FLYING THE COLOURS

Wearing some of my favourite colours!!

THE BENEFITS OF WARM BRIGHT COLOURS

 THE BENEFITS OF WARM BRIGHT COLOURS 

Patricia Liverpool © October 27-2019

On Sunday, October 27-2019 wearing matching skirt and headwrap made from African fabric. The dominant colour is brown, but there are touches of yellow and orange included on the fabric. The orange top complements the dominant brown colour of the skirt. The red boots complement the other warm colours (brown, orange and yellow.) Warm colours suit this time of year to lighten and brighten our mood and our days.

Warm colours can be stimulating and are associated with heightened emotions and passion as well as joy and playfulness. The vibrancy of a bright orange or the intensity of red can lift our spirits as the weather gets colder and the days get grayer and shorter. It is not difficult to become affected by the colours used in our clothing. We can easily mirror our mindset and environment in the clothes that we choose to wear. The physiological effect of less bright sunlight and cloudier days of Autumn and winter does change our mood at these times of the year.

Warm, bright colours can brighten and lighten our mood during gloomy days. So add some bold, warm colours to your wardrobe to brighten and lighten the mood and avoiding the fall and winter slump. Studies have shown that there is definitely a link between colour and emotions, psychologically and physiologically. 

Warm, bright colours have associations attached to them and those associations are linked to how they make us feel and behave. It has been said that seeing warm, bright colours produces endorphins, which can make us feel really good. Yay for bright, warm colours.

Patricia Liverpool © October 27-2019

MY FAVOURITE PEOPLE

I LOVE CLOUDS AND CLOUD WATCHING

CLOUDS by PATRICIA LIVERPOOL

Patricia Liverpool © August 5-2019



I have always been fascinated by clouds. Cloud watching can keep me occupied for hours. As a child I loved to imagine interpreting shapes that I saw in the clouds. As the clouds drifted slowly across the sky, I saw animals, birds, dragonflies, people, dragons, mythical figures like Annancy, Olodumare, Oshun. I watched the clouds always silently travelling across the sky, constantly changing.



As an adult I learned that humans have a long history of cloud-gazing. Every culture has stories, myths about clouds. The scientific study of clouds did not begin until the nineteenth century.

Simply put, clouds are puffs of air laden with water particles. Clouds serve important scientific purposes, including, helping meteorologists predict the weather. During the day clouds help to protect the earth from the intense heat of the sun. At night clouds prevent the earth from getting too cold.



Cloud watching is a fun and inexpensive hobby for children and adults. All that is needed is some spare time and imagination. It costs absolutely nothing to spend some time looking at the clouds. I love to spend time photographing clouds!!



I also loved to listen to my parents recite the following poems about clouds that they memorized as children. My parents were born in a country that was colonized by Great Britain and the education system forced them to memorize British poetry.



THE CLOUD

By Percy Bysshe Shelley

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,

From the seas and the streams;

I bear light shade for the leaves when laid

In their noonday dreams.

From my wings are shaken the dews that waken

The sweet buds every one,

When rocked to rest on their mother's breast,

As she dances about the sun.

I wield the flail of the lashing hail,

And whiten the green plains under,

And then again I dissolve it in rain,

And laugh as I pass in thunder.

I sift the snow on the mountains below,

And their great pines groan aghast;

And all the night 'tis my pillow white,

While I sleep in the arms of the blast.

Sublime on the towers of my skiey bowers,

Lightning my pilot sits;

In a cavern under is fettered the thunder,

It struggles and howls at fits;

Over earth and ocean, with gentle motion,

This pilot is guiding me,

Lured by the love of the genii that move

In the depths of the purple sea;

Over the rills, and the crags, and the hills,

Over the lakes and the plains,

Wherever he dream, under mountain or stream,

The Spirit he loves remains;

And I all the while bask in Heaven's blue smile,

Whilst he is dissolving in rains.

The sanguine Sunrise, with his meteor eyes,

And his burning plumes outspread,

Leaps on the back of my sailing rack,

When the morning star shines dead;

As on the jag of a mountain crag,

Which an earthquake rocks and swings,

An eagle alit one moment may sit

In the light of its golden wings.

And when Sunset may breathe, from the lit sea beneath,

Its ardours of rest and of love,

And the crimson pall of eve may fall

From the depth of Heaven above,

With wings folded I rest, on mine aëry nest,

As still as a brooding dove.

That orbèd maiden with white fire laden,

Whom mortals call the Moon,

Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor,

By the midnight breezes strewn;

And wherever the beat of her unseen feet,

Which only the angels hear,

May have broken the woof of my tent's thin roof,

The stars peep behind her and peer;

And I laugh to see them whirl and flee,

Like a swarm of golden bees,

When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent,

Till calm the rivers, lakes, and seas,

Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high,

Are each paved with the moon and these.

I bind the Sun's throne with a burning zone,

And the Moon's with a girdle of pearl;

The volcanoes are dim, and the stars reel and swim,

When the whirlwinds my banner unfurl.

From cape to cape, with a bridge-like shape,

Over a torrent sea,

Sunbeam-proof, I hang like a roof,

The mountains its columns be.

The triumphal arch through which I march

With hurricane, fire, and snow,

When the Powers of the air are chained to my chair,

Is the million-coloured bow;

The sphere-fire above its soft colours wove,

While the moist Earth was laughing below.

I am the daughter of Earth and Water,

And the nursling of the Sky;

I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;

I change, but I cannot die.

For after the rain when with never a stain

The pavilion of Heaven is bare,

And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams

Build up the blue dome of air,

I silently laugh at my own cenotaph,

And out of the caverns of rain,

Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,

I arise and unbuild it again.

I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD

By William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

Patricia Liverpool © August 5-2019

I LOVE PHOTOGRAPHY

I LOVE PHOTOGRAPHY

In 1814 the first photographic image was made using an early device for projecting real-life imagery called a camera obscura. However, the image required eight hours of light exposure and later faded.

In 1837 the first daguerreotype was made; it was an image that was fixed and did not fade and needed under thirty minutes of light exposure.

On May 8-1840 Alexander Wolcott, received the first American patent for photography (US Patent No. 1582) for a Daguerreotype mirror camera, which did not have a lens. The camera was based on a concave reflecting mirror built by an associate.

In 1841 an Englishman, William Henry Talbot patented the Calotype process. The translucent calotype negative made it possible to produce as many positive prints as desired by simple contact printing, whereas the daguerreotype was an opaque direct positive that could only be reproduced by copying it with a camera.

 In 1843 the first advertisement with a photograph was published in Philadelphia.

In 1851 Frederick Scott Archer invented the Collodion process so that images required only two or three seconds of light exposure.

In 1859 the Panoramic camera, called the Sutton, was patented. Sutton's Patent Panoramic Water Lens, was patented (patent no. 2193) in England on September 28-1859. Two lenses with extremely concentric curvatures enclose a hollow space which had been filled with crystal clear water.

In 1865, photographs and photographic negatives were added to protected works under copyright law.

In 1871, Richard Leach Maddox invented the gelatin dry plate silver bromide process, which meant that negatives no longer had to be developed immediately.

1880, the Eastman Dry Plate Company and Film Company was founded. The company’s first camera, the Kodak, was sold in 1888 and consisted of a box camera with 100 exposures. In 1884, the company  

invented flexible, paper-based photographic film and in 1888 patented the Kodak roll-film camera.

In 1898, Reverend Hannibal Goodwin patented a celluloid photographic film.

In 1900, the first mass-marketed camera, called the Brownie, went on sale.

In 1913/1914, the first 35mm still camera was developed.

In 1927, General Electric invented the modern flash bulb.

In 1932, the first light meter with photoelectric cell was introduced.

In 1935, Eastman Kodak marketed Kodachrome film and in 1941, Eastman Kodak introduced Kodacolor negative film.

On October 6-1942, the Patent Office issued Chester Carlson a patent for electrophotography (xerography.)   

In 1948, Edwin Land launched and marketed the Polaroid camera.

In 1954, Eastman Kodak introduced high-speed Tri-X film.

In 1960, EG&G developed extreme depth underwater camera for U.S. Navy.

1963

Polaroid introduced the instant color film.

In 1968, a photograph of the Earth was taken from the moon. The photograph, Earthrise, is considered one of the most influential environmental photographs ever taken.

In 1973, Polaroid introduced one-step instant photography with the SX-70 camera.

In 1978, Konica introduced the first point-and-shoot autofocus camera.

In 1980, Sony demonstrated the first consumer camcorder for capturing moving picture.

In 1984, Canon demonstrated the first digital electronic still camera.

In 1985, Pixar introduced the digital imaging processor.

In 1990, Eastman Kodak announced the Photo Compact Disc as a digital image storage medium.

In 1999, Kyocera Corporation introduced the VP-210 VisualPhone, the world's first mobile phone with built-in camera for recording videos and still photos.   

GUYANESE CELEBRITIES ABROAD

GUYANESE CELEBRITIES ABROAD

Patricia Liverpool © May 31-2019

On Sunday, May 26-2019 Guyana (the former British Guiana) celebrated 53 years of political independence. British Guiana was also known as the land of many waters and the land of six people (Africans, Amerindians, Chinese, East Indians, Europeans and Portuguese) with the nine groups of Amerindians (Arawaks, Arecunas, Akawaios, Caribs, Macushis, Patamonas, Wapisianas, Warraus and Wai-Wais) being the indigenous people of the land. Over the years many Guyanese have left and enjoyed success abroad. Here are four Guyanese who have achieved success in various fields outside of Guyana.

GODFREY CAMBRIDGE 

Godfrey MacArthur Cambridge was born in New York City on February 26, 1933, to Alexander and Sarah Cambridge, who were immigrants from (British Guiana) Guyana. His parents, sent him to live with his grandparents in Sydney, Nova Scotia to attend elementary school because they were dissatisfied with the New York Public School System. When he was 13, Cambridge returned to New York and attended Flushing High School in Flushing, Queens. In 1949 he received a four-year scholarship to study medicine at Hofstra College, which he attended for three years before dropping out to pursue a career in acting.

In 1962, Cambridge was nominated for a Tony Award as part of the cast of “Purlie Victorious.” He appeared in several films including: The Last Angry Man (1959), The President's Analyst (1967), The Busy Body (1967), The Biggest Bundle of Them All (1968), Bye Bye Braverman (1968), Watermelon Man (1970), Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), Come Back, Charleston Blue (1972), Friday Foster (1975), The Biscuit Eater (1972), Beware! The Blob (1972) and Whiffs (1975.)

In addition to acting, Cambridge had major success as a stand-up comedian. By 1965 he was earning "as much as $4,000 a week headlining venues such as San Francisco's 'hungry i' and Hollywood's 'Crescendo'.' He appeared on The Tonight Show. Cambridge reached his largest television audience in a series of comical commercials for Jockey underwear. Alongside Bill Cosby, Dick Gregory and Nipsey Russell, he was acclaimed by Time magazine in 1965 as "one of the country's four most celebrated Negro comedians." Godfrey MacArthur Cambridge transitioned to the ancestral realm on November 29-1976.

He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles.

NORMAN LUGARD BEATON 

Norman Lugard Beaton was born in Georgetown, Guyana on October 31-1934. He attended the prestigious secondary school “Queen's College” in Georgetown, Guyana and later, the Government Teachers' Training College and graduated with distinction. Beaton taught at Providence School, East Bank, Demerera, and at Cane Grove Anglican School on the East Coast. He also worked for “Radio Demerera” and for a local newspaper, as well as playing with a calypso band, The Four Bees. He achieved the position of deputy headmaster at Cane Grove Anglican School before leaving Guyana for London in 1960. He then landed a job as a teacher in Liverpool, becoming the first African teacher to be employed by the Liverpool Education Authority. Beaton would soon become frustrated with his job as a teacher and began writing plays. His first play the musical Jack of Spades centered on the doomed relationship between an African man and a white woman. The moderate success gave Beaton enough confidence to give up teaching to concentrate on the theater. In the early seventies, Beaton began to perform in plays in London's West End. In 1970 he played the role of Ariel in Shakespeare's The Tempest, which he described in his autobiography as "the most important role of my acting career." In 1975, he helped to establish the Black Theatre of Brixton. In 1976, Beaton broke into television in the series The Fosters. In 1977, he played the lead role in “Black Joy” for which he was named Film Actor of the Year in 1978 by the Variety Club of Great Britain. He also appeared in the BBC TV series Empire Road (written by African Guyanese writer, Michael Abbensetts) which ran from 1978-1979. However, it was his role (January 5-1989-December 19-1994) as Desmond Ambrose in the Channel Four television comedy series Desmond's that would become his most well-known role. In 1986, Beaton published his autobiography “Beaton but Unbowed.” In 1991 he appeared as a guest on The Cosby Show, in the episode: "There's Still No Joy in Mudville".) He also appeared in several movies including The Mighty Quinn (1989). Norman Lugard Beaton transitioned to the ancestral realm on December 13-1994 in Georgetown, Guyana.

CAROL CHRISTINE HILARIA POUNDER

Carol Christine Hilaria Pounder (CCH Pounder) was born in Georgetown, (British Guiana) Guyana on December 25-1952 was born to Ronald Urlington Pounder and Betsy Enid Arnella James Pounder. She and her sister were sent to a convent boarding school in England. Following high school graduation went to New York and studied at Ithaca College, where her acting talents were discovered.

Pounder made her acting debut in the film All That Jazz (1979.) She moved to Los Angeles in 1982. In 1987, Pounder starred in the film Bagdad Café. In the early 1980s, Pounder first appeared in guest roles on Hill Street Blues, and then on several popular shows (The Cosby Show, RoboCop 3, L.A. Law, The X-Files, Living Single, and Quantum Leap) before landing a long-running recurring role as Dr. Angela Hicks on ER, from 1994 to 1997. In 1994, CCH Pounder earned an Emmy nomination for her stint on the hospital drama "ER." In the midst of this she co-starred in the Tales From the Crypt feature film Demon Knight (1995). In 1997, CCH Pounder was winner of the prestigious Caribbean American Heritage Award for Excellence in the Arts presented by leading Caribbean American advocacy organization Institute of Caribbean Studies based in Washington DC. She has made guest appearances on several shows, including The Practice, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Millennium, The West Wing and Women in Prison. From 2002 to 2008, she starred as Detective Claudette Wyms in the FX Networks police drama The Shield. In 2009, she starred as Mo'at in James Cameron's film Avatar. She starred in recurring roles as Mrs. Irene Frederic on the series Warehouse 13 and DA Thyne Patterson on the FX series Sons of Anarchy. Since 2014, she has portrayed medical examiner Dr. Loretta Wade on NCIS: New Orleans. In 1989, CCH Pounder was one of the founders of Artists for a New South Africa (ANSA.)

VALERIE ANN AMOS

Valerie Ann Amos was born on March 13-1954 in (British Guiana) Guyana in South America. She is one of three children born to Edward and Eunice Amos who were both teachers in Guyana. Her family moved to Britain when she was nine years old, where her father was attending university. They settled in Belvedere, a town in the southeastern English county of Kent. Amos thrived at the Townley grammar school in Bexleyheath, where she was the first African student in her school, earning top grades and excelling in sports. Her parents hoped she would enter medicine or law, but Amos chose a sociology course at the University of Warwick in central England, where she completed a degree in Sociology at the University of Warwick (1973–76.) She later took courses in cultural studies at the University of Birmingham and the University of East Anglia and took a job as a researcher. She is a British Labour Party politician and life peer, formerly serving as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council. When she was appointed Secretary of State for International Development on 12 May 2003, following the resignation of Clare Short, she became the first African woman to sit in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.

After working in Equal Opportunities, Training and Management Services in local government in the London boroughs of Lambeth, Camden and Hackney, Amos became Chief Executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission 1989-94. In 1995 Amos co-founded Amos Fraser Bernard and was an adviser to the South African government on public service reform, human rights and employment equity.

She left the cabinet when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister. She was then nominated to become the European Union special representative to the African Union by Gordon Brown. However after an independent selection process, Belgian diplomat Koen Vervaeke was chosen to represent the EU in Addis Ababa. In 2007, Baroness Amos was voted the "Most Influential Black Woman in the UK" by the New Nation newspaper.

She was awarded an Honorary Professorship at Thames Valley University in 1995 in recognition of her work on equality and social justice. On July 1-2010, Amos received an honorary Doctorate of the University from the University of Stirling in recognition of her "outstanding service to our society and her role as a model of leadership and success for women today." She was also awarded honorary degrees of Doctor of Laws from the University of Warwick in 2000 and the University of Leicester in 2006. At the University of Birmingham Guild of Students (where she studied), one of the committee rooms is named "The Amos Room" after her, in acknowledgement of her services to society.

Patricia Liverpool © May 31-2019