Foyer of the Irish-American Section of Heaven
Camera-phone photo (LG VX11000). June 23, 2009.
Alpha Ball
(thanks, Autumn)
Nero, Life Outside the Game, unedited
a description of a recent acquisition at the museum of bad art
This is a disturbing image of an Egyptian doubled over in pain, throwing up colorfully. The X-ray box clearly shows the source of his discomfort, and the black smoke from the pyramid indicates that a new pharaoh has not yet been chosen. More study is needed to determine the meaning of the squiggly lines above and behind him.
For your viewing pleasure.
(via kottke)
the morality of ethicists
Two studies on the ethics of ethicists.
Most of the 277 survey respondents reported no positive correlation between a professional focus on ethics and actual moral behavior. Respondents who were ethicists themselves shied away from saying that ethicists behave worse than those outside the discipline – generally reporting that ethicists behave either the same or better – but non-ethicists were mostly split between reporting that ethicists behave the same as or worse than others.
Even those ethicists who did rank their peers’ behavior as better than average said their moral behavior is just barely better than average – hardly a ringing endorsement.
In another of Schwitzgebel’s papers forthcoming in a peer review journal, he looks at whether ethics books are more likely to be missing from libraries than non-ethics books.
One salient feature of the event was the banner hanging over the English-only advocates.
from the comments
I would say that picture-making builds a symbolic system, a framework for the perception of the world or a meditation on a set of ideas. The linguistic philosopher Nelson Goodman posits that one knows the world only through creation. Learning is the discovery of a pattern, and that discovery is facilitated by the invention and imposition of patterns of one’s own devising. Photographs are subjective patterns formed from direct observation informed by the history of image making, industry, and my own lived experiences. These patterns form models on which we base our perception of the world. When those models change through picture making, so does our world view. However transitory and constructed, photographs for me suggest a glimpse of latent beauty among the chaos we traffic in our daily lives.
screenshots from last night’s footage
daylilies
Are now in bloom in the back yard.
Putting The Free In Freedom
For the second year in a row (that I have noticed), Austin’s Chapman Motors gave away free watermelons on Juneteenth.
Weekly Picture 155
Upside Down Tree, Lamar Blvd., Austin, TX 6.22.2009
The Nerd Globe
John Hodgman at Radio & TV Correspondents’ Dinner
Self-censorship
There was a time when my sister would mention how much she wants an SUV, and I’d be unable to resist launching into a whole thing about how irresponsible and wasteful they are. But after receiving my thousandth blank, confused stare from everybody at the table, I realized it was futile,” Wilmot said. “Now, I don’t even flinch when my dad mentions he’s reading ‘this amazing book called The Celestine Prophecy.’ That’s how bad it is.”
The Bruno Premiere
Y’all
Somehow it makes me happy that two of the top search terms which bring people to clusterflock are “fuck my life” and “fuck life.”
Notice, also, “cake farts” is back. Le sigh.
Christian Rabbits
A woman was evicted from her apartment because she left Easter decorations on her door for two weeks after the holiday.
“An Easter decoration is a religious statement and should be protected – even if it is just bunnies,” said her attorney.
from the comments
If it weren’t for photos I would have no idea what my father looked like. I first saw a photo of him when I was in high school and although it could be considered a poor substitute for the man I never got to meet, it at least filled a bit of the wondering void in me.
This question made me imagine how much more I might know and understand about him if he had also left a visual story behind. I’d be able to follow the places he went, see what he saw and discover whether we were attracted to similar things.
It would be a cool thing to have, don’t you think?
blank as serial killers
They were focused. They stalked from a usual base of operations, 100 yards from their victims. It was close enough to see their prey, but not close enough to be seen and scare off their victims. They attacked when the lights were low. They liked their victims young and alone. They tried to attack when no other ______ were around to compete. They learned from previous kills.
Can you guess?
the temple on the hill
The Ennis House, the last and largest of four houses Frank Lloyd Wright designed in a ‘textile block’ style, is being put up for sale for $15 million by the Ennis House Foundation run by his grandson Eric Lloyd Wright.
Inspired by Mayan ruins in Uxmal, Mexico, the estate is built from 27,000 blocks featuring 24 design variations and has breathtaking views of the Hollywood Hills. It has been featured in several films, including 1982′s Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer, and 1959′s House on Haunted Hill.
After the earthquake, the foundation spent years restoring the house, including its distinctive windows and glass-tile mosaic fireplace; shoring up a retaining wall, reconstructing the motor court, repairing the roof and replacing some of the blocks.
James DeMeo, the foundation’s president, said: “It’s beautiful to look at. It is the temple on the hill.”
the longest day of the year
100 year old color photographs
A portrait of Leo Tolstoy taken in 1908.
The Emir of Bukhara (now Uzbekistan) 1910.
Artania Show
So, I was heading out this afternoon to shoot some footage of a Russian circus a few miles from our house. I had made their acquaintance yesterday and was really looking forward to the shoot as another piece of the costume documentary I am working on. Sadly, ticket sales are not what they had hoped and this proud family may be packing it up for good.
I spoke with the manager for a while and he explained that they had been selling lots of tickets in Houston (they are sort of Cirque du Soleil-esque) but that the people who managed them there had not treated them fairly.
Long story short, while the performers are in no mood to be filmed this evening, Amy and I are going down there to have a look. If I had had more notice I would have made an announcement earlier. Tickets are discounted to $20 and it looks like a lot of fun.
Address:
Across 35E from Reunion Arena
800 S. Industrial Blvd.
Dallas, TX 75207
1.877.864.3327
Prusik-Parkin
On the one hand:
She said, ‘I will guide you.’ I therefore have had to put on her things and represent the part of me that is her in order to fight for our rights and our home.
On the other:
“That wasn’t me,” Prusik-Parkin said from Rikers Island when asked about surveillance images that show him dressed in his mom Irene’s clothes.
“That was an impersonator.”
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanocon
a word alleged to mean ‘a lung disease caused by the inhalation of volcanic ash, causing inflammation in the lungs.’
