Althouse: Street portraits.

February 24, 2023

Street portraits.

I'm back in Madison now, but here are 3 shots I took in Manhattan a few days ago.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

35 comments:

rehajm said...: A few people we thought might have insight had not heard about Tommy. Surprised. I’m not sure anyone will know…

I’m not sure yet if that’s suspicious or not…; 2/24/23, 6:35 PM
k said...: I love the art. I love the expression. Is it just that you are there in the hive with 8.4 million people that you just put it up wherever -- you please, you desire, you are moved to ....??? I do and don't understand.; 2/24/23, 6:44 PM
Lurker21 said...: Trying to watch Yellowstone, but it's a long, slow slog. I feel like one of the German immigrants in 1883 trying to get to Oregon from Texas by wagon train, rather than going with the railroad from New York to San Francisco and taking a left. The vastness of the landscape compounds the boredom, and spending time with Indians complaining about being dispossessed or with the oligarchs, old and new, who displaced them isn't an escape from today's problems.

But the alternative is Brainwashed: Sex, Camera, Power, a long feminist lecture about patriarchy, the male gaze and female objectification produced by the Disney kids. It makes me feel like I'm in a reeducation camp during Mao's Cultural Revolution. As one critic noted, Brainwashed comes close to living up to its own title.

The Flight Attendant wasn't bad, but the price of admission is accepting the sluttishness ... er ... sex positivity of the lead character, Penny from Big Bang Theory.; 2/24/23, 7:18 PM
wildswan said...: There was a parking garage collapse in a mall in a Milwaukee suburb near where I live a few days ago. This was caused by piling up plowed snow from ramp and garage clearing in a single heap on the flat roof at the top of the garage ramp. The snow was "wet" snow, heavy snow which can be ten to twenty times as heavy as the light fluffy stuff. No one was injured though no one can get their car out for a month because the entire ramp pancaked down through all three stories of the garage. I mention this because there's big snowstorm hitting Southern California, land of flat roofs. Is it wet, heavy snow? Don't plow it up in a heap on a roof! or you'll lose the use of your car!!!!! for a month!!!!!!! - but probably Southern California has no snow plows, so no danger.; 2/24/23, 7:55 PM
Owen said...: Striking pics. Hyper-sharp focus and it seems a great depth of field. In an old-style SLR I would guess a $$$$$ lens and pro-level lighting etc, but the new smartphone tech seems eerily good at a less-frightening price point.

Maybe someday you can tell your blog fans what was happening in NYC that produced such amazing images. Somebody (plural) went to a lot of trouble to create that strange art and put it out where it will soon be trashed, overpainted or worn away. What’s going on?; 2/24/23, 7:57 PM
Jaq said...: When AI can write like this, we are done for as a species of artists.

Owing to the roughness of the sea, the steamer arrived late, after the sun had set, and it was a long time turning about before it reached the groyne. Anna Sergeyevna looked through her lorgnette at the steamer and the passengers as though looking for acquaintances, and when she turned to Gurov her eyes were shining. She talked a great deal and asked disconnected questions, forgetting next moment what she had asked; then she dropped her lorgnette in the crush.

What AI would have written was "When she realized that her husband wasn't on the steamer, Anna Sergeyevna decided to have an affair with Gurov."; 2/24/23, 9:05 PM
wildswan said...: Who is Tommy?
Agree with those puzzled by that well-done art which seems to be graffiti. I would not like to live in a place covered with weird art but that's just me. But what's not just me is that they're having trouble luring people back to live in New York or work there - there's only 50% as many people working there as before Covid. But I can't decide whether the weird art is the last sign of the creative force or another aspect of the reason people don't want to live or work there anymore.; 2/24/23, 9:30 PM
gadfly said...: The Plain Dealer is dropping Dilbert from its cartoon pages after Scott Adams went off the deep end with nary a lifesaver to suck on.

Adams said Black people are a hate group, citing a recent Rasmussen survey which, he said, shows nearly half of all Black people do not agree with the phrase “It’s okay to be white.”

“I would say, based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people,” he says in the video.; 2/24/23, 9:39 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I've noticed some radio commercials using certain phone ring tones to attract our attention; i found myself annoyed by it... and now i know why.

link to Darkhorse podcast clip; 2/24/23, 9:41 PM
AZ Bob said...: Good eye, Ann.; 2/24/23, 9:41 PM
wildswan said...: The Ukraine war reached some sort of inscrutable climax, some collapse of strategy and policy into a jackstraw pile of contradictions when Biden promised Ukraine aid while ignoring East Palestine. Said Ukraine's borders matter, ours don't; said Ukraine wants to be free, ignored the de-platforming of Newsmax by DirecTV. I totally support the Ukraine war and think it's morally justified but also justified by the most self-interested considerations. But we seem to be enveloped in the moral/historical fog that has always enveloped Eastern European history as we here in the USA see it, e.g., the Russians deliberately caused a famine in the Ukraine so the Ukrainians turned to the Germans as liberators, oh, no, the Germans are Nazis intent on exterminating Slavs. Just another day in East European history; or, e.g., Poland recovered itself as a state after World War II by being given German land; or, e.g., the maggots feasting on our republic's wounds understand the righteousness of the Ukrainian desire to be free like us.
Ukraine can win because Russians don't want to die in huge numbers for the Ukraine. Even prisoners in Russia are now refusing to sign up to fight there. Hang on, Sloopy.; 2/24/23, 10:15 PM
William said...: In an urban setting, you have an eye for ugliness but ugly with bright colors.... No picturesque sunrises in NYC. NYC in February: Slate gray skies and freezing rain. A drab kind of ugliness. Congratulations on bringing out the brighter shades of urban decay.; 2/24/23, 10:55 PM
William said...: When I was kid, you looked to comedians for laughs. They weren't artists who forged the uncreated conscience of our race in the smithy of their souls. Trenchant social commentary was not the forte of Jack Benny or Red Skelton. Their acts didn't have the subtext of a tragic hero looking for truth. Lenny Bruce fucked up comedy for all time. His pale gray breath has conquered all.; 2/24/23, 11:17 PM
gadfly said...: Despite spending days bopping around Lower Manhattan, Ann wrote not a word about Greenwich Village's nasty newspaper war where just about everyone in the industry wants to own a paper.; 2/25/23, 12:00 AM
Art in LA said...: I enjoy taking pictures of street art too, think murals and graffiti. I do it because of the ephemeral nature of the pieces. They might not be there the next time I am passing through, and oftentimes it is very striking. Keep shooting and posting these!; 2/25/23, 12:21 AM
Chris N said...: Like that 3rd one especially. So far, I find that the best way to contribute to any kind of mural that catches your eye doing street, is to use composition, light, color etc and make your own little painting. I think the 3rd one does that best.; 2/25/23, 3:29 AM
planetgeo said...: Your planet is interesting. Somehow enchanting that, at the end, the Manhattan cave dwellers made their art wheelchair accessible.; 2/25/23, 3:55 AM
wendybar said...: “After a year of teachers telling me I’m a racist, I have never noticed race more”

Towards the end of the speech he explains that this is why he is now pursuing a home schooling program, for which he receives applause from the people in the room.

https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/02/minnesota-hs-student-principals-attempt-to-unify-us-ended-up-pitting-us-against-each-other-based-on-characteristics-we-cant-control/; 2/25/23, 5:42 AM
Humperdink said...: So it appears the US blew up Russia's Nordstream pipeline. Does that mean it's open season on our infrastructure? (Asking for a friend.); 2/25/23, 5:48 AM
Kai Akker said...: Sad craziness from people being packed into close quarters in a world of concrete. Once I might have thought these diverting, but now they seem to shout of sadness, distortion and disturbance.; 2/25/23, 5:52 AM
lonejustice said...: Public officials are drinking tap water in East Palestine, Ohio, after train derailment.

"Along with DeWine, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, and EPA Administrator Michael Regan all made a point of drinking the water in front of cameras, with Regan noting, “That’s good.” (Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, also posted a video of himself drinking the water in East Palestine on Feb. 16, even though he represents a district near Houston.) In a video posted by Husted, a number of officials, including the mayor as well as the police and fire chiefs, offer a toast before drinking the water."; 2/25/23, 6:10 AM
DrSquid said...: Why in the world did you go to NYC? In the winter? Or at all? I hope it was not something bad.; 2/25/23, 6:25 AM
Jaq said...: "the Russians deliberately caused a famine in the Ukraine"

That famine was a tragic result of Soviet Leader, and Georgian, not Russian, Stalin, and his benighted communist policies. and it killed millions across the Soviet Union, not just Ukrainians, but in order for the Ukrainians to keep their burning hatred of Russia alive, history has been distorted.

Hate communism, I do, I hate naziism too, but not Germans.; 2/25/23, 6:34 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Someone asked why I went to NYC in February. I can't find that comment now, but I'm going to answer.

The stars were in alignment: There were a number of people I wanted to see, one of whom was only going to be there for a few days.

Also, it was warmer than Madison and the main thing I would do in NY or Madison was to walk around, so it was a good time to do my walking in NYC.

Finally, there was that Tom Stoppard play, "Leopoldstadt."; 2/25/23, 6:43 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Also, I wanted to break my long streak of not flying anywhere. I had not been in an airport since before Covid and I didn't want to become excessively averse to the damned process of getting on a plane.; 2/25/23, 6:44 AM
Jaq said...: I think that most people would be better off if they had a black friend or two, to show how much nonsense is in all of this race baiting is. It's probably another marxist psy-op, intended to provoke a reaction among white conservatives that can then be exploited by Democrats to get blacks to vote against their own economic interests.

It's hard for people to see three turtles down, so that's the weakness that the ruling cabal, and I use that word advisedly, we don't really know who actually rules us, do we, but that is how the ruling cabal keeps us under their thumb.

I have given up on democracy. You can't have an election where trillions of dollars are at stake, and then tell Americans that it should be run on the "honor system" and any complaints about that are treason. People are just too easily manipulated, we would be better off with a king and take politics out of our daily lives, imagine how much less divisive that would be.; 2/25/23, 6:50 AM
Humperdink said...: My spouse and I flew 9 hours (+/-) each way to Hawaii in December. Prior to the grinding flights, there was the pat down, the removal of liquids, the presenting of my laptop, going shoeless/ hatless for a time, and layovers for hours (while paying for a $4.00 for a bottle of water). That will be our last flight in the foreseeable future. Trains are out. Load up the diesel Passat and proceed to spew emissions! Hey, at least it's not vinyl chloride.; 2/25/23, 7:01 AM
Humperdink said...: "People are just too easily manipulated, we would be better off with a king ..."

That's what the the people of Israel said. They wanted a king. They chose Saul. Then David and then Solomon. It was downhill from there. Under Rohoboam the kingdom was split. Hmm.; 2/25/23, 7:11 AM
Owen said...: tim in vermont @ 6:50: “…better off with a king…”

A lot of people have been saying that since 1776. Jon Meacham’s “Jefferson and the Art of Power” describes a powerful and persistent sentiment (if not formal movement) for monarchy.

Not sure how you would rewrite the Constitution but that’s a detail. The Federal executive is now firmly in the driver’s seat. Biden’s ukases are the purest kind of autocracy: and are indeed worse than a monarchy, because even if only morally, kings can be held to account.; 2/25/23, 7:23 AM
Kai Akker said...: ---So it appears the US blew up Russia's Nordstream pipeline.

Biden said it; and it happened.

That may be the biggest argument against our having perpetrated it.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/02/did-biden-blow-up-nord-stream-1-2.php; 2/25/23, 7:42 AM
Humperdink said...: Gisele Fetterman (D-Defacto Senator) fled to Canada when her husband was hospitalized. Tammy Wynette was unavailable for comment.; 2/25/23, 7:53 AM
MadTownGuy said...: Ivermectin: a multifaceted drug of Nobel prize-honoured distinction with indicated efficacy against a new global scourge, COVID-19

Published on, of all places, the NIH website.

"Abstract
In 2015, the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, in its only award for treatments of infectious diseases since six decades prior, honoured the discovery of ivermectin (IVM), a multifaceted drug deployed against some of the world's most devastating tropical diseases. Since March 2020, when IVM was first used against a new global scourge, COVID-19, more than 20 randomized clinical trials (RCTs) have tracked such inpatient and outpatient treatments. Six of seven meta-analyses of IVM treatment RCTs reporting in 2021 found notable reductions in COVID-19 fatalities, with a mean 31% relative risk of mortality vs. controls. During mass IVM treatments in Peru, excess deaths fell by a mean of 74% over 30 days in its ten states with the most extensive treatments. Reductions in deaths correlated with the extent of IVM distributions in all 25 states with p < 0.002. Sharp reductions in morbidity using IVM were also observed in two animal models, of SARS-CoV-2 and a related betacoronavirus. The indicated biological mechanism of IVM, competitive binding with SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, is likely non-epitope specific, possibly yielding full efficacy against emerging viral mutant strains."

Why on earth is this still not authorized for use against C-19 here in the US?

I'm also posting this for the benefit of those who insist on calling ivermectin "horse dewormer." The team of researchers who developed it for use on humans for use as an antiparasitic treatment won a Nobel Prize. Despite the efforts of the "experts" it has been shown to reduce hospitalizations and mortality. Hereinafter, any time I see "horse dewormer" or "unproven," I will respond with the link to this article.; 2/25/23, 8:23 AM
Robert Cook said...: "Public officials are drinking tap water in East Palestine, Ohio, after train derailment."

Will they continue to drink, cook, launder, or bathe with it all day every day, (as the ordinary residents must do, having no other option)?; 2/25/23, 10:15 AM
Robert Cook said...: "Why in the world did you go to NYC? In the winter? Or at all?"

NYC is a always a splendid place to be, for any reason, (or no reason)!; 2/25/23, 10:19 AM
Candide said...: Humperdink said...
“So it appears the US blew up Russia's Nordstream pipeline. Does that mean it's open season on our infrastructure?”

Come to think of it, there was a number of disaster events in US infrastructure since then, mostly power grid failures but also train derailments.; 2/25/23, 10:20 AM