...more recent posts
Here's an old story which, like it subject, won't go away. The NY Post devotes an entire page to Latimeria chalumnae, the Ceolacanth. This was big news in the 30s, but apparently a new book is dredging up interest again. Now I understand why Volkswagen used this "living fossil" as the hook in a recent commercial. The fish appears closely related to the Crossopterygians, or lobe-finned fishes, whose fleshy fins are assumed to be ancestral to our limbs (check 'em out at this site). The image of lung fish conquering the land (bottom of page) has become an icon of our secular origin story, i.e. evolution. Latimeria lacks lungs, but is in many respects quite similar to our Devonian ancestors. The lady who lent her name to the fish is now 92, and grumpy about the whole thing. She should take a lesson from all those 60s TV stars who spent years complaining about being trapped by their roles, but are now happily taking them to the bank.
stolen from imake.8k.com.
This happened to me once too, except I think we were on our way back from a dead show. Got to love those pictures. (strangely, via camworld.)
how about rocky horror picture show as saturday afternoon tv fare? it seems a little off the wall and sexually explicit for that hour. which is not to say im not enjoying it. much funnier than a tiger woods temper tantrum. i guess at this point its really not much beyond the realm of zena. well except for the cross dressing and overt homosexuality or should i say that polyphonic perversity? ohh those crazy 70s. they were so......sumpin.
I've been reading this guy for a while, but haven't ever linked to him. I really like the format, although of course some issues (?) are better than others. I like this latest one. The web is great for this sort of slice of life non fiction. (His meta tags are funny too.)
Did anybody catch this (disappearing) story? Robotwisdom had the first mention that I saw, tagging the link "an uncanny school-shooting map coincidence." Always interested in uncanny coincidences I clicked through only to be met with a 404 page not found. Maybe the link was typed in wrong I thought, so I checked the progressive review (which Jorn had credited with the original story,) and they did indeed have the mention, calling it a "curious coincidence" and really stressing that scientifically, "correlation does not confirm causation." Man, I thought, this map must really be suggestive of something, but alas, their link 404'd as well. I guess it was just a little too suggestive for the University of Missouri-Rolla's lawyers. Anyway, does anyone know what the deal with this map is/was? I'm imagining all sorts of weird stuff.
Speaking of art reviews (you're keeping track of all these threads, aren't you?) I don't think we've mentioned the excellent Barry Schwabsky take, in Artforum, on Steve's recent film show at Marianne Boesky Gallery. Too bad they don't post it on their site. If work is good enough, it commands the appropriate response. Steve hasn't always been properly understood in the "art world", but this time someone got it right. Now what about that film party, dude?
Wow, busy day inside my head yesterday, including two instances of precognition (These did not include any political predictions). I finally got my own ISP through inch, but I had a feeling it wasn't going to be working by evening as promised, (Jim can attest to this), and of course it wasn't. The geek on the phone didn't tell me their Unix system wouldn't accept symbols in the password. I think we've got that straight now. Had so many ideas bubbling that I couldn't bother to read at dinner, which is normally my habit when eating alone. The stuff just kept coming as I walked home (some results should be showing up at the Arb soon). Approaching my place, I suddenly knew that my co-tenant Chuck Nanney would have his new I-Mac, and that he would be excited, would want to talk about it, and that this sudden refocusing might drive the current thoughts out of my head before I could write them down. I was absolutely right; the delivery had occurred minutes before my arrival, but my foresight had prepared me, and I politely insisted that I had to take care of my business before I could look at Chuck's new toy. After making a few notes and sketches, I gave Chuck a little help in orienting himself, and I think we'll be hearing from him before too long. These glimpses of the future are, of course, the usual type of unverifiable anecdotal evidence. They can be written off as anxieties based on reasonable interpretations of evidence I was already in possession of. Still, if you can process your anxieties into accurate predictions, that ain't bad. The real point is that this whole rush of psycho-spiritual experience was entirely the result of turning my attention to the Goddess, while working on a new post. Winter had me distracted, but this is Her season; I recommend that everyone give Her a try.
wow, dave's getting daring. Can't wait to hear the outcome of this one (and I hope it doesn't involve an RIAA holding cell.)
Even the New York Post is having a hard time standing up for the administration, after the latest coptrocity. These two columns display the difficulty, even for the hard right. Personally, I suspect a big problem that I don't think has even been brought up yet: police steroid abuse. Lots of cops have that mutant football player/gym rat look, and uncontrollable 'roid rage is a documented side effect. Any chance these guys are just a
little too pumped?
Uh, my name is bill s. and I'm an artist. HI
BILL ! well, not really an artist. WHAT DO YOU MEAN BILL ? I'm not really sure anymore, but i'll try to explain later. THANKS FOR THE WARNING
BILL ! no really, thank you all friends ! thank you.
Robin Williams is going to sing "blame Canada" at the oscars. This might actually get me to watch the show.
Welcome to Bill Schwarz, our newest friend to join the tree. He's got some interesting stuff up his sleave, so stay tuned for a new page (or two or three.) Hopefully we'll see him popping up in this ill-defined and rambling discussion as well. Thanks for the interest Bill.
Alex has a new page although the changes are all under the surface. He is the first to brave the new digital media tree publishing system. I can only guess what might happen with his new 64k posting limit (take that blogger.)
Maybe we should move the catpower discussion out here. Are there still tickets? Do you already have yours Linda? MB and I want to go.
On the Today Show this morning, MN governor Jessie Ventura was asked whether he would be able to support one of the major party candidates. He responded in the negative, by quoting Jerry Garcia: "Choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil."
Who says Christians are no fun?
This one's got me tied up in knots.
Steve - did you see that Speilberg is going to direct AI? (Kubrick's big unfinished project) Here's the story if anyone is interested.
Agent-based modeling at Sugarscape develops complex systems from basic fact-of-life parameters. This is good science, working towards understanding everything, from the ground up, instead of working backward from symptoms. They're promising a Java program that will allow you to run your own experiments; for now, you can see QuickTime movies of their results.
I gave this link to Steve, and he said I should post it. I didn’t think it was of general interest, but, of course, he’s right. The idea is to connect everything, or at least make it available. Even if you’re not interested, you can learn a lot about the poster from the post. It’s the apotheosis of the editor; the post-modern form of identity. To wit: the Silver Age Marvel Comics Cover Gallery. Images like this one, by the late, great Jack Kirby, made an indelible impression on me, and the Marvel style has become ingrained in our culture. The Silver Age is basically the 60s, when Kirby and Stan Lee transformed the kiddie comic book through the power of cosmic radiation, inflating it to mythic proportions. Actually, they were middle aged hacks, but they had the zeitgeist something fierce. Kirby is (justly) more celebrated today; scripter Lee was also the boss, and hogged the credit$. I’ve done a lot of Kirbyesque drawings in my time, but these days it’s Stan’s influence I recognize in my work. His verbosity remained consistent as he swung from epic drama in King James cadence, to Jewish burlesque comedy. He teetered on the brink of irony, but the good guys won (though not without complications). I should write half so well. Not to mention he was churning out something like ten titles every month! I have a hard time posting once a week. He also taught me about alliteration, the history of which will eventually be an Arboretum topic (bet you can’t wait). Which brings me to this fine rhetoric site (note the tree style) where we can see that alliteration is just one of the many wonderful forms of repetition we have at our disposal. This bit of edification is offered to cover the fact that the real reason I didn’t want to post was that, after 30 years, I’m still embarrassed by my comic books, even though academia has by now embraced pop culture, easing the shame of perpetual adolescence. These kids today don’t know how easy they’ve got it.