My Last Swap-bot Trade of 2013

I sent out my last Swap-bot trade, ATC Profile Trade, on December 27. This trade was sent two partners based on something in the partner's Swap-bot profile. One of the partners I had, listed in her favorite television shows Doctor Who. My three daughters are Doctor Who fanatics, and they have hooked my wife on the program. Curse Xfinity on Demand and all the Doctor Who seasons that are available. My wife is watching them all the time! I admit to watching a few of them with her. We used to watch the show every Saturday night back when Tom Baker was the "Doctor," but there have been a lot of regenerations since then, and I am a little lost.
I made two Doctor Who themed cards for my Australia partner, though only one was required. (I like to send extra ATCs and decorate the envelopes if I have time.) I didn't over do the card hoping that "less is more." I didn't want to cover up the backgrounds, which were made of stained cardstock that I made in 2012. I used the same backgrounds for some Halloween ATC trades in 2012. The color was supposed to be black, but it turned out gray instead. You never know what you are going to get with my paper staining technique. It is always a surprise, usually pleasant, but occasionally a disappointment. I was hoping these backgrounds would suggest the atmosphere surrounding the traveling Tardis. I took these photos with my phone because my scanner is not working, and the digital quality is not very good.

My other trading partner had an alphabetical list of likes. For "Z" she listed zentangles, so I experimented with some zentangles. These may no longer qualify as zentangles, but I like the results of my experimentation. Again the quality is not very good. Scanning gives a much better result.

 

Happy New Year to all. If you contact me, I will send you an original Artist Trading Card to add to your collection, or get you started on collecting. Just remember that you should always reciprocate with an ATC of your own.

My Mickey Rooney Film List

My wife is a member of a little group of teachers who call themselves “The Oldies but Goodies.” They used to be curriculum facilitators for Jordan School District and are now back as teachers in the classroom. They meet once a month to discuss curriculum. One of the group was able to obtain tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert featuring Deborah Voigt last night, so the oldies went together. My wife was happy to go, because she has gone with me to the HD broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera and has seen Voigt in four operas. The other oldies had never heard of her, the low brows!

I got to stay home and babysit the dog, because our family didn’t enter the “lottery” for concert tickets this year after not getting tickets for the last four years. What did I do? I watched a Mickey Rooney movie at TCM On Demand: Stablemates co-staring Wallace Beery, with Margaret Hamilton before she was the Wicked Witch of the West. Rooney was 17, playing a14/15-year-old. Most of his teens and early twenties he was playing younger teens and he could cry with the best of them.

 

Mickey Rooney was in 147 films from Manhattan Melodrama 1934, to Night at the Museum 2006. This does not include the almost two hundred television movies and series episodes he appeared in from 1952 to 2008. I have seen 38 of the movies he appeared in between 1934 and 2006, most of which were made between 1934 and 1944. Some of these I have seen multiple times. Rooney was the star of 96, unless I miss counted, Mickey McGuire comedies, cartoon voices, and short comedies between 1926 (age 5) to 1934 (age13). I have only seen two of the Mickey McGuire shorts (silent), and I don’t recall the titles. Here is a list of the Mickey Rooney films I have seen with the year, character name, and Rooney’s age during filming:

Manhattan Melodrama 1934   Blackie as a boy (13)

 

A Midsummer Night Dream 1935   Puck or Robin Goodfellow (14)

Ah, Wilderness 1935   Tommy (14)

Little Lord Fauntleroy 1936    Dick (15)

The Devil Is a Sissy 1936   “Gig” Stevens (15) One of my favorites.

A Family Affair 1937   Andrew “Andy” Hardy (16)

Captains Courageous 1937   Dan (16)

Hoosier Schoolboy 1937   Shockey Carter (16)

Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry 1937  Timmie Donovan (16) First film with Judy Garland.

Your only Young Once 1937   Andrew “Andy” Hardy (16)

Judge Hardy’s Children 1938   Andrew “Andy” Hardy (17)

Love Finds Andy Hardy 1938   Andrew “Andy” Hardy (17)

Boys Town 1938   Whitey Marsh (17)

Stablemates 1938   Michael “Mickey” (17) Second horse race movie.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1939   Huckleberry Finn (17/18)

Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever 1939   Andrew “Andy” Hardy (18)

Babes in Arms 1939   Mickey Moran (18)

Judge Hardy and Son 1939   Andrew “Andy” Hardy (18/19)

Young Tom Edison 1940   Thomas Alva “Tom” Edison (19)

Andy Hardy Meets Debutante 1940   Andrew “Andy” Hardy (19)

Strike Up the Band 1940   Jimmy Connors (19)

Andy Hardy’s Private Secretary 1941   Andrew “Andy” Hardy (20)

Men of Boys Town 1941   Whitey marsh (20)

Babes on Broadway 1941   Tommy Williams (20/21)

A Yank at Eton 1942   Timothy Dennis (21)

Andy Hardy’s Double Life 1942   Andrew “Andy” Hardy (21/22)

The Human Comedy 1943   Homer Macauley (22) Another favorite.

Girl Crazy 1943   Danny Churchill, Jr. (22)

Andy Hardy’s Blond Trouble 1944   Andrew “Andy” Hardy (23)

National Velvet 1944   Mi Taylor (23)

Love Laughs at Andy Hardy 1946   Andrew “Andy” Hardy (25)

Words and Music 1948   Lorenz Hart (27)

The Bridges at Toko-Ri 1954   Mike Forney (33)

Breakfast at Tiffany’s 1961    Mr. Yunioshi (40)

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World 1963   Ding Bell (43)

Pete’s Dragon 1977   Lampie (56)

The Black Stallion 1979   Henry Dailey (58)

Night at the Museum 2006   Gus (85)

 

 

 

 

December Postal Art I

I joined an ATC swap for the first week of December. The challenge was to create a card with two or more Christmas seals, or any of the stickers that charities send out at this time of year seeking more donations. I have made 10s and 10s of ATC backgrounds. Of the backgrounds I especially like, I make multiple copies. So I pulled out a bunch of background cards and started to explore what I could create. It was a bit more difficult to create an interesting card with a couple of stickers than I had anticipated.

My wife's sisters, Jennifer and Lora, were visiting from California for the weekend and a few days before Thanksgiving, so I thought it would be fun to give Lora the ATC challenge as well. She is a very talented quilter, crafter, and ATC artist, of whose work I have several pieces. Amelia, my grandniece (Lora's granddaughter) was also at the house for a big family dinner for the California visitors, and she also wanted to make a card with us. I thought she made a great card for a six year old. My daughter Rachel also got into the act and made a zentangle card. She didn't follow the rules of using two "charity" stickers on the card. Naughty daughter.

We each chose a different background for our cards which enhances the variety. I wonder what variety we would have had, had we each use the same background. We will never know now. That exists in another time stream.
This is my card:

This one is by Lora. It has a very Salvador Dali-esque flavor to it, I think:

 

My daughter Rachel penned this one. It reminds me of a Pysanky egg:

 

And finally, this is the one six-year-old Amelia created. I don't know what the little drawings represent:

I am sending the three extra cards to my Swap-bot partner as a little Christmas bonus.