Wednesday, October 20. 2010
Quoted in an otherwise appreciative City Journal review of a Normal Rockwell show, this supercilious comment:
Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik, who in reviewing the show derided Rockwell as the cowardly, “aw, shucks” epitome of Middle America. Rockwell “doesn’t challenge any of us, or himself, to think new thoughts or try new acts or look with fresh eyes,” wrote Gopnik. “From the docile realism of his style to the received ideas of his subjects, Rockwell reliably keeps us right in the middle of our comfort zone.”
I can't stand people who write like that. I almost thought it was satire, at first.
Whoever decided that art was meant to afflict comfort? Comfort is a good thing, and difficult to obtain. Sure, art ought to be stimulating in some way - like any other sort of entertainment - or nobody would buy it. Art is entertainment. We love looking at pictures and designs of all sorts.
Here's Rockwell's 1962 Saturday Evening Post cover pic, The Connoisseur. It makes me think new thoughts and try new acts, and I think his Pollock imitation is better than Pollock:
Tuesday, October 19. 2010
Carl Sagan's bunkometer list, via SDA re global warming climate change climate disruption:
- Whenever possible there must be independent confirmation of the “facts”
- Encourage substantive debate on the “evidence” by knowledgable proponents of all points of view.
- Arguments from authority carry little weight as “authorities” have made mistakes in the past. They will do so again in the future. Perhaps a better way to say it is that there are no authorities; at most; there are “experts”.
- Spin a variety of hypotheses. If there’s something to be explained, think of all the different ways in which it could be explained. Then think of tests by which you might systematically disprove each. The ones that survive are the ones to do in depth study on.
- Do not become attached to any hypothesis just because it’s yours. Find reasons for rejecting all, including your own, hypothesis.
- Quantify. If whatever you are explaining has a measure, quantify it so that measurement is more possible. Vague hypothesis, or those difficult to quantify will be the most difficult to prove or disprove.
- If there is a chain argument, then each and every link must work, including the premise.
- Use Occam’s Razor; which is to choose the hypothesis that explains the data in the simplest terms.
- Ask: is the Hypothesis testable and falsifiable. Hypothesis that are not testable are not worth much. Could you duplicate accurately, at least theoretically, the hypothesis?
Monday, October 18. 2010
Photos of East Germany, before and after reunification. h/t No Pasaran
Photos of the construction of the new Swiss tunnel
Sunday, October 17. 2010
 As I live and learn, I no longer view Roman civilization as "ancient." Old, but not ancient. Those folks were a lot like us, and lived a lot like us.
Roman floor mosaics and wall paintings were the usual fashionable decor of the time, and typical for the homes of the prosperous. Naturally, the floor mosaics are better preserved than wall mosaics or wall paintings.
In 2009 we were fortunate to make our way to the Bardo Museum in Tunis to see the world's largest collection of Roman mosaics. They have so many, you even walk on them to get from one display room to another. This was decor, mind you - not fine art.
The Lod mosaics are a recent find, very-well preserved. They are now displayed in NYC.
Here's the story of the Lod mosaics.
Saturday, October 16. 2010
Our wonderful, invigorating cold weather is finally upon us, despite the warming alarums. I got my wood. It's a start, at least. That's about two cords, and I'll need another two to get to Spring.
I am not good for much, but I can split wood pretty good.
Friday, October 15. 2010
 From Sipp, or Greg Sullivan, or whatever his current alias is. A quote:
Me, I'm self-employed, so I always have to be on the lookout lest my next meal comes out of that dumpster I mentioned earlier. My resellers went bankrupt with a bucket of my money, my biggest customer went bust and handed me a five figure loss, the forty percent equity I had in my house might as well have been forty dollars, the state of Massachusetts demanded I purchase $13,000 worth of health insurance with an adjusted gross income that was hovering a little above that just then, and the banks that lent me money at 3% would like it paid back at 30%. Or immediately. Immediately would work for them, they said. Time for a change.
It's illegal to vote with your feet using the method I had in mind for many of the people foremost in my mind last year --using a shod foot like that is a felony -- so we decided that we'd move instead.
Read the whole thing. It's America today. Also, if you happen to be a Down-easter, read the Meteor. It's your only reliable source of info...assuming you can get contact with the intertubes up there.
Wednesday, October 13. 2010
Via Reason, this remarkable portrait of a dead American city. It's not easy to kill a city without bombs, but unions, numbskull business managements, and corrupt pols did it there. Their "light rail" will be the tombstone before the whole city is plowed over to grow wheat or corn or trees or something.
Government did not build NYC's subways and trains. Businesses built those things to meet a profitable demand. Someday though, this absurdity in Detroit might be a tourist attraction - to ride a trolley through the vacant lots, wreckage, and abandoned buildings filled with feral dogs and cats.
Monday, October 11. 2010
These pics came in over the transom, but I guess they originally came via Funpics.
A few more, marginally NSFW, below the fold.
Continue reading "T-shirts"
Saturday, October 9. 2010
For true Yankees, being able to sail is a basic outdoor life skill, along with riding a horse, tennis, swimming, ice-skating, log-splitting, starting a fire, dog-training, and shooting. Every region of the country, and the world, has its basics, doesn't it?
One-design racing boats. Sailing season is winding down in the Northeast US, but for no good reason I thought it time to review a few cool boats. If you have never raced, you have no idea how complicated and tricky this game is - or how athletic it can be. Talent, knowledge, experience, and skill win consistently.
The Star (or International Star, or "Starboat"). This 22' 2-man keelboat was designed in 1910. No spinnaker: whisker pole for the jib downwind. It remains an Olympic Class and a favorite of serious racers. Plenty of professional big boat racers would be happier racing a Star, but there's not much money in it unless you are a sail salesman on the side. Not much fun for a day sail.
A new Star goes for around $50-60,000; used $16-35,000, depending on equipment, quality, and age.
Another popular racing class, and also an Olympic class. The Etchells, designed in 1965 by Connecticut's Skip Etchells. A 30' 3-4-man keelboat. You can buy a used Etchells for $15-30,000. There is almost no reason to ever buy a new fiberglass sailboat. A new suit of sails and fancy rigging can cost almost the price of the used boat, however.
The good old Lightning. I could race one of these, blindfolded. A light hand on the tiller telegraphs even subtle wind shifts. The class is nowhere near as large as it once was, but is still one of the largest one-design classes. A 19' three-man racer with a centerboard, the Lightning also doubles as an enjoyable day-sailer.
Over 300,000 Sunfish have been built since the 1950s. Ancient lateen rig. No sailboat is more fun for two people, preferably you at age 18 and a girl in a loose bikini. People do race them - one man - for fun and for serious. We used to think it was amusing to capsize a Sunfish and listen to the girl squeal when her boobs fell out of her top, but the best was when my buddy and I would go out right after a hurricane and surf the 10-15'-foot waves on a Sunfish. (How, and why, did we survive? Our parents never knew we were out there, no life jackets, etc. My Mom would have killed me. She was a serious sailor, though, in youth.)
We learned a lot about boat-handling in the process.
My final boat du Jour, the 33' J-105. Quite popular these days, as a racer and a day-sailer or cruising sailboat. Not much overhead in the cabin, however, and it's a handful for amateurs in a stiff breeze. Over 700 of them have been built. Fast boat. A pal of mine just bought a new one (around $250,000), and promised me we would sail her before he puts her away for the winter. He is getting new carbon fiber sails made. I'd like to take her for a spin in a 25 knot breeze. We'll see whether he calls me...
Friday, October 8. 2010
Wellfleet Harbor, during our visit to Wellfleet on Cape Cod with Bird Dog & Co in September.
Thursday, October 7. 2010
Our post a while ago about Claire's Knee had me thinking about enchantment. You may recall that the Rohmer movie was about a gentleman who became enchanted, bewitched, charmed, by a teenage girl.
Nowadays, in our pathologizing way, we might say "obsessed" instead, even though it is an entirely natural thing for men to be bewitched by women (and, until very recent history, entirely normal for young teens to marry). It doesn't necesarily take much to have this effect: a knee, the way she holds a teacup, a dimple, a sexy imperfection, the delicate way her fingers touch your hand during conversation, or the way she says "Thank you." Feminine graces do have a magic to them. Men, piggish oafs that these adorable creations are, generally lack the magical effect on women... unless they are sociopathic or narcissistic.
We now say "What a charming person" without necessarily meaning too much. Perhaps just meaning that they are pleasant, use the right fork, and do not say the f word at dinner. However, the etymologies of the word charm, like enchanted (and certainly like bewitched) have powerful origins in notions of magic spells and of being captured or controlled by something. (And, interestingly, in singing. Music can be an enchantment, can't it?).
The things that these words describe have remarkable powers for good, and for destruction. Like drugs.
Editor's addendum: Some may recall that the three bat brothers in Pogo were named Bewitched, Bothered, and Bemildred. Always cracked me up, because my Godmother was named Mildred. She was from Tallahassee, dramatic in her graciousness and warmth, and always wore big, high-fashion hats. Would not go out without a hat. An enchanting lady who held my Godfather in her spell until he died.
A pleasure to watch, last Sunday afternoon. There is a good friend of Maggie's on the red boat.
Wednesday, October 6. 2010
It's the F List. Some Duke fellows are surely profoundly humiliated by this, but if you can't do the time, don't do the crime.
Drunken frat boys have made these rating lists for many years about gals, so why not a chick? It's good satire, despite being true. I guess she is a modern woman.
My college experience was nothing like that. I had to study too hard and too long to do well, and having two adorable little sisters made it impossible for me to view gals as pieces of meat. (I remember predator guys referring to the new freshman gals as "the freshmeat.")
I think I am more lascivious now than I was then, but I am meeting independent, grown women, not goofy college girls.
From the story:
Cute gals can get it any time they want to study the subject. Not so easy for us guys, despite reports of all the desperately horny women out there. Many of them have standards: there's the rub.
Sunday afternoon:
Tuesday, October 5. 2010
Just catching up on my email and received this from my friend Captain Wayne Beardsley - a short video from his recent trip to the Burgundy region of France along the Seille River.
These are self- captained barge style boats that are easy to navigate and control having 40 hp engines and bow thrusters to aid in positioning while docking or using the river locks. They aren't hard to control at all as they have a really slow hull speed at 4-5 knots (about 5 mph +/- 1) and hydraulic steering makes it all a breeze. The other boat in the video is one from the same company heading back up river.
The company who rents these boats is called Le Boat (what else would they call it?). The boat they rented was the Tango model.
One of the interesting comments Captain Beardsley mentioned was the river lock system. Apparently there are three styles of locks - fully manual/self operated; unattended automatic locks; and the more typical operated by a lock keeper.
I found the description of the automatic locks really interesting. "The way it works is a blue pole is suspended over the water from an overhead cable. If the lock is closed with a red signal light, the procedure is to approach the pole slowly and for someone on the boat to give the pole a half twist activating a switch causing the lower gate to close, and the lock to start a refill cycle. Meanwhile the light signal turns to both red and green with a flashing strobe. After the lock fills, the upper gate opens, the signal light turns green, and all of the boats enter that can fit in. When everyone has their lines secure, someone activates another blue pole along the side of the lock which closes the upper gate and starts the lowering sequence."
Wayne said that the manual/self-operated locks took a little getting used to. While they operated all the same way, the instructions written in French were a tad "terse" as he put it. He went through this type of lock with a couple of more experienced boats to get the procedure down then off they went on their own.
It sounds like a great trip as there were a lot of medieval towns along the route and, as Wayne put it, great food and great wine.
They finished off the trip in Monaco at the Monaco Boat Show which, just from looking at the exhibitors on the show site, must have been something to see. Use the search, select the brokers and charters selection under the activity sector tab and check out some of the boats.
Monday, October 4. 2010
From a review of the new film:
The film is adapted from the autobiography of Li Cunxin, a peasant child in the wilds of rural China who, at age 11, is plucked out of a one-room schoolhouse to attend Madame Mao's dance school in Beijing. He ends up with the Houston Ballet Company as part of a cultural exchange program, and a few mildly humorous scenes of culture shock follow. Once he has tasted the liberty -- and the good life -- of America, however, the new star doesn't want to return.
We took a stroll with friends on the High Line yesterday, after seeing Batsheva at the Joyce.
This new walkway sure is a popular item. It's an old elevated railroad line which ran down to the meat-packing district. It's been converted to a walkway with private donations, and it is not complete yet - it will run uptown all the way to the Javits convention center.
Part of its appeal, I think, is that you can really see the sweep of the city up here, instead of just sidewalks and storefronts. You can see the architecture - industrial and otherwise. Views of the Hudson, and a good distant view of the Statue of Liberty out in the harbor.
If you don't care for heights, the Greenway is another popular walking, running, and people-watching route. The staid East Side of Manhattan is lifeless, these days.
More pics below the fold -
Continue reading "A walk on the West Side - The High Line"
Sunday, October 3. 2010
From Heather McDonald's Windy City Silence - The truth behind the city’s youth-crime spree remains unspoken:
The studied silence in Chicago about the massive reality that underlies that city’s youth-violence epidemic—black family breakdown—is so complete as to border on perverse.
Friday, October 1. 2010
With Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot, at neoneo. What a movie!
Update: Darn - MGM blocked the clips. Never mind. Too bad. If you are a youngster and have never seen it, see it. Funniest movie ever made.
Thursday, September 30. 2010
Pretty funny.
Here's some art: This is Truth and Repentance, a detail from Botticelli's allegorical The Calumny of Appelles. Interestingly, this was Sandro's last secular painting. He became a Renaissance reborn Christian. How that happened I do not know.
12-step manuscript rare glimpse into early AA. It begins:
In 1939, about 5,000 copies of a book offering hopeless drunks a spiritual path to recovery through 12 steps were released by a fledgling fellowship of alcoholics.
Wednesday, September 29. 2010
Sipp. A quote:
I want to see old people. I want to see babies. I want to tell people their ugly children are beautiful. I want the ballgame to be on TV. I want the TV to be on a shelf over a bar.
I want to go to church on Sunday. I want to go to a bar on Friday night. I want to go dancing with my wife of many years on Saturday. I want to be buried in the same suit I was married in. I want people to stand there and look at my cold face and say I was no great shakes but I was alright.
I'll tell it to you while you are still warm, Sipp: "You are alright." I think it's a wonderful thing to know what one wants, especially when they are simple gifts.
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A big deal: