Shadow Flutter

Artillery (1911) Roger de La Fresnaye  I don't like cubism, but I like this geometric art form.  Note the horses pulling field cannons.   Captures a military in technological transition. de La Fresnaye was the son of a military officer. The Conquest of the Air (1916) Roger de La Fresnaye Another de La Fresnaye work,this one with a provocative title.  Not sure of the meaning, but the title again suggests a world in the midst of technological change.  Something about de La Fresnaye's art -- so simple yet unique.  What a shame he died at the age of 40 (1885 - 1925).  Time Smoking A Picture (1761) William Hogarth Time's smoke dulls the paint of the picture, while his scythe pieces the painting destroying it.  Time is the enemy of paintings, not art.

Watching this morning’s House hearing on the lackluster debut of the Obamacare web site, I am left wondering why we bother having these hearings, at least on TV.  The spectacle seems designed to give the committee maximum exposure and the truth minimum exposure.  Each panel member is allotted 5 minutes to ask questions, then the next panel member asks hers.  This is repeated until every member exhausts his 5 minutes of fame.  Then they go around again.  This circle jerk provides abundant time to start many lines of inquiry but explore none of them in depth. You watch.  You learn nothing. Since no member has time to explore his line of inquiry to its fruitful end, as often as not he spends his precious minutes pontificating on the pros or cons of some program -- in this case Obamacare -- or skewering either a fellow congressman for having the audacity to belong to the other side or the summoned witness for being a subhuman varmint, who doesn’t bath but feeds...

I just finished reading a speech Neil Gaiman, the fantasy writer, gave to the Reading Agency in London, England.  It’s about the importance of using our imagination to solve problems, and the need to read, especially fiction, to spark that imagination.  He also speaks to the importance of libraries for children.   I strongly encourage everyone to read his speech. You can feel his passion for reading and writing in every word he speaks.  I have placed an excerpt below the link. http://tinyurl.com/l42wz7g “And while we're on the subject, I'd like to say a few words about escapism. I hear the term bandied about as if it's a bad thing. As if "escapist" fiction is a cheap opiate used by the muddled and the foolish and the deluded, and the only fiction that is worthy, for adults or for children, is mimetic fiction, mirroring the worst of the world the reader finds herself in.” “If you were trapped in an impossible situation, in an unpleasant place, wit...

I wanted to share with you a book I just finished reading: "Stoner," by John Willims. The author, John Williams, was born in Texas, but earned his Ph.D. at the University of Denver, where he spent the rest of his life as professor and director of creative writing.  He published his first two novels while earning his Masters at the University of Missouri.  William Stoner, the main character, was born on a farm but went to school at the University of Missouri, where he spent the rest of his life teaching.

  Williams won the the National Book Award for "Augustus," his historical novel about the great Caesar.  He should have won it, and a few other prizes, for "Stoner."  Williams died in 1994.  He did not leave us nearly enough to read. I came across "Stoner" while perusing the New York Review of Books list of classics.  Something about the description caught my eye.  I have a good eye.  Stoner is more popular in Europe than here in the U.S....

The relationship between the truth and politicians is a lot like two genitals bumping in the night.  Despite the appearance there is nothing intimate about the relationship.  The latest example of this truism comes to us via the refusal of our government to pay death benefits to the families of fallen soldiers.  A charity will do what our government won’t.  This is a national disgrace, and our leaders should bow their heads in shame, as should we all for permitting them to do this.  While the government shuts down, and politicians form endless lines outside cable news studios to blame everyone but themselves, soldiers are ordered to continue fighting.  But if they die their families must rely on charity because the government that demands they fight will not pay.  I blame the republicans and the administration (and democrats by association) for this. I blame the republicans for shutting down the government, and I blame this administration for taking a ...

I’m sitting here holding “Solomon’s Ring,” by Konrad Lorenz in hand remembering reading it as a college sophomore in an Animal Behavior course, but not remembering what it was about.  Oh, it has something to do with animal behavior and geese, but I don’t remember Lorenz’s thesis, or any of the details.  So I’m reading it again. By the way, my Animal Behavior professor had an aquarium inhabited by a single lobster.  He wanted to observe and document a particular behavior of the lobster.  But the lobster had ensconced himself between rock and tank rear wall, where he remained night and day.  A normal lobster would scurry along the ocean floor looking for food, courting mates, and defending territory against all challenges.  But not this lobster.  This lobster never went for a walk;  never hunted for food, because food would plop down in front of him; never defended his territory, because there were no challengers to defend it agains; and never court...

Pundits, columnists, and party strategists.  Aren't we blessed?  They are experts on everything.  They must be, because they speak and write with such authority and command.  One day they tell us we can save our planet by turning Green, and the very next day they explain the pathway to eternal peace in the Middle-East.  What we don't see is they are all reading from the same fax. Watch a cable news show, and there is almost always a pundit, a columnist, and a strategist from each party in attendance.  Who are they?  Some look to be 18 years old.  What can they possibly know that justifies taking up precious bandwidth?  I could be watching puppies play.  Are these cable stations trolling high schools looking for talent? How can there be unemployment?  Everyone can be a party strategist.  Call the local cable station, tell them you are a strategist, and then say the stupidest things on TV . . . and get paid for it.  D...

We’re crazy in love with time.  Other than our relationships with significant others, there is no relationship more intimate than the one we have with time.  We are obsessed with time.  It started in the beginning.  I mean the very beginning.  in Genesis when God separated the light from the dark, he created daytime and nighttime.  Since then we have invented sun dials, water clocks, church bells, clock towers, wristwatches, and wall-mounted clocks all in an effort to capture, measure, and control time.  Even our phones keep time.  When the power comes on after an outage, we scurry about the house resetting clocks on all manner of electronic devices: the  DVR, the stove, the TV, the radio, the microwave oven, etc.  After a massive outage, would an astronaut from space see the entire U.S. Northeast blinking until everyone reset their clocks?  Do we really need all those clocks? Obviously time matters to us . . . a lot.  But why?...