my journey to the Alphabet Land (day X)

My post for the #AlphabetHunt challenge by @barbara-orenya.
Last week of this beautiful and entertaining creative challenge. Three letters are left to find, and today I will share what I've found so far for the tricky letter "X". Well, it was not the easiest letter of the alphabet, but still not totally rigid and fruitless and unyielding. Mission completed!

X — Xamovniki

Actually, beer helped me A LOT during searching rare stuff named from X and Z. So, this is the Russian sort of beer bottled in quite unique shape. 'Xamovniki' is an old, suburb district of Moscow city, I cant say why exactly it is named after it, maybe due to the brewery is located at the same area? I really love the shape of the bottle, it is very elegant and refers imo to the old style, to beginning of XX century... but the taste is nothing special! I bought the beer and took this photo back in July, preparing to this week in advance. This was my first trophey, thats why it goes as 1st entry,

X — Xerocomus Subtomentosus

Mushrooms helped me in this round, too. I prefer not to use Latin names in this challenge (but, hmm, perhaps I should do an exception with letter X, it is so special :) and this mushroom has a strange name that in a funny was was stuck in my head (Russian native speakers probably would understand the reason why!). Xerocomus is the genus name (some scientists also attribute it to Boletus genus). In Russian this certain fungus is named Моховик зелёный, i.e. Green Mokhovik. It is a good, edible mushroom.

This summer I met it twice; both times it was a big family scattered at quite a large area (10-20 metres), so it turned out a pleasurable 'quiet hunting'. Their big bright fancy orange caps were very visible at the green moss, they were not hiding at all, and I was in the know they were more of them around I just made circles and circles, with my knife and a camera... and took two dozen of cool captures.

X — X-ray

Those who follow me for a while, remember that last September, after we closed the summer village season, our cat had multiple health issues and we were visiting
veterinary clinic and doctors several times; we had to take an X-ray to look inside her body to make sure there was no inflammation left. X-rays helped us in this. These rays cannot be photographed, they are not visible to the human eye! but you can take a photo of a photo :) Fortunately, I remembered that doctor had sent us a photo, and it was still in my mail.

Voila! @nelinoeva, the cat again fit into the post and benefitted to it a lot :)))

ps. I also has in my collection the issue of X-Ray magazine from 2003 (it has a radiohead feature), but it simply doesnt rank to the photo above... I feel no need to take more photos, they would be less convincing and just dilute my post.

X — Xerox

Haha, I predict this week it would be everyone's fave! At least I guess so...

This is an old photo from my previous job that I left right before C-19 shit went onto ventilator (and its old office that we had to move from, back in late 2019). This photo contains a lot of things that are gone by now. That cozy lovely one-story building I loved very much, has been erased to the ground; the employer have been ceased to exist, and all the people I worked with, have gone... and the Xerox DC-240 copier and printing machine you see in this photo, have gone to waste, too. At some point this X-beast from 2000-es costed me a lot of blood and sweat

Now let me add a little music bonus to my post for you to Feel better. I can fit my fave band Radiohead to my post, as well: back in 1994 they created a song titled 'Planet Xerox' (which later was renamed due to copyright issues... nobody ~~can~~ may use 'Xerox' TM for free, haha).

Here is a great live edition of this song from Spanish TV.

X — Xylophagous

Well, now I gonna milk up the ancient Greek language: in this language, the part "xylo-" means "wood / wooden". Thus, English words that claim to be scientific (or to look science-tastic, if you see it that way) use it as a prefix, indicating any relationship with a tree.

'Xylophagous' means feeding on or obtaining nutrition from wood: for example, a xylophagous beetle, xylophagous fungi, etc. This leads us to all gigantic array of mushrooms that feed off the deadwood or living trees. Believe me, this is hundred thousands of species... or maybe even a million, I wander who can state it for sure? When I found this word, I assorted a few pics from my archive. This summer's captures:

The same wooden branch with unidentified tree mushrooms. Two captures done in the same conditions, I just choose to present both to display how much the final result relies on retouching / postprocessing. Same result could have been achieved with just using (or applying) a fancy lighting. So, basically, in my photoshop exercises I just imitate unusual cool lighting, I am deprived in most cases 'in the field'.

I am not fond of 'realistic / natural / original look' editing, I am more into artsy and unusual, 'better-then-in-real-life-outlook' finishing.

Oyster is a well-spread and well-known mushroom. This is a product that is used to grow at farms artificially on a substrate and sold in stores.

X — Xylography

My sixth word is maybe the best one, and I really wonder how many folks will find and include it in their post?.. I hold my breath I have a little exclusive with it.

It has same 'xylo-' prefix in it, so you may assume it is connected with wood as well. Being one of a printed engraving varieties, this is one carved on a wood, or to be precise, on a cross-cut of a tree trunk. Wood offers a wealth of detail and nuance, and it is a soft, cheap, affordable material - perfect for chiseling. I have learnt about this art genre in my univercity years, when I studied the art of book course.

Множество художников любили и использовали этот вид гравюры. У меня много образцов, но я думал не дольше секунды что вам показать сегодня. Несколько лет назад я встретил книгу, в которую влюбился. Я потратил несколько месяцев на то, чтобы приобрести на вторичном рынке конкретное издание, которое было иллюстрировано правильными картинками. Это - "Моби Дик" Германа Мелвилла, с иллюстрациями Рокуэлла Кента. Да, 200 иллюстраций и все выполнены в технике "ксилогравюра". Ошеломительные иллюстрации! Графическая интерпретация текста через ксилографию в издании 1929 года заставила тысячи людей перечитать этот роман заново, эта действительно заставила людей влюбиться в роман, оценить его по-новому, и сделала этот роман классикой американской литературы.

Many artists loved and used this type of engraving. I have different samples, but I considered for less a second what to show you today. Several years ago I met a book that I fell in love with in a fraction of a moment. Though it took me several months to purchase from the Russian ebay a specific edition I wanted, which was illustrated with the iconic images. This novel is 'Moby Dick' by Herman Melville, with illustrations by Rockwell Kent. Yes, 200 illustrations, all made using the woodcut technique. Stunning art, I should say! The graphic interpretation of this novel through woodcuts in the 1929 edition made thousands of people re-read this novel, it really made people fall in love with the novel (same as me!), made them appreciate it in a new way, made it a classic of American literature.

Look into this mad eyes...

I made a birthday present to myself with this book back in 2017. Paid less then $9 U.S. dollars for it, including the delivery. It is a Russian edition of 1961, this is the best one.

NB. If you want to dig more into this subject, here is the link where I happened to get acquainted with it. A great, outstanding, superior content, highly worth checking it.

All the images taken by me, as always. This round I almost have no leftovers... almost. Still there were a few words I could find images for: