Art Attack Central
Fixing stuff, myself included…
The Oprah Filter
Went to PJ’s Pub just after 4:00 PM yesterday. While sipping my vodka and tonic, and making idle conversion with the barmaid, I noticed her attention was elsewhere as was the attention of the other five occupied bar stools. All were focused on the large screen TV above the bar. The volume was turned up; we are usually only subjected to this during Saturday afternoon sports mania. There was Oprah larger than life interviewing Andrea Yates husband: “Do you think you’ve really dealt with it”? and “Did you see any signs that this was coming”? That may not be the exact wording, but that’s the gist/drift of the questions.
So?
First let me say that I also saw the Oprah Winfrey show on the afternoon of the six month anniversary of 9/11. Oprah on my TV screen is not larger than life. However, her questions to the husband of the once beautiful young woman, who was terribly burned during the world trade center attack gave me the same strange feeling. Strange is not the right word, the word is somewhere between frightening and disgusting, and it’s not so much the questions that left that taste in my mouth (always nice to have something there besides my foot).
What exactly was it then?
I was struck by the idea of Oprah as the American digestive system. “You’ve come along way baby”; we’re not talking about Jerry Springer or Ricki Lake. Although if anyone remembers those are Oprah’s roots. Wonder why we don’t have reruns of the really old Oprah shows? Maybe they’re on late night television, and I’m a morning person. Anyway, back to what exactly it was. It was the concept that America grows and defecates with Oprah; by the way she’s on another diet I think. But I digress, so it’s the ups and downs of America, and how many American’s view of the world is epitomized/congealed/jelled/enveloped in, filter through and broadcast by Oprah. To me this is a very, very scary thing to contemplate.
“The Church says that the Earth is flat, but I know that it is round. For I have seen the shadow on the moon and I have more faith in the Shadow than in the Church.”
–Ferdinand Magellan …perhaps we need more faith in ourselves than in Oprah
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CLICK ABOVE FOR INFO. ON ANTARCTICA
Watching out that other things are not ignored, swept aside, dismissed, overlooked or covered up through slight of hand.
Other than what?
The hunt for terrorists is overshadowing much of our world view. As the focus narrows so does the broad picture lose it’s attachment to it’s surroundings. Yes we can be destroyed by terrorists, and we can destroy ourselves by being blindsided by too many leaves on the Bush!
What do you mean?
I mean that the hunt for terrorists, while making a president, is not saving the world from global warming, or third/second world countries from starvation, or women from oppression, or children from lack of education. I mean we shouldn’t be tricked into nearsightedness and forget the other things. Let’s not forget that we must drive gas guzzling SUVs, and to hell with the environment. By god it’s America and that’s the law! It’s good for big business; the car business that is. So let’s open our eyes when the laws are passed that shouldn’t be, or not changed when they should be, or remain unchanged when change is desperately needed. While George is making a presidency of defending America and the world against terrorism, don’t be fooled/mystified by a rhetoric which casts only a shadow of fear that obliterates other things.
GLOBAL WARMING LINK FOUND ON JULIE’S SITE
Tuesday Too
1.) Would you please point us toward a prior post that you’re particularly fond of, or expresses just what you had in mind on a subject which may or may not be substantive in nature?
Alien Nature
2.) Who is your favorite artist/artwork?
Marcel Duchamp: The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors Even also known as The Large Glass. There is also another very strange work of Duchamp’s in the Philadelpia Museum of Art: Given: 1 The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas I once spent a number of hours there watching to see how many people missed it entirely = lots. Why? Why, because it looks like it’s just a door hung on the wall, and many people fail to notice the two holes to peek through. Or did you mean why did I watch?I find museums and airports and streets and… great places for people watching.
3.) If it were possible to be the other gender for a couple days, after which you could without complications take up where you left off would you try it?
I am just so damn curious, how could I not?
Post your URLs in the comment
Brain Dead
Not quite; however, yesterday was Saint Paddy’s Day so that’s my excuse. I’d forgotten to wear my green…duh, so my friend and PJ’s Pub bartender Rob gave me a gorgeous neon glowing button to broadcast my Irish shenanigans to an unknowing public. Of course there was the lime in my vodka and tonic too, so I was well equip to become an O’Mally, or O’Riely, or Oh just about anything as the afternoon progressed. Many limes later, we moved on again in the spirit of green we watched Robin Hood, while smoking tiny green leaves.
How many limes?
Only three to be exact, but Rob makes a pretty mean drink. Thus we trooped out of there on foot to reqroup, reposition, remake ourselves into a most presentable roving Irish band bound for the pot-o-gold.
What else is going on?
Scrounging around in my brain for the Tuesday Too questions, which I’ll post around 5:00 am tomorrow. I just can’t do that stay up till midnight thing; I’m such a morning person.
“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.”
–Victor Borge
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Sacred Cows
Weeeee it’s feeling/looking like spring; there’s a tulip tree bursting open across the street. It’s Saturday, and that means the farmer’s market is open this morning = fresh sourdough bread! To hell with the diet; I like lots of butter and salt on my bread.
Salt?
Yes I confess I’m a [saltaholic]. God help me when the blood pressure goes. Really I wouldn’t know if it goes or not, because I haven’t been covered by insurance in ten years! Thus my trips to the doctors office are very, very limited. Like now I’m looking around for some wood to knock on, and telling myself that it’s time to quit smoking, quit drinking, quit complaining, quit any other vices. It’s like spring cleaning for the mind/body. Start riding the bike, but give up salt…not yet, throw it over my shoulder maybe, and don’t tell me “it tastes just like butter”. It does not. On the other hand, if you give up butter you’ll be rewarded by getting the beautiful man or woman, or maybe you become the beautiful man or woman. How becoming is that? or she’ll becoming round the mountain when she comes. hmmmm
I think you’ve gone around the bend again.
As in bender? Bend her what? Okay…I’ll quit now.
Which one?
Complaining, I will hence forth refrain from complaining. Actually at the moment things are going pretty well so I’ve got nothing to complain about. Those are the kind of things people should give up for lent – nothing things. After all sacrifices are a pagan thing, so giving up nothing would be the christian thing to do.
Your not making fun of religion are you?
Not really, but then if that’s your sacred cow where’s the idol harm in that. By the way, remember Lot’s wife turned to a pillar of salt. What a way to go. That’s what people mean when they say, “you go girl”.
“Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought – particularly for people who cannot remember where they left things.”
–Woody Allen
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Shrinking
Yes, the Tuesday Too is shrinking; as they say on Firesign Theatre: “to almost nothing at the bottom of the pool”. I must say, I’ve met some amazing people and found some interesting blogs to keep up with, while engaged in this madness. The range of things people blog about is staggering. Okay, I know we got some who insist on telling us about doing the laundry, but I’ve found that to be the more rare than you might think. And what do I know? Maybe it’s the zen of laundry: the sound of waterless washing!
Today = Thursday
Seems blogger’s been “blogged down” = trouble posting. So the above I wrote yesterday, and today I say, while we’ve shrunk, it’s not “the size of almost nothing” yet, so I’ll do it again next Tuesday.
What else is going on?
Oh, just more thesis paralysis that I’m fighting against, and sometimes winning. Most of the data collection is done, and will be totally over by Friday…eeeeekkk that’s tomorrow. Then I suddenly metamorphous into a mathematician/statistician and run the data and write the results. unhmm yeah right…
“Men are born to succeed, not to fail.”
–Henry David Thoreau …and women too!
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