Music

little miss knittie

Brain overflow ... here ya go! - Fri, 03/12/2010 - 9:56pm
Hello everyone! I've finally decided to bite the bullet and do a "Fan Page Auction"! I just finished this little gem about a week ago and thought this would be the perfect piece to start with. Her name is "Little Miss Knittie"She's a 9x12 colored pencil drawing on bristol board. 
All you have to do is go to my Facebook Fan Page and put your bid
right in the picture comments!Auction will end Wednesday March 17th at 9:00pm E.S.T! After the auction is done I'll contact you about payment... Shipping will be $2So, go for it! BID BID BID! 

surgery and such

Brain overflow ... here ya go! - Fri, 03/12/2010 - 5:53pm
Yesterday my hubbie had a little back surgery. Everything went well, and as expected. In some ways is feeling the relief, but also experiencing some new numbness as well. They had to move the nerve around a bit so this is expected.
Thanks to everyone who has been praying for Travis, it is SO appreciated! 

Project 365: 71 “Sink & Faucet”

Bryan Hill's Blog - Fri, 03/12/2010 - 4:40pm

Project 365: 71 'Sink & Faucet', originally uploaded by ninelives.1972.

The countertop and plumbing is complete. I'm very satisfied with how it turned out.

Review – “The Art of Persuasion” at Allegheny College

Venangago-go - Fri, 03/12/2010 - 1:10pm

The Allegheny College Art Galleries’ “The Art of Persuasion,” an exhibition exploring attempts to sway public opinion through visual culture closes next week on March 16.  The exhibition, part of Allegheny’s Year of Social Change, features the college’s permanent collection of World War I and World War II posters, serigraphs from Puerto Rico’s Division of Community Education, photographs from the Farm Security Administration, and contemporary work by illustrator and political cartoonist Ward Sutton.

Gallery goers are greeted as the enter the show with one of the most iconic propaganda posters, Fred Strothman’s “Beat Back the Hun” from 1918. Publicity campaigns for the Treasury Department's Liberty Loan bonds produced some of the war's most compelling - and gruesome - posters. The Liberty Bond posters were inflammatory, but highly effective.  Many posters promoted German hatred, such as this one, showing a blood-thirsty Hun looking over war-torn Europe and across the Atlantic Ocean to America. The bayonet drips blood and the “Hun's” face is grey, dead, inhuman.

There’s a large cognitive jump from the Liberty Bond posters to the Serigraphs from Puerto Rico’s Division of Community Education. The origins of the Division of Community Education (DIVEDCO) are closely tied to Puerto Rico’s complicated relationship with the United States. DIVEDCO had strong connections to President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Its early organizers — Edwin Rosskam, Jack Delano and Irene Delano — all had experience in the Farm Security Administration. While sharing the form of New Deal projects, however, the work and substance of DIVEDCO reflected the particularities of Puerto Rico and broader trends within Latin American art and politics.

Huracan (1958) by Jose Manuel Figueroa appeals to the woodcut WPA style.  It’s a poster promoting a PSA style film about hurricane awareness. More importantly, its design shows the progression of the persuasive poster form as it begins drawing on the popular aesthetics of movie posters. A personal favorite was 5 cuentos de miedo by Lorenzo Homar (1955) promoting a booklet about the benefits of using science rather than superstition – here woodcut style figures are paired with a vibrant red background.

By 1965, that style had been replaced by posters that use more of David Klein’s TWA travel posters – bright flat colors and blocky figures and architecture. It’s a more abstract vision of progress much different from the classical figures that start the show.

One of the themes of the show is the power of the graphic images, not only in the posters themselves, but also in the media they advertise. Carlos Osorio’s Juan sin Seso – advertises a film depicting the story of a rural man’s confusion and loss of critical thinking abilities caused by modern advertising. Here in the poster, an advertising collage shows through the light robin egg blue of the poster’s background suggesting an ever present hum of consumerism existing just beneath the surface of consciousness, diverting and distorting. And yet there’s a meta argument here as well, as the posters and photos and comic included in the exhibit are using the same technique but for the “right” reasons.

The exhibit also includes FSA photos ranging from the abstract photos of Jack Delores model airplanes decorating Chicago’s Union Station ceiling

to more iconic ones like Walker Evans’ portrait of Bud Fields’ family in Hale County Alabama and washstand with oil lamp both featured in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men:

The FSA selection also includes four Dorthea Lange images including selections that highlight Lange’s skill at using cropping to bring out ironic realities of American Life such as “Next Time, Try the Train, Relax” 

Finally, ending the exhibit are World War II propaganda posters include the still shocking, “This Happens Every Three Minutes Stay on the Job and Get it Over ”  depicting a dead GI where he fell, Thompson submachine gun just out of the reach of his hands, clothes splattered with blood, face hidden by the angle of his fall, but his rough hands and torn fingernails still visible; his ammunition and pack flung about him. How unlike our own wartime reality with the dissonant dichotomy of embedded reports and soldiers connected home though the internet umbilical cord, and the still recent controversy over the depiction of flag draped coffins.

Like Juan we are carefully cocooned fom the death directed towards us and sponsored by us. Over 50 years , it seems we are no more savvy, but have an easier time creating our own reality. Sutton’s cartoons at the beginning of the show would be better realized at the end of show – suggesting how we far we have come.  today, we use our time to debate the persuasiveness of campaign designs and the aesthetics of campaign posters.  We are too polite, too sensitive to allow the brute persuasiveness of the early 20th century posters into our sphere.  How would we react to a contemporary posters declaiming “Beat Back the Hajji with Liberty Bonds”? How  uncomfortable have we become with animalistic, tribal nature inside of us and how we itch when it’s prickly nature punctures our created life and values?

The Art of Persuasion,” an exhibition exploring attempts to sway public opinion through visual culture until March 16. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 12:30-5 p.m.; Saturday, 1:30-5 p.m.; and Sunday, 2-4 p.m.

The Art Galleries are wheelchair accessible and located in Doane Hall of Art, east of North Main Street between College and John Streets.

For more information, call (814) 332-4365 or visit www.allegheny.edu/artgalleries.

Project 365: 70 "Tile"

Bryan Hill's Blog - Thu, 03/11/2010 - 5:36pm

Project 365: 70 'Tile', originally uploaded by ninelives.1972.

This is the tile my brother-in-law and I installed today on our countertop in our attic. Tomorrow I will be grouting and finishing the plumbing.

"In life as in dance: grace glides on blistered feet."

My Brilliant Mistakes - Thu, 03/11/2010 - 10:05am
“In life as in dance: grace glides on blistered feet.”

- Alice Abrams (via QI : Quite Interesting)

Video Game Bosses’s Lament

Xaotik Designs - Thu, 03/11/2010 - 12:04am
Just how exactly does one guy keep fighting his way past an army of bad guys? Hit the jump for more...


Wednesday Weigh In #Lifechange

Bryan Hill's Blog - Wed, 03/10/2010 - 5:43pm

Wednesday Weigh In #Lifechange, originally uploaded by ninelives.1972.

186

Okay, obviously beer, fish, and pizza help me loose weight. Seriously, we ate out everymeal this past weekend. But I did pay attention to what I ordered and ate. For example, at Willies (a local pub) I usually would order a large fish sandwich, I ordered a small and still walked out satisfied. At AppleBees I chose the 7 ounce steak instead of the 10, & the steamed veggies instead of the baked potato loaded with butter & sour cream. I also have been working a ton in the attic attempting to finish things up. I'm happy to finally be a loser. Even if it is only a few pounds.

Project 365: 69 "Jif"

Bryan Hill's Blog - Wed, 03/10/2010 - 5:17pm

Project 365: 69 'Jif', originally uploaded by ninelives.1972.

Is there any other kind?

OK Go leaves EMI, forms own record label. (via ) Will...

My Brilliant Mistakes - Wed, 03/10/2010 - 2:42pm


OK Go leaves EMI, forms own record label. (via )

Will Paracadute (pah-rah-cah-DU-tay) be the next Apple Corps?

andreadisaster: nicopolitan: “If knowing is half the battle,...

My Brilliant Mistakes - Wed, 03/10/2010 - 2:11pm


andreadisaster:

nicopolitan:

“If knowing is half the battle, the other half must be Googling.”

Truth.

It’s a long way down that rabbit hole…

Xaotik Designs - Tue, 03/09/2010 - 11:58pm
The latest Lego crossover, Army Men. Public schools just get crazier and stupider. Who doesn’t like a little fan service? Chicks + camo = Hot! The most awesome game room ever (for a nerd) Girls under glass NSFW The God of Fuck War Terminator #5 How to be a hoarder in 7 easy steps. On Sluts offers quick and easy Ho Side Assistance.


Modern Warfare 2 – No Russian Machinima

Xaotik Designs - Tue, 03/09/2010 - 11:20pm
Want to see what happens when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 becomes even more cinematic and movie like? Hit the jump for more...


Iron Man 2 Trailer

Xaotik Designs - Tue, 03/09/2010 - 10:26pm
Iron Man 2 Trailer, featuring more robots, more suits, more S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, more fighting, and much much more awesome! Hit the jump for more


"[A great movie] is a collaboration, a collaboration between handsome, gifted people and sickly..."

My Brilliant Mistakes - Tue, 03/09/2010 - 11:02am
“[A great movie] is a collaboration, a collaboration between handsome, gifted people and sickly little mole people.”

- Robert Downey Jr., presenting the Academy Award for best original screenplay with Tina Fey, quoted on About Last Night:

'Out of Tune Idol' Season 2 - One Hit Wonders

Brain overflow ... here ya go! - Tue, 03/09/2010 - 10:32am
Vote for my friend Erin who is competing on the Mean Girl Garage blog:'Out of Tune Idol' Season 2 - One Hit Wonders!I had the extreme pleasure of accompanying her in this amazing endeavor along with her stunning husband on classical guitar. Check it out... be aware, after watching this you will never be the same. Watch, then go to Mean Girl Garage to VOTE! 

Erin is the loveliness behind Blogging is for Dorks, and if you fancy,an Etsy Shop full of Ultra Cute Crochet! Check it out!

Snobviously: Chapter 5

Bricks and Boxes - Tue, 03/09/2010 - 1:05am
Things in life which are always relative
Taste

It’s subjective if others’ eyes for fashion trends, color, and balance seem better or worse than your own. There is more than one direction for popular music, hot neighborhoods, and any other way you spend your cash. (Some even consider it fashionable to spend as little cash as  possible.)

Intellect

There is constant debate over how to measure the intelligence, but we can agree that no one mind is superior in all things to every other mind.

Personality and Beauty

Our minds are programed by other people, intentionally or not. That is why we have dog people and cat people. Beatles and Elvis. Punks and politicians.

Ignorance

You know more than those poor, under-informed fools, but someone knows all you know and more, you konw. I know because if you were the wold’s authority on a particular subject you’d be turning over every rock for answers. If you don’t understand that, then you’re the real fool here.

Morality

There are people who dedicate their lives to reach perfection. It’s been my understanding they can never make it there on their own.

Some stuff we find in absolutes


Honesty Empathy Justice Law Stupidity Mortality

You should never look down on anyone.

You will, of course, because you are human.

Try to forgive yourself, and then keep practicing.

Photo “Lego Relativity” by Skip The Budgie

Photo “Travelers” by m.toyama


Tagged: Lent, penance, truth
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