OLD BOYS DOING OLD THINGS THE OLD WAYS ... these three films gave me great joy

LOGGING

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Osu8U01awgQ

CUTTING AND SHAPING A WATER-WHEEL AXLE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9iOMcPPQxA

SHAPING AND DRESSING A MILLSTONE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lscs5ZgNQrE&t=304s

Saccade ... fast movements of the eye as our focus quite naturally jumps from one point to another ...

Saccades are NORMAL ... but we sometimes perceive them as GLITCHES ... Doctor Andrew G. Lee explains how the brain succeeds and fails to track rapid movements of objects in our visual field by succeeding or failing to accommodate the natural twitch in our focussed attention 

This experience is given an extra complication because the retina of the eye has a small blind spot quite close to the fovea, which is the part of the retina that sees things in extra fine detail when we are focussing.

Even after millions of years of evolution, the highly evolved brain cannot instantly respond to sudden changes ... there are always a few milliseconds of delayed reflex.

I experience this phenomenon every day in two contexts ...

ONE ... Watching a tiny tablet of sweetex dropping the short distance from the dispenser into a cup ... and seeing it twice in different positions rather than perceiving a smooth trajectory

and 

TWO ... If I am painting, trying to follow a fine line with the fine tip of a sable paint brush ... and involuntarily allowing the hand that guides the brush to twitch as the eye re-adjusts its focus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccade

In the last few days I've been asking myself why my hand won't follow a smoothly drawn line ... I'm beginning to think that serious painters and calligraphers sometimes have to unlearn and re-program the involuntary processes that the mind might normally undertake.

Doctor Lee's excellent video is here on YouTube ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIyEFTU3zOs

The next big question is ... how do surgeons cope ? ... or is this a trait that would disqualify someone from surgical practice ?

I asked ChatGPT about this problem and got a useful perspective ...

sccades ... are there any tricks that people who do very fine work, such as fine artists, or surgeons, can use to overcome the natural jerking movement of the eye ?

What you’re noticing is very real. The eyes don’t move smoothly most of the time. Instead, they make rapid jumps called Saccades, with brief stable periods in between called fixations. This creates a kind of “micro-jerkiness” in visual sampling that, at first glance, seems incompatible with extremely precise work.

Yet people like surgeons, watchmakers, and fine artists don’t eliminate this system. They learn to work with it, and in some cases, subtly train around its limits.

How experts deal with it

1. They rely on fixations, not motion
Precision happens during the still moments between saccades. Skilled practitioners naturally time their actions to coincide with these stable windows. For example, a surgeon placing a stitch or an artist drawing a fine line is effectively acting during a fixation, even if they aren’t consciously aware of it.

2. They slow down and segment tasks
Rather than trying to execute a long continuous motion under visual control, experts break actions into tiny chunks. Each micro-step is guided by a fresh fixation. This reduces the impact of the eye’s jumpy scanning.

3. They use “quiet eye” training
In fields like surgery and elite sports, researchers talk about the “quiet eye” phenomenon, where a person holds their gaze steadily on a critical point for slightly longer than average before acting. This improves accuracy and coordination. It’s not that saccades disappear, but their timing becomes more controlled.

4. They offload precision to the hands and tools
With practice, fine motor control becomes partly independent of continuous visual correction. Surgeons develop highly refined proprioception, and artists build muscle memory for strokes. Tools also help. Magnification systems, stabilizing rests, and robotic assistance all reduce reliance on rapid visual updates.

5. They control head and body movement
Minimizing larger sources of motion (like head sway or hand tremor) makes the small discontinuities of eye movement less disruptive. Many fine workers adopt very stable postures or brace their hands.

6. They use magnification and lighting strategically
Magnification doesn’t remove saccades, but it increases the amount of detail captured during each fixation. Better lighting reduces the need for frequent eye repositioning.

A subtle but important point

Your brain actively suppresses visual perception during saccades, a phenomenon known as Saccadic suppression. So you don’t actually see the blur or jump. Instead, your perception feels stable, stitched together from those fixation snapshots.

Experts are, in a sense, masters of this stitching process. They don’t fight the biology. They align their actions with it.

If you wanted to practice this yourself

People often improve fine visual precision by:

• consciously pausing their gaze before acting

• working slightly slower than feels natural

• using reference points instead of continuous tracking

• practicing under magnification (even simple reading glasses can help)

Over time, this builds a rhythm: look → stabilize → act → repeat.

It’s less about eliminating the “jerkiness” and more about learning the timing hidden inside it.

Of course, there is more to it ... the different sections of the human brain that process the perception of movement and the fine focussing functions ... are not simple !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gbMVjD3Bsw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBlRrUf29RE

SYNAESTHESIA ... not to be confused with AMNESIA ... or ANAESTHESIA ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMN22KblIbc&t=1175s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

https://iasasevents.com/

schrodingers'z old tom cat still enjoys the attentions of the resident photographer, chez micawber ... here are some recent ephemera ...

 

... to be continued, as & whenever possible ...

Prince Buster's Ghost Dance ... in draft

i didn't properly know what Ghost Dance was about, yet i've loved the delicate musicality of this track for DECADES ... so I looked it up at last ... and with a better understanding, so that tears soon came to my eyes ... prince buster's charm and delicacy as he addresses the ghosts of lost friends are in complete contrast to the roaring swashbuckling humour of his dance hall songs ... instead he shows his abiding sense of brotherhood ... how badly we miss our friends, and how badly we come to miss even those we never properly knew ... in my view it is as when old paintings fade and the colours bleach out, and then their varnish darkens ... i suppose these momentary tears might wash some of those dusty memories clean and bright again ... possibly, maybe ?

https://thebluemoment.com/.../09/08/prince-buster-1938-2016/

Ghost Dance lyrics with English Translations

Lyrics Translations

Ghost dance
Dear Keithus, my friend, good dayHoping you're keeping the best of health
How is the music down there in bone yard?I hear that Busby have a sound systemAnd that Nyah Keith is disc-jockeyBut them can't get no Red Stripe beerFi sell in the dance at night
Tell Zacky, the High PriestWho used to lead the toughestOne who could go, baah toughestGive him my regardsTell him Prince Buster says hello

Baah, toughest
And Keith, if you should see RashiYou know Rashi from Back'o'Wall?Give him my regards
And if you should see, the two brothersStinky Pommells and Herbman, we grew togetherTell them Prince Buster says, so long,Sorry they had to go so soon
Since music be the food of love, I'll forever sing onAnd Forresters Hall, we'll soon get back on shape
Baah, toughest
Ghost danceGhost dance
Baah, toughest

MICHELANGELO'S MARBLE CARVING OF THE JEWISH HERO DAVID

 

The Wikipedia article gives a detailed account of the circumstances surrounding the original commission, and then what is known of the work itself and its subsequent history.

I'd never thought about HOW & WHY it was carved, only about the finished object and its effect on modern viewers, such as myself.  

Pity my superficial frivolity, if you will.

David (Michelangelo) - Wikipedia

THE VERNAL EQUINOX ... the time in Tenby will be 1446 when the sun is crossing the equator from

This morning, I asked ChatGPT about the Vernal Equinox ...

The star charts are from Jamieson's celestial atlas of 1822

https://archive.org/details/celestial-atlas/page/n17/mode/2up

KUNG FU HUSTLE ... directed by Stephen Chow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung_Fu_Hustle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Chow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixeHttmdsZY

Rubens' re-invention of Saint Jerome

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome

just about every painter in the history of christian art depicts jerome as an emaciated and sad-faced ascetic, determinedly translating the scriptures even whilst death approaches ... rubens turns him into hercules ... and gives him two cherubs for company ... jerome famously advocated virginity ... the cherubs are usually agents of love and all of its conjoining forces ( think venus & mars ) ... so i'm guessing rubens was giving jerome's beliefs a light-hearted dismissal ... ( rebuttal ? )

robert rauschenberg ... worked big ... his art was already familiar and almost commonplace when i was a teenager, yet i never engaged with it ... maybe i was put off because it seemed so messy & chaotic ... so i'm taking a few minutes to look again !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Rauschenberg

https://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/art/artwork/estate

and you can find MARY LYNN KOTZ' big ( as in epic ) book at archive.org

https://archive.org/details/rauschenbergartl00unse/mode/2up

it is full of wonders