What I Did Today

Brian Rea’s fears, part of Murals exhibit at the Joan Miró...

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:52:35 -0500

Brian Rea’s fears, part of Murals exhibit at the Joan Miró Foundation.

Gerald Murphy and his wife, Sara, dressed as dandy vehicles and...

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:53:00 -0500

Gerald Murphy and his wife, Sara, dressed as dandy vehicles and photographed by Man Ray at the Comte Étienne de Beaumont Automotive Ball in 1924.

An additional detail about the Murphys: they were distressed to serve as the aesthetic (or, lifestyle perhaps) models for Nick and Nicole Diver in Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night. (The Divers’ damned-ness, however, belongs solely to the Fitzgeralds.)

Excerpt from “Examination of a Young Pretender to Fashion,” London Magazine, 1825

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:52:20 -0500

Q. What is the most wonderful invention of modern times?
A. The starched neckcloth.
Q. Who invented the starched neckcloth?
A. Brummell.
Q. Give the particulars of this invention.
A. When Brummell fell into disgrace, he devised the starched neckcloth with the design of putting the Prince’s neck out of fashion, and of bringing his Royal Highness’ muslin, his bow, and wadding into contempt. When he first appeared in this stiffened cravat, tradition says that the sensation in St. James’s Street was prodigious; dandies were struck dumb with envy, and washerwomen miscarried. No one could conceive how the effect was produced—tin, card, a thousand contrivances were attempted, and innumerable men cut their throats in vain experiments; the secret, in fact, puzzled and baffled everyone, and the poor dandy L … d died raving mad of it; his mother, his sister, and all his relations waited on Brummell, and on their knees implored him to save their kinsman’s life by the explanation of the mystery; but the beau was obdurate, and L. miserably perished. When B. fled from England, he left his secret a legacy to his country; he wrote on a sheet of paper, on his dressing table, the emphatic words, “Starch is the man.”

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:38:30 -0500

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:29:00 -0500

"These ambiguities, redundancies and deficiencies remind us of those which doctor Franz Kuhn..."

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:42:00 -0500

“These ambiguities, redundancies and deficiencies remind us of those which doctor Franz Kuhn attributes to a certain Chinese encyclopædia entitled ‘Celestial Empire of Benevolent Knowledge’. In its remote pages it is written that the animals are divided into: (a) belonging to the emperor, (b) embalmed, (c) tame, (d) sucking pigs, (e) sirens, (f) fabulous, (g) stray dogs, (h) included in the present classification, (i) frenzied, (j) innumerable, (k) drawn with a very fine camel-hair brush, (l) et cetera, (m) having just broken the water pitcher, (n) that from a long way off look like flies.”

- Excerpt, The Analytical Language of John Wilkins, Borges

Little Transubstantiation Prayer

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:30:54 -0500

“Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es.”
— Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Physiologie du Gout, ou Meditations de Gastronomie Transcendante, 1826

Just as I cannot imagine the taste of food without an ancillary seasoning of teeth I worry that I am never experiencing reality except perhaps drawing near to it while sleeping.

Since I cannot remember my dreams every morning I feel a sort of desperate faith in the belief that I did dream; I MUST have; I NEEDS MUST have: defensively washing the dishes after a meal I’m determined to remember toothlessly.

“Le fumer n’est pas une émancipation mais une soumission…” via...

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:15:00 -0500

“Le fumer n’est pas une émancipation mais une soumission…”

via www.lemonde.fr

Memo from Who Framed Roger Rabbit’s director of animation,...

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:12:01 -0500

Memo from Who Framed Roger Rabbit’s director of animation, Richard Williams, to all those working within the animation department.

Photo

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:50:00 -0500

But to talk to those behind the sidewalks and the benches is to...

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:50:00 -0500

But to talk to those behind the sidewalks and the benches is to see these ubiquitous objects as powerful tools of social planning, tearing down walls between rich and poor, helping a city bereft of an identity develop a sense of place and ownership.

The oldest reference to be found is from Juvenal from the late...

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:45:00 -0500

The oldest reference to be found is from Juvenal from the late First Century of the Christian Era – rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cycno. With apologies to the women reading this, Juvenal railed that finding a perfect wife is akin to finding a black swan (a rare bird). Shakespeare may well have used the term too – but by his day in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the black swan was used to describe something that was impossible. Although the expression is not found in his works (perhaps he preferred to invent his own) the black swan represented that which was impossible (or nearly so) and therefore simply could not be.

The original art work was completed for RCA by an artist named...

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:45:03 -0500

The original art work was completed for RCA by an artist named Brooks on August 23, 1938. The master art was improbably discovered in a dumpster by a wrecking crew worker as the old RCA factory in Harrison, NJ was being demolished in 1970.

"Who do you think made the first stone spear?” asks Temple Grandin. “That wasn’t the yakkity..."

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:08:19 -0500

““Who do you think made the first stone spear?” asks Temple Grandin. “That wasn’t the yakkity yaks sitting around the campfire. It was some Asperger sitting in the back of a cave figuring out how to chip rocks into spearheads. Without some autistic traits you wouldn’t even have a recording device to record this conversation on.””

- The Weekend Interview with Temple Grandin: Life Among the ‘Yakkity Yaks’ - WSJ.com

chat roulette 11 (via chattyjerk)

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:20:13 -0500

chat roulette 11 (via chattyjerk)

Photograph Of Jesus by Laurie Hill in association with the Getty...

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:18:21 -0500

Photograph Of Jesus by Laurie Hill in association with the Getty Images Short & Sweet Film Challenge (via HultonArchive)

Often I go to bed as soon after dinner as seems adult (I mean I...

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:57:32 -0500

Often I go to bed as soon after dinner
as seems adult
(I mean I try to wait for dark)
in order to push away
from the massive pain in sleep’s
frail wicker coracle.

France Gall - Pense à moi

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 20:28:48 -0500

France Gall - Pense à moi

"I have always said that the most attractive women are lesbians, only women can handle them. The most..."

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:00:13 -0500

“I have always said that the most attractive women are lesbians, only women can handle them. The most attractive men are gay, only men can handle them. And in the middle is mediocrity, everything in between. We have this illusion that heterosexuals are somehow on top — representative of hegemony — but we’re just what’s left.”

- Unnamed colleague on sexuality (via digitalcommunitarian)

angry puppet faces rule

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:44:01 -0500

angry puppet faces rule