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You’ve no idea how hard I’ve looked for a gift to bring You. Nothing seemed right. What’s the point of bringing gold to the Gold Mine, or water to the Ocean. Everything I came up with was like taking spices to the Orient. It’s no good giving my heart and soul because you already have these. So—I’ve brought you a mirror. Look at yourself and remember me…
—Rumi
Thanks… but no thanks.
Quite the dinner party we participated in last night, lasting well into today. Good times were clearly had by all present—thinking back (with the benefit of sober hindsight), it now seems highly likely that it may indeed have been the muktuk and frozen Brennivín (aka “black death”) gleefully served in the wee hours of the new year that did the most damage…
Let’s just say it’s been a day of mostly abstinence… Na zdarovye!
Frosty rural Manitoba, Canada
Thank You! for visiting this blog in 2010—more than 113,000 unique visits from 188 countries (traffic was up 66% from the preceding year with over 80% from first-time visitors). And thanks again to all who have contributed ideas, inspiration, suggestions, and comments.
Happy New Year! to friends far and near…
Cheers!
Los Angeles, California
The Center for the Study of Political Graphics has a few new online exhibitions of “oppositional goodness”… among them, MasterPeaces, High Art for Higher Purpose and Art Against Empire, Graphic Responses to U.S. Interventions Since World War II. A small sampling of the posters and graphics on display appears above.
Source: Social Design Notes
(go ahead… say it)
Merry Christmas. Fun Festivus. Good Goru. Happy Hanukkah. Kick-ass Kwanza. Jolly Juletid. Mirthful Mummering. Sanguine Saturnalia. Just name your Yule-type… I wish you well.
Peace on earth… and, Cheers!
Overcast Manitoba
Weather was not on our side, so we missed quite the sight in the wee hours of this morning. The total lunar eclipse that began a few hours ago took on a bloody red hue at its peak. Since the moon aligned with the Milky Way’s stars this time around, an enhanced ambience (apparently) made it particularly spectacular. This total lunar eclipse is the first one to occur on the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere in 372 years…
Drat! Missed it, due to persistent cloud-cover… well, maybe next time around. :-| The photo sequence above was taken in Manassas, Virginia, showing the moon in different stages of today’s total lunar eclipse. Source: NPR.
Ningi, Queensland, Australia
James Corbett used to work in an auto recycling business in Brisbane. Access to vintage car parts (he especially likes 50s and 60s British and French marques, apparently) and a knack for assemblage led him to full-time art-making in 1999. His unique “car part sculptures” can now be found around the world. James does OK by his art as well (the ram above, featuring a body of spark-plugs, reportedly sold for $23,000 lately). Read more about James and his work here.
Thanks to my CIRCLE colleague Carisa Romans for introducing me to Corbett’s remarkable work.
New York, New York
Thirty years ago today, John Lennon was taken from us at the young age of forty. The campaign for peace that he devoted so much of his talent and energy to continues…
Methinks John would have liked these compelling cartoons by Mr. Fish—many more to be found here.
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“It’s better to help people than garden gnomes.”
—Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)
