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

[capricornia]

love that piece!

[danschank]

thanks!

Whoa what's up with the html?

[bad_juice]

I didn't even know it could extend to comments also.

I am gonna watch some of these as soon as I wake up more.

I find lentils completely incomprehensible

[bad_juice]

That Zadie Smith excerpt is really excellent. I'm gonna try to read the rest of it.

I somewhat casually avoided taking pictures of this entry, twice(it was always one of a couple options and I chose the other one). If you continue to update I can't promise I'll continue to do this. So get used to seeing yourself?

(Or continue to update extremely infrequently, but I'd really prefer you do the former)

Re: I find lentils completely incomprehensible

[danschank]

yeah, definitely check out that whole lecture. it helps to listen to it, too, because a lot of what she's saying is about speech and accents and stuff (like eliza doolittle's cockney/posh in pygmalion, barack obama impersonating people in dreams from my father, smith's own voice as she got further and further into her education, etc.).

yeah, today's pictures had less stand-out stuff to notice (e.g. my own comments, porn, fried foods, etc.)... you're very brave though. if i did that, people would see that i LIVE IN FILTH.

I've mentioned this elsewhere

[bad_juice]

But Shirin made me promise I wouldn't take pictures of our disgusting house. Otherwise that's pretty much all you'd see. It's really pretty awful.

[biblionerd_girl]

The paintings are wonderful, truly!

[danschank]

thanks!

[luckyhoss]

Gorgeous painting!

I just saw Target Women for the first time a few days ago, and now since you mentioned it I've been watching more. Huh-larious! I like that lady a lot.

[danschank]

cool. i'm pleasantly surprised that those videos aren't totally old-hat by now... (not that they would be content-wise, just in terms of needing an introduction). part of me wants to check out other current tv stuff, but i haven't heard much about the rest of the programming. seems "talk soup"-ish in a less interesting way.

thanks for the target: women link

[mistercreepy]

i agree that if you feel like you like a comedian, you'll laugh easier and more heartily and that the opposite is extremely pronounced (a comedian or comedy group that gets under your skin will have to work 100x harder to make you laugh).

but i disagree that that's all there is. timing, performance, intelligence, these things still matter.

Re: thanks for the target: women link

[danschank]

yeah, i guess i took that idea to the extreme. obviously all those things play into it. i guess i'm just thinking more and more about how someone's personality contributes to my reactions? like, i'm watching this awesome BBC miniseries right now called state of play, and it has this really dry, super hilarious newspaper editor (bill nighy plays him... apparently he's in those johnny depp pirate movies?)... once his character is established (sort of a cross between the eagle from the muppets and terence stamp in priscilla queen of the desert), every scene he's in has this weird sense of anticipation, like i'm waiting for him to remind me of what makes him "him." which builds a kind of tension that i find hilarious.

in the target: women case, i'll use an example from above. there's a recent one where she makes these weird jokes about trying to wed al roker. and part of what makes them funny is this weird, self-consciousness of telling it - like, it needs her personality + al roker's personality to make sense. i think mike myers uses