The November elimae
is now posted.
Mummy watches TV
On the death of newspapers
Whatever I may say in the rant that follows, I do not believe the decline of newspapers has been the result solely of computer technology or the Internet. The forces working against the newspaper are probably as varied and forgone as the Model-T Ford and the birth control pill. We like to say that the invention of the internal-combustion engine changed us, changed the way we live. In truth, we built the Model-T Ford because we had changed; we wanted to remake the world to accommodate our restlessness. We might now say: Newspapers will be lost because technology will force us to acquire information in new ways. In that case, who will tell us what it means to live as citizens of Seattle or Denver or Ann Arbor? The truth is we no longer want to live in Seattle or Denver or Ann Arbor. Our inclination has led us to invent a digital cosmopolitanism that begins and ends with “I.” Careening down Geary Boulevard on the 38 bus, I can talk to my dear Auntie in Delhi or I can view snapshots of my cousin’s wedding in Recife or I can listen to girl punk from Glasgow. The cost of my cyber-urban experience is disconnection from body, from presence, from city.
Richard Rodriguez in this month’s Harper’s Magazine [subscription required]
Jakob von Gunten: Robert Walser
“Kraus has principles, he sits firmly in the saddle, he rides satisfaction, and that is a horse which people should not mount if they want to do some galloping.” (NYRB, 1999: pp. 3-4)
Overheard
some years ago at the National Museum of Mexican Art (Chicago):
“We wrote letters to the dead!”
En sourdine
Happy Hallowe’en!
I may have posted this before, but you need it again, especially tonight.
Vincent
A bit of vintage Tim Burton for this All Hallows Eve.
Faun Do
Two months growth! I’d hoped for something more. Happy Halloween, Y’all.
Palace Brothers – You Will Miss Me When I Burn
Live it, love it, draw it.
DrawMo! 2009 is on.*
All you have to do is draw every day for the month of November. You can stuff the drawings under your mattress, if you like, but I think it’s more fun, and you’re more likely to keep drawing, if you share them. Accordingly, we have a group blog. If you want to join it, please leave a comment there. Furthermore, anyone can post to the Flickr pool.
1, 2, 3, draw!
* If you live in the antipodes; otherwise, happy DrawMowe’en!
from the moderated comments
Dear Führer,
With or without disguise….
Your essence shall prevail ever.
Du bist Mein Got…
Wottan Mit Uns !!!….Post Scriptvm…
…Gentlemen! Remember this: Your names will long be forgotten even before your bodies have rotted away in the Earth. But the name Adolf Hitler will still be a light in the darkness. You cannot murder him by drowning his memory in your vomit-buckets, and you cannot strangle him with your filthy, ink-stained fingers. His name exists forever in hundreds of thousands of souls. You are entirely too insignificant to even touch him….
Heil Hitler !!!!!! For Evigheden !
The Catholic League Watches Curb Your Enthusiasm
At one point in the show, David goes to the bathroom in a Catholic home and splatters urine on a picture of Jesus; he doesn’t clean it off. Then a Catholic woman goes to the bathroom, sees the picture and concludes that Jesus is crying. She then summons her equally stupid mother and the two of them fall to their knees in prayer. When David and Jerry Seinfeld (playing himself) are asked if they ever experienced a miracle, David answers, “every erection is a miracle.”
the dangers of Halloween
- Sex with demons
- Orgies between animals and humans
- Animal and human sacrifices
- Sacrificing babies to shed innocent blood
- Rape and molestation of adults, children and babies
- Revel nights
- Conjuring of demons and casting of spells
- Release of "time-released" curses against the innocent and the ignorant.
These are just some of the secret, wicked, cruel activities that go on behind the scenes.
Wacky
(via Washington Monthly)
Winsor McCay – Dream Of The Rarebit Fiend
Winsor McCay was a cartoonist’s cartoonist and an early animator. The above piece, I believe, was created in 1921.
Die Nase
Cooper Renner. Acrylic and marker on canvas board.
I do like this. It reminds me of one of the figures in Old Man Brueghel’s “Parable of the Blind”. Oh. And underneath it is one of Renner’s earlier works. This will provide employment for art historians of a coming generation.
Pearl and the Beard – Will Smith Medley
(thanks, Dale)
Halloween Fail Whale
Meg Pokrass’s Lost and Found,
available in November from Bannock Street Books, features 10 stories first published in elimae and 7 of my paintings and drawings.
Halloween in the Time of Cholera
Two of my favorites from the set.
self exam
An ABC affiliate is being criticized for showing unpixelated boobies.
“In talking to women, we found out there really weren’t a lot of women who knew how to do self breast exams,” station manager Bill Lord said.
Last Night at the Geriatric Cafeteria
One of the million things I love about Mia is her fondness for an independent cafeteria not too far from our house. She and I have dates on Thursday nights while Daryl teaches, and last night she wanted to go to the cafeteria. I am–at 51– invariably the youngest person there, save for Mia. She sits very happily and watches the old people totter about; she shows no sign of alarm or even curiosity about the sometimes odd behavior that surrounds us.
Last night, a very old fellow walked past our booth, his mouth opening and closing like a fish, apparently on his way to find an iced tea refill. A young cafeteria worker walked briskly past him–a good ten feet away–and the old fellow started tottering off in a different direction, apparently sent adrift by the young man’s wake.
Normally, the piano is set to its Player Piano mode, but last night a dapper old gentleman in cream-colored slacks played–mostly 1930s hits. At one point he glanced at me and saw that I was actually listening, so he launched into a surprisingly able jazz performance of Cry Me a River. He followed it, inexplicably, with a heartfelt rendering of the old hymn, He Walks With Me.
I’m not sure why I feel the need to tell y’all about this mundane experience that proved so unexpectedly powerful for me. But here it is.
Reverse Engineering The Pictorial Webster’s Dictionary
Done in the old style, from start to finish, at Quercus Press. (via)
body double
“He says he knows a girl whose father is the actor for Kim Jong-il,” says Mr. Ha. “Recently Kim Jong-il loses fat. He’s very skinny these days. The defector says, If Kim Jong-il looks skinny, the actor can do the same thing.”
Speculation about whether Clinton met with the real Kim Jong-il in his bid to release the American journalists.