Bonne Annee!
Old New Years Cards
Judy Garland on New Years
I love my Judy and this is all a very sweet sentiment she is expressing. Usually I agree and try to live up to it. But… you know… this is 2017 now and things aren’t quite as simple or as nice or as traditional. And a lot of people don’t and won’t ever play by Judy’s rules, the Golden Rule, or even the rule of law and ethics. It’s time to stand up, not turn the other cheek. Say something, do something. Have a backbone and be tough on lies, quasi-fascism, greed, global warming, and corruption of all kinds. Investigate. Protest. Participate. Explain why this onslaught of political BS and conservative regression is not good and do so in concise and fairly simple terms. Explain how these negative things personally affect people and how they will negatively affect your nation and the world. Now is not the time for lofty eloquence. Say it loud and clear. We’re not going to take it lying down. As a commentator on some news show said recently: “Don’t bring a cupcake to a knife fight”. There is so much at stake, stand up and fight for it! Resistance is not futile!
The Stork Club at New Years in the 1950s, collage by Albert Dorne
Pulp illustration: Cleaning up after a New Years party, 1950s
Russian Gods – 2017 Calendar by Serge Lee
Marc Tsarevskiy by David Vance
Bearded Men Together
Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, Romanov family, Russian Empire

As far as late 19th/early 20th century royalty goes he was actually the most progressive and intelligent of the Romanov extended family – and urged Nicholas II to modify some of the imperial and societal cruelty inflicted upon the masses. He also, to no avail obviously, urged Nicholas II to take the whole growing communist revolution thingy more seriously than he did.









