Saturday, October 28, 2017

Modesty of Flower Power Beaches


Without the story — in which everyone living, unborn and dead, participates — men are no more than bits of paper blown on the cold wind
 ~ George Mackay Brown, born in 1921

How Bang & Olufsen reinvented itself | afr.com


History of Apple: The story of Steve Jobs and the company he founded ...


Yuri Herrera gives us an insight into his own writing when he discusses the words that get written on a tombstone:

“I will love you always.  I can never forgive you.  Forget about me.  I’ll be back.  You’ll pay for this.  Words that etch deeper than a chisel.” 

Google’s Sentiment Analyzer Thinks Being Gay Is Bad MotherBoard




In Praise (Or Condemnation) Of The Book Dust Jacket



“The right cover is like a beautiful coat, elegant and warm, wrapping my words as they travel through the world, on their way to keep an appointment with my readers. The wrong cover is cumbersome, suffocating. Or it is like a too-light sweater: inadequate.” Ernest Hemingway was less diplomatic in his response to the heraldic figure composition on the jacket for A Farewell to Arms, designed by Cleonike (“Cleon”) Damianakes in 1929: “I cannot admire the awful legs on that woman or the gigantic belly muscles [on the man],” he wrote to his editor.


I knew I felt better back then



Ten Photographs


'Boys, she's no good': The untold of story of how Chris Waller almost gave up on Winx




How The Dutch Golden Age Gave Us Today’s Art World System


Today, the artist as a visionary with ideas and aesthetics of her own is taken for granted. But it emerged during this vibrant period in the Netherlands, pioneered by Rembrandt van Rijn, alongside many of other features of the modern art market. … [Read More]

Trying To Keep Up On A 12-Hour Lunch Date With Joni Mitchell

It was a trip: "As urban centers all over America were banning smoking in public places, life for Joni Mitchell was still a noir film from the 40s, full of nicotine and screwball repartee. She kept smoking in public as long as she could, until she was eventually reduced to e-cigarettes.... She loved to be what she called a 'pot stirrer.' She was trouble—and she was really good at it." … [Read More]


 

The relationship between morality and neurology is complicated. Few people get it, fewer can explain it. Robert Sapolsky, one of those few, is a determinist, but not a simple one... Sunlight  


TheatrE of the Absurd: In love, there’s no inoculation against betrayal. So think of affairs as a feature of relationships, not a bug. So says Esther Perel, who charges $1,500 a session for such insights...  Darling Harbour Shakespearean Insights  


Magic mushrooms can 'reset' depressed brain



Believe it or not, strict modesty laws in early 1900s limited female bathers to only wearing traditional swimwear garments, This led to many arrests and fines for anyone showing anything shorter than the measurements permitted. But it wasn't only women who bore the wrath of the modesty police. Men were also susceptible, and it wasn't until 1937 that males were allowed to go topless on a beach...




Was Neruda murdered?
Word limit for researchers?
Sally Quinn's memoir
Saunders on art in America
Tom Hanks: Typewriter fetishist
What happened to memoirs?
Crime writing on Corsica
Museum of art fakes
Normalizing vulgarity
World history in typefaces
What happened to Martin Amis?
In search of America
Chop and change
Fascism and pop culture
Joys of pub quizzes
Disloyal Naipaul
"Make poetry great again"
Absurdity of Nobel prizes
German for dummies




“Since 1999, UntraveledRoad has been capturing the scenery of modern highways, mountain roads, city streets and trails, visiting places both exotic and familiar to create a photographic virtual world, where you can stop to look at wildflowers, lakes, mountain vistas, and read historic markers, all from the comfort of your computer chair. With 396,883 hand-held camera photographs, UntraveledRoad preserves a repository of beautiful scenery which you can explore at your leisure. If you want to see the beauty of National Parks, the serenity of an alpine wilderness, the solitude of the desert, or wander randomly along highways, it is waiting for you now at a mouseclick. These virtual tours consist of stops along roads, streets and trails, where four pictures are taken, one in each direction. Each page shows an ahead-facing picture along with two side view thumbnails. You can turn in any direction, and proceed to the next stop. Where appropriate, extra pictures show high-resolution views of scenery, or historic and interpretative markers. Some complicated intersections include pictures for diagonal directions. To skip uneventful sections of roadway, a jump feature takes you to the next important town or intersection…”


'I never thought of myself as a hooker': Roxy founder's life in a harem




A Woman Has Suffered a Clinical Broken Heart After The Death of Her Dog



The Mona Lisa is not the best artwork ever, and as a painter I am not sure Leonardo is much better than either Mantegna or Piero della Francesca, neither of whom is much known to the general public, much less Titian.  He has no work as stunning as Michelangelo’s David, and too many of his commissions he left unfinished or he never started them.  The Notebooks display a fertile imagination, but do not contain much real knowledge of use, except on the aortic valve, nor did they boost gdp, nor are they worth reading.  Much of his science is weak on theory, even relative to his time.  In Milan he was too content to serve as court impresario, and he seemed to have no idea of how to apply his own talents in accord with comparative advantage.
His ability to take an idea and turn it into a memorable sketch was his most remarkable ability, and in this he is without peer.


Plus he painted “woman as gorgon” very very well, but with a sweetness too.