My weatherpixie's offline

My cute weatherpixie has gone offline. You may have noticed the big black gap in the side bar. The site has been offline for a couple of days now. I've had a glance 'round and other bloggers using it are experiencing the very same problem. I'll give it a few more days to see if it'll be up and running again.
They did add new types of clothing since my last post on this, but I don't think most of them can be considered an improvement.
But if that's what the kids are wearing it probably is considered cool...
Although I'm not too sure if I look at this page. Or if I have a look at the most repulsive combinations the Teens™ are wearing. Sometimes I'd rather do an Oedipus and gouge my eyes out than stare at the unappealing dress sense.

Meh. I must be getting old.

Renovated Wing at the KMKG

Thought I would just post this picture of the newly renovated Art from the Islamic World wing of the Royal Museum of Art and History in Brussels. It was taken with the camera in my phone, so not of the best quality. A small but impressive selection of some 300 artefacts (tip of the iceberg, the KMKG has an important collection, a lot from bequests) are displayed. The interior decoration gets its inspiration from islamic architecture. In front of the fourteen windows that border on the Jubelpark there is a big mashrabiyya. It is used in the East to prevent the warmth and the sun from entering the buildings but still provide some ventilation. The textile exhibits are entombed in sumptuous sarcophagi-esque display cases. One minor point here, some of them are so high (waist high), some disabled visitors will not be able to see. One of the top pieces is the earliest know piece of velvet with çintamani-pattern in the world.
The permanent exhibits are grouped per big period, there are some interactive screens with clear information for each section on architecture and period history. Flash presentation can be found here. At the end of the room there is a reconstruction of the front of a mosque with some original elements of beautiful wood carvings. There is an audio guide available. I'll be back there some time next week, I hope to bring my camera and make some more snaps. Right. I'll get on with my studying, have an exam on Art of the Islamic World on Monday.

The sense of the word

Mouser is sleepin' with the fishes tonight...


Still better that waking up with the severed head of your favourite horse betwixt the sheets.

Mouser's czech present

While in Prague, Dr Livingstone was out hunting for some gifts for the home front. Last time he was there, he bought me a beautiful necklace with matching earrings. It is the only piece of jewellery I have and occasionally wear. Except for the earrings. I never wear those. And this for a very simple reason. Two actually.
1) They're for pierced earlobes. I don't have pierced earlobes because of reason #2
2) I don't have any earlobes.
So that went down very well. We always joke about that to people saying the Dr was confusing me with all of his other girlfriends.
Middleteen™ is now the proud owner of a pair of earrings matching my necklace.

So this time round to try and forget about the earring debacle, he went for a new gift hunting stroll around town. And he found Mouser a present! How sweat is that! A weazel ball™. From the Weasel Ball site:

"At Weaselballs.com, we have a pretty niche business. We sell weasel balls, and that's all. We don't sell underwear, lawncare supplies or automatic weapons... anymore -- just a weasel and a ball, inextricably linked, forever and ever. The seasons will pass -- years may fly by, yet the weasel and ball relationship remains consistent. The weasel desires the ball, yet the ball is indifferent, maybe even a little bit distant. It flees. The weasel pursues. It is comedy and tragedy all rolled into one."

"Cat Torture
Cats love the Weasel Ball. And by love, we mean hate. Most cats hate the Weasel Ball and want to attack, scratch, bite and kill it. Some cats are just deathly afraid of it. It's fun. If you let your cat have a little too much me-time with the weasel ball, it may get ruined. No worries though, because then you can just order another one. Or seven. Ruin all the weasels you want, we'll make more! And by "make" we mean "order from China."

I will put Mouser in the 'some cats' instead of 'most cats' category. Poor kitty is scared out of its wits. And I mean scared as in horrified. As scared as that little squirrel we had in the garden a few weeks ago.
Dr Livingstone put a battery in it and the thing started to roll around. The little motor inside makes a very dull, grinding noise. I saw Mouser look up to me as if to ask 'WHAT in the name of ceiling cat is THAT?'

Next thing you know, velvet claws darts off into the garden with its fur all bunched up and a tail you could use as a duster.

So next time I'm leaving in a hurry and I need to put Mouser outside, I know what I'll be using to get it extramuralized.

Darling Democrat - 16mm

Quick plug for a very promising Canadian band 16mm. Their first video is up on 604 Records' youtube channel.

Grey

What miserable weather. I thought I'd post a miserable looking picture of a couple of Sturnus vulgaris sitting on some electrical wires in front of the house.

Nursery Times

A nest of Cyanistes caeruleus, or commonly known as Blue Tits, have taken up residence in the rafters of the pear refrigerator bordering on our garden.
I had heard all the twittering, but it sounded so fragile and I couldn't quite figure out where it was coming from. So I decided on a stakeout with my camera. Within minutes there was a little, jumpy bird looking at me, giving me that foul look and a little caterpillar firmly locked in its beak. Before it fluttered off, I managed to catch it on camera, I wanted to get a snap of it while entering the little hole next to the rafter, but even at a very fast shutter speed it still looks like a colourful blur.
Funny how every picture I take of the species, it always has those blue feathers standing up. It reminds me of the way Captain Haddock looks when he's all dressed up and his hair is parted all comely.



UPDATE: I've added this little picture I took just a few minutes ago. Finally cought the flying feeder on camera!

Offensive phrasing

Around 1.5% of the pages on your website contain cussing.
This is 83% LESS than other websites who took this test.




Good for me. So I thought: How very non-interesting, Let's slap it on the old blog. Yes, that's right, I'm deliberately wasting your time. So if you're reading this at work: get on with it! If you'd be my employee and I'd see you wasting time on the internet doing non job related things, you'd be out of the door before you could say disestablishmentarianism. For those of you reading from the comfort of your home or during downtime: Browse away my friends, this blog is nearly cuss-free. Only 1.5% of my pages contain offensive words...

Hello Lunch!

The shade shifting spider is having a little picnic in the back yard inside the flower of a Rhododendron ponticum. I went back yesterday to see if it was still there. I disturbed it while it had just gotten hold of a nice juicy fly. Very interesting to see it has those two tiny pincers in front, its venomous glands firmly dug into the soft spot between the flies' faceted eyes and exo-skeleton. All of its eyes on the lookout for any predators.
If I made a sudden move, it moved too, pray and all.

Food Porn

To enter the Mandarine Napoléon website,
you must be of legal drinking age
in your country of residence.



Why? Is this considered food porn? Can I get drunk just by looking at the pictures? If you don't agree, you get a nice empty google search page, if you agree, you get to see the index page. . This is just too silly for words. There are probably some binding laws the company needs to abide by. But having this sort of 'disclaimer' is, in my opinion, just a tad silly. But not nearly as silly as covering up ancient mummies. But close.

Colour changing spider

I have on of the coolest spiders in my garden. Misumena vatia, or Flower Spider as it is commonly known. It does not make a web but pounces on pollinating insects visiting flowers. It strikes by injecting venom.
But that is not the coolest bit about them.
It is able to change colour to match the flower it is sitting upon! How's that for extremely impressive?


From Wiki:
"The color change is made possible by secreting a liquid yellow pigment into the outer cell layer of the body. On a white base, this pigment is transported into lower layers, so that inner glands, filled with white guanine, become visible. If the spider dwells longer on a white plant, the yellow pigment is often excreted. It will then take the spider much longer to change to yellow, because it will have to produce the yellow pigment first. The color change is induced by visual feedback; spiders with painted eyes were found to have lost this ability.
The color change from white to yellow takes between 10 to 25 days, the reverse about six days."


Okay, it can only change from yellow to white and vice versa. But that still is pretty mind-blowing. How about those little 8 legged chemical factories, ladies and gentlemen.

The Mummy's Return

(This is a follow up post to Mum's the word on the naked truth)

I've just given this mummy business a bit more thought.
What if, just suppose, this was just a huge misunderstanding? What if sarcasm was the modus ponens here? I could see following conversation have taken place on a Monday morning around the coffee machine.

Museum staff #1 (been pondering this all weekend, reluctant to discuss the matter with colleagues): "What are we going to do about the mummy exhibition? We've had over a hundred complaints about inappropriate nakedness"

Museum staff #2 (not a morning person):"Well, why don't we just cover them up and be done with it?"


Well, it could have happened, couldn't it? Someone not spotting the subtle mock, taking it quite literally and just after the shit hit the proverbial fan, being ridiculed by the entire international historical community, falling back on the 'We are trying to follow Government guidelines about how they should be displayed with respect and sensitivity."

I just thought they were being displayed for educational purposes. Silly me.

Let's hope I can still go and take a look at those paintings of full fronted naked Jesuses, beautiful bare breasted and buttocked Venuses, cavorting Pans at the National Gallery when I'm in London again.
If I get a chance to squeeze past all those drooling, old, complaining farts that is.

Mum's the word on the naked truth

"The last time they had the chance to offend anyone was 2,700 years ago when they were wandering around ancient Egypt.
Since then the mummies have led a blameless existence, spending the last 120 years in a museum where countless thousands of visitors have managed to see them without anyone becoming in the least bit upset.
Not any longer, it appears." The Daily Mail has the full story.

Josh Lennon, a museum visitor, said: "This is preposterous. Surely people realise that if they go to see Egyptian remains some of them may not be dressed in their best bib and tucker.
"The museum response to complaints is pure Monty Python - they have now covered them from head to foot rendering the exhibition a non-exhibition. It is hilarious."

How utterly, utterly stupid. Well, good thing the UK has finally made it into the Victorian Age.

...Uh... wait, that's not right.

An essay on....what?

I have to write a page turning essay on the emergence and disappearance of photography.
Fine. If I just do a recap on everything we saw in class I'd be laughing all the way to the ....eh... keyboard.
But no. This course was just teeming with post modernistic drivel (and I don't mean in a Beuys way). I am contemplating doing a spoof of a post modernistic essay. Riddling it with quotes.... all by me, commenting on tidbits like I was the authority talking on the subject of the disappearance of photography. I've already dreamed up a few quotes I could use to litter across and discuss.
I really don't give a toss if he likes it. If he gets it, I'll get top marks. But I'll have to make it cunningly non obvious from the start and then gradually interweave it with PM spoof stuff.
I know that's going to take me ages, and I can only really start on it next week (last lesson hasn't been given). And I've still got 3 mayor exams and two museum visits in between.
He's given us a whopping three weeks to complete this Sisyphean task.




"My mind is aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of invention."

Hedley Lamarr

Renaissance Art Crime

A beginners guide to Facebook apps

Pretty sure I'm not the only one being bombarded to join in and take likeness quizzes, buy friends, give gifts, super poke, hug, kiss or pet someone, play vampires and werewolves,...(continues ad nauseam).
I have reached the conclusion that a few of my friends have way too much time on their hands because they have a massive array of apps installed. (Just to be VERY clear on this: all the little pictures found below are shots taken from my friends' pages).

Some of them are stomachable and are within the bounds of normalcy (they do however reside in the minority category).
E.g. 'Cities I've visited', 'Big photo'. Those have gotten the 'Mrs B approves' stamp.
Nice to share some stuff with people you don't see very often.

I only have the default ones on my account. So anyone sending me a message on my non-existent Fun Wall are talking to the virtual hand.

If you want to install some apps you need to give your email address and password so your data can be accessed by an unknown third party. There is just no way I am going to, but still, if you don't want your sensitive data accessed you can always register an account with yahoo or whatever with the explicit purpose of using it only for social networking sites. Me thinkst it the safest way not to have someone being able to cause extensive damage. But still some chance of that happening. Always a possibility to get hold of information and use it to some evil intent.
I'm surprised I haven't heard of this. But not hearing about it is not a guarantee it is not happening. It is easier to make some quick buck off a credit card scam than with an account. People hack computers all the time to reroute their illegal activities via some unsuspecting person. So someones account could help to cover your tracks if a diabolical mastermind wanted to.

Whoops, strayed a bit off topic there.

So about these applications. There are quite a few of them around. I have taken the liberty to shine my dark light on them and have categorized them for your convenience.

A) Some of them allow you to collect pointless things your friend send you (e.g. drinks, things that grow in the garden to save the rain forest, a fish tank and most bizarre of all: eggs that hatch a vast array of mammals, mermaids,…)

B) You can 'buy' your friends as a pet and then stroke them, give them gifts,...
Human pets. What do you do if you e.g. go on holiday and can't get some online time?
Tie them to a tree before you leave?


C) A pick of random woo crap:
-Daily horoscopes.
-Send Good Karma.


D) The biggest chunk of the applications are the quizzes:

1) Quizzes on specific subjects. Fun stuff, the time wasting kind. The very same flash games you can play online without having to give out your email address and password. I like the Traveler IQ Challenge.

2) The complete woo ones:
-What does your birth date mean?
-Who were you in a past life?
-What kind of eyes do you have?
-What kind of Mom will you be?
-What kind of Baby will you have?

3) Quizzes for the sexually insecure:
-What's your Sex IQ?
-What is your Karma Sutra Position?
-What's your sexual personality?
-What position are you?
-What kind of condom are you?
-Which Sex and the City character are you?
-What is your sex song?

4) If you're in some kind of identity crises or emotionally unstable you'll want to install these:
-Are you romantic?
-How good a kisser are you?
-Who's your celebrity boyfriend?
-Which foreign guy should you date?
-Will you marry your present boyfriend?
-What's your best quality?
-How classy are you?

5) There is even a quiz for the schizoid person:
-Which celebrity couple are you?

6) The totally pointless ones:
-What city should you live in?
-Which Johnny Depp character are you?
-What is your 80's song?
-What is your booze IQ?
-What weapon best suits you personally?
-How British are you? (I’m sure this is a very popular one with Scots, Welsh people and inhabitants of Northern Ireland)

7) Likeness quizzes which I find most irritating and extremely pointless.
-What fruit/animal/drug/celebrity/ rainbow colour/type of music/ cartoon character are you?
-Which dead Rock Star are you? (uh?)
-What kind of shoe are you? (who cares?)
-What god are you? (if you're a member of a monotheistic religion I suppose you won't be installing this one or you’d be pretty miffed to find out your Vishnu).

This one must be the pinnacle of them all:
-What dictator are you?

8) The questions you should be asked by/or see a doctor about:
-How big a drinker are you?
-Are you colour blind?

9) The rhetorical question, nicely answered for you anyway by the app.
-How evil are you? (this should be linked to the dictator one).
-How stupid are you? (is this based on the count of the number of apps installed?)

I've left out tons of others, but they are equally nauseating.

And finally the app not on there but needs to be (or is it?):
"What Facebook app are you?"

Come fly with me

It looks like a bee, it behaves, sounds and hovers like one. But it's not.
It goes by the name of Eristalis tenax.
That does sound like some sort of anti-inflammatory drug, but nevertheless it does do some serious pollinating.
We tend to forget that and focus on other more popular insects.
Like....eh....bees.

Disgusting diseases, rat tailed larvae, stagnant water.

Eeeek!
Get away from my flowers!
Shoo!

Springtime (part 7)

Not one of my best pictures but I figure the lambs score a 7 out of 10 on the cuteness scale. It is just too tempting to put a caption on it.

So I'm not going to.

Skrik

Anecdotally, Dr Livingstone was just across the street from the museum when the Munch pictures were stolen in 2004.

The Scream and Madonna were returned to the Munch Museum on 31st August 2006, two years and nine days after the ruthless burglary. The damaged paintings were placed in specially constructed display cases and shown to the public for five days at the end of September. Despite the short duration of the exhibition, it was viewed by 5.500 visitors. Since the exhibition, the pictures have been the subject of comprehensive investigations and a cataloguing of the extent of their damage.

Read more about the conservation efforts on the Munch Museum site

How to explain Post Modernism to Mrs B

I've always had some difficulty with post modernism. Nothing I had previously looked or thought about, or conceived to be 'art' could help me to understand/appreciate/explain/comment on post modernist works. I'm clutching at straws, jumping in the pool at the deep end. I have struggled to comprehend or feel the line where art history stops and borders on/transitions into art philosophy.
Yesterday I feel I have finally grasped the way to go ahead and see things differently (with my eyes, with my thoughts). It's about letting go of all things you've ever known or used to look at art. But I think I finally grasp the Art after Art theory.
It is difficult to view PM art. One artist wants us to look at his work and feel things, another wants us to reflect upon the products of his imagination.
Some works make us feel alienated, force us to let go of presumptions, challenge our preconceptions about art or even life. Some artists shock for the sake of shocking. Some artists don't want to make self explanatory works or explain their works, according to some explaining means missing the point of making (or defeating the purpose) of art. Some concoct theories, implement them in their work, and then make some works that do not totally abhor to their original theory. The same goes for art critics or connoisseurs.

Art has always been elitist and inaccessible to most people. I would have to make an exception for religious and ethnic art though.
Well, at least everyone will look at it with some level of understanding. But the prime feature is that it has a clear purpose. And granted, art has in some way, shape or form been masquerading as sheer propaganda (think Contra-Reformation and Baroque). But never has there been such debate on art as in the last sixty years.
First thing that opened my eyes was to view PM in a historical context. I had done so previously with the periods covering 'traditional' art up to the apparition of expressionism. Most things exhibited from later periods in musea I would glance at them sideways or walk right by.
It is so simple to do the same for PM. The time scale is much more condensed than the previous millennia. But society has also changed very dramatically in sixty years time. A work made in the seventies would not be the same in the nineties. (I have to think of the question 'why wasn't this work made 100 years earlier?').

So why the big "Eureka" moment? I've been reading up on Joseph Beuys for my Contemporary Art class. Beuys is different.
He wasn't at first to me. Not in the Art History Classes I took ten years ago. He is now. Now that I've made an effort to delve deeper into his works, void of all the commentaries of everyone who wants to voice or has voiced an opinion about him or his works.

If we look at an artist like Beuys, people today still say 'Its not art', 'He is sheer genius', 'These are the ramblings of a crazed loon',...
Are these statements the consequence of not understanding his work or trying to envelope oneself in the 'myth' of the elitist crowd hailing this as the best thing ever? Who dictates if something is art? Why is it considered art now and was it hailed as the next best thing/booed all those decades ago?

In his work, at the time, he was not the only person doing performances. Beuys was different. Very much so in his approach to art and education. After an eight hour performance he would still interact with the audience and explain what it was all about.
I must say his work is very accessible. This might seem a bold statement, but it makes more sense to me now.
If people hear the word 'art' or 'art education' I don't think the first thing they think of will be a Beuys performance. "Wie man dem toten Hase die Bilder erklärt" It does seem goofy to go around with a dead hare in your arms, your face covered in gold leaf, explaining paintings to it.
But Beuys has opened my eyes on how to look at PM art.