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Books in 2023

January 10, 2023 by sergneri 2 Comments

Last half of “Bleeding Edge” by Thomas Pynchon 01/06/2023 – Done – enjoyable. Checked out “Rising” by Elizabeth Rush from the library – good account the present impact of rising seas on a few areas in the world and a cautionary tale about the future. She’s an excellent writer, enjoyed it vary much. Started “White … [Read more…]

Posted in: Arts, Content, Thinking about Tagged: A Canticle for Leibowitz, Against the day, Albert and the Whale, American Midnight, Bleeding Edge, Coal wars : the future of energy and the fate of the planet, Don DeLillo, Elizabeth Rush, Herbert Gold, How Markets Fail, John Cassidy, Ka, Philip Hoare, Richard Martin, Roberto Colasso, Slow Learner, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, Thomas Pynchon, Walter M. Miller Jr, White Noise

Michael Snow, Prolific and Playful Artistic Polymath, Is Dead at 94

January 6, 2023 by sergneri Leave a Comment

He was a painter, a musician, a photographer and a sculptor. But he was best known for experimental (and often contentious) films like “Wavelength.” New York Times, Jan. 6, 2023 “I am not a professional,” he declared in a statement written for a group show catalog in 1967. “My paintings are done by a filmmaker, … [Read more…]

Posted in: Arts, Content, Faits Divers, Obituaries, Photography, Thinking about Tagged: animation, Annette Michelson, Canadian, Cecil Taylor, filmmaker, Hollis Frampton, jazz pianist, Jonas Mekas, Joyce Wieland, Ken Jacobs, Michael Snow, movie, painter, photographer, polymath, Richard Foreman, Richard Serra, sculptor, Steve Reich, Toronto, Wavelength

Lee Lorenz, 90, Cartoonist at The New Yorker, Dies

December 10, 2022 by sergneri Leave a Comment

This obituary of Mr. Lorenz contains many links to other cartoonists as well as his insights on the New Yorker.

Posted in: Content, Faits Divers, History, Obituaries, Politics, Thinking about Tagged: Cartoonist, Jack Ziegler, Lee Lorenz, Robert A. Gottlieb, Roz Chast, The New Yorker, Tina Brown, William Shawn

The surreal photographs of Ralph Eugene Meatyard

October 28, 2022 by sergneri Leave a Comment

From the Guardian October 28, 2022, The surreal photographs of Ralph Eugene Meatyard “Ralph Eugene Meatyard (1925-1972) was an American optometrist and pioneer of experimental and surreal photography, working in Kentucky. Heavily influenced by Southern Gothic literature, his carefully constructed, haunting images are on display at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans … [Read more…]

Posted in: Content, Faits Divers, Sea Stories, Thinking about Tagged: experimental photography, Meatyard, Photography, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Southern Gothic literature, surreal, surreal photography

Uncanny Art Generation

September 26, 2022 by sergneri 1 Comment

I’ve been working on my syntax, my commands, my interaction with my new toy, stable-diffusion. I’m like a few hundred thousand others tonight, all working away at how best to communicate with this software to get the images we think we might want, but we won’t know until the machine comes back with them, completed. … [Read more…]

Posted in: Content, Faits Divers, Future of Work, IT Failures, Science, the Anthropocene, Thinking about Tagged: AI, AI applications, art, computer generated, machine art, stable-diffusion

Our Neighborhood Fox Family

August 1, 2022 by sergneri 3 Comments
Posted in: Content, Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Sea Stories, Thinking about Tagged: Backyard, Chard, Fox, Foxes, Wildlife

SIFT (The Four Moves)

November 4, 2021 by sergneri Leave a Comment

In the 11/04/21 New York Times, Farhad Manjoo wrote an opinion piece on what to do about Facebook. In that article, he references a system called SIFT; “Mike Caulfield, an expert on digital literacy at the University of Washington, has developed a four-step process called SIFT to assess the veracity of information. After Caufield’s process … [Read more…]

Posted in: Content, IT Failures, Science Tagged: clickbait, digital literacy, Facebook, Farhad Manjoo, information, Mike Caulfield, SIFT, veracity

Nadia Boulanger

August 30, 2021 by sergneri Leave a Comment

From the New York Times: She Was Music’s Greatest Teacher. And Much More. A festival broadens our understanding of Nadia Boulanger, the pathbreaking composer, conductor and thinker. By William Robin July 30, 2021 Nadia Boulanger on Wikipedia

Posted in: Content, Faits Divers, Feminism Tagged: Aaron Copland, classical music, France, French, French composers, Lili Boulanger, Monteverdi, Nadia Boulanger, pedagogy, Philip Glass, Prix de Rome, Quincy Jones, Raoul Pugno, Villa Medici, Virgil Thomson

Names that Fit – The Aptonym

April 19, 2021 by sergneri 7 Comments

There are many people who have names which suit their occupations. Here is a short list I’ve found so far in 2021. There are others who have slipped by in the past but are unverifiable. According to Frank Nuessel, in The Study of Names (1992), an aptonym is the term used for “people whose names … [Read more…]

Posted in: Content, Faits Divers, Sea Stories, Thinking about Tagged: aptonym, aptronym, euonym, names, occupation, occupations, personal name, workplace

The Rozz-Tox Manifesto

April 9, 2021 by sergneri Leave a Comment

The Rozz-Tox Manifesto Gary Panter (1980) tem 1: The avant-garde is no corpus. It merely lies in shock after an unfortunate bout with its own petard. It feigns sleep but one eye glitters and an involuntary twitch in the corner of the mouth belies a suppressed snicker. The giggle of coming awake at one’s own … [Read more…]

Posted in: Content, Environment, Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Feminism, Finanace, Future of Work, IT Failures, Modern Music, Nuclear Industry, Obituaries, Pandemic, Politics, Racism, Sea Stories, Thinking about Tagged: "rip-off", "sell-out", amusement park, art talent scouts, atomic TV beatnik furniture, avant-garde, better media, capitalistic society, capitol realities, Elitist Art, eternal life, faith in glamour, god printers, high school, inter-office memos, mutant, patronship, Pavlovia, petard, pseudo-avant-garde, Ralph Records, rubbery genius, Saturday morning, tendencies, the cereal Nirvana, top-40 radio, two-dimensional phosphorescence, wildcat speculation
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