The Art of Trees

A ficus tree(s) that has been shaped.

For centuries humans have attempted to manipulate plants and shape them. Topiary, espalier, pleaching, and bonsai immediately come to mind.  The latest attempts, which have become art forms, are tree shaping.  There are not many artists using plants and trees, but each seems to have their own name for it.  An overall term for it is arborsculpture but arbortecture and biotecture are often seen. The plants used are usually evergreens.

What the above ficus may attain to.

Pleaching, once known as plashing, was commonly done from late medieval times into the early eighteenth century.  The term comes from the French word "plechier", meaning to braid.  It is the technique of weaving branches of trees to form a hedge or a quincunx.  Hedges made this way grew thick enough that they were impenetrable, perfect for enclosing animals, not to mention cost-effective. Every few years the lower parts of the hedge are bent and interwoven, and pruning is an annual task.  A somewhat labor-intensive technique, it never caught on in the U.S., but was popular in shaded allées in Europe.  The word dropped out of common usage until Walter Scott used it in 1822.  Trees with smooth bark, such as linden, apple, or hornbeam, are most used.

Pleaching usually requires a support structure in the beginning
such as the one here, especially horizontal support.

Espalier is a rather ancient practice, usually done against a wall or fence but occasionally freestanding.  Although the word is French, it comes from the Italian word "spalliera" meaning something to rest the shoulder (spalla) against.  Branches are pruned and tied so they grow as a flat plane.  This is popular to do with fruit trees, such as apple, which allows for less space and easier access to fruits.  Also planting next to a wall helps retain heat and allows more sunlight, extending the fruiting season.  Vineyards have been planted with this technique for millennia. There are various patterns both formal and informal.  These, too, are started with supports, and require maintenance.

An espaliered pear tree.

Another method of training plants, and one almost everyone is familiar with, is topiary.  This is different in that the overall aim is to shape a plant into a living sculpture by trimming the leaves and twigs.  The term comes from the Latin word "topiarius" (landscape gardener), which in turn came from the Greek "topia" meaning places.  Plants with dense foliage are preferred, and shaped wire cages often are used to provide structure.  This method has been popular in the West since ancient times, but has also been popular in the East as well, although the Eastern style celebrates a more natural style.  Topiary has caught on and can be seen all over the world, as the examples below show.

At a park in Karachi, Pakistan.

Ocean Park, Hong Kong

Prague, Czech Republic

Zarcero, Costa Rica

Bonsai is only for the patient, as it takes a long time for these plantings to develop. My father loved bonsai, and even took a class in it at a local Japanese nursery he frequented.  Unfortunately, the class was conducted in Japanese, and he was only able to learn what he could comprehend visually.  A "bon" is a tray-like pot used in the art, traditionally one from the few accepted proportions and shapes.  Once a selected tree is pruned, including its roots, and has attained its desired miniature size, it is planted in this special pot which further restricts its growth.  This tradition has been dated back to 6th century Japan, and the idea was that natural beauty could only become true beauty through human intervention.  It is common practice to wire the branches and trunks to manipulate their growth into a predetermined look. Because of the small container, repotting is part of the regular maintenance and special soil is a must.  Most plants, unless specifically chosen, cannot survive indoors.  Some plants grow up a meter tall, but most are significantly taller.  The goal is to create a tree that looks mature with the proportions of a fully-grown tree but no apparent sign of human intervention.

A "group" planting from Martigny, Switzerland.

A California or Coast Redwood from the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, NY.

This Sargent Juniper was "born" in 1905 and lives in the National
Bonsai and Benjing Museum in the U.S. National Arboretum.

Some species of trees used for many of these techniques have a tendency for inosculation, or self-grafting, which is a well-known botanical phenomenon. Tree shapers like to use this tendency and choose inosculate trees.

Inosculated crab apple trees in Scotland.
These are known as "Husband & Wife" trees.

Tree shapers consider the environment where they are creating their art, and choose trees known to do well in an area, and that are resistant to insect damage and disease.  Most trees require time to be shaped, but there also are techniques for "instant" tree shaping.  Grafting, framing (the use of supports), and pruning all contribute to the final work.  Although some tree shapers have "harvested" their works, thus rendering them no longer living, many intend for their works to be living sculptures.

Needle and Thread Tree by Axel Erlandson, Gilroy, Ca.
Image courtesy of Richard Reames/Wikipedia.

The Person Tree, planted in 1998 by Pooktre - Peter Cook & Becky Northey.

Peace in Cherry, by Richard Reames of Arborsmith Studios, Ore.
Image courtesy of Richard Reames/Wikipedia.

Tree shaped by Dan Ladd.
Image courtesy of Treeshapers.net.

Tree shaped by Aharon Naveh.  Image courtesy of Treeshapers.net.

Poet Joyce Kilmer expressed his joy of trees in his famous poem.  Wonder what he would think of some of these tree shapings.

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Unless otherwise noted, images courtesy of Wikipedia.

Treeshapers.net is a good site for more information on history and artists.

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Madame Guillotine

The Radical's Arms, 1819.

Before capital punishment was abolished in France in 1981, the guillotine was the sole method of execution.  Made popular during the French Revolution, it was considered the "People's Avenger" by supporters, and the symbol of the "Reign of Terror" by opponents.

Detail from Pieter Bruegel the Elder's
"Triumph of Death", circa 1562-1563.

The breaking wheel, also known as the Catherine wheel or just "the wheel", was the preferred method of execution in the Middle Ages on into the 19th century.  It was basically a huge wooden wagon wheel with lots of spokes.  The condemned was tied to the wheel and beaten and the spaces between the spokes gave the club space to continue its arc.  There were several adaptations of the wheel, but the one used in France involved tying the victim with limbs stretched over two wooden beams placed on a wheel which was slowly revolved.  An iron bar or hammer was used to strike the limbs of the condemned in the spaces between the beams breaking the bones.  This action was repeated several times for each limb, and dying could take hours, even days.  If the situation merited "merciful" treatment, the executioner would commit "coups de grâce" (literally "blows of mercy") by fatally striking the chest and stomach areas.  The luckiest of the French condemned would be granted a "retentum" or strangling after the second or third blow (or with extreme luck, before the wheel work began).

Circa November 1721.

Another French word is associated with this form of capital punishment - "roué" - which means a "dissipated debaucheree".  Its original meaning was "broken on the wheel" since this type of execution was reserved for atrocious crimes, while hanging was used for lesser crimes.  Hence "roué" came to be construed as a man who was impious and callous, primarily thanks to Philip, Duke of Orléans, regent of France in the early 1700s, who used it to describe the bad male company he kept for amusement.

"The French Penalty" by Francisco de Goya, circa 1824.

In 1789, Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin proposed a reformation of capital punishment in which he called for the same punishment for the same crime despite the status of the offender, that the family of the offender not be affected nor reproached on pain of judicial reprimand, that the offender's property would not be confiscated, and the body would be returned to the offender's family and no register of the manner of death be made.  Most importantly, he called for decapitation to replace the wheel.  The National Assembly looked for a new instrument of death, affirming the belief that capital punishment should be the ending of a life and not torture.

The Scottish Maiden, a precursor to
the guillotine.

A committee was formed which included Dr. Guillotin and Dr. Antoine Louis.  The committee was influenced by several instruments designed to decapitate, including the Scottish Maiden.  The Maiden was built in Edinburgh.  Once built it remained unused for so long it was dubbed the "Maiden".  It was constructed in 1564 during the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots.  This in turn was designed from the Halifax Gibbett, last used in 1650.  The original stone platform was used as a base for a working replica erected in 1974 with a plaque listing the 52 people known to have been executed there.

The Halifax Gibbett in the town of Halifax.  The original
iron blade is in the Bankfield Museum near Halifax. 

Although the French device was named for Dr. Guillotin, he did not invent it.  In fact he was against capital punishment, which is why he spoke out for ending the use of the wheel.  Dr. Louis came up with the prototype design, which was build by Tobias Schmidt, a German engineer and Harpsichord maker.  Schmidt is also credited with designing the triangular blade with a beveled edge instead of a crescent one.  The first execution was done on April 25, 1792 for the highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier.

Two French models.  The one on the left was built in 1792;
the one on the right was built in 1872.

This was considered a more humane form of execution even for beheading.  Prior to the device, beheading was done by a sword or axe, which usually required at least two strikes.  This was also considered a blow for equality between the classes, as it was the only method of execution.  Except for death sentences from military courts, which meant death by firing squads, this became the national execution type of France.

The execution of Marie Antoinette.  Circa 1793, artist unknown.

During the Reign of Terror, large-scale public executions were conducted, including King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, executed in 1793. Thousands were sentenced to the guillotine by the Revolutionary Tribunal, often on little or no grounds - mere suspicion  of "crimes against liberty" was reason enough.  Death estimates range from 16,000 to 40,000 during this time.  The executions were popular entertainment and attracted huge numbers of spectators. A group of female citizens, the tricoteuses ("knitters"), became regulars, functioning as macabre cheerleaders as they watched while knitting.  The man most associated with the Terror was Maximilien Robespierre, and as the appetite for executions waned, he was arrested and executed in the manner of those he condemned - by Madame Guillotine.

"Les Tricoteuses" by Pierre-Étienne Lesueur, 1793.

The last public guillotining was of convicted multi-murderer Eugen Weidman.  He was beheaded on June 17, 1939, but due to public behavior, the fact that it was secretly filmed, and the fact that the guillotine was incorrectly reconstructed, it was decided that future executions would be private.  The very last victim of the guillotine was convicted murderer Hamida Djandoubi on September 10, 1977.

The execution of Robespierre, 1794.

After all these deaths, France abolished the death penalty in 1981.  Madame Guillotine had a healthy appetite but wiser heads eventually prevailed.

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Images courtesy of Wikipedia.

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Repost: Just One More!

Eric "Badlands" Booker

Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, Crazy Legs Conti, Eric "Badlands" Booker, Elizabeth "Rubber Gut" Canady, Ivan "The Invader" Hickman, Joey Chestnut, Gentleman Joe Menchetti - sound like a Mafia family to you?  Well, they are not. They are "gurgitators", competitive eating contestants.

Also known as speed eating, this is a fairly new "sport" that's becoming more and more popular where participants compete to consume massive quantities of food in a set amount of time, usually 15 minutes or less.  It is most celebrated in the U.S. and Japan, where prizes can be $10,000 or more.

Cookie Jarvis in action

The "sport" has its roots in county fairs (think pie or watermelon eating contests). Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest has been held every July 4th since 1916 at Coney Island.  With the advent of television this contest and others have made these competitions crowd-pleasing entertainment.

Takeru Kobayashi.  Image from his website.

There are two main camps for competitive eating:  The IFOCE (International Federation of Competitive Eating), founded in 1997 and now better known as Major League Eating; and All Pro Eating, formerly known as the Association of Competitive Eaters, which is a break-off group from IFOCE who left over contractual issues.  One major difference is that All Pro Eating advocates the picnic style rules, which means that contestants are not allowed to dip their food into liquids before consuming them.

Dipping foods in liquid, usually water but also soft drinks or other beverages, is one of the techniques used by participants.  This softens the food, making it easier and quicker to chew and swallow.  Food, which is usually one type but varied, can be eaten any way - in separate components (i.e., hot dogs first, then buns, as long as both are eaten in equal amounts), whole, or in pieces.  Japanese champion Teraku Kobayashi has his own style, which he calls the "Solomon Technique" (also called "Japanesing") which involves breaking a hot dog in half, then stuffing both halves into his mouth at once.

Joey Chestnut

There are universal rules:  no vomiting during or right after a contest.  This is called a "reversal" and disqualifies one immediately.  "Chipmunking" is the practice of stuffing as much food in your mouth as possible just before the time runs out.  This is usually allowed, but a contestant has a limited time to finish consuming the mouthful.

All foods must be consumed in a designated time period.  This can range from 7 to 15 minutes, or longer.  Any food left on serving pieces is counted against the total. Prize monies can make this "sport" a career, and some competitors earn their living this way.

Sonya Thomas.  The burger is almost bigger than her!

There is no standard body type that excels in competitive eating.  Participants range from the rather petite Sonya Thomas (weighing an average of 124 pounds) to Eric Booker (weighing about 420 pounds).  Kobayashi has a body worthy of a bodybuilder.  It has been posited that someone too fat or too muscular would not do well, as that fat or muscle would impede the stomach's expansion, but Booker and Kobayashi prove that false.

Sonya Thomas eats one large meal a day, usually from a buffet.

Eric Booker during a contest.  Photo by Ed Grabianowski.

Takeru Kobayashi.  Image from his website.

Some competitors train, although the IFOCE warns against it.  Since stomach elasticity is the key to success, many drink large amounts of water, or drink lots of water with low calorie meals like veggies and salads to stretch stomach capacity. Some also chew huge amounts of gum to build up jaw strength.  Those who do "train" will often do so for weeks or months before an event, often with the food from the impending contest.  

The dangers of this lifestyle, aside from the obvious ones of weight gain or obesity is high cholesterol and high blood pressure.  There can be stomach perforations, especially if there are ulcers.  Drinking large amounts of water can lead to water intoxication, a condition where the electrolytes in the blood become too diluted. Gastroparesis is a dangerous problem.  Also called stomach paralysis, the stomach loses its ability to contract and to empty itself.  Some of the side effects are chronic indigestion, nausea, and vomiting.

Consider the massive amounts of calories that are consumed at these events.  If each hot dog is 150 calories, and each bun is 100 calories, then eating 50 hot dogs will total 12,500 calories.  The USDA recommendation of daily calories for an adult male is 2,300.

Sixteen cups of mayonnaise in 8 minutes?  No thanks!

This is a record list from 2005 that gives an idea of the amounts consumed.  No more current chart found.

If you will be in the vicinity of Davenport, Iowa tomorrow (3/19/11), you may want to try your hand at the Rhythm City World Catfish Eating Championship. Last year's winner consumed 6.7 pounds in ten minutes.  You could win $2,500.  But then consider all the people in the world who are starving. This "sport" is not only gluttonous but rather shameful in light of world starvation.  As usual these events boil down to money.  Too bad the money isn't being spent easing world hunger.

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Unless otherwise stated, all images courtesy of the IFOCE.

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Repost: Purrfect Health...

Five millennia or so ago, a goddess with the body of a woman and the head of a lion, called Mafdet, was worshipped in Egypt.  She was the goddess of both justice and execution, an interesting connection.  Her image evolved to the head of a house cat, and finally the entire image was a domestic shorthair cat.  Her worship was enthusiastic and extravagant, by all reports.  She was called Bast, or sometimes Bastet (Bubastis in Greek), and she had her own sacred city – Per-Bast - in the Nile Delta.  According to Herodotus, thousands attended her annual spring celebration there, and more wine was consumed during this festival than any other at the time – a sure sign of some serious partying, then as now.

In time she became more benign.  She was a protector, not only of Pharaoh, but also pregnant women, and represented fertility.  Like the housecat she was identified with, she took care of her charges with devotion and fierceness.  This loyalty was returned.  When a family’s cat died, they shaved their eyebrows and would take the cat to be mummified and buried.  Archaeologists have found a huge cat cemetery in the ruins of Per-Bast (now Tell-Basta), and other areas as well.  In fact, so many cats were mummified that nineteenth century ships departing Egypt used them as ballast.  Killing a cat, even accidentally, brought about the death penalty in ancient Egypt. 

Today, cats still enjoy a special place in the hearts and homes of many people.  What this perennial fascination with cat is about is anybody’s guess.  But one intriguing thing about them is that they purr. 

No one knows why they purr, and several theories exist.  With a frequency of somewhere between 75 and 150 hertz, a cat's purr seems to vacillate between the pharynx and diaphragm.  It continues while the cat breathes in and out.  We like to think the purr is about us, and our cats' pleasure at being with us, being stroked and paid attention to.  But cats purr at other times, such as when they are tending their kittens, when they are stressed (both physically and psychologically), and even when they are dying.

Some scientists suggest that the vibrations of purring are used to communicate and perhaps for self-healing.  It is thought that the vibrations can relieve pain, provide faster healing to injuries, and most importantly increase bone density.  One of the comparisons that scientists make is that dogs, their counterparts, are unable to heal as fast, and they suffer from more muscle and bone diseases than cats.  Vets and scientists have done studies on the "high-rise syndrome", using documented cases of cats falling from high-rise apartments.  Out of 132 cases of cats falling an average of 5.5 stories, 90% of these cats survived.  The record is surviving from a fall of 45 stories, but most cats who fall even 7 stories or more survive.  There is an old adage from veterinary schools:  "If you put a cat and a bunch of broken bones in the same room, the bones will heal."

This bone density issue causes much interest as it holds potential implications for humans and other species.  Women, who have more osteoporosis and bone density issues than men, are encouraged to walk and exercise to improve their bones.  Cats, who have great bone density, sleep more hours than they are awake, and exercise doesn’t seem to be on their agenda.

Working on the theory that purring takes the place of physical exercise, researchers have tried putting chickens on a vibrating plate twenty minutes a day at between 20-50 hertz, and the chickens’ bones were strengthened.  When rabbits were subjected to a similar experiment, they not only got stronger but their fractures healed faster.  Continuing studies show that mechanical vibration aids the healing of tendons and muscles as well as bringing pain relief.  It has been used in sports medicine, and some gyms use it to increase muscle mass.  People with COPD have been helped by this therapy as well.  Purring also seems to alleviate dyspnoea, or breathing difficulties, in cats and potentially in people.

Perhaps the ancient Egyptians were privy to this information, another one of their medical mysteries but this one unknown.  As someone who has been owned by many a cat, and gladly so, I can understand the  fascination with these creatures.  And a vibrating plate sounds so much better than a stair stepper.

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Repost: I Was a Gypsy Cult Follower

"Some people, when they think of Southern California, think of nuts. 

Not the kind that grow in trees, but the kind that swing in trees—the 

bearded, mop-haired, half-naked vegetarians who wander around 

in the hills and occasionally roll into town like a pack of wild men. 

It was quite a few years ago when I lived like this."  ~  Gypsy Boots

When I was sixteen I became a vegetarian.  I used to go to my local health food store - they weren't mainstream at that time - every weekend.  I often ran into this strange and delightful man in the parking lot, giving away organic citrus fruit and extolling the virtues of organic foods and vegetarianism.  He was preaching to the choir, but I liked talking to him.  It was hard to find organic produce then, unless you grew it yourself, and it was very expensive.  So I enjoyed getting the citrus fruits and his special bars.  He was a walking advertisement for a healthy lifestyle and the main reason I liked to talk to him, aside from the subject matter, was that he spoke to me like an adult and never, ever leered.  Something a braless, hippie-wannabe girl often encountered.  I knew who he was because I had seen him so often on The Steve Allen Show.  He was Gypsy Boots.

Gypsy Boots in Santa Cruz on August 26, 1968.

Image courtesy of Corvello & Corvello Historical Photo Collection.

Born Robert Bootzin in 1914, and also known as Boots Bootzin, he was an original.  He extolled a natural lifestyle eating healthy foods, exercising, and being positive.  He never ate meat, drank alcohol, or smoked tobacco.  He is credited for founding a natural lifestyle that included vegetarianism, yoga,  and "health food". He even coined the word "smoothie" on The Steve Allen Show, as he offered his fruit health drink.  Long before there were hippies, he was the prototype.

Gypsy Boots with bodybuilder Dave Draper.

He was born in San Francisco and raised vegetarian.  His Russian-Jewish family hiked, did Russian folk dancing, and fed the homeless on their homemade black bread.  By 1933 he had dropped out of high school and wandered with others of "his kind".  In the 40s he lived with his "tribesmen" near Palm Springs, where they lived off the land and under the stars, sleeping in caves and trees and bathing under waterfalls.  They picked fruit seasonally, and called themselves the "Nature Boys".  Boots is said to be the inspiration for a song that fellow tribesman eden ahbez wrote (he preferred lower case letters).  This song made it big time when it was recorded by Nat King Cole in 1948, and has been recorded by many artists since then.

The Nature Boys in Topanga Canyon, 1948.

Gypsy is in the back row, left.  ahbez is in front.

In 1958, he married and settled down in Hollywood, where he raised three kids. His health food store "Health Hut" was the first of its kind and Hollywood celebrities patronized it - think Gloria Swanson, Kirk Douglas.  Besides smoothies, he also concocted an all-natural, sugar-free "Boots Bar" with spirulina, wheat grass, kyolic garlic and Medjool dates.

Eating grapes while lying on a bed of nails.

Image courtesy of Robert Carl Cohen, 1999.

He might have remained a local legend but for television.  In 1955 he was on You Bet Your Life.  Groucho stated that he admired his rugged individualism.  He made appearances with Spike Jones and his musical comedy group.  He was also on George Putnam's Talk Back show.  But he really became nationally known thanks to The Steve Allen Show.  He appeared on it 25 times in the 60s.

In 1968 he cut his own album - Unpredictable - on Sidewalk Records (a sub label of Tower Records and distributed by Capitol).  He also wrote a couple of books - Barefeet and Good Things to Eat and The Gypsy in Me.  Being that he was a Hollywood resident, of course he was in a few movies:  The Game; Mondo Hollywood, Swingin' Summer, and Confessions of Tom Harris.

An early advocate for healthy products, he became a spokesman for kyolic garlic. He did some PR for a Sonoma cheese factory, offering garlic-flavored "Sonoma Jack" cheese at his booths at health fairs and at fairs in the Sonoma valley.

In his later life he could still be seen at health food stores, health fairs, and farmers' markets.  He was an avid football fan, especially of the USC Trojans, and at age 86 he could throw a football forty yards.

He died just eleven days short of his 90th birthday in 2004.  He is most probably remembered as one of those Hollywood/Southern California weirdos, especially to those who have lived in a rigid box.  Quirky, warm, funny, and the precursor to the Energizer Bunny, I will remember him as someone who "found" himself early in his life, and dared to be that person long before some of the things he advocated became not only acceptable, but "cool".  It was serendipitous to have found the photo above, courtesy of the Whole Wheatery, a health food store near my neck of the woods.  It was here that I saw him last, not long before he passed.  We spoke of the old days (he remembered the health food store and hanging out in the parking lot passing out fruit, but not, alas, me!) and the changes he'd seen in his lifetime.  He gave me a booklet he was selling and autographed it for me.  What a guy!

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Images unless otherwise noted from his personal website.

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In Honor of All Who Have Served...

Front page of the NY Times on Armistice Day, November 11, 1918.

Today is the anniversary of Armistice Day commemorating the armistice signed between the Allies of WWI and Germany at Compiègne, France in 1918.  It took effect at 11:00 A.M. in the morning - the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month".  While this reflects the ceasefire on the Western Front, hostilities continued across the Russian Empire and parts of the Ottoman Empire among other areas.

Canadians in downtown Toronto celebrate in 1918.

After WWII, the name was changed to Veterans Day in the U.S.  It is known as Remembrance Day in the British Commonwealth, and remains Armistice Day in Belgium and France.  It is customary to observe two minutes of silence at 11:00 A.M. local time to honor the millions of people who died in the war.

President Eisenhower on June 1, 1954 signing HR7786,
which changed the name of Armistice Day to Veterans Day.

The red remembrance poppy became a symbol of Remembrance Day.  These poppies grew in profusion across Flanders in some of the worst battlefields in WWI.  The poem "In Flanders Fields" inspired the symbol, although it is not definitively known who wrote it.

Peace is the most desirous state in the world, and everyone honors those who fought and gave their lives for it.  Today is a unique day, as it is 11/11/11.  So at 11:00 A.M. on 11/11/11, we should all observe the customary silence.  Two minutes of silence is little compensation, but throw your heart and mind into it and give thanks to those who sacrificed their lives in all wars.  And pray for worldwide peace.

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Images courtesy of Wikipedia.

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