Wednesday, November 18

Colors seen from optical illusions

Colorful circles appear rotating after same seconds staring at the circle. Hope you like it.

Tuesday, November 17

I am a selective procrastinator, in other words a faker?

As a selective procrastinator know how to procrastinate but only do it when you feel you can afford to. You're a faker!

Take this quiz: How Bad A Procrastinator Are You?
I took this quiz just because. But I am a selective procrastinator. What Now? I don't know. I had nothing better to do so I took this quick quiz. I published because I loved the cough-potato cat. I also did the "How Nerdy are you" but I will not publish it. No, no, no... no way.

Lion couple

I don't know the name of the photographer. I loved this picture.
Update: August, 5, 2010
I just found the photographer. He is Nick Brandt and you can see more of his amazing photos here. The title of this one is "Lion head to head".

Sunday, November 15

Kazimir Malevich - White on White

White on White, 1917, by Kazimir Malevich
I will say nothing. Later... Have a great Sunday!

Saturday, November 14

Philip Dawdy - Independent Journalism Award

Hella Heaven Independent Journalism Award for Philip Dawdy at Furious Seasons. You don't know about Philip Dawdy's work because he does not work for the mainstream media anymore. He is doing the job that is not being done by journalists of the newspapers and other medias, those who were supposed to report the real facts, give people the knowledge to make choices and base their opinions. The field that he is concentrated at his blog Furious Seasons is of everybody's concern: mental health. No, no, no... I am not only about those who are in hospices and we have no idea what is happening there. I am also talking about the sedatives, antidepressants and other drugs that are being prescribed to many people who are only sad because of daily life stress and normal problems. This is how Philip Dawdy describe his work:
I believe in accountability and an honest exchange of ideas. I'm doing this because I am a reporter who's come to find the print form that has sustained me for the last decade is too restrictive in light of the Internet. That's a complicated point and I will make it elsewhere. For the last several years, I have been reporting extensively on mental health issues, locally and nationally, primarily at Seattle Weekly, where I was a staff writer until November 2006. In that time, I have interviewed patients living on the streets, in homeless shelters and in state mental hospitals, as well as patients leading more ordinary lives. I have interviewed researchers and doctors great and small. Adding together my formal reporting work and more informal encounters with patients going back to 1989, I have interviewed hundreds of people with mental illness. I point that out because it has led me to certain conclusions, some reasoned and some more emotional. But, ultimately, my conclusions still add up to one man's attempt to make sense of mental illness in America. Please read this blog in that light. As far as fancy stuff like journalism awards go, I won awards from the National Mental Health Association for my newspaper reporting in 2005 and 2006, and have won a half-dozen local and regional awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for my reporting on mental illness. In addition, I have won a national award for food writing, and 14 other SPJ awards for government reporting, investigative reporting, science reporting, feature writing and religion reporting.
You can read the whole test here. I could write many things about Philip Dawdy, how dignified, ethical and what an amazing person he is but I prefer that you take a look at his blog, a blog that inspired many people to start their own blog to tell their stories or to advocate for the disclosure of the harms of psych-drugs. It is to much harm but it generates money. our health was traded for profits that is what medicine is all about nowadays. Thank you Philip Dawdy

 PS: I am quoting Philip Dawdy:

"Yesterday afternoon, I got my second job reject of the day, this one for a policy analyst position with the Washington State Senate Democratic Caucus. Hell, they aren't even going to interview me. It's like this website has made me toxic when it comes to employment." (emphasis mine) I am sure that they are jealous and surely ashamed of the journalism they are doing. I prefer toxic than unethical and harmful to the public.

Duane Hanson - 'Traveler' and 'Tourists'



















Right: Tourists II, 1988 by Duane Hanson Left: Traveler, 1988 by Duane Hanson These are life sized sculptures one of the characteristics of Duane Hanson's sculptures. Using bronze, fiberglass and mixed media and the accessories he did sculptures which realism has been enchanting the public. Have a great weekend!

Friday, November 13

Nasa finds water on the moon

Homage to Federico Garcia Lorca

He was an Andalusian poet and a dramatist who liked to draw, made friendship and worked with Buñuel and Dali, is one of Leonard Cohen greatest influence and had political views. Then he was killed.
"As I have not worried to be born, I do not worry to die." "Not for a moment, beautiful aged Walt Whitman, have I failed to see your beard full of butterflies." "There is nothing more poetic and terrible than the skyscrapers' battle with the heavens that cover them." "To see you naked is to recall the Earth."
"Oh please leave the ventana open, Federico Lorca is dead and gone." (The Clash)

Thursday, November 12

Swarovski promoting crystal sculptures - Yves Behar and Vincent Duysen

I went to the amazing blog Design Crisis by Karly Hand and Erin Williamson searching for a post they did five months ago. I got lost among so many creative and amazing work they have there. I share with many people a kind of mania that is admiring the decomposition of colors crystals do and I love playing with some little pieces making drawings with the lights of the rainbow colors. They all disappear and vanish and it is part of the game. Not for these artists. You can find at Swarowsky site many amazing works done by architects, designers, artists and even some people who are from a different field, like Lenny Kravitz, has contributed. It is hard to chose two and these are here inviting you to see more if you feel like. Left: "Cascade" by Vincent Van Duysen, an opulent 3-metre chandelier with cascading Swarovski crystal drops that flow down like a waterfall. Right: "Morpheus" by Yves Behar made of 30.000 stones of crystals.

Wednesday, November 11

Monet's house at Giverny

When I joined Second Life I went to Monet's house at Giverny and wrote this post about the place. I went there again a while ago and unfortunately didn't take pictures of the Mary Cassat's exhibition that was there. Now I'm taking pictures of the few art that is still there because the place is getting bigger but art is disappearing. At the first photo, top-left, they added "weddings, furnishing and gifts" at "Chez - Monet". Next photo is a place for music and I took this Bach's picture at my back from outside the window because the others are pictures of the owner. I also sat in front of a Van Gogh's painting and stood up in front of Toulouse Lautrec's drawings. The last photo is of a new garden that was build. I can no longer see any connection to Monet and the impressionists when I visit this place. (click the pictures to enlarge)

Tuesday, November 10

Lucky girl finds The Simpsons at the beach

Not that lucky when she arrived but after a walk a smile appeared on her face.

Sunday, November 8

How do trees feel in winter?

I was talking to Mark, an old blog friend, and just read what he has answered for a comment I left at his blog: "The trees still look good. Well looked good, as the leaves have all fallen now and are naked. Though I don’t think the trees are embarrased." Yes, I don't think they are embarassed. After finding this photography by TVGuy at Flickr I guess that some of them even like the snow adding some color at their branches.

Ireland black and white photographs by Philip Pankov

I found these amazing photographs by the Russian Philip Pankov. He moved to Ireland at an early age and shows the country with his camera in black and white. It is really amazing how the lights are bright and all the details we can see at his work. You can go to his site and see more of Ireland and also Europe. (click the pictures to enlarge)

Friday, November 6

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, poet and painter, - "The Blue Bower"

The Blue Bower
I was searching for Dante Gabriel Rossetti's images and poems and came across with the "The Rossetti Archives":
THE Rossetti Archive facilitates the scholarly study of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the painter, designer, writer, and translator who was, according to both John Ruskin and Walter Pater, the most important and original artistic force in the second half of the nineteenth century in Great Britain. In Whistler's famous comment, “He was a king”.
Here is the comment for "The Blue Bower", 1865, according to a scholar:

Introduction

"The picture is a key example of the way DGR, in the 1860s especially, incorporated into his pictures both Venetian cinquecento stylistic devices and the formal and decorative features of Japanese ukiyo-e colored prints. This highly sensuous and decorative approach to his painting first appeared in DGR's remarkable work of 1860, Bocca Baciata. The connection of that painting to the present work is underscored by the fact that the poem doubling the 1860 painting of Bocca Baciata carries the received title of “The Song of the Bower”. The highly erotic idea of “the bower” pervades all of DGR's work, both textual and pictorial.

Strongly erotic as it is, the picture is nonetheless an all but abstract colourist work, a kind of homage to the Venetian and Japanese masters whose pictures DGR was admiring. The contrast of the voluptuous floral work and jewellery with the hexagonal blue background tiles sets a compositional frame for the main drama of the picture, the play of its blues, greens, golds, and reds. The irreal, even fantastic, character of the work gets focused by the purely decorative function of the Japanese koto, which could neither be present nor played in this way or setting. Spencer-Longhurst also rightly observes the contrast DGR works out within the floral materials themselves, where the “opulence (of the passion flowers and clinging wild convolvulus) is balanced by the modest sprig of light-blue cornflowers in the foreground, playing on (Fanny Cornforth's) name” (Spencer-Longhurst, 11)."

We have to be silent after reading scholars words. I will post other works by Rossetti.

Samba School - Brazilian carnival amazing drumns

If you listen to this without feel like moving your body you might be deaf. This is Brazilian Bacchus's period of the year.

Caravaggio - "Bacchus" or "Dionysus" details

Renascence brought back Greek and Roman gods. Bacchus or Dionysus, the god of wine and son of Zeus is also known to bring fertility, abundance and voluptuousness was portrayed by some renascent artists. Caravaggio depicted the god using a teenager of his time as model which is one of the aspects of his style. You can see that the details are very powerful and maybe in front of the real masterpiece your eyes would be browsing around them. This is the god for Fridays. Have a nice weekend.

Thursday, November 5

Andy Warhol at the Warhol Museum

"The art collection of The Andy Warhol Museum at Pennsylvania includes over 8,000 works in all media-paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, and installation. The collection provides an in-depth view of every period of the artist's creative life, from the 1940s through the 1980s." You can visit their site here. I copied this page and you can click at the thumbnails to view the picture. Andy Warhol Self-Portrait, ©1986 Andy Warhol, Self-portrait, 1986
Andy Warhol Artworks
Andy Warhol, Brillo Box, 1964, silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on wood, 17 x 17 x 14 in. ©AWF
Cow Wallpaper, 1966, screenprint on wallpaper, refabricated for The Andy Warhol Museum ©AWF
Source material for Ambulance Disaster, 1960, UPI photograph, ©AWF
Andy Warhol, Dollar Signs, 1981, ©AWF
Andy Warhol, Elvis (Eleven Times), c. 1963, silkscreen ink and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 82 x 338 in., ©AWF
Andy Warhol, Gun, 1981, silkscreen ink and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, ©AWF
Andy Warhol, Heinz Box, 1964, silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on wood, ©AWF
Andy Warhol, Ladies and Gentlemen, 1975, silkscreen ink and synthetic polymer paint on canvas,©AWF
Andy Warhol, Liz, 1965, silkscreen ink and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 40 x 40 in. ©AWF
Andy Warhol, Marlon, 1966, silkscreen ink on canvas, ©AWF
Andy Warhol, Race Riot, 1963, silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 30 x 33 in. ©AWF
Andy Warhol, Raphael 1-$6.99, 1985, silkscreen ink and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, ©AWF
Andy Warhol, Red Jackie, 1964, silkscreen ink and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 40 x 40 in. ©AWF
Andy Warhol, Shoes, 1980, silkscreen ink and diamond dust and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 90 x 70 in.©AWF
The Andy Warhol Museum, gallery 507, 5th Floor, June 1994, Silver Clouds, 1966.
Andy Warhol, Skull, 1976, silkscreen ink and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 72 1/8 x 80 1/2 in.©AWF
Andy Warhol, Skulls, 1976, silkscreen ink and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 72 1/8 x 80 1/2 in. ©AWF

Wednesday, November 4

Project Gutemberg - Top 100 downloads last 30 days

Supported by ten thousands volunteers Project Gutenberg, created in 1971, has already made available nearly 30,000 free books in their Online Book Catalog. This is a great way to
See if your favorite author is among the top 100 authors downloaded last 30 days:
  1. Dickens, Charles (59647)
  2. Twain, Mark (38058)
  3. Carroll, Lewis (30429)
  4. Austen, Jane (30324)
  5. Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir (28820)
  6. Shakespeare, William (26928)
  7. Thomson, J. Arthur (19103)
  8. Verne, Jules (18950)
  9. Jacob, P. L. (17073)
  10. Rackham, Arthur (16736)
  11. Wilde, Oscar (16518)
  12. Baum, L. Frank (Lyman Frank) (16432)
  13. Maspero, G. (Gaston) (15830)
  14. Poe, Edgar Allan (15420)
  15. Grimm, Jacob (14225)
  16. Grimm, Wilhelm (14225)
  17. Aesop (13652)
  18. Doré, Gustave (12874)
  19. Burton, Richard Francis, Sir (12569)
  20. Wells, H. G. (Herbert George) (11869)
  21. Sayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry) (11564)
  22. McClure, M. L. (11556)
  23. Stoker, Bram (11206)
  24. Litchfield, Frederick (11205)
  25. Dumas père, Alexandre (10929)
  26. Defoe, Daniel (10791)
  27. Stevenson, Robert Louis (10781)
  28. Eliot, George (10739)
  29. Joyce, James (10571)
  30. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (10014)
  31. Burroughs, Edgar Rice (9997)
  32. Tolstoy, Leo, graf (9908)
  33. Homer (9850)
  34. Vatsyayana (9714)
  35. Hugo, Victor (9578)
  36. Landor, Arnold Henry Savage (9452)
  37. Bhide, Shivaram Parashuram (9353)
  38. Indrajit, Bhagavanlal (9353)
  39. Wodehouse, P. G. (Pelham Grenville) (9250)
  40. Plato (9232)
  41. Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith) (9149)
  42. Dante Alighieri (9016)
  43. Beard, Charles A. (Charles Austin) (8776)
  44. Beard, Mary Ritter (8776)
  45. Conrad, Joseph (8583)
  46. Jowett, Benjamin (8112)
  47. Kipling, Rudyard (8056)
  48. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm (7814)
  49. Lang, Andrew (7777)
  50. Nichols, J. L. (James Lawrence) (7652)
  51. Library of Congress. Copyright Office (7563)
  52. Kafka, Franz (7558)
  53. Irving, Washington (7557)
  54. Spicer, William Ambrose (7551)
  55. Jefferis, B. G. (7545)
  56. Swift, Jonathan (7542)
  57. Balzac, Honoré de (7342)
  58. Dostoyevsky, Fyodor (7288)
  59. Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (7219)
  60. Pope, Alexander (7191)
  61. Ukers, William H. (William Harrison) (7156)
  62. Potter, Beatrix (7060)
  63. Sunzi 6th cent. B.C. (7032)
  64. Montgomery, L. M. (Lucy Maud) (6980)
  65. Montgomery, D. H. (David Henry) (6954)
  66. Hubbard, Elbert (6845)
  67. Guizot, M. (François) (6821)
  68. Haggard, Henry Rider (6716)
  69. James, Henry (6667)
  70. Hawthorne, Nathaniel (6592)
  71. London, Jack (6576)
  72. Scott, Walter, Sir (6497)
  73. Pierce, Ray Vaughn (6478)
  74. Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson) (6458)
  75. Brontë, Charlotte (6455)
  76. Maupassant, Guy de (6429)
  77. Melville, Herman (6303)
  78. Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (6285)
  79. Andersen, H. C. (Hans Christian) (6206)
  80. Alcott, Louisa May (6141)
  81. Machiavelli, Niccolò (6038)
  82. Darwin, Charles (5991)
  83. Campbell, Douglas Houghton (5933)
  84. Shaw, Edward R. (Edward Richard) (5726)
  85. Clark, Bertha M. (5687)
  86. Widger, David (5670)
  87. Ibsen, Henrik (5662)
  88. Speed, Harold (5646)
  89. Garnett, Constance (5617)
  90. Giles, Lionel (5612)
  91. Maclise, Joseph (5550)
  92. Buckley, Theodore Alois (5547)
  93. Burbank, Emily (5508)
  94. Hardy, Thomas (5421)
  95. Wyllie, David (5421)
  96. Cary, Henry Francis (5337)
  97. Russell, R. V. (Robert Vane) (5299)
  98. Dillmont, Thérèse de (5299)
  99. Bierce, Ambrose (5148)
  100. Marriott, W. K. (William K.) (5095)
If you want to help the project you can donate or volunteer.
Donate
  • Donate Through PayPal
    Project Gutenberg needs your donation! More Info
Go to their site: Project Gutenberg. This is a great way to distribute the classics helping not only students but those who like to read or even readers candidates.
How about downloading a book for this month?

Browne, my first dog

He came to me when he was two months years-old so he did all a kiddo do at this age and I didn't know how to teach him. Chewed all he could, destroyed some of the things I like and it took me just five minutes to I forgive him. He is not with me anymore not because of that and I don't want to tell the story but I have my little female for nine years and a half. She's there trying to hide her feelings of having me sat at this computer without giving the attention she deserves. I fell guilty and put a chair next to me so that she can be beside me. She prefers the floor.