Monthly Archives: September 2024

Ohio Players

30 September 2024 By in Music Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The Black Keys, with their new 2024 album, Ohio Players, haven’t confused their listeners this much since the critical acclaimed 2014 experimental acid trip, Turn Blue. This current collection of genre twisting songs suggests that the band has gone past peak Black Keys and wants to take their music into a new direction.

Ok, go down a different path but maybe it would be useful to pick one compass point rather than all of them at once. The record flows with currents of Neil Young and Cinnamon Girl, Paul McCartney’s post Beatles touch of sonic wonder, Ennio Morricone backing up Clint Eastwood, rap sexual crudities, and thankfully a bunch of album saving signature Black Keys blues and soul.

A confusing album but throw out the rap and it’s a decent contribution to the band’s oeuvre, not their best effort but enjoyable.

Trivia: The album title, Ohio Players, is a hat tip to Auerbach and Carney’s Ohio roots along with a tribute to one of the best funk-R&B bands from the 70s.

Source: AllMusic. Apple Music. Graphic: The Black Keys – Don’t Let Me Go, from Ohio Players, Easy Eye Sound and Nonesuch.

Know Thyself

29 September 2024 By in Art Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Draughtsman, etcher, painter, Rembrandt van Rijn, fascinated with the expressive face, inclined to acting out different character roles, inserting himself into the crowds to witness his subjects, shaping his public persona through his art, uncertain in youth, self-assured by mid-life, reflective towards the end, it is believed, with scholars still counting, that he created 40 to 50 paintings, 31 or 32 etchings, and 7 drawings of himself over a period of 44 years.

It is believed to be a record for self-portraits by a renowned artist.

The curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, C.S. Ackley writes that: “The artist used himself as a cheap model, studying his contorted features in the mirror.”

A student of Rembrandt wrote in 1678 that a young budding artist should use a mirror to aid in the representation of the passions or emotions in order “to be at once performer and audience.”

To paraphrase the Delphic maxim: Know your art by studying yourself.

Source Rembrandt’s Journey by C.S. Ackley, 2003. ThoughtCo. 2019. Graphic: Rembrandt, Self-Portrait, Oil on Panel, 1629, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.

Journalism–Jack Kelly 2004

28 September 2024 By in Journalism Tags: , , , Leave a comment

Jack Kelly, serial fabrication specialist, allowed USA Today to call him a reporter until 2004 when the newspaper grew tired of referring to Kelly as a journalist and fired him or somewhat more accurately, forced him to resign.

Kelly, a five-time Pulitzer nominee, in addition to fabricating stories also plagiarized material from paper’s competitors, conspired to mislead those investigating his work, filed unsubstantiated expense reports, and made-up events in a speech to Evangelical Press Association.  He had no shame, and naturally he maintained his innocence. It was all simple and honest mistakes.

USA Today began an investigation into Kelly’s work after receiving an anonymous letter that questioned the accuracy of his articles.

Blake Morrison of USA Today who investigated the reporter’s work wrote, “Perhaps Kelley’s most egregious misdeed occurred in 2000, when he used a snapshot he took of a Cuban hotel worker to authenticate a story he made up about a woman who died fleeing Cuba by boat. The woman in the photo neither fled by boat nor died.”

Trivia: I was unable to locate a picture of Jack Kelly.

Source: USA Today, NBC, CBS. 

The Last Stoic

27 September 2024 By in Biography, Philosophy Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Roman Emperor, soldier, stoic philosopher, stated in Book I of his Meditations that Plutarch’s nephew, Sextus taught him: “…life according to Nature, Dignity without pretense, solicitous consideration for friends, tolerance of amateurs and of those whose opinions have no ground in science.”

Marcus Aurelius, along with Alexander the Great are two rulers who came closest to Plato’s concept of a Philosopher-King. Plato believed that to rule justly and wisely required a thorough foundation in philosophical principles coupled with the skill to serve for the benefit of the state and the ruled rather than for personal gain.

Source: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Graphic: Bust of Aurelius extracted from Glyptothek Munich. Public Domain.

The Age of Metternich

26 September 2024 By in History Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Klemens von Metternich, under the Habsburgs, was the Foreign Minister, Chancellor of Austria and chief censor of word and speech in the immediate aftermath of the Napoleonic Era.

A strict monarchist, he attempted to suppress liberal democracies and nationalist movements by censoring the press, books, speech, and even tombstones through a process that became known as the Metternich System spanning the years from 1815-1848. This period subsequently became known as the Age of Metternich.

His system of censorship was implemented through the Habsburgs Court Police. Attacks against the monarchy, government, heads of state, religion, and immoral utterances were forbidden. The press was relentlessly controlled and censored. Violators of the censorship rules faced imprisonment, fines, confiscation of their works, and banning of publications.

The Metternich System collapsed when revolutionary idealism broke out in Vienna in 1848, and Metternich fled to England to save his skin.

Source: A Little History by E. H. Gombrich. Graphic: Metternich by Sir Thomas Lawrence 1814-1819.

Future Apes

25 September 2024 By in Movies Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: In the future some apes remember Ceasar, some lord over their slaves, some covet man stuff, and some are for the birds–Animal Farm meets Captain Fantastic.

Kingdom is the 10th movie in the series that began in 1968 with Planet of the Apes starring Charlton Heston; still the best of the banana bunch, originality wise that is.  

This movie is the first in a planned new trilogy that attempts to build on the previous trilogy. Unfortunately, it doesn’t surpass them in either acting or plot except for the supporting work of Kevin Durand for his portrayal of the movie’s antagonist, Proximus. He is superb and worth the price of admission.

Trivia or Goof: The flooding the man cave defies gravity. Try not to think about it.

Genre:  Action—Adventure—Drama–Fantasy—SciFi–Thriller

Directed by: Wes Ball

Screenplay by: Josh Friedman

Music by:  John Paesano

Cast: Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon

Film Locations:  New South Wales, Australia

ElsBob: 7.0/10

IMDb:  6.9/10

Rotten Tomatoes Critics:  80

Rotten Tomatoes Audience:  78

Metacritic Metascore: 66

Metacritic User Score:  7.0/10

Theaters: 11 May 2024

Runtime: 145 minutes

Budget:  $160 million

Worldwide Box Office:  $397.4 million

Source: IMDb. Rotten Tomatoes. Metacritic. Graphic: Movie trailer and poster, copyright 20th Century Studios.

Misfiring

23 September 2024 By in Music Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Post Malone, for his 6th studio album, F-Trillion (Long Bed), brought in 15 mostly country artists to help him put together his first all country effort. For the finished product he only needed 6—to act as pallbearers.

Except for the first two tracks, Wrong Ones and Finer Things, his twang belts out sing-songy mono-melodic tunes, more suitable for his past life as a rapper, than asking the likes of Hank Williams, Jr., Dolly Parton, and Tim McGraw to help him transition into mainstream country.

Speaking with Kelleigh Bannen of Apple Music about his latest effort Post Malone says, “I’ve always wanted to make a record like this, but for the longest time it seemed so inaccessible, because I didn’t know how the hell it worked.”  Maybe for his 7th studio album he will have learned how it works.

Source. Apple Music. Graphic: Album Cover for the extended version by Austin Post. Official video track for Finer Things. Second track on the album.

Versailles

22 September 2024 By in Architecture, Art, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

The Palace of Versailles is the modern definition of grand opulence. Opulence beyond the comprehension of the common man. Built as a tribute to, and glorification of, himself, King Louis XIV, who stood at the apex of the world stage in the 17th century.

He built the palace to move his court out of Paris, supposedly so he could exert more control over the French nobility.

Initial construction began in 1661 with the Grand Palace and its surrounding gardens and culminated in 1710 with the completion of The Royal Chapel. The entire estate covers about 2000 acres and various estimates suggest that Versailles would cost $2-50 billion to construct today.

The Hall of Mirrors, shown in the graphic, was added, along with the wings to the Grand Palace from 1678-1684.

Source: Versailles by Perouse de Montclos, 1991. Graphic: Hall of Mirrors, Britannica.

Journalism–Ken Dilanian

21 September 2024 By in Journalism Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Ken Dilanian was a CIA sycophant and government propagandist pretending to have been a reporter for the L.A Times and other news outlets. Dilanian, before publishing any national security stories, shared them with the CIA to obtain their approval to print. The spy agency instructed him in what he could and couldn’t publish, usually lies were approved while the truth languished in the discredited realm of the conspiracists.

After L.A. Times examined Dilanian’s emails, his government approved word smithing become known, and his work was disavowed by the paper in 2017. Dilanian is now working for NBC News as a justice and intelligence correspondent.

Through the years there have been rumors that the CIA had full-time employees seconded to all the major news outlets in the country. Carl Bernstein in 1977 said that upwards to 400 journalists were CIA plants and the most valuable employees or assets were at the New York Times, CBS, and Time.

Source: Muck Rack. The Intercept. CATO. Graphic: Ken Dilanian.

Sino Burn

20 September 2024 By in Climate, Science Tags: , , Leave a comment

China burns more coal than the rest of world combined, equivalent to almost 92 exajoules of energy in 2023 compared to 72 exajoules for the rest of planet.

For a sense of scale 92 exajoules would power 2.4 billion average U.S. homes for a year. In 2021 it was estimated that there are 2.3 billion homes in the world.

Producing 92 exajoules from coal requires the burning of 4.38 billion metric tons of the sooty stuff. This produces a little more than 9 billion metric tons of CO2, close to 25% of all anthropogenic CO2 produced in the world in 2023.

Source: Statistica. Visual Capitalist. MIT. EPA. Architecture and Design. Graphic: Coal, AI generated.