the peanut gallery
__________________
14:08
The Great Wall of China
Now one of the most obscure of our institutions is that of the empire itself. In Peking, naturally, at the imperial court, there is some clarity to be found on this subject, though even that is more illusive than real. Also the teachers of political law and history in the schools of higher learning claim to be exactly informed on these matters, and to be capable of passing on their knowledge to their students. The farther one descends among the lower schools the more, naturally enough, does one find teachers’ and pupils’ doubts of their own knowledge vanishing, and superficial culture mounting sky-high around a few precepts that have been drilled into people’s minds for centuries, precepts which, though they have lost nothing of their eternal truth, remain eternally invisible in the fog of confusion.
9 December 2009. 21:45
In allowing himself to work with practically any material and very little intent, Rauschenberg could achieve arrangements of objects that created meaning in each other instead of relying on the artist. His teacher Josef Albers had emphasized the dramatic ability for the feeling of a color to change in its interaction with other adjacent colors, and Rauschenberg found that similar effects came about by the juxtaposition of materials in his own painting. Where the abstract expressionists used spontaneity as a tool to delve into their subconscious in a search for hidden truths, Rauschenberg used it as an assurance that his own personality or creative pretense would not slip in. His ultimate goal: achieve total “self-annihilation” in the finished product—a complete reversal of the abstract expressionists struggle to reveal the true self.
Reservoir is unique among the combines in that it introduces the notion of time explicitly, an element that was always implicitly important to Rauschenberg’s art. Indeed, he justified his hectic working style by this fact, saying “I want my paintings to be reflections of life, and life can’t be stopped.” Temporality is precisely what undermines the validity of induction, says Hume, and likewise, time itself is exactly what eliminates the possibility of gaining the inductive knowledge that Rauschenberg tempts us with in Reservoir. These competing facts of existence—that time is continuous, and that time will obliterate fixed meanings—are directly at odds with the heroic pursuit of the abstract expressionist, who strives for a timeless inner purity that has been somehow obscured by present experience.
17:56
Improvised apple pie.
I often scarf down this delectable around 2am. Alternating between a bite of graham and a hunk of apple flesh, you can achieve amazingly convincing pie effects (for best results, be sure to avoid agitating your jaw muscles to free the graham particles wedged between your teeth and gums).
3:24
Tonight I whole-heartedly recommended, to a friend with crippling depression, that he find an old copy of pokemon blue, and leer, mega punch, and hyper beam his troubles into oblivion. Might call this the 151 step program if it works. By the time you’ve caught ‘em all and gotten someone to gamegenie you mew with a link cable, there’s nothing to feel but euphoria.
7 December 2009. 23:19
when this team came out i got a bunch of their apparel to wear to elementary school cause i thought the logo was cool
22:36
Bleasdale won first place in the Pictures of the Year International Awards with this one a few years ago, and it hasn’t lost any of its power. Bleasdale has a particular interest in child soldiers and has photographed them all over the world, but I thought the awards description for this one was particularly bracing: “The garlands on his head protect him from evil spirits and as a Mai Mai he believes that bullets will pass off him like water. Manny Mai Mai will not touch the “unclean” and things are passed between each other by placing things on the floor and chanting, throwing dirt on the article to clean it.”
Copyright Marcus Bleasdale
Reblogged from Stereoscopic Magic.
0:21
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
(Mr. Churchhill Says)
ray davies sneering lines of churchhill’s speeches.. cracks me up every time
