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Quote of the Day

Nutrition get azor therapy, herbal medicine, and therapies such as massage or meditation triamterene overnight delivery are just a few examples. People with psoriasis usually have find clindamycin online elevated uric acid levels, and high uric acid is also zyprexa without prescription a gout risk factor. To find out how much you'd order triamterene pay for each form, you can talk with your insurance buy kenalog alternatives info provider or your pharmacist. This can produce symptoms such as generic griseofulvin abdominal pain or cramps, diarrhea, bloody stools, and weight loss. pyrantel pamoate online The drug information contained herein is subject to change and flovent cheap drug is not intended to cover all possible uses, directions, precautions, order remeron warnings, drug interactions, allergic reactions, or adverse effects. Several environmental order estradiol lowest dosage cheapest price triggers may bring on the raised, itchy bumps — for methotrexate sale instance, allergies, medications, stress, pet hair, food, stinging nettles, and order cialis low price drugs UV light. Additionally, other medications they take are important, as macrolide.

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And he not only threw me under his campaign bus, he backed up and ran over me again. [via]

Sentor Larry Craig, caught in a (gay) sex scandal, lashes out at Mitt Romney

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Posted: October 20th, 2007
at 7:03pm by Black Ock


Categories: life,politricks,fo' real?,quote of the day

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ART! - Woodblock Madness Pt. 2

Welcome back to ART DAY! my peoples. Once again my man Koookiecrumbles and I tag team you with the latest art that you should be checking out. The theme is still Asian art, and no, it hasn’t gotten less general.

Last week we talked about woodblocks and we somewhat touched on the fact that many impressionists (as well as artists of other movements) were deeply inspired by Japanese woodblocks of the 18th-19th century. Today we explore the parallels a little bit deeper.

To start, we look at at a Van Gogh painting, which is taken from Hiroshige.

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Vincent Van Gogh, during the first experiments marking his turn to impressionism, once meticulously copied a blooming plum tree from a Japanese woodblock print to explore the effects of juxtaposition of contrasting colors, which are typical of ukiyoe prints. [via]

Now if you don’t know Uttagawa Hiroshige, then you either never studied art history or you don’t spend enough time on Wikipedia, but don’t worry, we’ll fix that.

He dominated landscape printmaking with his unique brand of intimate, almost small-scale works (at least when compared against the older traditions of landscape painting descended from Chinese landscape painters through Sesshu). The travel prints generally depict travelers along the famous routes traveling and experiencing the special attractions of various stops along the way. They travel in the rain, the snow, and during all of the seasons. In 1856, working with the publisher Uoya Eikichi, he created a series of high quality prints, made with the finest printing techniques including true gradation of color, the addition of mica to lend a unique iridescent effect, embossing, fabric printing, blind printing, and the use of glue printing (wherein ink is mixed with glue for a glittery effect). One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (issued serially between 1856 and 1859) was immensely popular. The set was not published until after his death, so not all of the prints were completed by him-he created over 100 on his own, but two were added by Hiroshige II after his death.

Fixed? Okay, now look at some of this work. You’ll notice that the Ukiyo-e theme that we discussed last week is present in his work, as well as the color juxtapositions that are discussed in the above quote. Note: these woodblocks are all by Hiroshige II but similar themes are expressed.

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The effects of Europe’s impressionist movement were being felt in Asia. Japan was undergoing a period of radical modernization, which in the cultural field caused a great interest in Western oil painting. Two of the first Japanese teachers of Western oil painting, which became part of the official curriculum in the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1896, were Kuroda Seiki (AAA,A¥AA AAMAAAA) and Kume Seiichi ( A¤[ A¦A AAMA¤@), who both came back from Paris in 1893. They introduced impressionism and the free lifestyle of the French art scene to Japan. In 1907, the first show of original impressionist paintings was held in Japan, including works by Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, and others. This was the year after Cezanne’s death, and a number of painters, including Renoir, were still quite active at the time. Ninety years later, it is almost the same group of artists whose works are on show at the National Museum of History in Taipei between January 15 and April 27, 1997. [Great Article on Impressionism and Taiwan]

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On a side note, I never thought about it before ,but, this artist is also referred to as Ando Hiroshige, which may or may not have a connection to Heroes characters Hiro & Ando. Um sorry, that was totally tangential.

Come to think of it, as long as we’re discussing whatever we want, one thing I may have neglected to mention was the importance of the landscape in Japanese woodblock. Japanese woodblock is a field with a lot of depth, and many of the scenes throughout the centuries feature interiors. But, one must not forget that the fine-ness of the protrayal of nature was also a critical element to Japanese woodblocks, and far-east art in general.

The impressionists, of course, were obsessed with light. Most of their compositions, in fact, it can be argued have something to do specifically with the portrayal of modern day scenes and the fleeting sense of light. It was almost as if the metaphor was that modern life was fleeting and ethereal in the same way that light conditions are (or were?). The eye perceives city-life and light in similar ways, in that there is an essential moment to be captured, which will be gone the next.

Compare the previous examples with these impressionist works:

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Orchard in Bloom, Camile Pissarro

He must have viewed the freshly plowed earth, like the spring blossoms that bring life to the dormant landscape, as a signal of renewed hope for his adopted country and for his career.

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Boulevard HA©loAAse, Argenteuil, Alfred Sisley

He seems most concerned with its shapes and textures and the delicate colors of the pale winter sky. A softening of detail conveys the chill of a damp day. Of all the impressionists, Sisley was the one most committed to landscape and to the impressionist style in its most pure form, never abandoning, even temporarily, impressionism’s goal of capturing the transient effects of light and atmosphere.

These ART DAY! posts that delve into the historical realm are meant to be short introductions to topics that you really need to do more research about to form an opinion. After all, that’s what art is. As such, I invite any of my readers to contend with the notions I present, because it’s only discussion that engenders a true sense of understanding about these works. I personally believe that Japanese woodblocks are some of the best examples of what I will loosely term ‘populist art’ because of their general availability, cheapness (both reproduction wise and vendor wise), and expression of mass ideals. People actually went out and bought these paintings en masse which is different than the types of art most people are used to, the diversions of the rich and powerful.

Of course, no ART DAY! would be complete without a look at some of the more modern examples of the techniques about which we speak, so here goes:

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Okushiri Island, Jun Ichiro Sekino

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Winter Trees, Clifton Karhu

What? Stop looking so damned surprised! Just because there was no 2 hours on the internet this week doesn’t mean we would ever try to play you on ART DAY! For more of ART DAY! keep on scrolling down… and look forward to the return of 2 hours on the internet on Monday plus a new Saturday feature!

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Posted: October 19th, 2007
at 9:25am by Black Ock


Categories: life,art,contemporary,boredom killer,art fridays

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Quote of the Day

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Wise man say, never pay full price for an operating system that you don’t even know how to use in shell mode - Old Hacker Proverb

OSX 10.5 (code name: Leopard) comes out soon and is available for preorder to the disgruntlement of many.

Apple is once again offering an "Mac OS X Up-to-Date" program for recent Mac purchasers. The offer enables customers who purchased a new system after October 1 to upgrade to Leopard for just $9.95. After October 26, Apple and its resellers will include "flat-pack" versions of Leopard, containing just the installer DVD, for systems that aren’t already pre-installed with Leopard.

Ok, well, I would be a bit heated if I buy a system and ten minutes later the new OS comes out and I have to buy it too, but, hey, it’s only 10 bucks. [You can read about leopard-man here]

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Posted: October 19th, 2007
at 12:38am by Black Ock


Categories: computers,apple,fo' real?,quote of the day

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Quote of the Day

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a€oeThe bottom line is, it was a malicious hit. It was uncalled for. [Green] is like the scarecrow. He wants to get courage while I wasna€™t looking, and hit me in my knee instead of trying to hit me in my head. God dona€™t [sic] like ugly, you know what I mean? a€oeMy knee aina€™t [sic] never [sic] hurt like it hurt today,a€A Johnson said. a€oeIf you want to hit me, hit me in my head, hit me in my chest, dona€™t hit me in my knee. Ia€™m trying to eat just like everybody else. So, to hit me like that, that showed me what type of man he was.a€A [via]

wow… Travis Johnson elaborates on why quarterback Trent Green is "like the scarecrow"

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Posted: October 18th, 2007
at 12:45am by Black Ock


Categories: fo' real?,quote of the day

Comments: 1 comment


Quote of the Day

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"I tend to watch a little TV… Court TV, once in a while. Some of the cases I get interested in." - O. J. Simpson [via]

They took his rings, they took his Rolex…

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Posted: October 17th, 2007
at 1:35am by Black Ock


Categories: celebrity,crime,too good to be true,fo' real?,quote of the day

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Quote of the Day

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It’s similar to… Fittay vs. Kanye [via NPR’s Fresh Air (Happy 20th)]

Colbert releases a new book and simultaneously challenges Paul Krugman to a "book-off." Will Mr. Colbert resign from doing his show?

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Posted: October 16th, 2007
at 12:11am by Black Ock


Categories: too good to be true,politricks,quote of the day

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Quote of the Day

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Asked afterward whether the Cowboys should have been insulted by that last touchdown, Brady flashed his million-dollar smile, replied "I don’t know, you’ll have to ask them," then stepped off the podium and made his way out of the interview room. [via]

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Posted: October 15th, 2007
at 12:02pm by Black Ock


Categories: fo' real?,quote of the day

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ART! - Contemporary Wood Cuts

Welcome to ART DAY! We here at mnp think that you readers out there might be a little spoiled with expecting a themed ART DAY! and whatnot every damn week. SO just to keep you happy, I’ll announce the theme today as being that of Asian Art. It’s no more specific than that, but you know, keep it simple.

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So way, way, way back in the day in China, like the year 500 or something, cats started doing a sort of art called woodcuts or woodblock prints. The method involves printing on to wood and the cutting away the unwanted parts. It’s pretty simple really, but some very stunning work comes out of that era. All of these initial images are examples of oldern Chinese woodcuts.

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Mostly these woodblock or woodcut prints were used to accompany text in a sort of didactic way, not unlike early European illuminated manuscripts (except mad earlier). For instance, the earliest known Chinese woodcut (as in woodcuts with a date on them) accompanies the text of the Diamond Sutra, which is a Buddhist text.

The word [sutra] comes from Sanskrit, the ancient and sacred language of India. It means a religious teaching or sermon, and is most often used to describe the teachings of the Buddha. Sutras preached by the Buddha were committed to memory by his disciples and passed down from generation to generation. The illustration at the beginning of this a€Diamond Sutraa€™ shows the Buddha expounding the sutra to an elderly disciple called Subhuti. [via]

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The Diamond Sutra - woodblock 9th century

Just like rice, pasta, and civilization, woodcut techniques eventually made it out of China and to everywhere else in the world, notably western Europe and Japan. In Europe, according to trusty Wikipedia, the technique developed around 1400 and was a descendant of techniques that were already in use for printing to cloth.

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Jost Amman - Switzerland

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Durer - Germany

Despite (plenty) prolific European examples (Goya, Rembrandt etc.), the technique is widely associated with Japan, the source from which were inspired countless artists of the 19th century. Notably, the impressionists were very fond of woodblock (though not as a rule). That’s probably because woodblock in Japan shares a commonality with impressionism in that it sought to depict scenes from the the everyday life of the cityscape [Ed: See Ukiyo-e]. Almost as important was the fact that these joints were affordable because of the technique and the capabilities of mass-production.

So, like I said, Japan happens to be the focal point in woodblock printing.AA The Japanese were into all types of different woodblock paintings.AA A lot of them were actually of women participating in communal baths, which must have been a little bit risque at the time.AA It’s no wonder why they sold so well.AA Here are some examples:

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most everyone has seen this

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This brings me to the section which is the crux of this post in general.AA I thought it would be fun to look at modern day examples of woodblock printing, Japanese and Chinese style.AA You can just call it ninja art if you want, although associating all ninjas with Japan or China would be a little bit racialist, if I do say so myself.

Here are some woodblocks by Norio Takamiya:

Takamiya includes contemporary ideas and characters into the whole woodcut business to basically create an ahistorical style that I find really ill.AA Below you find representations of a Japanese Cooper in Australia, Ned Kelly in Australia, amongst others:

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And next we have some examples of modern Chinese woodblocks:

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Keep scrolling down for more great ART DAY! content, and, stay tuned for part II of Asian Art!

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Posted: October 12th, 2007
at 9:31am by Black Ock


Categories: art,contemporary,9th dan,art fridays

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What is the Mind but a Window?

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Posted: October 10th, 2007
at 9:56am by Koookiecrumbles


Categories: what is?

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