Attentive viewers of Jackson Pollock’s Number 27, 1950 (figs. 1-2), will notice a blue thread running almost parallel to the right framing edge until it meets the edge about half way up the picture. It then very closely tacks the corner fold of the canvas without ever quite disappearing from view over the tacking margin. Such blue selvage threads—which indicate the upper and lower limits of a bolt of canvas, while protecting it against fraying—are sometimes noticeable in other paintings by Pollock, especially along the top and bottom edges of his classic 1950 drip, pour, and spatter paintings, which utilize the full vertical dimension of a standard nine foot bolt of canvas and extend laterally to over seventeen feet. Number 27, 1950 is four by nine feet, which orients the threads to the left and right edges, rather than to the top and bottom. In addition to being differently placed in relation to the pictorial field, the thread in Number 27, 1950 appears to be more conspicuous here than in the larger works. It is not that it is conspicuously used as an element in the overall composition: standing a few feet away, the thread is difficult to see. Rather, at close range it seems meant to indicate the edge as a limit beyond which the representation cannot, literally, extend. Obviously, the material surface of the canvas is framed by actual limits, as all painted surfaces ultimately are. The object, Pollock reminds us, has a frame. But the artist’s inclusion of the thread seems to acknowledge this fact in a pointed way. In calling our attention to the actual frame by matching its edge so precisely with a common manufacturing detail—yet one which also slips under the painted skeins it abuts—I’d like to suggest that Pollock encourages us to imagine another kind of frame. That “frame” is of a pictorial (as opposed to literal) nature. Its “limits” should be thought of a qualitatively different from those of the actual material because, unlike physical limits, they do not first operate as constraints. The apparent limits of Pollock’s pictorial fields do not necessarily, and indeed rarely do, coincide with his paintings’ actual limits.1 Those apparent limits—which have an important role in establishing what I’ll later call the format of the picture—are generated by the activity of painting itself, and thus emerge as a result of artist’s expressive purposes. The selvage thread helps mark the difference between the two different kinds of frames, and the limits they imply.2
Ahmed Chalabi died. As recently as last year Perle and Wolfowitz were still touting him as a viable candidate for Iraq's Prime Minister slot.
Guston talking
Activision acquires Candy Crush maker King Digital Entertainment for $5.9B in the largest accidental in-app purchase in history.
— sean rose (@sean_a_rose) November 3, 2015
As the sun set on Wednesday, July 13, 1977, a series of lightning strikes on power lines and infrastructure led to a cascade of shutdowns, overloads and failures. An hour after the first strike, the entire Con Edison system powering New York City shut down completely.
where's Chang?
one of those crazy multi-lateral plays to end a college football game.
The only feature directed by Saul Bass. I've never seen it.
if your pumpkin doesnt look like this, you hate your children.
Effective immediately we are suspending the publication of Grantland.
Smith’s large photographic images of places devoid of human presence are mounted on a stiff support and mercifully left unprotected by reflective glass. More like a painting than a photograph, they hover just a bit off the white walls of the gallery. Their delicate surfaces, which resemble paintings in scale, are left exposed, and this adds much to the aching feelings engendered by them. Through this exposure, they invite a search for a “pure” opticality, an issue essential to formalist minimal painting back in the 1970s.
wearing my green chuck taylors and off to the timbers v. sporting kc playoff tonight. fully expecting to be disappointed.
IMAX has diluted their brand with lots of different formats. The top-end IMAX formats are relatively rare. For the new Star Wars, these theaters will have the best formats. Two are near me.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens in IMAX 3D in IMAX with Laser
California
TCL Chinese Theatres IMAX – Hollywood
AMC Metreon 16 & IMAX – San Francisco
AMC Universal CityWalk Stadium 19 & IMAX – Universal City
Massachusetts
Sunbrella IMAX 3D Theatre, Jordan’s Furniture Reading – Reading
Ontario
Scotiabank Toronto & IMAX – Toronto
Virginia
Airbus IMAX, Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center – Chantilly
Washington
Boeing IMAX, Pacific Science Center – Seattle
Star Wars: The Force Awakens in IMAX 2D on IMAX 15/70mm Film Projection
Alabama
McWane Center IMAX Dome Theatre – Birmingham
IMAX, U.S. Space & Rocket Center – Huntsville
California
Hackworth IMAX Dome, The Tech Museum – San Jose
Florida
Museum of Discovery & Science AutoNation IMAX – Ft. Lauderdale
IMAX Dome, Museum of Science & Industry – Tampa
Indiana
IMAX, Indiana State Museum - Indianapolis
Iowa
Blank IMAX Dome, Science Center of Iowa – Des Moines
Missouri
Branson’s IMAX, Entertainment Complex – Branson
St. Louis Science Center OMNIMAX Theatre – St. Louis
Pennsylvania
Tuttleman IMAX, The Franklin Institute– Philadelphia
Washington, DC
Lockheed Martin IMAX, National Air & Space Museum
a history of Tompkins Square Park.
I remember the bandshell. 1st location for Wigstock, etc.
Long overdue stop at my old fav Bar Masa......I had an hour to kill between meetings.....this meal took 34 minutes to eat, and was tax deductable......sushi, uni califlower risotto, fish noodle pasta (gluten free)
ny times apes a 1908 style sports page (short of the header) in honor of mets pennant victory over cubs.
candy corn. beats all of the pumpkin spice nonsense out there.
the plumbing clusterfuck continues. i cant go into it too much without raising my blood pressure to alarming heights, but on the upside i did manage to ruin the day of my upstairs neighbors even more than mine, and, of course, misery loves company. all the plumber (thats probably to generous a title) managed to do to them was promise to come around one and not show up til six, then buy the wrong sized toilet, get into a fight about carving out room in the back wall in an attempt to squeeze it in, and then once he put there original one back, set off some serious waterworks in my apartment when they tested it out. meaning he literally made whatever was wrong much much worse.
so just when he thought he was done for the night around 10 he had to come down to my place and he maybe identified the source of the leak in a corroded pipe which he then somehow temporarily patched. that was another four hours which included cleaning and carting away two large bags of rubble necessary to remove from the ceiling to reach the pipe.
and where do we stand? well, my neighbor was fed up and somewhat drunkenly berated him. i wasnt exactly going to tell him to calm down but i dont know how helpful it was. but unlike me he is ready to put his money where his mouth is. he doesnt want the plumber to come back to his apt so hes ready to pay for a plumber. and i believe him but that doesnt solve the hole in my ceiling o nce they are through.
so, stay tuned.
Roughly 100,825,272,791 people have ever died.
