Significant Grandness

Yesterday John and Marie and I made a pilgrimage to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. None of us had never been there before, so we felt a proper day of homage was necessary. It began with a stop at Cameron Trading Post north of Flagstaff on Highway 89, based on a tip John had gotten in Utah. I have seen quite a few native arts stores but this one (I have to admit) was the best I have ever seen. To think that I have passed it by well onto fifty times in my travels hither and yon, thinking it was just a tourist trap/gas station. WOW! Great stuff to see (museum quality) and buy. It's now on the 'must stop' list. Above is a sketch of John driving up there and Marie in the other front seat.

Arrive at the East Entrance of the Park and we're a bit let down. Very few overlooks and the rim road is hemmed in on both side by dense pinon pine forest. (Is this Maine or Arizona?) No views! Except at overlooks overrun with German and Japanese tourists. Then --- gosh. We stopped at Desert View overlook, the one with the faux Watchtower, and we could clearly see the Colorado below. I felt a peculiar tightness in my chest -- which was (I decided) a remnant or a memory of the fear and anticipation from thirty years ago --> when we assembled outside of Page, on the shoreline of the river, at Lee's Ferry just above Marble Canyon, and got ready to launch the 2nd River Trip. Sanderson River Expeditions. Back in the 70's, a million years ago, but the sensations were vivid.

In any event, I sketched the view of the green-watered river from that overlook:
And wrote a bit about what I was feeling/reliving. It was exciting, the remembering, And presto --> all the yammering tourists disappeared.

We three had a nice picnic (sort of, given the bee the size of a hat that was hanging around and the fact that the picnic table was so tilted on the slope that no bottle on it could stay upright --- the future 'Legend of How the the Picnic Table got to the bottom of the Grand Canyon') and then went on to a few other overlooks, To jostle other tourists. ("Entschuldigung." "Vielen dank!")

But then finally got to the El Tover Hotel overlook area at about 4pm. Hey, wait!! LOVELY!!! And few folks there! I am going back on Wednesday to spend the night there (don't even ask how much the rooms cost) and to sketch again. Below is my fav of what I sketched from that walk area yesterday and what follows it is a quote (to go with it -- to engender suitable humility) from the current show at the Museum of Northern Arizona entitled 'Grand Canyon Grandeur':
"I struggle in mad haste to utilize the moment but ah! How futile! How hopeless! What a wretched makeshift these paltry pigments! How hopeless to attempt. What inconceivable impudence to dream of imitating anything so ineffable! It challenges man’s utmost skills. It mocks and defies his puny efforts to grasp and perpetuate, through art, its ineffable grandeurs." William Robinson Leigh at the Grand Canyon, 1929.

Arch at Arches

Relaxing in and around Moab with my friends Marie and John. (It has been quite a pleasure showing my dear friends all my favorite spots hereabouts.) I sketched this view of South Window in Arches while they hiked up into it. I thought that I ought to add a vibrant blue sky to it, especially inside the arch. But decided not to. It's my favorite thing that I've sketched so far. Off tomorrow at the crack o' dawn for Sedona and the drawing class.

Colorado Plateau Week One

Day 1: end at 726.8 mi. on the trip odometer, ending in IN (the first 0.1 of which, I noticed, was getting out of the Irene parking garage)
Day 2: end at 1,165.1 mi. ending in KS
Day 3: end at 1,795.3 mi. ending in drab Dillon, CO
Day 4: finally off the interstate at 2,033.6 mi. in UT ← hip hip hooray!!!
All is well here in Moab. I am busy getting reacquainted with all the spectacular scenery and coffee shops. Love it here!


Trip Notes

Q: Was that really the carcass of a bear in the median of the Slot Car Track section of I-70 west of Denver through the gut of the mountains? Couldn’t have been! But there were indeed three different herds of big horn sheep grazing along the shoulders of the highway. They looked pretty ratty, ragged winter coats partly shedded and partly hanging on in tufts. To think that in most places you need a telescope to see big horn sheep where they (literally) hang out on remote mountain cliffs. In CO you just pass them on the left.

Coldest Moment: Vail Pass, where it was 28 degrees.

Wind Farms: I’m sorry but I find these "farms" beautiful. Passed one in west-central KS that is called the Smoky Hills Wind Project. Its two phases will encompass 26,000 acres and hundreds of wind turbines. I passed sections of the shiny smooth, bright white poles (pylons? towers?) being hauled on semis on the highway the day before and wondered just what they were. They were so pristine and perfect. I couldn’t imagine. And when I saw the wind farm, I realized what I had seen. The blades are most graceful in shape as well. The full spread of the three blades is about 270 feet. Spectacular to see hundreds of these things across a low ridge with no other landforms in note anywhere in site. They were visible from about 30 miles away. Lovely! Works of art! I rarely thank engineers for anything, but I make an exception with this grouping of objects.

Microbrew at Elevation: Note to self→ at 9,100 feet above sea level beer must be consumed very slowly.

Home made pigment: I have decided to collect various kinds of red rock soil around here and see if I can make watercolor pigment out of it. I have studied my geology and am ready! (But dang, I forgot my mortar and pestle!)

The image above I took yesterday afternoon of a big bend in the Colorado River, seen from the overlook at Dead Horse Point State Park. I shared the overlook area with an entire busload of French people. (Hey, aren't French people supposed to be the best dressed people on the planet? I guess not so much when they are on vacation. Je suis désolé, mal habillés dame, mais il ya une file d'attente ici.)

Warriors among the Rhodies

Yesterday was a beautiful day that I spent roaming around town, with my particular sights set on the newly-re-opened museum at Dumbarton Oaks. Whoopee! What a GREAT space! There are dark and intimate rooms with textiles, a stark white museumy room with Byzantine pieces, an indoor columned court with ancient sculpture set against blood-red walls, a turn of the last century Music Room with ornate ceiling, a hallway where you are walking on an actual ancient mosaic floor (ouch!) and finally my favorite by far --> the Philip Johnson Pavilion, a cluster of "rooms" that so spectacularly displays the pre-Columbian material. Holy cow!

Per the Post: "It consists of eight circular spaces with floor-to-ceiling glass windows, arranged in a circle around a fountain; light floods the space, which particularly flatters the gold artifacts. And the gardens surround you on all sides."


Exactly! You can hear and smell the ancient cities of Copan and Tenochtitlan right now, right there amid the blooming rhodedendrons in upper NW. The space is very finely done and is now one of my new favorite places in Washington. I look forward to visiting it in all seasons, to see and feel how it changes with the changing light and colors. (My interior sketch is above.)

At the very top is my sketch of a "Wari" mirror from the 'Huari culture' of Peru, from 650 to 1,000 CE*. The square mirror back part is about 6"x"6 and made mostly of Mother of Pearl but also turquoise, other colorful stones, and purply-pink Spondylus shell, all inlaid in a very intricate pattern. It was very lush. And very nifty. (And I finally found a use for these very skanky iridescent watercolor paint samples from DSmith: painting the Mother of Pearl parts on the mirror!)

*[The dating system that is used throughout the museum is the fairly new and politically correct 'CE' system. "CE stands for "Common Era." It is a relatively new term that is experiencing increased usage and is expected to eventually replace AD. The latter is an abbreviation for "Anno Domini" in Latin or "the year of the Lord" in English." The other side of that particular coin being BCE, "Before the Common Era", naturally.]

Fury for Nought

Here is gent in Metro. I think I am beginning to understand how to slightly exaggerate some aspects to get closer to 'character'. At least 'character' as I see it. He was a little rumpled and a little resigned to his fate, yet he had a "little black book" in his shirt pocket.

For me, the mental and physical exhaustion from the brutally abrupt end of the hockey season is just beginning to wear off. Despite all that, I was chipper yesterday in my colorful garb -- no black mourning duds for me!

It's a Miracle

Savoring the Historic Week That Was from OFB

18th World Wide SketchCrawl

The 18th World Wide SketchCrawl was yesterday, Saturday, March 29th 2008. I had put out a note a month ago in that forum, that I was going to meet whomever wanted to join me at 11am in the Mitsitam Café inside the National Museum of the American Indian. About 125 folks looked at the note but no one replied that they were planning on coming.

So tomorrow morning, given all the action downtown, I was not rushing. There was the Smithsonian Kite Festival, Opening Day of the Cherry Blossom Festival (with the blossoms at their peak this weekend), the National Marathon, and the Circus at the arena. Whew! Needless to say public transportation was at a strain point. It took me an hour and a half to get to the Museum and (as I suspected) no one joined me for sketching. So I just relaxed and enjoyed myself.

First with an excellent breast of duck and root veggies lunch at the Mitsitam Café. That place is great. Luckily I did arrive at about 11:30am, and so had no trouble getting in and getting my lunch. I sketched a few fellow diners. Then saw the tear-jerker of a movie in the Lelawi Theater, sketched some items in the exhibits, and then went out and sketched the kite-flyers on the Mall. It was a lovely day and everyone everywhere was having an equally great day, judging by all the smiles, the laughter. Good day! More of my sketches are here. Not a great body of work, but I had a fine time!

Who's old? Not me!

A thoughtful but hunched-over fellow Metro commuter. Along with some detail from a handy crape myrtle.

I enjoyed my visit to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore the other day, to see their Maps: Finding Our Place in the World exhibition. Maps of all kinds are a treat for me, both to see and study and to make. You can both learn (know) and claim a space, if you map it. My favorite "map" from the Walters' shows was from the Mapping the Cosmos section. It was the photograph of the 'Hubble Ultra Deep Field'. It was about 4'x'4' and I stood very close to it. The distance and the time that you can see into are beyond imagination. But it is very comforting to look at that image and to be absolutely sure that we are not alone.

The Walters itself is a museum to be proud of. The coolest room by far is their Chamber of Wonders, which is so chock full of cool stuff, all jumbled up, you could spend the whole day there. Just my cup of tea. They also have what I believe is the most extensive local collection of art of the ancient Americas (since Dumbarton Oaks' Pre-Columbian Wing is still closed for renovation), which was also a treat to see and study.

One Wary, One Bored

I got these two ladies in Metro the other day. The lady on the left was up against the window and wary, eyes darting, even though there wasn't much of a crowd at all. (She is done with my new Le Pen pen in the color "brown", washed with the Pentel Waterbrush. The "brown" Le Pen washes into a nifty burgundy-brown. Very nice!)

The lady on the right was in the middle of the seat behind. Fat, bored, and disdainful. (She is done with Private Reserve 'Velvet Black' ink, in the Lamy Vista fountain pen, also washed with the Pentel waterbrush.)

I have been reading quite a bit about the solarplate printing. It has allure because you can use photos and images from Photoshop. It's worrisome because it sounds very complicated. Must read more and maybe find someone locally who is adept. Watch them!

Relief Printing: My Book List

Here are the how-to books on the topic of relief printing that I found most useful.

• Relief Printing, by Anne Westley (2005). Part of the British set entitled Printmaking Handbook Series, "aimed at the student or the practised [sic] printmaker who is experimenting in a new area".
• Relief Printmaking: A Manual of Techniques, by Colin Walkin (1997). Another British publication. Many illustrations, but none in color, which is shame.
• The Complete Manual of Relief Printmaking, by Katie Clemson and Rosemary Simmons (1988). This is an excellent book and I recommend it highly. It's my favorite of these three.
  

Other useful books

• Printmaking for Beginners, by Jane Stobart (2005) has a chapter on relief printing.
• Handmade Prints: An Introduction to Creative Printmaking Without A Press, by A. Desmet and J. Anderson (2000) has a number of chapters on various kinds of relief printmaking techniques.
• The Complete Printmaker: Techniques/Traditions/Innovations, by J. Ross et al. (1990) has a whole 50+ page section on relief printmaking.
• The Woodcut Artist's Handbook: Techniques and Tools for Relief Printmaking, by G. A. Walker (2005) is also very good.
• Hand of a Craftsman: The Woodcut Technique of Gustave Baumann, by David Acton (1996) is an exquisite book.
  
  

Carborundum Experimentation

I tried a few carborundum plates here this weekend. Notes:

• Plate material: The 2mm thick clear plastic sheet worked well. Scrubbing with kitchen cleanser gave it good tooth, so the glue had a good surface with which to bond. I also wiped it with rubbing alcohol before I put down the glue lines. And since these plates were transparent, I traced drawings from my sketchbooks! (The lady below was on a plastic plate. Overall dimensions of the print are 7-1/2" x 11". She is one of the faces in this composite.)
  
  Regular drafting mylar worked well too, except the large carborundum areas cracked and started to peel up after a few pulls, and had to be re-glued. I believe that the mylar can be a bit too flexible for this process. But with care it can work just fine too. (The peaked hat gent above was on the mylar plate. Overall dimensions of this print are about 5" x 7".)
  

• Glue: I used Titebond "Original Wood Glue" full strength, laid down with a bamboo pen. It worked very well.
  
  I made one plate with glue diluted with a bit of water, in an attempt to get finer lines, but this mix didn't stick to the plate at all. Lesson: Don't dilute!
  

• Carborundum: I used the #180 size grit. I let the glue/carborundum areas dry overnight.
  

• Sealing: The next day I used the spray can version of Polycrylic Protective Finish Clear Satin, by Minwax to seal the carborundum on the plate. And I believe that I put too much on. The carborundum lost some "tooth". The carborundum areas didn't feel at all vulnerable -- stuff was not coming off -- before that seal coat and I think just a very thin coat of this would serve fine.

• Ink: I tried DSmith Water Soluble Relief Ink, Faust Aqualine Ink, and Akua Intaglio Ink and I like the last the best.
  
  
• Paper: The paper was Rives BFK Heavyweight Paper in the color 'Tan', which I don't particularly like, but what the heck. These were experiments! I think that regular weight paper would have taken the embossing better and I will try that next time.
  
  
• Press: I used the little Blick Econo Etch Model II, cranked down pretty tightly.
  
  

Zig Zag Often

This past weekend was yet another printmaking workshop, this time Linoleum Cuts, back at the Art League at the Torpedo Factory with Penny Barringer. It was a good group and I enjoyed watching my colleagues' work develop. I played around with various textures. The lino that was sold by the Art League Supply Store at the Torpedo Factory was very rubbery and took scratched and gouged lines well, almost like a drypoint line with the burrs. We used various pointy tools to scar 'em up. I enjoyed that. I also tried cutting that soft rubbery lino up and printing the pieces as islands, among various other textures. Nothing that I did especially moved me during the course of the weekend, but it was all fun.

The background for the above piece was printed on the etching press with a piece of crumpled tin foil, inked with black and yellow, centered in a mylar sheet with the rectangle cut out of it. Then I printed the Zig zag often lino block on top. I enjoy working with words and am going to try 'Zig zag often' again. Maybe with a more evocative and ziggidy ground. Although the foil crumples work well too.

The Masa Dosa paper that I got from McClain's continues to be my favorite paper. It almost glows with 'whiteness'. It is lovely blank! I am going to order more.

Carborundum Printmaking

I took a Collagraph/Carborundum Printing workshop at Pyramid Atlantic this past weekend, from Charles Cohan, and enjoyed it very much. I also learned a great deal about the processes that are involved. I made this print from a sketch of an old Jowly Gent that I made on the Metro. It was blown up, transfered to a screen and then the screen was used to print wood glue on a Masonite board. The wet glue was sprinkled with carborundum and left to set up a moment. The excess was tapped off and the plate dried overnight. Once sealed, it was inked, wiped and printed intaglio style on an etching press on dampened paper. It was great fun and I really like the fuzzy edges. (It reminded me of the line in Max's Monoprint.)

Each print above is on 11" x 15" paper. The one on the left is the first pull. The one on the right is the ghost. The ghost is printed without re-inking. It uses just what ink is left on the plate from the first printing. I like them both!

I also had a fine time rummaging around in the drawers full of handmade paper that is for sale at Pyramid Atlantic. They have a thriving papermaking program there and some of the paper was lovely. I plan on printing on it this weekend in my Lino Class at the Art League.

Mid-Morning Metro Humorlessness

It can't all be this grim and dour, can it? Maybe they all start to look how I feel? No! It was a nice day today. (If you'd like, click on the image to see a larger version of it.) The blue stain on the right is where I am experimenting with ink colors in my Pentel Waterbrush. That was Dr. Ph. Martin's Hydrus Fine Art Watercolor in Ultramarine, diluted. I have now settled on a diluted version of Noodler's Walnut. Very warm and cozy. Which I like better.

David in the Cast Hall

I attended a weekend drawing workshop at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and enjoyed the day spent in the historic Cast Hall most of all. It's a remarkable warren of lofty rooms in the back of the adjacent Museum. In it are dozens and dozens of dusty life-sized reproductions of sculpture from all eras in Western art. I especially loved the look of a massive David looming over the top of a what? Yes, a blackboard! Delightful! I felt the ghosts of students past, all intense and devoted and serious, bent double over their drawing boards. Scratching away with their slender sticks of "vine charcoal".

The class itself was very much about how to do faithful and meticulous reproductions of whatever was in front of you. Valuable skill! Priceless ability! To be diligently sought after! Nonetheless, I liked the quick sketches that I did much better. Is this laziness on my part?
I just liked him best. Just for scale, this is an 18" x 24" sketchbook. Much beyond my regular sketchbook size. But fun!

Magenta Man

I attended a meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association this weekend, in London Town (which is just south of Annapolis). Just to see what they were all about. They are all about oil painting. Oh well. But the demonstrations and panel discussions were interesting and the people were very nice. I added my name to the e-mail list for periodic "paint out" field trips in the DC area. Maybe I can sneak in among them with just my sketching paraphernalia. Maybe camouflage it in a jazzy pochade box. Maybe pretend with my watercolors or gouache.

Above is a Metro sketch done on a piece of paper that I had splotched months ago with a watercolor monotype, very abstract. I liked the colors so I cut the paper to size and bound it in my everyday sketchbook. The man looked very solemn and abstracted. So it's a fit!

Motto-of-the-Day: Incorporate indeterminacy.

Monoprint from Max

This is an experiment using a few original images made by my very good friend Max Hesser, age four and a half. I copied Max's drawings onto plexiglass with an engraving point on a Dremel. Then I printed that drypoint image on top of a monoprint. (I got the idea for this image from the demo in the Akua DVD entitled Safer Printmaking with Akua Water-Based Inks.)

Lessons learned: Getting a suitable under-image monoprint is difficult. I experimented with different mixtures and thicknesses of the inks, but was satisfied (well sort of) with only the version above. I was also surprised at how quickly the drypoint image lost it's wonderful mooshy and furry line. Just a few "pulls"! Must plan ahead better in the future!

I love my new little press! There are so many possibilities it's tough to decide what to try next. I really like the look of the drypoint line, however, and will continue to experiment with that.

'Rare Capitol Blizzard'

WHEW!!! I finally finished the printing for the Print Exchange Project that I volunteered for. It was hard work! I did over thirty prints, 'cause ya never know! The most difficult part was deciding on an image that I wouldn't be embarrassed to share. This was not my first try; not by a long shot! Once I started to receive some of the other participants' prints I realized that the bar was very high indeed.

Below are the three different plates that I used for this print.
Plate #1, on the left, is the sky. It's two pieces of soft wood from a dis-assembled Clementine box from Spain, which I abraded with a wire brush to bring out the grain. I glued the thin planks onto the back of an old block, so as to raise it to, more or less, the same height as the key block. Then I drilled some holes in it, for the blizzard snow flakes. I printed this in a very light gray, which was a mixture: of one dot of DSmith Lamp Black, a lot of Titanium White, and some Transparent Medium.

Plate #2, in the middle, are the shadows on the dome. This plate is made from Scratch-Foam, also mounted on an old block. I had to mask this one carefully for every pull. Yuck. This was printed in a darker gray, which was: two dots of Lamp Black, a lot of the Titanium White, and some Transparent Medium.

Plate #3 is the Key Block! It's the building detail. This is done on a mounted lino plate from McClain's. I printed this with two parts DSmith Lamp Black mixed with one part Transparent Medium.

I used DSmith Water Soluble Relief Ink for the whole project. I printed on Magnani Pescia Paper, plain bright white. I used the 'Andrew System' of registration and was delighted with it, pending a few small tweaks. I hand burnished using a soft Speedball baren, after masking strategic areas of each plate.

All in all, I am happy with the outcome. And not ashamed to send a copy to each of the other participants. Now I just have to wait until they all dry. I might be waiting until Valentine's Day!

Etch a Bungalow

This monoprint is the one of the results of my Jumpstart in Printmaking workshop last weekend, with Penny Barringer. Relief printing is my favorite of the many techniques. But after that I enjoyed the intaglio(1) techniques etching and aquatint. I was happy with this etched bungalow. The idea of combining intaglio with monotype techniques has interesting possibilities. And easily applied to relief plates as well.

Alas, the downside is that you need a press to do intaglio work, since the process requires that the damp paper be forced down into the incised lines (or etched areas) in order to pick up the ink. Hand rubbing lacks sufficient power.

The most mysterious technique that Penny showed us was lithography. The process is remarkably complex and the result isn't all that 'printy'. For me there is not enough of a payoff for all the trouble involved. Oh well. I'm a naive printmaker for sure.

Next stop: A lino workshop with Penny in March.

More on printing techniques: MOMA!

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(1) Intaglio, n. (From the Italian intagliare to cut in, engrave.) The process or art of carving or engraving in a hard material; incised carving as opposed to carving in relief; the condition or fact of being incised. Chiefly in phrase in intaglio, as opposed to in rilievo or in relief.

Mola Reduction Lino Print

Here is my attempt at a multi-color reduction linoleum block print, about 8" x 10" which I am calling 'Mola Reduction'. It is a run of sixteen, each one slightly different. So I guess technically it's a "monoprint".

I used elbow grease and a baren (and sometimes also a wooden spoon) to print them. It was a heck of a lot of work but I learned quite a bit about the technical side of the operation. Particularly about inks! (I printed the last color about forty eight hours ago and it's still tacky.) Those pesky inks! It was impossible for me to mix the exact colors that I wanted. More practice!

Bottles on Blue

Here is one of my monoprints from this weekend's class with Penny Barringer at Discover Graphics Atelier at the Art League. Cool stuff!!! This one is done using the viscosity method of creating monotypes. I liked the process and I enjoyed the results. We also tried watercolor transfer, chine colle (my least favorite -- I just don't "get" collage, I guess), the reduction method, and the "ala poupee" method of applying the inks. Ala poupee is basically fingerpainting on the plate, a thing that is great fun. (My fingernails will never be clean again!)

But the viscosity method was my favorite. I'm not sure why. I think it was the way the differently inked areas looked when printed. Very lush and luxuriant next to very flat and pure. I am going to experiment to see if I can create viscosity-like results with the water-based inks. According to the information on the Akua website, it is possible. We'll see.

Black Trousers

This is a very quick study of Mr. Black Trousers on Metro. I am experimenting with Noodler's Red/Black ink and comparing it to my favorite Noodler's Nightshade. Here the pants+shoes are enhanced with the good old reliable black washy Pilot Razor Point.

This weekend I am going to be taking a Monoprinting Workshop at the Art League. To see if I like it. More later!

Haupt Garden just before sunset

I was killing some time in the Enid A. Haupt Garden waiting for a Resident Associates lecture on the 'Cities of Ancient America'. The slide lecture was given by George Scheper, a professor at JHU. It further whetted my appetite to visit the Mayan areas of Guatemala and Belize. Mostly Guatemala. Someday!!

This sketch shows a few of the towers on the Smithsonian Castle. Well, sort of. I left out a lot of fancy brickwork detail.

(Here is a hand colored "stereoview" photo of the Castle back in the day. There's more here. Neat building! Jumbled, overdone, fussy, and Victorian, it's described as "faux Norman style" in its architecture. I love looking at it! It's so unlike most of the faux Classical and the genuine modern stuff around it. It's like a frilly old lady in a bustle.)

The Enid A. Haupt Garden is fairly gaudy, an apt accompaniment to the building right now. There are some big garish tropical plants enjoying these last few days outside in the sun, lined up in the terrace area around the Castle's garden entrance. They look all wrong. They'll be gone soon!

Experiments with Block Prints and Monotypes

After our one-day workshop with Melissa Hackmann at the Art League on making sketchbooks, I have been playing around with block printing and monotypes. Making messes mostly but finding pithy stuff to turn into cheesy and trite stamps. My inspiration for pithyness is the hallowed Jenny Holzer, who was in town recently incorporating Roosevelt Island and the Potomac River in her latest piece, entitled 'For the Capitol'. She is so cool.


Maybe more monotypes are coming.

This an excellent and inspirational book:
Monotype: Mediums and Methods for Painterly Printmaking, by Julia Ayers (1991)

Corner of Eye & 20th Street Pocket Park

Is it true that all the curbstones in the District of Columbia are required to be granite? Maybe this is an urban legend, but I like it. It lends dignity and majesty. Bravo, DC!