General

50 facts you might not know about Barack Obama

Barack Obama: The 50 facts you might not know – Telegraph This is an interesting list. He’s definitely a geek (he collects Spierman and Conan comics, among other clues). His favorite book is Moby Dick, which is not my favorite, but is probably in my top 50.
And, of course (the most relevant thing for this blog), his favorite artist:

His favourite artist is Pablo Picasso

He’s intelligent, and hip, and seems to be an all around nice guy, who does mean well. I may disagree with a lot of things he’s going to be doing, but I gotta respect the man. He’s the most intellectual president we’ve had in many a decade.

books, memes

phrase from nearest book” meme

Via Agile Testing

* Grab the nearest book.
* Open it to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
* Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

My quote is from Richard K. Morgan’s Broken Angels (which I happen to be reading right now).

Immaculate.

books, Politics

Mark Twain’s The Curious Republic of Gondour

This story is about democracy and why a limited (voting) franchise is better than an unrestricted one. It was first brought to my attention in Robert Heinlein’s book of essays Expanded Universe, and is quite hard to find, since it’s probably not as popular as some of Twain’s other stories. I found it online after being pointed to a different story by a different author. That is why the internets are so great.
The Curious Republic of Gondour by Mark Twain

Art

The Drawing Room Show

Audrey Kawasaki posts some pics from her new group show The Drawing Room on her blog.
The thing that makes the biggest impression on me is the sameness, in theme and style, of the works in the show, which may just be because Audrey Kawasaki curated the show, but I’m thinking, not.
Ms. Kawasaki can draw beautiful women, I’ll give you that, but her style never seems to change, or grow. As for the other artists in the show, well, just look at the pics she shares. I mean there’s nothing wrong with stylistic sameness (for lack of a better word), especially in a group show of like minded painters, but I think this pulls it a little too far. It’s bland, and there’s hardly any fire in it at all. A couple of the artists do stand out some, but, where they do, it’s mostly in using a different technique, and that’s about it.
This is the up and coming of the art world, and they’re making money because they are popular (and good for them I say), but, the question is, why are they popular?
The answer is, one–that they have mastered their technique–beautifully–and two–they use very kitschy themes–beautiful women, cute children, childlike fantasies, etc.. It’s easy on the eyes, and easy on the brain. And people want easy.
This being a good, or bad thing, I suppose, depends on your idea of what art should be.
Let the fireworks begin. 🙂