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***Dave Does the Blog

Archive of "Media - Art" posts


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Friday, 3 October 2008, 9:11 PM
Potpourri Bonanza!

Links out the wazoo, for your amusement, edification, and passing of time.

THINGS THAT MAKE ME FROWN

  1. Denver police union T-shirt: "We get up early to beat the crowd... - Okay, actually kind of cleverly funny. And, if I had my way, an actionable offense if any cop is caught wearing one.
  2. Truth Not Tolerance frame - So. Wrong. In some ways, worse than the previous item.
  3. Wachovia nixes Citi deal, pairs with Wells - Oct.... - Time to cross Wells Fargo off my list of institutions to consider housing my money.
  4. Hugh Hefner to sack Playboy bunnies amid financial crisis ... - NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
  5. Bailout Bill #2 - As much as earmarks are a trivial issue in overall federal spending, there is in fact something to McCain's contention that they are a moral failing, and they lower the opinion of the populace about the government. Case in point ...
  6. Media Matters - Claiming "I'm not making any comparison... - Bill O'Reilly compares Nancy Pelosi's hypothetical speech practicing style to that of Adolph Hitler, then disclaims that he's making a comparison between the two people.
  7. Whooping cough kills person in Illinois - Guess I'm glad I just got a vaccination for this ... to visit India.
  8. BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Melamine found in Cadbury... - So at least the Americans aren't being singled out.
  9. Painful? You want Painful?!?!? - So what exactly do doctors do when the warning label on those "little blue pills" comes true and that erection doesn't go away in four hours? Not for the faint of heart.
  10. Muslim Children Gassed At Dayton Mosque - "Christianity - the Religion of Love." Right.

THINGS THAT MAKE ME NOD

  1. Robertson Makes More Dire Predictions - If these are the End Times foretold in the Bible and presaging the Second Coming -- isn't praying that it doesn't happen as prophesied actually a bad thing?
  2. Scientists discover why we overbid for old junk on eBay... - It's not because we want to win -- it's because we fear losing.
  3. Last Supper Menu Clarified - And, no, there wasn't a basket of chips and salsa on the table.
  4. 9 Fail-proof Tips for Eating Healthy at Social Gatherings - These are all excellent strategies.
  5. PC World - What Processes are Safe to Close? - I tend to be overly cautious on this, but I rarely crash my machine, either.
  6. Turning on your inner savant -Sure, let's boost brain abilities with vaguely-targeted electro-magnetic pulses. What could possibly go wrong?

THINGS THAT MAKE ME SMILE

  1. Frank Demolishes O'Reilly: "Your Stupidity Gets In... - Barney Frank, who I'm not the biggest fan of, is my hero for today for standing up to, shouting at, and not getting browbeaten by Bill O'Reilly. O'Reilly only won (despite having a louder microphone) by cutting the interview short.
  2. Fiction Rule of Thumb - Oh, yes, very much so.
  3. I’ll never understand modern art. - Ah, the Tate Modern. It's the ridiculous that keeps being ridiculable.
  4. "Peasant Revolt" - Things to remember in the deepening economic crisis.
  5. google empire collapses - Oh, no! A preacher, angered by Google's opposition to California's Prop 8, is protesting by not using Google!  Whatever shall they do?
  6. Nothing like this view has ever been seen - Weather on Mars. On video. Too freaking cool.
  7. Neil Gaiman's "Graveyard Book," chapter-a-day reading... - Go, Neil, go!
  8. Olympics reach a new low: trademarking the Canadian national anthem and threatening lawsuits over competing uses - Boing Boing - The IOC is a bunch of jerks.
  9. Top 11 Things Geeks Would Do with $700 Billion -I like this plan. I'd be happy to be a part of it.

Filed under :: Big Business :: Fourth Estate :: Health - Science :: Hi-Tech :: Media - Art :: Media - Books :: Media - Sports :: Politics & Law :: Potpourri :: Religion :: Science :: Weight :: Writing and Language
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Friday, 3 October 2008, 8:55 PM
Utah children and sensitive types rescued from legendary phallus!

Why, it's enough to give one the vapors! 

A statue of Kokopelli, a famous symbol of the West, and a healing and fertility god of various Indian cultures, has been removed from public view because it has (whispering) a dingle-dong. I mean, it has a wee-wee. A John Thomas. A ... a ... man-part . You know ... 

An anatomically correct sculpture of the humpbacked flute player Kokopelli has been moved from the front of Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum in Blanding [Utah] after complaints from a local group calling itself the "Values Committee." 

Park manager Teri Paul said she planned to remove the Kokopelli sculpture from the park entirely after a group of Blanding residents threatened a protest because the sculpture has a penis.  

"This [Values Committee] group has let it be known that they are offended by it and would like it removed," said State Parks director Mary Tullius, adding that the group was "complaining that it has male anatomy so it is too phallic for some of the locals."  

Eek! My eyes! My dewy, virginal eyes! 

Because heaven forfend that these folks be, y'know, offended by something they see.

(Hey, can I petition for the removal of stuff that I find offensive? Can I? Huh? Huh?)

Fortunately, though the "Values Committee" simply had to be assuaged (they might have fainted right then and there if not), something not too far from sanity prevailed.

Paul decided to relocate the piece instead after another group of residents protested what they said was censorship.  

[...] The sculpture by Bluff artist Joe Pachak has welcomed visitors to the museum since 1989. It will be placed today in a less obvious place inside the park, according to Paul.  

 

So at least it isn't being melted down. It will just be hidden away from sensitive eyes. 

Note, by the way, that the statue has been there for nearly twenty years. Did the "Values Committee" suddenly stop averting their eyes long enough to see what they were averting their eyes from? Did they abruptly realize what that was a-dangling there? Did they run out of Cosmopolitan Magazines to demand removal of from the local supermarket? 

Park officials said the Kokopelli sculpture is a representation of rock art imagery from Arizona's Canyon de Chelly National Monument. It is similar to other rock art depictions of the deity commonly seen throughout the Four Corners Region.

 

Which just goes to show how primative, pagan, and indecent those Indians used to be. Good thing they were taught how to be decent, upstanding, non-phallus-drawing people, right? 

 

The phallus, it should be noted, is often, though not always, found on images of Kokopelli on cave walls and pottery and the like (often in a much more, um, rampantly robust rendition). That exception was enough for the "committee." 

Blanding resident Harold Lyman supported moving the statue. He objected to the anatomical representation on the statue. He objected to the phallic symbol, saying it sometimes appears on rock art and sometimes does not.

 

Mr Lyman did not answer questions about whether he has moved his own phallus to someplace where he cannot be offended by its sight. 

The statuary wasn't the only utterly objectionable and offensive thing complained about by the "committee."

Paul said a female member of the group also complained about datura plants in front of the museum because of their hallucinogenic properties, claiming park managers are encouraging its use. Paul said the native plant is common in the area and will not be removed.

 

At least not until the Feds get wind of it. 

(via Ginny) 


Filed under :: Media - Art :: ZT & PC
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Thursday, 25 September 2008, 2:24 PM
Potpourri on a TestingThursday Afternoon

SERIOUS STUFF

  1. Identity theft targets children - Not surprising -- it's harder to detect and less well protected.
  2. A biologist reviews an evolution textbook from the Discover Insitute... - Expectedly, if you think science is full of lies and disortions, your science books will be pretty crappy.
  3. A Most Novel Creationism Argument - No, the problem is not that science doesn't take into account supernatural causes -- it's that supernatural causes are, by their very nature, not science. Calling them science is like putting lipstick on a unicorn -- it's still a mythical creature.
  4. Connecticut Dems mull censuring Holy Joe - Lieberman's feigned shock and surprise is maddening. And, no, Joe, it's not like the Soviet Union -- it's like Norway, and another politician who reached across party lines, name of Quisling ...
  5. End of the Anglican crown - 300 year bar to be lifted... - The Brits re-admitting Catholics (and folks married to them) to the throne? And letting girls butt in line ahead of boys based on age? What do they think this is, the Twentieth Century?
  6. Austin Dacey PWNZ my soul - You can respect people and disagree with them. You can even respect people and criticize them, their actions, their beliefs. You can't respect them and still mock them -- but not all disagreement and criticism is mockery. Though some is.

AND ON A LIGHTER NOTE ...

  1. Princess Leia Nagel-esque poster (Leia + Nagel = Leigel?) - I used to be a real Nagel fan back in the day. I still love the look.
  2. The Straight Dope: Do emergency sirens have to be changed frequently ... - Siren info can be fun! That said, I'll confess that the biggest problem I have is not with an overly loud radio or anything like that -- it's that cars as a whole are a lot more soundproof than they used to be once upon a time.
  3. Fringe at Two Episodes - I'm giving it one more episode to grab me.
  4. A Glimpse into the Minds of Kids in 1931 America - Very, very cool. 
  5. Mars rovers still roving - When NASA does something right, it continues to thrill. Years into their assignment -- after a planned lifespan of a few months -- the Mars Rovers are still doing their job. Well done to all the project team.
  6. Ebert pwns bad movie fan - LOL.

Filed under :: Big Business :: Media - Art :: Media - TV :: Parenting :: Politics & Law :: Potpourri :: Religion :: School Daze :: Science :: ZT & PC
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Thursday, 25 September 2008, 5:32 AM
Potpourri on a Purplish Thursday

IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID!

  1. Like sands through the hourglass... - A detailed timeline of the debacle, going back to the 20s.
  2. Such simplicity, such elegance...such nonsense. - Solonor notes how we've been through this before, usually whenever we let the foxes guard the hen house.
  3. YouTube - Rachel Maddow Show: Kids in the Candy Store - Best metaphor ever. Kids, candy, and babysitters ...
  4. Paulson: I Didn’t Suggest Oversight In The Bailout... - "I really wanted oversight, really-truly. I mean, it just would have been presumptuous for me to suggest any. Ignore all that part where it explicitly says no oversight. That's just some boilerplate from some national security legislation ..."
  5. Republican Study Committee "Alternative Plan": This... - Just as with 9/11, we see folks leaping forward to press legislation that they've wanted for decades but never had an "emergency" excuse to get is through.
  6. More humor as medicine on the Wall Street disaster. - I can has bailout?
  7. Trickle Down - 2008-09-23: Sinfest - Yeah, some serious trickle-down going on.
  8. Economic Crisis the Result of “Breakdown in the Family” - It's all the gays getting married. Got it.

IRKSOME, SERIOUS THINGS

  1. Gitmo prosecutor quits :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Nation - Acting on his conscience and on behalf of the justice system. That's actually good thing.
  2. Man farts at officer, charged with battery - People behaving badly ... but one of them is an officer of the court.
  3. Louisiana Rep. LaBruzzo wants to pay poor people to be sterilized ... - "... and decrease the surplus population." I look forward to the stinging rebuke from the Catholic Church and various right-to-life organizations.
  4. There is such a thing as bad satire - As in "satire that is not recognizable as such because there are lunatics out there saying that very thing." It's a trap The Onion gets into at times, and Roger Ebert got into it this time.

PLEASANT, PERIPHERAL THINGS

  1. Johnny Depp Cast in Burton’s Alice, The Lone Ranger... - Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter? Brilliant. Johnny Depp as Cap'n Jack again? Rather not. Johnny Depp as the Lone Ranger? Only if he's playing it straight.
  2. Dungeons & Dragons & Rotten Musicians - Not my cuppa, but if you like D&D hip-hop, here you go.
  3. Solonor's Ink Well: The Next Doctor - Intesting, and a bit retro.
  4. Astronomers Find "Dark Flow" Sucking Matter Out of the Universe ... - The coolness factor outweighs the universal catastrophe factor, at least for a few billion years.
  5. DoJ to Congress: We've got better things to do than... - "... serve as pro bono legal agents for the recording industry." Wow, the DoJ grows a pair. Now, will Congress, which has fast-tracked this idiotic legislation, lay off?
  6. Japan's badass new prime minister - Okay, now I want to see similar videos for Obama and McCain. 
  7. Many Eyes - Very cool data visualization site.
  8. Friends Everywhere, and other Friendly Features - I'm not likely to use Tags, but being able to alphabetize my feeds in Google Reader will be nice.
  9. Show of Talent | Creativity Online - These book covers are lovely -- but like so many lovely book covers, they don't actually encourage me to buy the book.
  10. Professor Wikipedia - A nice analysis of the perils and pitfalls thereof.
  11. Firefox 3.1 to offer private browsing | News | TechRadar... - Making the world safe for ... um ... folks who don't want their sessions recorded. That's the ticket!
  12. A Writer's Rant - :: LEAST I COULD DO FORUM :: - Watching Harlan Ellison rant on a subject almost always brings a smile. In this case, it's about writers working for free.
  13. 25 Beautiful Macro Photography Shots - Very pretty.

 


Filed under :: Big Business :: Gaming :: Gay Stuff :: Hi-Tech :: Homeland Security :: Media - Art :: Media - Books :: Media - Movies :: Media - Music :: Media - TV - Doctor Who :: Media Moguls :: My Computer :: Politics & Law :: Potpourri :: Writing and Language
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Thursday, 18 September 2008, 7:51 AM
Potpourri early on a Thursday

IMPORTANT (BUT PERHAPS NOT PLEASANT)

  1. PRELUDIUM: Six Bishops of one mind doing the right... - What? Religious leaders standing up for equal rights for gays? Aaaah ... they're Episcopalians. I guess this seems a bit more progressive than our brethren across the ocean: Church of England issues 'apology' to Darwin.
  2. Crows use causal reasoning - Go, corvids, go!
  3. Colorado's Salazar may back Matheson oil-shale plan - Salazar is a hack. That said, I have a long-term interest in oil shale (it was a major topic of discussion in my high school debate class back in (cough) 1975, and my company does work related to this up in Canada). My concern is not over oil shale itself, but over the environmental impacts of its extraction. Show me how it's going to be properly regulated, and you can start digging in my back yard.
  4. dog fight over england - What's remarkable is not that the Crufts dog show is threatening to yank its broadcast contract with the BBC over a damning tell-all about the pure-bred dog industry and dog shows, but that the BBC would still consider carrying the competition.
  5. Oops! My bad. - This is wrong -- badly wrong -- on so many levels, from a goofy "manslaughter" conviction to the War on Drugs.
  6. Public Resource wants to open source America's operating system... - Why it is so difficult to get laws and legal codes out into the public eye so that anyone can look them up online remains a mystery to me. Well, I'm sure there are special interests that don't want it to happen, but functionally it seems like a no-brainer to me.
  7. A private eye's best friend - Remember that when you call up Domino's. Of course, if you're ordering Domino's pizza, you probably deserve it.
  8. Houston food banks need your help - And if you can, you should.
  9. Deciphering the myriad of claims on a carton of eggs - I actually spend a lot of time parsing egg cartons myself. It's my one sop to avoiding animal cruelty, since it's pretty straightforward and, ostensibly, on the label. And, unlike various types of meat, one has an array of choices for eggs at the supermarket. Bottom line for me -- I want cage-free, free-range chickens laying my eggs, getting afternoon massages, and playing with puppies and unicorns in flowery fields.
  10. Oregon man threatens suit for the right to video-record cops... - Police have a full right to privacy -- when they take their badges and uniforms off at the end of their shift. When they are acting as public servants, their every move should be open to public scrutiny.

TRIVIAL (BUT PROBABLY MORE ENJOYABLE)

  1. Welcome to the Official site for Talk Like A Pirate Day ... - It's tomorrow! Yikes! If you want to do a blog make-over, here's a valuable resource: Pirates & Fonts
  2. PeterDavid.net: George and Brad's wedding - More news from the Mr-and-Mr Sulu wedding.
  3. Golden Age Comic Book Stories - Lovecraft art - Lovecraft's horror is best suited to the mind's eye. When rendered in art -- especially more conventional art -- it looks ... almost cute. Certainly you lose the whole non-Euclidean bit.
  4. Selling Spells - I suspect most magick practitioners I know wouldn't approve. 
  5. Bioshock, Resident Evil 5 and more go Atari 2600 - Fun.
  6. There will be a sixth “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” novel... - But not from Douglas Adams (obviously). Not feeling particularly enthusiastic here.
  7. American Legion WWII posters - These are awesomely cool. There is something very clean and straightforward and effective about propaganda posters.
  8. Roses for KTLA's Stephanie Edwards | Show Tracker... - Stephanie Edwards' unintentional loopiness was sorely missed thee past few years during the Rose Parade, after KTLA kicked her (literally, then figuratively) to the curb. It will be entertaining to have her back.
  9. Toilet Paper Breakthrough - Three-ply will no doubt be followed by four-ply, five-ply, and five-ply with battery-operated vibro-action.

Filed under :: Food & Drink :: Gaming :: Gay Stuff :: Media - Art :: Media - Books :: Media - TV :: Pets :: Politics & Law :: Potpourri :: Religion - Episcopal Church :: Science :: ZT & PC
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Wednesday, 10 September 2008, 8:55 PM
Potpourri with minimal politics

  1. Rounded Corners - generating boxes with rounded corners using CSS. Spiffy! 
  2. Attention iTunes Users - And this is why, ladies and gents, I never update iTunes as soon as the little popup suggest I do so. Apple continues to tarnish its reputation.
  3. The Definition of Theistic Rationalism - An interesting and fairly accurate description of how most of the Founding Fathers dealt with religion. There was actually a fairly wide spectrum of faith and theology that they held to, but, as a rule, this model works.
  4. Dead Sea Scroll in Stone published in English for the first time... - Very cool, and long overdue.
  5. Book of breast-like objects - For those with one-track minds (ahem).
  6. Debunking an Autism Theory - NYTimes.com - And, tragically, kids have ended up being harmed by fear-haunted parents keeping them from taking valuable vaccinations.
  7. Slate reviews adult diapers - Not surprisingly, just as parents can cite and debate the relative merits of various baby diapers, so, too, are not all adult diapers made equal. Laugh while you can, people ...
  8. OPM opposes proposal for 4-day workweek - FederalTimes.com - Should the Federal Government adopt a 4-day work weak? Hmmmm ... maybe that could start a trend ...
  9. U.S. Army Hooks Up With Sears - What knucklehead decided that using a real unit's insignia was appropriate for a Sears clothing line? I don't care what royalties it brings -- think about what it means to the past and present members of that unit.
  10. BB&B Responds To Customer Complaint Over 911 Debacle... - Good heavens, an actual apology? Color me impressed!
  11. Video: The History Of Maxwell House Shrinkage - This goes right with the "Skimpy Peanut Butter" posts of a few days ago.
  12. Hot Beef Sundae - Um ... no.
  13. Bacon Vodka - Again, no. Really, no. As much as I like bacon (and can tolerate vodka) ... no. Though, I suppose, if you're into that sort of thing, it probably would be faboo in a Bloody Mary.
  14. "A Culture Of Ethical Failure" and Illicit Sex By Government Officials Probed - Today's big scandal, giving new meaning to the phrase, "the public was screwed by the energy companies." This is getting a lot of play here in Denver, where some of the bad actors were.
  15. New York Times on Salvia Divinorum - It's fascinating to see a completely new intoxicant appear in society, once that's highly potent but quite short-lived, has potential pharma applications, hasn't caused much in the way of documented injury (compared to, say, beer) -- and the first impulse of every legislature is to criminalize it.
  16. DC-area mayor whose dogs were shot dead in botched... - Click through the top link to get the original story. Sadly, hardly the only time something like this has happened, or that innocents have been victims of the War on Drugs. I hope someone gets their kevlar sued off of them.

And, finally, for the End of the World: Large Hadron Collider hasn't sucked us into a black hole ... ... yet. After all, they only fired a single proton stream. They haven't yet actually collided anything ...


Filed under :: Big Business :: Food & Drink :: Health - Science :: Job Jollies :: Media - Art :: My Computer :: Politics & Law :: Potpourri :: Religion :: ZT & PC
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Friday, 15 August 2008, 2:43 PM
Potpourri of Happy Things

Taking a minute or three off to pull together a few Shared items. Hopefully this makes up a bit for the paucity of actual posts of late.

  1. Calories In - Calories Out: By and large, it's just about that simple.
  2. Giz Explains: The Magic Behind Touchscreens [Giz Explains]: While there's a long time before it's altogether true, the touch screen will (IMO) become the dominant physical interface before too long, and having a bunch of buttons, or a "real" keyboard, on the high tech gear will make a lot of SF TV and movies of the past four decades look horribly and laughably dated.
  3. Contact lenses for "anime eyes": Ooooh ... pretttty ... Yeah, it'd be creepy if we were talking about actual body mods, but contact lenses? That's kind of cool.
  4. 7 Reasons Fringe Will Rule TV: Makes a note to put it on the DVR ...
  5. Ruling Splits Star Wars Case: So ... the copyright on Star Wars designs has lapsed in the UK? Awesome ... 
  6. Stopping Movable Type eating your database: Making a note of this one. I think I'm okay here, but ...
  7. Movable Type Pro to meld blogging and social networking: Urg. 4.2, and I'm still struggling to get around to installing 4.1, let alone update my templates. Urg.
  8. Trek Online Game Developing: On the one hand, the Trek-verse has a huge potential for a shared gaming universe. On the other hand, intentionally pulling it "after" the "current" continuity, such that one won't interact with any "name" talents, is going to seriously impair its popularity.
  9. Starlost, The: Release Date (The Correct One!), Extras,... : Sorry, as much as I have a perverse desire to see this childhood love (and famous train wreck of a series), I'm not going to pay that much for the privilege.
  10. I am one grain of sand: Hear me roar. 
  11. Giant dog turd wreaks havoc at Swiss museum | World...: Oh, Modern Art, is there nothing you cannot do to make us laugh at you?
  12. 303 - World Government Plan: Aliens to Police USA: I don't see a dot on the map for the underground slave labor camp out at Denver International ... so it must be a fake.
  13. Awesome lightning pictures: Lightning is one of the most awesome -- and utterly transient -- natural phenomina. Coolness.

 


Filed under :: Blogging :: Blogging - Technical :: Gaming :: Hi-Tech :: Media - Art :: Media - Movies :: Media - TV :: Media Moguls :: Potpourri :: Weather :: Weight
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Monday, 28 July 2008, 11:20 PM
Potpourri on a warm Monday night

The Good

  1. Font conference - This is just kinda good geeky font-loving fun.
  2. Popular boat names - Many boat names are imaginative. These are not.
  3. Art to last 10,000 years - How do you make art that will last for a hundred centuries? it's not easy.
  4. 1960s ad for rice - Mmmmm ... rice.
  5. Seven Facts About Our Internal Body Clock | Newsweek... - Good to know.
  6. Free Realms: Free Realms - The Best MMO At E3? - Keeping my eyes on this one for Kitten.
  7. Radley Balko: A Few Questions for Barack Obama - As much as I am an Obama supporter, I think these questions are perfectly legit.
  8. Obama on Firewalling Time to Think - On the other hand ... fatigue means mistakes, great and small. We can't afford that with a president.
  9. Freakazoid on DVD -- yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes! - Yes!
  10. A Safer Gmail With Https - Seriously considering this.
  11. …because the apocalypse doesn’t have to be lonely. - Hearts! Brains!
  12. PRELUDIUM: All I want for Christmas is two tablets... - I would so accept these as a gift.
  13. The Sarah Jane Adventures DVD news: Announcement for... - I enjoyed the ones of these I watched, and I think Katherine would enjoy them, too. DVD set sounds like a fine idea.

The Bad

  1. Respectful Insolence: Oh no! My cell phone's going... ... to kill you? No, really ... it's not.
  2. The Hoax Photo Database - Always useful to know.
  3. A Tale of Two Press Biases - This actually makes sense. Yes, the McCain camp is correct that Obama gets a lot more press coverage. Yes, the Obama camp is correct that McCain gets pass after pass on his gaffes and inconsistencies.
  4. Fox TV news anchors enjoy plastic coffee - To go with their content-free news.

The Ugly

  1. Elderly woman prohibited from photographing empty... - I feel safer knowing that elderly women photographing empty playgrounds are being forbidden from doing so because they may actually be pedophiles. Yup!
  2. Don't Ask, Don't Tell - Of all the stupid policies whose time has come and gone ...
  3. Brides demand breast-surgery for their bridesmaids - Mercifully, most bridesmaids are rejecting this particular insanity.
  4. MPAA wants to randomly break your home theater depending... - Because I want Paramount and Sony deciding which pieces of my home theater should be able to interact with their content. Right.
  5. Why is the TSA taking out nipple rings and pantsing... - Why? Because they can.
  6. Report: Former Justice Department officials broke... and Report confirms politicization of the Justice Department. - It's not so much that there was at least some political bias in the selection of federal prosecutors and immigration judges. I mean, that sort of thing just tends to happen. My objection is that it was so shameless and blatant and stupid, with no pretense as to trying to do the right thing. 
  7. John McCain tries very hard not to answer question... and McCain Caves To Right Wing On Gay Adoption, Says Orphans... - It's unclear in this coverage whether McCain is trying to maneuver away from an impolitic answer, is trying to pander to too many constituencies, or is just too confused about his own stand on the subject to be coherent. None of these is a good thing.

Filed under :: Big Business :: Elections 2008 :: Food & Drink :: Fourth Estate :: Gaming :: Gay Stuff :: Health - Science :: Homeland Security :: Love and Marriage :: Media - Art :: Media - Movies :: Media - TV :: Media - TV - Doctor Who :: Media Moguls :: My Computer :: My Mobile / PDA :: Politics & Law :: Potpourri :: Writing and Language
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Friday, 20 June 2008, 7:42 AM
Night mare

In case you were wondering about the comments regarding the Demon Horse of Denver ... here's what we're talking about.

DIA corrals mane attraction : Updates : The Rocky Mountain News
Horse sculpture soars outside DIA - The Denver Post 

First, the complements:

"As I was leaving last night, I couldn't stop the tears, it was so beautiful," said Rudi Cerri, public art administrator for the city of Denver. ... "The lights were shining on it and it conveyed such a sense of power," Cerri said.

[...] Said Matt Chasanski, also a public art administrator: "It just speaks to power and movement and energy, like so much of the artist's work. A lot of Luis' work was about movement through time and space."

Chasanski said the development of the West hinged on the horse. "This shows its impact, powerful and dominant."

Cerri added, "It's a bold piece for a bold landscape."

Which just goes to show you that, come the revolution, the "public art administrators" will be up against the wall alongside the lawyers and politicians.

(I speak sarcastically here. I actually tend to like, or at least appreciate, a lot of public art. Can't make everyone happy, etc., but I realize that many pieces that were once disdained are now accepted as landmarks. Having said that ...)

Outside of public art administrators (who probably summer in London so they can hang out at the Tate Modern), a quick search on the web found pretty much everyone hates the thing and calls it something like the Demon Horse of Denver [International Airport]. The 32-foot tall critter is situated in the middle of an interchange leading up to (or from) the main terminal building, and it's impossible not to see.

  1. It's vivid blue.
  2. It's 32 feet tall.
  3. Its eyes glow red (visible in daylight, even more disturbing under spotlights at night).
  4. It's hideous.

On the latter, it's not hideous because of of the color, size, eyes, or motif. It's hideous because it's ... well ... a really awful representation of a horse. Not awful as in metaphorically abstract -- horrible as in very poorly proportioned. The head is startlingly small, the forelegs look overlong, the body's form seems twisted and tormented, veins popping out all over its bony sides ...

I can only assume the city was willing to still put it up this year because (a) they'd been waiting since 1992, (b) they'd already sunk $650K in it, and (c) the artist, Luis Jimenez, was killed in 2006 when a piece of the Demon Horse fell on him, and it only seemed the polite thing to do in tribute.

The contrast between this public sculpture and the Big Blue Bear at the Convention Center is striking.

Not that I'm suggesting the Bear, or even its style, should be replicated everywhere. But my reaction to the two of them is so dramatically different, there must be something in-between.

One writer suggests that the artist is actually a talented individual, and has done other artwork that is quite attractive, and seems talented at picking up on urban vibes. That may, in fact, be the problem. In a built-up or urban setting, this piece probably wouldn't cause a blink. But where it stands -- in the middle of roadways in a great, flat, near-vacant expanse -- it draws the eye to itself alone, not how it fits into the surroundings. Because it doesn't.

The DIA folks had wanted to actually install it somewhere inside the airport, and my first reaction was to think that it was a good thing they hadn't because then we'd have to see it for prolonged periods, not just as long as it takes us to flee, scuttling under its burning gaze, as we try to escape its horror. But in retrospect, inside the airport (where?) might have been better. This is a piece that requires context, not solitude. Maybe that context is a huge draped tarp, or maybe it's just other buildings and lights and activity, but it's done a disservice standing where it is.

Which is where the artist wanted it, by the bye, and, in fact, sued successfully to have it placed. And, his usefulness at an end, the creature slew him! Bwah-ha-ha! 

I predict that, in about ten years (long enough for the current administrators to leave, and someone to raise another block of cash) it will be removed from that location and something else more conventional put in its place. Which, I further predict, will then create an outcry by people who have come to accept it as idiosyncratic but truly Denver.

Heck, maybe I'll be one of them.


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Tuesday, 27 May 2008, 10:44 PM
The world's biggest drawing

Because it is, in fact, a drawing the size of the world.

“With the help of a GPS device and DHL, I have drawn a self portrait on our planet,” writes Swedish artist Erik Nordenankar on his website for the project, appropriately named http://biggestdrawingintheworld.com. “My pen was a briefcase containing the GPS device, being sent around the world. The paths the briefcase took around the globe became the strokes of the drawing.” The resulting drawing’s dimensions are 40,076,592 by 40,009,153 meters – which are about the dimensions of the Earth’s surface, if it could be rolled out as a canvas.

Cool.

UPDATE: Uncool. As Les notes in the comments, it's a fake.


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May '02
The Yellow Hat Project

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