Friday, August 15, 2003 3:30 PM
ART WARS:
The Boys from Brazil
It turns out that the elementary half-square designs used in Diamond Theory
also appear in the work of artist Nicole Sigaud.
Sigaud's website The ANACOM Project has a page that leads to the artist Athos Bulcão, famous for his work in Brasilia.
From the document
Conceptual Art in an
Authoritarian Political Context:
Brasilia, Brazil,
by Angélica Madeira:
"Athos created unique visual plans, tiles of high poetic significance, icons inseparable from the city."
As Sigaud notes, two-color diagonally-divided squares play a large part in the art of Bulcão.
The title of Madeira's article, and the remarks of Anna Chave on the relationship of conceptual/minimalist art to fascist rhetoric (see my May 9, 2003, entries), suggest possible illustrations for a more politicized version of Diamond Theory:
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Fahne, |
Dr. Mengele, |
Is it safe?
These illustrations were suggested in part by the fact that today is the anniversary of the death of Macbeth, King of Scotland, and in part by the following illustrations from my journal entries of July 13, 2003 comparing a MOMA curator to Lady Macbeth:
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Die Fahne Hoch, |
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Thursday, August 14, 2003 3:45 AM
Famous Last Words
The ending of an Aug. 14 Salon.com article on Mel Gibson's new film, "The Passion":
" 'The Passion' will most likely offer up the familiar puerile, stereotypical view of the evil Jew calling for Jesus' blood and the clueless Pilate begging him to reconsider. It is a view guaranteed to stir anew the passions of the rabid Christian, and one that will send the Jews scurrying back to the dark corners of history."
-- Christopher Orlet
"Scurrying"?! The ghost of Joseph Goebbels, who famously portrayed Jews as sewer rats doing just that, must be laughing -- perhaps along with the ghost of Lady Diana Mosley (née Mitford), who died Monday.
This goes well with a story that Orlet tells at his website:
"... to me, the most genuine last words are those that arise naturally from the moment, such as
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Joseph Goebbels |
Voltaire's response to a request that he foreswear Satan: 'This is no time to make new enemies.' "
For a view of Satan as an old, familiar, acquaintance, see the link to Prince Ombra in my entry last October 29 for Goebbels's birthday.
Wednesday, August 13, 2003 3:00 PM
Best Picture
For some reflections inspired in part by
Tuesday, August 12, 2003 4:44 PM
Atonement:
A sequel to my entry "Catholic Tastes" of July 27, 2003.
Some remarks of Wallace Stevens that seem appropriate on this date:
"It may be that one life is a punishment
For
another, as the son's life for the father's."
-- Esthétique du Mal, Wallace Stevens
"Unless we believe in the hero, what is there
To
believe? ....
Devise, devise, and make him of winter's
Iciest
core, a north star, central
In our oblivion, of
summer's
Imagination, the golden rescue:
The bread and wine of
the mind...."
-- Examination of the Hero in a Time of War, Wallace Stevens
Etymology of "Atonement":
"Middle English atonen, to be reconciled, from at one, in agreement"
At One
"... We found,
If we found the central evil, the central
good....
... we and the diamond globe at last were one."
-- Asides on the Oboe, Wallace Stevens
Tuesday, August 12, 2003 1:52 PM
Franken & 'Stein,
Attorneys at Law
"Tue
August 12, 2003 04:10 AM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fox
News Network is suing humor writer Al Franken for trademark
infringement over the phrase 'fair and balanced' on the cover of his
upcoming book, saying it has been 'a signature slogan' of the
network since 1996."
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Franken: |
'Stein: |
For answers, click on the pictures
of
Franken and 'Stein.
Monday, August 11, 2003 10:25 PM
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New Address This web page, log24.com, replaces my previous web log, log24.net. |
Sunday, August 10, 2003 8:35 AM
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Death of a Holy Man Part I: An American Religion Hiroshima Mayor Says "HIROSHIMA -- Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba warned that the world is moving toward war and accused Washington of 'worshipping' nuclear weapons during Wednesday's ceremony marking the 58th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city.... ... the Hiroshima mayor blamed the United States for making the world a more uncertain place through its policy of undermining the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. 'A world without nuclear weapons and war that the victims of the atomic bomb have long sought for is slipping into the shadows of growing black clouds that could turn into mushroom clouds at any moment,' Akiba said. 'The chief cause of this is the United States' nuclear policy which, by openly declaring the possibility of a pre-emptive nuclear strike and by starting research into small 'useable' nuclear weapons, appears to worship nuclear weapons as God.' " -- Mainichi Shimbun, Aug. 6, 2003 Part II: Holy Men
and "I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds."
John Steinbeck describing Cannery Row in Monterey: "Its inhabitants are, as the man once said, 'whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches,' by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, 'Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men,' and he would have meant the same thing." "Now we are all sons of bitches."
Part III: Death of a Holy Man
From a review of The Atomic Scientists: "... the authors try to add a personal element that can excite the reader about science." For more excitement, see Timequake, by Kurt Vonnegut,
Jr. |
Saturday, August 9, 2003 6:29 PM
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Bibles Today is the feast day of St. Hermann Hesse. A quotation from a work by Hesse that is to some a sort of Bible: "You treat world history as a mathematician does mathematics, in which nothing but laws and formulae exist, no reality, no good and evil, no time, no yesterday, no tomorrow, nothing but an eternal, shallow, mathematical present." -- Father Jacobus, Benedictine priest, in The Glass Bead Game, ch. 4 (1943, translated 1960), by Hermann Hesse A Benedictine Archbishop's Apology: "Archbishop Weakland described his feelings 'at this moment' as 'remorse, contrition, shame and emptiness,' also noting that 'much self-pity and pride remain.' He contended he 'must leave that pride behind.' " C.P. Snow in his introduction to A Mathematician's Apology (also a Bible, or at least a book of a Bible, to some) quotes G. H. Hardy on hearing the chimes of Vespers: "It's rather unfortunate that some of the happiest hours of my life should have been spent within sound of a Roman Catholic church.'' A Bible for Benedictines: The Encyclopedic Dictionary of
Mathematics, |
Saturday, August 9, 2003 4:04 PM
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Jews in the News
LOS ANGELES (AP) Aug. 9 --Howard Stern has
settled a lawsuit
against the producers of the television series "Are You Hot?
The Search for America's Sexiest People,'' which he claimed
was based on an idea stolen from his radio show. Stern was suing producer Mike Fleiss, cousin of Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss. From the Daily News, 4/30/03: In Emmy magazine, Mike Fleiss "cites Stern's work as an influence on his own and says he was inspired to get into TV after seeing Stern's series on WWOR/ Ch. 9. 'It was so irreverent, so brilliant, so satirical,' Fleiss says in the magazine. 'That viewing experience changed my life. I knew where I needed to go.' " See also yesterday's entry, Sewage. For related material, click here. |
Saturday, August 9, 2003 12:07 PM
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Beware
of... An episode in the ongoing saga of the conflict between the "story theory of truth" and the "diamond theory of truth." The following set of pictures summarizes some reflections on truth and reality suggested by the August 9, 2003, New York Times obituary of writer William Woolfolk, who died on July 20, 2003. Woolfolk was the author of The Sex Goddess and was involved in the production of the comic book series The Spirit (see below). The central strategy of the three Semitic religions -- Judaism, Christianity, and Islam -- is to pretend that we are all characters in a story whose author is God. This strategy suggests the following Trinity, based on the work of William Woolfolk (The Sex Goddess and The Spirit) and Steven Spielberg ("Catch Me If You Can"). Like other Semitic tales, the story of this Trinity should not be taken too seriously.
A Confession of Faith: Theology Based On the Film The Son to God the Lutheran Father: "I'm nothing really, just a kid in love with your daughter." This is taken from a review of "Catch Me If You Can" by Thomas S. Hibbs. For some philosophical background to this confession, see Hibbs's book Shows About Nothing: By the way, today is the anniversary of the dropping on Nagasaki of a made-in-USA Weapon of Mass Destruction, a plutonium bomb affectionately named Fat Man. Fat Man was a sequel to an earlier Jewish story, |
Friday, August 8, 2003 12:12 PM
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Sewage From The New Yorker magazine,
issue dated August 11, 2003: As in the rest of the country, political talk radio
here is dominated by the hard right. On the AM band,
whose low-fidelity signal is perfect for shrill jabber,
no fewer than four powerful stations feature
“conservative talk.” Two of them, WMCA and
WWDJ, are “Christian” and heavily salted
with attacks on homosexuality, abortion rights, and
stem-cell research and support for school prayer,
President Bush’s judicial nominees, and Israeli
maximalism. The other two pump out a steadier flow of
viscous, untreated political sewage.
WOR carries four hours daily of Bob Grant and Bill O'Reilly, reliable voices of
irritable reaction. The biggie is WABC, which claims the largest
talk-radio audience in the country. The station features
fifteen hours a week of Limbaugh, fifteen of Sean
Hannity, and ten of Mark Levin (“one of America’s preëminent
conservative commentators”). For more on this alleged "sewage," click
on the names mentioned. Those who wish may easily find sites
attacking some of these commentators (particularly Bob
Grant). Others may feel that the word "sewage"
might be better applied to The New Yorker itself
under the recent editorship of Tina Brown.
See Tina Brown and the Coming
Decline at the
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