Glory on the artist: Vita Sleigh

I make drawings which combine detail with mixed-media texture; most often I use a combination of watercolours, coloured and graphite pencils, sometimes combining digital elements. I have an interdisciplinary practice which spans illustration, writing, activism and research. I am interested in what can be told of the outside through coming to know the shape of the inside: my work explores interior worlds, often visiting themes of gender, queerness and queer relating, human-nonhuman interactions and experiences of injustice. I also come back to enduring inspirations such as folklore, psychoanalytic theory, and the sea. I am currently studying an MA in Gender, Sexuality and Culture at Birkbeck University. Illustration commissioners have included The History Press, Popshot and Firewords poetry journals, and Unbound. Publishers of my written work include Animals and Society Institute, Vegan Feminist Network and Dark Mountain Project. (vitasleigh.com)

I found Vita Sleigh's work through a conversation between Tom White from Fruit Journal and Maria Sledmere and Colin Herd.

Sleigh's essay Making Oddkin: Relationships in the Cracks is a brilliant piece that can be found on their website and in the Spring '22 issue of the Dark Mountain Project (theme: confluence).

The essay investigates fluid sociality, non-monagamy, and is book-ended by reflections on the binaries that starve us of knowing each other and the world. They weave together a beautiful range of poetic, politics, and portraits of their own relationships - I pray a book is in the works I would buy several copies.

They also have a linktree that includes a page of polyamory and anarchic relationship resources. I haven't check them out yet but appreciate the signpost a lot.

As a side note to myself, I need to make Glory on Donna Haraway and Bayo Akomolafe also. I've been tired a lot at the moment and am absorbing more than excreting (...)

Sleigh's essay on non-human pain Nonhuman Consent: On Touching Other Animals provoked me to reflect on my own relationship to my ex-vegetarianism/veganism and consent around the cats and dogs in my life:

Recently, to better understand the experience of the animals I interact with, I have been trying to imagine what it’s like to do what they do, and how they experience it. For example, I watched dogs in a busy street being stroked by passers by – what are they experiencing? Pleasure? Shock and surprise? Irritation? Violation, even? Certainly, this will be different for each individual and probably at different times, too. (veganfeministnetwork.com)

Sleigh's methodology of imagination as tool for understanding also reminded me of the conversation around Feminist Philosophy of Mind, 2022, ed. Keya Maitra and Jennifer McWeeny.

I'm thinking specifically of Amy Kind and Janine Jones' comments on the limits of imagination as empathy in particular power structures: Kind's essay in the anthology examines the gender bias in the Turing Test and Jones' examines the failings of white empathy. Kind also made a reference to Sam Liao's exploration on the right not to be imagined - although I haven't read this work so can't comment but am very intrigued to see how it would apply to human-animal empathy methodologies. Linked below:

Feminist Philosophy of Mind is not yet available to b u y online, but I'm linking the discussion below:

Sleigh's visual art is just fucking gorgeous. They are organic and fluid forms that really embody the artist's ethos as a being. Each subject seems celebrated individually in their stylised world - I particularly resonate with their hybrid jellyfish figures and they remind me of my utopic visual 'interruptions' of figures born from whale hearts.

Sleigh's drawings can be found on their website and @ their IG: vitasleigh

"Fir trees, birch trees, villages, cities, birch trees, villages, frozen streams, boys on skates, a sleigh on the plain, a small house, fir trees. The sight of a large hare that emerged in fear from the snow guard hedges that flanked the road brought joy. railway; amazement and poetry in the small herds of roe deer that from the edge of the woods watched our train covered in icicles go by and it seemed impossible that there was war in the world and we were armed."

- Mario Rigoni Stern, "The grouse forest" -

War is against nature.

It is averse to life.

War is chaos and ugliness.

This is why, at the hands of the One who created all nature and balance, the Giver of life,

Soon every war will end.

And we can believe it because He Himself promised it!

"Come, see with your own eyes the works of Jah, the wonders that he has done on the earth.

He will end wars all over the world.

He will break the bows,

he will break the spears,

he will burn the chariots in the fire."

"He will be judge among the nations and will make things right for many peoples.

They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears.

Nations will no longer fight against each other, nor will they learn war anymore."

(Psalm 46:8,9/Isaiah 2:4) jw.org

https://jw.org

"Abeti, betulle, paesi, città, betulle, paesi, corsi d'acqua gelati, ragazzi sui pattini, una slitta nella pianura, una casupola, abeti. Allegria portava la vista di una grossa lepre che sbucava spaurita dalle siepi paraneve che fiancheggiavano la ferrovia; stupore e poesia i piccoli branchi di caprioli che dall'orlo dei boschi guardavano passare il nostro treno coperto di ghiaccioli e pareva impossibile che nel mondo ci fosse la guerra e noi armati. "

- Mario Rigoni Stern, "Il bosco degli urogalli"-

La guerra è contro natura. È avversa alla vita.

La guerra è caos e bruttura.

Ecco perché, per mano di Colui che ha creato ogni natura ed equilibrio, il Datore di vita,

tra breve ogni guerra finirà.

E possiamo crederci perché Lui stesso l'ha promesso!

"Venite, vedete con i vostri occhi le opere di Jah, le meraviglie che ha fatto sulla terra.

Porrà fine alle guerre in tutto il mondo.

Romperà gli archi,

spezzerà le lance,

brucerà i carri nel fuoco."

"Egli sarà giudice fra le nazioni e metterà a posto le cose per molti popoli.

Trasformeranno le loro spade in vomeri e le lance in cesoie per potare.

Le nazioni non si combatteranno più l'una contro l'altra, né impareranno più la guerra ".

(Salmo 46:8,9/Isaia 2:4) jw.org

https://jw.org

LIBRA.

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY.

tracklist/annotations under the cut! and make sure you check out my other astro playilsts for your moon/rising if you like this one

I. HEART ATTACK / LOONA

pounding more and more i’ll give it all, take my heart surely you’re my destiny it shines fully in my heart this must be what thrill feels like, darling eventually i fall into you you attack my heart!

II. FLAMINGO / KERO KERO BONITO

black, white, green or blue show off your natural hue! flamingo, if you're multicouloured that's cool too you dont need to change, it's boring being the same flamingo, you're pretty either way

III. FROOT / MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS

living la dolce vita, life couldn't get much sweeter don't you give me a reason that it's not the right season babe, i love you a lot, i'll give you all i've got yeah, you know that it's true i've been saving all my summers for you i've been saving all my summers for you like froot, like froot

IV. VENUS AS A BOY / BJORK

he believes in a beauty he's venus as a boy he believes in a beauty, he believes in a beauty he's venus as a boy

V. FRUIT / ABRA

tell me what you did last night did you close your eyes and think about me like i think about you? tell me why you always fight waiting on you, get with it whats with the resistance baby?

VI. EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD / TEARS FOR FEARS

it's my own desire, it's my own remorse help me to decide help me make the most of freedom, and of pleasure nothing ever lasts forever everybody wants to rule the world

VII. TUTTIFRUTTI / PHOENIX

smash the castle down, delete it tuttifrutti, it's all on me wreck the spectacle you live in broken glass and porcelain

VIII. THE CULT OF DIONYSUS / THE ORION EXPERIENCE

i'm feeling devious, you're looking glamorous let's get mischievous and polyamorous wine and women and wonderful vices welcome to the cult of dionysus!

IX. REVOLUTION LOVER / LEFT AT LONDON

you know, i know that your hope's been missing i know we both could've almost died i know it's harder everyday to provide but it's gonna change, i can feel it coming and when it's here, we'll be side-by-side i know we'll make it out of this one alive

X. THE LOVE CLUB / LORDE

i joined the club and it's all on there are fights for being my best friend, and the girls get their claws out there's somethin' about hanging out with the wicked kids take the pill, make it too ill the other day i forgot my old address i'm sittin' pretty on the throne, there's nothing more i want except to be alone

XI. MY TYPE / SAINT MOTEL

when there's loving in the air don't fight it, just keep breathing i can't help myself but stare double check for double meanings i'm a man who's got very specific taste

XII. I MISS YOU / BJORK

and if you believe in dreams or what is more important that a dream can come true i will meet you

XIII. LOVER’S ROCK / TV GIRL

while the others talk, we were listening to lovers rock in her bedroom, in her bedroom and if you start to kiss, and the record skips flip it over and sit a little closer

XIV. SHAMPAIN / MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS

lay dagger-dead inside a lonely bed trying to hide the hole inside my head watching the stars slide down to reach the end 'cause sleep is not my friend

XV. & / TALLY HALL

came back again to make it clear that he never said it would meet demand shame on a martyr claiming friends from either perspective of &

XVI. I CAN CHANGE / LCD SOUNDSYSTEM

but i can change, i can change, i can change, i can change i can change, i can change, i can change if it helps you fall in love (fall in love)

XVII. RIBS / LORDE

the drink you spilt all over me "lover's spit" left on repeat my mom and dad let me stay home it drives you crazy, getting old

XVIII. RUN THE HEART / SLEIGH BELLS

you wanna, wanna, hang a name on me you wanna, wanna, hang a name on me you wanna know what's good for me you wanna know what's good for me

XIX. THE STATE OF DREAMING / MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS

all i really want is to be wonderful people in this town they, they can be so cruel i live my life inside a dream only waking when i sleep if i could sell my sorry soul, i would have it all

XX. I WANNA GET BETTER / THE BLEACHERS

i go up to my room and there's girls on the ceiling cut out their pictures and i chase that feeling of an eighteen year old who didn't know what loss was now i'm a stranger and i miss the days of a life still permanent mourn the years before i got carried away

Beatrice (1899). Bernard Sleigh (English, 1872-1954). Watercolour with bodycolour.

The influence of Burne-Jones is very apparent in the present depiction of Beatrice Portinari, the beloved of Dante Alghieri, although there also appears to be some knowledge of the work of Rossetti. Behind Beatrice in Sleigh’s picture are two quotations from Dante’s best-known works, Purgatorio and La Vita Nouva, both of which refer to Beatrice (the Italian is slightly inaccurate); ‘Behold, a deity stronger than I; who coming, shall rule over me’ and ‘Look over here! I am, I truly am Beatrice!'

More About Dogs Cooling Beds

Dogs cooling beds are very must essential in the summer season. Being a summer season, all the dogs would love to spend the time outside and comes home tired. Hence, it needs a cooling bed by which it can relax and stay away from the sun heat. If you could notice, dogs in the summer season prefer to lie on the tiles which are warm for them. Dog cooling beds are generally prepared with the gel-like material to maintain the bed cool at all the times. These types of beds are mainly used by the ones who are old.

You can find many online stores which provides free shipping if you wish to buy a dog cooling bed. Of course, it is available in various sizes and models depending on our interest and the size of the dog. In summer season, it is always advisable to maintain a pool of water where the dog can come and take rest in it. Change the water frequently and always try to maintain fresh water. If you have a large garden, you can maintain a water tub for your dog. There are certain breeds of dogs which would love to swim.

Dog cooling bed would be of great help to the dogs to remain warm. It is good if the dog gets bathed twice a day during the summer season so that it remains warm. You can also sprinkle some water on it whenever it comes from outside. Whenever you take your dog for a walk, check it's paw pads and make sure it is not red and not causing any pain. To make the summer season good for it, regular grooming is needed. Dogs usually get afraid of large noises and make sure it remains far from them.

Dog cooling bed can be used indoor and outdoor. Some people have the habit to sleep along with the dog which is not recommended. It is easy to clean the cooling bed by removing its cover and putting it in the washing machine. But, choose the cooling bed correctly according to the size of the dog. Otherwise, it would be a mere waste. This is the reason why most of the customers prefer to choose cooling beds for their pets and prefer to buy online. Some of the brands that provide the cooling beds are WestPaw Design, Dolce Vita, Sooth Soft Technology and Kuranda Dog Beds.

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Another artist who challenges the status quo is Vita Sleigh with her work Hazel Breaks the Net. A young woman dives into the ocean. But she is not there for pleasure, spending time with her friends at the beach. No. She is there to rescue the hundreds of innocent fish who are slaughtered everyday to fulfill the demands of the seafood industry. In this painting, Vita Sleigh examines the relationships between humans and the environment. Taken from her children's book, Hazel, Sleigh tells the story of a little girl who feels the pain which animals suffer. She makes it her mission to save as many of them as she can. And that is how we come to this image of Hazel saving the fish. Although much less criticized than the factory farming industry, the seafood industry is just as insidious. Not only are humans overfishing and killing millions of fish each year, they are also destroying our oceans. Soon we will run out of fish. Then what will we do? Despite their status as being even less than animals (I am often asked why I don’t eat fish despite the fact that I am a vegetarian.) the lives of fish and the ocean are just as important as any other creature. They are not just some food source floating around, waiting to be eaten. They lead equally important lives to the creatures which inhabit the land. Eating fish is not a victimless action. Every time you eat seafood someone suffers, along with the ocean which is so vital to our survival.

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I spoke to Alex and Joe about WordAi today.

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Wonderful Happy Christmas Wishes

Christmas is the best chance to make long lasting recollections for the kids in our lives. When we think about our own occasions past, there are sure recollections and conventions that have turned into a lasting piece of our lives. This is life's sweetness, the "dolce vita" of our families. For the youngsters in our lives, Christmas is wonderous, supernatural, fun and happy. We attempt our best to make it critical, regardless of whether it's our very own children, our kids' cohorts, our understudies, nieces and nephews, or even our neighbor's kids. There are numerous conveyance techniques for our well-wishes: an interesting occasion video or some other of the online networking decisions our children presently use. Following are a couple of instances of charming, entertaining or delicate Christmas messages for youngsters. A present with a message or a flawlessly worded Christmas note will put a grin all over, and possibly — if our message is warm and genuine — make it into a scrapbook!What amusements to play at Christmas with your children? Play Santa's Christmas Trivia!

Mammoth Christmas Wishes For Our Little Christmas Blessings

From the minute I saw your sweet face, I realized you were the best Christmas present I would ever get. Cheerful Christmas, Sweetie!

This Christmas, I wish you cherish, bliss and all the joy you have brought into my life.

Since our kids are adult now, we truly appreciate seeing Christmas through your young eyes. Much obliged to you to such an extent.

Trusting you're getting a charge out of improvements, Christmas tunes … and winning snowball battles!

In the event that Santa is checking his rundown twice, you ought to get double the presents since you're twice as decent. Joyful Christmas, sweet young lady!

To my delightful tyke on your first Christmas: This Holy Day, I am appreciative for so much, yet you're my greatest gift in my life.

I wish you bunches of fun, kisses, sweets and everything this Season guarantees for good young men and young ladies — That's YOU!

Christmas Sweetness List: Christmas ditties, adornments, toys, treats and the majority of all — YOU!

You would be advised to not sulk, you would be advised to not cry, you would do well to tidy up your room before Santa's sleigh flies.

Try not to stress over that little mystery you're keeping from Santa. He's old and absent minded — you're great.

On the off chance that I see Santa, I'm going to disclose to him how REALLY great you've been, so he should give you bunches of extraordinary stuff.(You'll part it with me, right?)

When I see your little angel face, I think about the Christ Child and the majority of His gifts. Cheerful Christmas, minimal one.

Sweet treats, sweet, sweet Christmas ditties noticeable all around, sweetly wrapped presents, and, gee, what else? Goodness no doubt, SWEET YOU!

Charming Christmas Greeting Cards

Santa Clause knows who's awful or great, however I ponder you. Joyful Christmas to an extraordinary child!

This Christmas Season, appreciate every one of the presents you get and every one of the presents you as of now have — such a significant number of individuals who adore you, including me.

What To Write In Your Christmas Card

In the event that Santa has a "decent child list" you must be there in a jiffy at the top! Cheerful Christmas to an extraordinary child.

Joyful Christmas to the cutest little Christmas Elf. You are the best blessing an adult would ever request.

200 Christmas Wishes

Do you realize which is my preferred Christmas pie? I like to go through my Christmas with you — cutie pie!

Ho — Merry Christmas to one of Santa's top picks. P.S. You're my most loved as well!

Realizing an incredible child like you is the best Christmas present ever. I trust your Christmas is brimming with Fun-Fun-Fun!

On the off chance that Santa is checking his rundown twice, you ought to get double the presents since you're twice as pleasant. Joyful Christmas, sweet young lady! Joyful Christmas, Sweetie!Merry Christmas Kids

As a result of you, my sweet little companion, I have the best Christmas ever — Let's not given it a chance to end! Happy Holidays.

Santa Clause's sleigh is taking off, they're rapidly traveling your way, with Christmas delights and Christmas toys, for sweet young ladies and magnificent young men.

Christmas Messages for Friends and Family

Occasion time is a decent opportunity to state, I get the chance to play with you consistently, and when I'm cooking yummy winter dishes, I'm grateful for you and send my all the best.

Top 20 Christmas Greetings

Santa Clause needs to know whether you've been a decent young lady. Me? I couldn't mind less. Have an extraordinary Christmas, Sweetie!

Since you're my preferred nephew, if Santa gotten some answers concerning that occurrence (YOU know the one), we'll go out on the town to shop after Christmas, alright?

Signal chimes, jingle ringers, Santa's en route. I revealed to him how great you've been, so he truly stuffed his sleigh!

Christmas Messages for Teachers

I sat on Santa's lap, and disclosed to him how great you've been. When he escapes the medical clinic, he'll be bringing you bunches of stuff.

Thump, thump. Who's there? Orange. Orange who? Orange you happy Santa got some answers concerning web based shopping?

Since I cherish you so much, I advised Santa to give you twofold presents. I believe he's getting old and losing some conference however. Good karma at any rate!

Some Holiday guidance for my preferred child: (1) Keep your room clean between December twentieth and December 25th. (2) Don't eat yellow snow. (3) HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Snowball express: Ford Fiesta ST vs. Cortina D'Ampezzo

Cortina d’Ampezzo, in the heart of the Dolomites, hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics When Ford named a car after a Winter Olympics place, nobody envisioned an F1 champion driving it down a bobsleigh run. But that is what happened. We revisit the website 55 years on Former world champion Jim Clark says it is the most exciting game he has ever tackled. But if you have any doubts, he urges”a Cortina, plenty of nerve, and airplane tickets to Italy for you — and your doctor.”  You can read about this audacious (read foolhardy) event at the bottom of this page. Fifty-five years on, we are taking one of Ford’s current stars, the appropriately game Ford Fiesta ST, to revisit the site of the historical madness.  Following a night-time handover at Treviso Airport, our eager little three-door ST lbs up the empty Autostrada before climbing deep into the Dolomites to the chic ski resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo, home of the 1956 Winter Olympics and regional epicentre for la dolce vita. There’s a particular excitement to coming somewhere scenic in the dark, and we bed down in a hotel with all the city’s landmark bell tower in anticipation of what sunrise will reveal.  And rightly so. The next day, drifting wisps of mist can not hide the huge, broken crags of limestone which cradle the Ampezzo Valley, their haywire structures jutting at all angles, barely softened by January’s snow.  At the base of the Tofane range on the north edge of town, we meet Gianfranco Rezzadore, president of Bob Club Cortina and former Italian international bobsleigh driver. Our rendezvous is Bob Bar, a tiny wooden shack and neighborhood hang-out nestled beside the Eugenio Monti bob track’s finish. Founded almost a century ago, the course has been 1700 metres long by the 1956 Winter Games, with 16 turns and a 152m vertical fall. Unchanged by 1964, it was only wide enough to accommodate a Ford Cortina. The track has been shortened, narrowed and artificially refrigerated from 1979 (until then, ice and snow were hand-packed) but closed in 2008. He says bobs used to hit 80mph on track, and that centrifugal forces pushed 4g through his spine on the’Cristallo’ hairpin:”I was taller.” Rezzadore’s sceptical that the Ford Cortinas attained the 50mph-plus maintained from the newsreel, but the risks were quite real. Back then, the huge, banked corners — easily double my height — had no flat safety barriers above them. At times, the cars ran almost vertically along what were walls of death: sleighs have abandoned this route with fatal consequences, including throughout the filming of For Your Eyes Only in 1981.  Turning to look back down, it disturbs me how anyone — let alone a valuable sporting professional — might have driven an unmodified, carburetted family saloon with woolly steering, rear cart springs and 1960s tyre compounds down in the snow. Different times indeed.  This is where group photographs were shot, Clark embellishing his race overalls and iconic two-tone lid with a fetching cable-knit sweater, before the cars took to the icy helter-skelter.  With the straights now barely wide enough for a bobsleigh, we’ll enjoy no such mischief — but we have another plan to receive our alpine thrills while we’re here. You see, Cortina was a haven for racing drivers long before Clark et al arrived. Most famously, the Coppa d’Oro delle Dolomiti road race was based in the town each July for 10 post-war years along a 189- mile mountain route. The thought of period sports cars from Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Maserati and Ferrari thrashing between those peaks is spine-tingling.  Nowadays, regularity rallies are the next best thing, and we are going to trace the very best bit of this WinteRace — an annual, snow-bound classic car rally whose seventh edition kicks off from Cortina this Friday. Its organisers point us towards part of the route that strings together a series of mountain passes to the west. Soon after dawn the next day, we burble out of town onto a smooth, rising back street towards the first summit at Passo di Giau.  We are immediately met with hairpins — lots of them. Between corners, the Fiesta’s 197bhp, 1.5-litre blown triple supplies ample thrust. Such will be the incline, short straights and gearing which I’m mostly riding second, the engine climbing from 2000rpm to 6000rpm and back without complaint nor more than fleeting inductive hesitation. When shifting is required, the short-throw gearbox activity is neat and doesn’t mind being rushed.  I don’t really need the sharpened throttle, heightened mapping and bass-drum overrun of Sport mode, and Regular’s Faster steering feels more natural, so I stick with that. Turn-in is immediate, and while the sub-zero temperature and glistening asphalt stop our Performance Pack-equipped car from grapple-hooking round the corners as it might on a dry British B-road, the Quaife limited-slip differential at least puts paid to any ungainly front-end scrambling — instead, it gently and progressively runs wide until a throttle lift clips us back into line. Body control impresses also — at these moderate speeds, long-wave lumps are tidily parried and roll hardly registers.  But grit soon starts pinging off the underside, and past the treeline hefty snowbanks flank the street and glassy strips of ice leach across it. The banks close in to leave barely a car’s width of blacktop as we nip beyond a vented snowplough that is spewing a suspended white arc down the mountainside. Moments later the road disappears, so it is steady with the throttle to keep momentum, then a little patch of black allows us add sufficient speed to crest the summit.  Around here, it’s compulsory to have winter tyres or chains from November to April. Our car comes with the latter, so 2236m above sea level and with frost-tingled fingers (it is –5deg C), we’re reading how to attach our’Maggi Trak Auto’ snow chains to front tyres. In a pattern that gets swifter as the afternoon progresses, we hook them up and shuffle around to feel them out. From outside, the chains make the merry jangle of Saint Nick’s sleigh, but at the cabin the continuous rumble of graunching snow is underscored by a locomotive clickety-clack. Crucially, however, they supply the purchase the Fiesta should claw itself onwards.  Before pressing on, we take a moment to drink in our location. The pass sits under sky-scraping Monte Nuvolau, and I can see zig-zagging footpaths from the scree that lead climbers into the foot of its perilous vertical faces. On the summit’s far side 339m above us is an eagle’s nest of a wooden hut out of 1883 — after a military appearance, it now welcomes daring climbers.  Our route down is a perfect sequence of hairpins with barely a directly between and, as the snow clears within a few hundred metres, it’s off with the chains and upward with the speed. We carve down the mountain, past the first of countless ski areas and along frozen streams, then barely touch the valley floor and begin rising again. We join a wider road with fast sweepers that the Fiesta gobbles up before the Tarmac starts to writhe again. Subsident lumps and bumps don’t worry the chassis, while broken, frost-fissured stains of Tarmac reveal its company setup, though without undue resonance.  Year-round trench warfare with this terrain defies contemplation. The road flits between clear straights and snowbound corners, so it is on with the chains again, the heavily cambered corners helping press us to the surface as we clamber on up.  It’s blowing a gale as wind funnels through the 2239m summit’s saddle, so we don’t tarry. The snow thins on the descent, so we eliminate the wheel jewellery for another slalom whose switchbacks and kinks do not let up for three complete miles, plunging from windswept mountainside to sheltered forest. Trunk-shaped dents in the Armco denote the enduring timber trade; before the early 1900s tourism boom helped invent this road, wood was rather transported by the area’s numerous ice-blue rivers.  Rising again to Passo Sella (2244m), we pause on a scenic hairpin so photographer Luc Lacey can capture the jagged skyline beyond. There aren’t any other cars, and there isn’t any sound but for the creaking Armco and a whirling snow devil whispering by. It is one of those moments to feel small.  The pass itself is an ice-free up and down, then we barrel along the smooth, tree-lined Val Gardena road, skirting bizarre, precarious-looking rock formations so tall and so intense that I get dizzy peering up their walls. Winding upward again, we dive swiftly between second and third gears before cresting spectacular Passo Gardena at 2115m where, since the sunset turns peaks into molten lava, a few well-heeled skiers hitch a helicopter ride down the valley before the weather turns.  Even with chains reinstalled, it’s tricky going, the road dipping and diving up to it spins. Approaching one particularly evil left-hander, the naked rear tyres try to overtake the fronts in front of a delicate dose of throttle straightens us out.  Once below the snowline, we veer east again under a freezing, clear sky, the crescent moon peeping between peaks as we home in on the welcoming lights of Cortina. It has been a brilliant drive and, unlike our counterparts from 1964, we have maintained our borrowed Ford largely horizontal and completely undamaged. Mind you, there is one remaining Olympic bobsleigh track wide enough to drive a car down. We just need them to launch the Ford St Moritz. The 1964 Salute to Cortina Champions celebrated more than 200 aggressive wins in 26 countries for the humble Ford Cortina, launched just two decades before. Alongside Jim Clark, the area of 19 drivers included luminaries such as Colin Chapman, John Whitmore, Jack Sears, Vic Elford, Eric Jackson, neighborhood Olympic sledder Lino Zanettin and rate polymath Henry Taylor — a British bobsleigh team captain turned Formula 1 pilot turned Ford works saloon racer.  Their challenge was to navigate a half-mile section of the Cortina d’Ampezzo bobsleigh track used for the 1956 Winter Olympics in a collection of two- and four-door Cortinas. The cars came in road-going GT trim, which meant an uprated, 78bhp version of the 1498cc Kent four-pot with a Cosworth camshaft and a kerb weight of 864kg — though some baited gravity by forcing four-up. As for the results, a Ford insider reported:”It was never designed to be competitive but rather a celebration of the Cortina’s successes. But, it quickly developed into a game between the race and rally drivers, with each side doing much more runs than initially envisaged. The Cortinas were absolutely bog-standard — with the result that the front suspension struts broke through the top mounts”  Competitive spirits thus unsated, a snowball fight broke out, during which Clark slipped a disk in his back, causing him to wear a corset for the following South African Grand Prix (which he won). He really did want that doctor after all. Jim Clark: how Autocar remembered an F1 legend​ Driving Britain’s best streets in a Ford Fiesta ST Ford Fiesta ST review The post Snowball express: Ford Fiesta ST vs. Cortina D'Ampezzo appeared first on Auto Note Buyer - Sell Your Auto Notes For Cash. https://autonotebuyerinc.com/snowball-express-ford-fiesta-st-vs-cortina-dampezzo/

MaiAda & Nick's Published Martin Johnson House Wedding

MaiAda & Nick's Published Martin Johnson House Wedding

Of all the San Diego wedding DJs in the county, Maiada and Nick chose me to DJ and MC their Martin Johnson House wedding on Saturday, August 11, 2018. This wedding was published on Green Wedding Shoes on October 11, 2018 as “Talk About Tropical: Colorful Tiki Bar-Themed Wedding in San Diego.”

  From Green Wedding Shoes

THE LOVE STORY

Since she was a little girl, MaiAda had assumed that, one day, she would get married in Rome and that, after the ceremony, a carriage pulled by white horses would meet her & her new hubby in front of her favorite fountain and carry them away over the cobblestone streets. Nick realized this was a tad impractical, but, on a family trip to Italy for Christmas in 2016, Nick proposed at the fountain in front of the Pantheon on a moonlit January night.

  (c) My Sun and Stars Co

  Together they enjoy brunch, going to Target, bike rides with their dog Fluffy-gans who has his own little bike basket, playing Mario Kart, tattoos, the zoo, watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, complaining about patriarchy, road trips, going to their fave local watering hole–Kindred, downing tiki drinks, going to concerts, remembering their trip to Japan, singing along to Dashboard Confessional, playing nerdy board games, and Nick cooking while MaiAda eats.

  From Green Wedding Shoes

THE MARTIN JOHNSON HOUSE WEDDING RECEPTION

➔  Toasts  ➔  champagne  ➔  “Ladies & gentlemen, may I have your attention please for the toasts. Please welcome our first speaker:

➔  the Maid of Honor, Lily C, & the bride’s Best Man, Davide C

➔  Brother of the Groom & Best Man, Alex T

➔  Father of the Bride, Claudio C

➔  Mother of the Groom, Leslie W

➔  Mother-Son Dance  ➔  No One’s Gonna Love You by Band of Horses   ➔  fade early: yes    ➔  “Nick says, ‘My mom worked her ass off everyday to support me by herself. She sacrificed everything, and I’m super appreciative.’ Let’s welcome Nick & his mother, Leslie, to the dance floor to share a special dance.”

➔  Father-Daughter Dance  ➔  Alla Fiera Dell’Est by Angelo Branduardi  ➔  start at 0:50ish  ➔  fade early: yes  ➔  “Now let’s welcome MaiAda & her father, Claudio, to the dance floor. The song that they chose for this dance is one they used to listen to when MaiAda was a little girl. She says the song represents the Italian culture that her dad helped her connect to.”

➔  First Dance  ➔  I Really Like You – Carly Rae Jepsen

➔  Group Photo on Dance Floor

➔  Open Dancing (estimated – 7:15 pm +/-)

8:00 pm ➔  Bride & groom leave for sunset pics

8:15 pm   ➔  Photographer leaves

9:45 PM  ➔  last call

9:50 PM  ➔  Last Dance

  From The Knot

THE MARTIN JOHNSON HOUSE WEDDING PLAYLIST

For the cocktail hour/dinner playlist at this Martin Johnson House wedding, the bride and groom requested songs from…

Cocktail Music  ➔  Awake – Tycho, Deli – Delorean, Bros – Wolf Alice, VCR – the xx, Bombay  – El Guincho, I’m a Cuckoo – Belle and Sebastian, Shut Up Kiss Me – Ashley Olsen, Soco Amaretto Lime – Brand New, Ma il cielo e sempre piu blu – Rino Gaetano, Wolf Like Me – TV on the Radio, Hallways – Islands, Island in the Sun – Weezer, The Mother We Share – CHVRCHES, The Middle – Jimmy Eat World, REALiTi (Demo) – Grimes, Here Comes The Summer  – The Fiery Furnaces, Lust For Life – Girls, Best To You – Blood Orange, Closer – Tegan & Sara, Per Dimenticare – Zero Assoluto, You! Me! Dancing! – Los Campesinos!, La Loose – Waxahatchee, Los Angeles – St. Vincent, Che fantastica storia e la vita – Antonello Venditti

  From Green Wedding Shoes

  Dinner Music  ➔  First Day of my life – Bright eyes, Feeling Good – Nina Simone, push pull – Purity Ring, La Descrizione Di Un Attimo – Tiromancino, Bloodbuzz Ohio – The National, Pedestrian at best – Courtney Barnett, Challengers – The New Pornographers, Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect – The Decemberists, Mi Fido Di Te – Jovanotti, I Put A Spell on You – Nina Simone, You Send Me – Sam Cooke, Nobody – Mitski, Heart It Races – Dr Dog, Feel Good Inc – Gorillaz, Notte Prima Degli Esami – Antonello Venditti, Bend and Not Break – Dashboard Confessional, In the Aeroplane over the sea – Neutral Milk Hotel, The Gardener – The Tallest Man on Earth, I Will Follow You Into the Dark – Death Cab for Cutie, Per Dimenticare – Zero Assoluto

♥  T H E   D A N C E   M U S I C  ♥

Play A Lot  ➔  Hip Hop/R&B, Alternative/Rock/Metal, Indie Dance Music

Play Some  ➔  90s Pop/Rock/Rap, Trap, Danceable Rap, R&B, early 2000s pop punk, emo & alternative

Play 1 or 2   ➔  Slow Dances (i.e. Miley Cyrus – Adore You, Alicia Keys – No One)

♥  M U S T – P L A Y S  ♥

Beyonce – Crazy in Love, Grimes – Flesh Without Blood, Carly Rae Jepsen – Run Away With Me, Cardi B – I Like it Like That, Charli XCX – Boys, LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk is Playing at My House, Los Campesinos! – Avocado Baby, Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas – Deceptacon, No Doubt – Just A Girl

  (c) My Sun & Stars Co

  ♥  P L A Y   I F   Y O U   C A N   ♥

Yeah Yeah Yeah’s – Y Control, Yeasayer – Rome, ONE, Bruno Mars/Cardi B – Finesse (REMIX), Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee – Despacito (no Justin Beiber), Shakira – Hips Don’t Lie, The Killers – Mr. Brightside, Miley Cyrus – Wrecking Ball, Outkast – Hey Ya, Drake – Started From The Bottom, The Weeknd – Can’t Feel My Face, Sia – Cheap Thrills, Janelle Monae – Tightrope, Q.U.E.E.N., or Do My Thing, Beyonce – Flawless, 7/11, Love on Top, Blink-182 – All the Small Things, Weezer – Buddy Holly, Purity Ring – fineshrine, Missy Elliott – Work It, MGMT – Electric Feel, Passion Pit – Sleepyhead or Little Secrets, Sleigh Bells – Rill Rill, LCD Soundsystem – Drunk Girls, Dance Yrself Clean, !!! – One Girl/One Boy, Lizzo – Good As Hell, Alicia Keys – Girl On Fire, Ariana Grande – Love Me Harder, Destiny’s Child – Bootylicious, Usher – U Got it Bad, Kanye West – All of the Lights, Will Smith – Gettin’ Jiggy With It, M.I.A. – Paper Planes, Justin Timberlake – Suit & Tie, A$AP Rocky – F**ckin’ Problems, Snoop Dogg – Drop it Like it’s Hot / Gin & Juice, Ginuwine – Pony, Ying Yang Twins – Get Low, Nicki Minaj – Super Bass, La Roux – In For the Kill, Kenrick Lamar – King Kunta / DNA, Arcade Fire – Lies, Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains), Pheonix – 1901, Bruce Springsteen – Dancing in the Dark, Modest Mouse – Float On, R Kelly – Ignition (Remix), DJ Snake, Lil Jon – Turn Down for What, Lady GaGa – Just Dance, Bad Romance, STRFKR – Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Santana – Smooth, Chainsmokers – Closer, Amy Winehouse – Valerie, Chromeo – Fancy Footwork, Bonafied Lovin, Justice – D.A.N.C.E., Hot Chip – I Feel Better or Over and Over, Cut Copy – Hearts on Fire or Lights & Music, Gorillaz – DARE, Miike Snow – Genghis Khan, M83 – Midnight City, The Rapture – How Deep is Your Love?, Future Islands, Phantogram – Don’t Move, You Don’t Get Me High Anymore, Spice Girls, Blondie – Heart of Glass, The Weather Girls – It’s Raining Men (Mother of the Groom request), Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’, Hall & Oates – Rich Girl, Maneater,  Sia – Chandelier

  From Green Wedding Shoes

  ♥  D O   N O T   P L A Y   G E N R E S   ♥

60s/70s Old School, Motown, Funk, Disco, Oldies50s + 60s Rock/Pop, Electronic Dance Music, 70s/Classic Rock, Big Band/Rat Pack, Country, Tween music, Old stuff

♥  D O   N O T   P L A Y   S O N G S   ♥

Blurred Lines, Pharell – Happy, WAGON WHEEL, Miike Snow – Animal

♥  D O   N O T   P L A Y   A R T I S T S   ♥

CHRIS BROWN, Ed Sheeran, Elvis, Bruno Mars, Maroon 5, Justin Beiber

Again, I was honored to be the one and only San Diego wedding DJ MaiAda and Nick trusted with their big day. Thank you! See more at #MaiTiesTheTut.

  From Green Wedding Shoes

SAN DIEGO WEDDING VENDOR LIST

Here is the amazing team of San Diego wedding vendors I had the pleasure of working with on this published wedding:

Ceremony Venue ➔  Martin Johnson House

Day-Of Coordinator ➔  Robyn Fallon from Robyn Nicole

Caterer ➔  Giuseppe’s

DJ/MC  ➔  DJ Staci, the Track Star

Photographer (featured image credit)  ➔  My Sun and Stars Co

Officiant  ➔  Joe Thompson 

Cake Bakery ➔  Sweet Cheeks  

Florist ➔  Native Poppy 

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  GIVE IT TO ME BABY

Julius Eastman Died Too Young, But His Brilliant Music Lives On

Before considering a accomplishment of Julius Eastman’s work, I was thinking of how to write about his life story: his remarkable rise to the high levels of the New York downtown avant-garde background in the 1970 s, despite living in the YMCA while at conservatory; his fearless, intersectional effort as a lesbian African American soul in an overwhelmingly grey, privileged, and straight-or-closeted art panorama; and his tragic autumn, culminating in many years of homelessness and an early death in 1990, at the age of 49.

But after watching the first of the performances in a retrospective of Eastman’s work at NYC’s performance art space The Kitchen , now I merely would like to speak about his music–an incandescent, pulsating minimalism reminiscent of Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, and their numerous followers.

This isn’t to separate Eastman’s life from his task, but to employ the work at the center, because that is where it deserves to be.

The two parts I encountered acted,” Joy Boy” and” Femenine ,” date from 1974 — the same time Reich inaugurated writing Music for 18 Musicians, by way of comparison. The first featured ten minutes of syncopated pattern to be provided by violin, flute, trombone, and vocals, its pulsating lilt and wordless vocalization prompting me instantly of Glass’ early jobs, but with more urgency( and technical rigor ).

The second, long long slouse boasted disintegrating arpeggios over a rhythmic minimalist background, ended with a contraption of automated sleigh bells( a 1974 form of a drum machine, I joked to my friend ). It was alternately trancelike, meditative, and frenetic, depending on the moment.

Both were capably performed by a reconfigured form of the S.E.M. ensemble, let by Petr Kotik, who first performed Eastman’s work as far back as 1970, and who collaborated with him throughout that decade.

The names of Eastman’s work are tricky business. Both “Joy Boy” and “Femenine” are out, loud, and proud affirms of sexual/ gender fluidity.

The names of other acts cannot be written in full for the purposes of this report:” N—-r Faggot ,”” Evil N—-r ,”” Crazy N—-r .”

They are, obviously, deliberate provocations and pronouncements; Eastman was not interested in assimilating or “passing.” While such designations might be commonplace today, he use them before identity politics came of age and before the period “intersectionality” was even coined.

And yet, it’s hard to find resonances of those identity markers in the patches themselves. I thought of the fag gendering of “Femenine,” with its masculine carven within the feminine, as the patch droned on( in a good way ).

I could devise associates: the ways in which the African-derived percussion coexisted with the European-derived instrumentation, or the absence of commonly gallant prospers( the trombone’s bangs often seemed anti-heroic, a kind of musical appearance of Jack Halberstam’s book, The Queer Art of Failure ).

But I could be making all that up.

The tension was right there at the time. “Minimalism” was not a word that composers themselves hugged. But as it mixed as a shift, minimalism came to stand for a kind of anti-subjectivity, moving away from the Nostalgic sect of the master and his( almost always his) temperament, and toward less egoic notions of art, master, and audience. Think Donald Judd instead of Jackson Pollack; Laurie Anderson instead of Leonard Bernstein.

Indeed, John Cage, one of Eastman’s prototypes, dismissed Eastman’s work for being” closed in on the subject of homosexuality … he has no other hypothesi to express .” That mention is extravagant, and says more about Cage’s internalized homophobiaCage- was homosexual, but lived in a glass closet, and never addressed sex identity in his work–than anything else.

But Cage’s lecturing removal does point to a real strain in Eastman’s work, between identity and transcendence, record and art.

That tension simply heightens when you review the striking more detailed information on his life story, which, as I have suggested, tend to reign any discussion of him.

Born in upstate New York in 1940, Eastman was education in forte-piano and constitution and rapidly gained acknowledgment in both. He inclined to the’ downtown’ New York avant garde incident in the 1970 s. Gazing over the signs in The Kitchen’s exhibition of Eastman memorabilia, you recognize him among the luminaries of New York’s downtown avant garde: Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, Eric Bogosian, Meredith Monk, Arthur Russell.

Yet all of them went on to successful jobs( Zane succumbed of AIDS in 1988, but Jones has continued their collaborative work until the present era ). Works by Reich, Riley, Glass, and Cage are played regularly at Carnegie Hall. Eastman fought into addiction in the 1980 s, and while some say that his privation was partly voluntary, that seems difficult to square with the precarity of his life and the untimeliness of his death. Much of his music was lost.

The focus on Eastman’s life trajectory likewise runs the risk of exoticization: the black, lesbian wunderkind felled by addiction and racism. One is needed look at the romanticization of Jean-Michel Basquiat, who would’ve been sleeping in Tompkins Square Park at the same time as Eastman.

Basquiat often manipulated his exploiters, playing off their anticipations of the “naive” Afro-Caribbean artist who in fact was anything but naive.( His onetime girlfriend, Madonna, would subsequently do similarly .) Arguably, Eastman was likewise trying to own the narrative of his own marginalization rather than have it prescribed to him by others.

And hitherto, Basquiat likewise contended with addiction, dying at age 27 while a legion of alleged adherents looked on impotently. It’s hard to tease out Basquiat the illusion( two movies and weighing ), Basquiat the creator, and Basquiat the stock( one recent depict sold for $110.5 million ). All are implicated in intolerance, classism, and the fetishization of men of pigment. It is easy to see similar dynamics in accordance with the rules Eastman might be romanticized today.

Perhaps that’s one reason The Kitchen’s exhibition on him is fragmentary , non-linear, and sometimes infuriating; don’t rely on it for a curriculum vitae of Eastman’s life, or a narrative assessment of his job. Perhaps it doesn’t want to contain Eastman in these sorts of narrative frames he fought in his work.

That work, what remains of it regardless, is now Eastman’s legacy.( Farther works are to be performed in New York on Jan. 27 and 28 .)

On the one hand, with its deeds and form, it defies any attempt to whitewash Easton’s overlapping identities and positions in society. On the other hand, unlike pedantic, identity-politics-driven culture( and critical) yield, the vitality of Eastman’s pieces at once transcend and include his account.

You don’t forget who Eastman is in these times. You wreak his selves, together with your own, right into the numinous.

Read more: www.thedailybeast.com

The post Julius Eastman Died Too Young, But His Brilliant Music Lives On appeared first on vitalmindandbody.com.

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Snowball express: Ford Fiesta ST vs. Cortina D'Ampezzo

Cortina d’Ampezzo, in the heart of the Dolomites, hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics When Ford named a car after a Winter Olympics place, nobody envisioned an F1 champion driving it down a bobsleigh run. But that is what happened. We revisit the website 55 years on Former world champion Jim Clark says it is the most exciting game he has ever tackled. But if you have any doubts, he urges”a Cortina, plenty of nerve, and airplane tickets to Italy for you — and your doctor.”  You can read about this audacious (read foolhardy) event at the bottom of this page. Fifty-five years on, we are taking one of Ford’s current stars, the appropriately game Ford Fiesta ST, to revisit the site of the historical madness.  Following a night-time handover at Treviso Airport, our eager little three-door ST lbs up the empty Autostrada before climbing deep into the Dolomites to the chic ski resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo, home of the 1956 Winter Olympics and regional epicentre for la dolce vita. There’s a particular excitement to coming somewhere scenic in the dark, and we bed down in a hotel with all the city’s landmark bell tower in anticipation of what sunrise will reveal.  And rightly so. The next day, drifting wisps of mist can not hide the huge, broken crags of limestone which cradle the Ampezzo Valley, their haywire structures jutting at all angles, barely softened by January’s snow.  At the base of the Tofane range on the north edge of town, we meet Gianfranco Rezzadore, president of Bob Club Cortina and former Italian international bobsleigh driver. Our rendezvous is Bob Bar, a tiny wooden shack and neighborhood hang-out nestled beside the Eugenio Monti bob track’s finish. Founded almost a century ago, the course has been 1700 metres long by the 1956 Winter Games, with 16 turns and a 152m vertical fall. Unchanged by 1964, it was only wide enough to accommodate a Ford Cortina. The track has been shortened, narrowed and artificially refrigerated from 1979 (until then, ice and snow were hand-packed) but closed in 2008. He says bobs used to hit 80mph on track, and that centrifugal forces pushed 4g through his spine on the’Cristallo’ hairpin:”I was taller.” Rezzadore’s sceptical that the Ford Cortinas attained the 50mph-plus maintained from the newsreel, but the risks were quite real. Back then, the huge, banked corners — easily double my height — had no flat safety barriers above them. At times, the cars ran almost vertically along what were walls of death: sleighs have abandoned this route with fatal consequences, including throughout the filming of For Your Eyes Only in 1981.  Turning to look back down, it disturbs me how anyone — let alone a valuable sporting professional — might have driven an unmodified, carburetted family saloon with woolly steering, rear cart springs and 1960s tyre compounds down in the snow. Different times indeed.  This is where group photographs were shot, Clark embellishing his race overalls and iconic two-tone lid with a fetching cable-knit sweater, before the cars took to the icy helter-skelter.  With the straights now barely wide enough for a bobsleigh, we’ll enjoy no such mischief — but we have another plan to receive our alpine thrills while we’re here. You see, Cortina was a haven for racing drivers long before Clark et al arrived. Most famously, the Coppa d’Oro delle Dolomiti road race was based in the town each July for 10 post-war years along a 189- mile mountain route. The thought of period sports cars from Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Maserati and Ferrari thrashing between those peaks is spine-tingling.  Nowadays, regularity rallies are the next best thing, and we are going to trace the very best bit of this WinteRace — an annual, snow-bound classic car rally whose seventh edition kicks off from Cortina this Friday. Its organisers point us towards part of the route that strings together a series of mountain passes to the west. Soon after dawn the next day, we burble out of town onto a smooth, rising back street towards the first summit at Passo di Giau.  We are immediately met with hairpins — lots of them. Between corners, the Fiesta’s 197bhp, 1.5-litre blown triple supplies ample thrust. Such will be the incline, short straights and gearing which I’m mostly riding second, the engine climbing from 2000rpm to 6000rpm and back without complaint nor more than fleeting inductive hesitation. When shifting is required, the short-throw gearbox activity is neat and doesn’t mind being rushed.  I don’t really need the sharpened throttle, heightened mapping and bass-drum overrun of Sport mode, and Regular’s Faster steering feels more natural, so I stick with that. Turn-in is immediate, and while the sub-zero temperature and glistening asphalt stop our Performance Pack-equipped car from grapple-hooking round the corners as it might on a dry British B-road, the Quaife limited-slip differential at least puts paid to any ungainly front-end scrambling — instead, it gently and progressively runs wide until a throttle lift clips us back into line. Body control impresses also — at these moderate speeds, long-wave lumps are tidily parried and roll hardly registers.  But grit soon starts pinging off the underside, and past the treeline hefty snowbanks flank the street and glassy strips of ice leach across it. The banks close in to leave barely a car’s width of blacktop as we nip beyond a vented snowplough that is spewing a suspended white arc down the mountainside. Moments later the road disappears, so it is steady with the throttle to keep momentum, then a little patch of black allows us add sufficient speed to crest the summit.  Around here, it’s compulsory to have winter tyres or chains from November to April. Our car comes with the latter, so 2236m above sea level and with frost-tingled fingers (it is –5deg C), we’re reading how to attach our’Maggi Trak Auto’ snow chains to front tyres. In a pattern that gets swifter as the afternoon progresses, we hook them up and shuffle around to feel them out. From outside, the chains make the merry jangle of Saint Nick’s sleigh, but at the cabin the continuous rumble of graunching snow is underscored by a locomotive clickety-clack. Crucially, however, they supply the purchase the Fiesta should claw itself onwards.  Before pressing on, we take a moment to drink in our location. The pass sits under sky-scraping Monte Nuvolau, and I can see zig-zagging footpaths from the scree that lead climbers into the foot of its perilous vertical faces. On the summit’s far side 339m above us is an eagle’s nest of a wooden hut out of 1883 — after a military appearance, it now welcomes daring climbers.  Our route down is a perfect sequence of hairpins with barely a directly between and, as the snow clears within a few hundred metres, it’s off with the chains and upward with the speed. We carve down the mountain, past the first of countless ski areas and along frozen streams, then barely touch the valley floor and begin rising again. We join a wider road with fast sweepers that the Fiesta gobbles up before the Tarmac starts to writhe again. Subsident lumps and bumps don’t worry the chassis, while broken, frost-fissured stains of Tarmac reveal its company setup, though without undue resonance.  Year-round trench warfare with this terrain defies contemplation. The road flits between clear straights and snowbound corners, so it is on with the chains again, the heavily cambered corners helping press us to the surface as we clamber on up.  It’s blowing a gale as wind funnels through the 2239m summit’s saddle, so we don’t tarry. The snow thins on the descent, so we eliminate the wheel jewellery for another slalom whose switchbacks and kinks do not let up for three complete miles, plunging from windswept mountainside to sheltered forest. Trunk-shaped dents in the Armco denote the enduring timber trade; before the early 1900s tourism boom helped invent this road, wood was rather transported by the area’s numerous ice-blue rivers.  Rising again to Passo Sella (2244m), we pause on a scenic hairpin so photographer Luc Lacey can capture the jagged skyline beyond. There aren’t any other cars, and there isn’t any sound but for the creaking Armco and a whirling snow devil whispering by. It is one of those moments to feel small.  The pass itself is an ice-free up and down, then we barrel along the smooth, tree-lined Val Gardena road, skirting bizarre, precarious-looking rock formations so tall and so intense that I get dizzy peering up their walls. Winding upward again, we dive swiftly between second and third gears before cresting spectacular Passo Gardena at 2115m where, since the sunset turns peaks into molten lava, a few well-heeled skiers hitch a helicopter ride down the valley before the weather turns.  Even with chains reinstalled, it’s tricky going, the road dipping and diving up to it spins. Approaching one particularly evil left-hander, the naked rear tyres try to overtake the fronts in front of a delicate dose of throttle straightens us out.  Once below the snowline, we veer east again under a freezing, clear sky, the crescent moon peeping between peaks as we home in on the welcoming lights of Cortina. It has been a brilliant drive and, unlike our counterparts from 1964, we have maintained our borrowed Ford largely horizontal and completely undamaged. Mind you, there is one remaining Olympic bobsleigh track wide enough to drive a car down. We just need them to launch the Ford St Moritz. The 1964 Salute to Cortina Champions celebrated more than 200 aggressive wins in 26 countries for the humble Ford Cortina, launched just two decades before. Alongside Jim Clark, the area of 19 drivers included luminaries such as Colin Chapman, John Whitmore, Jack Sears, Vic Elford, Eric Jackson, neighborhood Olympic sledder Lino Zanettin and rate polymath Henry Taylor — a British bobsleigh team captain turned Formula 1 pilot turned Ford works saloon racer.  Their challenge was to navigate a half-mile section of the Cortina d’Ampezzo bobsleigh track used for the 1956 Winter Olympics in a collection of two- and four-door Cortinas. The cars came in road-going GT trim, which meant an uprated, 78bhp version of the 1498cc Kent four-pot with a Cosworth camshaft and a kerb weight of 864kg — though some baited gravity by forcing four-up. As for the results, a Ford insider reported:”It was never designed to be competitive but rather a celebration of the Cortina’s successes. But, it quickly developed into a game between the race and rally drivers, with each side doing much more runs than initially envisaged. The Cortinas were absolutely bog-standard — with the result that the front suspension struts broke through the top mounts”  Competitive spirits thus unsated, a snowball fight broke out, during which Clark slipped a disk in his back, causing him to wear a corset for the following South African Grand Prix (which he won). He really did want that doctor after all. 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