatever it is, the donkey obviously wants no part of it.

Pictures of John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker must be one of the most photogenic blues singers in rock history. His hat, shades and guitar are always with him, and he is always singing and playing. Or chilling, with his hat, shades and guitar.


John Lee Hooker just with his usual accessories: a hat, shades, and his guitar


John Lee Hooker playing the blues.


Singing, playing and sweating.


As always, playing the blues.


In this early picture, John Lee Hooker only has a guitar, he wears no hat or shades. I guess the "John Lee Hooker image" had not formed yet.

Dutch pink

On the subject of dutch pink, below is an extract from Hassal's book published in 1857 under the title Adulterations detected; or, Plain instructions for the discovery of frauds in food and medicine. It describes how to spot Dutch pink in tea.

Dutch Pink. -- Although called Dutch pink, this subtance is of a brigh yellow colour; it consists of a vegetable dye in combination with chalk or carbonate of lime. It is the yellow pigment most frequently used in this country in the facing of spurious green tea.

For its detection the following method should be pursued: -- An alkali should first be applied to the yellow dye, in order to determine, in the first place, whether it be vegetable or not: if it turn brown, there is no doubt about its vegetable character. In the next place, a minute portion of it should be examined under the microscope, with the view of ascertaining whether it is turmeric or not: if the cells of turmeric are not visible, and if it effervesce with an acid, there is no doubt that the dye is vegetable, and most probably Dutch pink.

Edna Million in a drop dead suit: Jockey full of bourbon

Edna Million in a drop dead suit
Dutch pink in a downtown train
Two dollar pistol, but the gun won't shoot
I'm in the corner in the pouring rain
16 men on a deadman's chest
And I've been drinking from a broken cup
Two pair of pants and a mohair vest
I'm full of bourbon; I can't stand up

Hey little bird, fly away home
Your house is on fire; your children are alone
Hey little bird, fly away home
Your house is on fire; your children are alone

Schiffer broke a bottle on Morgan's head
And I've been stepping on the devils tail
Across the stripes of a full moons head
Through the bars of a Cuban jail
Bloody fingers on a purple knife
A flamingo drinking from a cocktail glass
I'm on the lawn with someone else's wife
Come admire the view from upon the top of the mast

Hey little bird, fly away home
Your house is on fire; your children are alone
Hey little bird, fly away home
Your house is on fire; your children are alone

Yellow sheets in a Hong Kong bed
Stayzbo horn and a Singerland slide
To the carnival is what she said
A hundred dollars makes it dark inside
16 men on a deadman's chest
And I've been drinking from a broken cup
Two pair of pants and a mohair vest
I'm full of burbon; I can't stand up

Hey little bird, fly away home
Your house is on fire; your children are alone
Hey little bird, fly away home
Your house is on fire; your children are alone

Who are the Dungans

The Dungans are Chinese Muslims who used to live in Western China but moved further West during the second half of the 19th century. These are the ethnic Dungans who currently live in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and parts of southern Siberia. But later on, during the beginning of the 20th century, there was a tendency by Westerners to call all Muslim Chinese in Western China Dungans. This created quite a confusion in terms of the real ethnicities of people. (Then there is the Dungans and Dragons web forum which is yet another funny misunderstanding...)

The Dungans are perhaps most well-known today for the curious fact that they use the Cyrillic alphabet to write their language, which is clearly a Chinese dialect. Writing Chinese in an alphabetic script has often been thought of as impossible (especially by Chinese) but the Dungans proved this wrong.



Dungans and Chinese from Kashgar practicing shooting.


A Dungan medrese in Chinese style.


Dungan graves

Pictures of Maki Horikita

Here are some pictures of the Japanese idol Maki Horikita. She has been acting since 2002-2003, appearing in a number of Japanese television series and shows. She is a new star who just began her carrier.


Maki Horikita with the sea in the background.


Looking backward...


After a bath...


Victorious?


What was I gonna do this afternoon?


On a DVD cover, younger than ever.


I knew I should not have had those oysters...

Jesus Christ misspelled

Having considered the example of President Bush's misspellings, I decided to turn to something more serious, less mundane. So I wanted to see if the name of Jesus Christ was misspelled at all, after all he is not a figure people who write his name would take lightly. But sure enough, there are misspellings.

Jesus Chirst, for example, brings up over 20,000 hits in Google. Ridiculous, isn't it? Jeses Christ also has over 20,000 hits. Jesis Christ, on the other hand, occurs only 641 times.

The Lord Jesus Chirst from a Christian website.

President Bush misspelled

President George W. Bush is known to have provided some of the funniest quotes in presidential history. But it is interesting that people writing about him can misspell his name quite often, too.

Presedent, precident, pressident

Geoge Bush

Goerge Bush

Geoge W Bush

Georg Bush

Geogge Bush

George Nush

I could not find more at the moment but there must be zillions of other misspellings, some beyond the point of recognition. Do you know any more?

Pictures of Jimmy Hendrix

OK, time to post some pictures of Jimi Hendrix. It is amazing, how often he is written as Jimmy Hendrix, even when on all of his albums it clearly says JIMI Hendrix. To be sure, my spellchecker is telling me to correct all Jimi's on the page to Jimmy.


So this first picture is the cover of the album called The Jimi Hendrix Experience. He looks quite tame here.


This is a great photo, showing Jimi playing the guitar. I really like the black and white effects here, this must be one of his best pictures.


A studio image showing him smiling. A bit boring.


Another image showing him smoking. He smoked a lot, all kinds of things.


This is the cover of the album called Voodoo Child.

Barney Google

Since Google took over the world and changed everyone's life (mind you, I am writing this using Google's Blogger, hoping that Google will index my pages one of these days), there has been a lot of talk about the meaning of the word "Google." But very few people seem to mention Barney Google, the comic strip hero from the first half of the 20th century.


Here is Barney Google in a Tijuana Bible, talking to a "lady."


This is a sample frame from the comic strip Barney Google and Snuffy Smith.


And this is the front cover of Barney Google Fox Trot.

Lost gold of Lord Kitchener

The Lost Gold of Lord Kitchener

Here is a reference to gold that still lies unclaimed at the bottom of a river. Perhaps someone could go and find it?

"After the fall of Khartoum in 1885 an enormous quantity of stores had to be destroyed owing to the want of transport. Among them was about a million rounds of ammunition, which was ordered to be thrown into the Nile. The duty of superintending its destruction fell to Kitchener, and when it was finished he found to his dismay that the contents of two of the boxes thrown into the river were not ammunition, but 10,000 gold sovereigns apiece. It is hardly probable that any attempt will be made to recover the lost treasure, for after the lapse of thirteen years it must be buried beyond all hope of recovery in the mud of which the bed of the Nile is composed."

A Taoist view on life: Baopuzi, the Master Embracing Simplicity

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Then are dreamt of in your philosophy. This same thought has also occurred to a Chinese philosopher long before the time of Shakespeare. Ge Hong, in his book called Baopuzi, or the Master Embracing Simplicity says:

"You may have the sharpest eyesight in the world and yet you will never be able to see everything that has a form. You may have the most acute hearing in the world and yet you will never be able to hear everything that has a sound. You may have feet like Dazhang and Shuhai and yet the land you have walked will always be less than that which you have not. You may have as much wisdom as Yuyi and Qixie and yet the things you know will always be less than those which you do not. " (Chapter 2, "Immortals")

Hawaiian girls

Pictures of Hawaiian girls. To be exact, these are not only girls but also women, and not all are natives of Hawaii. These photographs come from the 1930s, I came across them on the web.


An elderly Hawaiian woman in traditional clothes, amidst palm trees.


A Hawaiian girl with a small Hawaiian guitar or some other string instrument.



A girl in pseudo-native dress, holding some utensil. You can see that she is simply a model posing for a picture.


Another model in traditional dress, probably dancing.


A girl with a guitar, in native dress.


A girl sitting in front of a traditional Hawaiian hut. The small guitar is here, too.


A girl standing next to the same hut.


And yet another one on the same spot.

Steamer Titanic

The Titanic on an old postcard. The caption reads, "Steamer Titanic: Largest and most luxurious in the World. Launched at Belfast, Ireland, May 1911. Length 882 ft. 6 in. Displacement 66,000 tons. On her maiden trip struck a mammoth iceberg on Sunday, April 14th at 10.25 P. M. in 41º 49 minutes north latitude - 50º 14 minutes, West longitude. The worst disaster known in Marine History. Sunk at 2.20 A. M. April 15, with a loss of over 1500 lives."

The eyes of the seer: Terfren Laila

This is a photograph of Terfren Laila, a once famous seer. Her eyes still have a powerful gaze.