American Idol Suicide

I just learned of this today when one of those TV shows from which I anticipated catching up on news (but instead found sensationalism) that an American Idol contestant killed herself in her car in front of Paula Abdul's home in California. This is the first I'd heard of it, so I googled to find more about what happened.

Linked in the title is an article that came up in the search, which includes the video from the woman's spot on the show and all the comments that were made to her. As usual, it's really terrible to hear how the judges respond. I don't watch the show specifically for this reason and it feels like a sad world that much of the public enjoys(ed) the degradation of these contestants. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for constructive criticism, but is what they do constructive in any form? Perhaps it was never meant to be constructive. I suppose simply saying "It wasn't good, thanks for trying" is just not interesting enough.

I'm going to call the next trend: Now that someone committed suicide partly over the rejection on American Idol, we'll all suddenly claim the show is wrong and not feel the least bit guilty that we ever found it entertaining in the first place—after all, the ratings have been dropping.

What's the next blood thirst?

Just as I was going to post...

...beat to the punch by Under Consideration. Gosh, what a nice blog site.

After taking a "quick" road trip to Chicago, I noticed Days Inn has a new logo. Apparently so does Super 8...check out the title link.

Another interesting find...

I stumbled on this wacky site this afternoon, while searching for "doodles" online. If you go to the homepage of the site, the author has organized pages according to rooms of his childhood house.

Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes

Have you noticed the new tweaked face for Applebee's? I wondered if they were ever going to update their look. Since all of the restaurants were closing in the South, I just assumed they were going to shut down altogether.

The newly refined logo really isn't so bad for what it is: 1) Appropriate update to the original logo and 2) Better representation of the restaurant.

I never understood the typography selection of the old logo in relationship to the actual restaurant experience. It seemed to be disconnected. Although the new apple does indeed still feel fairly generic (and nevermind that the tagline seems to have been left back in time), the new logotype as a whole starts to suggest that the restaurant will provide a warm and friendly, down-home country sort of dining experience (no comment on cuisine). In that respect, I would say it was pretty successful.

Here's a good blog I found on the topic: http://www.leibowit.com/?p=182

Sad

On msnb.com, how terrible is this:

‘100 Things’ co-author Dave Freeman dies at 47

Writer of the travel guide and ode to odd adventures fell and hit his head

updated 1 hour, 14 minutes ago

Dave Freeman, co-author of “100 Things to Do Before You Die,” a travel guide and ode to odd adventures that inspired readers and imitators, died after hitting his head in a fall at his home. He was 47.

WTFBBQ

I'm always so amazed at how unconnected minds seem so connected at times. I just found this post about the Bloop on another good blog, screenshot above.

In case you missed it, I included a post about it July 31st, under "The Amazing World of Cryptids."

Refine/Redesign

Okay, so this was supposed to be sent out there into the world weeks ago, and I have become completely swamped in my ever-growing pile of paper. I'd been obsessed with the transformation of the celebrity face for some time, scrounging online for before and after photos. New York Magazine wrote an article pertaining to this topic (with a few reference images), though it touched on the edges of my idea (title of entry is a link to such article). More than anything, the writing spurred me to make this post. Because of my intrigue with the new facial likeness of the writer's friend being comparable to Madonna, I will give Madge as my main example. It occurred to me a bit ago that she—along with many other infamous pop icons—is no longer (and hasn't been for some time) the face that was implanted in my head years ago. Rather, she is merely the essence of what Madonna used to look like, slightly tweaked here and there over the years. But it's so subtle really, besides that her face has been seemingly frozen in time. One doesn't realize just how unlike Madonna this new Madonna (entertainer) has become, until one compares photos from different years.

From here I began researcing the faces of other celebrities: Cher, Meg Ryan, Katie Holmes (I'm proud to say I called that one before I observed it was on the covers of cheesy mags at the grocery check-out), Nicole Kidman...the list goes on. I started thinking that this facial transformation was much like the life cycle of the logos of well known brands. Over years and years of slight changes here and there, the eye never really quite notices that those hard, once square-edged letter forms have become a little more rounded. Or that the spacing between forms has opened, or even that the name has now become an abbreviation (see Kentucky Fried Chicken). Oh, don't forget that hint of perfect shadow and highlight. Wait, was that always there?

Check out this great page for great examples of the evolution for many car manufactures' logos, as well as other interesting info: http://www.neatorama.com/2008/02/18/evolution-of-car-logos/

Yeah, yeah, yeah

....I ordered from stupid Domino's pizza, but I swear it wasn't my idea. I would have been happy with fresh-organic-free range-no-hormones-added rotisserie chicken from the fancy store down the street, but it wasn't completely up to me. Honest. Anyway, so the pizza ordering deal these days is strictly online or by an automated telephone call. We opted for online. And much to my satisfaction, there is now a patent pending "Pizza Tracker." Surely the person that invented this was a genius. Surely Shirley. Will we ever remember having to wait blind in the darkness for the arrival of dinner?

Pencil Sharpeners

And yet another happy find while Googling around. Check it yo.

The Amazing World of Cryptids

Okay, so as a result of the article I found posted on the main page of nymag.com (click title to view article), I decided to do some Googling. Because Googling the world of the web never lets me down, I have discovered that Wikipedia has a page dedicated to listing the world's cryptids, or as they define it (interestingly enough, Merriam Webster does NOT have a definition): any creature whose existence has been reported but not proven scientifically (see image 1 above).
After going through the list and looking for images and the story behind each of these mysterious creatures, I investigate the Zuiyo Maru, which is a Japanese fishing trawler that apparently caught what was believed to be a prehistoric plesiosaur (see image 2). However, it is now thought what they caught instead was a basking shark, which does exist. I'll save that one for you to search, and move on along. At the bottom of the page about the Japanese catch, Wiki has yet another tangential link that says "Categories: Sea Cryptids." This leads to another list in which the word "Bloop" is mentioned (see image 3). Here's how it is listed on the page: "The Bloop is the name given to an ultra-low frequency underwater sound detected by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration several times during the summer of 1997. The source of the sound remains unknown. " A spectrogram of the aforementioned bloop is shown (see image 4). Just below it, is a recording of the actual sound for one to hear.

Now although I think ultimately this all is irrelevant, I still recommend reading the small entry and giving it a listen. Maybe you'll find it as intriguing as I do. Or maybe you won't.

If you're thinking of hiking, or camping, or just going outside...

I've been completely consumed with the outdoors these days. It all began when I stumbled upon this website dedicated to chronicling the ghost towns of Texas. And then from there, it just took off. I went on to find a site of a couple that had become so enamored with the idea of ghost towns, that they traveled the west, from north to south to find and document each one. After seeing those photos, I was sold. I was determined to take a road trip. Since this road trip was to encompass as much ghostly areas possible, that meant traveling through many a dead zone. So I purchased survival books and started doing some research.

Although we can't make the epic road trip quite yet, a few of my friends and I have instead opted for taking a shorter and more local camping, hiking, and canoing trip. In any case, I am still researching. And I'm still obsessed with bears. As usual, this lands me some place on Wikipedia's site, particularly a curious page titled "Deaths Due to Animal Attacks." (click title to go to page). After perusing this list and coming to the conclusion that crossing paths with any wild animal remotely related to a cat would be my worst nightmare, I'm led to a list of bear attacks. I'll spare you all of the things I read from that list (aside from observing that the majority of fatalities seemed to be of women being dragged out of tents by bears—is it that they might have had some sort of fragrant item with them?) Here, I stumble on a man by the name of Hugh Glass. Glass was apparently a survivor of a terrible bear attack in 1823. Assuming it is factual, his story is quite a hardcore survivalist one. And I'm a huge fan of survivalist stories. Especially apocalyptic style, but that's for another time.

Home Schooled, but not what you'd presume

Here's an amazing interview with a young piano prodigy. In a part of the interview, he comments (roughly) "I have to thank my mom, who played Schubert when I was an embryo."
I don't know about anyone else, but embryo was NOT in my vocabulary at 9, let alone Schubert—at least not by name.

That wave again...

And I thought I was the only one...

Amen to that.

"What it means to be Human"

Overheard on WNYC-FM today:

"What it means to be human is to walk down the street and worry about whether a crane will fall on your head or not."


So what does it mean to you to be "human?"

Ebb & Flow

I'm always amazed of the tangential aspects of Googling things. While searching for "Ebb and Flow," I came upon a site dedicated to the chronicles of the United States military activities in the Korean war—complete with relevant maps and charts.

If anyone is interesting here's the link info:
http://www.history.army.mil/books/korea/ebb/fm.htm

Today's Word of the Day, as told by M-W

opine • \oh-PYNE\ • verb

: to state as an opinion

Example Sentence:

In his review, Malcolm opined that it was good to see the band returning to the formula that had worked so well for their first album.

Did you know?

"Opine" has been around since the 15th century, and while it certainly is not a rare word today, not everyone is inclined to take it seriously. Commentators have described it as a stilted word, appropriate only in facetious use -- and it does have an undeniable tendency to turn up in humorous writing. Recent evidence, however, suggests that it is being used in perfectly respectable contexts more often. It typically serves to emphasize that the opinion being reported is just that -- an opinion. The etymology of "opine" is perfectly respectable, too. The term derives from the Middle French "opiner" ("to express one's opinion") and the Latin "opinari," meaning "to have an opinion" or "to think."

Get it together people

It is (and has been since the 1st) BIKE MONTH.

www.bikemonthnyc.org

In the beginning, no introduction

While searching for an address in my former home state of Texas via Google maps, I clicked the "satellite view" for a better perspective. I zoom as a close as possible to the address. It looks like a typical hot summer day in the south—with the splotchy sections of dead and alive grass. There's an occasional car here and there. I start to think about the people that might be in the cars, the time of day, the date, and so on. And then I realize to my satisfaction, I can follow the roads to my old house, my family member's homes, my old schools, and my grandfather's business. Judging by the cars parked in the lots, most of the employees must be out to lunch. Perhaps it's possible I could follow all the roads to the usual lunch spots and find my grandfather's car. Ah! Sure enough, there it is in the cafeteria parking lot. I travel to my uncle's home, where I find the green work truck and the Passat. Which it occurs to me that this mapped image must have been captured more than a year ago, when he was alive. So I travel—what is it, west?—to find the cemetery, but can't zoom close enough. Is it possible this was captured even further back, to when my grandmother was alive, 3 years ago? I get consumed with trying to find her truck, but something tells me it isn't quite that old. I then travel to another relative's home location, to realize it wasn't even built yet. Now this I found particularly curious. My friend articulated it well "A map is merely a diagrammatic representation of a place, and is therefore merely a concept of how a place can be rendered. But with satellite imaging, you're no longer dealing with concepts but with concrete reality." How interesting that a tool with purely objective intentions would inadvertently become so subjective.
I'm certain that I'm not the first to think of Google Maps as some sort of Visual History, nor am I the first to map out all of the places I've known. And surely someone else has considered the idea of the Google Map satellite view as a record of development and progress frozen in time. I immediately took a screen shot of each of my searches to save in my personal photo archives, along with my other random photos for 2008.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa

It has recently come to my attention that contrary to previous belief, knowledge of Hokusai and one of his most famous woodblock prints (see title of entry), is NOT common. It came to me while in discussion with a well-rounded fellow artist. The friend was describing some of the inspiration for a tattoo sleeve in the works, and mentioned that the tattoo artist had essentially introduced him to Hokusai's prints. I was then asked if I knew who that was. I responded with a "Yes" pronounced similarly to "Duh". "You mean you seriously didn't know who that was? Don't you know The Great Wave?" Since that day, I have started conducting small surveys of the topic while conversing with friends and family. One friend seemed agitated that I would ask and that I suggest that it should be known to them as well (I admit: I do have a tendency to have a "tone"). I commented that the print was nearly as important to Art History as the Mona Lisa. That returned a few crazy looks. In response, it was said that this particular work simply belonged to a genre, as to explain why it would be new to this artist and the newly tattooed friend. But then I began to think more on it. What does genre really mean to describe? According to Merriam-Webster, it is:

1 : a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content
2 : kind, sort
3 : painting that depicts scenes or events from everyday life usually realistically
Essentially, genre can apply to any work of art created in history (or now for that matter)—which doesn't seem to make a case for not knowing Hokusai, his work, or influence on painting and art making as a whole. The point here though, isn't to fault my two friends as artists (though I find a little offense for the neglect of Japanese art collectively), nor their failed Art History instructors. Well, at least not directly. The point is that it was a departure to another thought: Hokusai, and furthermore much of the Japanese scroll painters (also giving a nod to their Chinese and Korean influences), were important in a large way to Art History, not just in the Japanese world. And they deserve to be acknowledged as such, and not a chapter half-read from Gardner's Art Through the Ages. After having visited a recent Freer Gallery show of Japanese art from the Edo period, I have began to consider just how modern these artists were for their time, with their use of clean line, abstraction, patterning, and simple brush stroke.
One could say so boldly that they knew and practiced modern art, minimalism, and abstract expressionism before we even conceived of it (consider the image at top: detail of a landscape on a scroll inked in Japan, 1495). I imagine the influence to have functioned much like African masks did for Picasso and his Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
For myself and my two friends, we couldn't make the work we do without—to be direct—Modern art having happened, and Modern art couldn't have occurred without both the ideas that produced Mona Lisa, nor those that produced The Great Wave off Kanagawa.