In addition to my DOWN and UP categories, one (favorite, faithful) reader suggested I add MEH. I hope she wasn't suggesting it should all go into MEH. But maybe that's where it all should go. I have a hard time coming up with DOWNs, though the current political meshugaas provides ample, though tiresome, content. As for UPs, nature and humor have always lifted my spirits. Generally, I guess I'm just a MEH person....taking things as they come, not getting too exercised one way or another. I think I'll reverse the order, though, and start with UP.
UP:
1) Learned about the Salon yesterday in my reading about Vincent Van Gogh. My actual knowledge of impressionists and impressionism has been scant, to put it kindly. The Academy, the powers that be in the Paris art world of the time, disliked and often mocked such artists as Cèzanne, Degas, Manet, Monet, Morisot (Berthe! a woman!!), Pissarro, Renoir, and Sisley. And Van Gogh. The Academy sponsored one big art show in Paris every year--the Salon--and all artists strove to be included so as to solidify their reputation. It was a huge show, with so many paintings they were hung on four levels. Nobody wanted to be hung on the highest level, up near the ceiling, but the impressionists, if they were accepted at all, wound up in this "sky," where nobody could see them. The impressionist artists, however, believed in their work, and so in 1863, 30 of them got permission from Napoleon III to hold their own art show, Salon des Refuses--Salon for Rejects. These nontraditional impressionist artists banded together and helped each other, even sharing food if necessary. What courage! and what passion for their work!
2) I've got my blinds open so I can see the front door in case the UPS/USPS truck shows up with my projector as promised. The new fob system makes a nice LOUD racket when somebody enters the building. Many residents have complained, but not me. I like it.
DOWN:
1) As usual, I lost the thread for Van Gogh--how he connected with the impressionists (through Cezanne? Gauguin?) and when and if he succeeded in having any of his paintings hung in the Salon des Refuses (or even in the high-falutin Salon itself?). I'm always in a hurry to put things down, and I forget just where and what I've covered even though I've read all about this recently. This blog format especially requires condensing things. Wish I could organize my time or take actual notes when I'm reading wherever.
2) The DC library has no books at all specifically about the Neanderthals. I did discover that the center for their presence in Germany is practically on top of where my mother's family lived. And her side of the family has always had big heads (by dimension) and there's lots of red hair here and there (both said to be characteristic traits of Neanderthals). But some studies say Neanderthals and humans missed each other by many centuries and did not interact. Others say this is nonsense, and I'm inclined to believe it. There are a number of people I've known personally who look very much like the sketches purporting to show what Neanderthals looked like. Minus the long hair and animal-hide garb.
3) Hulu and Netflix have that abominable system whereby they discern
what KIND of movies you like. So if you watch some movie merely out of
curiosity, they skew your choices to this type forever after. Nuts to
that.
MEH:
1) The bathroom sink is plugged up, and I'm out
of drain cleaner. I'm also out of cherry jam, not that this has anything to
do with the drain.
2) Nobody is using the washers this morning. I try to do my laundry
during the week when most of the other residents are at work, but I'm
"behind wit' the ironing," as my dear sister-in-law Joyce's sister used
to say. Not that I iron at all except very occasionally. I mostly gave that up in 1965.
Standing ovation!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteKay, you're too kind. Have a swell weekend!!
ReplyDeleteVery enjoyable post M.E.
ReplyDeleteDidn't know about the "Solon for Rejects." Interesting.
Have you ever read "Letters of Vincent Van Gogh?" Most of the letters are to his brother, who was an art dealer in Paris.
Haven't read all of them. Just one or two. What a fake I can be. Diving into this topic with so little firsthand knowledge. I do identify with Vincent, though. Right now I'm figuring out how many paintings I'd have to do every week to mach his 2001 paintings in his last 10 years. :)
Deletere Vincent's letters. Somewhere in an early version of XE, I have a picture taken in front of the place where Vincent and his brother first stayed when Vincent arrived in Paris. Problem with many or most of those old pictures is that they have disappeared. But I remembered that day and that area...it was right down the hill from where we were staying in Montmartre.
DeleteMATCH, that is....almost 4 a week, non? Something like that. There's an exhibit at the Phillips Collection here that started today: "Van Gogh Repetitions" where he uses the same basic drawings but produces different versions. http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/wireStory/van-goghs-artistic-repetitions-featured-dc-20542110
ReplyDeleteHe sold only one picture in his lifetime: "the Red Vineyard."
XE---Hmmm...I think that I mis-remembered, misconstrued, or misunderstand what I had previously read. I had thought that genetics were the basis for saying that our red hair came from our Neanderthal genes. I now find, from the Smithsonian website athttp://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/genetics/ancient-dna-and-neanderthals/neanderthal-genes-red-hair-and-more that, "The specific MCR1 mutation in Neanderthals has not [sic] found in modern humans (or occurs extremely rarely in modern humans). This indicates that the two mutations for red hair and pale skin occurred independently and does not support the idea of gene flow between Neanderthals and modern humans. Pale skin may have been advantageous to Neanderthals living in Europe because of the ability to synthesize vitamin D. "
ReplyDeleteI gave up ironing in 1990. That became one of Hunky Husband's domestic chores.
Cop Car
oh, well....i can't think of anything less certain than what genes do when they're spliting and reduplicating. I just read something two days ago about how they can mutate in strings. Where DID I read taht? Was it online or in the WSJ weekend edition?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I read somewhere a long time ago, that the skeletal structure of caucasian women born in the midwest take on the configuration of native american women's skeletal structure. So I guess if my mother's family in Germany was born on the soil where Neanderthals once lived, they might take on some Neanderthal traits. I really don't know, and I doubt anyone else does, either. And if whole strings of DNA can mutate, anything's possible.
And speaking of reading weekend newspapers, I saw that Camilla is gonna DESTROY Phillip in their divorce. Divorce? those two? I should have read that entirely instead of poking around in the WSJ. Can't abide Peggy Noonan anyway, though there's lots of other interesting stuff. I can still find it online, maybe. The GLOBE??
Hunky Husband does ironing? He's a sweetheart!!
did not proofread that comment! "spliting" sb "splitting" etc.
ReplyDelete"take on the configuration" sb "takes on...." etc.
Meh is good. Meh is happiness in disguise.
ReplyDelete