Turner vist #1: In Preview

It was a rushed trip through and the exhibition was in previews (meaning they have to put the final spit polish on it), but this has to be one of the most amazing exhibitions I have ever seen of Turner's work.

The Met's exhibition actually rivals what I've seen at the Turner mecca in The Tate aka The Tate Britain, the home of many of the paintings on display - check out their online gallery.

It is a relatively short run new New York (through Sept 21st) and so I'm plotting out how many visits I can make in roughly 60 days (yes I'll be counting).

My love of Turner's work is hard to capture in a blog post as it is a combination of my love for art (in particular landscapes) as well as personal sentimentality dating back to when I briefly lived in London.

The Tate isn't sitting idle with the master on tour. Looks like they are exploring some of the mechanics of his use of colors.


With my boy who was a trouper but certainly wearing thin with his patience humoring his dad, I tried to stick to the most notably dramatic paintings (ships blowing each other up, armies clashing, or Greek ruins), but it was obvious the breadth of what the exhibition has to offer.

His use of colors is striking even in modern context with Pop Art coloring. To see his large paintings in person is to be enveloped.

Time to dust off the ol' sketch book. I'm already plotting my next trip. I missed a lecture yesterday (for about one of the only reasons that would keep me away) and I'll be looking for other events to celebrate this exhibition.

Wall-e and a digi-ani count down.

Who can deny a top 10 list especially after a notable update. It may be splitting hairs but I disagreed with a few of the Daily Kos top Pixar movies. I rounded up to 10 and decided to generalize to all computer animated films (though Pixar still dominates my list)...


10. Bee Movie

Similar to the Kos list, the bottom of my list is pretty far from the "top" of the list. The difference is my number 10 is the bottom of my list. To be honest I had to stretch to figure out what should my number 10 be (or is that bee). Ask me on another day and I might have put another here.

9. Toy Story
8. Toy Story 2
Unlike the Kos post, I do think these films hold up over time - the second much more then the first. The interesting characters are the cornerstone of Pixar productions.

7. Finding Nemo
As much as I want to hate this film it really is funny and does hold up despite the amount of marketing that has and continues to go into pushing this to kids.

6. Surf's Up
5. Happy Feet
These two non-Pixar films fall in the middle of the list. I think they do a good job with their stories and both have a unique spin that gives them legs. Surf's Up, animated only after the dialog had been recorded which gives the film a free flow. Happy Feet boarders on cheesy but the melodies keep the story pumping and the scope with which it completes works well (global warming).

4. Monsters, Inc
John Goodman and Billy Cristal make this film. For me this was also one of the first animated films that used the digital aspect to its complete advantage.

3. Ratatouille
This and the coming two earn their place in part to sentimental value. The story here really pulls you along and it is a novel exploration that makes it worth while - who can beat rats in a kitchen.

2. The Incredibles
Over a month long vacation I watched this almost every day on my PSP with my son. You might think it'd get old but the plot drives well and the characters and nuance of the imagery has a depth that hold up to repeated viewing.

1. Wall-e
Maybe I'm over reacting with throwing this so soon on top of my list but I really did like this film. Again Pixar explored the world uniquely. There are long stretches with little or no dialog and yet volumes are spoken in this love tail. The action is not overwhelming and yet helps drives the story along. There is more of an economy of characters in this story compared to other Pixar and in retrospect I guess I kind'a appreciate that additional focus.

Not to end on a negative note I think it is worth mentioning the omissions. Though I thought Cars was a valiant try I felt it was far to long and the plot just didn't make me care. The NASCAR appeal in it never factored in for me as I did think it held up in that light (I've a soft spot for the Car Talk guys), I just thought it a bad movie. The other notable omission is the Shrek films. Simply put I don't even consider them in the same league with even the worst of the Pixar films (which there are only a couple). I've not seen the recent Panda film so I may have to update this list after that.

Also missing from the list are the Pixar shorts which frankly would have forced out some of these on this list. The average Pixar short is better then many of the comparable films that aspire to this list (OK they are not aspiring to my list but you know what I mean).

So in conclusion if you haven't seen Wall-e, do.

You stepped into what?

(with appropriate aknowledgment to one of my favorite sites http://indexed.blogspot.com)

Pointers on gravity

From South Sea Port I have to say that the falls were not as awe inspiring as I would have hoped. Maybe once on a boat or up close they'll strike a different cord. One thing for sure is that they are a fascinating technical (and apparently bureaucratic) achievement.

There are plenty of articles out there on the falls, but this is one out of the New York Magazine describes how they work.

When pigs fly...

...or waterfalls sprout from the Broklyn bridge.

You been Served!

Moving mulch in Fort Tryon on Google Serve day.

Do Over - in three acts

ACT I:

Lighthearted consumer purchases iPhone to appease the needs of his wife as well as his gadget longings.

ACT II:

Off stage, said phone has a "un-described" incident befall it leading to its damage. Though not mortal, our protagonist struggles with this imperfection which cannot last.

ACT III:

Benevolent Apple employee replaces the phone with no hassle. They all live happily ever after (though doubts and ambiguity of the future abound).

Moral(s)/Lessons of the story:

1. V 2.0 is always the safer (more solidly designed) bet with Apple
2. Employees in the Apple store are gonna be a lot more forgiving then those over the phone.

Random picture with random and unrelated observation.

Nearly a year here and only now do I listen to U2's "NewYork". Losing
my Edge? At least the boy liked the Elevation tour t-shirt which was
purchased BEFORE HE WAS BORN!!

Quote the Raven...

Ever have one of those days where reading Edgar Allen Poe sounds like a pick-me-up?

What would teen angst do these days without Google to the rescue?

Wanted. Elbow room in Manhattan.

Haven't read this about the new Google Chelsea office, but there was lots of buzz about this around the office today.

After I do a read I'll post some comments as well as some personal observations.

George...

...Carlin?

Oh <explicative of your choice that is both blunt, ironically insightful on the world we live in, and funny>!!!

Goodbye to one of the greats.

Mark Twain's home

This caught my ear over NPR on Sunday.

Turns out that Mark Twain's Hartford, CT home (now a museum) is struggling with keeping open do to mounting debt. The NPR piece as well as most all the articles found in my news.google.com search played off Twain's own misfortunes with money as well as adding in some of his wittisisms ironicly played against the situation.

The AP article I noted this challenge was being experianced by a number of home/museums with Edith Wharton's home also getting singled out.

Turns out the confluence of the housing buble and the meager means of many of these home/museums is leading to too these problems. It also brings up a number of observations within me...

* Did they take out a Home Equity Loan on the White House too?

* Where do I let me emotions land? Do my criticism on money not handled well overide my love of Twain and his importance to American culture? My answer is pretty obvious but I pose it anyway.

* Why the hell do I have my family flying to Europe with fuel and the dollar driving up the trips costs when I have a so many options in my first summer living on the East Coast?

Cutting to the chase, if you have been looking to donate to something you might consider this.

Art + iPhone = MoMAudio

A great find. Surfing on my iPhone while waiting for the kids to finish their lunch in the MoMA cafe (which is one of the best museum cafe's I've ever been to by the way), I realized that you can use your iPhone (or other wifi device) to access the audio guides.

Most museums today have a kiosk near the entrance where you can rent or borrow a hand held player. These players are like cell phones circa 90's hanging around your neck on a lanyard. See a number next to a work of art, punch it into the player and then listen to commentary on the art, hear the artist discus the work, or the like commentary.

Uniquely MoMA has always made these audio devices free and today I realized it was even better then that. To impatient to wait in line for a player? Whip out your iPhone, pull up the MoMAudio website, punch in the numbers and go from there.

Yet another reason to make this one of my favorite NYC museums.

What I want in a blog tool...

So in my attempts to git rid of the fluff in Facebook that I just don't need, I'm faced with one feature that I really like.

Specifically, the ability in wall posts to include a link and then have face book go and grab an image from that link and an abstract. This makes it handy to post links to interesting articles or other stuff and have them be something more then a text blurb cut and pasted.

For example this is a crud cut and past from facebook. The formatting is a little screwed up but the important aspect comes after the URL link where the image and blurb were embedded without me doing anything other then cut and pasting the URL...

PART 2:
My old home town of Santa Monica pretty much blows the socks off of everyone else. I was glad to see that their library digitization project has/is wrapping up. Read more AND listen on their site...
http://www.kcrw.com/music/music_library

The Music Library Reborn — KCRW

Source: www.kcrw.com

KCRW, a community service of Santa Monica College, is Southern California's leading National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate, featuring an eclectic mix of music, news, information and cultural programming. Listen live, via podcast, or on-demand with RealAudio, Windowa Media, and iTunes.

A second post to test the waters...

I'm not sure if Facebook will pick up on the continued feeds from this blog so I'm posting to see what happens.

Idea for this blog...

I've haven't used this as a private Journal and with my new use of Facebook I've increasingly wanted to have a more public blog (instead of the "Wall" posts). So maybe this is the future of LoMa Journal. What needs to happen first...

* Clean out the few private posts
* Seed content from facebook wall
* Figure out a distribution model that still posts or includes folks from facebook (Friend connect? or can one push posts to facebook automagically?)

blb