Filed under: art | Tags: jorge colombo, new yorker, art, iphone, apps, finger, painting
Jorge Colombo, a regular artist for The New Yorker, has been sketching glimpses of New York City since May. Not so unusual, save for the fact that he makes these images on his iPhone: dead-end streets beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, sunsets over the East River, families watching that iconic train schedule board at Penn Station.
He uses an application called Brushes on his iPhone. What was his inspiration?
“I got a phone in the beginning of February, and I immediately got the program so I could entertain myself,” says Colombo, who first published his drawings in The New Yorker in 1994. Colombo has been drawing since he was seven, but he discovered an advantage of digital drawing on a nighttime drive to Vermont. “Before, unless I had a flashlight or a miner’s hat, I could not draw in the dark.” (When the sun is up, it’s a bit harder, “because of the glare on the phone,” he says.) It also allows him to draw without being noticed; most pedestrians assume he’s checking his e-mail.
The artist at work is a joy to watch: Colombo begins in broad strokes of color, then adds layers that might contain skylines and geometric shapes, finally ending with specific details. There’s a neon-like quality to the Brushes application that also intrigued me. Read more about Colombo and his New Yorker covers.
Filed under: film, music | Tags: documentary, michael jackson, pop music, this is it, thriller
“This is It,” the documentary of Michael Jackson’s last tour rehearsals, opens today in major cities nationwide. I’m not gonna lie–I’m an unabashed devotee of Jackson and his music. As a kid growing up in the 80’s, his music impacted me despite racial, economic, and cultural differences. The CNN/AP footage above excerpts part of Jackson’s rehearsals for the tour.
When Jackson died this past summer, I was surprised by the reactions of my undergraduates. Where I mourned the passing of a great artist, my students–a generation younger than me–only saw a freak show. My students focused on Jackson’s baby-dangling, his extensive plastic surgery, and the scandals tied up in his Neverland ranch and inappropriate behavior with children.
My young undergrads never experienced Michael Jackson when he first appeared on the pop music scene. Jackson, of course, was instrumental to teenagers in the 80’s because of his raw lyrics, his mainstream accessibility of African Americans, and his artistry (the man invented the Moonwalk, for heaven’s sake–who else can claim this kind of global trend?). I remember sitting in front of the television in Council Bluffs, Iowa, at the stroke of midnight for the world premiere of “Thriller” on MTV (back when MTV was a video music channel, not a reality TV vehicle). In my living room, after my bedtime, I was drawn into Jackson’s early pop-and-lock choreography and the grotesque, fascinating vision of Jackson’s zombie crew.
Pre-YouTube and pre-copycat-artists, the original “Thriller” video was a sight to see.
Filed under: media, united states of america, women | Tags: f.b.i., new york times, prostitution, runaway, sex, teen
Ian Urbina writes for The New York Times an interesting series on teenage runaways, sex, and survival entitled “Running in the Shadows”. It’s a fascinating look at the issue from a variety of angles: the runaways and prostitutes themselves, their pimps, and law enforcement officials.
Strong reporting, with research on the motivations behind teenage prostitution and those who prey on this susceptible population. “Some look 12, some look 30. They all look scared,” the author reports in the video reportage (one of the Times‘ strengths). The pimps see themselves as “talent managers, not exploiters.” There’s a taped phone call from one of the pimps to a teenage prostitute that is harrowing.
Filed under: media | Tags: columbia, ethics, j-school, jay-z, jayson blair, journalist
A group of J-School students. A project to write a journalist’s oath of ethics. Pretty standard stuff, right?
This rambunctious group of grad students add a little hip-hop twist to their assignment, freestyling their oath to Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind.” In-jokes to avoid the mistakes of Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass. And the promise to “assume nothing, G. Cause if you assume, son…” Fun to watch these future journalists liven things up a bit.
Filed under: gay rights | Tags: maine, marriage equality, omaha beach, philip spooner, veteran, world war II, wwII
A moving video of Philip Spooner, an 86 year-old WWII veteran, who testified for gay marriage in Maine. “A woman at my polling place asked me, ‘Do you believe in equality for gay and lesbian people?’ I was pretty surprised to be asked a question like that. It made no sense to me.”
Spooner continues, with candor and compassion: “Finally, I asked her, ‘What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach?”
As election day nears, polls show that Maine voters are split on marriage equality: 48% in favor; 48% against. Critics worry about a repeat of the Prop 8 fiasco in California. Now, more than ever, we need to voice our support for marriage equality as clearly as Philip Spooner.
Filed under: government, technology | Tags: anarchist, Elliot Madison, G-20, protest, tweet, twitter
Or so it seems for Elliot Madison. The 41 year-old social worker sent tweets to his pals during the G-20 protests in Pittsburgh. Apparently, Madison was a part of grassroots group called the Tin Can Comms Collective. Madison’s tweets described protests and related events. As reported by the NYT:
Many of those messages tracked police movements. One read: “SWAT teams rolling down 5th Ave.” Another read: “Report received that police are ‘nabbing’ anyone that looks like a protester / Black Bloc. Stay alert watch your friends!”
Now, F.B.I. agents have arrested him for “hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility and possession of instruments of crime.” The federal authorities raided Madison’s home and confiscated equipment.
As Gawker reports:
Investigators are taking this thing super seriously: they raided Madison’s Queens apartment and removed antiquated items, like “newspapers,” an “address book,” whatever that is, and a picture of Lenin. Anarchists are so predictable.
A frightening proposition: Big Brother may be monitoring those 140-character messages you mindlessly send while waiting in line at the RMV. I’ve blogged in the past about the dangers of public life on the Internet. Ever wondered who’s following your Tweets and tracking your public information, and for what purpose?
As cantakerous and opinionated as ever, Gore Vidal talks with The Times about the deteriorating state of the U.S., his disappointment in President Obama, and his disinterest in discussing his writing.
How does Vidal, who switched support from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama during the primaries, feel about the current President’s performance?
I was hopeful. He was the most intelligent person we’ve had in that position for a long time. But he’s inexperienced. He has a total inability to understand military matters. He’s acting as if Afghanistan is the magic talisman: solve that and you solve terrorism.
He couples Obama’s lack of military experience with his pandering to the religious right:
Obama believes the Republican Party is a party when in fact it’s a mindset, like Hitler Youth, based on hatred — religious hatred, racial hatred. When you foreigners hear the word ‘conservative’ you think of kindly old men hunting foxes. They’re not, they’re fascists.
And his suggestion for a brighter, more effective Obama administration?
Obama would have been better off focusing on educating the American people. His problem is being over-educated. He doesn’t realise how dim-witted and ignorant his audience is. Benjamin Franklin said that the system would fail because of the corruption of the people and that happened under Bush.
Also responding to questions about his biography, Vidal speaks briefly to The Times reporter about his childhood with the Kennedys and the perils of Hollywood screenwriting. Perhaps most interesting is his riff on the differences between heterosexual and homosexual relationships. “Don’t make the error that schoolteacher idiots make by thinking that gay men’s relationships are like heterosexual ones. They’re not.” Of course, Vidal was speaking about straight and gay relationships in the objective, as he has long rejected labels throughout his public life. Identity politics seemed the least of his wide-ranging interests.
Gore Vidal, still fearless in his opinions and opinion-making. PBS has a fairly comprehensive introduction to Vidal’s work, if you’re interested, including a timeline and video. One of the hidden treasures on the PBS site is filmed footage of a photo shoot with Vidal, Norman Mailer, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
