Video Kingpins of Hades Or, No Mercy For Nonsense

Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

Aug 082010

Kermesse Jette

Chapter 3: The Vacation

They desperately needed to stop.

“Daddy, Daddy!” screamed Tony in a voice of desperate pleading.

They were on the Interstate, about twenty miles from the nearest gas station, and they had just left Burger Junction and Auto Palace. Tony needed to stop.

“Tony,” Mrs. Jones said calmly, turning around in her seat to hit the teen with a flyswatter her husband had given her as a Mother’s Day gift. “You have got to understand that we are trying our best to make it to the gas station as soon as you can, but Iowa is a big, spread out place. If you need to stop that bad, we’ll pull over here.”

The other children screamed with laughter, tormenting their brother with sadistic cruelty, the same kind they learned from their mom.

Tony became enraged, taken by anger. He began lashing out, kicking the dog and shouting obscenities. The dog bit him back. Fido is a pit bull.

Grandma’s house was just down this oak lined street.

“Des Moines is such a pretty town,” Mrs. Jones said. “But I hate your lousy mother.”

Mr. Jones didn’t hear her, as he was chomping on a Mars Bar, noticing that there wasn’t really an almond in every bite. He slammed on the brakes, rolled down the window, threw the candy out onto the street and pulled out a Heath Bar in retaliation.

“Litterbug,” said Toniya.

“Nazi Swine,” Mr. Jones replied laughing.

“Look there’s Grandma!” Little Boy Joey bellowed. “It’s a Miracle.”

Grandma was there alright, all 350 pounds or her. Mrs. Jones grimaced in disbelief.

“That fat hippo,” she said, giving the old woman the proverbial finger.

She put down her Mighty Mouseketeer Comic Book, and opened the door, proceeding to roller skate up the driveway’s slight incline.

“Your mom can really skate,” Mr. Jones pointed out to the three children.

TO BE CONTINUED

Toothless in Tampa

Animals, Dogs!, Italian Greyhounds 5 Responses »

Jul 182010

Marcie's Teeth

Marcie recuperating

So for the sake of completeness, here is a story about Marcie Carey and her dental adventures, which actually compare okay to those of her sisters.

Marcie had kind of unfortunate childhood and young adulthood in a puppy mill. Most of the dogs who were recovered with her — 11 of the 16 — died shortly after they were seized by animal services in Georgia. I can only imagine that her taciturn nature is both a result of the horrible experiences she had (three litters of puppies before she was 18 months old among other things) and part of her survival strategy. Marcie is very reserved and quiet — she had lived with me for three years before I ever heard her make a sound — and very loving with cats and people she knows well; I wonder sometimes if she is completely cheerful but she seems content most of the time.

Anyway, like a lot of puppy mill dogs, Marcie has always had terrible teeth. They’ve been extracted one by one over the years, but today, recognizing that all of her canine teeth were practically parrallel to the jawbone and that none of the molars met, the very nice dog dentist Dr. Michael Peak recommended that it was time for total toothlessness. (Also, the spaces around the teeth accumulate bacteria which affect dogs’ health in other ways.)

This is a challenging procedure not just because of the tiny bones of Italian Greyhounds but because their low body fat makes anesthesia tricky. Dr. Peak used only light sedation (isoflurane) with Marcie and some nerve blocking shots around the gumline. And of course Marcie had plenty of dog tranquilizers and painkillers plus subcutaneous and IV fluids.

Also, Marcie is simply much younger — Astra was 16 years old when she had her major extraction and bone graft! — than her sister was undergoing the same procedure.

Naturally I asked to keep the teeth, which you see here, and to have lots of photos.

However I do not think either Marcie nor myself was prepared for embarking on the new adventure of canine cuisine we are now faced with addressing. Marcie already was used to a lot of food — soup, stew, oatmeal, various kinds of cooked vegetables — she just sort of slurped up (not to mention the diet staples of ice cream and yogurt — what can I say?) but if people have ideas about what else a tooth-free IG might subsist on, that would be great.

The excision of Marcie’s tusks are certainly a loss to the world of Italian Greyhound glamour but I think you can see she is going to quickly make a good showing of the “tongue as accessory” thing.

Video Kingpins of Hades Or, No Mercy For Nonsense

Animals in Art, Dogs!, Italian Greyhounds, Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

Jul 052010

Video Kingpins of Hades Or, No Mercy For Nonsense

Chapter 2

Something very evil had clutched the residence at 704 Howser Street. Something that hung over the little home like a black widow’s veil. Indeed, something hideous. Sure, it had happened before, but not in Astoria. This was spooky.

Inside the home, she could feel the presence of the evil force as it hovered over her. She could feel it. None of the appliances were working properly, the children had taken up the practice of walking through solid walls while chanting “Go Wisconsin!”, and sirens were piercing the air, their source unknown. This was most definitely frightening.

Actually, this evening was not unlike the previous few.

chapter 2

Only too clearly came the images of the hamsters in the bathroom, and the sailors in the atticway. She also knew the house still reeked of cheap beer and nachos. The smell was overbearing.

Her mind reeled back a few days as she tried to recall the event that might have triggered all of this, but all she could remember was the fight she had with her husband after he replaced their conventional front door with a paper barrier.

As she thought of the incident, her husband, coincidentally, came crashing through the barrier. The tearing of the paper was loud enough that it could have been a truck driving through the door.

Next came THAT voice.

“Hey! I caught that ball!” He exclaimed.

Immediately she knew that Frostie’s Angels had lost the big ball game. Her husband kept babbling about the outcome of the final play, but when he settled down, he asked her where his supper was. She pointed to the recession of the ceiling/wall above the refrigerator. There he saw a drooping wad of spaghetti, clinging for its survival.

“What’d ya do dat fer?” He asked, pointing his finger at her. There was a brief pause.

“I think we got ghosts.” She said, erupting into tears.

“What have you been smokin’?” he retorted.

With those words, the kitchen floor began crackling and crumbling beneath him. Through the crevice that developed, a little green man burst onto the scene. Was this an alien visitor?

No. It was Gumby.

To be continued…

4 Tesems (bas) et 3 hyènes (haut), origine: tombeau de Ptah Hotep à Saqqara.

The Lure of Salvage 2

Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians, Stuff Found in Library Books No Responses »

Jun 272010

This book, The Hour of Our Death by Philippe Aries (New York: Knopf, 1961) and the pages inside it was rebound recently, with the ad hoc call slip of a patron (who apparently had found the book) joined to new (sewn) binding.

Call slip bound into "Remote and Imminent Death," in The Hour of Our Death

Video Kingpins of Hades Or, No Mercy for Nonsense

Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

Jun 232010

The First Thilling Chapter

WARNING!
The Inspector for the Office of Literary Quality, a unit of the British Colonial Office, has determined that the following reading material is of the poorest possible grade, as it is solely structured around nonsense and simply “meaningless words on a page.”

This material is not intended for resale, and is the property of the University of Polyleritae.

Any infringement of the Statuatory Copywright by Dr. Moe Howard and the University is a violation of all applicable laws.

Please note that the names have been changed in order to encourage innocent parties to commit acts that would adulterate their innocence.

This is the first installment of the Tom Selleck/Opus the Penguin Literary Collection.

The University would like to thank you for helping us to establish the finest in InstiLit. Please remember that THIS IS A SECURED BUILDING. NO RIFF-RAFF. NO WHISTLING IN THE HALLS OR PLAYING WITH THE ELEVATORS.

THANX,

The University of Polyleritae

Franz Marc tries writing Symbolist poetry

Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

Jun 132010

Franz Marc’s best known writing is his public manifesto-ing, and also his correspondence with colleagues and family. But Marc also wrote on the covers of and inside his various sketchbooks all the time. This verse from around 1910 is really trippy in a Rimbaud sort of way. Some of the imagery and words come up again in paintings and painting titles. Thomas de Kayser, the editor of the volume in which this appears, organizes this material by theme very agreeably. Text in French follows the English translation.

Notes in the sketchbook XXVIII
— A pink rain fell over meadows.
— The air is like green glass.
— The girl [observed] looked into the water, the water was clear [as] crystal, the girl was crying.
— Trees had their growth rings, the animals their veins.

Notes in the sketchbook XXXI
The storm roared.
I entered the house and saw all
A tall woman red small black cat [playing] on the green table.
Kraak, lightning strikes the vehicle – the beautiful little cats were playing with the woman, she smiled – ah ah [poor] man and horse are [is] dead. [The man cries] [sky] the angel of fear knocks at the window; the [poor woman] I could shake the red heart of the woman and black kittens knew the green table – what it [?], red and black and green? Three colors give it a thought? If we give to the red heart shape, the black that [one of three interspersed] small kittens, green form of [a large square plate ?...] the square.

I meditate on that thought.
The red heart of the woman breaks.
It [comes] springs a [blood ...] [a streak of blood] A stream of blood [across the sky due] which falls into the river, it flows through the now red green pastures grazed by sheep or black.
The storm has withdrawn his hand from the earth.
The blue sky [?] Ogle like a gigantic glass eye the scene [of] red, green, and black, this thought is not it terrible? [...] Do you understand what the painters paint?

The Lure of Salvage 1

Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

Jun 092010

CCCP Calendar Card, 1971

Soviet Calendar Card, 1971

Documenting odd things found in library books begins; this project is called The Lure of Salvage. Our inaugural item, this small (7 cm by 10.2 cm) calendar card from Moscow cicrca 1971 was found in a book of Russian poety printed in 1942. The photo does not do the image of the curly horses and leaping wolves justice but it is very dreamy and lovely.
‘There is no document of culture that is not at the same time a document of barbarism.’ – Walter Benjamin

Don't Cry, Work

Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

Jun 012010

Unidentified Coastal Organism

It’s June 2010.

“The end of history involves, then, an ‘epilogue’ in which human negativity is preserved as a ‘remnant’ in the form of eroticism, laughter, joy in the face of death. In the uncertain light of this epilogue, the wise man, sovereign and self-conscious, sees not animal heads passing again before his eyes but rather the acephalous figures of the hommes farouchement religieux, ‘lovers,’ or ‘sorcerer’s apprentices.’ ”
– Giorgio Agamben, The Open: Man and Animal, (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004), 7.

Henry Howard on Wolves and Lions

Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

May 262010

Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey, is credited along with Thomas Wyatt for founding the English sonnet. Henry Howard lived in France for a long time, was frequently in trouble with Henry VIII for his boisterous behavior, and got into all sorts of adventures; he was a cool dude. This verse, thought to be about Anne Stanhope, Lady Hertford, is from about 1542.

A SONG WRITTEN BY THE EARL OF SURREY.
OF A LADY THAT REFUSED TO DANCE WITH HIM.

EACH beast can choose his fere according to his mind,
And eke can show a friendly chere, like to their beastly kind.
A lion saw I late, as white as any snow,
Which seemed well to lead the race, his port the same did show.
Upon the gentle beast to gaze it pleased me,
For still methought he seemed well of noble blood to be.
And as he pranced before, still seeking for a make,
As who would say, ‘There is none here, I trow, will me forsake’,
I might perceive a Wolf as white as whalèsbone,
A fairer beast of fresher hue, beheld I never none ;
Save that her looks were coy, and froward eke her grace :
Unto the which this gentle beast gan him advance apace,
And with a beck full low he bowed at her feet,
In humble wise, as who would say, ‘I am too far unmeet.’
But such a scornful chere, wherewith she him rewarded !
Was never seen, I trow, the like, to such as well deserved.
With that she start aside well near a foot or twain,
And unto him thus gan she say, with spite and great disdain :
‘Lion,’ she said, ‘if thou hadst known my mind before,
Thou hadst not spent thy travail thus, nor all thy pain for-lore.
Do way ! I let thee weet, thou shalt not play with me : Continue reading »

"High school classes help teen mom's prepare, cope"

Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

May 212010

Journalism: FAIL

Not good.

The Modern University Experience

Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

May 182010

“The Professors of cognate subjects require also (at Oxford) to be grouped together into Boards, which should have the regulation of their respective studies, along with the Examiners of their school, and subject perhaps to some sort of veto at the hands of the Vice-Chancellor or the University. This would go some ways toward raising the position of the Professors and encouraging the formation of the ‘learned class,’ which the English are told they do not possess. To possess it in the German-University sense is, of course, on the principles already laid down, impossible. Professors are, in England, part of the teaching body. It it best they should remain so. A portion of them will, no doubt, advance the cause of learning by publishing lectures and writing books, over and above their regular work; but the modern University experience of ‘learned leisure’ is not encouraging.”

– John Taylor Coleridge, The Quarterly Review, (London: John Murray, 1809), 413.

Fassbinder Film Festival May 2010

Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

May 182010

Phassbinder Philm Phestival

Whity, (1971); Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte, (1971); Faustrecht der Freiheit, (1975); Angst vor der Angst, (1975); Liebe ist kålter als der Tod, (1969); Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss (1982); Die Ehe der Maria Braun, (1979); Lola (1981).

Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Few filmmakers so powerfully manage to subvert desire for cathartic drama while simultaneously fulfilling it.

Hans Selye Gets Advice...

Animals, Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

Feb 212010

“When he saw me thus launched on yet another enraptured description of what I had observed, he looked at me with desperately sad eyes and said in obvious despair: ‘But Selye try to realize what you are doing before it is too late! You have now decided to spend your entire life studying the pharmacology of dirt.’ ”
– (Hans Selye, The Stress of Life, 1956)

"Slightly Impossibly High Pants"

Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

Jan 272010

“>
“Be the first to sport this dashing new look!
Look smarter and taller.
Works best with standard regular khakis.”

Gendering in Vincent Van Gogh's Portraiture

Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

Jan 242010

York University art history professor Carol Zemel’s overall project with respect to Vincent Van Gogh is an ambitious one, as she suggests that (among other sub-theses) Van Gogh was a somewhat pragmatic, business-oriented artist in complete, even distancing, control of his artistic product until the final few months of his life, a view that usurps his mythology. In the chapter of her 1997 book, Van Gogh’s Progress: Utopia and Modernity in Late-Nineteenth-Century Art titled “Modern Citizens: Configurations of Gender in Van Gogh’s Portraiture,” Zemel further identifies Van Gogh’s strategies and seems to suggest that external factors – the changing role of women in society, the conflict between burgeoning modern life and Van Gogh’s concept of agrarian utopia, and the shift of identifiable classed and gendered roles in general – contributed more greatly to Van Gogh’s ultimate breakdown than underlying biological mental illness.
Continue reading »

Hipsters in Venice

Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

Jan 172010

Aperol-fueled hipsters congregate in Venice, Italy, during the Biennale Venice in July, 2009.

Small Craft Travel In Venice, Italy

Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

Jan 012010

A small boat approaches a low bridge…

The exciting conclusion: Boat travel in Venice, Italy, during the Biennale Venice near the Arsenale hall, July 2009.

“Vincent van Gogh’s Paintings of Olive Trees and Cypresses from St.-Rémy” by Vojtich Jirat-Wasiutyski and “A Modern Gethsemane: Vincent Van Gogh’s Olive Grove” by Joan Greer.

Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

Oct 212009

“Vincent van Gogh’s Paintings of Olive Trees and Cypresses from St.-Rémy” by Vojtich Jirat-Wasiutyski and “A Modern Gethsemane: Vincent Van Gogh’s Olive Grove” by Joan Greer.

f_0712-1 durer_1500
Van Gogh scholars Vojt?ch Jirat-Wasiuty?ski and Joan Greer present comparative views – comparative in the sense that some aspects differ and some also agree – of Vincent Van Gogh’s production of olive-tree related paintings during his slightly-longer-than-one-year stay in Saint-Rémy beginning in May 1889 in the respective articles “Vincent van Gogh’s Paintings of Olive Trees and Cypresses from St.-Rémy” and “A Modern Gethsemane: Vincent Van Gogh’s Olive Grove.” While both pieces emphasize the storied Biblical association of olive trees and olive groves and explore various aspects of Van Gogh’s perception and representation of himself as a Christic figure, Greer brings forward some interesting arguments concerning Frédéric Salles, a Reformed Church minister who visited Van Gogh at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole and became involved with the artist and his family, and about the possibility of Van Gogh’s intentions around these paintings to engage in a sort of conversation with Emile Bernard and not-so-subtle reproach to Paul Gauguin about observation vs. memory studies and religious iconography. Jirat-Wasiuty?ski proposes as an aside that Van Gogh’s cypresses constitute references to Egyptian art (as invocations of immortality) and that the olive series also furthered Van Gogh’s earlier pursuit of typology and physiognomy in attempting to locate the nostalgic and essential in Provencal culture. Finally, Jirat-Wasiuty?ski makes some points about Van Gogh’s identification olive and cypress trees not as religious symbols but as relatable organisms. “Both trees were treated as tough outcasts, relegated to marginal land,” Jirat-Wasiuty?ski observes on page 650.
Greer is persuasive in her account of Salles’s appearance in Van Gogh’s life as a sympathetic figure and one whom Van Gogh could fix some of his yearning for connection upon and as a vector for rekindling connections to Protestantism. Viewed this way, Van Gogh’s representations of himself as a Christ seem more grounded in the longstanding tradition of post-Reformation artists to show themselves this way (such as Albrecht Durer’s most famous self portrait). This type of representation springs not from hubris, but from the belief that man is made in God’s image. Speaking of hubris, though, this does not account for Gauguin’s Christic delusions (coming from a Catholic family it is further mortifying to learn that Gauguin also poorly represents us – this man is a constant disappointment on every level). As to Van Gogh’s dialogue with Bernard and Gauguin, certainly this is a possibility – Van Gogh probably (in reference to conversations which may have taken place in Paris) entertained the hope of “getting the band back together.” Continue reading »

Concentration of wealth in hands of rich greatest on record

Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

Aug 172009

Concentration of wealth in hands of rich greatest on record

from rawstory.com

"Over Everything" Coming to Centre Gallery, USF, in September

Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

Aug 042009

artshowflyer3

Art Show Curator Cares A Lot About Your Opinion

Animals, Animals in Art, Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians 4 Responses »

Jul 232009

Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things Poster Look at this hip art show poll! I will be curating an as-yet-to-be-named art show going up September 7 at USF’s Centre Gallery. The special guest artists will be USF Masters of Fine Arts candidates, maybe, and maybe some other local and regional art stars too. The reason the show is lacking a name is because its title will be decided the democratic way: through your votes.

A manifesto detailing the curator’s philosophy and the inspiration for this cultural insurgency will be forthcoming, but for now I welcome your vote. Please feel free to post your suggestions for alternative names in the comments section, and thank you for participating. — Jean Carey

What should be the name of the mid-September show at USF's Centre Gallery?

Over Everything (82%, 9 Votes)
Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things (18%, 2 Votes)

Total Voters: 11

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"I Can Hardly Wait for My New Jumpsuit!"

Italian Greyhounds No Responses »

Jun 082009

My Jumpsuit!

Best promotional email ever from MyJumpsuit.com!

The Real Housewives of New Jersey...

Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

May 312009

Some Stately Pleasure Dome Decrees: Nero's Library Legacy

Italian Greyhounds, Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

May 162009

The Remorse of the Emperor Nero After the Murder of His Mother

The Remorse of the Emperor Nero After the Murder of His Mother, John William Waterhouse, 1878

INTRODUCTION

An important distinction between Roman Emperor Nero and Chinese Emperor Kublai Khan (and his modern descendent, the William Randolph Hearst character entombed in Xanadu in Citizen Kane (1939) ), is that many of Nero’s ostentatious and ambitious construction projects – beyond and including the Golden Palace – contained spaces for the creation and display of art as well as libraries. In fact Nero’s baths offered one of the largest “public” libraries of the ancient world (Boese 2005, 102) (Staikos, K. 2000).

The purpose of this paper is to present a biography of Nero in relation to the development and subsequent destruction of First Century libraries in Rome, and to present an argument about how access to libraries and knowledge ebbs and flows, and how this access does not always correlate in predictable ways around what we normally think of as civilized and progressive behavior. Nero’s strategy – to earn the love and support of the Roman people by providing culture, food, entertainment, and the constant diversion of a capricious sociopath running the Empire – was successful; it was the senatorial class who actually despised Nero. As Christendom ascended, it adopted some of Nero’s tactics – the spectacular persecution of a minority, for one thing – while other beneficial societal institutions – the aqueducts and the libraries, for example – fell away (Kiefer, Highet, and MacInnes 2000).

Slate on Voice Mail

Philosophy, Art History, and Librarians No Responses »

May 102009

Aerial photograph of Australian outback, Mike Lehmann, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

You Have No New Messages- Ever: It’s Time Voice Mail Threw in the Towel article in Slate by Farhad Manjoo.

Older Entries

Video Kingpins of Hades Or, No Mercy For Nonsense

Chapter 3: The Vacation

TO BE CONTINUED

Toothless in Tampa

Video Kingpins of Hades Or, No Mercy For Nonsense

Chapter 2

To be continued…

The Lure of Salvage 2

Video Kingpins of Hades Or, No Mercy for Nonsense

The First Thilling Chapter

Franz Marc tries writing Symbolist poetry

The Lure of Salvage 1

Don't Cry, Work

Henry Howard on Wolves and Lions

"High school classes help teen mom's prepare, cope"

The Modern University Experience

Fassbinder Film Festival May 2010

Hans Selye Gets Advice...

"Slightly Impossibly High Pants"

Gendering in Vincent Van Gogh's Portraiture

Hipsters in Venice

Small Craft Travel In Venice, Italy

“Vincent van Gogh’s Paintings of Olive Trees and Cypresses from St.-Rémy” by Vojtich Jirat-Wasiutyski and “A Modern Gethsemane: Vincent Van Gogh’s Olive Grove” by Joan Greer.

Concentration of wealth in hands of rich greatest on record

Concentration of wealth in hands of rich greatest on record

from rawstory.com

"Over Everything" Coming to Centre Gallery, USF, in September

Art Show Curator Cares A Lot About Your Opinion

"I Can Hardly Wait for My New Jumpsuit!"

Best promotional email ever from MyJumpsuit.com!

The Real Housewives of New Jersey...

Some Stately Pleasure Dome Decrees: Nero's Library Legacy

Slate on Voice Mail

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