The motives for tattoos are many, but they all have a common subtext. A tattoo can mark a group identity—sailors, soldiers, inmates, gangs, motorcyclists. It can memorialize a person or event, as in a virtual archive of snapshots of tattoos showing names and faces of deceased loved ones (I attended a presentation of the archive by two academics in Toronto last year). Sometimes they happen by blunt peer pressure, a set of 20-year-olds on Saturday night getting drunk, knowing not what to do until one of them blurts, “Let’s go get a tat and a ring!” (a good friend tells me of pulling out just as his turn came up). Continue Reading »
“Street art—you mean vandalism? No, thank you.” That was the response of a friend when I invited him to join me at the Museum of the City of New York for their recent exhibit, “City as Canvas.” His scruple was understandable but a little out-of-date.” Continue Reading »
Martha Bayles’s expertise, which besides her punchy prose is the main attraction of her Hole In Our Soul , extends beyond the p’s and q’s of American popular music, but also covers the impact various theories of modernism and art had upon the music’s development. She is . . . . Continue Reading »
Terry Teachout, the drama critic for The Wall Street Journal, wrote a fascinating article that was buried in the weekend edition of the June 26th newspaper, “Too Complicated for Words: Are our brains big enough to untangle modern art?” Here is a condensed version:The novels of [James] . . . . Continue Reading »
Start your week off right with some headlines and other items (not all tongue-in-cheek) from around the internet: Canonization Images at Catholic Eye CandyAdvent Preview: Watchman, Tell Us, What the Heck Is That Blue-and-Yellow Explosion Meant to Be? Unitarian Universalists Embrace Moral . . . . Continue Reading »
The Anchoress offers a meditation by Pope St. Gregory the Great: You should be aware that the word “angel” denotes a function rather than a nature. Those holy spirits of heaven have indeed always been spirits. They can only be called angels when they deliver some message. Moreover, those . . . . Continue Reading »
Bought two posters depicting the Holy Trinity yesterday for my First Communion class. This first one, the “Old Testament Trinity Icon,” I know well and love. I especially love the idea of the Trinity’s quiet intervention, as mysterious guests, to set in motion a history which will . . . . Continue Reading »
A question from a philistine: Is this personage in the chiffon sheer off a picture window supposed to be God? Or Eve? Or what? You’d think that “Adam Sleeping” would be a relatively simple narrative to represent, but apparently not. On second thought, I think that must be God. . . . . Continue Reading »
Here’s an image to ponder: Crucifixion as blood-type test. And just think how fabulous it’ll look over Jody’s sofa. [Rating: -27.3 out of 100]from . . . . Continue Reading »
