Friday, March 27, 2009
Leadership in times of crisis
Barack Obama is a great comunicator and he is being present in all the media there is...Franklin D. Roosevelt in its day also made good use of the new media available : radio.
"Obama em 2008 tinha 130 mil seguidores no Twitter, 14 milhões de visualizações em apenas um vídeo de sua campanha no Youtube, 2,3 milhões de membros no FaceBook e simplesmente 3,1 milhões de doadores."
"The radio addresses to the nation, during the Great Depression, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt were called, "Fireside Chats." His "chats" indicated that the President was confident that the US could survive and defeat the Great Depression. They instilled confidence in the government under his leadership."
Emerald green
The color of Emerald Green is said to range from a pale, but vivid, blue green when very finely ground, to a deeper true green when coarsely ground. The molecule's vividness comes from hydrogen bonds. Similar natural compounds are the minerals Chalcophyllite Cu18Al2(AsO4)3(SO4)3(OH)27·36(H2O), Conichalcite CaCu(AsO4)(OH), Cornubite Cu5(AsO4)2(OH)4·(H2O), Cornwallite Cu5(AsO4)2(OH)4·(H2O), and Liroconite Cu2Al(AsO4)(OH)4·4(H2O). These vivid minerals range from greenish blue to slightly yellowish green.
When is a color just a color ?
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Ohio
"A palavra Ohio, que significa na língua iroquesa "Algo Grande", "Grandes Águas", "Belo Rio", "Grande Rio" ou "Bom Rio", era utilizado por este grupo de nativos americanos para descrever o Rio Ohio. O cognome do Ohio é Buckeye State. O Buckeye é uma árvore do gênero Aesculus. Florestas compostas por árvores do gênero Aesculus cobriam anteriormente todo o Ohio, embora muito destas florestas tenham sido derrubadas para serem utilizadas como matérias-primas em diversas indústrias, bem como para dar espaço à agricultura."
da Wikipedia
Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth
The title story of the collection, Goodbye, Columbus, is told from the point of view of the narrator, Neil Klugman. Neil is an intelligent graduate of Rutgers University who works in a low paying position in a library. He lives with his Aunt Gladys and Uncle Max in a working class neighborhood of Newark. One summer, Neil meets and falls in love with Brenda Patimkin, a student at Radcliffe College who is from a wealthy family living in the affluent suburb of Short Hills. The novella explores the level of classism which afflicts the relationship, despite the fact that Brenda's father, Ben, is from the same environment as Neil. The issue of assimilation is intrinsic to the classism as well, since Brenda is much more assimilated than Neil. The title, Goodbye, Columbus refers to a record Brenda's brother listens to about his years as an athlete at The Ohio State University, further proof of the Patimkins' success at assimilation. As the book proceeds, Neil finds that their relationship is falling apart. It is finally realized that Neil and Brenda's relationship is not based on love but lust. Thus, the title may be seen as a metaphor for Neil saying goodbye to the affluent, assimilated world of the Patimkins.
Film
The title story of the novella was made into the 1969 film, Goodbye, Columbus, with Ali MacGraw and Richard Benjamin
Bleak Ohio
"The dirty tricks in Lucas County started long before election day. For instance, the Democratic headquarters was broken into and key voter data was stolen.
In the months before the election, when voting rights activists tried to challenge Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's partisan handling of provisional ballots in court, Tom Noe intervened on Blackwell's behalf. Blackwell also served as co-chair for the Ohio Bush-Cheney campaign,
While Tom handled the court business, Bernadette worked to reverse the Ohio tradition of allowing provisional ballots to be cast in precincts other than the one in which voters were registered and helped disenfranchise many inner city Toledo Democratic voters.
On November 2, 2004, during the election, inner city voting machines broke down and polls opened late. The Toledo Blade reported that the sole machine at the Birmingham polling site in east Toledo broke down at about 7am, and that per the order of Secretary Blackwell, there were no paper ballots available for backup.
At one school the voting machines were locked in the principal�s office, and the principal just happened to call in sick on election day. Another school in west Toledo temporarily ran out of ballots.
In precinct after precinct, African-American voters were disenfranchised as the waiting lines grew to three, four and five hours, and thousands were forced to leave without voting."
Stand by me
Motown, not just another american story...part of the american myth, anyway.
Soundtrack for most of our lives, that's for sure.
Imaginary turism
there's a window that never closes,
lets you see the Earth and beyond,
past and present...
Sits you deeper into your chair,
makes you a nut inside a shell
Huge cloud
A huge cloud, came into the horizon
reflecting the setting sun
introducing drama into our commuters
train back home.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
O matador
Leitura interessante.
Gostei muito do livro, escrita escorreita, acção frenética, muito visual.
Agora já foi até adaptado ao cinema.
Perception
Black Girl Dragging White Girl
Kim Dingle (American, b. 1951)
In all of her paintings that include black and white female figures, Kim Dingle. . . . [creates] an imaginative universe of race and gender relations where what matters most is the way females relate to one another. Breaking the taboos of patriarchal silence, which teach everyone that only the bonds between men really matter when it comes to gender or race, her images expose the hidden relationships that are infinitely more vital to our understanding of race relations. As baby bearers and parental caretakers, females are the group most likely to teach any child about the nature of race and gender, and those lessons last lifetimes. . . .
- bell hooks, Distinguished professor of English
City College in New York
Text excerpted from A Capital Collection: Masterworks from the Corcoran Gallery of Art
Interview here
Camouflage
"Kelly’s background in the military had an impact on his work. The seriousness of his works can be attributed to the time he served in the military. While serving time in the army, Kelly was exposed to and influenced by the camouflage with which his specific battalion worked. This close contact helped enlighten him on the use of form and shadow as well as the construction and deconstruction of the visible."
At the end of the day
at the end of the day
I know I was wrong,
most of the time I was wrong, but
then and now, I'm not ashamed.
I did what I knew best,
I did what I was told -
I kept going.
I was wrong and I'm not ashamed.
I kept going, I moved on.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Jeff Wall
"Wall isn’t obviously autobiographical: He may depict moments of great release but does not, in his work, fling his personal papers into the air. Instead, he worries about clichés and exhausted traditions. He thinks, judges, observes, weighs, considers. His decisive moment is the decided moment. An artist of this sensibility may seem impersonal to people who prefer a guts-and-glory approach to art. Others will find the detachment refreshing. Wall is not without his desperations. His desire to restore fullness to art—to revive that patient—is just more interesting than the usual soul-baring." NYMag
“Quando comecei a trabalhar digitalmente, estava sob a ilusão de que o computador estava abrindo um mundo de espaços imaginários. Mas, o dia-a-dia é um efeito especial. Não há um espaço especial que seja imaginário”. Jeff Wall, Jeff Wall (Tate Publishing: Londres, 2005), p. 55
More reading here
Monday, March 23, 2009
O Contexto Histórico
- Sra. Ministra, vejo que os novos manuais escolares nada escondem sobre o antigo regime...
- Sim, Senhor Primeiro Ministro, com efeito, queremos que os alunos saibam dos degredos, das torturas fisicas, dos assassinatos mes
- Sim, Senhora, tudo isso está muito bem, mas já passou tempo, muito tempo, não precisamos de martirizar as crianças com horrores...e depois temos de pensar na paz, na harmonia, na conciliação.
- Compreendo, Senhor Primeiro Ministro, escolheremos uma visão mais conciliatória.
- ...e depois há o contexto histórico, não esqueça Sra. Ministra, o contexto histórico é de-ter-mi-nan-te nestas questões. As instituições, não as podemos pôr em causa. Nunca.
Talking Head
HOME
The dimming of the light makes the picture clearer
It's just an old photograph
There's nothing to hide
when the world was just beginning
I memorized a face so it's not forgotten
I hear the wind whistlin'
Come back anytime
And we'll mix our lives together
Heaven knows- what keeps mankind alive
Ev'ry hand- goes searching for its partner
In crime- under chairs and behind tables
Connecting- to places we have known
(I'm looking for a)
Home- where the wheels are turning
Home- why I keep returning
Home- where my world is breaking in two
Home- with the neighbors fighting
Home- always so exciting
Home- were my parents telling the truth?
Home- such a funny feeling
Home- no-one ever speaking
Home- with our bodies touching
Home- and the cam'ras watching
Home- will infect what ever you do
We're Home- comes to life from outa the blue
Tiny little boats on a beach at sunset
I took a drink from a jar
& into my head
familiar smells and flavors
Vehicles are stuck on the plains of heaven
I see their wheels spinning round
& ev'rywhere
I can hear those people saying
That the eye- is the measure of the man
You can fly- from the stuff that still surrounds you
We're home- and the band keeps marchin' on
Connecting- to ev'ry living soul
Compassion- for things I'll never know
David Byrne is one of my favorite talking heads, Brian Eno too...
Photoshop
(I copied those photos from David Byrne's journal)
Beware of everything you see, photoshop is all around...
Choose Life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
