The Flea Marketing of New York
“I’m always amazed by these groups of cool young people, wandering around, looking for stuff, and I think, ‘If you didn’t have this venue, your performance of yourself wouldn’t be as complete,’ ” Professor Prokopow said. He described the phenomenon as “I have something that no one else has. I was different before I got this fantastic blank, but now my differentness is borne on my shoulders.”
The New York Times looks at nostalgia, self-curation, and the city’s flea market moment.
Claro y Obscuro: Elsa Muñoz (National Museum of Mexican Art)
National Museum of Mexican Art. May 20 through November 27, 2011.
Chicago area artist Elsa Muñoz paints still settings and meditative moments in time, suggesting something has just transpired, or that a new sequence of events is about to unfold. At times eerie, the work reflects her personal exploration and interpretation of the chiaroscuro technique–an approach where the shadow itself acts as a dominant character in the scene.
“These works are as much about what is plainly revealed in light as they are about what is concealed in darkness . . . the relationship between light and shadow as metaphors.” (Elsa Muñoz).
Precession of the Equinoxes
The thing that caused everyone to freak out because their astrological signs had changed is one of the more fascinating stories in the history of intellectual evolution. That thing is called precession of the equinoxes, and precession is one of those phenomena that is simultaneously invisible and obvious, observable and hidden.
Let’s start with the technicalities and move to the history of it.
In astronomy, axial precession is a gravity-induced, slow and continuous change in the orientation of an astronomical body’s rotational axis. In particular, it refers to the gradual shift in the orientation of Earth’s axis of rotation, which, like a wobbling top, traces out a pair of cones joined at their apices in a cycle of approximately 26,000 years. The term “precession” typically refers only to this largest secular motion; other changes in the alignment of Earth’s axis — nutation and polar motion — are much smaller in magnitude.
So, precession is essentially the planetary equivalent of the wobble in a top as it spins.
If you carve the horizon into twelve roughly equivalent sections, each year, at the equinoxes, the sun will appear to rise in one and set in its opposite. Because of the wobble in the axis of the earth, the section of the sky the sun appears to rise and set in will shift very slowly over a period of roughly 2,160 years. This is the basis of astrology, as various civilizations applied meaning to the constellations they saw in each section. More interestingly, I think, our tracking of it appears to be the basis of astronomy.
To begin to notice that tracking takes time. To fully understand the cycle, and be able to project it forwards and backwards, to mark the passage of time in the relative movement of the stars, would take hundreds, if not thousands, of years — observation, measurement, notation. Once a culture had an awareness of that pattern, no matter on what scale, it could begin to find a place for itself, and make a story out of it, and because we are human, of course, that is what we did.
If you are interested in this subject, and are comfortable with an approach equal parts academic and poetic, you might enjoy Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechen’s Hamlet’s Mill. It shows glimpses of precession’s possible influence throughout the history of art, an astronomical code for our place in the universe embedded in language.
quote out of context
“We deal with these guys all the time, especially the clergy. It’s amazing how many of the clergy are involved in those lies to build that flock up,” said retired SEAL Don Shipley. Shipley also speculated the waterboarding and kitchen details came from the action depicted in “Under Siege.”
things I heard last week
I’m backwards flite kying.
I can’t get used to this creepy lake weed.
I love my robot.
That’s not a joke, it’s naming a lake.
I’d rather make mistakes in my own pants.
You’ll notice you never saw an animated duck wearing pants.
The knees fucked the tail.
I love creatures with eyes on the side of their head.
Isn’t it good we have roofs over our heads rather than tents.
And then we both felt strange.
He asked me slowly if I had been at the corner of Lexington and McCadden last week, in the evening. I said I had, because we were casting in the area. He knew that, he says. I ask why, and he says because he jogged and saw me walking there. I was surprised, I hadn’t seen him! How strange that he had seen me.
He asked if I had seen him, and if I had looked down to avoid talking to him. The idea that I would be capable of such a thing seemed incomprehensible to me. I told him the truth, I said No, of course not! I was wearing heels and looked down at the ground to concentrate on not falling over, because I am clumsy and am terrified of tripping. He was worried I had seen him and avoided him, or that I would think he was following me, so he jogged away without saying anything.
headline of the day
Archaeologists discover saber-toothed vegetarian
John Welding, Illustrator | Oral History of Agbrigg and Belle Vue
As an archivist and a lover of illustration, how could I not like such a project as this by John Welding? (Thanks to clusterfriend Pete Ashton.)
Spent time yesterday redrawing illustrations for the Oral History Book Project. My first attempts didn’t quite match up with my recent efforts, which I thought were better. These are made using a light box to trace off elements with pen and brush that are needed then moved around to make the picture work, to place emphasis where it’s needed.
You are listening to Los Angeles
Okay. My 24/7 soundtrack. Ambient music and live LAPD police radio.
(Thank you, Mr. Ledgerwood.)
Kasoundi
Select your mix of chillies and slice them up. Separate the seeds from the flesh if you want a milder outcome. Kasoundi is not a macho hot-sauce contest. Avoid the temptation to construct an edible inferno, because all those subtle flavours will be lost. Look, you should just throw out the seeds.
The Pink Fairy Armadillo
The Pink Fairy Armadillo is one part warm fuzzy, one part cold prickly. The plates of armor-like skin protect this lilliputian armadillo species (~4 inches) against abrasion whilst digging underground, where it spends nearly all of its time. The supremely creepy animal is currently endangered in central Argentina, where it is found.
(thanks, Cindy)
What do these people have in common?
(Aside from being mental as anything.)
I just learned via Roger Ebert that I share a birthday with David Foster Wallace.
I already knew about my natal link with Nina Simone, W. H. Auden, Sam Peckinpah, and Anaïs Nin.
Tyche, the new ninth planet
John Matese and Daniel Whitmire, astrophysicists from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, think data gathered from NASA’s Wise telescope will reveal a ninth planet orbiting in the Oort cloud, captured from another solar system by the sun’s gravity.
Whether it would become the new ninth planet would be decided by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The main argument against is that Tyche probably formed around another star and was later captured by the Sun’s gravitational field. The IAU may choose to create a whole new category for Tyche, Professor Matese said.
Tyche will almost certainly be made up mostly of hydrogen and helium and will probably have an atmosphere much like Jupiter’s, with colourful spots and bands and clouds, Professor Whitmire said. “You’d also expect it to have moons. All the outer planets have them,” he added.
I said
See, if I do an Amy said with that, people will think I put my butt on your face.
3426 Dutton Drive
Uncontacted Tribe Photographed in Brazil
“I’ve interviewed people who have gone through the process of contact,” said Watson. “One of the things that struck me is that they know more about us than we think they do. They’ve been watching us. The world is full of dangers, and they’ve made this decision to remain isolated for survival. But there’s a lot of curiosity.”
Time-Based Entanglement
In the weird world of quantum physics, two linked particles can share a single fate, even when they’re miles apart.
Now, two physicists have mathematically described how this spooky effect, called entanglement, could also bind particles across time.
If their proposal can be tested, it could help process information in quantum computers and test physicists’ basic understanding of the universe.
“You can send your quantum state into the future without traversing the middle time,” said quantum physicist S. Jay Olson of Australia’s University of Queensland, lead author of the new study.
“How My Amazing Grandfather Met Martin Luther King” by Jeremy Williamson (3rd Grade)
Penned a decade or so ago by the younger son of my friends Lydia and Al and rediscovered just this month.
My grandpa John Snow was the director of a place for people who had nervous breakdowns or other bad troubles in their lives. The place was called Gould Farm. Although it may seem strange, it was through his work at this place that John met an amazing man of peace. This is the story of that important meeting and how it happened.
Rediscovered: Homer and Jethro
(Thanks to my friend Paul B. for this.) Like Roger Miller + Cole Porter + (like the man says) great rhythm guitar.
I had purt-well forgotten Homer and Jethro.
Ricky Cameron, you listening?
Kepler 10-b
The planet-hunting Kepler Space Telescope has spotted its first rocky exoplanet, astronomers announced today at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
“This is the first unquestionably rocky planet orbiting a star outside our solar system,” said astronomer Natalie Batalha of San Jose State University, a member of the Kepler team. “It’s an important milestone for our team, and I think it’s an important milestone for humanity.”
The new planet, called Kepler 10-b, orbits a sun-like star 560 light-years away.
Martin Mull — Renaissance Man
Did you know Martin Mull was an artist?
And, apparently, a musician.
Hang Son Doong, Mountain River Cave
A really big cave has been discovered in Vietnam:
An enormous shaft of sunlight plunges into the cave like a waterfall. The hole in the ceiling through which the light cascades is unbelievably large, at least 300 feet across. The light, penetrating deep into the cave, reveals for the first time the mind-blowing proportions of Hang Son Doong. The passage is perhaps 300 feet wide, the ceiling nearly 800 feet tall: room enough for an entire New York City block of 40-story buildings. There are actually wispy clouds up near the ceiling.
from the comments
It has been such a long time since I actually considered my own hopes, dreams and aspirations in a serious way. Seventeen years, in fact. It’s like I took a long vacation from myself and am surprised to find emerging the person I was a very long time ago.
Motherhood left me vulnerable. Samson with his hair shorn, is the way it feels on the bad days. But I think that aspect also cracked ancient layers of defense.
Emotions I had forgotten came back. “Don’t think about crossing her when it comes to the boy, you’ll regret it ’til the day you die,” counsels the Iowan, in wonderment.
I found the super-sized emotions did not kill me. They are old friends, not enemies. They are showing me the way.
Favorite new word I learned today:
‘Feculent‘
The Transformation of the DEA
The Drug Enforcement Administration has been transformed into a global intelligence organization with a reach that extends far beyond narcotics, and an eavesdropping operation so expansive it has to fend off foreign politicians who want to use it against their political enemies, according to secret diplomatic cables.
