Category: Art

Lee Camp brings it

| May 10, 2013 | Reply

Over the past week, I’ve watched about 20 episodes of Lee Camp’s Moment of Clarity. Camp has the technique down well. Be well informed, then let it fly with equal parts wit and sharp sword. His targets are those who hurt or disparage honorable ordinary people. His videos are well-planned and executed, with the timing of an experienced comedian. Take a look at any of the four posted episodes below, and I suspect that you will become a Lee Camp fan too.

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Urban design?

| May 8, 2013 | Reply

What is this?

[caption id="attachment_25207" align="alignleft" width="508"]Photo by Erich Vieth Photo by Erich Vieth[/caption]

This is a photo I took a few weeks ago, looking straight up the circular ramp of a garage in downtown St. Louis.

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The answer is: Make good art.

| May 8, 2013 | Reply

It doesn’t matter what the question is or the situation. One ready-made answer is “Make good art.”

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Chicago skyline

| May 7, 2013 | Reply

I’m in Chicago tonight, preparing to take a deposition tomorrow. It was a beautiful evening to view the downtown skyline.

[caption id="attachment_25202" align="aligncenter" width="614"]Chicago skyline (by Erich Vieth) Chicago skyline (by Erich Vieth)[/caption]
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The Bechdel test for movies

| April 26, 2013 | Reply

The Bechdel Test is a simple test which names the following three criteria for rating movies: (1) it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man.

[Update 4/28/13]: More on the Bechdel test from the Double Parent, focusing on princesses who need to be rescued by a prince, many of these movies by Disney.

And . . . the story of Wonderwoman. You can view the entire one-hour video at PBS.

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Delightful unplayable music

| March 30, 2013 | Reply

Those of you who read music might enjoy John Stump’s score titled “Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz (from “A tribute to Zdenko G. Fibich”). I ran across this and enjoyed its repeated moments of musical absurdity.

Faerie aire

I searched for some background for the piece and found this:

The composition Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz (from “A Tribute to Zdenko G. Fibich”) by John Stump is an unpublished satirical work written and copyrighted in 1980 that is best known for, simultaneously, its humor and unplayability. The piece is most often seen hanging on the walls in music rooms and orchestral settings for the musicians’ amusement, due to musical directions such as “Rigatoni”, “light explosives now… and… now”, “insert peanuts”, “Moon-walk”, “release the penguins”, and “Like a Dirigible”.

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Monochrome snow

| March 24, 2013 | Reply
Monochrome snow

We had a big snowfall in St. Louis today. In the middle of it, I visited the Missouri Botanical Gardens to capture a series of color photos that certainly don’t look like color photos. Except check out the final photo, in which a blue heron is notable.

IMG_9336 Snow MBG - evv

IMG_9321 Snow MBG - evv

IMG_9319 Snow MBG - evv

IMG_9342 Snow MBG - evv

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Corporate Protests

| March 22, 2013 | Reply

Here’s another cartoon from the pen of John Jonik (reprinted here with permission. Visit his site for reprints).

[caption id="attachment_24894" align="aligncenter" width="553"]By John Jonik - reprinted with permission. By John Jonik – reprinted with permission.[/caption]
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Gun day at the photo shoot

| March 10, 2013 | 3 Replies

I’ve been making steady progress in my studies of photography over the past 10 years. This year I finally bought an DSLR (a Canon D7), and it has been a joy to really learn how use the controls of a high-performance camera.

My 14 year old daughter JuJu and I have been attending photography classes for the past year. Today we attended a model shoot at St. Louis Photo Authority in St. Louis, Missouri, where the owner, Ed Crim provided four models and excellent guidance. It was a lot of fun, as you can see from my work.

Today the theme for the models was “guns,” which made me a bit apprehensive, but we had a great time shooting models who all had access to guns as props. Here’s a sample of the portraits I took. Nothing like having the right equipment and some good teachers. Click for higher res images.

IMG_0170 Ed Crim II

IMG_0198 Ed Crim II

IMG_0337 Ed Crim II

IMG_0233 Ed Crim II

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