Al Past's Blog, page 6

Art from kurgans in Khazakhstan: Ana's Earthly Ancestors?

Feline head

Readers of Ana's stories know that Ana is descended from humans who, some thousands of years ago, were transplanted to the planet Thomo, 25 light years away. The first to find her way back, she has been eager to pursue what few clues there are as to just where on Earth her people originated.

An argali (mountain sheep)

For the most part those clues are linguistic: her language, Luvit, has been shown (in Distant Cousin) to be an early spinoff of the large Proto-Indo-European language f...

This and that: a wearable arpillera, serval kitties, and a venue in DC: Reincarnation

Today we are going to take care of some leftovers from previous posts. Above, for example, is one more arpillera, the lovely, original textile sculptures from South America. (See more arpilleras below.) You would think they are delicate creations, not suitable for clothing. This is true in some cases, but not in all. The t-shirt above (click to enlarge) has just been washed, as it has been many times previously. This would shorten the life of the thing, one supposes, but, being portable, the...

Wearable art from Ecuador, Guatemala, and Mexico!

We have mentioned elsewhere that the people on Ana Darcy Méndez's home planet, Thomo, are fond of decoration and the arts. In a forthcoming post we will show some samples of ancient art originating from the historical area on Earth her people are believed to have come from. 
We have also mentioned that Ana has been taken by the arts on Earth, and particularly by textile art. (See below for examples of arpilleras (textile sculptures) and molas (amazing fabric creations from the Kuna people of P...

More photos of Ana's first official home on Earth: Barbados

Ana Darcy Méndez has always had a soft spot in her heart for the island nation of Barbados. Barbados was the first country to offer her citizenship after she landed on Earth (though it is true they did not know at the time she was from another planet). The credit for that goes to her lawyer friend Harvey Braithwaite, who convinced the ministers of government there that it would be a good idea to give her an official home (in Distant Cousin). It wasn't until later that they realized just how g...

Calling Area 51! Ana's pod sighted, or not?

Accounts of sightings of UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) are usually confused and contradictory, and of great interest to the public. Reports of one sighting, for example, over Henderson, Nevada, are even confused as to the date. One account claims it happened in 1997 , while another puts it in 1999. Henderson seems a hotbed of UFO sightings: YouTube has a video clip of a sighting over Henderson, Nevada in 1991.  See above.


That particular YouTube clip is of interest because unlike the othe...

Sale! Read an E-Book Week is March 4-10, 2012!

Once again we are pleased to observe Read an E-Book Week, March 4-10, 2012.

All five Distant Cousin volumes are on sale at Smashwords for 50% off! 

Smashwords E-books are available in formats to fit practically all e-readers and computers. In just a few minutes you can have hours and hours of fun reading on hand. If you read them out loud to each other as our commuters did, you can enjoy them for months!

(You might want to wait if you are supposed to be moving or getting married.)

Here are the...

More Panamanian molas, incredible textile art

Here are some more examples of the multi-layered Panamanian molas that Ana loves so. (The first installment is here.) No matter what planet one is from, anyone with an eye for color and design will be understandably struck by these gorgeous works of art.

Ana particularly loves the zest for life embodied in these works (and in the arpilleras and other Latin-American art elsewhere on her blog). Many reveal a fascination for human, animal, and plant forms--art that springs from nature, in other w...

Ana (and son) explain a great card trick!

Ana Darcy Méndez is very, very good at math. She had to be, to navigate a vessel 25 light years from Thomo to Earth! Her son Julio is even better. Both were fascinated by this marvelous card trick:

http://www.wimp.com/mathcard/

Notice that the person performing it begs someone for an explanation. We can offer that gentleman an explanation, since Ana and Julio, her son, spent the better part of an hour playing with it. Ana said it's basically a simple matter of "odds and evens," made more confus...

Big cats in the bedroom: a caracal and a serval!

Ana's daughter acquired a caracal cat in Distant Cousin: Regeneration. These little known, medium size cats can make excellent pets, provided the owners raise them from kittens to be members of a human household and follow other suggestions from experts as to their housing and so forth. Julie's Jungle is one such source of expert advice. Servals, another medium size cat, also make good pets under similar conditions.

Caracals resemble half-size mountain lions. Servals resemble half-size cheetah...

Ana discovers the mola, from Panama!

(All these photos can be right clicked to another tab for greater detail.)
You might find it strange that a woman from another planet should be interested in exotic textiles and stitchery on Earth, but you really shouldn't. After all, her own people on Thomo have a long tradition of textile styles and patterns, which in some ways resemble those of Eastern Europe, with colorful patterns and layers of frills. Not surprisingly, Ana has been fascinated by textiles which spring from Hispanic cultur...