Devastating Beauty, Abstraction of Destruction

Agent Orange, Canadys, SC , 2009, Coal ash waste at electricity generation station, 50 x 70 in.

Ectoplasm, Geismar, LA, 2005
Phospho-gypsum waste at a fertilizer manufacturing plant
30 x 40 in.

 

 Untitled, Saint James, LA, 2010
Waste from fertilizer manufacture
50 x 70 in 

These incredible photographs, shot from the air over Louisiana and South Carolina, are just a few of the ones J. Henry Fair, artist, conservationist, eco-warrior, and friend, is showing at an exhibit opening this week at the Gerald Peters Gallery in Manhattan. You may also remember Henry's work from the post about James Hansen's protest of mountaintop coal mining in West Virginia.  More of the exhibit photographs can be viewed at the gallery link above---they must be incredibly powerful experienced first-hand.  Here is a link to a video of Henry talking about this work that was published by Smithsonian Magazine.

 

Underfoot at Topkapi Palace

 a beautiful drain

 a mysterious drain

 recycled pavement

Performance art

 I finally figured out how to embed a video link in a post. This is Denki Groove's video for its song "Fake it!"

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Just finished watching the first episode of BBC's Desperate Romantics (earlier post here)....review in future.  Also saw premier last night of a new TV show called "The Cape"  about a crime fighter who wears a cape of spider silk "stronger than Kevlar"----the second article made of spider silk in the world.   Here is the first---for real!

Poetry as extreme sport

me: "i'm going to a poetry slam at the Cantab."
neighbor matt: "are you reciting a poem?"
me: "no, just a spectator."
neighbor matt: "good.  good.  words can hurt."

Boston Slam master Simone Beaubien

I attended my first poetry slam last week, a competitive, winner-take-all poetry reading event emceed by nationally renowned Slam master Simone Beaubien and judged by selected members of the audience.  National Poetry slam rules were followed: original poems of three minutes or less, no props, costumes or music.  Poems were scored by judges with placards on a scale of 1 to 10 with high and low scores thrown out and penalties assessed for exceeding the time limit.  Does it sound crazy, cool, strange, and fun?  yes!  

Over at the blog of the William Morris Society, News from Anywhere, the debut of the Victorian Poetry Network was recently announced, anticipated to provide "a hub for Victorian poetry scholars, teachers and students on the web."  I have a great idea for an event they can sponsor---how about a mock poetry slam with youthful participants dressed as William Morris, Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, and Algernon Charles Swinburne among others?  Oscar Wilde and W.B. Yeats could also make appearances.  The anti-establishment Morris would be in his purple waistcoat and likely incur excessive time penalties.  I'd love to be a judge at that poetry slam!

Furniture porn from Home Decorators

 The most recent cover of the Home Decorator Collection catalog features this completely awesome craft cupboard---look! even a spot for the sewing machine (although we much prefer it to be out at all times).  And check out dream craft room below.  Oh Martha, yes, more!  I want it!

 all click to enlarge

The prices seem uber-reasonable although, having not seen the actual furniture, I cannot comment on their quality.  However, I can say that the two rugs I bought from HDC were of higher quality than I expected, not lower. 

Check out the chrysanthemum carpet....it would go so well in a modern Morris room setting with Chrysanthemum wallpaper or maybe some Chrysanthemum pillows from William Morris Style Cushion Covers.  Other beautiful and inexpensive Arts and Crafts carpets from HDC can be found at this post.

On gossamer wings...

Photo credit: NASA/ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Loyal followers of WMFC know that I define "Art" broadly----here is a recently released photograph of a lovely intergalatic soap bubble.   It is, in fact, the glowing hydrogen remnants of a violent supernova explosion that sent out a shock wave that is traveling at more than 18 million kilometers per hour through space.  Luckily it won't get to us for awhile, still being about 160,000 light-years away.  The shock wave bubble is currently 23 light-years across.

And just to make this a completely sciency post, here is a "map" of all the different kinds of bacteria that are in five specific parts of our body (I'm talking gals here and you must click to enlarge).  Each end of a branch, of which there are hundreds if not thousands, represents a specific species of bacteria.  While we go through our lives generally thinking of bacteria as bad, most are in fact living in a happy symbiotic relationship with us.  So pretty and lovely to think of my mouth as the human equivalent of the Amazon rain forest...but I think someone (Anne?) could put a more aesthetically pleasing "body" in the middle!  Challenge on the table!

 (full article was published by Lee and Mazmanian in the journal Science, Vol. 330 no. 6012 pp. 1768-1773, 2010.)

What's knot to like?

incredible colors...women knotting Anatolian carpets in Goreme, Turkey

 a silk wonder...

 

tea break

 

the young Turks selling in the showroom...

Happy New Year!

Art from my magical Aunt Anne....click to enlarge.  Can you buy DNA rattles for your children?  What a great idea...Anne you should patent that!

Ode to the newly discovered squidworm

(Photo credit: Laurence Madin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute)

click to enlarge

And now, a newcomer, from the Celebes Sea,
The most curious beastie you're likely to see.
Teuthidodrilus samae, a segmented worm
with enough weird appendages to make anyone squirm.
What is it for -- all that tentacled foppery?
Evolution devising its own sort of moppery.

by Chet Raymo

"Britain's most stylish couple"...

Charlotte and Peter Fiell, using Morris's stylish Fruit in their stylish hallway!  Read the full article with other pictures of their gorgeous Arts and Craft Aesthetic style home in today's New York Times. 

(Michael Harding for the New York Times)

Hummingbird nest

Exuma Junkanoo

Junkanoo is a Bahamian street parade that traditionally occurs before dawn on Boxing Day, December 26th.  The tradition dates back to the 16th or 17th century when slaves were given one day off after  Xmas to celebrate with their families.  Usually the junkanoo begins before dawn but this year it was held after sunset, I think in an effort to lure larger tourist crowds.  It seemed to have worked as the ratio of tourists to locals was much higher than in years past and the streetside bars were doing a ripping business.  However, it didn't have the same magic as the pre-dawn junkanoo with the drums being warmed over makeshift fires before the parade and everyone lining the streets rubbing the sleep out of their eyes wondering why the hell they got up this early---until the fun starts that is.  The marchers often spend months working on their costumes and floats and in Nassau, where the largest junkanoo is held, competition is intense for various best-in-show categories.  The size of the smaller Exuma junkanoo waxes and wanes with the economy....happily larger this year than last.  Like many nations heavily dependent on tourism, the recent economic meltdown hit Exuma hard.

Monsterdrawings on Post-it notes

Who do you get when you cross Edward Gorey with Maurice Sendak? A Denmarkian named Don Kenn!  Here's the link to his website....take your kids....how come this guy doesn't have a book? 

 

And if you like your bedtime stories twisted, make sure you didn't miss the Struwwelpeter post.

Capt. Robert's Conch Salad

Ingredients (serves 12):

4-5 freshly caught conch
a few red or green peppers
an onion
a few tomatoes
a few cucumbers
a few pepperoncini

a few oranges
a few limes

Step 1.  harvest the conch meat using the back of a hammer to whack a hole in just the right spot on the shell.  Insert long thin knife and cut muscle away from shell such that you can pull conch out of front door.

Step 2.  clean the guts off such that white meat remains (optionally eating a certain clear gooey part rumored locally to make you more virile).  Dice into small pieces with small machete (for most authentic experience) or any strong knife.

Step 3.   Fill a large bowl half full with seawater and put diced conch and diced veggies into bowl as you continue with chopping of peppers, onions, cucumbers and tomatoes.

Step 4.  When all veggies chopped, drain out seawater then squeeze in juice from a few oranges and limes.  Add chopped pepperoncini.

 Step 5.  Toss and serve immediately with a cup of Goombay Smash!

Trips in the Exuma Cays with Capt. Robert can be be booked through his web site Robert's Island Adventures.   Mention Maureen of the stromatolites  :-).

Last minute shopping?

Update from an earlier post "Buy a share in a satellite" ---- an email I received today....

Dear Friends,

You are one of the over 530 people from 30 different countries who have donated to the BuyThisSatellite.org campaign. Some of you may be spending the day with your family and friends celebrating Christmas.  Others are treating this day just like any other.  Together we've raised almost $30,000.  Over 100 people have volunteered their services on our volunteer form.  Some bought shirts as Christmas presents recognizing that the gift of access for others is far more vital than any trinket:

"I donated three times. I am giving them all away as presents. This year I am implementing a "donation only" policy with my family and friends.  I'm a web / technology developer and I love bringing great technology to the market. However, the more I work, the more I have come to believe that the ones who need technology most are the ones who receive it least, and the ones who need technology least have the most of it." - Alex

And others donated for reasons we never anticipated:

"I come from a family of holocaust survivors and I donated $1,000.  Since I was a young kid I asked how the world did not come to our help during the holocaust.  I was told time and time again, "We (the world) didn't know."  I keep asking this question many times: The Chinese cultural revolution, Cambodia, Lebanon... I am donating in the name of my grandmother who lived through the horrors of the concentration camps and for the better future for my kids" -Roni

The Internet made all of this possible.  Online news organizations and blogs like BoingBoing.com, Al Jazeera, Popular Science, Space.com... covered our story.  1,500 people follow our updates on Facebook.com, our founder Kosta Grammatis was invited to give a TEDx talk in Athens Greece, and now we now have the opportunity to stay in touch with each and every one of you, to say thank you for your donation, via e-mail.

The beauty of the Internet is that it already connects billions of people to the incredible tools and resources available online.  We will work to bring this opportunity to the billions of others who aren't so lucky.

Thank you for your support.  Please continue to share this idea with your family and friends this holiday season.

With Gratitude,
Team BuyThisSatellite.org

a baby Jesus pic for xmas....love to all...

Rest on the Flight into Egypt (c. 1597), Caravaggio 

A friendship map of the world

click to enlarge (and see the Kiwis!)

Paul, a Facebook intern on their data infrastructure engineering team (whose no doubt has very proud parents), made a brilliant map of the geographic connections between ten million randomly chosen pairs of facebook friends.  From the near perfect outlines of many countries you can see the concentrations of populations along coastlines.  You can also see the black hole of China.  From Paul:

"What really struck me, though, was knowing that the lines didn't represent coasts or rivers or political borders, but real human relationships. Each line might represent a friendship made while travelling, a family member abroad, or an old college friend pulled away by the various forces of life."

I was recently friended by an old acquaintance from Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere, now coming on-line.  How sweet it would be if that was one of the lines.....

What to buy a Morris enthusiast for Xmas?

Artist and fellow Morris enthusiast David Mabb channels The Great One and Russian textile designer Luibov Popova in his bold new work.  He has recently released a collection of limited edition signed prints which you can see above and read about here.  The Victorian and Albert Museum bought one (~US$120), so can you!

Last summer I had the pleasure of visiting Mabb in his studio, link here.