sailing under false colors.

Assuming to be what one is not; being a pretender or hypocrite. This arose from the days of piracy on the high seas, when a pirate vessel, sighting a possible prey, hoisted the flag of a friendly nation to its halyards to allay suspicion while it drew within striking distance, thus catching the unsuspecting victim unprepared for defense. But “under false colors” was in earlier use in a similar sense, denoting a man, sect, or even an army appearing in the garb or under the badge or insignia of a house or party of which he was not a member. From this were derived such phrases as “to come out in one’s true colors” and “to show one’s colors”; that is, to reveal one’s true nature or standing.

—Charles Earle Funk, from Heavens to Betsy! and Other Curious Sayings, 1955.

neon Mecca

“Since its emergence as the world’s gambling and neon Mecca in the 1950s, successive waves of astonished visitors have believed they have witnessed the ultimate excesses of Las Vegas’ resort district, that the boom and expansion of the city cannot go on. . . . And the resort district itself has consistently outdone itself to the point where in 1996 it is in a fascinating state of transition from an adult-oriented gambling centre employing neon lights, glamour and glittery showgirls to sell its wares, to a full-blown tourist destination offering sanitised sex, sin and all-round entertainment in an environment that is a hectic amalgam of theme park and multimedia, multi-sensory experience. In the 1990s, spectacle, performance and monumentally scaled, themed architecture are replacing neon as advertisement for the casinos.”

—Frances Anderton and John Chase, from Las Vegas: The Success of Excess, 1997.

day turns to night once an hour, on the hour

“Themed on the piazzas of ancient and modern Rome, Caesars Forum Shops [at Caesars Palace] is an entire world, complete with changing skies, fountains and statuary in which day turns to night once an hour, on the hour. The programmed entertainment, manipulated passage of time and attention to detail create an unusually complete substitute universe designed not only to entertain but to disorient the visitor. Every bit of ornament or theming in a casino is intended to separate you in time and space from your nine-to-five routine and the need to make your mortgage payment.”

—Frances Anderton and John Chase, from Las Vegas: The Success of Excess, 1997.

objects appear less in size, and grow dim in colour, in proportion as they are more removed from the eye of the spectator

“Though the Chinese are not well versed in opticks, yet experience has taught them that objects appear less in size, and grow dim in colour, in proportion as they are more removed from the eye of the spectator. These discoveries have given rise to an artifice, which they sometimes put into practice. It is forming prospects in perspective by introducing buildings, vessels, and other objects, lessened according as they are more distant from the point of view; and that the deception may be still more striking, they give a greyish tinge to the distant parts of the composition, and plant in the remoter parts of these scenes trees of a fainter colour, and smaller growth, than those that appear in the front or fore-ground; by these means rendering what in reality is trifiling and limited, great and considerable in appearance.”

—Sir William Chambers (1726–1796), from the essay Of the Art of Laying Out Gardens Among the Chinese, which accompanies his Design of Chinese Buildings, Furniture, Dresses, Machines, and Utensils, 1757.

Of the Claro-Obscuro.

The knowledge of lights and shades, which painting requires, is one of the most important and most essential branches of the art. We only see by means of light, and light draws and attracts the eye with more or less strength, as it strikes the objects of nature; for this reason the painter, who is the imitator of these objects ought to know and chuse the advantageous effects of light. . . .

This part of painting includes two things, the incidence of particular lights and shades, and the knowlege of general lights and shades, which we usually call the claro-obscuro. . . .

Claro implies not only anything exposed to a direct light, but also all such colours as are luminous in their natures; and obscuro, not only all the shadows directly caused by the incidence and privation of light, but likewise all the colours which are naturally brown, such as, even when they are exposed to light, mantain an obscurity, and are capable of grouping with the shades of other objects: Of this kind, for instance, are deep velvets, brown stuffs, a black horse, polished armour, and the like, which preserve their natural or apparent obscurity in any light whatever.

—Roger de Piles (1635–1709) from The Principles of Painting, as “translated by a Painter” and published in London in 1743.

a little white here and a little black there

“[In Leone Battista] Alberti’s Della Pittura . . . the treatment of light and colour is discussed. For Alberti . . . white and black serve the all-important purpose of creating the impression of relief. To achieve this purpose, we learn, the painter must always balance the whites against darks. He suggests in fact that the painter should proceed in a gradual process of adjustment, always adding a little white here and a little black there and watch the form acquiring relief. . . .

Modifying a remark Vitruvius makes about minium, he says that he wishes white pigments were as expensive to buy as the most precious jewels, for then painters would use them sparingly. . . . He knows—and he may have been the first to know this—that the painter’s gamut of relationships can never match the range of light intensities that can occur in nature. He must scale them down. The painter must remember—he writes—never to paint any surface so white that it could not be whiter still. Even if you dressed your figures in the most shining white you would have to stop short very far from utmost whiteness. For the painter will find that he has nothing but white with which to render the extreme lustre of the most polished sword and nothing but black to show the utter darkness of night. The power of a correct juxtaposition of black and white can be seen where vessels appear to be of silver, gold or glass and seem to shine, though they are only painted.”

—E.H. Gombrich, Light, Form and Texture in Fifteenth-cenury Painting, first published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts CXII, October 1964.

Little Red White & Blues

“Between 1954 and 58, noted author and music historian Samuel Charters spent time recording the sounds of the city for a Music of New Orleans: Volume 1 LP released by Folkways Records in 1959. In October of 1956, he made the first live recordings of Mardi Gras Indians. His recording of Red White & Blue Got The Golden Band was done by members of a number of different tribes including the 2nd Ward Hunters, Pocohantus (sic), 3rd Ward Terrors and White Eagles. Little Red White & Blues was an old-time Indian gang still referred to in many Indian song narratives today, but it is interesting to note that the singers have no clear understanding of what the name meant. . . .

Mama Roux a song with an Indian reference appeared in a 1968 single by Dr. John (Mac Rebennack) and later on his first Atco album, called Gris Gris Gumbo Ya Ya. The line, She was the Queen of the Little Red White & Blue, clearly alludes to the aforementioned Little Red White and Blue Tribe.”

—Thomas L Morgan, from the Mardi Gras Indian Influence on the Music of New Orleans, a nice article on the net, copyrighted 2002.

Mama Roux

“Mama Roux, she was the Queen
Of the Little Red, White and Blue.
Said ooh, why did you spy boy,
Prepare yourself to die boy,
Medicine man got heap strong power,
You know better than to mess with me.
(theres more but Im tired of transcribing)”

—Dr. John, from Mama Roux, 1968. Sadly, this is the quality of much of the anonymous information on the net.

purple for justice, green for faith and gold for power

“Rex [was the krewe] known as the king of carnival. Rex was conceived primarily to celebrate the arrival of the grand duke of Russia, Alexis Alexandrovich Romanov. The dukes mistress and lover at the time, an American actress named Lydia Thompson, sang a song in a burlesque New York show Bluebeard entitled If Ever I Cease To Love You. Coincidentally, this was the dukes favorite song, so all the bands in the Rex parade were asked to play it. This song became, and still remains today, the official song of Mardi Gras. The krewe of Rex also chose the official colors of Mardi Gras in 1872 based on symbolic meaning: purple for justice, green for faith and gold for power.”

—found at worldweb.com. So it must be true!

gonna set your flag on fire

“My flagboy and your flagboy,
Sittin by the fire,
My flagboy told your flagboy,
I’m gonna set your flag on fire. . . .

See that guy all dressed in green
Iko! Iko! an de’
Hes not a man,
Hes a lovin machine.”

—The Dixie Cups, from Iko, Iko, written and recorded in May 1965.