It still goes on...

The tyranny of Stalin remains alive in Russia today. 

This is a bit off the normal path for me,
but after reading this I just have to remark on it.


I have read also One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich.. 
That one is a novel, of course, but her detailed letter comes very, very close.

But how did she get that  accusatory letter out?
That I really would like to know.
I don' t doubt the conditions are far below what a western mind can accept, but again.. with the kind of control she describes, how did her letter pass censoring?

I have also read descriptions of concentration camp survivors,
and those, too, seem to be similar!

And descriptions of female prisoners at Japanese WWII  camps...similar horror.

However all those were published after the prisoners survived.

Just makes one wonder why Snowdon asked for  asylum.. in Russia, no less. A *Putineske* Russia. What was he thinking???? Probably not that! ;-).

Staccato Thoughts

those two little words , uttered by FB friend S. from Oklahoma, just stick in my mind.
Staccato!
Thoughts!
So here I am.....wide awake!
Those pesky *staccato thoughts* just wouldn't disappear..
All night long they pounded away in my brain! Maybe it's a new dance craze *the staccato*.? How would that look?

Did they really do that?
Or is it a Staccato more:

Like Horowitz?

Ratatat: Or like that

 Rataplan: maybe like that:

or even like that:

But never like that:

 

NOW, I wish I could type *staccato*!  

Having *staccato thoughts* alone is no good.

I cannot make my fingers to *the staccato* on the keyboard...lol!

 

 

Where is Stephen Hopkins with his magic fingers...

now I know HE could do *the staccato*

Hmmmm... is there a sensor in the clouds?

Sure seems that to me.

After scrolling through several posts of the past 5 years (has it really been only 5 yrs ago that I started this artandhockey blog?) I noticed several pictures are missing,
some were, admittedly, a bit *revealing* in the lingerie department.

And others were *modern art* and therefor also a bit revealing.

Anyway, just noticed that. So chers readers, I am sorry (maybe not too) that you are missing out on such *things that perhaps upset* someone somewhere, somehow!
Enuf said!

A haven for artandhockey???

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324009304579042812665917786.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_Lifestyle_5
This was written up in the WSJ today.



SONG OF LIFT 2013 2nd prize

Martijn van Wagtendonk's installation in 3-D :"Song of Lift’ is a 5-minute long, fully automated, viewer sensitive opera. A fourteen-armed circular structure hangs in the center of the blackbox’s 25-foot ceiling. Its 12-foot arms hang down like a closed umbrella. From the arms, strings hang over a hundred winged objects just above the ground. This is the center of the play. A quarter machine, like you might find on mechanical horse rides for kids, allows the viewer to set the opera in motion. As the viewer deposits a coin in the quarter machine, the gallery lights dim. The opening, soft, long notes of violins become barely audible (the first movement of Henryk Gorecky’s Symphony No.3 Op. 36, also known as Symphony of Sorrowful Songs). As the piano intersects with its staccato keystrokes, an automated light show starts creating an ever-changing atmospheric environment. At this moment the first pairs of wings begin to flap."
I am off to Grand Rapids MI, also home to the 22nd*best beer of America city*, right? Looks a bit like Florence to me, but then.. after a few beers it just really might do that ;-)

Well, not exactly. BUT -if I had known earlier...
2 weeks of ART; see above.

Plus "Sweeney Todd", 

several Symphony performances  - not sure if the above excerpt will also be played just then ;-)!

and ending with an early October of: "The Jersey Boys"


AND The Grand Rapids Griffins
 vs Milwaukee Admirals on 10/18.




For what more could an artandhockey lover ask???

Enlightenment - just around the corner at MFAH.

Sky over Galisteo

Turrell

Mother Nature's outside light show in New Mexico.
And so I was reminded when visiting the installation of Kames Turrell's The Light Inside at the MFAH.

Turrell's Deep Sky

The rooms are filled with may hued colors. Some are small lit up forms, others are in surround color - :-)! To enter the fuchsia hued (at the time of my passing through) cube (up the steps in black) one dons booties. The color suffuses walls, ceiling, floors..one feels like in a multi hued womb. Others show back lit walls, which just asks visitors to start finger shadow games.. just like when we were young. Or didn't you. chers readers? And some just Tsk'ed, Tsk'ed...guess they did not have imagination enough to create their own 'art'? Perhaps they thought it a desecration  :-)!
 And then there were the black on white prints.

After a surfeit of color filled rooms I ambled over to the wall of Posada's Calaveras prints.
What was it that  inspired several artists to portray their world as skeletons?  The Mexican Posada lived 1852-1913.

 Mexican Tour de France on drugs :-)?

A newer painter, John Alexander, born Beaumont, Texas 1945, also paints similar satirical images!

 

Are these meant to be parodies of local life, politics and religion?
Posada's art becomes folk art especially for the Dia de los Muertos November 2. Which in Europe is celebrated as All Souls Day, while November 1 is All Saints Day! In Mexico as also in most European countries these are the days to visit cemeteries.

Posada's take on society:-)



Posada: Addressing the nation ;-)?

Posada: Cleaning up the city? :-)

And then there was the Belgian artist James S. E, Baron Ensor, 

born 1860-1949... got a bit sidetracked there. Anyway.. it was an interesting, although tiring visit despite walking with my trusty - guess I am not as 'back to normal' after the prolonged PIB and subsequent cortisone shots, as I thought!

James Ensor's take on society?

Ensor's Skeletons warming themselves at a fire









The Blame Game

Now, I just read in the WSJ that robots may advise you how to invest your hard earned money!
Really!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323477604578654101591319918.html?mod=ITP_journalreport_0

So if the robot is wrong you can just blame the robot, not your lazy self!

And then - eureka - THE revelation for today!
We have become a society of the committee decisions!
It is just too dangerous to make any decisions unless a committee has met numerous times to 'yeah or nay' the thought! Isn't it?
So we waste a lot of time pushing the envelope around the table.
Our society has become a society of  never stepping forth and accepting:  It IS my mistake!
No, it's: "I wouldn't have done it, if ...." or "You said it would be OK, but..."

And that's from the top down! Yes, all the way!

Isn't it always 'the' parent's fault.
Or the School's. Or the teachers'. Or the smart phones'.
Or the Universities'. Or the boss'.

Or the Congress'. Or the House of Representatives.

I have an idea: let's put a robot in the house!
And let it make decisions for the Country!
What could go wrong?
If it doesn't work..  Blame the robot!
If it does work, pat yourself on the back for being so smart to have used a robot!

Now those 'not I's' have another one to blame.
Just...
"Blame it on the Robot". 
Blaming it on the Bossa Nova is soooo pre-historical, after all.
Right?

If anyone actually still remembers Eydie Gorme.

Tomorrow will, undoubtedly, bring another idea to tongue lash!
But for today: That's all!