Native Americans from Buffalo Bill's Wild West

For years I've been fascinated with the great American West, and the history of America itself. It's a unbearably sad history, full of genocide and awful acts of betrayal, but spotted around it are moments of beauty, honour, and pride. If you'd like to read a devastating book on the Indian history of the American West, you can't go wrong with Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee, but be warned; it'll make you want to crawl into a hole. 

It's also still a beautiful place to visit. If you know me, you won't be surprised to hear that I'm a particular fan of Arizona. You should go, drive into the desert, and soak up the silence, the beauty, and the great, great expanse of it all. 

"In 1898, photographer Gertrude Käsebier looked out of her studio window on Fifth Avenue in New York City and saw the cast of Buffalo Bill's Wild West parading past. Buffalo Bill, a.k.a. William Cody, was by that time a legendary figure of the American Old West, a legend he partially self-generated.

Cody's nickname arrived when he supplied buffalo meat to workers on the Kansas Pacific railroad. In 1872, Cody performed in the Wild West theatre production Scouts of the Prairie, and in 1883, aged 37, he founded his own circus-like show, called Buffalo Bill's Wild West. The show toured annually across the U.S. and Europe, performing in front of Queen Victoria and the future kings Edward VII and George V of Britain, and the future Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. In Rome, the cast met the pope. The show included sharpshooting acts, horse riding demonstrations and reenactments of American history. The performers included several Native Americans, many of them Sioux. 

What Gertrude Käsebier saw from her window connected with her memories of the Native Americans she had known in the 1850s and 1860s, growing up in Colorado and on the Great Plains. Käsebier wrote to Cody asking if she might photograph the Native American performers in her studio. They arranged a session. A number of the Sioux photographed had fought against the U.S. military. Chief Flying Hawk was a veteran of Great Sioux War of 1876, the Battle of the Little Big Horn of the same year and was present at the massacre of Wounded Knee — just eight years before Käsebier took his portrait." Via. 

The Internet - 15

Hello and welcome to another week of the internet condensed into one handy blog post. Needless to say, this is entirely my own pickings from things that have popped up in my feed or that I've come across while surfing the web - but speaking of the web, do you know the difference between the web and the internet? Now you do. 

There's been some beautiful weather in Copenhagen recently, in fact, you would be excused for thinking spring is beginning to spring, but I won't get my hopes up. One of my earliest memories of living in Denmark was being on the bus and seeing huge piles of snow - in April. I mean... I don't know. It's not right. Maybe I should move to Las Vegas. No, I can't even joke about that. I'm not sure I could imagine much worse. Anyway, here are some lovely photos of that obese and glittery money pit. 

I must admit, however, that Las Vegas fascinates me. I've been twice, and I'd gladly go again. It's the strangest place. Try to arrive at night, if you're ever going there. It's fascinating to see it rise out of the blackness. Totally unexpected and yet entirely predictable, it's heaving with debauchery of every kind. It has a history like no other place on earth, well worth reading about. Now that I think about it, the place it reminds me of is Marrakech. They're both a complete and utter sensory overload, just in very different ways (except for the heat and the dust). Anyway, I'm going way off track, sorry. I've been kicked out of the house for mother group and now I'm just rambling. 

Look at this great map showing how people from north London see the UK. I like that London is split - something that most of these kind of things forget to do, which is funny as the north/south divide within the city is probably more inherent than outside. 

If you're one of the millions (?) who is obsessed by that 50 Shades of Grey nonsense, then you might like this 50 Shades Text Generator. Actually you might like it regardless of whether or not you've read it/seen it. Here's a sample. For all I know this is an actual excerpt from the book.

Good Lord.

Save us Batman. 

A journey through the evolution of Batman on the big screen and cinema as a whole. From the serials of the 1940s to the Christopher Nolan blockbusters, watch as the iconic character transforms within the different eras of filmmaking. Films used: Batman (1943 serial) Batman and Robin (1949 serial) Batman: The Movie (1966) Batman (1989) Batman Returns (1992) Batman : Mask of the Phantasm (1993) Batman Forever (1995) Batman & Robin (1997) Batman Begins (2005) The Dark Knight (2008) The Dark Knight Rises (2012) The Lego Movie (2014) Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

This print advert from Lastminute.com is genius. Sorry about all the smut. 

If you didn't see this very silly collection of famous people and their names, you should see it now. 

Of course we can't go a week without space, so here's NASA's official poster for Expedition 45. It's quite unbelievable. 

Birth

I love these photos by Christian Berthelot of babies seconds after delivery (all by cesarean). My view on birth has changed radically having been witness to my son's birth. I never thought it disgusting, but I did think it was a little messy, and it is messy - there's no way around that - but what a beautiful mess it is.