Tag Archives: art

America, Thanks to the Internet

  By Riley | January 3, 2010 - 10:55 pm | Pics & Toons
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If you were in Ithaca over the summer, and you love America, it is probable that you were behind a humble apartment on Coddington Road to eat meat, drink beer, and celebrate the birthday of our nation. It was there that couches were burned, the National Anthem was sung on repeat, and meat was cooked to sustain such efforts.

If the flags, portable grill, and empty beer boxes weren’t enough to manifest the axiom that America is the land of the free and the home of the brave, the gaze in the distance has to do it.

Oh Say Can You See...

But America must be celebrated more than just once a year. For that reason, the Internet has brought us motivational pictures, one of which, features this woman…

...or man?

I anticipate that this next image matches the above person’s worldview:

god bless us

These images of course represent a righter more conservative-ish side of America. In this country, a melting pot of opportunity and suburbia, there’s a whole lot more than big business, oil and SUVs… there’s also Fast Food. And with fast food comes bitching leftists… Here’s an illustration by one of them:

come of think of it, Morgan Spurlock?

And of course, with bitching leftists, comes pacifism, opposition of war, and more comics…

game over

I must stress, again, readers, that thacant does not support nor abandon any political biases. We’re students, writers, idea-ists. If we offended you, just settle in around the middle.

adult imagination–use it!

  By Sarah | December 22, 2009 - 8:49 pm | Events, Findings
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This is one of those things too. When we became adults (not sure when that happened, but I’m pretty sure it did) its hard for fantasy-land to cross into the real world. But once something is recognized by a legitimate credible source it usually becomes all the more real. A lot of people don’t like Tim Burton: he freaks them out, not really considered an art form, whatever it may be- a lot of people consider it just down right weird (which it can be.) Preference is preference. I happen to love me some Tim Burton.

Now, I won’t lie to you. Even blogging relationships involve truth at all times. When I was a child I was pretty much afraid of EVERYTHING. Halloween, rubber masks, and Tim Burton’s A Nightmare Before Christmas. I mean come on. I watched that movie years later after having gotten over my fears and seeing it through a new mind…..that shit is SCARY. No wonder I was afraid of it. There is a lot of twisted life going on in that movie……..But now A Nightmare… is beautiful to look at. The movie has groundbreaking technology and imagination, and changed animation ideas and possibilities. For those of you who have overlooked Tim Burton (if you have?), maybe you shouldn’t.

32222When something like this comes around I cannot ignore it even if my childhood nightmares linger. The MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, has a Tim Burton exhibit. And its running until April! This gives us all enough time to get ourselves there. The last time I was at the MoMA I stumbled upon the Dali exhibit, which was really amazing, and a whole bunch of modern architecture and interior design. It was strange seeing it in a museum but it definitely drew a crowd. Here’s the information- do whatchu gotta do. There is nothing quite like a demented imagination.

29 years

  By Sarah | December 8, 2009 - 8:55 pm | Contributors
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john_lennon

29 years ago today John Lennon was assassinated by Mark David Chapman outside of the Dakota Hotel on the upper west side of New York City. If you have not made it to Strawberry Fields, I recommend it. When my senior class in high school got the week off to go to Disney in Florida, I did the unnatural thing and stayed home. My dad and I spent one of those days in the city and seeing Strawberry Fields was one of our activities we wanted to do together. While we were there, we saw countless tourists just like ourselves, a man propose to his girlfriend and two homeless men who looked like they had experienced the full effect of the 1960s. Its a cool place to visit. Maybe next year I’ll make it on December 8th for the 30th anniversary. But I figured it would be cool to go at 40 and especially 50 years- which we will definitely see the day of.

Its a story among us Beatle fans that is kind of common sense once you reach a certain age. It is as memorable in comparison to ask ‘where were you when JFK was shot?’ Lennon and Yoko had returned from the recording studio. He was in the midst of making Double Fantasy. Released three weeks before his murder, its his best selling solo album and won him the 1981 Grammy for Record of the Year. Mark David Chapman was posing as a fan, trying to get his autograph and then he shot him. The story is unclear to me as to why MDC wanted to murder one of the most peaceful and beloved human beings. A movie was made about Chapman were Jared Leto played him and Lindsay Lohan is in it too. But that’s besides the point. The point is, don’t see this movie. I’d rather you read the Wikipedia article on him if anything.

Last weekend on the Breakfast with the Beatles show I did a feature of all John Lennon solo work and his best Beatles stuff. It was really fun, actually and very well received by my normal listeners. Although he is not my favorite Beatle (George is, of course) I still have a hard time recognizing his extreme amount of talent. After I read John by Cynthia Lennon, his first wife, I kind of lost respect for him because of how he broke Cynthia’s heart and was an absent father letting his family fall to pieces as he fell for this artist, Yoko, and continued on with life as if nothing existed before her. Cynthia even came home from a weekend away with girlfriends to find them sitting on their living room floor in their his & hers bathrobes. But every once and a while someone will remind me of why he was everyone’s everyone. This time I think it was explained the best.

The beauty about John Lennon as an artist is that from the beginning when you sat him down to interview him, or just to talk whether or not it was an audience of five or five million, he always poured his heart out. He treated everyone like his brother, being honest and pleasant just, literally, trying to make the world a better place. That is what made Lennon so likable. It is what continues to make him so lovable. Despite his many, many, faults and crazy life, he was a genius. But he was also a tortured soul. People of every generation will continue to fall in love with him and his music. Lennon just wanted to tell the truth and sometimes it really pissed people off (like when he said the Beatles were bigger than Jesus Christ- who can argue with that….?!) But the truth is the best policy, maybe not all the time. But it was for him. Lennon wanted truth, peace and love. I think we can give it to him.

Also if you are interested there is an exhibit going on at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex Museum in NYC commemorating his life in New York City- his favorite part of his life and his favorite city to be in. It opened this May and I’m quite sure it goes through next month. Every time I look for an end date, I can’t seem to find one.  So check it out. Also, if you have not yet seen A Hard Day’s Night- watch it. Funnier than anything: it is English comedy before Monty Python. Also, Help! is also tremendously funny.

"are you listening to me, Lennon??"

"are you listening to me, Lennon??"

So if you haven’t yet today, play a little Lennon.  Do something he would do. Happy December 8th.

comics=art

  By Sarah | November 17, 2009 - 12:37 pm | Findings
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Are you into comics? Or comic art? Or unusual art? I am glad that this blog feeds my need for unusual art and strange publications, because we all need that strange outlet.

Joe Kubert has been a comic book artist since 1938. Think of all the things he has seen! The man is 83 and still pushing forward. Seeing no need for any of his past work, it is going up for peruse and for sale. He handed “a large part of his work” over to Heritage Auctions in Dallas. They will be available live online, and in person (if you happen to be in that neck of the woods.)

I have never been a comic book reader, but once something cool like comics crosses over and gains credibility simply because its so cool, I dog-pile-on-the-rabbit along with everyone else. Plus it is some pretty beautiful art….check it out.

cartoonslide2

let’s face it- we all miss los angeles

  By Sarah | November 9, 2009 - 6:24 am | Findings
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....if only

....if only

I cannot ignore the roots of this blog: a fantasy land we call a semester in Los Angeles. Once described to me by the man with the plan, Riley, as having post truamatic stress disorder…we all miss it.

So when I found this, naturally, I want to share it with all of you. Plus its a very cool idea making me wish I could do it all over again and study photography.

Tom Baker, a unusually fun and conventional photographer posted some pictures to his blog of a Los Angeles without any cars and traffic. [Can you imagine!?] Check it out.

  By Sarah | November 8, 2009 - 2:16 pm | Findings, Reviews
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antichrist03Never before have I been so intrigued by a movie that I know I have a hard time bringing myself to see. Not once in my life have I enjoyed being scared. Halloween is my second least favorite holiday (New Year’s Eve ranks as no. 1) and my childhood was no fun and games in the month of October. But now I might just have to get over that fear.

After having just seen the Boondock Saints for the first time (which I’m still not sure if I like…) and coming to realize what a tremendous person Willem Dafoe is, I started to follow him much more closely. In addition to voicing a character in The Fantastic Mr. Fox (a MUST!) and appearing on Broadway plays as the “Idiot Savant,” he is “HE” in Antichrist.

Antichrist is a film by Lars von Trier, a prominent and pretentious French filmmaker. I call him this because of the simple subject matter of his latest splash. Antichrist is a story about a couple, Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, whose child falls out of a window to his death at their sexual climax. von Trier explores the idea that while we know passion as a natural, enjoyable aspect of human emotion it can also be a moment of destruction and pain. The characters, “HE” and “SHE”, engage in violent sexual acts on one another and themselves, have psychological breakdowns and panics, and explore the endless opportunities of all things scary seclusion in the woods.

I cannot stop reading about this film because I am fascinated by it. After reading about the disgusting and disturbing images that go on in the picture, I am unsure of whether or not I can see it. Watch the trailer. And here are three very different reviews that explore the film and what it has to say to our society.

I’ve been meaning to post this for almost two full weeks and I am looking forward to more people being exposed to this film because it is so outrageous (and not really mainstream.) And then, maybe I am ready to see a matinee. In daylight. With a friend. And spend the rest of my time avoiding wooded areas.

Artsy

  By Riley | October 20, 2009 - 9:27 am | Findings
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Fall Break has come and gone. But it was a great time for us to stray away from campus and create or find our own art. Let’s see what’s been done in the Thursday and Friday we students have stretched into a five-day bender…

bridge monster

Medium: Chalk on Iron

I found this angry chalk monster on the metal bridge on E. Clinton Street. If you’re leaving the police station after paying an exorbitant ticket for having a party at your apartment, or coming home from the Commons, keep your eyes open.

Medium: Spray Paint on Wood

Medium: Spray Paint on Wood

Don’t know what this means or why it was created. “Chee Dung” it says, with the former word’s letters taking the shape of a pile of the latter word. Looks homemade, though. Rock on!

Medium: Paint on Cement

Medium: Paint on Cement

Junior TV-R major Anthony Palma sent me this “fresh” graffiti straight from East Brunswick, New Jersey. If you can’t read it, I’ll help you decode; NF&ES^>TZ@,{ *.

Medium: Caution Tape on Wood and Air

Medium: Caution Tape on Wood and Air

The least conventional art I came across was Thursday night, when I enter a Grandview basement to find Nate Scull meandering a spider web of caution tape. Cheers to you Scull.

Fall Break is a mere two days off from classes, not even enough time to warrant my five-hour drive back home. Thanksgiving break is just over four weeks away, and oh, the art we’ll come across with nine days away from campus.

it’s not what you’re like-it’s what you like.

  By Sarah | October 10, 2009 - 3:43 pm | Findings, Reviews
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I’ve never seen the art world in such a flutter- although maybe it’s because I’ve never paid much attention to the art world. The White House Press Office released the list of 45 pieces of art that Michelle and Barack  borrowed from several Washington museums. This idea is enough to motivate anyone to be in a place of authority where you can ask a museum to borrow fine art (from names I’ve never heard of (but already love) to Degas) to put up on the walls of my private residency. People are reporting and writing about this more and more (look, here I go again)- everyone seems to be so judgmental towards every little thing this man does. (I wonder why.) If Obama stubbed his toe, we’d know about it. If he left the country to go lobby for the Olympics, we’d know about it. We would know about any gardening, poor or strong choices he is making in the White house, what sports he plays- and of course- its all we can talk about when he is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

I didn’t mean for this to go in this direction- but there is no way I cannot address this. Barack Obama in no way deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for things he has not yet accomplished. After being in office for only nine months, we can say that anything is better than Bush, but we can also get a false sense of hope. What is this hope? Hope of continuing two wars that are destroying our world? Hope to take away universal health care? Hope enough for us to pick and pry at every move this man, and his family, makes? He lobbies for the Olympics and the op-eds have a field day of material. Now, the art the family chose is being scrutinized and closely reported. Take a look for yourself: it’s quite beautiful and has something to say. I like to think that it’s not what you’re like- it’s what you like. And more importantly, the media you surround yourself with speaks volumes.

"Nice," 1954, by Nicolas De Stael

"Nice," 1954, by Nicolas De Stael

But even more so- it’s what you have to say that says more about you. As a society we say a lot, nonstop. I wish we could rethink that. Because constantly talking isn’t necessarily communicating.