Butler 4

Let it been known to all principalities, kingdoms, and nations– to all men, women, and children–that I have accomplished a most horrific feat. A feat that most men either lie and say they have championed that beast, or feign interest to attempt. For you see– I have been swayed up to the top of the mast in the hempen basket. I have spotted the spout three points off the weather bow. I swear before this court that on the eighteenth of June in the year of our Lord two-thousand-eleven I did indeed finish reading Moby-Dick or The Whale.

Mr. Melville I awe.

"...Death is only a launching into the region of the strange Untried; it is but the first salutation to the possibilities of the immense Remote, the Wild, The Watery, the Unshored; therefore, to the death-longing eyes of such men, who still have left in them some interior compunctions against suicide, does the all-contributed and all-receptive ocean alluringly spread forth his whole plain of unimaginable, taking terrors, and wonderful, new-life adventures; and from the hearts of infinite Pacific, the thousand mermaids sing to them–"come hither, brokenhearted; here is another life without the guilt of intermediate death; here are the wonders supernatural, without dying for them. Come hither! bury thyself in a life which, to your now equally abhorred and abhorring, landed world, is more oblivious than death. Comber hither! put up thy gravestone, too, within the church yard, and come hither! till we marry thee!"
Hearkening to these voices, East and West, by early sunrise, and by fall of eve, the blacksmith's soul responded, Aye, I come! And so Perth went a-whaling."

-Chapter CXII. The Blacksmith

Labels: American Whaling, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

The high line in New York City has expanded. This elevated park use to be an elevated railway making deliveries to businesses along the Hudson River. No longer used, the tracks sat fallow. Then some rich people donated a lot of money and the public benefited with an amazing new place to perambulate. It's been open for over a year now... but just last week they expanded it further up the track. Here a some pictures from and of the recently opened areas.

Labels: High Line

Remember how I told you that I was on that new pass-a-long card? Have you ever wondered what it would look like hanging in Times Square

The Salt Lake Tribune did and they wrote a story about it. Click here for the link.

Labels: Time Sq

A while ago it was announced on this blog that I was working on something big. Also announced was that you all would know just how big. It's so big that I had to sneak it on to Governor's Island, located in New York Harbor, and when the park rangers were not looking... I ran it up a vacant flag pole.

Now you say... that's a big Union Jack... but just take a look at the scale when I stand next to it.
It's big right? 5ft x 10ft of United Kingdom glory. Commission for the flag came from a prop stylist for a Vogue Bambini editorial. The theme was inspired by a The Who album cover. The magazine featuring the flag will be published later this summer. When it is–you will know. Assuming that you keep current with the latest 4butler.blogspot.com posts.
This is the Union Jack. The flag of the United Kingdom. Scale of the flag is 1:2. As stated before this particular flag is 5ftX10ft. This version of the Union Jack has been the official flag of the United Kingdom since 1801. It is the amalgamation of three other flags. St. George's Cross is the white background with the red cross located in the center; St. Andrew's Cross is the blue background with the white cross from corner to corner; St. Patrick's Cross is the white background with the red cross from corner to corner. England, Scotland, and Ireland make up the Union Jack.

Labels: Flags, Union Jack