Seriousness in True Joy

During my business trip to Denver earlier this month, I toured - for the second time - the Clyfford Still Museum. And, and is my compulsion, I bought a book. But not just any book: a vintage copy of the catalog that accompanied Still's donation of 28 of his paintings to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1976.

Toward the end of the book, a 1963 quote of Still's is included that I'll quote directly here:

"I'm not interested in illustrating my time. A man's 'time' limits him, it does not truly liberate him. Our age - it is of science - of mechanism - of power and death. I see no virtue in adding to its mammoth arrogance the compliment of graphic homage."

Flipping a few pages back in the book brought me to PH-261 (see below), a painting completed about the same time as Still made that statement. Certainly, this painting exudes timelessness and is without mechanism. It is essentially human.

Clyfford Still, PH-261, 1962. source

Still also is quoted in the book as saying "I am a serious man about those things I consider important. Perhaps there is a seriousness in true joy." There is no better word than joy to describe my reaction to Clyfford Still's work.

Reference: Clyfford Still at the SFMOMA.

The time at our disposal each day is elastic...

New music to be previewed and ordered:

• David Kollar, Notes from the Underground, to be released 30 June.
• Brand X, But Wait... There's More (double, live CD), to begin shipping 14 July (Note: the link is to their store at Burning Shed for UK and other orders. It appears US customers have to order through Facebook which is a new one for me.)
• Stick Men ft. Mel Collins, Roppongi - Live in Tokyo, Show 1 and Show 2 (to be released 21 July)

In this interview with musician and composer J. Peter Schwalm we read about how the artist's intent doesn't necessarily have to be deduced by the listener. "I really want listeners to feel something when they are listening to my music; In an ideal situation, they would feel the same as me."

Mark Bradford, Realness, 2016. Soon.

This calls for some research. Cousin's BBQ has switched to all-natural, Creekstone Farms briskets which taste better than their previous briskets. On a related note, the top 50 BBQ joints in Texas.

Five of the top 10 U.S. cities in population growth are in Texas with Fort Worth coming in at #7. On a related note, Forbes ranked Fort Worth as the 6th fastest growing city.

The Modern posted a video playlist called Modern Collections in which a staff member takes 3-4 minutes to talk about one specific work. Of the five videos currently available, my favorite is about Clyfford Still's 1956-J No. 1 Untitled.

Not just no, HELL NO. TSA planning to make the traveling public "declutter" their baggage. How about we declutter airports by kicking TSA to the curb?

The strapless, adhesive Bliss Bra (gives you +2 cup sizes) is currently on sale for 50% off.

How does Facebook police nudity? It's harder than you think.

Clyfford Still, PH-929, 1974. Very soon.

The Texas state legislature (which seems to be more interested in chasing high profile but relatively useless legislation - i.e. bathroom bill) is on the verge of requiring "breweries making more than 225,000 barrels annually to repurchase their own product from wholesalers in order to continue selling beer for on-premise consumption at their taprooms."

I had no idea that JFK gave the commencement address at my alma mater, Syracuse University, back in 1957.

Confused about what is a sandwich and what isn't? Thank you, lawyers.

NASA loses track of a bag of moon dust from Apollo 11, woman buys it from USG for $1,000, NASA takes it back, woman sues and wins back a priceless piece of history and science.

...the passions we feel dilate it, those that inspire us shrink it, and habit fills it. ~Marcel Proust

Either write something worth reading...

Why are there 3 big animation auctions in June?

• Profiles in History, Animation & Disneyana 94, June 9th
• Van Eaton Galleries, Walt Disney's Disneyland, June 25th (featuring the original hand-drawn Disneyland map by Walt and Herb Ryman, expected to sell for nearly $1 million) - video preview
• Bonhams, TCM Presents an Important Animation Art Collection, The Property of a Gentleman, June 5th

Music du jour:

• David Kollar, Underground
• Eraldo Bernocchi & Netherworld, Himuro
• Gaudi, Magnetic (highly recommend)
• Art of Noise, In Visible Silence (Deluxe)

Agne Gintalaite, Beauty Remains. source. The article makes a comparison to Rothko but when I see an array like this the immediate comparison is Gerhard Richter.

Very soon I will see Shade, the Mark Bradford & Clyfford Still exhibit.

Those interested in Soviet-era history will no doubt enjoy the Manhoff Archive, a trove of color photos and videos from 1950s Soviet Union.

Going a bit further back in time, the Paleobiology Database is an interactive map of fossil finds.

Make your own Sankey diagrams with SankeyMATIC.

25 things about Cleveland. MR HERO IS THE BOMB.

Quarterbacks ranked by career record. Yes, Brady is #1. But who's #2?

Flip Myers-Briggs on its head by defining hell for each personality type. Mine: "An incredibly impractical person is put in charge of all of your major life decisions. You have to do whatever they say and are powerless to argue or reason with them." (Maybe Satre's definition was simpler: Hell is other people.)

...or do something worth writing. ~Benjamin Franklin

The trouble is...

Ryuichi Sakamoto (whom you might remember from the soundtrack of the 1983 film Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence) has released async, his first album in many years. You can stream it here. I purchased the album and have been playing it a lot recently and really like it. Read a review on Pitchfork and another on Fader. Or just go to Sakamoto's website.

Recording artist Taylor Deupree also runs the 12k label of experimental and ambient music. In this interview, among many other insights, we learn that the USPS increased international shipping rates for a single CD by a factor of 8 which, no surprise, resulted in a vast decrease in orders. (Who's gonna pay shipping costs that are the same as the CD cost?)

American Scholar recently reminded me of composer and musician (and Houstonian) Paulina Oliveros whose mantra was "listen to everything all the time and remind yourself when you are not listening." Take some time for Deep Listening.

The Cassini spacecraft flew through Saturn's rings and took photographs that are simply amazeballs. 

MuscleWiki: click on a muscle, see exercises for it. (I couldn't help notice that nothing happens when you click on the brain.)

Piggybacking on a NASA high-altitude balloon, an experimental sensor package recorded infrasound, low frequency earth noise like crashing waves and grinding mantle. Listen here.

Carey Nieuwhof shares leadership advice for people just starting their careers. The one that jumped out at me is #20 Work twice as hard on your character as you do on your competency.

And then there's this: joking at work can make you seem more competent.

Joan Miro, Passage of the Divine Bird, 1941 (left). Alexander Calder, Constellation, 1941 (right). "Works that mutually resonate with power."

Syracuse friends, you have 1 more day to see the Bradley Walker Tomlin exhibit at the Everson Museum. And unfortunately, their exhibit of late 20th century abstraction, More Real, More a Dream, has already closed. I was lucky to see them both and they are more than worth the price of admission.

Don't have the money to buy fine art? You can rent it. See Fine Art Staging.

You can read about art in 200 books made freely available from the Guggenheim Museum. I had to stop downloading the PDFs because there are so many I'd never read them all.

What's the 11th best public high school in northeast Ohio (and #43 in the entire state)? Rocky River High School, my alma mater.

And Grapevine High School, my boys' alma mater, was ranked #71 in Texas.

When it comes to sandwiches, where are you on the structure and ingredient scales? I must admit to being a purist on both. source

McDonald's continues their fun with utensils by introduction the Frork or "fry fork." (But I'm still sad they didn't send me their CFD-designed STRAW.)

Here's the trailer for Blade Runner 2049. (Please don't screw this up.)

Have you ever taken a survey with responses strongly disagree, disagree, don't know, agree, strongly agree or something like that. Did you know that has a name? The Likert Scale.

Napercise. Did napping really need an up-sell?

...you think you have time. ~Buddha

We are afraid to care too much...

Thinking that it's time to pull the trigger and get the album Lift a Feather to the Flood by Robert Rich & Markus Reuter.

Here's a text teaser about an upcoming ambient album from Eraldo Bernocchi and Netherworld called Himuro to be released 30 June.

Helen Frankenthaler, Grey Fireworks, 2000. From the ongoing exhibition at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fluid Expressions: The Prints of Helen Frankenthaler.

Hometown does good: Conde Nast Traveler included Fort Worth on its list of 6 U.S. Cities to Watch in 2017. "top-notch museums" "Head to Magnolia Ave."

Apollo 11 artifacts - including its command module - may be coming soon to a town near you (if you live near Houston, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, or Seattle).

This "craft pr0n" video of a canoe being carved out of a log is mesmerizing in a sleepy kinda of way.

Consider this a public service announcement: how to avoid penis fractures. (Hint: no cowgirl.)

...for fear that the other person does not care at all. ~Eleanor Roosevelt.

Small minds discuss people, average minds discuss...

I've got a lot of music bookmarked so I can give a listen before making a buy decision. Now you can too.

• Unseen Universe by Tim Motzer
• Lift a Feather to the Flood by Robert Rich and Markus Reuter
• John Payne's Asia live, included here because I had completely missed the fact that Guthrie Govan played guitar with them.
• Open Air by Theo Travis (solo flute)
• MasticAttack by Pat Mastelotto
• Schoolyard Ghosts by No-Man

Donald Sultan, Dead Plant November 1 1988. Currently on display at The Modern.

Of these 8 things every person should do before 8:00 a.m, I've done precisely 2 today. #5 Take a cold shower. Uh, no thank you.

A video of the rotating moon compiled from LRO images.

Yes finally got admitted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but you might be wondering which incarnation of Yes. Rolling Stone has made a little video explaining the band's evolving line-up. (Those of you hoping for a reunion should give it up.)

If you like music and can handle math here's something about musical fractals (aka harmonic polyrhythms). It just gave me a headache.

Largest company in each state.

Beer journalism: oct.co.

Why does Jeff Bezos' think it's always Day 1? "Staying in Day 1 requires you to experiment patiently, accept failures, plant seeds, protect saplings, and double down when you see customer delight. A customer-obsessed culture best creates the conditions where all of that can happen."

Disneyland's private Club 33 is coming to Walt Disney World (4 locations?). Initiation fee expected to be in excess of $50,000 with annual dues in excess of $15,000. (I've dined at Club 33 due to the kindness of friends.)

More Disney? How about this list of 60 foods you ought to try at Disney World? While I have no plans to eat a turkey leg, I would like to eventually try the famous Dole Whip.

OK, this is the last one. Disney World's rides ranked. "it's a small world" is only #22? C'mon man.

Fort Worth's Near Southside (the district in which I work) is getting good press for its development efforts.

And if you like to eat in Fort Worth, here's one man's best of Fort Worth list. For example, Canne Rosso for pizza. (And I'm not including this just because the article mentions me.) Here's a big magazine's best of list in case you prefer something more corporate.

One principle of success from Xerox Parc: "It's baseball, not golf. Batting 0.350 is very good."

Ikigai: A reason for being. How many of us achieve it?

Android users may soon be getting a video stabilization feature in Google Photos.

Don't forget about graphene. Now someone has shown how to use it to desalinate water.

Hey aviation geeks: here's a document I'd call historically significant. Kelly Johnson's 1958 white paper on Archangel 1 which became the A-12 which became the SR-71. More here.

I'm not certain, but reading this give me the impression that the LA Times is not a fan of our current president.

What's your Boob IQ? My score was 11/13. (With a little bit of extra effort they could've made it more fun by giving you a score like 32B or 38D. But that would probably offend some people by equating bigger with better. Never mind.)

How do you make a better bra? Start by realizing that 37% of all womens' breasts fall between cup sizes.

"Gimme an F!" College cheerleading squad was basically an escort service.

...events, great minds discuss ideas. ~Eleanor Roosevelt

11/22/63 by Stephen King

I don't mind admitting to my biases. At the library, browsing the shelves of audio books on CD, when I got to "K" I'd sidestep right by "King, Stephen." Why? Two reasons. In high school I saw The Shining in the theater and it scared the bujeebus out of me. A decade or so later I saw The Langoliers TV mini-series and bored the doodie out of me. Therefore, no more from Mr. King.

That is, no more until a friend (thanks, JP) told me he was in the middle of King's 11/22/63 and said it was quite good and his wife liked it too. Given those recommendations and the additional fact that I've read quite a bit non-fiction about the JFK assassination (most notably, Vincent Bugliosi's 1,000+ page tome Reclaiming History), 11/22/63 was my next checkout from the library.

Stephen King's 11/22/63 is at the top of the list of novels I've enjoyed most in the past couple of years. Part sci-fi, part historical fiction, part love story, 11/22/63 succeeds with all three.

Suppose you had been given the ability to go back in time to save JFK from Oswald's bullet. Would you do it? Could you do it? And then what? Can you even foresee the obstacles you might face? The historical fiction part of 11/22/63 succeeded for me because as a Fort Worth residence I delighted in hearing native places and names brought back to life in the "present," first person. The sci-fi part of it succeeded for me because I was so engaged by the concept that I found myself extrapolating the plot with my own theories of what might happen when someone starts messing with past. (None of my theories turned out to be part of King's plot.) But what pulled me in and kept me circling the block so I could hear more of the audio book, was the seemingly tangential issue of who else you might meet in the past and how they might change you, in the present, in the future, and for all time.

Actor Craig Wasson provided the narration and greatly contributed to my appreciation of 11/22/63.

Highly recommend.

"Nothing can be said about writing except when it's bad. When it is good, one can only read and be grateful."

I received no compensation of any kind for this review.