#chicago art book fair

[copperbadge]

I had a very successful and entertaining day today, as you guys can probably tell from the posts I made. There's a few more queued posts of stuff I didn't get to post in-situ, so enjoy that!

Some anecdotes I did not post about from today:

-- I can't remember the last time I queued for a museum. Mostly because if it's not one of "my" museums, like the Field or the Art Institute where I know the best ways in, I'm attending on a weekday deliberately so that I am not amongst the crowds. The line to get into the British Museum was a full block long, but to be fair it only took me ten minutes from opening to get inside. I was mostly amused by the people who a) didn't understand how museum entry works or b) didn't understand how to stand in a line without also blocking foot traffic on the rest of the sidewalk.

-- Almost got in a fight with someone, a definite first for me in a museum. I got salty with a guy who touched a sculpture when he knew he shouldn't, and he got up in my face, and I think genuinely the fact that I knew what the sculpture was called and he didn't confused him so badly he backed down. So if you're looking to defuse a situation via confusion, the phrase "Hey, don't fucking touch the Lamassu and we won't have a problem" worked for me.

-- The British Museum is great but among other issues (looted objects, weird relics of museum-specific imperialism, etc) it does suffer from poor display design in places. I'm okay with that, I kind of like old museums that are a little fucked up, even as I acknowledge that old fucked-up museums also have old fucked-up messaging. They appear to be trying on that front, but they could use a display placard overhaul. At one point I found an object in a case that appeared to be a carved human leg bone, and while I'm not a Bone Specialist there was also absolutely no placard about the bone at all. (I looked it up in the collection later using other objects in the case as reference, and it's just noted as "bone".)

-- I did have a great time overall; I saw most of the museum and then had a fancy meal, as documented. I was especially pleased to get to sample their coronation chicken since I collect tastings of coronation chicken, and I think they either used molasses in it or the bread had some, and either way it's grist for my mill as I start to develop The Chicken Salad War. After lunch I went on the hunt for a few last things, but I could feel myself getting tired and Becoming Unmedicated so I decided to leave a little early, which was the right choice, and gave me a little time to do some exploring.

-- @neil-gaiman did a post a while ago about stuff to see in London which I saved, and while I mostly planned my own journey, I did stop at Atlantis Books on his recommendation, which was well worth it. The woman working the till left me alone until I was ready to buy my book, then praised my choice (always a good move) and made a few minutes' small talk about my visit from America while she was ringing me up. Also I have never seen such a variety of Tarot decks for sale in my life. It was extremely impressive given the entire shop is roughly the size of my bedroom in Chicago.

All in all an excellent day out in London. Tomorrow I'm traveling to meet up with a friend, so probably fewer photos, but day after tomorrow I'm bound for Amsterdam so expect Rijksmuseum photos! I did not get into the Vermeer exhibit sadly, but I still want to see the museum and I'm on a quest for freshly made stroopwaffels and authentic gjetost, so I'm excited for the journey. I thought this trip might be one small anxiety after another -- would I be okay on the plane, would I get on the right trains, etc -- but I'm feeling more confident now, and I think between my early-bird tendencies and the ADHD meds I kicked the jet lag pretty quickly. I'm off to bed in a few, because tomorrow is an early day, so I guess we'll find out then how much I really kicked it....

[clearcloudlesssky]

Hellooo — you can call me Stella, Ara, or clearcloudlesssky. Clown who casually dabbles in a smorgasbord of avocations (art, writing, hoarding, piano…..)

KR/AMER, pisces, minor

Eng/中文（一点点) I can speak light korean, but I’m unfortunately pretty illiterate

Totally open to asks, dms, tag games, etc. I love meeting new people, although I’d like to add that i have a block button, so please be cordial

Films/Shows/Series:

✣ NBC Hannibal ✣ Alien (1979, Prometheus, Covenant, Romulus) ✣ The Thing ✣ Alice in Borderland ✣ ALNST ✣ The Ring ✣ The Descent ✣ Scary Movie ✣ My Fair Lady (to look at :3)

Books:

✣ The Agony and the Ecstasy ✣ Crime and Punishment ✣ Perfume: The Story of a Murderer ✣ Nonnos: Dionysiaca ✣ PJO ✣ The Picture of Dorian Gray ✣ Brother’s Karamazov ✣ The Stranger ✣ Carmilla ✣

Games:

✣ Path to Nowhere ✣ Honkai Star Rail ✣ Genshin Impact ✣ Reverse 1999 ✣ Cookie Run ✣ Twisted Wonderland ✣ LoL ✣

Music:

✣ Bad Ass Temple (specifically Jyushi Aimono <3) ✣ Fling Posse ✣ The Hoosiers ✣ Ado ✣ The Oh Hellos ✣ Epic ✣ Hadestown ✣ Chicago ✣ Frankenstein ✣ Glass Animals ✣ Babymetal ✣ Hozier ✣ Queen ✣

Misc:

✣ The Magnus Archives ✣ Short Stories (personal list) ✣

Status:

Currently Reading: The Plague (Camus)

Currently Listening To: APT. (Bruno Mars & ROSÈ)

Misc. Trivia:

Art history, philosophy, and horror are all points of interest for me (aesthetics, and existentialism are the most interesting to me)

Current favorite artists include Rembrandt, Takato Yamamoto, Fan Kuan, Goya, and one of my favorite works is The Anatomy Dissection of Dr. Nicholaes Tulp

I have two german shepherd dogs

Love love LOVE BJJ, blue belt

Currently interning at a hospital and writing butch lesbian historical fiction because the byzantines and kievan rus were cool asf (ignoring historical inaccuracies as we always do 🤡)

@/animatedglittergraphics-n-more @/bunnysrph

[missroserose]

13 books meme

@introvertia tagged me in this (thank you, lovely, you're such a positive influence on my reading consistency <3) So let's talk books!

1) The Last book I read:

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Absolutely destroyed me—90's science fiction, examining the paradoxes of faith and the difficulties of cross-culture exploration, seasoned with a hefty dose of grief and frustrated desire. Might as well have been written for me.

2) A book I recommend:

The Wicked & The Divine, by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie. A sprawling examination of the celebrity-industrial complex, cultural and individual objectification, and the dark side of fandom culture. Well worth reading through in its entirety.

3) A book that I couldn’t put down:

Starling House, by Alix E. Harrow. I'm a sucker for a fierce and driven heroine who makes things happen by sheer force of will, despite the odds being against her. Between that and the deliciously spooky atmosphere, I adored this book.

4) A book I’ve read twice (or more):

<i>Good Omens</i>, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Hardly an original answer on this website, but it's a classic for a reason <3

5) A book on my TBR:

Victor Lavalle's The Changeling, thanks to @introvertia's recommendation. I know nothing about it but I'm looking forward to reading it!

6) A book I’ve put down:

The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield. I know that the accepted formula for self-help books is to present your one theory and explain why it solves every problem in the known universe, and I hate it, which is probably why I don't read a lot of self-help books. Needless to say, around the time this dude claimed that Hitler wouldn't have become a mass murderer if he'd followed the book's advice, I gave up in disgust.

7) A book on my wish list:

Honestly, I don't have many? I've been enjoying reading from the library, in part because my bedroom is already showing the strain of previous book-buying sprees.

8) A favorite book from childhood:

The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, by Tamora Pierce. I read the entire Alanna series numerous times but I think this was my favorite—I really loved seeing her come into her own independence and learn a new culture (and one that accepted her unusual gender presentation).

9) A book you would give to a friend:

Again, depends strongly on the friend...but I can think of more than a few who'd enjoy the old-school gothic fairytale setting and viciously driven heroine of A. G. Slatter's All the Murmuring Bones.

10) A book of Poetry or Lyrics you own:

Hm...does the script to Hedwig and the Angry Inch count?

11) A nonfiction book you own:

The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson—they practically issue you a copy when you move to Chicago. (In fairness, it's a cracking read.)

12) What are you currently reading:

Skin Folk, a collection of short stories by Nalo Hopkinson. I'm also rereading (or re-listening to) Mike Carey's The Devil You Know, and enjoying it rather better this time around—I think the first time I tried it, almost ten years ago, I was expecting something more along the lines of The Dresden Files and wasn't quite old enough to appreciate the more emotionally battered and worn-down middle-aged protagonist. Now, being a decade older and having lived through a global pandemic and seen rather more of just how terrible people can be to each other...I think it's more my speed. And possibly good research for if I ever get my angel noir story off the ground.

13) What are you planning on reading next?

Definitely The Changeling.

Bonus Round Shelfie?

I'm at a library right now but I might add one later!

Tagging: @klove0511, @sirsparklepants, @emiliosandozsequence, @skybound2, @ihni, @callieb, @lord-angelfish, @redmyeyes, @misschinablue, and @sea-salted-wolverine—no pressure, obviously, but I'd be interested in your answers!

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 4.5/5

Book Blurb:

A centuries-long curse is no match for rom-com shenanigans when a medieval knight is brought to life in modern-day Chicago.

Forgotten by time and abandoned by hope, Sir Griffin de Beauford’s existence stretches out before him. Cursed by a ruthless enchanter to see, hear, and think, but never to move or speak, Griffin suffers the long, lonely centuries trapped in stone…until an unexpected kiss from a fair maiden breathes new life into his soul—and his body.

Emily Porter, a recently divorced conservator at the Art Institute of Chicago, is charged with the restoration of a statue of a medieval English knight. Breaking curses was not part of the job description. And yet, here he is, the man of her dreams come to life, resplendent in shining armor as he joyously barrels into priceless antiquities...and goes on to dismantle her defenses, wreak havoc on her senses, and tempt her to believe once more in happy-ever-afters.

But the modern age tries Griffin’s patience and pride, and Emily is a prime suspect in the investigation of the missing sculpture. In a complicated world, can they find their way to a fairy-tale ending?

Review:

She's a newly divorced conservator at the Art Institute of Chicago who has always dreamed about her own knight in shining armor... so when she is tasked with restoring a statue of a medieval English knight the last thing she expects is to break his curse and have him come to life... or to fall for him. Emily Porter is an art conservator who loves her job, she especially needs it to get her mind of her recent divorce to her cheating ex. So when a gorgeous statue of a medieval English knight arrives and Emily is charged with restoring it she couldnt be more excited... except she begins to hear a voice talking to her, and said knight comes to life in her dreams and tells her that he has been cursed and that he is very much alive and his name is Griffin. Emily helps Griffin break his curse but now a medieval knight in modern day needs a place to stay and a way to fit in... all the while the museum think she's stolen the statue since he's now living with her. Griffin is in love with Emily and determined to prove to her that despite being from different times, he's the one for her. Can a medieval knight find a way to sweep the love of his life off her feet or were they never meant to be? This was such a charming and cute read! The romance was sweet and it really just was adorable. Griffin and Emily were cute together and the story was just a sweet and fun time to read! I would absolutely recommend this for anyone looking for a fun sweet time that is just the right amount of cheesy and adorable.

Release Date: November 12,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group | Berkley for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[bestmusicalworldcup]

2023 League of Musicals Alphabetized List of Musicals

Below is the full list of musicals in the League of Musicals sorted by Division.

Division A

Alice By Heart Annie Assassins Avenue Q The Band's Visit The Book of Mormon Cabaret Cats Chess Chicago A Chorus Line Come From Away Company Falsettos Fiddler on the Roof Firebringer Fun Home A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder Ghost Quartet Guys and Dolls Hadestown Hair Hairspray Hamilton Hello, Dolly! The Hunchback of Notre Dame In The Heights Into the Woods Jekyll and Hyde The King and I Kinky Boots Legally Blonde Les Misérables The Lion King Little Shop of Horrors Matilda Moulin Rouge Mozart, l'opéra rock The Music Man My Fair Lady Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 Newsies Next to Normal Octet Once Once on this Island The Phantom of the Opera Pippin The Producers Ragtime Rent Ride the Cyclone The Rocky Horror Show Something Rotten The Sound of Music Spies Are Forever SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical Spring Awakening Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Twisted: The Untold Story of A Royal Vizier Waitress West Side Story Wicked The Wiz

Division B

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee 42nd Street 1776 Adamandi American Idiot American Psycho Anastasia Applause Bare: A Pop Opera Beetlejuice Be More Chill Billy Elliot the Musical Bonnie and Clyde Bye Bye Birdie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Cinderella (Rodgers and Hammerstein) City of Angels Damn Yankees Dear Evan Hansen Death Note: The Musical Evita Fosse A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum Grease The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals Hallelujah, Baby! Heathers Holy Musical B@man! How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying Jersey Boys Jesus Christ Superstar Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Kiss Me, Kate Kiss of the Spider Woman La Cage aux Folles The Lightning Thief A Little Night Music Man of La Mancha Memphis Monty Python's Spamalot The Mystery of Edwin Drood A New Brain Nine The Pajama Game Passion The Prom The Scarlet Pimpernel Singin' in the Rain Six South Pacific Starship A Strange Loop Sunday in the Park with George Sunset Boulevard Tanz der Vampire / Dance of the Vampires Thoroughly Modern Millie Tick Tick Boom Titanic The Trail to Oregon! Tuck Everlasting Two Gentlemen of Verona Urinetown The Will Rogers Follies The Wizard of Oz (1987)

Division C

& Juliet 21 Chump Street 35MM: A Musical Exhibition 1789: Les Amants de la Bastille Aida Allegiance Amélie Annie Get Your Gun Anything Goes The Art of Pleasing Princes Bandstand Beauty and the Beast Big Fish Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson Carousel Carrie The Color Purple Contact The Count of Monte Cristo Dogfight Dracula, the Musical Dreamgirls Elisabeth Evil Dead: The Musical Finding Neverland Frankenstein: A New Musical The Frogs Funny Girl Godspell Groundhog Day Gypsy Hedwig and the Angry Inch Jane Eyre The Last Five Years Lizzie The Lord of the Rings Love in Hate Nation Love Never Dies The Mad Ones The Magic Show Mary Poppins Mean Girls Merrily We Roll Along Miss Saigon Mozart! Oklahoma! Oliver On the Town Ordinary Days Parade The Pirate Queen Preludes Pretty Woman The Prince of Egypt Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Rebecca Roméo et Juliette: de la Haine à l'Amour The Secret Garden Seussical She Loves Me Shrek the Musical Starry Wonderland You're A Good Man Charlie Brown

Division D

13: The Musical Ablaze The Act Ain't Misbehavin An American in Paris Anne & Gilbert Anyone Can Whistle Av. Larco Back to the Future the Musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas Big River Bran Nue Dae Bright Star Bring It On Calvin Berger Caroline, or Change Clown Bible Crazy for You De 3 Biggetjes The Dolls of New Albion Dorian Gray The Drowsy Chaperone The Fantasticks Fiorello! Fly by Night Follies Frankenstein (Wang Yeon Beom + Brandon Lee) Hans Christian Andersen Hoy no me puedo levantar In Transit Jagged Little Pill Jerome Robbins' Broadway Kimberly Akimbo King's Table Kismet Lady Bess La Légende du roi Arthur Le Passe-Muraille / Amour Le Roi Soleil Les Parapluies de Cherbourg The Light in the Piazza Made in Dagenham Magic Tree House: The Musical Mentiras el musical Notre-Dame de Paris Once Upon A Mattress On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio & Gloria Estefan Phantom (Yeston & Kopit) Raisin Redhead Sarafina! School of Rock The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1964) Seven Brides for Seven Brothers Show Boat Sidd Siete veces adios Soldaat van Oranje The Spitfire Grill Starlight Express Starmania / Tycoon Tarrytown The Threepenny Opera / Die Dreigroschenoper Timéo Wiedzmin The Wild Party (Lippa) The Woman in White Wonderful Town [title of show] Émilie Jolie

[mechanical-bull-rental-chicago]

Mechanical Bull Rental Chicago

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Riding a mechanical bull is exhilarating and safe, thanks to modern equipment and trained operators who ensure that every participant enjoys their ride while minimizing the risk of injury. The mechanical bulls are designed with soft padding and adjustable speeds, making them suitable for beginners and more experienced riders. Operators can control the speed and difficulty of the ride, allowing for a customized experience that matches the rider's comfort level and skill.

When renting a mechanical bull in Chicago, you can expect professional service from start to finish. The rental company will typically handle the bull's delivery, setup, and operation, allowing you to focus on enjoying your event. They will provide a trained operator to manage the bull and ensure the safety of all participants. This service includes setting up the inflatable mat around the bull providing riders awith cuswith cushioned landing area.

In addition to providing entertainment, a mechanical bull can serve as a great icebreaker and crowd-pleaser. Guests will love cheering on their friends and family as they attempt to stay on the bull for as long as possible. It creates a lively and engaging atmosphere that encourages participation and interaction among attendees. Plus, it offers plenty of photo opportunities, allowing guests to capture memorable moments from your event.

One of the critical benefits of mechanical bull rental in Chicago is its versatility. It can be used indoors and outdoors, making it a suitable option for events held at various venues, including banquet halls, community centers, parks, and private residences. The rental company will work with you to determine the best setup for your location, ensuring that the bull is placed in a safe and accessible area.

If you're considering mechanical bull rental in Chicago, booking early is essential, especially during peak event seasons. These rentals are in high demand, and securing your booking in advance will ensure you have the bull reserved for your desired date and time. When contacting rental companies, be sure to ask about their packages, pricing, and any additional services they may offer, such as event planning or other entertainment options.

Mechanical bull rental in Chicago is an excellent way to add excitement and entertainment to your event. It provides a unique experience that guests will remember long after the party. Whether hosting a small gathering or a large celebration, a mechanical bull can elevate the fun and leave a lasting impression on your guests.

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[hospitalterrorizer]

diary290

7/5-6/24

friday - saturday

it is done!!!!!!!!!!!

i will probably do a proper post for it tomorrow, some time, like in the noon (not that it will get any people to listen really)

but here's the linxx!

and then here's the cover art!

#so funny (if you want to see what's going on, you should probably open it up in a separate tab and look at it zoomed in to see all the junk going on)

i'm glad i did the watermarks on the pics at the bottom there, it makes it kind of look uncomfortable, or like seedy i suppose, which helps a lot w/ what the cover is aiming for.

i think basically it's as good as i could have gotten it, the cover. i do like it, i feel like maybe i could do it better, if i planned it out more, maybe it looks like a mess to anyone else, it's kind of one intentionally but i mean, maybe in a bad way it's one too.

also, on bandcamp i wrote a big-ish thing about the album as it was made, here it is:

likely in progress since october of 2022, certainly in progress since november of 2022, finally complete in july 2024. these are songs about nothing especially. this album has seen: two apartments, one move, two jobs, a cockroach infestation, a mass shooting at the neighboring school of our last apartment, my girlfriend surviving the shooting because she was in a different building and he wanted to kill teachers because he did not get a job, the most traveling i've done in my life, myriad illnesses, various canker sores, working out through being sick, not recovering sooner because i had to work out because it would upset me to not complete the ritual as i normally do, the worst sore throat of my life, an ear infection, the starting of a public diary, the maintenance of a public diary, ants on the windowsill, ants in the flour, long standing friendships growing longer, shedding of irritability, regrowth of the irritability, self disgust of varying levels and varying causes, scrubbing the floor naked, bruising my knees at the melt banana show and bruising my knees doing kneeling squats and bruising my knees doing other things, the uneasy orbit of a sleep schedule (an asteroid almost, in capture, then, crashing), several remasterings, 2 computers, an apartment that's a single room, an apartment of multiple rooms cheaply constructed, inflation, grocery store packages changing graphic design, rotten fruit, eaten fruit, my girlfriend's mother loving then hating then loving us, rabbits in grass, rabbits on concrete, bird corpses and living birds and horses in a field for the rodeo and the bulls kept across from them moaning of a captivity under moonlight, the construction and completion of the las vegas sphere (orb of prosperity), numerous nightmares about being murdered, denver colorado, kyoto, tokyo, takeshita-dori street, all the green, a place where sad old gay men convened and sang karaoke remembering their youth in old mecha anime theme songs, a fashion magazine photographer speaking in english to me (stumbling in a beautiful way) "i hope to see you again one day", arizona and the asu campus, a strange fall fair where a woman told me to hold two pumpkins to my chest so it'd be like i had breasts (she seemed supportive), the strange trump-loving foodtruck that served elote that my gf liked, my most recent live performance with thomas since 2018, my girlfriend learning korean, completion of multiple books, falling in love with foucault as i did when i first read him in college, meeting people for the first time, meeting some for the second, sleeping on a bed in chicago, loving chicago, people staring at me in public, children staring at me, wondering if children hate me because at my root there is something wrong with me and everyone except me can tell, being published in various online journals, the coming first publication of my work in print, in a journal people hold in their hands of flesh, nothing special, everything special, stretches of relative silence, all the meaningless stuff, all the stuff i don't want to tell you because i like it too much. i already gave you too much, most likely. you will not have a sense of any of this as you listen to the record. i put it here, i don't know why. this album is 32 songs, 47-ish minutes long. you can click a button on a web site to listen to it, and you will hear it. 

credits

released July 5, 2024

Girlfriend - let me live, took me places, bought me food, let me cook, let me clean. m.b. ghul + clout jesus - voiceover/narration on track 1. please read his story here:

thomas / me and my kidney - let me use his microphone and audio interface to record extra vocals on panic! at the costco and au naturale. please listen to his music here:

georges bataille - wrote the sentence which i lifted for the album title (letter to kojeve where he begins talking about unemployed negativity) thomas hardy - wrote tess of the d'urbervilles which i quote on the final song. neighbors - let me scream and didn't ever complain or call the police. hospital terrorizer - i screamed and i wrote the songs and i made the cover and stuff.

but since i am on my blog i guess i can get into more detail about the record, and i also feel like anyone who reads this / has been reading this, you have actually seen what it's been like, the hostility of the little bit of writing i did for the album isn't really pointed back here, it's not necessarily a pose it's just like, i dunno, as a thing to make, there's so much time and effort, and most of that's invisible, that's not being said in a self pitying way, it's more about how that's the case for so much music, which makes it interesting, i think.

anyway, there's one song here called 'i didn't think before i started a diary' which isn't really about this diary, i wrote that song prior to even starting this, it's about something weird you can see w/ people who do have diaries on the internet, where some people like, years after they're done being updated, things like that, or even just posts / miniature diaristic stuff, of archiving all that, when really this is more about the practice/act than an archive to reach into history with. it was also inspired by a piece of poetry by a friend though i don't know if i could even find it. it's written from the perspective of someone wanting to archive a person, and i kept thinking about that from the other side. that's really the only song i have so much to say on i think, because the others are either a little more personal or a little more obvious, there's lots of political things, the song hell baby works off of a reference to hideshi hino's hell baby, the manga where a deformed baby is thrown into a dump and she is revived by flaming ghosts and wanders back to her family and then is shunned once again. it's really tragic.

anyway i know i said i'd have more pictures from yesterday to post but i've been busy all day with trying to get everything like ready enough, some songs feel a little odd still but that just seems like how they are, it's only 2 that feel a little odd and idk, if i really hate them eventually i will just remaster them and release them together or something but they sound good to me, i think i'm caught off guard by them because there's a newness about them, because i worked on one up to the last bit here, and another was the product of an error related to a crash where the .wav came out normal but the mp3 came out strange sounding i think, so i had to go back and re export. either way both sound good/cool just unexpected to me, and i am someone who had expectations that were precise about those songs, specific things about what frequencies were blasting when and how stuff sat, and then that's just new now.

tomorrow i have to make like... 3 posts inside the internet world, to make people maybe look at my album, and then it will be entirely/totally out of my hands, it will truly be over then, that's like the advertising period i get, lol, one day.

anyway i am super super tired right now, so i will sleep,

byebye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[columbosunday]

in my experience tabling at zine fairs as someone who makes all their own shit like prints and staples and cuts everything by hand.... i dont really care if people are getting shit printed on nice printers and stuff. like the people doing that are keeping a dying art alive. like riso printing, screen printing, printing press etc etc. it's all just politics about the specific word zine. which unfortunately may have been co-opted to mean a broader type of printed book/artwork. but in my experience real life zine community is way accepting of cheaper materials and low-fi process. i have friends all over the country, in different countries who are working on running zine workshops to get the idea out there to more people. i guess it can be daunting to apply to table at zine fairs, so maybe we all need to work on making that a more accessible process for people. but i don't think it's fair to say simple, cheaper material based zines are not actively sought after. quimbys in chicago is literally full of printer paper hand drawn pen and pencil zines. also lots of zines are collaborative so the idea that an applications process for a zine makes it invalid is kind of dumb to me... just some very not concisely formatted thoughts idk 🤷‍♀️

[bg-sparrow]

Summer Reading/ Writing/ Arting

Thanks to @jowritesfanfiction for the tag! (Sorry it took me so long to respond! I love being tagged, so thank you thank you thank you!)

Rules: Follow the directions in bold.

Anyone can join! I'm tagging @jayisnotdrawing, @professorsaber, and @retro-hussy if you guys wanna play!

Describe one creative WIP project you’re planning to work on over the summer.

I am currently working on 3 projects! I am making moodboards and writing 100-word drabbles for McFly July, writing a currently-untitled one-shot based around the Part 3 duel, and wrapping up the last two chapters of Once Upon a Time in the South!

Recommend a book

Uhhh, let's go with Devil in the White City by Erik Larson because I finished listening to that audiobook to and from NYC when I went to see Back to the Future: The Musical this past Saturday. It's about the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and serial killer H. H. Holmes picking off people who stayed in his murder hotel there!

Recommend a fic

I'm going to recommend a Part 3 sickfic born out of a roleplay I did with @daryfromthefuture called Lean on Me (When You're Not Strong) because I recently reread it and forgot how much fun I had writing Doc's part in it! So much hurt/ comfort. So much Doc taking care of Marty. You're welcome. :)

Recommend music 

Hmm. I've been on the hunt for new music myself, but I'll go ahead and put here the playlist I made for The Doom of Marty McFly that I never shared, featuring songs in the fic and an "upbeat frenemies" vibe:

True Love (feat. Lily Allen) - P!nk

My Life Would Suck Without You - Kelly Clarkson

Can't Get You Out of My Head - Kylie Minogue

Please Don't Leave Me - P!nk

Should I Stay or Should I Go - The Clash

Ballroom Blitz - Sweet

Shake It Off - Taylor Swift

We Are Going To Be Friends - The White Stripes

[banffcentrelibraryandarchives]

Understanding Artists' Books

The Paul D. Fleck Library & Archives holds over 5,000 artists' books - and the collection continues to grow through a combination of donations and purchases every year.

But what is an artists' book?

Well, part of the (usually exciting) challenge of artists' books is that they're difficult to define. For the Emily Carr University Art and Design library, the artists' book collection "encompasses books conceived, crafted, published, produced or altered by an artist, designer or collective with the intention of creating an independent art work ." But for the Smithsonian Library, "[a]n artist’s book is a medium of artistic expression that uses the structure or function of 'book' as inspiration—a work of art in book form." Our collection sits somewhere in between, encapsulating works in both of these definitions - and some works that are beyond either. In our library, you'll find do-it-yourself zines and handmade chapbooks from small presses, sculptural pieces, weavings, objects, comic art, flipbooks, and dozens of other specific forms.

Our collection began in 1985, when the director of the Walter Phillips Gallery, Lorne Falk, handed Bob Foley (Banff Centre's first full-time librarian) a suitcase's worth of artists' books and said, "These are yours, you should do something with them." Through a meeting with AA Bronson, an artist who founded Art Metropole and the New York Art Book Fair, Foley expanded the collection by developing relationships with publishers and distributors. Since then, the collection came to include artists such as Dieter Roth, Ed Ruscha (whose artists' book Every Building on the Sunset Strip inspired the creation of this tumblr page!), Barbara Kruger, Joseph Beuys, Mieko Shiomi, Yoko Ono, Gertrude Stein, and John Cage.

Please take your time to explore our tumblr and our library catalogue - and if you ever get the chance, please come and explore our artists' books in person. The library staff are always excited to answer questions or help you find what you're looking for.

If you'd like to read more about artists' books, consider these books:

Aarons, Philip E. and Andrew Roth, editors. In Numbers: Serial Publications by Artists Since 1055. Zurich: PPP Editions, 2009.

Arnar, Anna Sigrídur. The Book as Instrument: Stéphane Mallarmé, the Artist's Book, and the Transformation of Print Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.

Castleman, Riva. A Century of Artists Books. New York: Museum of Modern Art; distributed by Henry N. Abrams, 1994.

Drucker, Johanna. A Century of Artists' Books. New York: Granary Books, 1995.

Phillpot, Clive. Booktrek: Selected Essays on Artists' Books since 1972. Zurich: JRP Ringier, 2013.

[practicefortheheart]

hello I heard you are potentially in the market for audiobooks … let me Provide

(these will all be queer lol)

firstly! if you use libby to read, you can bookmark at any place in the book and go right back there if you’re wanting to make fan art (but it is easier with an ebook).

I agree with anon, The Last Binding trilogy is great and each narrator has some fun interpretations, like that lisp for that one guy.

The Will Darling Adventures by KJ Charles — Cornell Colins reads this trilogy and he is FANTASTIC. he is so extra! he’s perfect for these books (set in 1920s Britain, queer men caught up in spy shenanigans and a conspiracy and danger!). this would be a great follow up to The Last Binding, it hits a lot of the same notes.

The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros — Maxwell Glick narrates this creepy and dark supernatural exploration on jewishness in Chicago at the time of the 1883 world fair. gird your loins and prepare to love so many characters! Glick does a fantastic job bringing them to life; I was immersed.

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles — this one is read by Martyn Swain and maybe it’s just bc I’m not British, but hearing all these diverse British accents aloud made this story feel more real to me. it takes place in Regency Kent where there are black market crime rings and murders and LOTS OF MUSHY LOVE!

I’ll stop there for now but you’ll be amazed how great audiobooks can be once you get past the thought of a human reading a sex scene in your ear alfjskfjdkskelsfkels (that was my biggest barrier). it’s great because of the vivacity of good read-aloud storytelling. not all are winners but there are sooooo many good ones out there.

I mean, I think most of the books I've read the last few years were queer (apart from some I had to read for my book club and non-fiction).

Thanks for your suggestions! I will check them out.

Yes, the explicit scenes needed some getting used to! It took a while before I could forget it was an actor reading them out loud and you know, having to act them out in a way?

Tbh my dad was a great storyteller and it is comforting to have someone tell you a story when you're doing things around the house, or making your way to work or just lying in bed with your eyes closed. There is some nostalgia in that.

[grandhotelabyss]

On Nabokov* and Bellow- I love and respect both, especially Bellow’s determination to use every register of the language, but I do have qualms with him- mostly a kind of lingering unease about his proximity to Strauss and that whole UofC elitist-classicist thing. (To be fair, in the novels themselves I think it’s mostly denatured by streetwise Jewish humanism and the schlemiel quality of most of his protagonists, but all the same one sometimes thinks they can faintly detect something lurking in the depths between the words.)

*I think we have the same qualms about Nabokov, so I won’t enumerate em here

Amis claims that when we say we love an author, we only mean a handful of books. Accordingly, what I have no qualms about is the sequence Augie-Henderson-Herzog. The rest I am either not that interested in or not that familiar with, partly for the reasons you mention; the Strauss-Chicago thing—I assess it only from a distance—is culturally sterile on its own and is in its philosophical supremacism deadly for an artist. Existing in tension with other, more disruptive tendencies, however, as it also did, strangely, in Sontag, it can be fruitful.

Re: Nabokov: Amis wrote an essay about 15 years ago where he conceded that the master probably did have a thing for 12-year-old girls considering the frequency with which they appear, pantingly described, across his oeuvre. I've long suspected this has to be final turn of the screw in interpreting Lolita. If Humbert's not renouncing something real, a desire depicted as metaphysically authentic irrespective of morals, then the novel is without emotional ballast or philosophical point. It's only about a pathological case, the very possibility mocked and dismissed in the preface. But when we allow that the book legitimates Humbert's desire if not its fulfillment, largely through the eroticism of its prose, we undermine the already shaky case for the Kantian moral therapy it is supposed to administer according to Rorty and others, as if the only point were to treat others with kindness, a recommendation that may be made without either the mythical apparatus of nymphetology or the aestheticization of pornography. Lolita really is closer to certain Platonic gay novels, not only Death in Venice but also Billy Budd and Dorian Gray; these don't shy from implicating their authors in the forbidden desire the authors' gaze transmits in the very course of narratively surrendering, this to elevate art over eros. An unspoken and unspeakable consensus about the differing natures of male and female sexuality irrespective of gay/straight, as well as Greco-Roman aesthetic precedent, leads us to tolerate the scenario more when the object of desire—real desire, thus painful to be renounced even if it must be renounced, as in the Phaedrus—is a boy rather than a girl. Hence we squeamishly deny what Lolita is actually about, missing both the true nature and the true cost of its greatness. My uncharacteristically moralistic hope is that we have progressed past the point where we need to illustrate this philosophical thesis with this subject matter.

[pennstateuniversitypress]

Q&A with Mary Ann Calo

The author of African American Artists and the New Deal Art Programs discusses the significance of New Deal art projects, the Harlem Artists' Guild, and more.

How were the New Deal art projects significant to the history of African American art?

Historians have tended to think of the New Deal art projects as having had a generally positive effect on the development of African American art. The immediate purpose of the projects was to provide financial relief in the form of employment for artists during the Depression. In practical terms, the projects gave Black artists who were eligible time to work and unprecedented access to materials and instruction. There was strong consensus among participating artists that opportunities offered by the art projects at least partially redressed the chronic disadvantages and isolation they had faced. These art projects thus functioned as mechanisms to advance their careers and facilitate their entry into the mainstream of American cultural life.

My primary focus is on the programs of the Federal Art Project (FAP), the largest New Deal arts initiative, administered by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) from 1935 to 1943. The FAP was a branch of Federal Project Number One, which encompassed multiple government-supported initiatives to provide work relief not only for artists but also for writers and creative practitioners in theater and music. In a departure from historical accounts that concentrate on individual accomplishments within the FAP, I shift the analytical focus to educational projects such as Community Art Centers. These facilities, some of which were established to serve racially segregated populations, combined opportunities for technical instruction and art appreciation with a social service mentality. While centers in Harlem and Chicago have long enjoyed public visibility and distinction, I expand the discussion to include lesser-known initiatives in the South, noting the vast differences between specific locales.

The book moves beyond accounts of artists who personally benefitted from the projects, and the works they produced, toward broader issues informed by the uniqueness of Black experience and circumstances. I argue that the revolutionary vision of the New Deal art projects must be understood in the context of access to opportunity mediated by the realities of racism and segregation.

Were the federal art projects fair? Were they equitable?

While other divisions of Federal One, such as theater and writing, had units dedicated to African American culture, by design the FAP was “race blind.” But historians of the New Deal visual art programs have long had to reconcile optimism about expanded opportunity and nondiscrimination with the fact of low African American participation numbers, especially in the creative divisions. I examine the skill and relief requirements of the FAP in terms of their impact on choices open to African American artists and the emphasis within project administration on the primacy of educational, rather than creative, work in the Black community.

The elaborate skill classification system of the FAP, which distinguished between various levels of preparedness to perform certain kinds of work, contained obvious (but unacknowledged) pitfalls for African American artists. For example, individuals seeking to qualify for the creative divisions, which would provide support for time spent in the studio, were asked to furnish information on their training as artists and their exhibition history. This was a challenge for Black artists who lacked opportunities to attend art school or regularly show their work. Administrators were preoccupied with ensuring equal access to the benefits of the projects but disinclined to challenge existing norms of segregation or examine their consequences.

How crucial are archives and documents in writing African American art history?

Archival repositories and primary documents have always been essential to writing the history of New Deal art projects. Accounting for African American experience within them is hindered, as in many areas of American cultural history, by insufficient interest and a fragmented archival landscape. Because Black artists were largely overlooked during the documentary phase of early research on the New Deal art projects, when statistics were gathered and standard histories were being written, the task of tracking and sorting relevant data has been an ongoing challenge. And while a great deal of progress has been made in recent years, participation and program records are dispersed and not easily aggregated for purposes of analysis.

How did the Harlem Artists' Guild function, and to what extent was it a Popular Front organization?

On its face, the Harlem Artists Guild’s (HAG) was a prototypical artist advocacy organization of the New Deal era. But its agenda was also rooted in discourses about race and culture that had evolved decades earlier. In that sense, while emblematic of the impulse to unite and organize in the 1930s, the HAG existed in a different space of cultural meaning and significance.

The activities of the HAG can, to an extent, be located within the context of Popular Front ideology, which emphasized coalition building in the interest of maximizing the impact of progressive forces. Traditionally, New Deal historians have tended tend to think of the HAG as an offshoot of the Artists’ Union (AU). This suggests that it derived its energy from the dominant activist organization of the majority culture. I describe the nature of its alliances with groups central to this period, such as the AU and the American Artists’ Congress (AAC), but also with the National Negro Congress (NNC) and local civic organizations. This is consistent with more recent historical approaches that raise questions about the extent to which civil rights organizations such as the NNC may have intersected with this cultural energy and stimulated it.

African American Artists and the New Deal Art Programs: Opportunity, Access, and Community is now available from Penn State University Press. Learn more and order the book here: https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-09493-9.html. Save 30% w/ discount code NR23.

[tryingtryingtryingtryingg]

Hi this was a really interesting post to me and while I am with you 100% on many points you brought up here I just did have a slightly different outlook regarding art museums if I may share.

The words “museum” and “gallery” are words that are ill-defined and that might be contributing to some of the generalizations about how museum shows are being curated? I would argue that most major public institutions of art *do* put together a lot of great exhibitions (these will be your Mets and your National Galleries and the like) with the explicit goal of educating a non-expert public. Id compare them to textbooks.

Where the waters get muddied might be the existence of private museums (built around one persons private collection, e.g. Crystal Bridges), which, depending on your outlook on life, may or may not be described as vanity projects for the very wealthy to flaunt their personal collections and also dodge taxes. This would be the equivalent of like a celebrity memoir. (The line between this and the textbook variety of museum can get blurry sometimes though. A lot of textbook museums began their lives as celebrity memoirs.)

These are different from commercial galleries, which have the primary goal of selling artwork to collectors. They might have some educational content but generally only as far as the information makes the artwork seem more desirable for a certain type of person to buy. Sometimes they style themselves like museums to borrow legitimacy. These commercial galleries often have a rota of artists that they represent. (What “representing an artist” means differs gallery to gallery, but i worked as an assistant to an artist for a while and for her it basically meant that the gallery pays for production of new work, they promote and market the artist to collectors, and if any work sells the gallery recoups the cost of production and then takes a cut of the profits. I think 50% is standard.) This would be the equivalent of like… a fashion week runway show.

And commercial galleries are different from non-profit and artist-run galleries, which mainly showcase young or emerging artists not yet established in their field, who might not have had the opportunity to show in (or have been intentionally excluded from) major institutions, and may not (yet?) have representation from a commercial gallery. (The artists here also tend to be more local to the area so these are the best places to go if you want to support your local art scene.) The audience for these spaces are mostly other artists and their friends and people on the street accidentally stumbling in. Nobody is making any real money here. They don’t really have a super educational angle because everyone involved probably has like 3 other survival jobs. This would be the equivalent of like a small-print-run poetry chapbook hand-bound by a small press.

There are also university galleries and resale galleries, house museums, art fairs, art book fairs, festivals, biennales, immersive experiences, foundations, and probably more that I can’t think of right now, not to mention there’s a difference between museums specifically for art and something like the British Museum which also collects a bunch of other crap with a more anthropological slant (bones etc). But basically, this is all to say, not all spaces containing art are the same or have the same agendas.

I fully agree that the concept of “the collection” is something that is sometimes taken too far but I don’t think major museums are the biggest culprits here. I DO however think private collectors sometimes use their art collections as a way to historicise themselves and basically write themselves into art history. The Art Institute of Chicago received a major donation of post-war modern art like 10 years ago from a collector who stipulated in the terms of their donation that their sizable collection had to be on view at the museum in its *entirety* for at least 50 years. This basically means that a large chunk of the museum’s limited real estate is going to be dedicated to this one collector for the next half-century, and what art this one collector thought was important to them when they bought it. Which, yeah, is frankly a terrible way to put together an exhibit in a museum. Iirc there was some controversy when the museum accepted.

However I don’t think most art museums are treating their collections with the same sort of reverence. Museums loan artwork all the time. When a curator working on a show thinks that including a work outside the museum collection would be important to provide context, they will (if possible) arrange a loan. Loans like this are great because it also makes it possible for people who might not be able to travel to an artwork’s home museum to see it too. Ofc there will be some treasures (Mona Lisa isn’t going anywhere) that a museum will never part with but for the most part museums try to be good about lending work because they might need to borrow something else in the future. (Though there is a very real problem of different museums having different negotiating power depending on their size). Sometimes if a loan is not possible they might include a thumbnail of it in the wall text or something, because curators are also massive nerds who want to see their faves come together. (Now might be a good time to mention that museums have both permanent and temporary exhibitions.)

There’s also the definition of “research” here. I don’t think most museum shows are going to be about scraping samples off paintings to chemically analyse them, but I’d absolutely argue that art exhibitions are still products of research. The research is just more along the lines like, “how did these artists end up working in such similar themes despite being from different cultures and different eras” or “how did [historical event] affect the way artists made work”, or “how do all these artists use [this colour] in their work differently”, or, “which artists have been historically ignored by institutions and how can we attempt to correct that,” or even more simply, “how did this one artist’s work evolve throughout their career”

I think outside of very specific contexts most curators will fundamentally disagree with the idea of printing out a replica of an artwork to hang alongside other art because 1. It’s taking up space in an art museum where an actual artwork could be, and 2. It implies that the replica is somehow a sufficient stand-in for the original? I don’t want to get too philosophical here but i really don’t think that would work as an exhibition concept. That being said I have seen museums create replicas of sculptures intended for audiences to touch, and also 3D printed scans of painting surfaces so people can feel the paint textures and stuff, which I find really neat! I’ve also seen fantastically low-res pictures of objects left as placeholders in display cases when the originals have been sent on loan somewhere else.

Also Re: Duchamp’s urinal, this might just have been brought up to illustrate how far out modern art can be without the necessary context but I want to say I have never, ever seen that work shown without accompanying info explaining exactly why it came about (the feeling that art could no longer just be a beautiful thing passively hanging on the wall after witnessing the brutality and senselessness of WW1), the movement it was part of (Dada), and how it changed the course of art history (opened the doors to incorporating readymade objects in art). I don’t think the problem is that the information is not being made available, I think the problem is that museums are not doing enough to make people want to read it. (Although, to briefly go back to the subject of replicas, any version of the urinal you see today is in fact a replica because the original urinal was destroyed shortly after it was shown.)

I’m not saying that people have to enjoy this kind of art, or that they have to automatically “get it”, or that they’re ignorant because they don’t. And museums relying on wall text to do the heavy lifting is a flawed system. I definitely agree that some things can be a hard sell and museums need to do more to reach out to people (beyond wall text) to get them interested in art, and an interdisciplinary approach is definitely the way to go here. Maybe collaborating with non-art institutions? Like, art can say so much when shown in the context of history, or even science, like you mentioned. One bit of trivia I love is that the reason why the Impressionists were able to go outside and paint plein air was because paint tubes had just been invented and they didn’t need to be in their studios grinding down their own pigments anymore!

But there’s also another issue when it comes to contemporary art (and when I say contemporary art here I’m referring to like, the artist is still alive) being shown by museums which is that role of the museum is kind of to define what is worth looking at? Museums are basically trying to write history here, and it can be very difficult to determine what is important when you’re so close to it. We’re all just symptoms trying to find the cure.

Museum curators need to be very careful about who they show and how they talk about them, because there can be a bit of an observer effect in action here. Museum shows are statements made by the institution, and you can’t make a statement about contemporary art without also affecting what contemporary artists are responding to. Idk if that makes sense.

It’s a delicate balance and I don’t envy curators in this position. You can’t curate a show about the renaissance the same way you’d curate a show about abstract expressionism, and you can’t curate a show about abstract expressionism the same way you’d curate a show about contemporary artists who are still working, and who can still go on to make batshit decisions you’ll regret associating with, especially when you have the power of an institution behind you.

Artists make work because they want to say something. They might not always succeed, but most of them start with that goal at least. I do find that in general, if an artist is making use of any cool new unexpected technologies, that shit is going in the write-up (I can’t remember how many times I read the word “blockchain” in 2019 smh), but yeah it doesn’t always happen and it can suck to feel like you’re out of the loop, or that you’re missing a key piece to unlock your enjoyment of something.

I overlook work all the time and only later find out that it was apparently “significant”, and then I kick myself for not getting it, or not seeing it. And I do have a background in art so… oops I guess. I absolutely hated Mike Kelley’s work the first time I saw it. I thought it was tacky and weird and disturbing for no reason. Then a few years later I learned more about his work and I changed my mind.

I love a scientific analysis as much as the next person—I too go nuts whenever museum conservators scan artworks and find something completely different underneath, getting to appreciate something old in a new way. I love looking into the history of pigments—but this isn’t really an approach that can be applied to newer artworks by artists who are still working, who maybe want people to be more interested in the work they made rather than what kind of paintbrush or software or camera that they used to make it. (Not to mention the implications of trying to dissect art through an “anthropological” lens when the artist is, say, part of a minority group, or working outside the western canon.)

And incidentally if you *are* interested in peeling back the curtain to see the process a lot of artists are often contractually obligated to give lectures and talks for this very purpose!! Many museums have public lecture series that they post online on youtube and some of them only get like triple digit views it is criminal! There’s a lot of bullshit and some can get jargon-heavy don’t get me wrong, but there are a lot of great ones too! I’ve recently been binging the MFA Boston’s lecture series on Sargent, they are wonderful! Louisiana Channel does lovely interviews with artists, architects and writers about their creative process and why they do what they do it’s an amazing resource. Art21 is also free i think but only if you’re in the US(?). One thing I’ve learnt listening to these is that you don’t need to like someone’s work to like the way they talk about art, and vice versa.

Most museum exhibitions also have accompanying monographs with essays and pictures that go in-depth into all the history and info you could possibly want to know, they’re great and I can spend hours in a museum bookstore just browsing through them. Because exhibitions are necessarily ephemeral these publications are ways for them to live on.

Don’t get me wrong art institutions are extremely flawed in myriad ways, and criticism is 100% deserved especially wrt accessibility and provenance and questionable funding sources. They can and should do better. I just feel like we should give museum curators a bit more credit here, and not pin entirely onto them the failures of a public education system that does not value art.

Fully agree about the benches and lack of snack options tho wtf is up with that.

(Also i just have to mention one of my favourite museums that I’ve ever been in which is the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford?It’s like walking into an old school wunderkammer it’s amazing and I love it. Objects are organized by type of object rather than any culture or era which leads to some lovely combinations of things.)

Sorry for this hunk of text I just had stuff on my mind. It’s very late where I am I hope everything made sense

I would be very interested in hearing the museum design rant

by popular demand: Guy That Took One (1) Museum Studies Class Focused On Science Museums Rants About Art Museums. thank u for coming please have a seat

so. background. the concept of the "science museum" grew out of 1) the wunderkammer (cabinet of curiosities), also known as "hey check out all this weird cool shit i have", and 2) academic collections of natural history specimens (usually taxidermied) -- pre-photography these were super important for biological research (see also). early science museums usually grew out of university collections or bequests of some guy's Weird Shit Collection or both, and were focused on utility to researchers rather than educational value to the layperson (picture a room just, full of taxidermy birds with little labels on them and not a lot of curation outside that). eventually i guess they figured they could make more on admission by aiming for a mass audience? or maybe it was the cultural influence of all the world's fairs and shit (many of which also caused science museums to exist), which were aimed at a mass audience. or maybe it was because the research function became much more divorced from the museum function over time. i dunno. ANYWAY, science and technology museums nowadays have basically zero research function; the exhibits are designed more or less solely for educating the layperson (and very frequently the layperson is assumed to be a child, which does honestly irritate me, as an adult who likes to go to science museums). the collections are still there in case someone does need some DNA from one of the preserved bird skins, but items from the collections that are exhibited typically exist in service of the exhibit's conceptual message, rather than the other way around.

meanwhile at art museums they kind of haven't moved on from the "here is my pile of weird shit" paradigm, except it's "here is my pile of Fine Art". as far as i can tell, the thing that curators (and donors!) care about above all is The Collection. what artists are represented in The Collection? rich fucks derive personal prestige from donating their shit to The Collection. in big art museums usually something like 3-5% of the collection is ever on exhibit -- and sometimes they rotate stuff from the vault in and out, but let's be real, only a fraction of an art museum's square footage is temporary exhibits. they're not going to take the scream off display when it's like the only reason anyone who's not a giant nerd ever visits the norwegian national museum of art. most of the stuff in the vault just sits in the vault forever. like -- art museum curators, my dudes, do you think the general public gives a SINGLE FUCK what's in The Collection that isn't on display? no!! but i guarantee you it will never occur, ever, to an art museum curator that they could print-to-scale high-res images of artworks that are NOT in The Collection in order to contextualize the art in an exhibit, because items that are not in The Collection functionally do not exist to them. (and of course there's the deaccessioning discourse -- tumblr collectively has some level of awareness that repatriation is A Whole Kettle of Worms but even just garden-variety selling off parts of The Collection is a huge hairy fucking deal. check out deaccessioning and its discontents; it's a banger read if you're into This Kind Of Thing.)

with the contents of The Collection foregrounded like this, what you wind up with is art museum exhibits where the exhibit's message is kind of downstream of what shit you've got in the collection. often the message is just "here is some art from [century] [location]", or, if someone felt like doing a little exhibit design one fine morning, "here is some art from [century] [location] which is interesting for [reason]". the displays are SOOOOO bad by science museum standards -- if you're lucky you get a little explanatory placard in tiny font relating the art to an art movement or to its historical context or to the artist's career. if you're unlucky you get artist name, date, and medium. fucker most of the people who visit your museum know Jack Shit about art history why are you doing them dirty like this

(if you don't get it you're just not Cultured enough. fuck you, we're the art museum!)

i think i've talked about this before on this blog but the best-exhibited art exhibit i've ever been to was actually at the boston museum of science, in this traveling leonardo da vinci exhibit where they'd done a bunch of historical reconstructions of inventions out of his notebooks, and that was the main Thing, but also they had a whole little exhibit devoted to the mona lisa. obviously they didn't even have the real fucking mona lisa, but they went into a lot of detail on like -- here's some X-ray and UV photos of it, and here's how art experts interpret them. here's a (photo of a) contemporary study of the finished painting, which we've cleaned the yellowed varnish off of, so you can see what the colors looked like before the varnish yellowed. here's why we can't clean the varnish off the actual painting (da vinci used multiple varnish layers and thinned paints to translucency with varnish to create the illusion of depth, which means we now can't remove the yellowed varnish without stripping paint).

even if you don't go into that level of depth about every painting (and how could you? there absolutely wouldn't be space), you could at least talk a little about, like, pigment availability -- pigment availability is an INCREDIBLY useful lens for looking at historical paintings and, unbelievably, never once have i seen an art museum exhibit discuss it (and i've been to a lot of art museums). you know how medieval european religious paintings often have funky skin tones? THEY HADN'T INVENTED CADMIUM PIGMENTS YET. for red pigments you had like... red ochre (a muted earth-based pigment, like all ochres and umbers), vermilion (ESPENSIVE), alizarin crimson (aka madder -- this is one of my favorite reds, but it's cool-toned and NOT good for mixing most skintones), carmine/cochineal (ALSO ESPENSIVE, and purple-ish so you wouldn't want to use it for skintones anyway), red lead/minium (cheaper than vermilion), indian red/various other iron oxide reds, and apparently fucking realgar? sure. whatever. what the hell was i talking about.

oh yeah -- anyway, i'd kill for an art exhibit that's just, like, one or two oil paintings from each century for six centuries, with sample palettes of the pigments they used. but no! if an art museum curator has to put in any level of effort beyond writing up a little placard and maybe a room-level text block, they'll literally keel over and die. dude, every piece of art was made in a material context for a social purpose! it's completely deranged to divorce it from its material context and only mention the social purpose insofar as it matters to art history the field. for god's sake half the time the placard doesn't even tell you if the thing was a commission or not. there's a lot to be said about edo period woodblock prints and mass culture driven by the growing merchant class! the met has a fuckton of edo period prints; they could get a hell of an exhibit out of that!

or, tying back to an earlier thread -- the detroit institute of arts has got a solid like eight picasso paintings. when i went, they were kind of just... hanging out in a room. fuck it, let's make this an exhibit! picasso's an artist who pretty famously had Periods, right? why don't you group the paintings by period, and if you've only got one or two (or even zero!) from a particular period, pad it out with some decent life-size prints so i can compare them and get a better sense for the overarching similarities? and then arrange them all in a timeline, with little summaries of what each Period was ~about~? that'd teach me a hell of a lot more about picasso -- but you'd have to admit you don't have Every Cool Painting Ever in The Collection, which is illegalé.

also thinking about the mit museum temporary exhibit i saw briefly (sorry, i was only there for like 10 minutes because i arrived early for a meeting and didn't get a chance to go through it super thoroughly) of a bunch of ship technical drawings from the Hart nautical collection. if you handed this shit to an art museum curator they'd just stick it on the wall and tell you to stand around and look at it until you Understood. so anyway the mit museum had this enormous room-sized diorama of various hull shapes and how they sat in the water and their benefits and drawbacks, placed below the relevant technical drawings.

tbh i think the main problem is that art museum people and science museum people are completely different sets of people, trained in completely different curatorial traditions. it would not occur to an art museum curator to do anything like this because they're probably from the ~art world~ -- maybe they have experience working at an art gallery, or working as an art buyer for a rich collector, neither of which is in any way pedagogical. nobody thinks an exhibit of historical clothing should work like a clothing store but it's fine when it's art, i guess?

also the experience of going to an art museum is pretty user-hostile, i have to say. there's never enough benches, and if you want a backrest, fuck you. fuck you if going up stairs is painful; use our shitty elevator in the corner that we begrudgingly have for wheelchair accessibility, if you can find it. fuck you if you can't see very well, and need to be closer to the art. fuck you if you need to hydrate or eat food regularly; go to our stupid little overpriced cafeteria, and fuck you if we don't actually sell any food you can eat. (obviously you don't want someone accidentally spilling a smoothie on the art, but there's no reason you couldn't provide little Safe For Eating Rooms where people could just duck in and monch a protein bar, except that then you couldn't sell them a $30 salad at the cafe.) fuck you if you're overwhelmed by noise in echoing rooms with hard surfaces and a lot of people in them. fuck you if you are TOO SHORT and so our overhead illumination generates BRIGHT REFLECTIONS ON THE SHINY VARNISH. we're the art museum! we don't give a shit!!!

[arshs-artpage]

Working with Disney

Growing up, from the generation of baby boomers, to the Gen-Z's we all have had our fair share of consuming the Great and Legendary animation studio- Disney. From, Mickey Mouse to Snow white and hundreds of our favourite cartoon movies and shows, Disney has had hundreds of animators working for their, then, industry leading content through story telling as human or imaginative characters. For animator, securing a position at Disney is often seen as the pinnacle of a career. Some people who started as one of the hundreds of artists, people who did exceptionally well and had good relations with Walt Disney were given fantastic opportunities to work on world class projects, and even has been named as "Disney Legends".

Behind the scenes of Disney's most iconic animations, there were creative, minds whose work brought magic to life. Among these visionaries was Ollie Johnston. As we can read all about Ollie through online articles and books about Disney, Ollie was not only named as a 'Disney Legends' but was also among the Walt's famed "Nine old men of Animation", the reason i am talking about him and his interview from Don Peri's book 'Working with Disney'. He showed mind blowing work on features like Peter Pan, Sleeping beauty, The Jungle book and many more, having worked on Snow White as an assistant to Freddy Moore, where he had his career's breakthrough. He was born 1912, in Palo Alto, California. He would go to Stanford university and later be hired at Disney in 1935.

During the interview, Ollie speaks about how his journey as an art student at Stanford. He also speaks about his first impressions of Walt himself at a story discussion meeting for Snow white and discusses his shared interests with Ollie for trains, which led for Ollie and Walt to be actively engaged with Ollie by coming down to his room as soon as he would get progress on projects, things he wouldn't normally do with most employees. As animators, i think there is a great value of wisdom you could take and incorporate in your work like the part where he mentions animators are also actors but they are just observing the act, and i feel like it is very important for the animators to be in the habit of constantly observing how things around in the real world work so we can make the animation to give off more of a realistic feel and is not un natural to look at.

He also talks about the time of Strike where the studio faced a lot of challenges financially. Ollie mentions how he, along with other Disney employees still remembers the time of strike and is still an emotionally sensitive issue. He mentions walking through strikers lined up outside the Disney studio where he would even had to face some of his friends. Ollie continues to tell about how alot of the families could never get financially stable again.

From Ollie Johnston's interview and reading about him, you learn a lot about his animation philosophy but also his life and the golden age of Disney. Ollie's dedication to craft, genuine passion, and mentorship helped shape animation's path and inspired future generations.

Similar to Ollie, there was another Disney legend in Don's book, David Dodd Hand. He was born in the 1900, in Plainfield New Jersey. Hand would join the Disney studio later in his career as an animator, but it started off working for J.R. Bray Studio after his return from the Art Institute of Chicago. At Bray, he worked alongside prominent figures like Max Fleischer, working on the "Out of the inkwell' series(D23, 2023). There he also worked with Walter Lantz, co-directing and animating series such as Dinky Doodle and Unnatural History (Cartoon Research, 2023). Hand would later join the DIsney studio in 1930, working on more than 40 shorts and also began directing in 1932 with Trader Mickey and many more.

In Dave's short interview, he mentions how the new york animation studio was not as focused on quality of their content, as opposed to the work done by Walt and the other disney artists. But Dave being exceptional at his work, never had a problem with keeping up with Walt's innovations.  Hand was one of Walt’s trusted lieutenants during a crucial period at the studio, especially in the 1930s when Disney was pushing the boundaries of animation. He quit Disney for a better opportunity in England. David Dodd Hand would be named a Disney Legend in 1994 after his death in 1986, the specific cause of his death has not been publicly disclosed.

In reflecting on the journey of legendary Disney animators like Ollie and Dave, it becomes clear that their stories are more than just tales of artistic success—they’re lessons in dedication, passion, and the pursuit of innovation. As aspiring animators, we can draw inspiration from these Disney Legends to push boundaries, embrace collaboration and nurture the curiosity that drives creativity. Their stories will continue to inspire future generations to dream bigger, create bolder and animate with heart.

[besttimetogo2]

The Seasonal Guide: The Optimal Time to Visit Chicago

Chicago, the Windy City, is a vibrant metropolis known for its stunning architecture, world-class museums, and diverse neighborhoods. Whether you’re a history buff, an architecture enthusiast, or simply someone looking to enjoy a great city, choosing the best time to visit Chicago can make a significant difference in your experience. Here’s a seasonal breakdown to help you plan your perfect trip.

Spring: March to May

If you enjoy nice weather and blossoming flowers, spring is one of the best time to visit Chicago. As the city shakes off its winter chill, temperatures rise, making it perfect for exploring outdoor attractions like Millennium Park and the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Summer: June to August

Summer in Chicago is the most popular time to visit, and for good reason. The city comes alive with a plethora of outdoor events, from music festivals to street fairs. Enjoy the beautiful weather at Navy Pier, take a stroll along the Lake Michigan waterfront, or attend the renowned Lollapalooza music festival. The finest times of year for beach days and boat cruises are during the summer. However, keep in mind that this is peak tourist season, so attractions can be crowded, and accommodation prices may be higher.

Fall: September to November

Fall is arguably the best time to visit Chicago if you want to experience the city’s beauty without the summer crowds. The fall foliage provides a breathtaking backdrop to your stay, and the weather is crisp and comforting. September and October are ideal for exploring neighborhoods like Lincoln Park and Hyde Park. Don’t miss the Chicago Gourmet food festival in September or the spooky excitement of Halloween events in October. Fall also offers great opportunities for cultural events and theater performances.

Winter: December to February

Winter in Chicago is cold, with temperatures often dropping below freezing, but don’t let that deter you. The city is transformed with seasonal markets and twinkling lights into a wintry wonderland. The Christkindlmarket in Daley Plaza is a must-visit, offering German-style holiday treats and crafts. Ice skating at Millennium Park and visiting the Art Institute of Chicago are also fantastic winter activities. Winter may be a lovely time to view the city, provided you're dressed for the chill.

Tips for Planning Your Chicago Visit

No matter which season you choose, a little planning can go a long way in enhancing your Chicago experience. If you're visiting in summer, book your accommodations and tickets for popular attractions in advance to avoid long waits and higher prices. For spring and fall visits, check local event calendars to make the most of seasonal festivals and activities. In winter, dress warmly and plan for potential weather-related disruptions, like snow or ice. Additionally, keep in mind that Chicago's vast public transportation system might be a practical means of getting around the city, particularly during rush hour. By preparing ahead, you can ensure a smooth and enjoyable visit to the Windy City, regardless of when you arrive.

The best time to visit Chicago really depends on what you’re looking to experience. Spring and fall offer mild weather and fewer crowds, while summer is bustling with activity, and winter provides a festive, albeit chilly, atmosphere. When organizing your vacation, take your interests and tastes into account to make it an unforgettable experience. Chicago’s diverse offerings mean that no matter when you visit, you’re in for an incredible time.