new painting, some good lectures to check out, other stuff too maybe

[danschank]

hi livejournal! sorry i've been quiet for the past few weeks. i've been busy. but i've got a bit of a dry spell, work-wise, for a while now. so i'll be updating more. to start things off, this is one of those obligatory art posts, with some youtube/podcast links listed afterwords.

i finished this painting a few months back:

Comments

[never_the_less]

As you know, I live under a neoclassical dome (Massachusetts' version of a rock), so I had not heard of Sarah Haskins. But I am loving her videos! I want to hang out with her! Thanks for posting, and nice to see you around the LJ...

[danschank]

yeah, she totally rules. there are actually petitions out there to get the daily show to add her as a correspondent. the daily show is surprisingly male-dominated, considering its politics, no?

one of the most recent target: women things has a running gag about her being in love with al roker. it makes me smile to just think about it...

[ceciliaj]

My favorite one is the one about The View.

confession:

[danschank]

sometimes i kinda like the view. i think i might get along with joy behar.

(oh man, i can hardly believe i just typed that)

[olamina]

*thanks for all these talks! i will try to listen to them while i am washing dishes. i always need podcasts or BBC radio or i can't make it through.

* i am reading my friend Jared Sexton's book Amalgamation Schemes so I am sure I am gonna take issue with some of what Zadie Smith says, but I really like her (and her husband, the writer/poet Nick Laird, as well) so I'll probably let her off the hook.

* your work somewhat reminds me of my friend Aya Kakeda's stuff. She is Japanese and cutesy so it's a very different thing, but there are vectors.

* i love that the dog is called Lentil. that's a great painting! how'd you get Lentil to sit so still? ha.

[danschank]

yeah, i've basically been using talks/podcasts as a way to keep my brain working when i'm doing other things. it's a pretty awesome way of keeping things interesting. like, i haven't finshed a book in over a month, but i've listened to at least a dozen lectures, so it doesn't feel like i'm dumbing down in my old age.

saw on wheelville that you linked to the zadie piece. glad you enjoyed it. when i saw your above mention of sexton's book (had to google it), i was worried my excerpt made her sound too garden-variety-multiculturalism. obviously, it's more complicated than that. i like how her "praise" of obama is really more about the potential of him, rather than the usual starry-eyed hope-and-change stuff.

thanks for the art link! her work is obviously a bit more comic-book-ish than mine, but there's some great stuff going on with light/dark contrasts that's pretty useful to look at.

oh, and lentil didn't sit for me. he's a good dog, and could probably pull it off, but the painting is based on a photo.

[olamina]

that speech was really good. not what i expected at all, though i knew it would be good. it was really thoughtful and imaginative and thought-provoking. there were a few tragic mullata moments but she was up-front enough about it that i didn't have to roll my eyes. to anyone else planning to listen to this, i'd suggest fastforwarding about ten minutes in and skipping over the wine raffle and all the other useless rambling.
*
oh i was just joking about lentil, i knew it was from a photo. but i like the idea that lentil would just stand there for hours out of some loyal commitment to furthering your artistic career.
*
have you seen any good movies recently? i went to download some stuff the other day and was at a loss. i watched Silent Running the other day and didn't really get it. I am also gonna watch Soylent Green soon (Mark Kermode recommended both of them when reviewing Moon, which I still haven't seen): I still also have a few to watch based on chocolatebark's suggestions (Deathtrap, High Noon).

i should be watching more movies

[danschank]

glad you liked it. and she takes on the "tragic mulatto" thing at one point directly, doesn't she? also, good point about the wine raffle. i forgot about that. the first dude who speaks is kinda funny, but i LOATHE the way intro speakers ramble on and on. it's so frustrating to watch people take advantage of the spotlight.

as for movies, i've been more on a tv kick lately. moon isn't bad - it's not as deep as it maybe thinks it is. it's more like an improved m. night shamalayan movie than the next 2001 or solaris.

the first movie that comes to mind - oddly enough - that i've loved recently is this weird joaquin phoenix thing called two lovers. i totally loved it! if you haven't seen it, and look at the dvd cover, you'd never guess it would be any good. but it's really odd and uncomfortable in an interesting way.

as for other new stuff, steve mc queen's (not the actor!) hunger is well worth a look. it's SUPER gross at times, but it's pretty dynamically different than most other things out there. some of the spiritual stuff kinda

[dfordoom]

this is my first foray into "hard" science fiction, and it's proving tougher to get through than expected.

I have quite a few problems with hard science fiction, the main one being that most of it is written in a very pedestrian style. Plus poor characterisation. Of course that's broadly true of SF in general, but hard SF seems to be worse than the average. I found Red Mars to be very heavy going, and I've never felt brave enough to tackle the sequels.

[danschank]

yeah, hard sci-fi definitely isn't my thing either. though i'm glad i'm taking the plunge with robinson. i don't think "poor characterization" is necessarily the problem in his case though - i actually think the characters are pretty interesting on the whole. i like that it's mostly a novel of ideas. like, even the terraforming stuff (tedious as it can be to a layman like me) seems to have a weird pragmatism to it, like it's about what's possible in the universe, rather than what would be cool in a sci-fi novel.

it's taken me well over a month to read the 430-ish pages i've gotten through so far, so i'll probably take a break with the series for a while when i'm done, but i think i'll get to them eventually. the book calls to mind le guin's the dispossessed, which is maybe my favorite "utopian" novel (not that i've read that many).

[dfordoom]

There's a problem with science fiction in general, where novels often read more like essays than novels. And where novels are just political lectures (regardless of which end of the political spectrum the author comes from). So many SF novels just don't come to life.

[danschank]

are you saying the novel is lifeless? i don't think it is. more like, i dunno, extremely layered.

i've found it tough to read for some of the same reasons i struggled with moby dick, oddly enough!

[cheekymonkies]

The yogurt bit was awesome! Activia made me sick about two months ago, bad bad fiber. Hope you are well. Sorry we couldn't make it to the bbq we should get together soon.

[danschank]

yeah, definitely! are you guys ever in the city? i'm around more lately... the first two months of summer were pretty crazy. i was juggling three part time jobs, and going away almost every weekend for a while, not to mention hopping back and forth between here and my GF's (i live in fishtown, she's in south philly... it's a lot of running around sometimes).

those target: women things are almost always funny. i highly recommend a long youtube search!

[cheekymonkies]

We don't go down to the city a whole lot. To see you we will! My job has been nuts and Chris is starting at Villanova soon so he has been reading for school.

That is alot of running around and alot of jobs.

[apresminuit]

lentil is a great name for a dog & that is a swell painting!

i am kind of becoming obsessed w/ this dog that i keep seeing aspca updates about on facebook b/c this dewd has the best & most appropriate name ever. CHECK HIM OUT. this guy has got me sort of wishing i lived in nyc for the 1st time in like 10 years?!!?!? MEATBALL!!

i also like yr other little painting, esp. the leaning house on the pile of shirts.

i also also am excited to listen to/watch these links when i get home. lots of interesting looking stuff here!!

[danschank]

i can hardly even look at those ASPCA posts... it's like cuteness followed by a sense of duty that i can't commit to. too tragic!

that dude is pretty adorable though. i'm not usually even a bulldog type, but he seems like he wakes up each morning excited to be alive.

your <3 of animals (and youtube banter with jeremy) is why i thought you'd liek the thing about crows, btw... hope you dig it!