Tags
Architecture, Art, brain study, economy, GOP, Internet, neuroscience, poverty, Sharron Angle, teabaggers, unemployment, wingnuts
It’s amazing what a good night’s sleep does for a person, especially one who is sadly having to give up on the idea that middle age is any more much of a descriptive phrase. Still, I think I can push old age to 75 doncha think?
I slept good last night, which is commendable and all around right, since the nights are so conducive to it–being both dark and cool.
I often get up in the night, around 12:30 am or so, and sit up with a glass of wine and watch the goings on in the meadow. Most of it revolves around the escapades of the cats. The dogs tend to lay outside to keep cool, and the cats rather saunter and swagger around like they own the place.
They tend to rush in and out, much as the Mad Hatter, stopping to splay out on the floor and take a quick bath before heading back out for more late night entertainment. It’s a rather glorious time of quiet reflective peace. I often write in my head at that time, my creative juices are all bubbly.
So, I’m ready to lay back, open the reader and see what’s going on. Oh and I should tell ya, I’m fallin’ in love with “Despicable Me” promos. I haven’t felt such a pull at my heart since that adorable little garbage dude in that other flick. Wall-E was it?
I don’t know much about architecture which certainly qualifies me for an opinion. I know what I like (love in the case of Art Deco), and what I don’t. Anyway, a bunch of snooty “experts” collected by Vanity Fair, for whatever reason, has named the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (that’s in Spain as I just learned) wins! The work of one Frank Gehry. They have a slide show where you can see his other stuff. This will all turn up on Jeopardy sooner or later, so it’s wise to at least know this stuff. In a word–the dude doesn’t like 90° angles, but he does like every other kind. Actually, I may have to do a full piece on this. One admirer broke into tears on visiting the Guggenheim, but I truly tell you, this stuff is simply awful!
I nearly lost my lunch on that lunacy, and I’m still woozy, but press on.
Things get definitely worse when you read this article in Prospect, claiming that the internet is rewiring our brains, and not for the better. Lots of neuro scientificy stuff here. I’m not sure whether I should be scared or insulted. I did find this quote from the Spectator from 1889 on the “Intellectual Effects of Electricity” to be mildly amusing:
All men are compelled to think of all things, at the same time, on imperfect information, and with too little interval for reflection.
Little did they know of the spread of information!
We do seem a bit artsy today. I have read part of an art book, so I am superiorly qualified on this one. It seems, we are told, that the “new” art of today can be summed up in this self-promoting, self-defending mode:
I know that the art I’m creating may seem silly, even stupid, or that it might have been done before, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t serious.
It would appear that batshit crazy has invaded the world of art as well as politics these days. I think the number of us who are certifiably sane is dwindling. No slideshow here, I guess they were mindful of my sensitive stomach.
Speaking of teabaggers, Sharron Angle is single-handedly making HarryReid’s chances of re-election look positively grand. The DailyKos has all the scoop on her latest inanities via “interview.” She is simply astoundingly stupid. She can expect a lifetime of Christmas cards from Harry I’m sure.
DCap has a rogue’s gallery of GOP remarks about how unemployment benefits are dangerous because people get used to them, and get too lazy to find work. Disgusting, callous, cold-hearted. That’s what they are, and they deserve our approbation. Shame on them and their psychologically distorted view of human beings.
Existential Ennui 
Hey, where did you get that picture of me?
;P
lol…I figured you would comment. I know plenty of librarians who are knock-outs of course. tee hee
Great picture! I’m too tired to look at your links, but still appreciate them. Maybe tomorrow!
I shouldn’t wonder Jan, what with the near miss of the hurricane. Glad all is well.
I went to see the other works by Gehry–I liked them! Especially “Fred and Ginger.” His work reminds me of Antonio Gaudi on the one hand, and the work of the architect for the Seattle public library, which you can see here: http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Seattle_Public_Library.html
Shannon, therein lies the beauty of humanity. We can each hate and love the same thing! lol…I’m so far from being an architechural student that well, I can only say, “I know what I like.!” Thanks for the link though. I shall take a look.
Another good list. Like you I often get up around midnight. I like to do my research when it’s quiet and cool.
I never do anything, just sit and vegitate.Sometimes I do write whole posts, or jot down ideas for them.
Love the picture, too, Sherry!
Re Gehry: I too was mystified about all the hullabaloo until his bandshell went up in our über-expensive Millennium Park. At first, his collection of steel sails looked as if a Martian ship had crashed on Chicago’s lakefront. But once the shock dissipated, its beauty bloomed for me. It’s somehow musical–lighter than air, constantly in flux as the shifting light glints off it, modern and primal at once. Before that, I looked at pictures of his stuff and thought they looked like trash piles. Who knew, huh?
Have a great Fourth! (And I’m oh-so-envious of your late-night meadow-watching.)
Tim to be fair, I’m sure I don’t hate all his stuff. I can see the metal stuff a bit, but oh he made me queasy!It’s all in the eye of the beholder as we say.
The meadow can be so inviting late at night, with a kazillion fire flies, or morbidly dangerous and rejecting, when it rains relentlessly, and is just dreary magnified. But then, rain in the city was pretty pathetic as I recall too.