Petition: Permaban Rickrollers

[Yegolev]

So, whiny do-nothing bitches, then?  Good summary.  I'm afraid to ask my brother what the post-modern condition entails, he'd likely spin a huge yarn, forget to inhale and pass out.

[Sky]

Anyone who is into post-modernism needs a kick to the jimmy. There is no such thing as post-modern. Indeed, naming an art style modern is pretty thick, too, since 'modern' is a moving target. The old Carlin skit...here it comes...aw, there it goes. Modernism itself is some garbage, artistically.

Romanticism is what I consider the last great artistic period.

There is no definition to post-modernism, that's why trendy hacks love it. You can make up any definition and argue its validity and never really be wrong, because nobody is right. But going by cmlancas' definition, I guess it's a bunch of people that need a kick to the jimmy. There's always something you can do about it. Otherwise cut your goddamned wrists and let the rest of us live without the whining.

[bhodi]

Well, there is a lot of discussion in academia about what the post-modern condition truly entails. More or less it is just people living their lives and noting that things suck and there isn't too much they can do about it. See Timequake for a slap-to-the-face analysis, or more subtly (and with a better critical reception) Slaughterhouse-Five or DeLillo's White Noise.

which are all great paintings...

[Engels]

Romanticism is what I consider the last great artistic period.

So you have no time for Manet, Kandinsky, Picasso, Miro, Dali, Matisse or Gaudi, to name just a few? I mean, Modernism is basically our entire fucking last century, both in terms of art and thought. Throwing it all out seems a bit drastic.

[Ironwood]

Indeed.  Remind me never to let Sky bathe Elena.

[cmlancas]

Anyone who is into post-modernism needs a kick to the jimmy. There is no such thing as post-modern. Indeed, naming an art style modern is pretty thick, too, since 'modern' is a moving target. The old Carlin skit...here it comes...aw, there it goes. Modernism itself is some garbage, artistically.

Romanticism is what I consider the last great artistic period.

There is no definition to post-modernism, that's why trendy hacks love it. You can make up any definition and argue its validity and never really be wrong, because nobody is right. But going by cmlancas' definition, I guess it's a bunch of people that need a kick to the jimmy. There's always something you can do about it. Otherwise cut your goddamned wrists and let the rest of us live without the whining.

Truly, there is beautiful art in the Romantic/Victorian era. Lady of Shalott, Ophelia, and many others come out of this period. Don't forget the Pre-Raphealite creepiness too.

Engels, I definitely agree with you. I love Matisse, Picasso, and Dali are excellent. We have a pretty decent Dali museum here in the Tampa Bay area.

[Nebu]

As a reasonably contemporary artist I like Hopper, but tend to shy away from his popular works. 

I think that art selects strongly for two groups and everyone else falls in the middle.  One group wants their art to look like a photograph and the other wants art to provoke an emotion response for no specific reason.  There have been some outstanding artists in the last century, many of them unknown.  It's all about personal taste.

[cmlancas]

which are all great paintings...

It is easier for me to discuss the ideas of a post-modern condition in terms of literature, not paintings. Your analysis is amazing! Bravo!

[voodoolily]

Does the fact that I love lolcats, rickrolling and casio beats mean I'm lame?

Re: art, I prefer mine primitive.

[Sky]

So you have no time for Manet, Kandinsky, Picasso, Miro, Dali, Matisse or Gaudi, to name just a few?

Impressionism was often good. It's the lengths it was taken to when it became clown art, where more talent was necessary to paint elvis on velvet. So, to address your list (No=I have no time for them): Yes, No, No, No, Yes, No, Maybe.

I used to have a few Manets and Renoirs mixed in with the more classical and romantic stuff. Also had a few Dalis because we liked the LSD. But most of the guys on your list I consider trash. Picasso had a few decent paintings (the realism and Blue stuff), but the bulk of it is shit, and most people considering the shittier periods the best.

I don't claim to be an authority on the subject, just my opinions. When I say Modernism sucks, I mean most of it. There is very little of anything that is all bad, whether it be post-modernism or rap music.

Remind me never to let Sky bathe Elena.

Maybe in another 17 years or so? ;) (j/k, don't go all Smeaton on me!)

I think that art selects strongly for two groups and everyone else falls in the middle.  One group wants their art to look like a photograph and the other wants art to provoke an emotion response for no specific reason.  There have been some outstanding artists in the last century, many of them unknown.  It's all about personal taste.

Which I began to address in that paragraph above in this post. But don't mistake my love of realism for wanting it to look like a photograph. My singer was a great artist (went on to become an artist when the band broke up, we were art majors together) but he painted some truly fucked-up stuff. It's more about the quality of the painting. Some paint splatters, no matter how artfully chosen, are paint splatters. Cubism is garbage. Sure, it can look interesting and provoke an emotional response (though simple shapes and colors do not for me), but that doesn't make it art by my definition. I don't even have a hard definition for art, I just know it when I see it, which is why I began inserting my opinion clause above.

[Nebu]

I understand Sky and agree for the most part.  That's what puts us in that gray area somewhere between extremes.  What I've found the most interesting as an academic is that the more reknowned an art colleague is, the more bizarre their taste in art.  It's almost like they're trying to be eccentric as some sort of evidence that their tastes are "sophisticated".

[Roac]

So you have no time for Manet, Kandinsky, Picasso, Miro, Dali, Matisse or Gaudi, to name just a few?

Impressionism was often good. It's the lengths it was taken to when it became clown art, where more talent was necessary to paint elvis on velvet. So, to address your list (No=I have no time for them): Yes, No, No, No, Yes, No, Maybe.

Agreement with the artists.  Personally I love impressionism - Monet of them by far, but Manet and Renoir as well.  Also throw my hat into the ring of strong dislike of anything that identifies itself as post-modern.  Not that there may not be pieces I wouldn't like, but because more often than not I find little I do.  

I'm more interested in the emotional response than artistic critique anyway.  I love landscapes in general (photography and painted), and impressionism captures the 'warm fuzzy' better than other styles.  

[murdoc]

Thomas Kinkade is high art, am i rite? ^^ Moms all over the world can't be wrong.

[Sky]

We watch a show called World's Most Extreme Homes. They often have really cool houses, the crazy guy who carves statues in his wooden house in India or something. Castles and windmills are regulars. Some really great stuff, occasionally inspiring. But the big downside is the modern houses. The oblong rectangles and austere furnishings that look more hospital than home. And almost every single one is home to an architect or designer.

I say this to parallel what Nebu is saying about artistic reknown and 'sophisticated' art in general. It's like modern architecture students want to throw away the grandeur of the ages and reinvent everything with clean lines. And though it's of course personal opinion again, I can't compare a rectangle to an ornate victorian or italianate house. The level of craftsmanship is just not there. Maybe that's my gripe about art, just that a lot of the more modern stuff seems to lack the craftsmanship, maybe reflecting modern society's lack of overall craftsmanship.

[bhodi]

That show rocks.

[Merusk]

We watch a show called World's Most Extreme Homes. They often have really cool houses, the crazy guy who carves statues in his wooden house in India or something. Castles and windmills are regulars. Some really great stuff, occasionally inspiring. But the big downside is the modern houses. The oblong rectangles and austere furnishings that look more hospital than home. And almost every single one is home to an architect or designer.

One of the reasons for this is that those Architects and designers are in their 50s and up.  That means that they learned from the great masters of Modernism (Rudolph, Le Corbusier, Gropius, Meier) directly or at most second hand.  What you're seeing is hero worship and no real talent or direction of their own.   It's like those "Architects" who worship Wright so that's all they do is Wrightian prarie-style homes, while simultaneously claiming he wasn't a modernist.  (Which is funny.)  They don't understand what they're doing, or why, they're just replicating what they know.

In 20-30 years you'll be seeing Architects our age replicating Eisenmann, Graves, Venturi, Pei and Ghery with the same lack of understanding of the principles, while other truly talented individuals are doing their own thing.  Then after that you'll see a replication of the current crop of hot-shots who are otherwise unknown to the general public.  (Phillip Johnson, was notorious for making a career out of exactly this, but staying ahead of the curve of 'known' just enough to be seen as cutting edge.)

[Lantyssa]

The only surrealistic art I like is Michael Parkes.  Steve Hanks does unbelievable work with watercolors.  I don't know any other recent artists, nor do I care if it's considered high, low or art at all.  I look at the stuff I like and that is all I worry about.

But the big downside is the modern houses. The oblong rectangles and austere furnishings that look more hospital than home. And almost every single one is home to an architect or designer.

My friends built a modern home.  Normally I cannot stand them, however they did an incredible job in design, layout, and functionality.

[Signe]

I like modern.  I like postmodern. (it's an expression of discontent and it has a definition) I like conceptual.  I like Jackson Pollock.  I like Warhol.  I like lots of other things, too.

[Chimpy]

I like modern.  I like postmodern. (it's an expression of discontent and it has a definition) I like conceptual.  I like Jackson Pollock.  I like Warhol.  I like lots of other things, too.

Do you like pictures of brains?

[Signe]

I think you are beginning to piss me off, Monkey Boy.

[cmlancas]

Great. Now we made the zombie angry.

[Roac]

Great. Now we made the zombie angry.

Quick, show it some finger paint.

[WindupAtheist]

Any excuse for a chart!

[Ironwood]

Not sure that counts as a chart.

[Merusk]

It's more of a figure or a diagram, really.

[Teleku]

Oh well, if its diagrams were doing!



Typhoon Man-Yi.  I'm so excited!  I been wanting one of these to hit before I leave, but they all kept missing.  I finally get to see one, though really it will be Kyushu and Shikoku taking the full brunt, which will weaken it when it finally gets to me.  But hey, last I heard it was upgraded to a super typhoon, so it should still be fun!

[Oban]

God damn, Fukui gets spared. 

[WayAbvPar]

Stock up on water and batteries, and have fun! Get some pics and/or video for us.

[NiX]

And take a picture. Call it .. ART!

[Sky]

Take a picture of a pile of dirt during the storm and explain to people how it represents the struggle against repression and nature that has embodied the Nipponese condition and is the root cause for their expansionism as an outlet for their tormented psyches...and call it modern art.

[Stephen Zepp]

It's been a while since I looked at a map of that region, but looks like Okinawa got nailed hard :(

[Righ]

Teleku - go check the toilet. I found this story while looking up news on Okinawa.

[Strazos]

Nipponese...

[Teleku]

It's been a while since I looked at a map of that region, but looks like Okinawa got nailed hard :(

Yeah, according to this article it got hit pretty hard, but apparently no deaths. 

It did sink a cargo ship at sea though, leaving several people missing.

It just beat the hell out of Kyushu and is comming close now.  Its pretty neat, cause its raining heavily, but it has actually gotten alot hotter (very noticeably actually), even though its the middle of the night.  Just strange comming from California were we dont get anything like this (if its raining, its always bringing in a colder breeze).  I really don't know what to expect, since they say that it should lose alot of strength by the time it gets here, but I just have that weird urge to see what the worst thing nature can throw at us looks like in person, so I hope it still has something.  Several friends of mine happened to have worked out a vacation right at this time in Kyushu.  They were still adimate about going, despite the typhoon.   I asked them if they really thought riding a high speed bullet train straight into the middle of a super typhoon was the smartest idea in the world, and they just shrugged.  Hope they are ok, heh.

Teleku - go check the toilet. I found this story while looking up news on Okinawa.

I keep hearing about that on the news.  I always look when I got to a public bathroom, but no luck so far.  I guess the mystery rich guy doenst want me to have extra money to blow on booze 

[Lantyssa]

I grew up on the coast.  It's idiotic to go into a hurricane.  Even the little ones.