Friday Ephemeraren’t

Yes, another chance to assemble your own pile of links and oddities in the comments. I’ll set the ball rolling with an everyday vexation; a very modern woe; our cash-strapped state broadcaster; a headline of note; and a chap who does this better than you. 

Oh, and via Dicentra, more joys of parenting. 

Comments

[Captain Nemo]

Terrifying X-ray of note:

https://twitter.com/mslucycooke/status/1042350185177903105

Impressive cat wrestling move of note:

https://twitter.com/Llama_Juice/status/1042377054992228353

[WTP]

Ran across this on You Tube the other night. If anyone here is a fight fan of the 1970s or even a passing interest in Muhammed Ali’s career, this was an episode of This Is Your Life. Was filmed in a studio in the UK and even has an appearance by the UK heavyweight who fought him. I vaguely remembered the guy but can’t recall the name right now. It’s about 45 minutes long. I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I was more of a Joe Frasier fan back then myself.

https://youtu.be/ZWZOBX1vE7A

Also, anyone else have this problem? On the rare occasion I start a sentence with the word “Ran” (note the capitalization) it looks foreign to me. Damn that Kurosawa.

[Ray]

Headline of note

I trust they've changed the song to "insy winsy spider".

Do not under estimate the malevolent power of nursery rhymes. I once worked at a school with an attached kindy that played nursery rhymes over the PA from seven to assembly. On a loop, same every day. Didn't bother me at all to start with, half way through the second semester I was ready to kill someone.

[jabrwok]

They are more limber than you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=230&v=jutuEhkSnCU

[R. Sherman]

Perhaps a bit too serious for Ephemera, but a discussion of Postmodern "Art." Via Instapundit.

[Darleen Click]

They are more limber than you

I think I hurt myself watching that.

[Clam]

Relationship advice. https://www.boredpanda.com/comics-how-to-fart-messy-cow/

[Chester Draws]

R Sherman. I have a visceral dislike for post-modernism, but that article didn't seem to propose a solution.

Apart from name dropping Jung, which is exactly the wanky way post-modernists behave, it merely stated some positions without evidence.

My view is that there's lots of good art out there, just not in museums. Just as the internet freed us from having the ability to only follow one or two providers of politics (a daily, a weekly and a TV channel), so increasing wealth exposes all of us to much more art. Which we don't see in museums, because few among us go to museums of post-modern art (whereas exhibitions of earlier artists are often sell-out hits).

I'm also unconvinced Banksy is post-modern. I don't always agree with his messages, but it's not "difficult"or esoteric and it's usually representational. If he spouts "art bollox", then I've been spared it. That places him rather at odds with Koons, Hirst, Emim, etc.

He also doesn't do work for museums. Sure, they've latched on to him, but then they can't have popular representational art wandering off the reservation, can they?

[Daniel Ream]

I'm also unconvinced Banksy is post-modern.

Banksy is an artist like Joss Whedon is a writer.

[David]

a discussion of Postmodern “Art.”

Re pseudo-art, or art that retreats entirely into intellectual pretension, this came to mind:

The pretence of intellectual heft and critical discernment is quite funny, given the unspoken rules of pretend artists and their pretend art. Like practically all of her fellow hustlers, Ms Schaefer tells us that she “investigates” and “questions” things, and presumably interrogates them; but despite this allegedly relentless curiosity, I doubt that any specific insight or profundity is ever conveyed to her audience, such as it is, via the art, such as it is. And of course, we’re not supposed to notice this, or notice the comical mismatch of arch rhetoric and inept flummery. And so, in order to feign discernment, one has to not discern any number of really obvious things.

Which is why I say the audience is marginally more interesting than the art, at least insofar as you might be puzzled by why they’re there, often looking faintly bored, and not doing something else.

[Black Ball]

Collingwood v Richmond about to screen. Nothing else matters, I win the internet for the day

[Black Ball]

Score update Collingwood are up 23 points end of the first quarter. Brilliant team effort against the flag favourites.

[ACTOldFart]

WTP: I think the UK heavyweight who fought Ali, to a draw I think, was Joe Bugner. He later very sensibly emigrated to Australia (as did another giant of UK sport, Harold Larwood), rechristened himself "Aussie Joe", fitted very easily into Australian life, and was seen at just about every society do and opening all round Sydney. A thoroughly likeable man, not least because he was not full of himself.

Further to Black Ball above: End of first quarter, Collingwood 32, Richmond 9. The rest of the world has NO idea how important this is.

[Black Ball]

Old Fart Collingwood extend lead to 44 points at half time. Awesome to watch, may end up drunk by the end of the match

[Black Ball]

Score update Collingwood 33 points up one quarter to go. Shit is getting realz

[David]

Collingwood v Richmond

Ah, the International Men’s Embroidery Finals. It’s all very exciting.

[David]

Dad-bod mannequins.

[Chester Draws]

Daniel -- that is irrelevant. Is he post-modern?

(Whedon works in comics. High level writing is not required. Just like who cares that Jack Kirby isn't exactly Picasso?

I'd accept being as crap as Whedon allegedly is, if I could make the money he does doing it.)

[Black Ball]

Collingwood into the Grand Final so I am pissed as a fart. What a fucking great effort.

[R. Sherman]

Re pseudo-art, or art that retreats entirely into intellectual pretension . . .

Postmodern art, like postmodern academic prose or anything to which the prefix "postmodern" is appended, is not designed to convey anything meaningful. As someone once said--quoted here, I think, but I'm too lazy to look it up--the purpose is to bludgeon the observer into abject submission, the submission being pretending one's looking at something profound while secretly knowing it's shit. Stated differently, it preys on those who fear being labeled "nekulturny."

I have a visceral dislike for post-modernism, but that article didn't seem to propose a solution.

Agreed, though I don't know what the solution is, beyond finding and supporting good art. The fact is, the "arts" world has been completely compromised by the postmodernists who suck all the air from the room leaving little or none for the quality artists who create beautiful things in relative obscurity. Museum curators know it's easier to those coveted cocktail party invitations the "edgier" one is, and you can always rely on the Monet exhibitions to pay the bills.

[David]

it preys on those who fear being labeled “nekulturny.”

Whenever I’ve made the effort to visit a gallery or venue and have seen the kinds of things we laugh at here, it’s been hard not to feel personally insulted. When the supposed art on offer is something like the things seen here, and it often is, what galls is the implication that this is the kind of thing that’s good enough to fool me, or at least to make me pretend.

[svh]

Hate fact. https://twitter.com/OrwellNGoode/status/1043125039858688000

[R.Sherman]

More ephemeral: College mascot takes a t-shirt cannon shot to the crotch area.

USA, USA, USA!!!

[Darleen Click]

When I see the "we" I'm like, did I miss an election or something?

[Sam]

our cash-strapped state broadcaster

Included is a pic of a billboard or something with "There are 5 homes in Rock Street S3 without a TV license". I more or less understand the ridiculous license scheme, but can one of you lovely Brits please explain the context of that billboard?

[Darleen Click]

I seriously believe we need to have single-sex schools from about 6-12th grade.

[Sam]

Darleen - I'm not positive I and/or the arresting officers would have survived me showing up (armed as usual) to my son's school just to see him being cuffed for being cheeky. Not rational, I know, but seldom is a parent's response to adults abusing their children very rational.

[Governor Squid]

The fact is, the "arts" world has been completely compromised by the postmodernists who suck all the air from the room leaving little or none for the quality artists who create beautiful things in relative obscurity.

This is a huge part of the reason why I gravitate toward the "practical arts." I can spend days admiring beautiful objects crafted from wood or silver or wrought iron or glass. Show me a gate with beautiful scrollwork, which is lovely to the eye while still functioning as a gate. Show me a crystal decanter with beautiful curves that looks lovely on a table and yet also fits perfectly in one's hand and pours without spilling a drop. Give me a stained-glass window that dazzles in the evening sun.

And when you meet talented artisans, they can show pride in their work, but they're never so proud that they disappear up their own posteriors. They also tend to support others, being far more likely to say, "I'd love to help you learn my techniques" instead of proclaiming that "my techniques are far too complex and abstract for you mere mortals to ever understand."

You can keep your artists; I'll be over here hanging out with the craftsmen.

[Darleen Click]

adults abusing their children

There should be a law that prohibits school admins from questioning kids on possible legal issues without a parent present. Period. These kind of hours-long bullying sessions of a kid surrounded by adults should never take place.

[Sam Duncan]

“... can one of you lovely Brits please explain the context of that billboard?”

Honestly, I'm not sure myself. I think it's meant to be vaguely threatening. It may have something to do with their magic detector vans.

“You can keep your artists; I'll be over here hanging out with the craftsmen.”

Amen to that. “High art” is a relatively recent invention anyway. In Latin, ars, artis is just man-made stuff. The idea that Art must impart a message or move the consumer emotionally to be worthy of the title is a load of bollocks thought up by people who can't make anything useful. To me, great art is anything that performs its intended function well. All else being equal, beauty trumps ugliness, and yes, its function may simply be to move, but it doesn't have to be.

Most of the hamfisted political propaganda masquerading as Art these days doesn't even do that. But by these criteria, in the developed world we're surrounded by great art to an extent never known before in history. Maybe that's why we turn to pointless wank instead: when we take the competence of those who make things for granted, we no longer appreciate it.

You might get a kick out of this. That's an artist, right there.

[Daniel Ream]

Whedon works in comics

...

Yeah, never mind.

When the supposed art on offer is something like the things seen here

I've seen the urinal hanging from the ceiling in the National Gallery of Canada. It's not even a particularly nice urinal. The ones in my office building are much better, they have that electric eye thing where you don't have to flush.

[David]

I think it’s meant to be vaguely threatening.

Which is how you want an extortion-funded state broadcaster to be.

[PiperPaul]

"when you meet talented artisans, they can show pride in their work"

Ha, reminded me of a pub I was at last week called ArtIsAnAle. There's anal in there, too, for those who like that sort of thing.

[Custard Cream]

WTP, ACT, it was Henry Cooper.

[Chester Draws]

There's lots of the "elite" who value "craft".

Alfons Mucha posters, Faberge jewelry, Tiffany lamps, Chipendale furniture, etc. Such things are highly valued by people with money and discernment.

There's almost two parallel worlds, one which values beauty and craft and another which values appearing to have a higher discernment. Despite the noise, I'm not sure the second is larger. Antiques Roadshow has a huge audience, whereas David's attempts to inculcate us into the world of performance art is sadly less appreciated.

(Daniel, I'm sure you think you are winning some sort of contest about Mr Whedon. However my interest in showing that I am sufficiently knowledgeable about his oeuvre is zero. I quite liked Serenity and have paid no attention to the rest of it. If that makes me a pleb, then it's a cross I'll have to bear. I've no more interest in geek snobbery that I have in "higher" art snobbery.)

[David]

Apparently, this is a gulper eel.

[Pogonip]

Happy Stephen King’s birthday! 👻💀👽🎃

[Black Ball]

Do your henchlesbians do spinal realignment? Threw it out after the Collingwood win. And is the bar open at 8am? Asking for a friend

[jabrwok]

pissed as a fart

I don't think I want to know the etymology of this particular phrase, but it's going into the lexicon, alongside "queer as a football bat".

[ACTOldFart]

Ah jabrwok, Aussie slang will open many amazing doors for you. "Flat out like a lizard drinking", and "So crooked he could hide behind a corkscrew" come to mind immediately.

[WTP]

Hey, y’all know like two weeks ago when I said those of you outside the US might wanna stay away from here for a while cause somebody made an OK sign and the country was loosing it’s sh*t over it? Y’all might wanna kick any such plans to visit down the road a few more weeks...make that months. It’s an insane asylum over here.

[David]

“Why do you hate the media?”

Vicarious titillation.

Metropolitan policing.

Enrichment.

[Jen]

Enrichment.

Total silence from feminists in 3… 2…

[David]

Total silence from feminists in 3… 2…

Ah, but it’s not the kind of “toxic masculinity” that white, middle-class feminists choose to find of interest.

[Sam Duncan]

“Vicarious titillation.”

These people almost deserve to get what they wish for.

“Metropolitan policing.”

Must be a lie. They banned guns, remember?

“Enrichment.”

I mentioned on Samizdata the other day that I remember Bernie Ecclestone saying a few years back that Europe would be the third world of the 21st Century. I thought he was exaggerating at the time - he was in the process of trying to shame Silverstone into upgrading its pit facilities, as far as I recall - but I'm beginning to think he was on to something.

[Darleen Click]

Well, here's a lovely professor I want to teach my grandsons.

(which was in response to this)

[jabrwok]

Self awareness at PayPal: https://www.cnet.com/news/paypal-bans-alex-jones-infowars-for-perpetuating-hate-and-intolerance/

"discriminatory intolerance" I don't think that means what they think it means.