August 7, 2017

At the Tiny House Café...

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... you can talk about whatever you want.

The photograph is one step back from last night's "Slap Dash Café."* Here's 2 steps back...

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... reminding us all once again: Don't get too close to the genius.

_____________________

* Where Big Mike said: "Looks like a part of a Van Gogh, but the technique isn't right." Which just goes to show: You can't figure it out from the details. As they say: The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

48 comments:

Big Mike said...

Oh, good Lord, so it was a Van Gogh! I was right and wrong at the same time.

Ann Althouse said...

That's what you get for hedging your bet.

tcrosse said...

Have you ever heard a Dutchman pronounce 'Van Gogh'? It sounds like my Grandfather clearing his throat in the morning.

DKWalser said...

I was about to ask who the artist was when I saw the Van Gogh tag. I spent about 4 hours in the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam several years ago. I could have happily spent 4 days.

Big Mike said...

I wasn't hedging. I visited the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam in 1973, which is too long ago. The brush strokes looked wrong from that close up, more like they'd been put on with a palette knife, but the particular yellows and blues were almost like a fingerprint.

BTW, tcrosse is right.

Bay Area Guy said...

Have you ever heard a Dutchman pronounce 'Van Gogh'?

Woody Allen on "Van Gogh"

Bill said...

So beautiful. Don't you just want to eat that creamy impasto?

Ralph L said...

Who's Van Goghs are these? Not Indianapolis'?

In college, I tried to get that stripey effect on a single-color lithograph. The instructor said I should look at Cezanne after I told him I was thinking of Van Gogh.

William said...

VanGogh could have achieved the same effects with far less paint. Very profligate, especially when you consider that he used oil based paints. Tubes per picture square foot of canvas should be an important metric in our appreciation of artists. This metric should be clearly stated at the bottom right of every picture put on public view.

Michael K said...

The medical library used to have a print of Van Gogh's painting Doctor Gachet, his physician who had treated his psychiatric problems with digitalis. Digitalis can cause yellow vision when overdosed. Several of his paintings, including one of Dr Gachet show this effect.

The first of his painting of Dr Gachet shows the effect.

At the time, it was not as unreasonable as we now assume to use digitalis as a treatment since many drugs are discovered this way.

The first antipsychotics, like Thorazine, were originally antihistamines.

Ann Althouse said...

It is in Indianapolis.

Luke Lea said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Luke Lea said...

The closer you get to a great painting the funnier it looks. The artists that did them knew something normal people don't about the psychology of seeing. It was more than just an ability to draw.

Rabel said...

Just to follow up: in commenting on Saturday's post about a corporation trying to buy the town of Nipton, California to establish a marijuana haven of some sort I wrote that before the publicity you could have bought one million shares of American Green for $1600.

As of right now your $1600 will only buy a half million shares. It doubled in price today. I point this out not to pump the stock (I don't own any and never have) but because it allows me to say that this type of stock manipulation is sometimes called "buying the buzz."

buwaya said...

"Tubes per picture square foot of canvas should be an important metric in our appreciation of artists."

This seems an eminently sensible environmental regulation. It could be explored by a joint task force of the EPA and NEA, with a timetable of public feedback and of course a few lawsuits from environmental organizations.

great Unknown said...

re tcrosse:

A South African once told me that German, Dutch, and Afrikaans are not languages, they're throat diseases.

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

~
Hard to get inside the preservation of such beautiful instability.

Inside The Design Of The World's Most Beautiful Tiny House

FullMoon said...

California Democratic representative Maxine Waters wouldn’t rule out the concept of an all-black political party when asked about it on Monday.

Waters joined “The Breakfast Club” radio show on Monday morning and was asked if it was time for black people to form their own political party.

“No, not at this point,” Waters said. “You have to show that you’re willing and you’re able to put the numbers together and exercise your influence.”

http://dailycaller.com/2017/08/07/maxine-waters-wont-rule-out-all-black-party-video/

Portlandmermaid said...

Loving Vincent, a fully painted, biographical movie about Van Gogh is being released in Sept. Each frame is oil on canvas in the style of Van Gogh.

The trailer is on youtube: https://tinyurl.com/z497tzx

FullMoon said...

Multiculturalism Director Plans Segregated Dorm For Black Women

North Carolina State University wants to create segregated housing for black women on its campus, the The North Carolina State News reports.

This latest initiative is the brainchild of the university’s new director of multicultural student affairs, Nashia Whittenburg. The new “living and learning village” will be for women of color only, while Whittenburg also envisions celebrating cultural differences at the academic institution.

“There’s so much opportunity,” Whittenburg told the News. She envisions her responsibility as one of making students feel more separate and comfortable.

The university is already celebrating multiculturalism by separating its students from one another. There are no fewer than 16 “villages” on campus where students can fellowship with other students who are just like they are. There’s the Black Male Initiative village and the Women of Welch village that are designed to appeal to “special interests and particular demographics.”

http://legalinsurrection.com/2017/08/north-carolina-state-administrator-wants-segregated-housing-for-black-women/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LegalInsurrection+%28Le%C2%B7gal+In%C2%B7sur%C2%B7rec%C2%B7tion%29

jwl said...

Almond blossom at Van Gogh museum was lovely, I had one of those reactions you can't explain but I was bewitched when I saw it in person.

Clayton Hennesey said...

New, improved rules for bakers:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/aug/7/bakers-refused-make-pro-trump-birthday-cake-9-year/

Chuck said...

Trump going after Sen. Richard Blumenthal again. And again using the seven-year old story about Blumenthal's references to himself as having served "in Vietnam" when in fact he was a Marine Corps reserve officer who served during the Vietnam but who never did a tour of duty in Vietnam and was never in combat. The old story was well-covered at the time, including in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/nyregion/18blumenthal.html?pagewanted=all

Trump has resorted to the old attack on Blumenthal before. Trump basically wrote the same Tweetstorm earlier this year when Blumenthal reported to the press (accurately, it turned out) that then-judge Neil Gorsuch met with the Senator during his SCOTUS nomination and said that he found Trump's trashtalking of federal judges was "disheartening and demoralizing." Trump didn't like that, and claimed in a Tweet that Blumenthal had "mischaracterized" Gorsuch. Blumenthal hadn't mischaracterized anything, and in his Senate Judiciary Committee hearing a few weeks later, Gorsuch used the same two words in questioning from Blumenthal.

Fast forward to today, when Trump is seething over Blumenthal's comments on the ongoing investigations of Russian involvement in the election and with the Trump campaign. Trump again goes after Blumenthal in just about the most vicious way anybody could under the circumstances of the old Vietnam story.

For his part, Blumenthal doesn't engage in a Trump-level counterattack. No personal attack on Trump, the way that Trump has personally attacked dozens of people in public life.

Because it is amazing, that a paunchy fatass like Trump who dodged the draft in 1968 has the chutzpah to challenge anybody about Vietnam-era military service.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/questions-linger-about-trumps-draft-deferments-during-vietnam-war/2015/07/21/257677bc-2fdd-11e5-8353-1215475949f4_story.html?utm_term=.4ffe791954e3

"Bone spurs"? Baloney.

And of course, Trump's military service shouldn't and wouldn't be much of a big deal to me 49 years later. But for Trump's own personal election to once again dig into Blumenthal's old military service! The personal viciousness here, as it generally does, begins with Trump.

And of course I again point out that the last time Trump publicly challenged Senator Blumenthal, it was Blumenthal who was proven to be 100% correct.

Michael K said...

"a paunchy fatass like Trump who dodged the draft in 1968 "

When did you serve again, chuck?

eddie willers said...

Leave it to Chuck to throw a turd into a Van Gogh punchbowl.

Chuck said...

Michael K; what difference does it make? This is TrumpWorld, where truth is beside the point and the only thing that matters is the memorable, sticky zinger.

btw; as you know because you have asked this stupid question before, I was too young for the draft, and definitely too young to have ever gotten to Vietnam. I never dodged any draft -- there was no draft to dodge -- and if I had wanted to serve in Vietnam it would have been as a tourist since the war was over before my 21st birthday.

But it worked; I pressed your button with "a paunchy fatass like Trump who dodged the draft in 1968." That was the whole point. A memorable insult like "Crooked Hillary," "Low energy Jeb," "Lyin' Ted," "Little Marco" or this latest attack on Blumenthal.

We already decided that "The Short-Fingered Vulgarian," while apparently working wonderfully well on Trump himself, just had too many syllables. So it was time for something new.

Chuck said...

eddie willers said...
Leave it to Chuck to throw a turd into a Van Gogh punchbowl.

"... you can talk about whatever you want."

David Baker said...

I wonder what Van Gogh would have thought of McDonald's potato eaters. I suspect he would've been appalled by their apparent prosperity, and the odd shape of their potatoes.

I also wonder if the fragment Ann posted is a knock-off. There are so many floating around, even at some the great museums. Master art forgers can fool virtually anyone - except - when it comes to signatures and hallmarks - particularly signatures. As I've mentioned before, signatures are next to impossible to forge.

But there's also the problem of cataloging, specifically artist's works that weren't cataloged, such as paintings of their mistresses. This is especially problematic because of the individuals who inherited the mantle of "expert," many of whom were not and are not expert, but rather individuals who simply lived in close physical proximity at the time of the artist's death.

Back in the 90's I was asked to look at a painting believed to be a James McNeill Whistler. Among other details, Whistler liked to hide butterflies (moths, etc.) in his paintings, and it often required a trained eye to find them. But in the work I was asked to look at, there were no hidden butterflies, and no signature - typical when the subject was a mistress.

In any case, after lifting the canvass I did find a barely visible signature on the stretch-frame, not Whistler's, but a signature penciled in by his art dealer in London - pretty good evidence itself suggesting a Whistler. At the time the world's go-to expert on Whistler was a bookkeeper - not an artist, nor trained in art. In fact, she couldn't tell the difference between a Whistler and a Sargent. But there she was, the world's "expert" - and the only person recognized to authenticate works believed to be Whistler's.

But then you have Van Gogh, who often included sketches of his work in his many (700+) letters to his brother Theo. Which in numerous instances now serve as Van Gogh's definitive catalog.

You may also recall Akira Kurosawa's "Dreams," wherein he brought some of Van Gogh's paintings to life. Absolutely enchanting, with Martin Scorsese playing the art student.

Michael K said...

" I pressed your button with "a paunchy fatass like Trump who dodged the draft in 1968."

No, I just asked a question since you seem to be an expert on the military.

I just examine recruits where heel spurs are disqualifying so what do I know ?

Bad Lieutenant said...

Hey Mike,

That and you actually served.

I bet you know that you only have to be 18 to enlist, not 21, even in Michigan. 17 with parental consent.

Don't tell Chuck, he will weep bitter tears for his missed chance.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Of course, he's already admitted that patriotism isn't his bag, baby (no room in his bag next to all the penis enlargers, I suppose)!

Chuck said...

I just examine recruits where heel spurs are disqualifying so what do I know ?

So you'd be just the guy to ask, how it could have been that Trump might have been a high school baseball, basketball and football player, and a military school corps commander for a parade in New York, and a skier in college, and how he never needed any treatment for his supposed heel spurs, and yet got a draft deferment around the same time. Trump's got no records; no recollection of who examined him; nothing.

Imagine Trump's getting that kind of story in relation to Obama's birth certificate, and how he'd react. Why does Trump get any veneer of respect, when he offers nothing like it to others?

Michael K said...

Ronald Reagan was a member of the Army Reserve all through the 1930s and learned to ride on an Army saddle yet, when the war began, he flunked the physical and was accused by all sorts of armchair commandoes like you of avoiding service.

Heel spurs are often found in people who have done athletic things but the military requirement is to do these things wearing army boots.

We had a whole training session last week on bunions and why there are criteria for disqualification. These kids are trying to get in, not get out and they are still disqualified.

I have no information on Trump's deferment but I've not heard any evidence that, like Bill Clinton he lied.

I suspect that, unlike John Kerry and Al Gore, he was not worried about politics. They chose to go in using influence to get cushy assignments which, in Kerry's case, got switched and he had to suddenly fiddle the records to avoid combat,

Cheney was working on a PhD and had no thought of politics until he was hired by Rumsfled and has been quite honest about why he was not in Vietnam.

You seem very interested in any negative thing about Trump but claim you are a LLR.

You and Jeff Flake seem to belong to the seem party.

The Godfather said...

Although my taste in art is more Hudson River School, I have always liked Van Gogh, and I like the highlighted painting. My problem is that I find much of his work happy and uplifting, which doesn't fit with his biography.

@Portlandmermaid: The clip you posted looks great! Do you have any more information about where the full product can be seen? (and which Portland do you swim around?)

Michael K said...

"same party."

Michael K said...

"17 with parental consent."

99% of them are joining the Marines. I'm sure chuck never learned about that option.

Lucien said...

Regarding proposed legislation to protect Mueller's job, why don't they just call it the "Tenure of Office Act"?

That way everyone will know that firing Mueller would be an impeachable offense.

Chuck said...

An of course, Michael K, I would not be talking about Trump's draft record today, if Trump weren't talking about Blumenthal's seven-year-old story about his 47-year-old military record.

Trump dredged this up.

And if Trump is not going to be careful about facts in an instance like this, I am not sure why I should be.

Bad Lieutenant said...

So you'd be just the guy to ask,

And you did ask him, and he answered you. I'm guessing you don't like the answer because you shut up. You generally do that when you're not winning. I notice it often when I post.

Bad Lieutenant said...

What might be interesting to know is what got President Trump started on this. How did the issue come to be raised again?

Fabi said...

Give 'em hell, Chickenhawk Chuck!

Michael K said...

"And if Trump is not going to be careful about facts in an instance like this, I am not sure why I should be."

Blumenthal is a liar and an example of stolen valor as Senator Tom Harkin was.

My wife and I were listening to the Caro LBJ biography as we drove around on errands to day. I've been listening on my commute for weeks but today it got into the 1948 Senate election that Johnson stole by 87 votes out pf 900,000 cast. It is so interesting right at this pint that she did not want to get out of the car. I may have to get her a Kindle version of the books.

Do a thought experiment. Coke Stevenson was a revered figure in Texas politics. Johnson had to steal 50,000 votes to beat him by 87.

What is Johnson had lost ? It would have been the end of his political career.

No vice-presidency. No president Johnson.

No War on Poverty that has given us the violent inner city ghettoes.

No War in Vietnam, most likely. No 1960s terror and leftist revolt.

The leftist students would not have been hiding from the draft in grad school which set them up to wreck university faculties.

No Great Society and its National Debt and disruption of National culture.

Maybe no Kennedy assassination since he was in Dallas to try to patch up his Texas weakness.

America would be a very different country if Johnson had not stolen that election.

Maybe Nixon would have been elected in 1960 and Kennedy would have served multiple terms in the Senate instead of Teddy.

The election of Johnson may have set the stage for the destruction of the United States.

Portlandmermaid said...

@godfather--here's the website: http://lovingvincent.com/ I hope the movie is as beautiful as the trailer.

I'm on the west coast in Portland, OR.

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael K said...

Look, I'm not playing the heroic veteran here.

Trump got a deferment on legitimate medical grounds. I had a kid a year or so ago with heel spurs who wanted to get into the military who didn't know he had a problem until we had him do the heel walk. Plantar fasciitis is often associated but heel spurs alone are disqualifying.

I was taken with a three level compression fracture in 1959. I didn't know until medical school. Had they told me I was 4F i would not have argued.

People like Blumenthal and Kerry and Harkin are liars and liars about things that are really despicable.

I guess I am not surprised that chuck would not realize this.

In the 1990s we used to have patients at County who would tell the students they were Vietnam vets, but I would tell the students that the patients would have to have been 12 years old.

In WWII there was a rule, "f he can see lightning and hear thunder, we take him." Judges used to sentence kids to join the Marines.

That was over by 1972.

FullMoon said...

The formerly anonymous author who penned the “anti-diversity” memo at Google that leaked this weekend, James Damore, has been fired,

Ralph L said...

I hope Google searches better than they make management decisions.

Chuck said...

Trump got a deferment on legitimate medical grounds...

But that presumes that Trump is being honest; and it presumes that Trump didn't game the process back in the 1960's, and obtained a fraudulent medical exam.

I choose not to believe Trump, based on his astonishing history of lying, manipulation and fraud. You are free to believe Trump if you want to; I don't mind a bit.

But that sort of argument is the least of my interests. I am not going to change your mind about Trump; and you won't change mine. My point was different. It was to smear Trump personally, in the way that Trump personally smears his own rivals and challengers. Indeed, the way that Trump chose the completely off-point and irrelevant story about Blumenthal's military service to smear Blumenthal. Many people will reject my point about Trump's draft dodging. But it will stick with many others. And it is designed to stick to Trump in a way that is uniquely harmful to him, insofar as he always wants to associate himself with strength, and American loyalty, and the military and national heroism. All that, bumps right into "draft dodger."