Art Blogging: Luigi Russolo

Luigi Russolo (1885-1947) was an Italian Futurist painter. Futurism was an early 20th Century artistic movement centered in Italy which explicitly rejected tradition or the past as a source of anything valuable for future generations. Within Italy, Futurism was closely associated with nationalism and glorified violence, technology, and political radicalism. Russolo was among the founding members of this movement.
Dynamism of a Train, 1912.
Memory of a Night, 1912.







Music, 1911. In addition to painting, Russolo was renowned as an experimental musician. In his treatise The Art of Noise, Russolo argued that modern people have come to accept the sounds of the industrial city as normal, and music should adopt those sounds thought to be as noises. Here is a performance of one of his compositions:

[Video Link]

If You Are a Parent and You Care About the Success of Your Children, Watch This

Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?

The Impeachment and Trial of John F. Kennedy

That's the subtitle of Winter of Our Discontent, an upcoming alternate history novel by Harry Turtledove and Bryce Zabel.

The point of divergence is that a Secret Service agent spotted the glint off of Oswald's rifle seconds before he fired. Kennedy survived November 22, 1963. Whether or not he would survive scandals that would rock his administration would not be so certain.

You can read the first chapter of the novel here, and the articles of impeachment here.

Updike - not my favorite

So I mentioned a while back that I was going to rectify the gap in my experience of more modern American fiction by reading some John Updike. While on vacation I began reading the shorter of the two novels I had picked out, The Witches of Eastwick. In short, I never made it to number two - In the Beauty of the Lilies - I could barely stomach what I was reading. Several hours of my life I won't get back reading a novel in which none of the characters were interesting, much less sympathetic. Definitely not to my tastes in literature at all - sexually insecure witches? - give me a break; at least now I know.

The lesson in all of this? The local library had more than one collection of Updike's short stories . . . always, always start with an author's short stories if you have the choice!

Caption Contest

Previous contest winner

WINNER: John Wilks: Meals-On-Wheels makes an unexpected alliance.

R2-D2 Subtitled for Your Pleasure

Ever wonder what R2-D2 was saying during the Star Wars movies? It turns out that he's a cross between Marvin the robot from Hitchhiker's Guide, Daria Morgendorffer, and George Carlin. Here are clips from The Phantom Menace in which R2's chittering is subtitled into English.

Content warning: hilariously foul language.

[Video Link] HT: Topless Robot

Also: Episode II, similarly subtitled.

A Night at the Ballet

A true story and comedy of errors about a man trying to treat his wife to a romantic evening out.

HT: Ace

Art Blogging: Leonard Nimoy

Leonard Nimoy (1931- ) is an American photographer and actor. He began working in the craft at the age of 13, but only received formal training later in life at UCLA. In 2003 he retired fully from acting to focus on his photographic work.

You can listen to a NPR interview about his photography here.

273-59 from The Full Body Project. This is a collection of photographs of very large women, mostly nudes.

93-12 from The Shekinah Project. Nimoy, who is Jewish, explored his ethnic identity through this series. The Shekinah is a concept in Jewish theology referring to the presence of God.

Lake Tahoe Rain, where Nimoy has a house.

Reasons to Avoid a Libertarian Babysitter

From The Prospect on a recent survey published in The Journal of Personality and Social Pyschology:

fifty per cent of the libertarians would agree to surgery giving them a prosthetic tail if they were paid enough to do so.

Via Radley Balko. I dunno. Make me an offer in the comments. I'll think about it.

What is Lowbrow Art?

In a comment on a recent post about artist Tara McPherson, Tom Jackson asked "What is Lowbrow art?"

First, a disclaimer: my formal training in art history and criticism consists entirely of one semester-long course in college. And that one ended in the Renaissance. I've managed to pick up a bit here and there about the Academic tradition and Art Deco, but I don't know much after 1940. So bear in mind the lack of expertise in this answer.

The Lowbrow art movement is about fifteen years old and is sometimes traced back to the founding of Juxtapoz magazine in 1994. This movement rejects the distinctions between the fine and commercial arts and the sense that the arts belong to a cultural aristocracy. It could be said to be related to folk art, except that its leaders have actual skill and training. Lowbrow is heavily influenced by pop culture and often exhibits a strong sense of humor and the macabre.

Here are some examples from artists sometimes identified with the Lowbrow movement.

Reading the Tea Leaves by Shag. Acrylic on panel, 2009.

Little Boy Blue by Mark Ryden. Oil on canvas, 2001.

Hope by Shepherd Fairey. Stencil and acrylic on paper, 2008. Now at the Smithsonian.

Pavilion of the Red Clown by Robert Williams.

Leave the Hair and Go Free by Amy Sol. Acrylic on wood panel, 2008.

Self-Defeating by Seonna Hong. Acrylic on canvas, 2007.

Scientific Study Reveals that Men Find Women in Bikinis Interesting

Ah, scientists. Where would we be without their insights?

Hat tip to DoublePlusUndead


UPDATE: Thong pic deleted. I should have asked for permission before posting it. Sorry, Theresa.

Art Blogging: Tara McPherson

Tara McPherson (1976-) is an American illustrator associated with the Lowbrow movement. She studied at the Art Center College of Design in California and now works out of New York City. McPherson has produced noteworthy album covers, commercial illustrations, and graphic novels.

From the Abyss, oil on birch.
Why Do I Do What I Do, acrylic.
Lonely Hearts Gang, Part 2, acrylic.

Question of the Day

Today's QotD comes from blogger d_jonsey (via Bits & Pieces) and has gathered many responses so far. I'd like to pose it to my readers as well, slighly rephrased:

If you could give one piece of advice to yourself at the age of 20, what would it be?

There are many good answers so far. Here's a sampling:

• Hug your Mom. Someday she'll be very old, very loving, very concerned, 1200 miles away, and too frail to travel. And someday after that, she'll be gone
• Marriage is not 50/50...It's 100/100.
• Choose a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life.

This is would be mine:

"On May 15, 1997, a company traded on NASDAQ will go public. It's called Amazon.com. Save every penny from now until then and buy as much stock in that company as you can on that day. Sell it off into cash in the month of November 1999. Then buy the stock back in February, 2001."

Will Deuel on the UMC Candidacy Process

UMC ordination candidate Will Deuel cuts loose on the process whereby the UMC selects ordained ministers:

I have incurred tremendous debt and uprooted my family to attend seminary. In the middle of seminary my family moved again so that I could serve a student appointment. We moved a third time when I graduated for my commissioning appointment. I have attended the required Residence in Ministry sessions in which I have sat through lectures (some for a second or third time) that were often boring or ill-prepared. And I have gladly accepted the itinerant system of pastoral appointment. I attended Sexual Ethics and Boundary training twice: once on campus at Eden after being informed by the Conference that said training was acceptable, and once at IGRC headquarters after they rescinded their word without even informing us. We were given nasty letters threatening action if we did not attend the next upcoming workshop. I once was informed that the Board of Ordained Ministry lost my psychological evaluation. (Yeah, all that confidential information? Not safeguarded at all.)

And that's just one paragraph. Will has sent this post on to his Bishop, which will, in my experience, hurt his chances of ordination. I don't know if it will end his candidacy, as he does not name names (as I did), but it certainly can't help him. However, I think that Will's intent was to gain the healing and clarity that comes from speaking truth to power. I wish him the best, as he is a man committed to what Christianity is supposed to be all about.

Read all of Will's post, which he summarizes as saying "The Board of Ordained Ministry has not created a pathway to ordination, it has created an obstacle course."

This is an important fact for all candidates for the ordained ministry (and those considering entering it) to know about: candidacy is more about hazing than it is about preparation. That's why Will's "obstacle course" metaphor is spot-on.

You don't think that the Conference actually "loses" all of the paperwork you send it, like the psychological reports and references? No, of course not. They throw them away and make the candidate check in to see if they were received and re-send them when they were not. Conference and District staffs are not that incompetent.

Will and I have both written about the various stumbling blocks that are thrown in the path of candidates. These frustrate candidates so that many self-select out of the system, and the remaining are ordained. The UMC candidacy system is not a spiritual formation process, it's a test of willpower and a willingness to take abuse.

I'll admit this: I'd be hard pressed to come up with a better system that does not result in a superfluous number of people being placed under guaranteed appointment in a shrinking system.

I do recognize that, in spite of how it all ended for me, there is nothing particularly evil about the candidacy process. It was simply used as a weapon against me by evil men and women. I figured out that the system was hazing-based early on. And I was quite willing to endure the hazing and follow all orders so as long as those in authority over me acted in good faith and and adhered to the Discipline.

Further thoughts by Craig Adams (a man who, in my experience, takes holiness very seriously), John Meunier, and a discussion at The Methoblog.

Best Case Scenario vs. Worst Case Scenario

Caption Contest

Previous contest winner

Via Bits & Pieces

WINNER: O no he didn't!: Marriage defined.

Question of the Day

Describe your personality.
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Good Stories, Well Told

That's how I would describe Slate V's marvelous "What Was I Thinking? Bad Boyfriend Stories." They're short videos told by women about weird or unfortunate ex-boyfriends, set to the backgrounds of great collages. They are like micro chick-flicks, but so good as to be entertaining even to the estrogen-challenged.

[Video Link]

Question of the Day

Does this dress make my butt look big?

Random Fitness Thoughts

Thank you, dear readers, for your words of encouragement about my running. I've been a lot more aggressive about working out these past few weeks.

I've been focusing on the bodybuilding principle of training to failure. That means to perform an exercise until I can't physically do it anymore. In the past, I've kept my reps at about 10-12 a set, but now I've raised that to 20 or more at lower weights in order to feel the burn. I think that I've succeeded when I feel sore the next day. And I know that I've succeeded when I can do better the next week.

I might, for example, do five sets of push ups until my arms collapse under me. And other than preliminary stretching and a warm-up on the elliptical trainer, that's the only exercise I do that day.

So far, the muscle confusion is working. Today, my belly hurts when I sneeze because of the sit ups I did on Sunday. And I was able to do 10 more sit ups then than on the previous Sunday. That's progress!

Tonight, I'm going to do dumbbell arm curls until they fall off my shoulders.

A while back, I talked about the 100 Push Up Workout, which I did for a while before other life events distracted me. Ultimately, I don't like it because it would prevent me from engaging in other, simultaneous fitness goals.

Question of the Day: Cloning

The New York Times has an article up about a German project to map the Neanderthal genome. A Harvard Medical School professor says that it should be possible to clone a Neanderthal from this information for about $30 million. Radley Balko poses various ethical questions related to whether or not a Neanderthal is a human being, but leaving those aside....

Is it ethical to clone a human being?

Optical Illusion Girlfriend

Do you see a hag or a beautiful girl? Flip her upside down.

[Video Link]

Question of the Day: President's Day Edition

Today, on Presidents' Day, the National Review solicited short answers from contributors about their favorite Presidents. Washington and Lincoln, of course, feature prominently. But there is also tongue-in-cheek praise for the contributions of William Henry Harrison, who was President for only one month before dying. Jacob Sullum lifts up Harrison "because he left office before he could do much damage."

Two contributors, quite rightly, praise the underrated Chester A. Arthur, who served less than one term in office after President Garfield died. Although he was a product of New York machine politics, Arthur created the civil service system to replace the open spoils system of government employment. And after a diplomatic crisis with Chile, Arthur led the reconstruction of the badly-decayed U.S. Navy.

There is not a lot written about Arthur, compared to other Presidents. In part, this is because he had his private papers burned shortly before his death and rarely discussed personal business. Arthur did not have vain exhibitionism which has led so many modern Presidents to record their every conversation or build enormous libraries as monuments to themselves.

Which U.S. President is your favorite?

Pounding Feet

Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I ran five miles. I've set it as a goal a few weeks ago and have been building up to it. My inner thighs feel a bit tender today, but I survived.

Question of the Day

Last week was Beatles Day -- the 45th anniversary of the arrival of the Beatles in America. It was a truly great day for music. I love their whole repertoire, but especially "Hey Jude" and "Eleanor Rigby."

What is your favorite Beatles song?

Antiques Roadshow in the Year 2550

In this CollegeHumor video, antiques appraisers in the future examine artifacts from the 21st Century.

[Video Link]

Happy Valentine's Day

Saint Valentine is very sympathetic with the awful stress that you might be going through on the day that he was beheaded.

Pick up some last minute cards from Some Ecards and Awkward Valentines.

WWJD?

Question of the Day

Theresa Coleman recently started homeschooling her children. She thinks that homeschooling can be a good option for some kids, but that the minimal state standards for homeschoolers need to be more vigorously enforced:

First, the law reads that the parent instructing must have a HS diploma or equivalent. However, reporting is not compulsory therefore the State of Georgia has no idea who has a diploma and who does not. For the most part, this is OK except there are some who are taking advantage of this loophole and the entirety of the homeschooling community/culture is suffering. Unless those of us who are diligent and following the law try to amend this ourselves, eventually the Government will indeed step in and "do" something about it. There is precedent for this.

What impressions have you gathered about homeschooling?

China's Mobile Execution Chambers

According to Amnesty International, China had 1,770 state executions in 2005, the majority of which were carried out by gunshot. That's inefficient, and modern China is all about efficiency.

Which brings us to this picture: that's one of China's 40 brand new mobile execution chambers:

Jinguan — "Golden Champion" in Chinese — lies an hour's drive from Chongqing in southwestern China, below the green slopes of Cliff Mountain. Along with the death vans, the company also makes bulletproof limousines for the country's rich and armored trucks for banks. Jinguan's glossy death van brochure is printed in both Chinese and English.

From the outside, the vans resemble the police vehicles seen daily on China's roads. A look inside reveals their function.

"I'm most proud of the bed. It's very humane, like an ambulance," Kang says. He points to the power-driven metal stretcher that glides out at an incline. "It's too brutal to haul a person aboard," he says. "This makes it convenient for the criminal and the guards."

I'm speechless.

HT: Geekologie

George Washington, Entrepreneur

I have a decent knowledge about Washington's political and military careers, but what I didn't know was that he was a highly successful businessman. Here's a fascinating article about his entrepreneurial ventures.

Washington's reputation suffered among historians of the previous century. I think that that's because he was self-educated and left behind few writings from which we may perceive a witty intellect. But he had a remarkable sense of prudence and intuition about the forces at work in Revolutionary period. And this was topped by a quite extraordinary physical courage. The American people were extremely fortunate to have him when we did.

Art Blogging: Pierre Le Faguays

Pierre Le Faguays (1892-1935) was a French Art Deco sculptor. A native of Nantes, he studied in Geneva and exhibited at the Salon from 1922 on. Le Faguays specialized in figurative work in ivory, wood, stone, and bronze.


It was this work, Faun and Nymph from 1925, that caught my attention. Most of the decorative bronzes that I have seen from the Art Deco era (such as those of Ferdinand Preiss and Demetre Chiparus) reflect Jazz Age subject matter, but were essentially academic in style. Yet here, Le Faguays takes the three-dimensional medium of sculpture and adopts the heavy lines and two-dimensionality of Art Deco graphic design. This may be seen the most strongly in the poses and hair of the figures and the musculature of the faun.

It reminds me of Hildreth Meiers's sculptures on the outside of Radio City Music Hall. These were, by necessity, flat. But Le Faguays faced no such limitation and simply adopted the sharp angularity for purely aesthetic reasons.

Remote Control for Cats

It works about as effectively as the remote control for wives. You'll need to click on the picture to get a good view of how the buttons are marked.

Anyway, now I know what to get Theresa Coleman for Christmas.

HT: Neatorama

You Know What Would Be Really Good?

A jelly donut. Except, instead of jelly, it has sweetened peanut butter inside.

There's Nothing Wrong With Being Ideological

Jonah Goldberg:

As I noted last month during all the inauguration hype, Barack Obama is determined to cast himself as a pragmatist and anyone who disagrees with him an ideologue. In his Philadelphia speech in January, he lumped "ideology" alongside, small thinking, prejudice and bigotry as things Americans must declare independence from. This is a very old liberal argument going straight back through Kennedy and FDR to Woodrow Wilson. It is also a profoundly dishonest framing of debate because it assumes that liberals are reality based and empirical while conservatives are hidebound dogmatists and ideologues. Somehow being pro-choice is empirical, but being pro-life is dangerously ideological. Supporting the nationalization of the banks is pragmatic. Opposing such measures stems from a feverish loyalty to discredited ideas.

But most of all, it is an attempt to preempt good faith disagreement by declaring it out of bounds and illegitimate before the conversation even starts.

As Goldberg suggests, everyone has an ideology, especially people who say "I'm non-ideological." There's nothing wrong with having an ideology -- it's just a set of views that reflects how a person sees the world. It's just important to be able to identify one's own ideology, recognize its weaknesses, and be willing to change it as new information arrives. Goldberg continues:

Now let me be clear. I have no problem with Obama having an ideology. There is nothing wrong with ideology, if by ideology you mean a checklist of principles. "Does it expand freedom?" is an ideological question. So is, "Will this protect a woman's right to choose?" "Will this help the middle class?" "Will this redistribute wealth?" "Will this end torture?": and so on. These are all ideological questions, and whatever your orientation to such questions might be, there's nothing wrong with the fact that they are ideological. Heck, the very idea that it's the job of the government to "grow" the economy* is a surprisingly recent and thoroughly ideological assumption.


This is why I've long had a fondness for the late Senator Paul Wellstone. As much as I disliked his leftist beliefs, he at least seemed to arrive at them honestly, and displayed little effort that I could see at using his elected office as only a means to get rich and stay in power. The problem in Washington is not clashing ideologies. It's that we have too many politicians thinking pragmantically about enriching themselves and not ideologically about political philosophy.

Klingon Night School

Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | More Video Clips

[Video Link] Via Topless Robot

Question of the Day

Name your poison.
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Jesus Hates Zombies: A Comic Book Series

Has anyone read this series? I've never seen it, but it sounds interesting. I've heard that it's about Jesus finding himself in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Apparently there's also a companion comic called Lincoln Hates Werewolves.

Art Blogging: Emile Aubry

Emile Aubry (1880-1964) was an Algerian-born French Art Deco painter. He won the Prix de Rome in 1907 and the Salon prize in 1920. I like his work because it exemplifies how an artist could break free of Academic norms and express the human figure in not simply a portraitive, but a decorative manner. Take, for example, his painting The Voice of Pan. The subject matter is completely within the classical norms of the Academic painting, but its crowded use of space and stacked two-dimensional figures is entirely Art Deco.

In Hylas, the companion of Hercules is kidnapped by the nymph Dryope. Oil on canvas, 1926.

Question of the Day

Scenario 1: A private high school interviews a number of applicants for an open teaching position. The most qualified applicant is a 24/7 crossdresser -- in fact, he attends the interview dressed as a woman. The school decides that the leading applicant's crossdressing would be distracting to the students, and decides not to hire him on that basis.

Scenario 2: A for-profit corporation interviews a number of applicants for an open accounting position. The most qualified applicant is a 24/7 crossdresser -- in fact, he attends the interview dressed as a woman. The school decides that the leading applicant's crossdressing would be distracting from workplace productivity, and decides not to hire him on that basis.

In each scenario, has the employer acted ethically?

Art Blogging: Jean Despujols

Jean Despujols (1886-1965) was a French Art Deco painter. He studied in Bourdeaux and at the Academy in Paris, where he subsequently won the Prix de Rome in 1914. The First World War, however, interfered in his plans, and he shipped off to his designated army unit. His sketchbook from that era is a testament to the horrors of that war.

After the end of the war, he was able to accept his reward and study in Rome for a year. During the 1930s, a colonial society hired him to travel through and document life in French Indochina. He produced many idealized portraits of doomed French colony. Later, Despujols taught in the United States and eventually became a U.S. citizen.

The Vinyard, oil on canvas, 1925, at the French Consulate to NATO.

Bourdeaux, Museum of Aquitaine.

The Fishing Party, oil on canvas, 1925, Museum of the 1930s.

If Infomercials Were Realistic

Or rather, the world as seen through the eyes of infomercial creators.

[Video Link]

Mad [Libs] Men

I've only seen one episode of the cable show Mad Men, but if it's anything like this College Humor parody, it may be worth checking out again.

[Video Link]

Classic Science Fiction Movie Posters, If Made By Aliens and Monsters

An advertisement for the Sci-Fi Channel, created by the ad firm Saatchi & Saatchi.

Via io9

The Zeray Gazette, Version 2.0

Is it even possible for The Zeray Gazette to be an even cooler blog? Yes we can!

Click here for the new site.

HT: Ace

Does Your Economy Have Performance Issues?

Ask your doctor if Stimulis^TM is right for you.

[Video Link] HT: Radley Balko

Art Blogging: Edouard-Marcel Sandoz

Edouard-Marcel Sandoz (1881-1971) was a Swiss sculptor who worked in bronze, stone, and ceramics. He studied in Geneva and at the Academy in Paris. Sandoz was associated with the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements, and his subject matter was mostly the human figure and animals. During the First World War, he began producing ceramic bottles, boxes, and tableware in the shape of animals for the Haviland Limoges company, and continued to work with that firm for thirty years.


One of his most iconic images is that of this condor, produced in granite.

Nursing Mother, bronze, Garden of the National Museum, Monaco.

An Important and Unique Cat, marble.