I have no idea why I decided to seek out “Victorian Flea Circus” images. Just a whim. I’ve had stranger ones. Not all of these images are Victorian, obviously. I just used the sea…
Prof. William Heckler's Trained Flea Circus The fleas in this photo have been enlarged 700 times as compared with the human figure. They are shown in action poses from several of the stunts they per…
An automaton (plural: automata or automatons) is a self-operating machine. These hold fascination for me - especially some of the older ones shown in this posting. They've been around for a long time (since Greek times) but the golden age is considered by many to be 1860-1910. During this period many small family based producers thrived in Paris. The main French makers were Vichy, Roullet & Decamps, Lambert, Phalibois, Renou and Bontems. In addition to being fine examples of mechanical competence, these early machines were used in magic acts and performances to demonstrate mystical abilities (before audiences were sure about how these machines worked). Good examples are those used by French magician Robert Houdin. There is also a famous example of a hoax - The Turk (a chess-playing automaton), which dates back to the late 1700s (photo below toward end of posting). This supposed mechanical chess player beat scores of opponents, but was ultimately revealed to have been a hoax (there was a small person was hidden inside the contraption). Nevertheless, the machine is still quite beautiful. I've also included in this posting a piece I made recently (last series of photos). close up of clown from Automatomania A few good sites to check out: Automatomania - Excellent collection with good photos. http://www.automatomania.co.uk/ Dugnorth Automata blog - A great source for all things automata http://blog.dugnorth.com/ Deskarati - (good succinct history of automata) http://deskarati.com/2011/05/08/automata/ Atlas Obscura's Amazing Automata section - A great site for anything bizarre and obscure (its also on this blog's list of links on the right side bar). http://atlasobscura.com/category/inspired-inventions/amazing-automata Fantasma Magic Shop in New York City - This is one of the few great magic shops left. It's located right near Penn Station and well worth a visit (books, tricks, costumes, antiques, live birds!) They carry some great pieces of antique automate too. And the best part may be the mechanized Houdini that comes down from the ceiling and gets out of a straight jacket (I understand the shop's owner is a big Houdini fan and expert). http://www.fantasmamagic.com/shopping/ click images to enlarge Henry Phalibois Automaton of a Chinese Magician and Vanishing Assistant, c. 1920 From the site of Skinner Inc. Top view A flea circus in a suitcase Vichy Acrobat The Undertaker Baking bread A writing woman - this was a popular type of automata - one where the machine writes a name or a message. A reconstruction of the hoax automata, The Turk. The original was built in 1770s and appeared to be a "thinking" chess playing machine, but there was a small person hidden inside the box. Here's a piece I made - it's my first shot at a very simple, hand cranked automata: In process:
[picture source] Fleas, Fleas, Fleas I have read about fleas of narcissism before. Lucky Otter talked about fleas recently too. These are the things you can end up with from being raised in a narcissistic household. These would include learned behaviors and reactions they taught you during your childhood. One thing I want to add here, is that if you are worried about being a narcissist, while some children of narcissists become a narcissist like them, you often are NOT! Narcissists do not worry about it, the very idea that they may be disordered is way beyond them. They would never in a million years admit anything is wrong with them. My mother in one pissed off email fest actually wrote, "**** thinks I am disordered!" by then I had laid it out and wrote to her that she was a narcissist and had no empathy, though I came to the sociopath conclusions later on. One fleeting thought someone raised in sick sociopathic households can have, is "Am I anything like them?". One can have this feeling of, "Has the evil infected me?" Being raised with no love, I wonder how I was able to love people and I do. I knew by a very early age I did not want to be like my parents. For Aspies, justice is very important, it is hard to explain, some see Aspies as being little minion "rule-followers" but it's different then that, we want to follow what is "right" over wrong. My conscience was very different then their's. One thing that would happen to me is my parents would slap me for being "too sensitive". I was told constantly to "harden up"! Today as a 40 something, I know telling a ten year old crying Aspie, "You can't cope!", is pretty sick. I struggle with my own worries about evil then. All Christians do and have to battle against the sins they may commit. God is merciful and there to forgive once one repents but I have worried about falling away under my crushing poverty and losing trust in God. Even crazy bad health problems one's thoughts can go into despair, instead of prayer. The concept of conscience was not taught in my family or acting according to one's conscience. I was different. I felt guilt. However I struggled with a few fleas from being raised in my family. My family all had violent tempers, with screaming, yelling and throwing things and using foul language. They do not censor their tempers. Even Mini-Me has a bad temper and I saw her screaming at her kids a few times. I can struggle with a bad temper though I have learned to temper it somewhat and try to keep the yelling to myself as much as possible within the confines of my apartment. I would never touch anyone, but when angry I can yell loud. Long ago I learned to walk away from people while yelling, to keep the damage more minimal. The other day, I started yelling about a door being locked in my face, and hopefully no one heard me. I said one irritated low volume thing with no cussing they did hear, and then thought inside, "I better cool it". Aspie melt-downs can complicate this, sometimes an Aspie is not mad but just anxious. I know I am not perfect and well, everything is a work in progress. My family does not feel guilt over their tempers, they think it is okay to rant and rave and cuss the room blue. I was always embarrassed to eat out with my father because he would tell the wait-staff off over every little thing and even would yell. I had visions of goobers hitting our food back in the kitchen. You know something is wrong when the neighbors are calling the police constantly over your family's screaming and yelling and they show up and because of your father's position do absolutely nothing while a poorer guy would be getting dragged off to jail. This is an area where I definitely had to learn NOT to be like my family and to keep it in check. Other ACONs may struggle with taking criticism--I am okay with criticism that is meant for improvement but not for the mean kind. One rarer flea I can get is if I am around people I can tell do not like me or don't understand Aspies or have personality traits like my parents is I can get very sarcastic and will go into "fight or flight" mode inside. I will go into Aspie blunt mode and not "cloak" for the neurotypicals and throw caution to the wind. However this can be dangerous around narcs and other personality disordered types who can manipulate things to turn my emotions against me. Aspies have to remember blunt honesty isn't always the best social mode. Around narcs of course, silence and disappearing is safer. I found myself in a "fight or flight" mode in my stomach and having some of my fleas come out too often when I was around certain personalities. Sometimes it is not even something that a particular person is doing or any personality disorder but a clashing of values and world view. This is one thing ACONs should always pay attention to when it comes to dealing with the world. Pay attention to how you FEEL around certain parties. These are feelings I am learning to pay attention to. Not everyone is a narc but we have to learn to control our fleas around personalities who may trigger us or we may differ with. I know there are neurotypicals out there who have no capability to understand me. Of course we have to be mindful of the personality disordered who may be out to hurt us too. During the early stages of no contact we can be more sensitive too as we wake up to new ways of doing and acting coming out of fog. Others may have a hardened view towards the world. I know I did for a short time. My parents would scream at me for being "too sensitive" and I had that weird abuse where they denied me the protection and treatment owed a young girl where I was treated more like a boy. I was told to harden up and not to have feelings. My feelings angered them. They failed in this change of me, but there was some fleas left over. An ACON going through this one can get feelings like "Everyone is out to get me.", "I'm not going to be a sucker". I had this in my 20s to an extent expecting that everyone was going to screw me over. One roommate even asked me, "Why do you have to act like such a tough girl?" Get hit enough times and you are always ducking and this is not a good way to deal with the world. When I lived in the ghetto, I did grow somewhat harder and when I escaped to a small rural town, had to adjust my entire stance towards the world. I didn't need to walk around in defense mode all the time even if I had to learn balancing this one, self protection balanced with openness. I actually had to learn and experience that there were good, kind and loving people in the world which defines many of my friends. One thing I had to do after becoming a Christian in my thirties, was I did use the Christian people I met as role models. I would pick older women, and some I still have on my social website, and would observe how they treated people. These were women with loving families and who gave to the community and treated people fairly and kindly. While I did Aspies are more apt to do this, in choosing mentors. My best jobs when I was young, I always had a mentor. I don't think this is a bad thing to do. I was doing it at an older age then most, but choosing positive role models when you have had negative ones for far too long is a good thing and I think a sign of healing. So fleas can be overcome, you just have to be aware of them. Update: I deconverted from Christianity. I was misled using Christian people as role models.A few are real people who are kind, but those were rare.
Jurassic Park (1993, Steven Spieberg) 50 ans avant de créer un parc de dinosaures, la première chose que John Hammond fit dans sa vie, après être descendu d'Écosse, fût de monter un cirque de puces sur Petticoat Lane...
Bertolotto, grand flea circus master extraordinaire, was a man of swift and curious intellect. Not content with merely restaging key scenes from Don Quioxte in his all flea review, he was also quick to make a statement in favor of women's rights. Bertolotto, you see, only worked with female flees, a fact he was keen to advertise in program as he felt it would delight every and any suffragette. Notes he of the educated flea, "I have found the males utterly worthless, excessively mulish, and altoghether disinclined to work." Now to start our own flea circus and prove Bertolotto wrong! Come on, ye male fleas of Baltimore, surely you would be up to recreating Poe's "The Raven," right? Call No.: 791 B546 DUODECIMO Location: The George Peabody Library
Illustration of a flea silhouette on white background.
Circus Events, Acrobatic Act, 1870, Juggler, acrobatic acts, antique circus poster, antique art prints, 8 x 10" premium poster paper Colors will vary due to your monitor settings Free ship US You frame it! This art print was taken from a vintage painting, print, postcard or digital source. It is in the public domain in the US because the copyrights (if any) have expired. NOTE: Our watermark will not appear on your print NOTE: Our prints are taken from an antique/vintage paintings, greeting cards, post cards etc.. Much of the time, these were originally printed on a soft and porous paper, which softened the images. They didn't have the technology back then to photo-shop and fix these images. That is why I chose to reproduce only antique art in it's original content (no photo-shop). I love the old school art. These are also paintings and drawings, and so the styles vary. The papers we use today, have special coatings so that they attract the inks or dyes well, and stop much of the seeping of the inks. Our new technologies print exactly what is on the scan of the original image. If you purchase canvas, it is made of cotton, and even though it also has this special coating, it is textured, and softens the look of the final result. It is archival, and of the highest quality, but is best for paintings since they were mostly created on artist canvas. It is important to note that if you are buying on your phone or tablet, the images you see are only tiny thumbnails, and so you can't really see the detail in the scan on the listing. If you can look on a computer, you can then see the depth and detail of the image you want. Artwork is not created equal, and sometimes there are clear and distinct lines, and other times the style is less detailed. Lastly, Colors will vary slightly, due to the difference in your monitor settings. Please zoom in on the image to see the detail. This art print was taken from a vintage painting, print, postcard or digital source. It is in the public domain in the US because the copyrights (if any) have expired. All quoted shipping costs are USA only. All quoted shipping costs are USA only. I will ship to your country, via first class intl. USPS, but please contact me for a quote before you buy. All art prints are custom designed to fit into a standard, modern frame. The openings on these frames are smaller than the listed size. Your print will be slightly larger than the opening. You can carefully trim it to fit your frame, and pop it in, with or without a mat. Each print is made as it is ordered. Please convo me if you need a specific size. I use real cotton artist's canvas, and the newest technology to enlarge the images, pixel x pixel. There is no stretching or skewing, Cotton canvas is textured in tiny squares, and produces a soft finish like a painting. Since it is fabric, it grabs the color for an extraordinary presentation. I use archival canvas, and special dyes to print each image. They will last 100 years under normal circumstances. Your monitor settings will vary from mine, so colors may look different to you than they really are. Color match technology produces exact colors to the image file used. NO stretching or mounting is needed. No need for expensive, custom framing. I use special, secure packing materials, to insure that your item arrives safely. I have been collecting and selling art prints for many years. I may have just what you are searching for. Just ask, and I will create a special listing, just for you. Thank you for your interest. Carol@ just4allkids [!at] yahoo.com
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These miniature playing cards feature whimsical illustrations celebrating the most astounding acts of a legendary "flea" circus performed by some of the tiniest talents in the animal kingdom. Art of Play's Flea Circus miniature playing cards feature whimsical illustrations celebrating the most astounding acts of a legendary "flea" circus. From death-defying stunts to hilarious antics neither ant nor tic would dare, you'll be scratching your head about how they did it.Flea Circus Playing Cards were illustrated by Jeff Trish and feature 54 unique acts, one for each card in the deck. The cards themselves are packaged in a luxurious box featuring rich accents of gold foil and embossing.
