finally, a dose of art and ("art")
Before I begin, I'd just like to wish everyone a Happy Spring! I've been waiting for this day ever since I saw that first awful blizzard in Cleveland (or as people out there call them, "oh, just some lake-effect flurries"). I had no clue when the "official" first day of Spring was, I was just considering it from the Russian tradition. Today was the feast of the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste, and in Imperial Russia, it marked the first day of Spring. They used to make little sweet buns in the shape of birds, because also according to tradition, the sparrows would return on this day to build nests again (or was it rooks?). Jordanville, which generally still lives in the world of 19th century Russia, still makes them for this day and they are shared in the monastic refectory. Funny how this ancient tradition of the reckoning of the first day of Spring coincides with the "official" reckoning.
Determined to take advantage of the fact that the ice from the last storm was indeed melting, I met up with a friend in Princeton. Got some lunch at Panera before checking out the University Art Museum. It was nice, but nothing too spectacular, although there was a small show of 19th century landscapes by Frederic Edwin Church which was rather nice. They were setting up a Pop Art exhibition which looks thoroughly boring. By the time we came out, it had gotten a bit cooler, but the weather was really fantastic today and I really enjoyed just strolling about campus, getting a bit of exercise, getting a bit of sunshine & fresh air, and the company of a good friend. Just wish it had been a bit longer...
Over the weekend, I got a chance to watch my latest Netflix arrival: A Scanner Darkly. Needless to say, I loved it. A film done entirely in rotoscope? Yes please! I am such a sucker... Especially as a political conservative, I probably should have hated it. The book was Philip Dick's cheap shot at the Nixon administration, and the film version was Linklater's cheap shot at the Bush administration. Of course, it is set "7 years in the future", but like Children of Men, which is also ostensibly set in the near future, it is not a futuristic movie at all. Well, whatever- I just thought it looked cool. The above image serves to illustrate the method whereby they made it, frame by frame, for those of you unfamiliar with the movie. Watching the DVD extra on "The Making Of", it seemed like a project I might have enjoyed working on myself. In fact, my senior year of art school, I made a series of posters in this style, alerting people to the social concern (which was the assignment) of the destruction of Serbian Kosovo (which was of course my choice). There are quite a few funny scenes in the movie, as well- such as this one, which is perhaps my favorite.
Last, but not least, I'm down to two illustrations for this project! I should really start sketching for myself again...