September 19, 2020

Walking Through A Spider Web — Jeff Worley

September 19, 2020 at 04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pompeii Walking Tour in 4K

YouTube caption:

In this walk you will start at the main tourist entrance of Pompeii. You'll then walk through the famous Marine Gate and into the Forum. Here you will see the Eumachia, what was once the largest structure in the Forum. Next, you will walk into the Temple of Genius Augusti (Temple of Vespasian) and see a marble altar at the center of the courtyard. Finally, you will walk through the Macellum, the original marketplace of the Forum. The video includes historical facts about each site and also about the general history of Pompeii.

September 19, 2020 at 02:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

'Show me the Monet' — Banksy

[A detail of Banksy's 'Show me the Monet']

From Barron's:

Sotheby's to Sell Banksy's 'Show me the Monet' The street artist Banksy's irreverent remix of Claude Monet's famous images of a Japanese bridge crossing over a water lily-filled pond in his garden in Giverny will be offered at Sotheby's in London next month. Show me the Monet, painted in 2005, immediately evokes Monet's famous water lilies, but is filled with jarring images of upside-down shopping carts and a traffic cone bobbing in the water. Sotheby's will sell the oil-on-canvas work for an estimate between £3 million and £5 million (US$3.9 million to US$6.5 million) at a live-streamed auction in London on October 21. "He is the master of the visual one liner," says Alex Branczik, Sotheby's European head of contemporary art. Banksy's "subversion is done in a way that's humorous," Branczik says, yet it "can pass off quite serious and powerful messages." Branczik describes the painting — a riff on the work of one of the greatest artists of the 19th and 20th centuries — as one of Banksy's most important works because it's one of the illusive street artist’s most recognizable images, and because of its featured role in the artist's first gallery exhibition at 100 Westbourne Grove in West London in 2006. Show me the Monet was among 22 works in the exhibition, titled "Crude Oils: A Gallery of Re-mixed Masterpieces, Vandalism and Vermin," and the first to sell. The private collector who purchased it has held it until now. As the exhibition title suggests, actual vermin — 164 "stage" rats, in fact, hired from a film and theater company — were set loose in the gallery during the show. Banksy often features rats in his works, calling them "the triumph of the little people, the undesirables, and the unloved." In quarantine, he painted the critters causing mischief all over his bathroom, sharing the images on Instagram. The Westbourne Grove exhibition marks the moment Banksy became an indoor street artist, "overpainting things that didn't belong to him," Branczik says. "He was picking up paintings at flea markets, doctoring them, and then smuggling them into public institutions and then hanging them on the wall — an incredibly audacious and amazing thing to do," he says. The first work in this series was Crimewatch UK Ruined the Countryside for All of Us, where Banksy, in 2003, covered a "bucolic country scene with blue-and-white police tape," and placed it on the wall in Tate Britain, according to a press statement. In Show me the Monet, Banksy "shines a light on society's disregard for the environment in favor of the wasteful excesses of consumerism," Branczik said in the statement. The work also speaks to the fact that Monet's garden was a created environment, a "very self-consciously designed" space — with a purposefully placed Japanese bridge — that was meant to serve his art. "It's not real life," Branczik says. Driving shopping carts that appear to come from the U.K. grocery chain Sainsbury's into the water, "is almost a vandalism of the artwork itself." By offering this iconic Banksy work at auction next month, Sotheby's is continuing a tradition started two years ago when it sold Girl with Balloon, which became Love is in the Bin, after it spontaneously shredded when the hammer went down. The £1.04 million sale was an instance of Banksy smuggling a work into a venerable arts institution, as reportedly happened. Then last year, Sotheby's sold Banksy’s Devolved Parliament for £9.9 million. The 2009 painting, which was reworked by Banksy not long before it was sold, depicts chimpanzees as U.K. Members of Parliament. "Even the incident of Love is in the Bin has made it clear how deep the market is, and how wide, for really top collectors of his work," Branczik says. "With that in mind, it's been a conscious decision to try and find the next painting which can get to those sorts of levels — it's been a thing to do in October."

September 19, 2020 at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Experts' Expert: Pro Tips for Doing Laundry

Patric Richardson calls himself "The Laundry Evangelist."

Below, a sampling of his advice.

• Use less detergent. Too much detergent can create so many suds that they trap soil, allowing it to redeposit on clothes. Try using half the recommended amount. Your clothes will look better and you'll save money.

• To keep dark colors from fading, turn clothes inside out before washing. Use cold water and the Express Wash setting to minimize the amount of time they are abrading against themselves.

• To bring back white cotton sheets that have yellowed, use hot water and oxygen bleach, which removes oil.

• If you're running short on drying time, throw a dry towel in with the load. The towel will absorb some of the moisture and help your clothes dry more quickly.

[via the thelaundryevangelist and the Washington Post]

September 19, 2020 at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mount Fuji Eraser

From the website:

The Mount Fuji Eraser is a fun and clever way to bring this icon of Japan into your home or work stationery set. As you use the cuboid eraser, the shape of Fuji gradually comes into view, and you find yourself holding an image of Japan's most famous peak. This is a pack of two erasers in different colors: a cool blue and a fiery red, which is a popular image of Fuji at sunset. Even the paper sleeve has a classic vibe, inspired by various traditional Japanese patterns and motifs. Features and Details: • Eraser sleeves are randomly chosen and may differ from images pictured above and below • Instructions: Japanese (but easy to use)

Set of two: $25 (errors not included).

September 19, 2020 at 08:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 18, 2020

Turquoise Glass Face Inlay of King Akhenaten

1.7 inches high.

Egyptian, New Kingdom, Eighteenth Dynasty, c. 1353-1336 B.C.E.

Eye and eyebrow recessed for inlay, with enlarged pierced earlobe, the neck with two lightly incised "vanity wrinkles."

Acquired at auction April 26, 2012 for $360,000 by the Corning Museum of Glass.

September 18, 2020 at 04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Away"

WARNING: SPOILER BELOW!

What can you say about a 10-part series about the first manned mission to Mars in which the landing happens in Episode 10?

For the first few episodes I was OK with the five astronauts getting ready for the mission and the many back stories and the interplay between them.

Good thing the cast is uniformly excellent all the way down because by the end of Episode 6 they were only 2/3 of the way there.

At first I thought Hilary Swank was miscast as mission commander and that they'd have done better to use Kristen Stewart or Charlize Theron if they insisted on a woman, but after a few episodes Swank became totally believable.

"Away" is sort of a reality show that's not real but seems like it could be, taking place in weightlessness [I refuse to use the technically correct term "microgravity" because it's annoying], speaking of which, the sets and special effects are superb.

All manner of catastrophes ensue as their Atlas spacecraft approaches Mars, and for a couple episodes it appears they won't make it but will instead either die en route or after landing.

Then Mission Control comes up with an ingenious maneuver that will return them to Earth without their ever landing.

Then another stroke of genius makes it possible to them to land after all and stay alive on the Red Planet until a supply ship arrives.

In summary: once I realized that the series was going to primarily focus on what happened before the mission actually began and that I was OK with that because the back stories were for the most part quite interesting, and because the screenplays (all done by different people, as was direction of individual episodes) were very good, I was fine with however the story played out.

You decide: if you're the type of person who liked "The Martian" because the whole movie happens on Mars,

but can't stand the idea of a Mars mission drama that doesn't get there until near the end, perhaps this isn't your cup of oolong.

September 18, 2020 at 02:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

How Millennial Are You?

My score = 4.

You?

September 18, 2020 at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

This fanboi's gonna pass

As expected I was all fired up about the unveiling of the Apple Watch Series 6 this past Tuesday.

When I calmed down and read the specs, I just couldn't get very excited as I have in the past with each new iteration.

I love my Apple Watch Series 5 and wouldn't hesitate to upgrade to the 6 if there were new features that tickled my fantasy... wait a sec, that's not right... never mind.

The 6 adds blood oxygen saturation measurement but mine is always 100% so it might as well tell me my birthday.

Other changes: the screen's a little brighter, it charges a little faster, the processor runs a little more rapidly.

Not enough new bang for my $529 (44mm screen + cellular option).

What features will make me pony up for Series 7?

FaceTime camera, blood pressure measurement, and a bigger screen.

September 18, 2020 at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Louis Vuitton goes full sky

From the Wall Street Journal:

Virgil Abloh, the artistic director of menswear at Louis Vuitton, has taken the house's iconic trunk and turned it into a luxe, hard-sided backpack. Each case comes with removable leather straps so that it can be carried as hand luggage as well. The Monogram Mirror option, shown above, has a reflective surface with the label's logo rendered as clouds on its interior, while the Monogram Cloud version (below) features the same wispy LV on its gradient-blue exterior. Made to order, the packs also fit a tent and folding chairs inside.

Apply within.

September 18, 2020 at 08:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

September 17, 2020

"Bill & Ted Face the Music"

The sequel is finally here after 31 years.

Below,

the Guardian

offers a list of the players

to jog your memory.

September 17, 2020 at 04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Internet Speed Tests

I use Speedtest

and FAST.

Speedtest gives you down and upload speeds; FAST shows only download speed, but makes up for that by doing it automatically: as soon as you bring up the page, it starts calculating.

Speedtest requires you click "GO."

A pleasant diversion (or not, depending on your speeds).

As a rule, download speed test results from the two are very different.

Both free, the way we like it.

September 17, 2020 at 02:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Driftwell

Say what?

From the New York Times:

Pepsi announces Driftwell, a new drink to help people sleep during the pandemic Pepsi has come up with a new product — what it calls "an enhanced water beverage" — to help people who are stressed out about, well, everything unwind before bed. The new drink, called Driftwell, contains 200 milligrams of L-theanine, an amino acid that studies suggest can improve sleep and reduce stress. The drink also contains 10 percent of the recommended daily value of magnesium, which can be used as a sleep aid. The beverage is blackberry and lavender flavored and comes in a 7.5 ounce mini-can. The idea came from an internal competition within PepsiCo called "The Next Big Idea," led by Ramon Laguarta, the company's chief executive. Driftwell "is entering a white space within the beverage category to help consumers relax at a time when it is definitely needed," said Emily Silver, vice president of innovation and capabilities at PepsiCo Beverages North America. The brand will be sold on e-commerce sites by the end of the year and will be in stores in the first quarter of 2021.

September 17, 2020 at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Wisdom of Crowds

In this case the crowd is Google's search results when you want to find out stuff like is

or

preferred/correct?

September 17, 2020 at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Finger Watch





About time.

From the website:

For the minimalist who prefers their wrists free of adornment, a digital watch you wear on a finger. One size fits most. Red or Blue.

$11.

September 17, 2020 at 08:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)