Subjective

I was told the differences of these two logos was subjective.

I feel the difference between these two is more than subjective but obvious, substantial and in need of approval, at least as a courtesy.

Maybe it is just me.

Tuesdays

Today started with me locking myself out of my house, as soon as I left the house! I had to call my neighbors at 7:30 am to get my spare set as my house keys have my office keys on the same ring.

It ended with a bit of a whimper. Tuesdays are a long day.

Heifer Ambassador

Thanks to everyone else's generosity, and I guess my starting the ball rolling, I am now a Heifer International Ambassador Council Member. I think that just means I raised a bunch of money and now they think I have a lot more to give!

A total of 36 contributions were made to my Ark effort, the last just today, for a total to date of $3035! I have extended the campaign, so keep passing the word around, the link remains in my sidebar!

And it is never to late to start thinking about tax deductions now for next year! All contributions are fully tax deductible! What fun to deduct a pig from your taxes!

Thank you everybody!

Art Deck

A while back I asked for you to help me pick a Jack of Clubs design for a deck of cards project Columbia College Chicago was producing. The cards are printed, and here are the 52 cards of the deck!

Even a grain of sand wants to be something.

Pączki

Donuts are a traditional food the week before Lent or the Tuesday, Fat Tuesday or Mardis Gras, before Ash Wednesday. Here in Chicago, home to the second largest Polish population after Warsaw, the Polish tradition of pączki (pronounced punch'-kee or poonch'-kee) are a treat for Sundays, holidays and other special occasions.

Happy Day After Pączki Day!

nothing!

I aint got nothing today other than it has been a long day!

DELIRIUM

Another wonderously amazing theatrical experience at the hands of Cirque Du Soleil!

I suppose I should have said another DELIRIOUSLY amazing. . .

Either way, it was. The emphasis is on the music and dance perfromance aspect, but the show still included amazing acrobatic highlights! The four strength guys (seen in picture) were tops for me. I want to be in their heads when they came up with some of their tricks.

"Okay, you two are going to do a headstand. Then you will balance on my head with just your hands. Then, with you on my head, I will stand on their necks while their legs go to about 45 degrees. And then when that is done, you will turn around while still balancing on my head with just your hands. How's that sound for a trick?" "That's great! Let's give it a try!"

But a second star of the show is the video, production, interactivity of the video, singers and perfromers. Deliriously amazing!

It took a couple years for it to get to Chicago, and it was worth the wait. When it comes your way. . .SEE IT!

Ambroise Vollard: Man for his Times!

Ambroise Vollard, the foremost Parisian art dealer of the early twentieth century and the man who gave Cezanne, Picasso, and Maillol their first one-man shows is the subject of the current show "Cezanne to Picasso" at the Art Institute of Chicago. The show's nearly three hundred items-prints, illustrated books, and bronzes-were all commisioned by Vollard and reveal him as the vortex of the Paris art world from the 1890's until his death in 1939.

A shrewd businessman, Vollard bought cheap and sold dear to adventurous collectors, such as H. O. Havemeyert, Gertrude and Leo Stein, and Alfred Barnes. With this fortune Vollard launched a second career as a publisher of prints and fine illustrated books. He commissioned graphics from Maurice Denis, Odilon Redon, Degas, Rouault, Bonnard, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Picasso. He also wrote biographies of his favorite artists, brought out bronze casts of sculptures by Maillol, Bonnard, Picasso, and Renoir, and found time somehow to sit for portraits.

A large, gruff, boorish fellow-who was once described as "looking like a giant ape"-he nevertheless inspired his artist friends: Picasso did a cubist study of him (shown above), Bonnard painted him as a genial host, and Renoir portrayed him as a toreador. "The most beautiful woman who ever lived," Picasso said,"never had her portrait painted, drawn, or engraved more often than Vollard."

Real Stud!

Champion Felicity's Diamond Jim, an English Springer Spaniel known simply as James, wins Best in Show at the 131st Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

This was his 51st best in show victory, and his last. He's retiring from the show world to live the life of a therapy and obedience dog. He's already worked with Alzheimer's patients. I am sure he will also be available for stud.

I think this is why they call it a dog's life!

Nestled between posts

On the heels of Valentine's day and before talking about a dog's impending retirement comes this gaffe from Google!

Google frequently creates a special logo for holidays. They swap out an "O" as a pumpkin for Halloween, a rose for Mother's Day. Yesterday, they created this logo!



Googe?! What is googe? I got my ideas, and it looks like one of the O's got hit by some googe!

With the public's outcry of Prince's silhouette during his Superbowl performance, and other ridiculous "looking to far into nothing to find the indecency" where is the outrage over Googe?

It's Valentine's Day!

Whoopee!

Nothing says I love you like a piece of candy that says IM Me!
And thanks to Lisa's link, you can make your own Necco Heart here.

From the home of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. . .

Happy Valentine's Day!

Snow in Chicago!

And maybe a snow day tomorrow! They cancelled night classes today and said check email about tomorrow!

I just got home! I do not know how Dave drives 1.5 hours to and from work every day! It took me 1.5 hours to get home from work, about 13 miles! We do not have Oswego, NY snow but the famous Lake Shore Drive was a white out about four times with snow just blowing across and wiping out your sight!

As reported in the Chicago Tribune this evening…

Snow here, and more on the way

The latest forecast has accumulations of up to 8 inches across the city's South Side and higher amounts further south of the city, he said. In the Kankakee area, meteorologists are predicting between 12 and 15 inches, he said.

About 5 inches is expected to accumulate on the North Side by the time the storm tapers off tomorrow night. The winter storm warning is in effect until midnight Tuesday.

The one bright spot is that temperatures will remain milder Tuesday than recently, he said. At O'Hare, temperatures are reaching the upper-20s early this morning and are expected to stay steady throughout the day. As the storm winds down, temperatures are expected to drop into the single digits Wednesday night into Thursday morning.

Bright spot?!

Me as an M & M

You can be an M&M too.

Become and M&M

38 Words

I typically do not post on the weekends,
but this is big enough for me to do so!

Pet Peeves

Stationary v. Stationery

One of these words indicates stillness, fixed in position, or mode, immobile, unchanging in condition or character.

One of these words is a general name given to paper and office supplies such as envelopes, notepads, pens, pencils, erasers, paper clips, staples etc.

For Dave

Dave loves cheese more than anyone I know. And now he, and everyone else, can watch a huge wheel of cheddar cheese age, right before their very eyes via the web!

Really! You can.

Check it out at Cheddar Vision.

Aint got nothing today!

I have this catalog of Camper sitting on my desk. Really cool shoes. Saw them in New York last time I was there. Craig brought me.

It is a really cool catalog too, which simply reinforces the cool shoes. All pictures no descriptions. It measures 3" x 4"

I really like the Twins.

Check em out at Camper

Snow

Eskimos, known as Inuit these days, have 40 words for snow. This demonstrates how profoundly their lives are connected with the white stuff!

Check this out.

Murder: kill, slay, assasinate, dispatch, hit, annihilate, eliminate, eradicate, rub out, liquidate, execute, ice, cool, do in, do away with, bump off, knock off, finish off, massacre, slaughter, waste, wipe out, zap, silence, cap, whack, snuff, extinguish, exterminate, decimate, shed blood, take or a ride, take out. And of course: shoot, gun down, plug, fill with lead, mow down, stab, knife, slash, cut out the giblets of, eviscerate, garrote, hang, strangle, smother, suffocate, choke, asphyxiate, drown, defenestrate, bludgeon, crucify, poison, behead, guillotine, lynch, starve, gas, blow up, bomb, atomize, incinerate.

That is almost 70 words about murder and there are more, but I think the point is made.

Cirque + Britto + Chicago Bears =

A bit of a mess!

Just goes to show that when you just mix up a lot of good things, you do not always get a better result.

I love Cirque! I am going to see yet another show on the 18th, Delirium. Britto's artwork makes me smile with its bright graphic patterns, I even own a print. And of course I was cheering on the home team!

But together, Cirque and Britto along with music from Louie Vega, NOT Lou Bega known for Mambo No.5 (A little bit of Monica by my side. . .) made kind of a visual mess. Lots, LOTS going on and nothing to focus on so it just looked like a lot of people running around. Then again, it may have been just how they shot it for TV! There were cool glimmers of butterfly kites, tall figures suspended between poles, brightly colored "Britto" helium balloons.

Then you add the Bears AMAZING first 30 seconds and you thought okay, I could forgive the opening, but then we all know how that ended. Not the best of Superbowl Sundays for me in Chicago.

And the commercials were not all that great either. Dave and Oprah was a surprise. The Budweiser slapping was funny. I even laughed at the Kevin Federline spot. Copywriters wrote better lyrcs than he ever could! But not much more stands out.

Even a pencil wants to be something!

And in the hands of Jennifer Maestre a pencil, or rather hundreds of pencils, becomes wonderfully fanciful sculptures.

Jennifer says in her artist statement:
 
My sculptures were originally inspired by the form and function of the sea urchin. The spines of the urchin, so dangerous yet beautiful, serve as an explicit warning against contact. The alluring texture of the spines draws the touch in spite of the possible consequences. The tension unveiled, we feel push and pull, desire and repulsion. The sections of pencils present aspects of sharp and smooth for two very different textural and aesthetic experiences. Paradox and surprise are integral in my choice of materials. Quantities of industrially manufactured objects are used to create flexible forms reminiscent of the organic shapes of animals and nature. Pencils are common objects, here, these anonymous objects become the structure. There is true a fragility to the sometimes brutal aspect of the sculptures, vulnerability that is belied by the fearsome texture.

She does some great things with nails too. Check her work out at here.

Harry? Harry Potter?

Click here for Promo Images of Equus.

I have not seen a so right image on a theatre poster in a long time.

Daniel Radcliffe is seriously shedding the stink of being a boy hero his whole career. He will soon be starring in the play Equus in London playing the lead Alan Strang, directed by Kenneth Branagh.

Radcliffe himself says, "Part of me wants to shake up people's perception of me, just shove me in a blender -- I hope people will stop and think, 'Maybe he can do something other than Harry."

Bravo!