Quote/Screenshot of the Day
[From http://py.vaults.ca/~x/tquotes/tquotes.py?D=17]
Sandwiched by a disembodied hand holding an open book, on the top, and, on the bottom, by four dark green navigation boxes and a shelf of candy-colored books, this purple-colored quotation by Umberto Eco (from his book Travels in Hyper Reality {sic}) is set off by a brown rectangle with 3-D HTML borders. The tasty bit of knowledge and its navigational accouterments float atop an infinitely repeating purple, orange, and white interference pattern. At first glance the color combination appears a little dowdy, and at second glance even more so.
Errol Morris On Forgery
The filmmaker Errol Morris—whose posts on the nytimes.com blog Zoom deploy headlines such as “Not Your Mom’s Apple Pie Chart” and “Cartesian Blogging”—recently posted the first of seven installments of what looks to be a great essay on art forgery. Morris begins with two authors (Edward Dolnick and Jonathan Lopez) who last year tackled the same subject: Han van Meegeren, a twentieth century forger of Vermeers. Considering that a hefty percentage of the art market could be composed of fakes, the gold standard of originality may not be so solid. But who was a true believer anyway?
PS: Also looking forward to how many people “call out” the Van Meegeren paintings as obvious. Current number of commentators who would not have been fooled: 11.
Further reading:
“Believing Is Seeing” (Morris’s article about the Iranian “fourth missile”)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/opinion/13morris.html
“Experts and institutions may also be reluctant to admit their own fallibility. Art historian Thomas Hoving estimates that various types of forged art comprise up to 40% of the art market.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_forgery
“Forgeries: A Long History”
http://www.museum-security.org/forgeries.htm
Someone said birch trees always grow in threes
Someone said birch trees always grow in threes
A nice factoid, but another called bullshit.
Someone else said that the Polish in Greenpoint
Are starting to realize they need us
(The yuppies) so that they don’t get priced out
Of the neighborhood. No one called bullshit.
Detail of a Forged Goya
Eleven years after being bequeathed to the Fogg Art Museum, this portrait of Maria Isabella de Bourbon (1741-1763), attributed to Goya, was discovered to be a fake. The left side is the original under-painting, and the right is what remained of the forgery. More here.
Number One Rules
While sitting cross-legged and slightly hunched over with a cup of coffee before my laptop these are the ads that invariably pop up.
Research: At the Bridge Table, Clues to a Lucid Old Age
“‘We play for blood,’ says Ruth Cummins, 92, before taking a sip of Red Bull at a recent [bridge] game.” -NYT
I could go on vacation by myself and confront the void
But the void’s not all it’s cracked up to be
Greatest Hits
Ronald Reagan torches the getaway car in Point Break.
Guns and Credit
“Lawmakers say it appears likely that President Obama will sign a provision allowing loaded and concealed weapons in national parks, which was added to a measure imposing new rules on credit card companies.” –NYT
19 May 2009, 8:08 pm:
Two employees at the empty Comic Burger, an action figure–themed restaurant with yellow walls at 513 Grand Street in Brooklyn, shared a pair of earbud-style headphones and looked out the window.
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