Posted on July 7th, 2007 by metasj.
Categories: Glory, glory, glory, Uncategorized, indescribable.
Today I stumbled across a luminescent painting, thanks to the fine taste of a fellow Wikipedian whose writing is so intimate and full of poetry that, despite never having corresponded, I imagine them an acquaintance. It was a portrait of a knitter, entitled Tricoteuse, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. I looked at it a few times, astonished by something about its honesty and quality of light that I could not quite place; and then astonished again by its unexplained orphanage — as it was included in no project pages save two user-space galleries across Wikipedia and her sister projects.
I inspected its central page on Wikimedia Commons to discover this last tidbit via the check usage tab… Commons also had a small descriptive page and gallery about Bouguereau and his works, where I found a second image similarly astonishing and underused. After marvelling on his works for a few long minutes, I realized I had found two extraordinary works in no time at all, and almost nothing of their origins; something was amiss.
It was no surprise to discover that his legacy had been somehow submerged for over half a century. Many compare him with Rembrandt, ignored for far longer and more actively in his own lifetime. Wikipedia had a short biography which alluded to this, and the first artsite I found with a page about him had a rant-like paean at once upholding his fine qualities and denouncing slanders that had kept him from public texts and encyclopedias and hidden his work from entire generations.
I then added his Tricoteuse and portrait of his future wife, Elizabeth Gardner, to the Wikipedia gallery dedicated to his works. Only as I was leaving that gallery did I realize I had seen — and bookmarked — one of his images before: a work of Nymphs and Satyr, again so striking that without remembering the artist’s name I had brought it to mind on a few occasions. And is this delightful piece entitled L’enlèvement de Psyché or Le ravissement de Psyché ? Rapture seems to suit it better.
At any rate, time spent with Bouguereau’s works is time well spent. Enjoy!
Posted on February 25th, 2007 by longestnow.
Categories: Glory, glory, glory.
The best 4-minute love paean ever.
Posted on January 22nd, 2007 by longestnow.
Categories: Glory, glory, glory.
This is more or less the sexiest portable tech I’ve ever seen. Complete with 3.5″ drive, monochrome display, and a proper briefcase! Unbelievable techno-lust fills my heart… who is behind this?
Posted on November 29th, 2006 by longestnow.
Categories: Glory, glory, glory.
Donald Wilson, RIP. And some sugar in action.
Posted on November 20th, 2006 by longestnow.
Categories: Glory, glory, glory.
Wikipedia Brown gets his world wikified, while solving another pesky mystery! everytopicintheuniverseexceptchickens, dot com!
What more is there to say, really?
At least the whole Colberrorism debacle has died down.
Posted on November 10th, 2006 by longestnow.
Categories: Glory, glory, glory.
Les Zittrain has some good movie advice out there. Laura Z Eisenberg (nee Zittrain?) has done a fine bit of work on Arab-Israeli peace. Apparently the Zittrain clan likes to write… but do they like open access asbestos mesothelioma lawyering? NB: Jeff Zittrain on drums, Johnatan on backup vocals.
Les Zittrain has good movie advice. Laura Z Eisenberg (nee Zittrain?) put out a fine bit of work on Arab-Israeli peace. Apparently the Zittrain clan like to write… but do they like generativity in tobacco lawsuits? Jeff Zittrain is still on drums.
Ok. I’m roughly done with SEO for the moment. Update, one day later: the less digital Zittrain’s are sliding up a few slots on the old G’ometer.
Posted on November 10th, 2006 by longestnow.
Categories: Glory, glory, glory.
Les Zittrain has some good movie advice out there. Laura Z Eisenberg (nee Zittrain?) a fine bit of work on Arab-Israeli peace. Apparently the Zittrains like to write… but do they like open access asbestos mesothelioma lawyering? Jeff Zittrain on drums, Johnatan on backup vocals.
Ok. I’m done with SEO for the week.
Posted on November 1st, 2006 by longestnow.
Categories: Glory, glory, glory.
A lovely project around Cambridge has poetry encoded in numeric code. When the poem is good, this leads to a lovely sensation of just learning to read for the first time while decoding the poem, if you start from the beginning; so the meaning of the poem settles in one word at a time.
I also have to thank this ‘cambridge codex’ project for choosing an awesome name (being partial to codices myself), and for introducing me to a delightful caesura-filled sonnet by Danielle Georges.
how
to play godzilla: imagine
Danielle Legros Georges
each
sand-grain on the baseball field: a man
woman, or child; each grass-blade: a building,
a bank, a school before the war; your hands
turned reptilian; your dorsal fin filling in;
each scale a stunning; grey plate of armor.
Shake yourself from the sea
Posted on October 20th, 2006 by longestnow.
Categories: Glory, glory, glory.
There’s some serious style embedded into the latest test boards down on the One Laptop range: one of the finest board-based cams anywhere.
Here’s the camera, on board, during a minor “earthquake”:
Here’s the video output at the time, care of Gstreamer, totally steady:
Tell me that isn’t awe-inspiring.
Posted on March 9th, 2006 by longestnow.
Categories: Glory, glory, glory.
I spent today thinking about Push Singh, someone I have known for four years. Every time we have met, I have come away struck by his thoughtfulness, his good nature, his giving smile, and the pleasure of speaking with him. He died last week; today there was a memorial in his honor at MIT. I don’t usually cry at funerals — death is the most storied event in life, not necessarily a sad one — but found myself tearing up today as I hung outside the MIT chapel.
My thoughts are still with him, and with his family. I wanted to walk up to them as they stood by the crosswalk waiting for the lights to turn; but I did not.
