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Post #865 • September 1, 2006, 10:26 AM • 35 Comments

Pazzo reopened, yes, with skee-ball, and I picked up a $3 copy of G.E. Kaltenbach's Dictionary of Pronunciation of Artists' Names. Skimmed through it over lunch, looked it up on Amazon, and the cheapest copy is going for $43. Sweet! Plus, hours of pedantry fun await. "Excuse me, the proper way to say the artist's name is 'ver-MAYr,' with a long A sound, not 'ver-MEER.'"

For future reference: this fall at the college museums in Boston.

"Some old masters made a point of including the faces of fellow artists and patrons in the crowds portrayed in large oil paintings. Pablo Picasso paid similar homage to a more unusual friend: a self-assured little dachshund called Lump."

Digital Urban modeled Frank Lloyd Wright's Kaufmann House using Half-Life 2, setting up a series of first-person shooters at famous architectural sites that would be brilliant if it were true. That's the way to learn architectual history: in 3D, with man-eating aliens and plasma rifles. (Waxy)

"In one of his most famous articles, Konrad Lorenz argues that humans use the characteristic differences in form between babies and adults as important behavioral cues. He believes that features of juvenility trigger 'innate releasing mechanisms' for affection and nurturing in adult humans. When we see a living creature with babyish features, we feel an automatic surge of disarming tenderness." Steven Jay Gould on the evolutionary development of Mickey Mouse. (Kottke)

"'The first year, someone had a six-legged bug,' [Robert Lang] recalls. 'The next year, it was a six-legged bug with antennae.' A few years later, Lang joined the fray. For a formal bug-design challenge, held in 2004 on a muggy June in Manhattan, Lang and two competitors agreed to test themselves by creating a Eupatorus beetle. Eupatorus beetles are not simple insects. ... For the serious student of origami, making a Eupatorus is an extreme challenge." (Digg)

"I told myself that acts of folly are the only things that one doesn't regret in life." Michel Guyot, who is building a medieval castle from scratch.

BMW commercial featuring the sculptures of Theo Jenson.

Department of Skills: Kicking. (I apologize for the music.) Also, another useful skill from the Orient.(Reddit)

Note from your host: Next week is Operation Relocate Supergirl, Operation Apple Battery Recall, and Operation Fire Verizon and Get Cable Internet (aka Operation No I'm Not Going to Buy Your Egregiously Marked Up Proprietary DSL Modem/Wireless Router Just Becuase Your Tech Support Can't Figure Out How to Make the Standard Modem Talk to Airport Express). Posts resume on Monday, September 11, depending on how I'm feeling after the Flaiming Lips show here in Boston the night before, and other factors. PSiNE wrap appears tomorrow in a special edition Saturday report.

Comment

1.

RL

September 1, 2006, 4:45 PM

Going to see the Flaming Lips lucky you !
If they come to South Florida I would go see them in a minute.
Have you seen the documentary on the bank called "Fearless Freaks"
It shows a good amount of background history on the band.
From that movie I gained alot respect for their music and projects.
Although I must admit I do not own one of there CDs
I do like their music and I think Wayne Coyne is a creative genius (Visual and Music).
I wonder if he ever finished that Sci-Fi movie he was working on?
anyway

I also love the bands cover art.

2.

Marc Country

September 1, 2006, 5:08 PM

The Wright video is pretty cool... I kept expecting a hand-cannon to pop up into view, or for the viewpoint to at least switch to sniper-mode. Have they come out with a "DaVinci Code" game yet? Being able to virtually run around the Louvre, shooting the hell out of the place, would be cool.

Those Beemers looked a bit rickety to me... have they been crash-tested?

Stephen Jay Gould rules.

3.

wouldn't you like to know

September 1, 2006, 5:23 PM

I just flat out don't like you, Marc.

4.

Franklin

September 1, 2006, 5:52 PM

RL, the place to start with the Lips is Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.

Marc, you remember that Bob Ross video game they're supposedly working on? Pow! Pow!

5.

opie

September 1, 2006, 6:01 PM

Marc, I am seething with envy. I have been called every name under the sun on this blog, but that one tops all.

Gould could have topped that Mickey-as-baby idea if he had done an investigation of the sexual implications of "Fantasia". I think those early animators were working sexual innuendo into those films as much as they dared. "Squirting clam" indeed!

6.

Marc Country

September 1, 2006, 9:23 PM

Re: comment #3:
Who cares? You're just some anonymous boob. Maybe you're lying. Who knows?

This month's Harpers "brought together four experts - two video-game enthusiasts and two teachers - and charged them with a task: to dream up video games that might teach, of all things, writing."

7.

ahab

September 1, 2006, 9:55 PM

Yes, but how does one correctly say 'Vermeer' with a Bostonian accent?

I agree with MC, the virtual Wright video is a wonderful rendering. What an aid to understanding an architectural space that I've only ever been able to explore by imaginative visualization! Though I don't really like the sound effects much.

I like my daughter's origami cranes and tea cups just fine, probably because the practice of making them will never qualify her for extreme competition.

The medieval castle is an over-reaction to our society's techno-mania, and folly indeed; yet I'm fascinated with the effort.

Stupid BMW for not letting us see one of those kinetic things for more than a second and a half at a time. They seem amazing, but I'm suspicious.

I like Marc Country more than the Flaming Lips, but that's like comparing fresh fruit with aged cheese - even better together.

And I like ice cream.

8.

eddie

September 1, 2006, 10:46 PM

Marc:
there is a DaVinci Code game.
it sucks.

9.

msquoted

September 2, 2006, 12:39 AM

I told my son I wanted to marry the Flaming Lips because I love them so. My son (he is 9) very seriously informed me that I already had a lover so it was out of the question. Franklin, have tremedous fun at their concert. Could you kiss them all for me when you are there? Thank you!

10.

bloggerrmiamimanimalism

September 2, 2006, 4:28 AM

hippie stuff i guess - lets see some of old pros art objects...

11.

Marc Country

September 2, 2006, 2:45 PM

Re: Comment 8

Well, Eddie, at least they stayed true to the book, then... Maybe the architectural wonders of the world would be more at home in a new Tomb Raider title, anyway...

12.

jordan

September 2, 2006, 7:00 PM

(Plato, On Censorship of Art) 'It is not only to the poets therefore that we must issue orders requiring them to represent good character in their poems or not to write at all; we must issue similar orders to all artists and prevent them from portraying bad character, ill discipline, meanness, or ugliness in painting, sculpture, architecture, or any work of art, and if they are unable to comply they must be forbidden to practice their art. We shall thus prevent our guardians being brought up among representations of what is evil, and so day by day and little by little, by feeding as it were in an unhealthy pasture, insensibly doing themselves grave psychological damage. Our artists and craftsmen must be capable of perceiving the real nature of what is beautiful, and then our young men, living as it were in a good climate, will benefit because all the works of art they see and hear influence them for good, like the breezes from some healthy country with what is rational and right.'
I'm done!

13.

opie

September 2, 2006, 8:09 PM

Where is Plato when we need him...

14.

Jack

September 2, 2006, 10:39 PM

Plato's where he's always been: within reach of anybody interested enough to seek him out. Same goes for good art, assuming one can recognize it. These days, however, finding it is more of a challenge.

15.

George

September 3, 2006, 8:32 PM

Frank Lloyd Wright

Kuspit part II

16.

opie

September 3, 2006, 9:00 PM

Kuspit is a piece of work, George. Did you see what he puts forth as examples of good work, to supplement his thesis?

That latter-day Wright house looks pretty dramatic. I don't understand why the people bitching about it have any right to.

17.

Jack

September 3, 2006, 9:24 PM

Well, OP, nature abhors a vacuum. If it can't fill it with a Greenberg, it'll fill it with whomever at least appears to fit the bill. In other words, filler is not necessarily the good stuff; it just needs to be filler.

18.

George

September 3, 2006, 10:00 PM

re#16,

Fot the most part, I find I don't agree with Kuspit at all. Whatever position he has, is poorly presented. He spends more words telling the reader what is wrong with so-n-so than constructing any sort of cogent argument for the opposing position. While I sense there are many artists who would agree with what he doesn't like, he is obviously not clarifying the opposing position in a way which is of any intellectual benefit to the views. In marketing, you don't spend all your capital telling the consumer why your competition is bad, you use it to explain why your product is good. The only exception seems to be politics, need I say more?

It's an effort going down the drain. Glug glug glug.

19.

and yet

September 4, 2006, 3:36 AM

My painting is not violent; it’s life that is violent. (Francis Bacon)
Let the war that occus within us be worthy of Art.

20.

George

September 4, 2006, 11:18 AM

Fatal Barb

21.

jatread

September 4, 2006, 8:28 PM

As most of us North Americans are self indulgent: the game, the product, the look, the fashion, the trend, the taste, the vibe, the club to be at, the style, the subjective wants etc. - we must realize that we are under-populated, and thus must use our versitility and intellect in order to compete with those of ill-understanding.
We do not want to be consumed by them; nor shall we be inclined to compete with each other.
When he or she in our continent disposes one another, they shall be worthy of disposition themselves and thus subject to ridicule.
(The future of our survival involves an interpersonal partnership of sorts; one where our resources, creativity and their populace can comingle).
(Franklin has embraced this notion some-what...)
Art is a silent, peacefull, intellectual practice/manner in which 'ALL' can communicate fears and hopes, dreams, passions, tastes, trends, etc.- while inverting the personal bias, tastes, 'et al' for the better of these being our collective Western beliefs and practices holistically.
Lets not fuck the future up for our kindred people.

22.

ryan

September 5, 2006, 12:32 PM

test comment

23.

Franklin

September 5, 2006, 1:44 PM

Thank you, Ryan.

24.

necee

September 5, 2006, 9:52 PM

franklin,

when you get back let me know your solution to the wi-fi dilemma. comcast ain't working either with the linksys router (even after modem replacement). sigh.

n.

25.

Marc Country

September 5, 2006, 11:40 PM

PSiNE wrap appears tomorrow in a special edition Saturday report.

Sure, sure...

26.

Franklin

September 5, 2006, 11:58 PM

So special, it couldn't even be on Saturaday...

Sorry, Operation Relocate Supergirl unfolding differently than anticipated. But all's good. Hang in there...

27.

Jack

September 6, 2006, 8:53 AM

This is off-topic, but I suppose it qualifies as pop culture, such as it most regrettably is.

I haven't seen it, nor do I care to, but today's Miami Herald front page says the first photo of Suri Cruise has appeared. You know, as in spawn of Tom Cruise. Ooooh, joy! Ooooh, rapture! We can all rest easy again. I'm so happy I could puke. Is our society really that pitiful?

28.

Jack

September 6, 2006, 8:17 PM

OK, so I saw the Suri Cruise picture, or one of them. My internet service thrust it upon me. So the kid doesn't have two heads or an extra eye. Whoop-te-do. Do I sound cynical? Try exasperated with the totally out-of-control celebrity mania. I wish Suri luck, which I expect she'll need, and I can even congratulate her parents, but please, get these people out of my face. If I ever want them, I certainly know where to find them.

29.

craigfrancis

September 6, 2006, 10:42 PM

I read in the paper that some artist has a couple of Suri's (fake) bronzed turds for sale on E Bay. Last going off the bids were up to five grand. I wish I was joking.

30.

Marc Country

September 7, 2006, 12:02 AM

Right, CF... this is the same cagey ude who made the nude "Brittney Spears" sculpture also salaciously featured in the news not long ago... both sculptures, undoubtedly, bear little resemblance to the real things, but, oh well, what does that matter... they guy know's how to name sclpture for maximum media exposure, that much can be said... and nothing more.

31.

opie

September 7, 2006, 9:31 AM

They are not bronzed turds, Craig. They are turds cast in bronze. "Bronzing" is a process that actually deposits a skin of metal around an actual object.

There was a long-standing fad years ago of "bronzed baby shoes". The turds, on the other hand, are cast just as a Rodin would be cast.

Being familiar with the consistency of baby shit, I suspect that the integrity of the original was not rigorously respected. This is too bad. When dealing with great art we must at all times be meticulous and accurate.

32.

Franklin

September 7, 2006, 12:08 PM

This may represent some kind of nadir in comment threads here.

Don't worry. The world is put right on Monday.

33.

Jack

September 7, 2006, 12:27 PM

Oh, I don't know, Franklin. If this Britney Spears-Suri Poop guy keeps at it, he could give Jeff Koons a run for his money. He might still make the cover of some art mag or other. At least he's frankly exploitational, as opposed to ponderously pretentious like the Hirst shark.

34.

Ralph

September 8, 2006, 4:21 AM

nadir sunk the Corvair. Do you suppose Brittany spears the bronze shit? or will it just cruise along?

35.

opie

September 8, 2006, 3:08 PM

I think it will sink suriptitiously.

How's that for a new Nader, Franklin?

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