July 2009

"I just finished this piece." "Roy Lichtenstein, right?"

"Why do you say that?" "Well, it looks just like Roy Lichtenstein's work. I'm not sure I could name the painting but it's totally his style."

"Are you saying he owns painted romance cartoons done in enlarged Ben Day dots?" "Kinda, yeah, unless you have some theory for making this, pardon me, clone."

"Wouldn't you say 'ownership' is the language of the marketplace? Can't anyone make an image like this? Why can't you concentrate on the differences between what I made and what Lichtenstein supposedly made? You're immediately dissing this. Shouldn't a critic's job be to be supportive and nurturing? Are you trying to wish me out of existence?"

"Well? Respond to my work, I made it!" "Your piece sucks and you are boring the shit out of me with your rhetoric."

I love newspapers.

Daily Howler on Josh Marshall's decline:

...Our Own Josh Marshall sat himself down; thought long and hard; and began to philosophize for young liberal readers. Josh had given a great deal of thought to an important topic:

MARSHALL (7/1/09): JUST GO BE WITH HER!

In part two of his leave-no-rock-unturned interview with the Associated Press, Mark Sanford says that at least he will "be able to die knowing I had met my soul mate," as David [Kurtz] noted below. And if that’s not enough, he says that for all the grief his affair has caused, that if the affair means he can never run for president (think the ship's sort of sailed on that one), that it will have been worth it.

I know there are a lot of people who are genuinely questioning Sanford's sanity at this point—when you put together the furtive trips and the endless new revelations. But am I the only one who thinks that he appears to be deeply in love with this woman and should just go be with her?

[...]

Josh’s very thoughtful pensées continued along from there. To be fully enlightened, just click this. Or you could just go rent Candy (click here).

Josh rarely presents his own thoughts any more, except for the occasional haiku assembled from snark (click this). When he did to decide to expound on a topic, this was the topic he chose.

Marshall was good on the Bush Social Security fight, goading legislators with daily counts on where everyone stood, so it became harder for them to vote against their constituents "under the radar." Now instead of a similar focus on the national health care we're about to not get, it's Sanford, followed by Palin and today, Ensign (who the hell is he? must be another affair). As the Howler says, "we are all Gail Collins now."

[YouTube]

Charles Westerman's Applesoft BASIC program generating random triangles on his Apple IIgs, sound from 2 Mario Paints and step sequenced MIDI through Roland MT-32, opening at Brian Blomerth's gallery in Richmond, VA on 2/1/09

nice understated use of YouTube for low-maintenance music/video object

thanks to my brother brad for this photo of my studio in my art student days