Archive for the ‘Art’ Category

Random notes: February 4th, 2010.

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

The Columbus Blue Jackets (that’s the NHL, for all you non-hockey fans out there) fired coach Ken Hitchcock.

The NYT got around to running an obit for Lt. Colonel Archer. Their obit is interesting:

Mr. Archer ultimately maintained that he shot down five German planes — two on separate days in July 1944 in addition to the three in October 1944 — but said he had not been properly credited with one of those downings in July. Shooting down five planes would have brought him official designation as an ace, making him the only one among the Tuskegee Airmen.

In a 2008 review of wartime military records, Daniel L. Haulman of the Air Force Historical Research Agency found that Mr. Archer, while officially credited with four downings, was among the three leading Tuskegee pilots in shooting down enemy planes. His total was matched by Capt. Joseph D. Elsberry and Capt. Edward L. Toppins.

As you may recall, this directly contradicts the WP obit, which states he was credited with five victories by the Air Force.

Edited to add: The WP published a correction to their obit on February 2nd, which agrees with the NYT obit. However, the WP correction is not noted in the original article; I thought this was against WP policy.

From the “Thank you, Captain Obvious” department: Scotland has a drinking problem. The NYT sees Buckfast Tonic Wine as a symbol.

The drink is 15 percent alcohol by volume, a bit stronger than most wines. Also, each 750 milliliter bottle contains as much caffeine as eight cans of Coke.

From the “Art, damn it! Art!” department: I think I appreciate a good bit of art as much as the next guy, but this Giacometti bronze just seems to me to be really ugly. Maybe the photos are bad.

The “Hello Kitty” chainsaw. I want.  (And Hello Kitty Hell gets added to the blogroll. Thanks to my great and good friend Commvault Bryan.)

James Arthur Ray, the Arizona sweat lodge guy, has been charged with three counts of manslaughter.

Did you know that Men at Work’s “Down Under” sampled a children’s tune called “Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree”? Have you even heard “Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree”?

Edited to add: I’m sure this will be blogged elsewhere, but it is too good to pass up. Sun CEO resigns. By Twitter. In haiku. (Hattip: Lawrence.)

Edited to add 2: Also from the “Thank you, Captain Obvious” department is this actual headline from the LAT home page:  “Stew is better without jimsonweed hallucinogen“. (Link goes to actual article which has a different headline.)

Random notes: January 18, 2010.

Monday, January 18th, 2010

The New Jersey Nets are on a pace to win a grand total of six games this season. The NBA record for futility is the 1972-1973 Philadelphia 76ers, who went 9-73. Could the Nets beat the record? The NYT speculates.

I note this only because it will fill Lawrence’s heart with delight: Frank Gehry has withdrawn from the project to design a Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem.

Saturday’s Statesman has a longish article recapping the Triton Financial story, highlighting the firm’s ties to the Mormon church.

Church members and others describe the concentration of Triton executives and investors from the Mormon church as a possible example of “affinity fraud,” in which people looking for money often go first to those they know, either personally or through social organizations.

A $1,000 iPhone app that’s not I Am Rich.

Non story of the day: U.S. Military Weapons Inscribed With Secret ‘Jesus’ Bible Codes.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this, so; I’m back in school one night a week (and not even meeting every night on the schedule). So blogging is either going to be light or heavy as I avoid schoolwork.

Obit watch.

Friday, December 11th, 2009

Thomas Hoving, former curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Gene Barry.

Harlan Ellison has written well about his experiences writing for “The Name of the Game” (and, if I remember correctly, “Burke’s Law” as well). I’d love to see both of those series come out on DVD; you can’t get “Burke’s Law”, but you can get “The Starlost”?

(Edited to add: Well, I will be sheep-dipped.  You can get at least the first season of “Burke’s Law”. If Fry’s has it, I haven’t noticed, and I usually count on them for my TV on DVD availability.)

Random notes: November 25, 2009.

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

Novice urban hunters are forming classes and clubs to learn skills that a few generations ago were often passed down from parent to child.

Shocked, shocked I am to learn that The Biggest Loser may indulge in questionable practices. I am equally shocked to learn that a charity collecting money for the homeless may be a scam.

I am delighted to find out that the CIA Family Advisory Board has published a second cookbook, More Spies, Black Ties, and Mango Pies. I own a copy of the original 1997 cookbook, so I’ll be looking for this one. (Oddly, Amazon doesn’t seem to have the sequel.)

I did not know Julie “Julie and Julia” Powell had a new book out. After reading Addie Broyles’ discussion of it in the Statesman, I wish I still didn’t know she had a new book out.

Edited to add: On the “Art, damn it, art!” front: “Train” in vain.

(Since I got the song stuck in your head, here’s a live Clash video. And here’s a live Annie Lennox version. And here’s a not bad Manic Street Preachers cover.)

Random notes: November 19, 2009.

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

The artist Jeanne-Claude, wife of Christo and his collaborator on “The Gates“, has died.  (NYT obit here.)

In other news, the Oakland Raiders have benched JaMarcus Russell, their number one draft pick in 2007. Per NFL.com, the Honorable Mr. Russell has a quarterback rating of 47.7 (at the time of this writing) which places him 30th. The only player he outranks at the moment is Derek Anderson of Cleveland, with a 36.2. To quote Gregg Easterbrook, “If every attempt by a quarterback falls to the ground incomplete, his rating is 39.6.

On Wednesday, the LPGA released its 2010 schedule, and despite the loss of 13 tournaments from two years ago, 17 open weeks in the season and a few TBDs (to be determineds), there is optimism among tour officials and players.

Fine. Just as long as it stays off my television. (Since I don’t have cable, the Golf Channel is perfectly okay.) The only televised sport I hate more than golf is women’s golf. (I have nothing against playing golf; though I’ve never done it myself, I’m sure it is a fine sport. But watching golf – men’s or women’s – is about as exciting as reading transcripts of Roman Hruska speeches.)

Random notes: October 22, 2009.

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

Today’s NYT continues covering the Sedona sweat lodge incident:

Dr. Bunn, who had signed up for the $9,695 “spiritual warrior” experience

It must be nice to have more money than sense.

A psychic in Waynesville, N.C., Page Bryant, who was among the first to claim in the 1980s that Sedona had several “vortexes” of high energy — the initial lure for the legions of seekers — said that she became fed up and left nearly two decades ago “because of the craziness I saw going on in the New Age community.”

Wow. When the crazy people think you’re too crazy, maybe that’s a sign.

…the comments of a self-described “channeler” who visited Angel Valley after the retreat. Claiming to have communicated with the dead, the channeler said they had left their bodies in the sweat lodge and chosen not to come back because “they were having so much fun.”

Also in the NYT, the latest “trend” story: the return of the restaurant matchbook.

On the “Art, damn it, art!” front, here’s the LAT on the art in front of the new LAPD headquarters building. I’m thinking #4 in the slide show looks a lot like someone with their head buried in the sand.

In local news, some folks in the neighborhood are trying to get TABC to pull the liquor and operating licenses for the Nutty Brown Cafe. I drive past the Nut on a fairly regular basis; it isn’t like there’s a whole lot out there. Additionally, my great and good friends Andrew and the actor we’ve hired to play Karl play live music at the Nut from time to time, and I do kind of like the food there (we had a dining conspiracy there recently, and I have to say my opinion was a minority one) so I’m not exactly sympathetic to these complaints.

Art, damn it, art! watch. (#2 in a series)

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Our great and good friend Mike points us to this artnet article about Damien Hirst’s “No Love Lost: Blue Paintings” exhibition.

As everyone must know by now, he has made these paintings himself, at an easel with paints and brushes, a fact that is remarkable for being remarkable.

Mr. Hirst is, as many of you know, the artist responsible for “The golden calf”  (“calf, 18 carat gold, glass, gold-plated steel, silicone and formaldehyde solution with Carrara marble plinth”) and “The kingdom” (“tiger shark, glass, steel, silicone and formaldehyde solution with steel plinth”).

Art, damn it, art! watch (#1 in a series)

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

I was doing these back in the pre-blog email days, and a couple of people have griped that I haven’t done one in a while. Well, that’s because until now there hasn’t been much art news to report. Now, though, I have a chance to see how many buttons I can push with one blog entry.

First up, the LAT reports on a Frank Lloyd Wright drawing which is currently featured in a local exhibition. The drawing? A “cottage studio” designed for…Ayn Rand.  (A pretty nifty design, I think.)

By way of Balko, we learn of a couple on a quest: to photograph every Sizzler in America.  And they’re planning to publish a book of the photos, too.

(The comments at Balko’s site are amusing, too, especially #24: “No. This is not art. End of discussion.”  Since art is  “any human activity that doesn’t grow out of either of our species two basic instincts: survival and reproduction“, (or then again, maybe it isn’t) the commenter is clearly wrong.)

(Hi, Mike!)