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Dave Haldiman

@opposablethumbs.bsky.social

22K followers 23K following 7.4K posts

Must have liberal democracy and progressive policies. Nature is my church. Science, art, humor, Tao, Zen, kindness, acceptance. Ret'd ad producer and motion camera. Here to learn, laugh, meet, interact, care. And to fight the MAGA oligarchy and AI.

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Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · Aug 24

In a land of granite
an acorn finds a fissure
Boulders tumble

(A reminder that big changes often grow from small seeds.)
#Photography #NaturePhotography #Nature #Poetry #Haiku #Mountains #Yosemite #Resist

A black and white photograph of an old, gnarled oak tree growing improbably out of a rugged mountain hillside of massive, weathered and lichen-dotted granite boulders. The thick trunk seems to have moved boulders aside to make room for its growth. Picture was taken on the trail from Yosemite Valley to Vernal Falls.

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Reposted by Dave Haldiman

Michael @mdstamper.bsky.social · 11h

La Virgen Negra” by Alfredo Arreguín (Mexican-American) – Oil on canvas / 2013 – Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (Washington) #WomenInArt #art #artText #artwork #AlfredoArreguín #Arreguín #MexicanAmericanArtist #BlueskyArt #PNWart #ContemporaryArt #ReligiousArt #bskyart #BainbridgeIslandMuseumofArt

At the center of the canvas stands a serene Black Madonna, her rich brown skin softly illuminated against a patterned gold halo. She seems to be in prayer, arms slightly open in quiet welcome, her long robe and mantle dissolving into Arreguín’s signature mosaic of leaves, blossoms, fish, and birds. Hidden within these vivid textures, a slender, spotted wild cat prowls across the lower foreground with its elongated body and curling tail echoing the rhythms of the foliage. The animal’s amber eye catches a glint of divine light, anchoring the Virgin in a living world rather than a celestial one. Every inch of the surface teems with motion: turquoise vines twist into sacred geometry as floral tesserae shimmer like beadwork. The background is a continuous field of repeating organic forms in blues, greens, and golds, with hidden creatures emerging as you look. The Madonna’s presence feels both human and elemental.

Mexican-American artist Alfredo Arreguín’s “La Virgen Negra” fuses Catholic iconography with the artist’s own “pattern painting” style he developed from Mexican folk art and Pacific Northwest ecology. The Black Madonna, venerated across Europe and the Americas, embodies protection, resilience, and inclusion. For Arreguín, she becomes a guardian of an emerald world. By rendering Mary as Black and integrating her into a living mosaic of flora and fauna, Arreguín reframes devotion through cultural memory and biodiversity. The painting’s surface of thousands of small strokes suggests time, prayer, and care as if every motif is a cell in a larger organism.

In 2013, Arreguín was a celebrated elder of Latino art in Seattle, known for portraits (like Frida Kahlo, poets, & community figures) and for transforming memory into pattern. Exhibited in “Alfredo Arreguín—Life Patterns” at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art in 2018, “La Virgen Negra” invites us to find, and be found by, the sacred presence in the forest formed from the land and the people it shelters.

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Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 54m

Jake would plunge head-first into a leaf pile until there was just his hind end and wagging tail, and the sound of his enthusiastic snuffling somewhere in the middle of the pile.

Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 1h

Great choice

Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 3h

Yeah, I agree. I hope it's just a bit more.

Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 3h

I studied Marx and communism in college. He had an intriguing economic philosophy, but it didn't, or couldn't, include a basic sociological/historical truth: Humankind keeps repeating that same basic pattern, over and over.

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Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 4h

That's for sure. It's similar to the sub-prime casino madness of the 2000s, only adding tech companies to the investment banks. This time, if/when there are huge bail-outs, they'll be even less popular than back then.

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Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 4h

Thank you so much!

Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 4h

A bowl made from claro walnut, ten and a half inches end-to-end. Sometimes there's a trade-off when sanding/finishing a hardwood: Finer grit would make the surface smoother but allow less finish (a hard wax oil here) to soak in and show off the grain and colors.
#Woodworking #Retired

A hand-made (not lathe-made) oblong bowl made from gorgeous walnut with naturally-occurring stripes running perpendicular to the straight grain direction. Lots of rounded shapes, with a curving lip going all the way around, above a bulge that curves out and in to the bottom. The inside is carved to follow the same curves. Photo: Dave Haldiman

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Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 4h

It is such a gift to turn fear into happiness.

Reposted by Dave Haldiman

Des @desdelboy.bsky.social · 11h

Painting by Claude Monet Lilas au soleil 1873
Oil on canvas. Size 50 x 65 cm.

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Reposted by Dave Haldiman

bleary @bleary.off-the-records.com · 23h

If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.

Did people really memorize phone numbers before cell phones, or is that just a movie thing?
2? Questions
I was watching some old shows from the 90s and noticed people would just dial numbers from memory - like they'd call their friends or family without looking anything up.
Made me wonder if that was actually normal back then? Did people genuinely have all their important numbers memorized, or did most folks keep a little address book or written list nearby?

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Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 22h

Huh, I didn't know that about Ella. I do remember him from some of those really nice Pablo records.

Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 22h

It kind of looks like she may have had a beloved pet cayman that died when very young and she had it dried.

Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 1d

Nature is spectacular in its infinite beauty.

Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 1d

Did a Hatfield marry a McCoy?

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Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 1d

Two red states super-saturated with guns. So where were the “good guys?”

Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 1d

My piano teacher took to see Aida in Chicago when I was around 11 years old. I remember being shocked when (spoiler alert) she died. All of that singing and drama and stuff, and then she's dead? Ah, the innocence of times gone.

Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 1d

A photo with a cigarette - that's might bold for the time. And what the heck is she holding in her other hand?

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Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 1d

That's with Oscar Peterson, isn't it? One hell of a pianist.

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Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 1d

I'm following The Nerve now. This article has gotten me very interested.

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Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 1d

For years my GP has been trying to lure me over to the green tea side. In a kitchen cabinet there's a bunch of boxes of fruit and floral variations on the stuff I'll sample from time to time. But the roasted bean is still king, and ever shall be.

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Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 1d

". . . many American men would be sterilized."

Well this kinda goes to the rise and continuity of the MAGA movement, doesn't it? Replace "Russia" with liberated women or virile black men or gays or gainful employment taken away by immigrants.

Sardonicus @sardonicus.eu · 2d

Cover of anti-communist propaganda leaflet, USA, 1953

Cover
a huge boot crushing a prone woman

IF Russia SHOULD WIN
If Russia and the Communists should win the next world war, many American men would be sterilized

In case the Communists should conquer, our women would be helpless beneath the boots of the Asiatic Russians

(Posed by Janice Logan in a Paramount fim)

Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 1d

While he's preventing Congress from functioning, Mike's other primary purpose is to serve up daily, steaming piles for the trump faithful to consume. He doesn't seem capable of doing anything else, regardless of whether it's working or not.

Dave Haldiman @opposablethumbs.bsky.social · 1d

Okay, this has got to be John Waters when young acting in a John Waters movie.