Archive for June, 2010
Chills and Thrills
June 30th, 2010
It’s a fated day for Twi-hards: the next Twilight installment is achingly imminent. A recap for the over-fifteens: first came the 100 million-selling series of vampire-fantasy-romance novels by American author Stephenie Meyer, featuring Bella who falls for 104 year-old vampire Edward. Then came the films from 2008, shuttling their stars Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner and – sigh – Robert Pattinson to planet superstardom in the process.
Writer’s Block
June 29th, 2010
Today’s the feast of saints Peter and Paul, princes of the apostles who stood as early leaders for their faith, so Apostle Paul (c. 1657) is up for discussion here. It’s an incredible image (whether you’re Christian or not) by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606 – 1669) that most-glowing master among golden age Dutch painters.
For Pete’s Sake
June 28th, 2010
The feast of Saint Peter falls tomorrow, so I thought we’d take a peek at his story today (as seen in some of the works at the NGA), starting with the lead image, from the studio of Peter Paul Rubens (c. 1616). Before he met Jesus, Peter (original name Simon) was a fisherman, and it was his brother Andrew (also a fisherman) who introduced the two. The brothers hadn’t had much luck fishing, which changed as soon as Jesus arrived: suddenly they couldn’t haul up the fish-filled nets fast enough. Peter was amazed when Jesus told him: “You’ll be a fisher of men.” Here’s Duccio, Calling of Apostles Peter and Andrew (1308-11):
Pleasure Principle
June 27th, 2010
Paul Bloom’s recent book How Pleasure Works (The New Science of Why We Like What We Like) will surely be piquing people’s interest. Blooms says “I’m not a happiness guy – there’s nothing new that I can tell you about how to live a fulfilling life. Instead, I am interested in the more concrete topic of pleasure.” Bloom breaks down the difference thus: happiness is a prolonged state of being that can come from a selection of sources (a relationship, religion, even your genetic write-up). Pleasure, by contrast, is an automatic/ instinctive response that has a shorter running time (from 30 seconds to an hour or two).
Orange Juice
June 26th, 2010
I feel a bit blue this morning, sad that the Hump is done and dusted: loved meeting you, readers! check out the photos on the Hump page! So I’ve been on the hunt for mood boosters and found some help close at hand. Here’s what Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute and author of More Alive with Color has to say: “there are days we need a shot of adrenaline before we even get out of bed, and colors can help with that.” Eiseman suggests that “by surrounding yourself with bright colors – something as simple as an orange bathrobe or a yellow umbrella – you can give yourself that needed energy boost to face the day.”
Off the Wall
June 25th, 2010
The British anthropologist and Oxford professor Robin Dunbar has a theory that the number of people with whom we can keep up stable, inter-personal relationships is limited by the size of our brains. Dunbar’s magic friend number is set at 150. Now. Call me crazy (or friendless) but that sounds like a lot to me and to keep 150 friends in close calls for a serious case of the social butterflies. But of course since networking sites shoehorned themselves into our social lives, friend circles are spinning out of control. Facebook is the worst offender: they co-opted the word friend, created a new verb and make us feel frankly inadequate if our friend list sits in the double digits.
Check out this week’s video. And thank you to everyone who came to last night’s Hump Party.
Meet and Greet
June 24th, 2010
This week I’ve been laying into ‘online’ a little, suggesting (on Monday) that it can lead to loneliness and encouraging (on Friday) people to peel away from their Facebook wall. But it seems that ‘on-line’ is shaking off its ‘isolated’ and ‘cyber’ stigmas: on the self-same day that roomfuls of Art 2010 readers will gather at the Hamiltonian Gallery in DC to celebrate the half-way point of this blog project (still not too late to sign up for the Hump!), I’m seeing that tech can actually teach people how to meet up en masse, in the real world.
