Born on this day – Isaac Hayes:

Isaac Hayes

Singer

Actor

Writer

Composer

'Chef' - South Park

August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008

Born on this day – Theresa Saldana:

 

Theresa Saldana

Actress

Activist

Writer

August 20, 1954 – June 6, 2016

Credits:

240-Robert (1979); All My Children (1970–2011); American Playhouse (1983); An Evening at the Improv (1992); Angel Town (1990); Batman Beyond (2001); Buck James (1988); Cagney & Lacey (1985); Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1994); Carlo's Wake (1999); CBS Schoolbreak Special (1987); Confessions of Crime (1991); Defiance (1980); Diagnosis Murder (1997); Double Revenge (1988); Falcon Crest (1988); Gang Warz (2004); Home Movies (1979); Hunter (1987); I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978); Illusion Infinity (1999); Jonny Quest Versus the Cyber Insects (1995); Law & Order (1995); MacGyver (1990); Martial Law (1998); Matlock (1986); New Kids on the Block (1990); Nothing Sacred (1997); Nunzio (1978); Nurse (1981); Of Men and Angels (1989); Raging Bull (1980); Ready to Run (2000); Rocco's Star (1983); Santa Barbara (1987); Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1983); Shameful Secrets (1993); She Woke Up Pregnant (1996); Simon & Simon (1986); Sophia Loren: Her Own Story (1980); T.J. Hooker (1983); Tales from the Darkside (1986); The 23rd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards (2017); The 51st Annual Golden Globe Awards (1994); The Bernie Mac Show (2003); The Chuck Woolery Show (1991); The Commish (1991–1996); The Dennis Miller Show (1992); The Evil That Men Do (1984); The Gangster Chronicles (1981); The Highwayman (1987); The Night Before (1988); The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest (1996–1997); The Twilight Zone / Segment: Dead Woman's Shoes (1985); Thrill Seekers (1999); Victims for Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story (1984); Werewolf (1987).

On this day in music history:

Passionworks by Heart (1983)

Solace by City of Dawn & Sherry Finzer (2021)

Passionworks

Album by Heart,

released August 20, 1983.

Track list: How Can I Refuse; Blue Guitar; Johnny Moon; Sleep Alone; Together Now; Allies; (Beat By) Jealousy; Heavy Heart; Love Mistake; Language of Love; Ambush.

Solace

Album by City of Dawn & Sherry Finzer,

released August 20, 2021.

Track list: Solace; Fireflies; Paradise Fell From Your Eyes; They Turned Into Starry Skies; Calling Through Mountains; Catharsis; Requiem; Elegy; On a Pillow of White Flowers.

World Photography Day - August 19 (quotes & books):

You’re not trying to capture reality. You’re trying to capture a photograph of reality.
– Stanley Kubrick.

Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.
– Dorothea Lange.

Whatever happens in front of the lens stays. What’s captured during the encounter is all that exists.
– Gregory Heisler.

I think photography is a universal language as far as storytelling goes, and I think that’s what it’s most successful at.
– Mary Mattingly.

It’s amazing how photography can capture just a split second of something exquisite.
– Kiera Cass.

Recommended reading:
 

Eye on America

Photographs by Michael Ruetz.

Introduction by William Least Heat Moon.

New York Graphic Society book.

Published by Little, Brown and Company.
Published 1984.
Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0821215736

Description:
85 color illustrations, including 7 panoramic foldouts.

“America,” writes William Least Heat Moon in his introduction, “is yet a place to test a vision or to find a vision of whatever kind.”

Eye on America is the stunning embodiment of one such vision – a celebration of this nation’s unsurpassed beauty, its contrasts and ironies. Michael Ruetz, highly regarded in Europe for his photojournalism and photographic books, spent two years on a solitary odyssey, traversing the United States. From Pemaquid, Maine, to the volcanic slopes of Maui, he captured the scope and grandeur of the country for this collection of images, which includes seven panoramic foldouts.

Eye on America stands well apart from the run of photographic books, not only because of Ruetz’s superb technique, but because of the unusual camera he uses. This Technorama camera is capable of encompassing hundred-degree views without distortion. In Eye on America, cities – Boston, New York, Atlanta, Saint Louis, and Houston among them – unfold in sweeps of skyline. Juztaposed with these glowing human monuments are expanses yet untamed – the Grand Canyon, Bruce Canyon, the Oregon coast, Point Lobos, and Death Valley. Through subltle and striking light effects, Ruetz transforms the familiar into visions at once mysterious and new. As William Least Heat Moon comments:

“Michael Ruetz almost creates this beauty within the camera; he catches a casting of light, or he backs away from his subject until the breadth of view minimizes specifics and turns even the jarring details of a city into concordance. With the particular softened, the universal comes forward, and with it, Ruetz hopes, the timeless.”

 

A Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005

by Annie Leibovitz.

Published by Random House Trade Paperbacks.
Published 2009.
Paperback.

ISBN-10: 081297963X
ISBN-13: 978-0812979633

Description:

“Annie Leibovitz’s photographic memoir of the past fifteen years in her life captures powerful, intimate moments…. She juxtaposes the most personal against the full-color flash of celebrities and the grandeur of the natural landscape against the bloody horror of war. A Photographer’s Life is a testament to a life lived large – and in full embrace.” – More magazine.

“Her fans may be astonished both by the range of the work and the unstudied, everyday quality of some of the images–a family day at the beach, a newborn in the delivery room.” – Newsweek.

“A revelation.” – Boston Sunday Globe.

“Startling.” – Washington Post.
 

Time Frames: City Pictures

by Michael Spano.

Photography by Michael Spano.

Introduction by Susan Kismaric.

Published by powerHouse Books.
Published 2002.
First Edition.
Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 1576871401
ISBN-13: 978-1576871409

Description:

Time Frames, Michael Spano’s long-awaited first monograph, is an exploration of spatial and temporal dimensions in photography framed by the backdrop of New York City. Divided into five chapters, each employing a distinctive technical process. Time Frames showcase a wonderful, typically disjointed way of looking at life in New York City. Panoramas captures interacting urbanites moving through elongated frames as the lens of an extremely wide field camera pans during exposure. Grids captures eight moments on a single negative as Spano moves through a sequence of events, pre-determinedly exposing one small portion of the negative every four seconds. Portraits focuses on individual inhabitants transformed from their settings through the solarization and blurring of forms into atmospheric otherworlds. Multi-Exposures matches solarizations with multiple perspectives. These single-negative layered compositions arrange and compress selected intervals of time and space into one image. Diptychs fuses two distinct moments onto one negative, in which the scale, focal planes, and perspectives shift and ultimately compose a dual image of urban spaces.

 

The Here and Now: The Photography of Sam Jones

by Sam Jones.

Published by It Books.
Published 2007.
Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0061348120
ISBN-13: 978-0061348129

Description:

“Sam Jones has a unique ability in this age of insane celebrity idolatry to humanize these people who often seem entirely estranged from the world the rest of us live in. This book is about celebrity, yes, but its also about one artist’s ability to use fame to create something uniquely delightful.” – David Granger, Editor in Chief, Esquire, from the Foreward.

 

Portraits

by John Hedgecoe.

Published by Collins & Brown.
Published 2000.
First Edition.
Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 185585726X
ISBN-13: 978-1855857261

Description:

For the past four decades John Hedgecoe has been taking pictures of the leading figures in the worlds of art, literature, science and politics – from Winston Churchill to Mary Quant. His technical skill and unerring ability to capture the essence of the sitter in a single frame have brought him tremendous critical acclaim.

This comprehensive portfolio brings together an impressive collection of John Hedgecoe’s portraits, featuring an eclectic mix of personalities from all avenues of life. These masterful photographs reflect his wide-ranging career, from the early days on Queen magazine to his years as Professor of Photography at the Royal College of Art in London.

Accompanied by short anecdotes that offer an entertaining insight into the special relationship that exists between the photographer and his subject, Portraits is a revealing portfolio and an illuminating read.

Lisa Gardner, on reading:

I still read romance, and I read suspense. I read them both. And part of it is, I like stories with strong characters, and I like stories where there's closure at the end. And I like stories where there's hope. That's a kind of empowerment. I think romance novels are very empowering, and I think suspense novels are, too.
- Lisa Gardner.

Recommended reading - American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America (2012)

American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America

by Michelle Obama.

 

Published by Crown.

1st edition.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0307956024

ISBN-13: 978-0307956026

 

Description:

The former First Lady, author of Becoming, and producer and star of Waffles + Mochi tells the inspirational story of the White House Kitchen Garden and how gardens can transform our lives and the health of our communities.

Early in her tenure as First Lady, despite being a novice gardener, Michelle Obama planted a kitchen garden on the White House’s South Lawn. To her delight, she watched as fresh vegetables, fruit, and herbs sprouted from the ground. Soon the White House Kitchen Garden inspired a new conversation all across the country about the food we feed our families and the impact it has on the nutrition and well-being of our children.

In American Grown, Mrs. Obama invites you inside the White House Kitchen Garden, from the first planting to the satisfaction of the seasonal harvest. She reveals her early worries and struggles – would the new plants even grow? – and her joy as lettuce, corn, tomatoes, collards and kale, sweet potatoes and rhubarb flourished in the freshly tilled soil. She shares the stories of other gardens that have moved and inspired her on her journey across the nation. And she offers what she learned about planting your own backyard, school, or community garden.

American Grown features:

• A behind-the-scenes look at every season of the garden’s growth.
• Unique recipes created by White House chefs.
• Striking original photographs that bring the White House Garden to life.
• A fascinating history of community gardens in the United States.

From a modern-day vegetable truck that brings fresh produce to underserved communities in Chicago, to Houston office workers who make the sidewalk bloom, to a New York City school that created a scented garden for the visually impaired, to a garden in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, that devotes its entire harvest to those less fortunate, American Grown isn’t just the story of a single garden. It’s a celebration of the bounty of our nation and a reminder of what we can all grow together.

Born on this day and recommended reading – Ogden Nash:

 

Ogden Nash

Writer

August 19, 1902 – May 19, 1971

Credits:

Poems:

A caution to everybody; A Drink With Something In It; A Tale Of The Thirteenth Floor; A Word to Husbands; Adventures of Isabel; Always marry an April girl; Bankers Are Just Like Anybody Else, Except Richer; Biological Reflection; Celery; Children's Party; Common cold; Crossing the border; Family Court; Good-by Now Or Pardon My Gauntlet; Hard lines; I Didn't Go To Church Today; I'm a Stranger Here Myself; Lather As You Go; Ogden Nash's Zoo; Reflection On Babies; The Baby; The Octopus; The People Upstairs; The Tale of Custard the Dragon.

Books:

Bed Riddance (1969); Candy Is Dandy (1994); Carnival of animals (1950); Collected Verse from 1929 (1972); Custard and Company (1980); Custard the Dragon and the Wicked Knight (1999); Everyone but Thee and Me (1962); Good Intentions (1942); Hard Lines. Simon and Schuster (1931); I'm a Stranger Here Myself (1938 / 1994); Many Long Years Ago (1945); Marriage Lines. Boston (1964); Ogden Nash's Zoo (1986); Pocket Book of Ogden Nash (1990); Private Dining Room (1952); Selected Poetry of Ogden Nash (1995); The Face Is Familiar: The Selected Verse of Ogden Nash (1941); The Moon Is Shining Bright As Day (1953); The Old Dog Barks Backwards (1972); The Tale of Custard the Dragon (1998); There's Always Another Windmill (1968); Versus (1949); You Can't Get There from Here (1957).

Movies and television:

American Masters (2005); Art Carney Meets Peter and the Wolf (1958); Baby Einstein: Baby Shakespeare World of Poetry (1999); Body Electric (2002); Boston Pops in Hollywood (1976); Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals (1976); But Seriously, It's Sheila Hancock (1972); Carnival of the Animals (1984); Columbo (1975); Fellow Travelers (2023); Foodie Love (2019); General Electric Guest House (1951); Hold That Kiss (1938); Johnny Carson Presents the Sun City Scandals '72 (1972); Man of the Year (1953); Masquerade Party (1953–1956); Omnibus / Segment: The Twelve Days of Christmas (1956); One Touch of Venus (1948 / 1955); Phoenix (2014); Pisem, pisem stihove... (1974); Poezija Ogdena Nesa (1970); PogieJoe (2013); The 36th Annual Tony Awards (1982); The Arlene Francis Show (1957); The David Frost Show (1970–1971); The Dick Cavett Show (1968); The Eamonn Andrews Show (1964); The Ed Sullivan Show (1953); The Feminine Touch (1941); The Firefly (1937); The Shining Hour (1938); The Strange Case of Mr. Donnybrook's Boredom (1982); The Tale of Custard the Dragon (1965); The Tonight Show (1956); The Tonight Show Starring Jack Paar (1959); The Wizard of Oz (1939); Today (1964); Who Said That? (1949).

Recommended reading - The Best of Ogden Nash

The Best of Ogden Nash
548 Favorite Poems from America's laureate of light verse

Edited by Linell Nash Smith.

Published by Ivan R. Dee.
Published 2007.

ASIN: 1566637031
ISBN-10: 9781566637039
ISBN-13: 978-1566637039
Hardcover.

Description:
An outstanding, rare collection of works essential for any definitive poetry library. – Midwest Book Review.

It's been more than thirty years since the appearance of a collection from America's laureate of light verse. Ogden Nash first gathered together an anthology of thirty years of his published works in 1959. In 1973 his daughters gathered more than four hundred of his poems and called it I Wouldn't Have Missed It, a quote from one of his verses. Now more poems have come to light, so his daughters have once again produced The Best of Ogden Nash, the definitive Nash anthology. The poems display the talent of the man whose verse entranced America from the time of the Great Depression until his death in 1971. The Best of Ogden Nash should delight old fans and introduce new readers to a unique talent.