Out of Lascaux

New Family Member

OK, I admit it. I'm an idiot. I was downton on Friday to go to work, (well, intern work - I don't get paid, I get course credit). I had parked the car, paid for the day, and decided to take a walk because I was early and I need the exercise. I was in the middle of the highest concentration of buildings and traffic when I saw this little white dog. First he was following someone, so I figured he belonged to him. But then I saw him following someone else who was trying to shoo him away. Then he turned and followed yet another person.

I couldn't help myself. I called him over. He was very friendly, but when he figured I had nothing to offer him, he found someone else to follow. I followed him with a piece of my lunch sandwich in hand. It took a while for him to realize that now I did have something. But once he did, it was easy to just pick him up and carry him off.

I have two dogs and three cats. What the hell was I thinking? Aside from the fact that I couldn't bear to see him smashed under the wheels of a bus, that is. Anyway, I wound up getting back in my car and heading for my vet, who said the dog looks healthy, appears to be about 6mos to a year old, and he gave him all the appropriate shots. Once you've spent that kind of money, the dog is yours.

He was coverd witrh mats and burrs, so his pretty cream-colored fur coat had to go away for a while, so he looks pretty scruffy right now, but here he is:

It took two days of arguing, but we finally came up with a name all three of us will tolerate. Meet Achilles, the final member of the trio that includes Athena and Apollo.

Feminist SF

The 5th Carnival Of Feminist Science Fiction is up. I hadn't realized there were 4 before that, but there ya go. There are some interesting things there, particularly an essay on comic books by Daddy Dialectic and an article titled Harlan Ellison has Always Been a Sexist Creep.

That brough back memories. I used to attend cons back in the 70s with my mother. I heard the stories about him, and I heard my mother and sister's opinion of him. Ellison has always been a creep, but let's be fair, he's a non-partisan creep. He hates everyone, not just women. I was kind of surprised to learn he had groped Connie Willis at the Hugo awards, mainly because I thought he would have outgrown that by now - I mean the guy is in his 70s. But perhaps he is merely trying to protect his reputation. I'm sure he's quite the curmudgeon these days, and doesn't want anyone to think he has actually mellowed or matured or anything.

I will always be amused by the story my sister tells about meeting him. She wanted him to sign "Again Dangerous Visions," which was a thick hardcover. She was holding it in her hand while looking around for him. At one point, she turned quickly and nearly beaned Ellison in the head. She hadn't realized how short he was. I think he signed it anyway.

Very Kinky

So I watched the Texas gubernatorial (what a weird word!) debate last night night. Unfortunately, my man Kinky Friedman came off looking like a second rate Mark Twain impersonator who had accidentally wandered in off the street. The other three were polished politicians, spouting truisms and the same tripe that they always spout. The Dem and Ind challengers say we want change, and the Rep incumbant thinks he's doing a great job. Blah, blah, blah. Kinky was, however, true to his platform, which is that he isn't a politician, he's just a guy who thinks he can do a better job. They asked him a lot of questions he didn't really have answers to, but in reality he doesn't need them. He needs to be able to hire the right people for the jobs in his cabinet. And I think any Washington outsider will do a better job than what's in there now. A vote for Kinky is a vote for rebellion.

Which is why Gov. Rick Perry will win. Such is life. And while I'm on the subject, why are all the democratic nominees such boring, lifeless unimaginative political hacks? This guy Chris Bell wouldn't inspire a dog to chew a bone. Ugh! What has happened to the democratic party that it feels it can only field these "safe" candidates rather than someone with more charisma like Dean? What makes them think this is the way to win elections? They need to get past this idea that it's all about issues. Certainly, issues are important, but people also want a leader. That is, someone they feel will do what's right for the country. And the great leaders have always been people who can inspire something in their followers besides "at least he isn't Bush/Perry." So I'm rather disgusted with the democratic pary, and until they start fielding some decent candidates, I'll be voting independent just to make a point.

Read the debate report and comments for yourself.

How Art Made the World

I was finally able to catch an episode of How Art Made the World on my PBS station. They have buried it on Sunday afternoons at 2:30, and I keep forgetting it's on, or I'm out doing things, or falling asleep (that's prime naptime on a Sunday). The episode I saw was "More Human than Human."

This really is a fascinating series. Dr.Nigel Spivey takes the viewer into new areas of art and early man. In this episode, Dr. Spivey talked about the "Herring Gull Instinct." It has been found that Herring Gull chicks will peck at a yellow stick with a red stripe because it resembles a beak. However, they will more readily peck at a stick with three red stripes over the one, even though is resembles mom's beak less. The idea is that animals are hard-wired to prefer an exaggerated form over a realistic one, especially if the right elements are exaggerated. This helps to explain the Venus of Willendorf, the pre-historic female figure with its massive breasts and buttocks and no face.

What I don't understand is what Dr. Spivey did next. He discussed ancient Egyptian art with it's iconic human form. This standardized depiction of the human body lasted 3,000 years unchanged, and Dr. Spivey did a wonderful job of describing how the Egyptians came up with it and how to look at it. But he also said that their image of the human body was NOT exaggerated, completely undercutting his argument. But the Egyptian figures ARE exaggerated. The human eye, which is the most important element of the human body for so many cultures ("the window to the soul") is seen in full view within a profile face. The shoulders, the body's "workhorse," are broad and seen full on. And the men are painted in a dark terracotta color while the women are painted as a fair-skinned yellow ochre. How can this not be considered an exaggeration?

Dr.Spivey then goes on to Greece, with an illuminating discussion of how they, too, exaggerated the human form. Those classical Greek sculptures are "perfect" because they are very subtly exaggerated: a roll of muscle on the abdomen that isn't really there; a missing coccyx bone that enhances the curve of the buttocks. In effect, the Greeks exaggerated perfection.

I imagine that the rest of the series is just as thought provoking, and if I were still buying curriculum, I would buy the DVD. I may do it anyway. That may be the only way I can actually catch the whole series. It's a great way to look at the rise of man and how art came to be.