A recognizable face above; artwork by Amy Crehore below.
Amy Crehore
All posts by acilius
Pictures showing ukuleles
Posted by acilius on October 13, 2008
https://losthunderlads.com/2008/10/13/pictures-showing-ukuleles/
The Nation, 20 Oct 2008
This issue features three items I think I might someday want to look up.
China scholar Orville Schell writes that the Confucian and Legalist traditions of classical Chinese thought may offer guidance to coming generations of Chinese leaders. About 16 years ago I read a translation of selected works by Han Fei, the leading light of the Legalist tradition; all my knowledge of that tradition comes from that one book. So I was astounded by Schell’s characterization of the Legalist thought as “an amoral conception of statecraft.” That certainly wasn’t the impression Burton Watson wanted me to have. It’s lucky for me I never had a chance at that time to show off my one scrap of knowledge about Chinese political thought by casually describing myself as an adherent of the school of Han Fei Tzu. Anyway, Schell’s idea that classical Chinese thought might help China find its way forward in the century to come reminds me of Wu Mi and Liang Shiqiu, Chinese students of Irving Babbitt whose work is discussed here. Having studied under Babbitt at Harvard, they returned to China in the 1930s and there defended Babbitt’s view that a healthy society must be informed by a dialogue between the dead and the living, between the wisdom of the past as preserved in revered texts and the critical spirit of the present as cultivated by literary education. In the upheavals of those years, not too many people seemed interested in such an urbane and polite doctrine. Maybe Schell is onto something, though, and Wu Mi, Liang Shiqiu, and other Chinese Babbitt-ites (like the famous Lin Yutang) will be respected figures in China’s future national memory.
Posted by acilius on October 13, 2008
https://losthunderlads.com/2008/10/13/the-nation-20-oct-2008/
Some blogs about art
Portrait of a Princess of the House of Este, Pisanello
“Art Blog by Bob” has some good pictures and intelligent commentary. The picture above illustrates his discussion of Pisanello.
Drew Anderson
“Descending Ashtray” sometimes strays off into its owners’ personal lives, but is worth a look most of the time. Above is a drawing they featured there early last year.
“Sexuality in the Arts” is a good one; while it usually stays pretty close to the subject in its title, sometimes it goes into some fairly non-sexy art. For example, they provide a very nice treatment of Samuel Morse’s The Old House of Representatives. For some reason, all their pictures are bitmap files, so I can’t give you any examples.
Posted by acilius on October 10, 2008
https://losthunderlads.com/2008/10/10/some-blogs-about-art/
UkeToob
Ukulele Sam
Ukulelehunt links to this new blog that features a selction of ukulele videos.
(picture from http://www.myspace.com/trippinglily)
Posted by acilius on October 10, 2008
https://losthunderlads.com/2008/10/10/uketoob/
The future that never was
The house of the future
The image above is included on a terrific blog devoted to ideas people used to have about what the future would be like. Thanks to I Eat Gravel for the link.
Posted by acilius on October 9, 2008
https://losthunderlads.com/2008/10/09/the-future-that-never-was/
Victoria Vox’ “Tucson” for ukulele and cello
“Tucson,” written by Victoria Vox; ukulele and vocals, Victoria Vox; cello, melaniejane.
Posted by acilius on October 8, 2008
https://losthunderlads.com/2008/10/08/victoria-vox-tucson-for-ukulele-and-cello/
More from the antiwar Right
The American Conservative, 8 September 2008
Two major articles deal with the fear that haunts many of the “Old Right” contributors to this publication, the fear that America is becoming dependent on foreign powers. An obituary for Lieutenant General William Odom discusses the testimony the general gave to the US Senate in early April, in which he pointed out that US forces in Iraq depend “on a long and slender supply line from Kuwait, which runs through territory controlled by Shi’ite forces friendly to Iran” [a quote from the obituarist, not Odom’s own words.) American service personnel in Iraq are therefore hostages at the disposal of Iran.
Andrew Bacevich attacks American consumerism and its economic consequences. Our insatiable appetite for luxuries, Bacevich argues, has saddled us with debts and a dependence on imported fuels that we can manage only by maintaining a constant war footing, while our wars serve only to increase our debts and deepen our dependence.
The American Conservative, 25 August 2008
Remember George W Bush saying that the fall of Saddam Hussein meant that the “rape rooms” in his prisons would forever close? Abu Ghraib made a sick joke out of that boast. Well, the return of rape rooms wasn’t the end of it. Since the current war began in March 2003, well over 2 million Iraqis have been forced from their homes. Most of them left empty-handed. How have they been surviving since? Kelley Beaucar Vlahos shows how; tens of thousands of Iraqi women and girls have been forced into prostitution. No one in authority is even collecting statistics about these victims of daily rape, much less trying to help them. On the contrary, when it was revealed that a major US defense contractor was shuttling women and girls between Kuwait and Baghdad to be used as sex slaves, the story went nowhere. The matter remained so obscure that even Vlahos misreports the name of the whistleblower who revealed it. She calls him Bruce Halley. His name is Barry Halley.
Posted by acilius on October 7, 2008
https://losthunderlads.com/2008/10/07/more-from-the-antiwar-right/
Samuel F. B. Morse
He invented Morse code, but he also painted. For example:
Above is one of his two most famous pictures, commissioned (but never paid for) by Congress; below is the other:
After the jump, some of his portraits.
Posted by acilius on October 7, 2008
https://losthunderlads.com/2008/10/07/samuel-f-b-morse/
The Atlantic Monthly, October 2008
This issue‘s cover features a controversial picture of Senator Crazy John McCain.
Hail the Leader!
The controversy mainly has to do with the photographer’s other images of McCain. The Atlantic defended the image above.
The legend, “Why War is His Answer,” seemed eerily apt- the magazine arrived in the same mail as a gift from a friend (thanks, cymast!) a Quaker “War is Not the Answer” bumper sticker.
Interesting points after the jump.
Posted by acilius on October 7, 2008
https://losthunderlads.com/2008/10/07/the-atlantic-monthly-october-2008/
Henry Darger
The middle image from a triptych:
Religious education
You may have seen the 2004 movie In the Realms of the Unreal, a documentary about the life of artist Henry Darger. A friendless eccentric, Darger lived alone for decades. Only when he left his apartment for the last time to go to the hospital did his landlord discover a 15,000 page graphic novel, The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. Darger had been writing and illustrating this work from 1909 to 1973. The haunting beauty of the book’s illustrations, the bizarre innocence of its story, and the extreme solitude of Darger’s life combined to make him an icon of the Romantic cult of the outsider artist. The movie enjoyed considerable success, several books about him have been published, and any number of museums have exhibited his works. The Story of the Vivian Girls has never been published in its entirety, though as Darger continues to attract attention it begins to seem possible that it might someday be. There are three more pictures after the jump.
Posted by acilius on October 3, 2008
https://losthunderlads.com/2008/10/03/henry-darger/
Who writes this?
acilius
believer1
lefalcon
losthunderlads
vthunderlad
Panther Red 
