What a Piece of......Art

This small tirade of Art Theory is brought to you by Keith who posted this crappy poem on my entry "Art:"

Inhale - Tolerance,
Exhale - Judgement,
Inhale - What I am,
Exhale - What I think I am,

I have all I need,
And I can live without.
Don't hold me down.

What?

Okay. Listen, well meaning "artists." Stop being so artsy. Art should tell me a story. It should make me feel a certain way. It should connect with the eternal that is within my heart and mind.

I realize that all art comes from a certain world view and, therefore, cannot escape containing a "lesson," however, stop doing it on purpose. You are what Brannagh's character in "How to Kill Your Neighbors Dog" calls "artsy bastards."

I am not interested in your politics. I am not interested in how well you can string together etherial sounding words in such a way as to convey no specific meaning. "I can live without..." without what? Don't say, "well that's up to the reader," because that's just your excuse. You call it art... I call it lazy.

"Exhale what I think I am." What the hell does that mean? What do you think you are?

Last but not least... art is not therapy. Don't give me this bullcrap of "well I don't write for other people. I write for myself." If that's the case, don't put your work out for public consumption. If you're going to put it out here for us to see, make it speak to us. That means, use complete sentences. that means, appeal to my emotions not to your political views of the world. And for the love of God, put crappy stuff on your own blog. Mine's reserved for well thought out ideas and replies.

Sorry if you think I'm holding you down.

Step on a Crack

Here is a cool sidewalk drawing. I saw some at a friends house last night that are better and I'll try to find them. For now these will whet your appetite.

Art?

This was on Fishkite.com. I have to admit that I think it's pretty cool. However, in the strictest sense it fits my definition of stupid art and it's against everything I stand for. Yet...I love it so much, it may just expand my mind...nah.

Little Black Book

The wife and I rented "The Little Black Book" tonight. Must say I enjoyed it pretty well.

The writing is very snappy and witty. The movie is very funny and very well acted. What do you expect, the three headliners are Brittany Murphey, Helen Hunt and Kathy Bates.

I was a little thrown by the overtly feminist message of the film. "You don't need love, baby, because you've got your career." Of coarse my wife argues this point. She says that the film teaches "you can't be happy with someone else unless you are happy with yourself first." Except the movie ends without her being happy with someone else, except maybe Carly Simon and Dianne Sawyer.

Of coarse, I applaud the way the writer ended the film in its non-sap. The movie ends as the story may have ended in real life, which is always refreshing but rarely done.

Linguists; Look-a-this

Both of my readers will remember my article on Christmas about my Chinese restaurant. Well here's another.

If you haven't noticed, pretty much every Chinese restaurant uses "Bamboo Chopsticks" brand chopsticks. Next time you go, read the package the sticks come in. In case you don't want to go, here's what it says. I have left as-is. Same punctuation, spelling and capitalization.

Welcome to Chinese Restaurant.
please try your Nice Chinese Food With Chopsticks
the traditional and typical of Chinese glorious history.
and cultural

Here are the instructions on the back.

thumb
Tuck under
and hold firmly

Add second chopstick
hold it as you hold
a pencil

Hold first chopstick
in original position
move the second one
up and down Now you
can pick up anything

And here was my fortune cookie.

A Vert misunderstanding by calm, poise and balance.

Word Control, Thought Control, World Control

I wasn't sure whether to put this on the Brum or on my political blog. I decided that since it is primarily a linguistic conversation I would put it here. Hear how Mathew Kiel thinks that the government is changing the definitions of our words to control our minds. His stupid article is here.

Perhaps he should study linguistics and politics before he starts putting forth goofy theories on them...

Anyone Surprised?

I found this intelligence quiz through Andrew's blog. This was my result. Where I had two answers that could have been right, I did the quiz and chose the other answer as well. That time, I had the "Musical Intelligence." Click on the title or the link at the bottom to take the quiz for yourself. Post a comment and tell me what each of you are.

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Those Who Love Me

I want this for my birthdad.



They played some of it on PBS. I want it baaaaad.

Americanism, Puritanism and the Religion that is America

See this article. see also the article within the article for a discussion on Americanism as a religion an Anti-Americanism as a competing religion. I have just oversimplified the discussion but I don't have much time today. I'll discuss furthur in a later blog.

If You Coulda Known me When

Found this photo of myself playing Rikki in the Musical "Rikki Tikki Tavi" when I was with showagon in Memphis. "Cause Iiiiiiiiiiii'm a Mongoose."