Vincent at Starbucks

The Van Gogh Cover-up

A researcher claims that Vincent Van Gogh has been maligned regarding the loss of his ear.

Art history tells us that Van Gogh, in a fit of madness, cut off his ear and gave it to a prostitute. According to a new theory, Van Gogh and his friend Paul Gauguin were outside a brothel, having an argument about Gauguin's staying in the south of France. Gauguin, wielding a sword, waved it toward Van Gogh and somehow Van Gogh's ear ended up on the ground. Gauguin ran off and Van Gogh threw the sword in the river (says the researcher, to protect his friend from persecution). After presenting the ear to a prostitute, Van Gogh went home to bed. He refused to discuss the incident. Our knowledge of the incident came only from Gauguin who said Van Gogh cut off his own ear.

The friendship of the two fell apart, and seven months later, Van Gogh committed suicide.

Tsunami Hit New York?

Scientists believe that a huge wave, similar to the Christmas Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, hit the present day area of New York City around 300 BCE. Studying more than 20 earth cores, they believe that a large storm or rare Atlantic Ocean tsunami or some space impactor could have created the findings.

Read the fascinating story here.

Britain Indeed Has Talent

Everyone, including me, was blown away by Susan Boyle's rendering of a song from "Les Miz." Now comes Jamie Pugh to sing "Bring Him Home" from "Les Miz." Amazing.

What's Hiding in Your Cellphone?

This explains it all.

Gigapixel Imaging of Vancouver

I love Gigapixel Imaging. Click on the picture and you can almost join the people in the picture.

Our Tax Dollars at Work

This is old,but I laugh every time I see it--Marines in Iraq doing the Cha Cha Slide.



Enjoy.

A Digital Abraham Lincoln

I'm from Illinois and have grown up with a deep appreciation of Abraham Lincoln. I've read a couple of books on him recently. The History Channel had a program on "Stealing Lincoln's Body," which proved interesting. In it they had a living, moving Lincoln that I thought was a well made-up actor. Surprise. This short featurette explains how they digitally created that "actor."

Has Cleopatra's Tomb Been Found?

Zahi Hawass believes so, based on some coins with Cleopatra's head, a bust, and the fragment of a mask he believes is Mark Antony because of the dimple in the chin. In his favor is the spot. While many believed Cleopatra's tomb was in her palace complex (which lies underwater now), the proposed site is some 30 miles away. I'll be interested to know more.

Embedded video from CNN Video

Susan Boyle

She's 47, never been kissed, and currently one of the most watched people on YouTube. Susan Boyle makes me believe that it's all just a matter of finding the right moment in life. She opens her mouth and sings like a professional. You've probably already seen this, but if you haven't, here's proof that you should never make prejudgments. I end up in tears every time I see it.

Starbucks, Art and Snow

My New Site at Imagekind

A few weeks ago I discovered a great website which allows me to post my artwork and lets people come on the site and order the artwork as prints, framed prints, cards or canvas. I've ordered lots of the cards, two large prints and one framed print and I'm delighted with the results. Check out my new site.

On a Lighter Note

What is some of the television shows of the 1980s were combined with films from the period? What if the producers of other films joined two popular ones? The concepts of these entries are exceptionally well done and made me laugh out loud.

Star Trek done as Love Boat


Star Wars done as Dallas


Brokeback of the Ring [Yes, it's what you think it is.]


Shrek 300


Pirates of the Titanic


I do love trailers--even when they are for movies that don't exist.

Hell Seen through the Eyes of the Chapman Brothers

For many years, Jake and Dinos Chapman, two British conceptual artists, have upset the established art world with their creations of sexuality, macabre images, and misplaced body parts. Their images do what few works today can do, which is shock the viewer.

Although I had known about them, I'd never seen in detail one of their works. One highly discussed work was their "Hell" (2000). This work was obviously inspired by Dante's Inferno [which I taught for years in History and Thought of Western Man]. Spurred on by the atrocities of the Nazi horror camps, the work features miniature Nazi soldiers being tortured a la The Inferno by Death's minions. The original work consisted of nine glass cases laid out in a swastika pattern.

That work was eventually destroyed in a fire. [God loves irony?] Last year, the brothers recreated it as a new work, retitling it "F**king Hell." As a miniaturist and diorama creator, I am bowled over by their vision. The film from their website is adult, disturbing and one of the most powerful artworks I've seen. Guernica by Picasso produced outrage at the brutality of the Spanish Civil War. This should do the same kind of thing. Some have called it one of the great artworks of this century.

Check it out here, but be warned it is not for more "sensitive" viewers.

Not That Into Redux

Not too long ago, I wrote about "He's Just Not That Into You." Even funnier than that movie is a five-minute short by Kevin Connolly, Bradley Cooper, and Justin Long, on 10 Chick Flick cliches not seen in the movie.

Lay All Your Love On Me

Forgive me. I love disco. You can tell me it's trash, but it always gets my heart pumping.

Removing the Cyst

I don't think I've told you the story of my "sebaceous cyst" that wasn't.

It begins around 1993, after a miniature show. I was alone in a parking garage loading up our car to return home. As I put stuff in the backseat, I leaned up too quickly and hit my left temple against the door frame. After the initial hit and reaction to how much it hurt, I promptly forgot about it. I was busy, we were taking company home with us, and I didn't give it another thought.

The next morning I noticed a bump on my right temple. It kind of hurt, but I didn't remember where it had come from. At school, I dropped in on the nurse and told her it seemed a little larger than it had been and more solid and asked her what she thought it might be.

"Sounds like a sebaceous cyst," she said. "You might want to check with your doctor about it."

So I made an appointment and got in the next day to see him. He agreed with the nurse's diagnosis and told me I should come back in a week and he would drain it. Then he told me to put warm compresses on it every day--as warm as I could stand.

Well, the week went by and the cyst seemed very pronounced and hard, so I conscientiously applied the heat to it. After a week I returned to the doctor's. He said we could do the removal in the office with just a little local anathestic since it was simple procedure--not even an operation. I lay down on my side, he gave me the shot and he cut open the cyst.

I didn't like his sudden intake of air nor his "uh-oh." [Long pause.]

"Did you hit your head recently?" he asked.

"I think I did," remembering the incident in the parking garage.

"I thought so," he said. "This is a blood clot... not a cyst."

He quickly began removing whatever he had to remove and then sewed me back up.

When I told the nurse the story the next day, she blanched. "Heat is the worse thing you could do for a blood clot," she cautioned. "It could cause the blood clot to travel to the heart."

I determined right then that my guardian angel had worked dilligently during the week.

Today's Assignment

In Mary Shelley’s book, Frankenstein’s monster reads Plutarch’s Lives, Milton’s Paradise Lost, and Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther. These books give shape and context to the world that this child-like being is trying to understand.

Using works available now, what three works would you use to help the creature have a more successful view of the present world? [You may not use Shelley’s Frankenstein.] Give the titles and then explain in detail what the works would teach one.

What Do Women Want?

In the Wife of Bath's Tale, from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, a knight who has committed rape is given a quest to save his life. He must find the answer to "What do women really want?" He spends a year and a day trying to find out. Eventually an old crone who forces him to marry her (but is actually a beautiful fairy in disguise) tells him that he can have her as an ugly old woman but faithful or beautiful and unfaithful. When he refuses to chose, but allows her to chose, he gets both, learning that what women really want is to make decisions of their own.

I thought of that story Sunday as I sat amid a huge audience of women in their 20s attending He's Just Not That Into You. The film pretends to teach women what men really are saying when they such things as "I'll call you." But what the film actually does is perpetuate those very stereotypes that women have come to accept:

• The not-so hot guys are the ones you should rely on.
• The really cute guys--who are married or in a committed relationship--are often liars and cheats. The blonde hunk, played by Bradley Cooper with a winning smile and persona, cheats on his wife, confesses to her his infidelity and then continues that infidelity while saying he wants to work it out with his wife. AND he lies about not having quit smoking, a sin the film--and wife--sees as equal to the infidelity. At the end, though, he gets his comeupance by being alone, just like the girl he cheated with and his ex-wife. [The film undercuts this high moral viewpoint toward telling the truth by having a multi-married woman say how much better she is than any of her three husbands--she was never caught.]
  
• Cooper's best friend, Ben Afflick, is in a seven year committed relationship with Jennifer Aniston but refuses to marry her. He's sensitive, caring, does the dishes, but just doesn't want to do the vows. After she finally realizes that a committed relationship is better than no relationship, he gives her ring and gets on his knees to beg her to marry him. A collective sigh went up from all the romantic souls in the audience. After all, just as Sex in the City showed, what women really want is to have a man sweep them off their feet and marry them.

No where in the film is there any woman who can stand on her own without a partner. It is only as part of a couple that women are supposed to find fulfillment. Only the girl who cheated with the husband and the wronged ex-wife are alone at the end--and being alone appears a curse, not a blessing.

What do women really want? It appears Hollywood thinks it is to let men make their decisions and determine the roles to play in their lives.

Greenfingers

I watched a most delightful film tonight with Clive Owen and Helen Mirren. Greenfingers (2001) is about a group of prisoners who are put on a gardening detail and how the experience changes them. The plot is "inspired by real events." Although it follows rather predictable lines, getting there is worth the trip. Owen has a way of drawing you in, Mirren is her usual cheeky self and David Blake Kelly plays a wry old serial killer with an enormous heart. The whole thing proved an enjoyable evening. I highly recommend it.

Trailer