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Inuit Eskimo Art Sculptures of Arctic Polar Bears

The Inuit Eskimo people of the Arctic use their keen observations of their wildlife surroundings to help choose which subjects to portray in their artwork. Pretty well all sorts of Arctic wildlife including seals, walruses, birds and whales are represented in Inuit Eskimo art sculptures. The most popular Arctic wildlife subject for both seasoned artists and fans of Inuit Eskimo art seems to be polar bears. For some reason, the polar bear has been chosen as the top animal to represent the Arctic north. Many Inuit Eskimo soapstone carvers strive to make polar bear sculptures but since this animal is not the easiest subject to carve, usually only experienced individuals can produce decent bears. Novice carvers tend to tackle easier subjects such as seals and whales before moving onto polar bears. This is the main reason why in most cases, a polar bear sculpture will be priced higher than a seal or whale sculpture of similar size.

Although most Inuit Eskimo art sculptures of polar bears tend to be in walking positions with all four legs on the ground, this is not always the case. Sometimes, polar bears are depicted in sitting, lying or even swimming positions. In some instances, finished polar bears also include some sort of prey such as fish or seals. Complex sculptures of hunting scenes can involve a polar bear plus an Inuit hunter and his husky dogs.

One of the most sought after type of Inuit Eskimo art is the dancing polar bear sculpture. These polar bears are portrayed upright with one of the hind legs raised. This makes the bear appear to be dancing as it is balancing on one leg. On occasions, polar bears have been portrayed balancing on one of the front paws with the head towards the ground and hind legs up in the air. This would depict a diving polar bear. Needless to say, only expert carvers can successfully produce any type of sculpture that is balanced on one leg whether it is the front or hind one. Again, this becomes a factor in the overall price of the Inuit Eskimo art sculpture.

Some art critics suggest that the dancing polar bear is not true Inuit Eskimo art since the pose is not representative of real nature. Indeed, many Inuit Eskimo communities do not produce dancing polar bears while others do. Regardless, there is consumer demand for dancing bears so there will always be Inuit Eskimo artists who will make them. The dancing polar bears can be seen as an example of the wild imagination that many Inuit Eskimo artists have.

Clint Leung is owner of Free Spirit Gallery http://www.FreeSpiritGallery.ca, an online gallery specializing in Inuit Eskimo and Northwest Native American art including carvings, sculpture and prints. Free Spirit Gallery has numerous information resource articles with photos of authentic Inuit and Native Indian art as well as free eCards.

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Deja Vu in 2005 for Astros

First things first for this edition of the Houston Astros, according to Manager Phil Garner, get to .500. If this squad can go 5-2 this upcoming week leading up to the All Star break, they will do just that. This minor goal, in turn, will also place them right with the Cubs for 2nd place in the NL Central. Granted, Houston is not gonna catch St. Louis, the Cards will be clinching the division sometime in early to mid September, but the NL Wild Card is not out of the question.

On Sunday afternoon, Roger Clemens shut down the Cincinnati Reds to move the Astros to four games below .500, and also within 6 games of the Atlanta Braves, the current Wild Card leader. All the talk of Clemens return to the NY Yankees, or even an in-state swap with the Texas Rangers have come to an abrupt halt. Considering the Rangers recent struggles, and the impending suspension of their ace, Kenny Rogers, looks like Houston has the best chance of the two Texas teams of making postseason play.

This feat is amazing for a team that began the season without Lance Berkman, forced to start basically an “all rookie” outfield to open the year, and losing team captain Jeff Bagwell for the season early on. The injuries to Berkman and Bagwell, coupled with the inability to resign the top catch in free agency, Carlos Beltran and allowing Jeff Kent to head West , left this teams offense in shambles. And it showed, until a few weeks ago.

The turnaround: Willie Taveras and Craig Biggio have been getting on base in front of Berkman, Ensberg, and Lane., Berkman is getting his swing back after missing the first month and a half of the season. Ensberg has began hitting for power again, and has solidified his hold on 3rd base (and what should have been an All Star game appearance, imo), and Lane has realized he can hit Major League pitching, and it’s built his confidence. Most importantly for the offense, Phil Garner has shown patience with these hitters, and allowed this lineup to take shape.

It also doesn’t hurt when you have three pitchers like Clemens, Oswalt, and Pettitte who can go deep into games and not expose a thin relief corps. And as a lineup, you know you don’t have to spot these guys 5 runs for them to win. Unfortunately, early in the year, these guys were getting very little (or no) run support.

It is still gonna be an uphill climb for Houston. By all indications, this will be the team that Management is gonna field the rest of the year, no blockbuster trade, like the one last year that brought in Beltran for the seecond half of 2004. The Astros are interested in bringing in a reliever or two to shore up the bullpen, but it’s still very well possible this team contends. They will be seeing a lot of teams that have thrown in the towel (Cincy, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee) and are looking towards “next year”. It’s also no sure bet that Chicago will stay healthy, or string together any sort of consistancy to shore up 2nd place. Couple that with the fact that no “dominant” teams exist in the East or West (Washington is not dominant, imo, but they are a gritty bunch), the NL Wild Card can conceivably be won with an 85-77 or 86-76 record.

The Astros have weathered the worst already in 2005, and I give them credit for not folding the tent and giving up on this season. But, I’m not surprised, considering that Phil Garner is the one leading them into battle.

John Onan (aka Ego74) is sports moderator at the Online Players Union http://www.theopu.com
and a football contributor at realfootball365.com

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Tales of Poseidonia Eventuaities [Part VII Chapters 5 thru 9]

Port of Poseidonia: Eventualities
[The Cosmic Lovers] Second Component [chapter 5 thru 9]

Let us not all believe Atlantis and its demonic forces did not have its secrets, and dark powers, for it surely did. And this sketch will bring forth, some of themin the depths of Hell and its boundaries. (Part VIl)

5
Aon

The Hippokamp, Aon, (connoisseur of love and female form) appeared in the waters off the Great Rock, the mountain top that hid Atlantis from not only the Earthly physical world, but from the underworld of the spirits; thus, he appeared while the beautiful Ais was bathing in the waters off the big rock. No introductions needed to be said; there the Hippokamp emerged from the waters with another seahorse. He gazed into her eyes remembering the borrowed romance he had with her so many years ago

“Don’t leave,” she asked Aon, in a polite and shy way, and for the next few hours she explained what had taken place; then like before, like so may years ago:

The sound of the lyre came sweat and clear,
Upon the poetic notes of the Hippokamp
In the dark far off waters of Hades:
Archkingdom, of all breath and land in Hell.

“Yes,” said Aon, to Ais, trying to comfort her after playing the lyre, “Yes, death cannot hide in Hell, the Hordes of Hell know who belongs to them, and it is just a matter of time. That is why they didn’t take you. Possibly fate brought me back here to you, I had sensed, whatever fate there is in the Great Gulf of Hell, and here we are.

She allowed Aon to come closer to her, now knowing the nature of a Hippokamp and in particularly Aonfor they are known to make love for hours on end, but they seldom produce children; and again I say, even among themselves seldom do they have offspring. And with a different species like Ais was, or is, it has never happened to man’s knowledge. But she knew his nature, and still allowed him to come close, for it was true when she said:

“You have come to my mind on several occasions and each time I was hot and barmy with passionwith the thoughts of having you.”

She knew he wanted her, and it was becoming clear to her, that she wanted him.

On another note, Aon knew he had seduced her last time, this time, would be different, it had to be, she was too vulnerable, and he wanted her for a much longer time, and did not want a part of her, but all or nothing. She seemed to be in a daydream all of a sudden, so Aon interrupted her, “Don’t get lost in the past,” he told the beautiful, long haired queen, with her slender shoulders and pear shaped bottom. She was more spellbound, caught in the love making of over ten-thousand years ago.

6
Law of the Cosmos
Agaliarept says

Hideously all the tales the king had heard of, heard about Hell, that crawled up from hell into his kingdom with its infamous heroes, revolving around ages of humanity, legends that seemed unbelievable of giants and supernatural angelic beings were all coming to the surface now. The king reasoned with his thoughts:

‘As I stand on this dock waiting for another kind of death, I am learning slowly, learning like a disease, I am a disease, cast into the form of a spirit. Nothing in a person’s life is spared from the spirit. When you violate the structure of the spirit, what it was made for, it haunts you. All I see are glimpses of people looking at me, a hundred, a thousand, all idly looking at me. Today I am the glory of Hell, tomorrow, someone else. Things will grow old quick here I see; what was royal before on earth is shallow here in hell. The Royal Demonic, they also have their grim pageantry, their shapes and illusive, intangible, jubilees I see: these are the vitally existent spirits of the here and now. All promoting the vision of hell: that it is better to be a free demon in hell, with rank and royalty to be earned, than a slave in the cosmos, in the heavens of the Almighty God. This is their credo. This is their lust. Homo sapiens are no more than wild beasts here; made to server here or there: or to a silent death it may be, for there are 72-deaths know to the universe. And the other creatures whomever they are have recognizable human features, but unnatural or uncommon ones, such as two many fingers or none at all, or no bones in their frames, no skin on their bones, or several heads. There is always something about their mouths and teeth, always, it is alarming.’

Still on the landing dock, Agaliarept notices he is in a trance, dreaming of days forward or past, he kind of knows Ais has met Aon, and they, they are making love, and Agaliarept smiles, for they both know the wildness of the nymphs, for although they are not called that, they are that in their most deep rooted thoughts, and it is part of their natures.

“Yes, King of Atlantis,” he said that so all could see whom he was talking to, “Yes you, she is with Aon now, and they are not thinking about you. She is not bound by Hell, she is caught in-between, and so will be judged differently, so we have no power over her, oh a little pulling, but we need not do that, she is clouded by the lyrist. She will be busy for six-hours, if not more.” The Henchman laughs hysterically.

Diverse thoughts creep into his mind: Hell, the voice talking to him, Aon, Ais, his Kingdom, everything coming into his mind via symbolism, saying one thing and meaning another. He had seen Ais look at Aon (as if in a vision, right that moment), I mean really look at him, I mean with big, begging eyes. He shook his head to get the vision out of it. Jealousy, envy, anger filled his pale face.

7
Ais, Eventualities

Time, oh time is but a spell in the cosmos, in the world underground, it is different than within the fixed physical world of dimensions. Aon and Ais swirled within the waves for three days, resilience playing the joyful part in the will of both lovers. Time having no axe to grind, the days passed as if three songs were but one. At one time she would have dreaded all the eventualities that presented themselves to her, as with the king she had none to speak of, then suddenly she became, realized she had choices, opinions, and troubles once, now almost forgotten with the King being gone.

She remembered all the pagan rituals, for the comfort of the soul her husband used to say; she seemed girlish now, unmolested for a moment with Aon, with a vivid imagination of the past; she did not even think of his torments he now faced. Call it a vein of monomania, or call it what you will, she was two people in her mind’s eye now. The girlish girl she never got to be, and the lover-team she always wanted to have. But finding it in the Gulf of Hades was another spooky thought, could it be real [?]

Was there a middle world, if she could not go to Heaven or didn’t have to go to Hell? Paradise was on the other side of the Gulf, that might be a place to look up she thought, or possibly a place called Limbo. It was an animated idea, but it had to be looked at, and it was now that they had revealed to one another their whole beings, Aon and Ais, now sitting on the broken walls of old Atlantis.

8
Ephialtes

Ephialtes got out of the boat first, and watched the horde of creatures gathering on the pier as King Phrygian stepped up onto the pier, and walked over by Agaliarept (for Agaliarept was the Henchman of Hell, although Belphegor was king of the demons, they both had different duties according to Satanic Law; and only in certain matters in Hell could Belphegor’s supersede Agaliarept’s). Ephialtes even had reached down to Phrygian to give him a hand, but Phrygian wouldn’t take it, and called him, ‘traitor,’ as he walked by him, as if he had not been called that before. Then as Phrygian stood there in thought, Tyr, an imp that had followed them from above their vessel, bellowed out a death-cry, as the king stood pale and drained in dismay. He was a lunatic of sorts, this demonic creature of the British Isles, who burned villas and fought against empires of old, violated every rule on earth and in Hell. Oh he cried a wicked death-cry, for all of Hell to hear.

9
Seduction

Buer, the demonic creature of old, with his thick lips and shinny black eyes, was back up on his tour of duty, on the Great Walls of the Acropolis of Hell.

Phrygian, was taken to the lover rim of Mount Hades, there he was bruised and molested by its inhabitants, as Buer knew would take place, as he had Tyr escort him, Tyr being no less a perpetrator. There in the hills were what was called wolf-men, with long beards and giant gaunt limbs; women naked with babies with no eyes. Screaming and rages going on all day and night; the king was brought to this place, as Ephialtes the new assistant to the Henchman looked on, looked at him before he left the area, looked at him, not with a smile, but actually with a sigh of sympathy and relief. Relief, that it wasn’t him on the receiving end and sympathy because somewhere within his being he still had a once of pity.

See Dennis’ web site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com

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