Wild Berry Crisp, 2003
Yes yes yes.
Thanks, but sorry the compliment had to come at the expense of my political writing. You aren't the first person to say that. A friend told me she likes my art writing but, like you, thinks the political thoughts can be found "a thousand other places." In her case, I believe it's mainly because she doesn't agree with my politics and would rather not have to think about them when she's surfing for art lore.
All I have to say in my own defense is, it's true my published political writing isn't as extensive as my published art writing, but I've always written letters to editors and many have gotten published. Also, my art criticism necessarily includes a political viewpoint. I'd even go as far as to say the artwork also always has a subterranean (and occasionally overt) political discourse lurking in it.
I'm not going to separate out, prioritize, or censor any of these things on this weblog. Anyone brave or nice enough to read this page will have to pick and choose. The political writing, for me, is a way to make sense of the insane times we're suddenly living through. Reading about Bush war propaganda is one thing; jawboning about it is another, but when you write you learn and understand more. I think the "second hand news rumination" bloggers do--and especially those at dmtree--is incredibly valuable and important. I don't divide the blogging world into "big boys" and "little boys."
I'll use one example and then shut up. Over on Mark's page we discussed the contrived statue toppling photo. That's an important issue because the image of a "cheering crowd celebrating Saddam's demise" convinced knucklehead America that the war was "won" and all Bush's goals were noble.
As someone in the image-analyzing biz, I was interested in the issue. As it turned out, the left was overstating the importance of the "other photo"--the one showing the empty plaza where the statue fell. I read dozens of other viewpoints of "little people" on the web, and felt I had an understanding of what happened. Calpundit was going through the same thought process and eventually posted more helpful photos.
Yesterday, Alexander Cockburn talked about the subject and it was immediately obvious he wasn't up to speed. He was still running the old "lefty" photo. I'm actually in a position to write him a fairly authoritative email correcting his column. I probably won't do it, but my point is, weblogging made me knowledgeable on this subject. And I operate on the simplistic truism that "knowledge is good"--you never know where you might need to use it. No reply to this post is necessary. I'm just having my say!
I'll reply that I've learned a lot from your political postings.
And I'll also note, although this is maybe a little bit petty, that it was Tom who had to correct "big boy" Ethel on an extremely important factual error. Steve Baum (ethel) himself admits his error here. Should we really just leave it up to him? (Note I think ethel is one of the most important bloggers, and I read his page every day, and trust him greatly. But I also know he needs to be checked by people like Tom.)
"mommy sez im a big boy cuz i can use potty." sorry, couldnt help myself. some other big boys.
1) bobs
2) trains
3) condoms
4) scooters
5) small arms
6) blues guitarist
7) the musical
8) dead song
:-)^< -Big Boy
Like I said, y'all misread my post 'cus I misrote it ughhh! I was well aware of Tom's Ethel correction & linked to Ethel for that very reason . I tried to link to Tom's correction but it kept resetting or defaulting or something. I guess I was trying to be so ironic I got ferrous, no not Ferris Bueller dave. I read about every word on the tree & follow at least momentarily all the links. Often my comments stem from some ambient totalitarian backasswards take on the tree as a whole. The email spam I got was a little spooky because I feel I'm quite fair in direct confrontation & actually am known to rile people up just to catch some(masochicstick perhaps) sheet. The way I rate myself is whether I can get a thread going at all. I will start to work on my clarity a little but writing is about the only drunkenness I get anymore so caveat hemptor or something.
I wasn't intentionally correcting Ethel in that thread. It's just that I had posted the Salon material correctly a couple of days before and wanted to point it out since it seemed folks had missed it. But I'll accept whatever minuscule credit that entitles me to!
I see a "light, surface and eye" commentary in Wild Berry Crisp. I like the use of depth, especially the way the circles pop out from the surface.
Thanks. The depth-effect works pretty well in person, too, especially considering that each of those spheres is just hanging on the box with a single map pin. (I may glue them down eventually, but probably I'll just dismantle the piece and then make/photograph something else). I'm interested in how the spheres become a field, layered on top of the existing field(s) of the product photography and the type. I also laughed when I found a cartoon drawing of a "robot made out of a Speak and Spell and a Grape Nuts box" on the Homestar Runner site, because I'm interested in that that level of dopiness, too.
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Wild Berry Crisp, 2003
- tom moody 4-25-2003 11:57 pm
Yes yes yes.
- frank 4-26-2003 3:08 am
Thanks, but sorry the compliment had to come at the expense of my political writing. You aren't the first person to say that. A friend told me she likes my art writing but, like you, thinks the political thoughts can be found "a thousand other places." In her case, I believe it's mainly because she doesn't agree with my politics and would rather not have to think about them when she's surfing for art lore.
All I have to say in my own defense is, it's true my published political writing isn't as extensive as my published art writing, but I've always written letters to editors and many have gotten published. Also, my art criticism necessarily includes a political viewpoint. I'd even go as far as to say the artwork also always has a subterranean (and occasionally overt) political discourse lurking in it.
I'm not going to separate out, prioritize, or censor any of these things on this weblog. Anyone brave or nice enough to read this page will have to pick and choose. The political writing, for me, is a way to make sense of the insane times we're suddenly living through. Reading about Bush war propaganda is one thing; jawboning about it is another, but when you write you learn and understand more. I think the "second hand news rumination" bloggers do--and especially those at dmtree--is incredibly valuable and important. I don't divide the blogging world into "big boys" and "little boys."
I'll use one example and then shut up. Over on Mark's page we discussed the contrived statue toppling photo. That's an important issue because the image of a "cheering crowd celebrating Saddam's demise" convinced knucklehead America that the war was "won" and all Bush's goals were noble.
As someone in the image-analyzing biz, I was interested in the issue. As it turned out, the left was overstating the importance of the "other photo"--the one showing the empty plaza where the statue fell. I read dozens of other viewpoints of "little people" on the web, and felt I had an understanding of what happened. Calpundit was going through the same thought process and eventually posted more helpful photos.
Yesterday, Alexander Cockburn talked about the subject and it was immediately obvious he wasn't up to speed. He was still running the old "lefty" photo. I'm actually in a position to write him a fairly authoritative email correcting his column. I probably won't do it, but my point is, weblogging made me knowledgeable on this subject. And I operate on the simplistic truism that "knowledge is good"--you never know where you might need to use it.
No reply to this post is necessary. I'm just having my say!
- tom moody 4-26-2003 8:05 pm
I'll reply that I've learned a lot from your political postings.
And I'll also note, although this is maybe a little bit petty, that it was Tom who had to correct "big boy" Ethel on an extremely important factual error. Steve Baum (ethel) himself admits his error here. Should we really just leave it up to him? (Note I think ethel is one of the most important bloggers, and I read his page every day, and trust him greatly. But I also know he needs to be checked by people like Tom.)
- jim 4-26-2003 8:31 pm
"mommy sez im a big boy cuz i can use potty." sorry, couldnt help myself. some other big boys.
1) bobs
2) trains
3) condoms
4) scooters
5) small arms
6) blues guitarist
7) the musical
8) dead song
:-)^< -Big Boy
- dave 4-26-2003 9:16 pm
Like I said, y'all misread my post 'cus I misrote it ughhh! I was well aware of Tom's Ethel correction & linked to Ethel for that very reason . I tried to link to Tom's correction but it kept resetting or defaulting or something. I guess I was trying to be so ironic I got ferrous, no not Ferris Bueller dave. I read about every word on the tree & follow at least momentarily all the links. Often my comments stem from some ambient totalitarian backasswards take on the tree as a whole. The email spam I got was a little spooky because I feel I'm quite fair in direct confrontation & actually am known to rile people up just to catch some(masochicstick perhaps) sheet. The way I rate myself is whether I can get a thread going at all. I will start to work on my clarity a little but writing is about the only drunkenness I get anymore so caveat hemptor or something.
- frank 4-26-2003 11:22 pm
I wasn't intentionally correcting Ethel in that thread. It's just that I had posted the Salon material correctly a couple of days before and wanted to point it out since it seemed folks had missed it. But I'll accept whatever minuscule credit that entitles me to!
- tom moody 4-27-2003 1:25 am
I see a "light, surface and eye" commentary in Wild Berry Crisp. I like the use of depth, especially the way the circles pop out from the surface.
- mark 4-29-2003 10:25 am
Thanks. The depth-effect works pretty well in person, too, especially considering that each of those spheres is just hanging on the box with a single map pin. (I may glue them down eventually, but probably I'll just dismantle the piece and then make/photograph something else). I'm interested in how the spheres become a field, layered on top of the existing field(s) of the product photography and the type. I also laughed when I found a cartoon drawing of a "robot made out of a Speak and Spell and a Grape Nuts box" on the Homestar Runner site, because I'm interested in that that level of dopiness, too.
- tom moody 5-01-2003 7:33 pm