Previous: Jules Olitski, 1922-2007 (35)
Loaded for bear
Post #953 • February 6, 2007, 1:13 PM • 27 Comments
2.
February 6, 2007, 9:29 PM
A great collection of books, Franklin. Did you just pick these up recently?
3.
February 7, 2007, 12:11 AM
I'm a really dumb person so could you tell me what "Loaded for Bear" means and/or refers to ?
4.
February 7, 2007, 12:15 AM
Also, Clem was a Capricornio, a drinker, and a smoker. All are bad. However, his writing was darn great.
5.
February 7, 2007, 1:39 AM
Jesus was a Capricorn, too (coincidence?)...
6.
February 7, 2007, 1:58 AM
...y tambien - pero jesus construyo mi bolido. Jo soy un Capricornio tambien - un bebedor y el fumador un escritor malo - pero y no interesado en el catholosim mucho y tanto amigo...
7.
February 7, 2007, 2:29 AM
Also, despite being Jewish, Clem was very catholic... spooky.
8.
February 7, 2007, 2:56 AM
No, spooky doesn't work here Marc. Clem liked Jules's light - as do I.
9.
February 7, 2007, 7:02 AM
Mark Weiser
"The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.
Consider writing, perhaps the first information technology: The ability to capture a symbolic representation of spoken language for long-term storage freed information from the limits of individual memory. Today this technology is ubiquitous in industrialized countries. Not only do books, magazines and newspapers convey written information, but so do street signs, billboards, shop signs and even graffiti. Candy wrappers are covered in writing. The constant background presence of these products of "literacy technology" does not require active attention, but the information to be conveyed is ready for use at a glance. It is difficult to imagine modern life otherwise."
As this is obvious to us now, as is selective baby preparation, ( tall, thin, blue this, brown that etc.) the next step involves selective cognition processes for reality interpretation visually. We can shape our 'mood' through music. Many artists and others do this now. For instance, when I ride a train, my physical experience is enhanced or squelched by what I am listening to and thus want to feel like throughout my journey. I can choose or not how this occurs. Sound does have an effect upon our mood - feelings are altered with and what we hear, and how we hear and how we interpret this.
What I am 'looking' at is however, limited to 3D physical reality and the things that I could touch or feel physically and imbue them with emotionally. What if I have a need to select my visuals as well. Light travels through us as well, and has a profound mood enhancing effect. (I have more to say about this, but my wife is calling me to bed...) What I am suggesting is that if we have control of our personal visual space in the same manner in which the corporate Western world has allowed for us to modify our own audio world, we could shape our day with beautiful visuals without major drug companies (again the physically, literal chemical, and not a cognitivelly selective ) dictating "a day in the life". When my spectacles are connected to a more beautiful virtual world, my day will be as pleasant as the person who is audio sensitive. Train visuals are damn ugly - and since posters, T.V. and movies have pursueded us to be on the lookout for beautiful things ( unfortunatly mostly people as dollars can be earned here ) we have been 'trained' (no pun intended) to be aware only of our visual physical surroundings. In short, we need some new technologies in order to enhance our moods through visuals.
Just a thought. (not proofread as usual)
j
10.
February 7, 2007, 7:13 AM
I mean personal visuals within a physical tactile reality.
11.
February 7, 2007, 7:17 AM
Marc, yeah, just picked these up at Amazon.
One can load a shotgun with various types of shot depending on the quarry, bear being one of the heaviest shots (as opposed to, say, turkey). This is why Harry Whittington's head didn't come off when Dick "Vader" Cheney shot him - they were loaded for quail. I have no idea why I know about this.
12.
February 7, 2007, 7:23 AM
"Loaded for Bear" means ready for heavy action, ready to fight, JM. I am not sure what Franklin intended by posting a picture of the 4-volume set - which has been out for a while now - without comment.
No Astrological sign is "bad" in itself. Like everything else it depends on relationships. Also, many scholars think Jesus was born in March, a Pisces.
13.
February 7, 2007, 7:40 AM
Yes there lies the problem - image control. But that is an other business ; the price for visuals. Porn is on it. However, if porn starts out the day of most then women better run tings. Picture this for starters - you have a visual goggle "IPOD" (so to speek) that you slap on the cranium. Yeah you pay-as-you-retreive...
Like music, you choose what you want to look at; say an Oliski painting becauase you saw one ( in person of course - this is the start...) and want to get in the same mood as when you saw it. You upload some, save em, sift through and play em...Gotta have standard goggles un tech. right ? Where is it ? Who's working on this ?
14.
February 7, 2007, 7:46 AM
Dick gone shot my 'wigwam' so I gotta go to bed again she said.
15.
February 7, 2007, 8:14 AM
http://philip.greenspun.com/
Hi Franklin, check out my site when you get a chance.
16.
February 7, 2007, 8:24 AM
Normally "check out my site" comments violate the guidelines, but this is Philip Greenspun we're talking about here. Awesome. Thanks for stopping by!
18.
February 7, 2007, 10:59 AM
Jules was born in March
19.
February 7, 2007, 11:25 AM
Late March. He was an Aries.
I saw that article, George. Thanks. As you guessed, I found it very interesting. It does not confirm but certainly is consistent with my theory that the only way to really figure out what art is "all about" is go at it through neurology.
20.
February 7, 2007, 12:04 PM
Jesus was a Pisces?... Hey! I'm a Pisces, too (coincidence?)...
21.
February 7, 2007, 12:08 PM
Although Greenberg wasn't into making predictions, there's a lot in those books that I find prescient.... either that, or else, in art, things don't change as fast as some think, and much of what he said then is still true today.
Enjoy the books, Franklin, and make sure to pick up (if you don't have 'em already) Homemade Esthetics, and the Late Writings, too.
22.
February 7, 2007, 3:12 PM
Marc: David Smith and Tony Caro - both Pisces.
Heres an excerpt from an article about Clem. The article was written in 1987 and the Clem quotes are 40 years earlier.
"It may be this blend of immediacy and perspicacity that makes the writing so very contemporary. Time and time again I found myself reading about today. The 1944 'Romantic Painting' show at the Museum of Modern Art is described as a phase 'of that campaign against modern art which began ambiguously among the Surrealists twenty years ago'; that same campaign is waged in the same way by today’s Neoexpressionists and others. The army is new; the battle is the same. It’s eerie. A review of Rouault opens with 'Art lovers yearn now for the Terrible.' They still do, and the following comments exactly describe that ache for emotional content which still clears the way for esthetic monstrosity. Read about the 1946 Whitney Annual and learn all you need to know about today’s Biennial, except that the bad art of 40 years ago was tame stuff compared to the vile bilge there now. At the Whitney only the names change; artistic disaster is a revered tradition. For a symposium on the state of American art in 1949, Greenberg writes 'Public taste seems eclectic... because there has been a breakdown of cultural authority... people are no longer so ashamed as they used to be of bad taste; rather, without going to the trouble to improve it, they defend it aggressively.' That’s today’s collector in spades. Again, in a review of a 1944 show at the Modern: 'The presumably enlightened rich... have found the courage to ask for the art they really like: 'Give us the romantic, the realistic, the descriptive, the immediately erotic, and the chic. It fits us better, mirrors us better and moves us quicker. Since we pay for art, we have a right to the kind we want.'"
23.
February 8, 2007, 1:15 PM
Hey Franklin... If Clem's four volumes are the ammo (a quadruple-barrelled shotgun), who (and where) are the bears?
24.
February 9, 2007, 10:36 AM
There are no bears, just a bunch of puffed up paper tigers.
25.
February 10, 2007, 9:29 AM
re #19 Opie
...the only way to really figure out what art is "all about" is go at it through neurology.
26.
February 10, 2007, 12:42 PM
Interesting article, but a silly headline.
The phrase "A picture is worth a thousand words" never implied that pictures are a thousand times easier to remember than words; rather, it means that pictures convey a thousand (or, likely more) times the information as words.
Silly scientists.
1.
Jack
February 6, 2007, 8:22 PM
Too bad the editor wasn't a better man, but sometimes right or good things are not done by the best people.