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13 Oct 16:39

American Art Posters of the 1890s

by John

posters1.jpg

Selections from a 1987 Metropolitan Museum of Art exhbition catalogue which features many more colour plates. My choices gravitate as usual to the American Beardsley, Will Bradley. The other artists here are EB Bird (above) and Louis Rhead, both of whom also produced bookplate designs (see here and here).

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Previously on { feuilleton }
Posters: A Critical Study, 1913
Will Bradley posters
Troutsdale Press bookplates
Louis Rhead bookplates
Louis Rhead’s peacocks

15 Sep 09:03

Seguro + Costa: que televisão?

by João Lopes
Pedro.A

Gostei da frase: " do ponto de vista estritamente político, temos estado a assistir a um deprimente processo de autoflagelação pública do PS"

GERHARD RICHTER
Paisagem com nuvem
1969
Os debates entre António José Seguro e António Costa nascem das rotinas dominantes da ideologia televisiva, ao mesmo tempo que reflectem a ausência de pensamento político (nomeadamente na esquerda) sobre a própria televisão — esta crónica de televisão foi publicada na revista "Notícias TV", do Diário de Notícias (12 Setembro), com o título 'A cultura do PS'.

Há qualquer coisa de surreal no empolamento televisivo do combate de António José Seguro e António Costa pela liderança do Partido Socialista. E até mesmo a hipótese de um deles vir a ser primeiro-ministro de Portugal não passa de uma especulação que, por mais fundamentada, não justifica que, a partir dela, seja formatada toda a actualidade política.
Aliás, do ponto de vista estritamente político, temos estado a assistir a um deprimente processo de autoflagelação pública do PS (na TVI24, Henrique Monteiro falou mesmo, com toda a propriedade, de um hara-kiri do partido). No jogo que assim se encena, parece óbvio que o vencedor destas performances permanece, silencioso e casto, noutro cenário (chama-se Pedro Passos Coelho, como Fernando Esteves bem referiu na RTP Informação).
Que o imaginário televisivo viva desta agitação de coisa nenhuma, eis o que, infelizmente, parece ter-se tornado uma regra que poucos arriscam desafiar. Podemos mesmo perguntar: onde está alguém que ouse pensar as matrizes dominantes da informação e o seu efeito simbólico?
Onde está? Não está, sequer, naquela que seria a entidade de quem esperaríamos provas de alguma agilidade filosófica. A saber: o próprio PS. Que faz António José Seguro? Qual incauta personagem da reality TV, vai proclamando a sua comovente condição de vítima de todos os desmandos dos outros... E António Costa? Reúne os anciãos do partido para uma exposição televisiva que, por certo contra as suas melhores intenções, redobra os lugares-comuns de uma maneira esclerosada de encenar o trabalho político.
Em última instância, tudo isto significa que o PS, esquecendo que um genuíno pensamento cultural não pode ignorar as formas de fazer televisão, se acomodou ao pântano de ideias do statu quo televisivo. Não que a direita seja uma planície de conforto intelectual. Em todo o caso, ter as suas duas principais personagens a brincar aos debates sobre o futuro deste mundo e do outro, apenas confirma que a ideia de esquerda encalhou no conceito de talk show.
12 Sep 11:17

Newswire: Come along and that’s it to Coolio’s song for Pornhub

by Sean O'Neal
Pedro.A

A foto. The horror... The horror...The horror...

Come on y’all, let’s take a ride; don’t you say shit, just get inside. It’s time to take your ass on another kind of trip—to a porn star car wash, where it will be repeatedly doused with suds while Coolio raps about jerking off. Hip-hop’s foremost tour guide has just released “Take It To The Hub,” a Pornhub-commissioned promo video that invites listeners along on a fantastic voyage to the masturbation depot, where they will be fluffed into self-stimulation by a 50-year-old Coolio, rasping in their ear.

“I saw a pussy and a titty and an ass cheek, it kept a smile on my face since last week,” raps the man who once charted his treacherous journey through the valley of the shadow of death, now enjoying a far more scenic route. Coolio takes a look at his life and realizes there’s nothing ...

12 Sep 10:33

Para ler: Michael Stipe escreve ensaio sobre as imagens do 11 de setembro

by Nuno Galopim
Douglas Copland , via Guardian
O antigo vocalista dos R.E.M. assina um breve ensaio, com o título Thoughts on the 21st Century, no livro Douglas Coupland: Everywhere is Anywhere is Anything is Everthing, uma monografia sobre o trabalho visual de Douglas Coupland. Parte de uma imagem que evoca o 11 de setembro e reflete sobre as memórias e sentidos que convoca.

O The Guardian publicou o texto. Podem ler aqui.
10 Sep 11:00

Untweeted

by Warren Ellis
Pedro.A

"Everyone’s angry about something. Everyone is making a show of being terribly earnest about something. Almost always with good reason, to be sure. But there was a thing identified many years ago called “compassion fatigue,” in the wake of the million Band Aid-style charity campaigns. Eventually, people draw the line against the welter of things they’re told to be sad and angry about. That’s bad for any system that relies on engagement for its capital, and for any charity process that relies on windfall funding. Bad for conversation. Bad for surfacing actual issues."

Yesterday I took my own timeline off my Twitter client and just ran five columns of my lists.  It was much nicer.  Just news and information.  This means that winter hermitage is coming on.  It’s already autumn, here in British Summer Time, chill winds chasing up the coast and never more than six hours away from a rain notification.  Everyone’s angry about something.   Everyone is making a show of being terribly earnest about something.  Almost always with good reason, to be sure.  But there was a thing identified many years ago called “compassion fatigue,” in the wake of the million Band Aid-style charity campaigns.  Eventually, people draw the line against the welter of things they’re told to be sad and angry about.  That’s bad for any system that relies on engagement for its capital, and for any charity process that relies on windfall funding.  Bad for conversation.  Bad for surfacing actual issues.

Untweeted: I don’t know why unverified people are even allowed to buy food.

09 Sep 15:53

El gobierno teme que el lanzamiento de un videojuego haga decrecer la población de Japón

by Kirai
Pedro.A

Meanwhile, in Japan...

El ministerio de salud japonés ha dado un toque de atención a Sony al ver que van a lanzar un videojuego dirigido a hombres solteros en el que los usuarios podrán sumergirse en un mundo virtual para vivir con una mujer digital usando Project Morpheus (Accesorio para la PS4). El juego se llama Summer Lesson y será presentado en el Tokyo Game Show. Según un sociólogo experto en fenómenos como el hikikomori videojuegos de este estilo serán la estocada final que acelerará el decrecimiento de la población japonesa. Cada vez son más los hombres japoneses que pasan de casarse y deciden vivir solos.

Un otaku confesaba hoy:

“Soy soltero y acabo de reservar este videojuego online. Moriré solo pero me da igual, viviré feliz con Nahoko, el nombre de la chica que elegiré para jugar en Summer Lesson”

“I am currently single and I have already pre-ordered this game earlier today. I will die alone and that is perfectly fine with me and Nahoko which is the name of the girl I have chosen for Summer Lesson.”

Siendo la población longeva del mundo y teniendo la mayor población de robots la cosa no pinta bien…

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Via P4rgaming

09 Sep 10:28

Comic Sans: the typeface that came in from the cold

by Anoosh Chakelian

Funny Farage: one of the Comic Sans-centred
posters created for Cancer Research

Vincent Connare, who designed the Comic Sans font, tells me that he has only ever used it once. “I wrote an angry letter to Sky Broadband, telling them I wasn’t happy with them,” he remembers. What hope is there for the world’s most hated font if even its typographic engineer doesn’t use it?

On the 20th anniversary of the font, perhaps it is time to revise its much-maligned reputation. Although the rounded, jaunty letters are now most associated with shabby invitations to children’s parties, badly spelt emails and passive-aggressive PowerPoint presentations, it has also tapped in to the top tiers of typography. It once appeared in Time magazine, on the BBC and in Adidas adverts. Two years ago researchers at the Cern nuclear research laboratories in Switzerland used it to announce their discovery of the Higgs boson.

Connare, who created Comic Sans in 1994 for a product called Microsoft Bob, insists that people who say they hate it “don’t understand what it is to make typefaces; they don’t realise that it’s not a personal taste thing. You need an audience, a client, some purpose to make it.”

Microsoft Bob was intended for novice computer users. It had a cartoon background with characters giving the users tips and instructions in speech bubbles. Connare decided that Microsoft Bob’s cartoon-dog protagonist was unlikely to speak in the product’s stiff default font, Times New Roman, so he created an alternative. Comic Sans then ended up on Windows 95, an operating system that coincided with the mid-1990s boom in home computing, making the font suddenly ubiquitous. But why, in this brave new world of word processing, were people choosing this particular font?

“People using it don’t really think about using a typeface; they pick what they like and they use it. That they’re using Comic Sans for some serious reason, some serious letter – they don’t think about it like that,” Connare says. “It’s obviously a good design, because I was making it for the Microsoft consumer division, who were selling to children and mums and dads and people who didn’t know a lot about design. They seemed to love it; I haven’t had many of them say it’s terrible.”

And just as happened with thick NHS glasses, typewriters and Rubik’s Cubes, Comic Sans is now being written back into the mainstream by a generation that grew up with the font and sees it as an emblem of its childhood.

Cancer Research has put together a poster exhibition based on the font. Hundreds of artists have collaborated on the project, called Comic Sans for Cancer, which launched on 20 August in an artistically dishevelled exhibition space in Hackney, east London.

The font evidently captured the artists’ imagination, with posters ranging from a lurid red image of Nigel Farage’s grinning face with “COMIC SANS” written across it (“A ubiquitous source of amusement and pure horror. Just say no,” the curator explains) to a Roy Lichtenstein pastiche of a weeping bride: “I said ‘I do’,” pleads her husband. “But you said it in Comic Sans,” she replies.

Connare is not entirely sure why his creation is enjoying such a revival in the creative East End of London. “It’s probably because everybody’s very internet-savvy now, and a lot of people who were growing up during 1995 are now adults, and they’re realising that what happened is a bit of a retro thing . . . I don’t know. Because it’s on every computer, it gets used everywhere.”

What does its creator envisage for the future of this font? Connare smiles and sighs, “I would just hope it would slow down.”

08 Sep 08:53

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03 Sep 10:55

http://abrupto.blogspot.com/2014/08/versao-da-porque-e-que-nao-vale-muito.html

by JPP
Pedro.A

"Áreas decisivas do nosso quotidiano hoje não são sujeitas à crítica, porque se convencionou que em democracia não se critica o "povo"."

(versão da )
PORQUE É QUE NÃO VALE MUITO A PENA TER ESPERANÇA …


... como no Inferno quando se entra pela porta maldita e se deixa a dita esperança à entrada. Agosto é um bom mês para percebermos tudo. Milhares e milhares de jovens que não lêem um livro, passam o mês em festivais no meio do lixo, do pó, da cerveja e dos charros. Milhares e milhares de adultos vão meter o corpo na água e na areia, sem verdadeira alegria nem descanso. Outros muitos milhares de jovens e adultos nem isto podem fazer porque não tem dinheiro. No interior, já que não há correios, nem centros médicos, nem tribunais, proliferam as capitais, da chanfana, do caracol, do marisco, do bacalhau, dos enchidos, da açorda, as "feiras medievais" de chave na mão, as feiras de tudo e mais alguma coisa desde que não sejam muito sofisticadas. Não é uma Feira da Ciência, nem Silicon Valley. 

As televisões, RTP, SIC e TVI “descentralizam-se” e fazem arraiais com umas estrelas pimba aos saltos no palco, mais umas “bailarinas”, nem sequer para um grande público. Incêndios este ano há pouco, pelo que não há imagens fortes, ficamos pelo balde de água. Crimes violentos “aterrorizam” umas aldeias de nomes entre o ridículo e o muito antigo, que os jornalistas que apresentam telejornais com tudo isto gostam de repetir mil vezes. Felizmente que já começa outra vez a haver futebol, cada vez mais cedo. O governo, com excepção das finanças e dos cortes contra os do costume, não governa, mas isso é o habitual. 

A fina película do nosso progresso, cada vez mais fina com a crise das classes ascendentes, revela à transparência todo o nosso ancestral atraso, ignorância, brutalidade, boçalidade, mistura de manha e inveja social. No tempo de Salazar falava-se do embrutecimento dos três f: futebol, Fátima e fado. Se houvesse Internet acrescentar-se-ia o Facebook como o quarto f. Agora não se pode falar disso porque parece elitismo. Áreas decisivas do nosso quotidiano hoje não são sujeitas à crítica, porque se convencionou que em democracia não se critica o "povo".

Agosto é um grande revelador e um balde de água fria em cima da cabeça para aparecer na televisão ou no You Tube. Participar num rebanho, mesmo que por uma boa causa, podia pelo menos despertar alguma coisa. Nem isso, passará a moda  e esquecer-se-á a doença. Pode ser que para o ano a moda  seja meter a cabeça numa fossa séptica, a favor da cura do Ebola.

Assim não vamos a lado nenhum. Como muito bem sabem os que não querem que vamos a qualquer lado.
03 Sep 08:46

Dos and Don’t for the Simpson’s Marathon

by Heidi MacDonald
Pedro.A

"Fxx is showing EVERY EPISODE OF THE SIMPSONS ever in order, a 12-day marathon that started yesterday." :o

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Fxx is showing EVERY EPISODE OF THE SIMPSONS ever in order, a 12-day marathon that started yesterday. The event is to celebrate theFxx getting the rebroadcast rights to every Simpsons episode, for about $1 billion. Meaning Fxx will basically be the Simpsons channell…and that’s a great idea!

We caught some Season Three classics last night, and the effect of seeing “One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish”, “The Way We Was”, “Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th”, and “Principal Charming” in order as they were when last we viewed them 20+ years ago…well time passes quickly when you quote Simpsons episodes. Also mind bggling to think the couch gag and the blackboard gag were in place right from the start.

Vulture has a veiwing guide and suggests that tonight is the nihgt for an all nighter with Season Four and Five:

You’re not as young as used to be. You used to rock and roll all night, and party every day. Then it was every other day. Now you’re lucky to find half an hour a week to get caught up with your DVR before you fall asleep on the couch. But party like it’s 1993 from Saturday evening until Sunday morning. That’s when season four turns into season five, and if you’re fast asleep, you’ll miss such classics as “Rosebud,” “Homer’s Barbershop Quartet,” and freaking “Cape Feare” — you don’t want to miss “Cape Feare.” Sunday night into Monday morning is also incredible, but, again, you’re not as young as you used to be. None of us are.


Yeah we’d go along with that one. Also although they say now to drool over teh Cnan O’Brien episodes, he wrote “New Kid Ont The Block” where Bart falls in love and dreams his heart is ripped out and thrown against the wall by the girl he loves who says, “Guess you won’t be needing that any more.” So yeah, Conan O’Brien.

For more info, here’s the actual schedule of episodes and some old intervews from NPR.

20 Aug 11:15

Dia Mundial da Fotografia.

by Malomil
 
 
 


Henri Cartier-Bresson
Lisboa
1955
 
 
 
 


14 Aug 15:56

Study: we learn better with paper than screens

by Heidi MacDonald

alfalfa

I’ve written about these kinds of studies before, but here’s the latest one. Norwegian 10th graders were shown to retain information better when they read it on paper than when they read it on a computer.

The results clearly demonstrated that those who had read on computer screens had understood less than those who read on paper. Perhaps surprisingly, this disparity was encountered with both the fiction and the factual prose.

Why would this be? Mangen and her co-authors discuss various possible causes in an article in the International Journal of Educational Research as well as in an article in the Norwegian journal Norsk pedagogisk tidsskrift.

An obvious difference between PC screens and paper is that paper is material. You can feel the weight, texture and thickness of a pamphlet or a book. You can see where it begins and ends. You can quickly leaf through the pages with your fingers.

Ah those old interactive books! Researchers think the tangible nature of paper connects to more senses and enables more retention.

I’ve also read studies which suggest that out brains simply interact differently with stable print than with flickering letters on a screen.

What does it all mean? I would offer a theory except I forgot what I just read.

14 Aug 13:04

Great Job, Internet!: 8-Bit Cinema applies the classic adventure game treatment to Se7en

by William Hughes

The A.V. Club has written about Cinefix’s 8-Bit Cinema series, which translates popular movies into the style of classic video and computer games, before. The company usually makes savvy choices as to what genre to turn a film intoMean Girls as a visual novel, Kill Bill as an action-platformerbut its latest video goes above and beyond, transforming David Fincher’s thriller/mystery Se7en into a classic adventure game.

The “game” follows Detectives Somerset and Mills as they investigate the film’s various gory tableaus, while a moodily great chiptunes soundtrack pulses in the background. The detectives dust for prints, investigate clues, and of course open boxes as they pursue John Doe.

Besides ably following the film’s plot, the video also captures that sense of lonely melancholy that was central to the old adventure game experience, as Mills and Somerset go about the work of applying ...

13 Aug 10:32

You Might As Well Live

by Darryl Cunningham


13 Aug 09:07

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13 Aug 09:06

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12 Aug 09:15

RIP Robin Williams

by Heidi MacDonald
Pedro.A

"At his height, Williams was simply the funniest man alive, a non stop barrage of improv and free association that was the Sistine Chapel of rapid fire humor."

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Actor Robin Williams was found dead in his house this morning, a suspected suicide.

For a little while there, WIlliams was the biggest movie star on the planet. Just listing his prominent roles is exhausting. From Mork from Ork to Garp, Good Morning Vietnam, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Birdcage, Dead Poets Society, The Fisher King, Hook, Aladdin, Toys, Jumanji, What Dreams May Come, Insomnia, Happy Feet, and most recently, the Night at the Museum movies.

It’s a film legacy that’s unsurpassed.

At his height, Williams was simply the funniest man alive, a non stop barrage of improv and free association that was the Sistine Chapel of rapid fire humor. It was an act inspired by his idol, Jonathan Winters.

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One of his most famous roles, of course was the Genie in Aladdin, a voice which took advantage of his singing and fast paced pop culture references. The animation itself was a reflection of his persona, and one of the most memorable Disney characters of the 90s.

Williams was a comics fan, long before it became fashionable, known to go to shops in the Bay Area with his kids. For years there was some talk of his appearing in a straight out comic book movie, but it never happened.

I know this seems like second guessing, but I sensed a sadness in him whenever I saw him on TV in recent years. It struck me that someone who was happiest at such a manic level would have a hard time adjusting to the gradual, inevitable slowing down that is the human lot. It’s a lot that isn’t innately sad or tragic. But some people handle it better than others. Williams’ drug use and depression was an open secret for year as well. I’m sure we’ll hear more about all that, and rehab and what might have been. He left behind a family and a wife, and I hope their privacy can be a little respected.

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There’s always hope. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. Call if you need help.

08 Aug 12:44

100 anos em 150 segundos

by João Lopes
Jeroen Wolf é um cineasta holandês que decidiu contar a história das idades. Contar, literalmente — filmando uma centena de pessoas a dizer, cada uma delas, a sua idade, de zero a cem... É um pequeno exercício de cerca de dois minutos e meio sobre a estranha sensualidade do tempo. E também, claro, a sua implacável linearidade.

05 Aug 14:54

Tim e Olavo Bilac também se juntam a Miguel Ângelo nas celebrações de 30 anos de carreira

Concerto realiza-se em Cascais e contará ainda com as presenças de Rui Pregal da Cunha, Eduardo Nascimento e Miguel Gameiro.
04 Aug 12:42

The Digital Fob Watch

by Warren Ellis

There was a day when, to learn the time, people would take a fob watch from a pocket and read it.  Then came the wristwatch.  Just a small turn of the wrist and a flick of the eye to learn the time.  Many of us today take out our phones, as we once did a fob watch, to learn the time and the information pushed to us by digital services.  The promise of the smartwatch is that with a small turn of the wrist we would once again learn the time and also gain that extra information with a flick of the eye.  Taking out our phones, or leaving them on the table in front of us to scan, during conversations, is considered rude.  The promise of the smartwatch is that we claim ambient awareness of the digital space while remaining fully engaged in the physical space.  We maintain the social contract of the conversation.

But I am 46 years old, and I am here to tell you that there was a time when looking at your wristwatch during a conversation was considered bloody rude.  Hell, it arguably cost George HW Bush an election.  Am I the only one who remembers “oh, is there somewhere else you have to be?” or “oh, am I keeping you?” or “did you know it’s rude to look at your watch while having a bloody conversation with someone?”

Smartwatches may well prove to be useful.  But never pretend that you have technologically solved the social world.

Also, I still want a fob chain for my iPhone, while I’m waiting for Oculus Monocle.

 

Reading: AMERICAN SMOKE, Iain Sinclair

 

28 Jul 13:11

15 anos da "Vogue" Japão

by João Lopes
A arte da pose como exercício de transfiguração do corpo, seu desmembramento simbólico e paciente reinvenção iconográfica. Ou seja: Stephanie Seymour fotografada por Luigi & Iango. Mais precisamente: esta é uma das admiráveis imagens que integram um portfolio de comemoração dos 15 anos da edição japonesa da revista Vogue. Além de Seymour, estão também presentes outras figuras emblemáticas da história das supermodels: Claudia Schiffer, Linda Evangelista, Nadja Auermann e Naomi Campbell.

25 Jul 08:54

SDCC 14: #comicsbeat

by Heidi MacDonald

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1z9XmIA
22 Jul 13:33

Anuncio de chicles con un gato gigante

by Kirai
Pedro.A

Gato e Japão. 'nuff said.

Fit’s (De LOTTE), una de las marcas de chicles más conocidas en Japón, siempre sorprende con sus anuncios. ¡Esta vez es un gato gigante!

gatogigante

22 Jul 13:29

O sistema bancário.

by Malomil
 
 
 
 
 

Entre várias obsessões, Malomil tem a tara das capas dos livros. Ainda ontem tive longa conversa sobre isso e outros temas, com o João Paulo Cotrim, um bom amigo. Outro amigo bom, o André, mandou-me esta imagem. Inteiramente feita com imagens de bancos, ou seja, com bancos de imagem. O designer, habilíssimo, preferiu o anonimato… Informação, apenas esta: «Jacket images: man © Getty Images; flies and building © Shutterstock.» O problema não está nos bancos de imagens, como se vê, mas no bom ou mau uso que deles se faz. Usar os bancos é para grandes artistas, como bem sabemos e pior sofremos.


22 Jul 13:20

http://abrupto.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-crise-no-bloco-de-esquerda-o-be-foi.html

by JPP
A CRISE NO BLOCO DE ESQUERDA 


O BE foi um caso de sucesso na política portuguesa. Muito do que conseguiu foi por mérito próprio, mas muita da sua projecção resultou da simpatia activa da comunicação social. O BE tinha novidade, era constituído por um grupo de homens e mulheres muito capazes do ponto de vista político radical, e parecia alterar as regras de um jogo demasiado rígido, logo sem novidade mediática. Algumas causas, também com simpatia activa nos media, como as chamadas “causas fracturantes”,  ajudaram, mas com o tempo esgotaram-se no seu próprio sucesso. O BE conseguiu em pouco tempo crescer eleitoralmente, conseguiu alguma implantação regional, com uma organização que cobria praticamente o país, mesmo que em muitos sítios fossem pouco mais de que uma dúzia de pessoas. Mas existiam, estavam lá. 

 Mas o BE nunca conseguiu duas coisas: ter um corpo doutrinário sólido e “orgânico”, e penetrar noutros meios que não fossem a juventude radical urbana, os filhos da classe média instalada. Mas essa base de recrutamento mudou muito com a crise. Os filhos da classe média passaram a ser a de uma classe média enraivecida e pauperizada pela crise, e absorveram mais do que se imagina o apontar de dedos governamental às culpas dos reformados, funcionários públicos, sindicatos e sindicalistas, os velhos e os pensionistas. Mesmo enraivecidos contra o governo, incorporaram as explicações da propaganda governamental, aliás como muitos dos seus pais que acham que “viveram acima das suas posses”, se não eles os seus vizinhos. E por isso, desprezam as manifestações sindicais, olham de lado os velhos, acreditam que as dificuldades do seu destino se devem a quem tem emprego “com direitos” e quem recebe pensões e reformas. 

 Neste contexto, que o BE nunca compreendeu bem, a organização não conseguiu atrair nem renovar, nem fileiras, nem votos. Movimentos como o “Que se lixe a troika”, ambíguo, desorganizado, sem estruturas permanentes, mobilizando à esquerda e à direita nas manifestações, elogiadas- imagine-se! - pelo próprio governo, tiveram o sucesso fátuo deste tipo de iniciativas, mas ajudaram a esvaziar o BE. 

O que é que hoje sustenta o BE? O parlamento. Ora o efeito da parlamentarização num grupo como o BE é mortífero. Cria um embrião de partidocracia, aconchegando na Assembleia, deputados e funcionários, logo amplifica as dissidências quando os lugares são escassos ou ameaçam tornar-se ainda mais escassos. E gera aquilo que o venenoso Lenine chamava o “cretinismo parlamentar”. Os tribunos são bons, e o BE sempre teve bons tribunos para além de Louçã, mas mesmo no parlamento o BE tornou-se bem comportado. O BE vai lá perguntar algumas vezes coisas duras aos governantes, mas nem sempre. E, como o PCP, institucionalizou-se, já não sai pela porta fora quando há um atropelo grave ao funcionamento regular da Assembleia e eles não têm faltado.

Ora, nos dias de hoje, quem introduziu novidade e diferença no sistema político, foram as candidaturas independentes nas autárquicas, Marinho Pinto nas europeias, os cidadãos que votam em branco e nulo em cada vez maior quantidade. E não há nada que o BE possa hoje oferecer que não se encontre melhor noutro sítio. Se é para partir tudo, há melhor do que o BE: começam a surgir alguns grupos que querem ser “casseurs”, mas ainda estão na infância. Se é para criar um “socialismo radical” com capacidade de se aliar com o PS, há melhor do que o BE: é entrar para o PS. Se é para protestar, sem prisões organizativas, há melhor do que o BE: há uma miríade de grupos culturais, de protesto, de causas desde o PAN aos anarquistas. Se é para falar alto e bom som, há melhor do que o BE, o Dr. Mário Soares oferece uma plataforma bem audível, como foi a Aula Magna. Se é para mobilizar a “classe operária” há melhor do que o BE: o PCP ou a CGTP. Se é para exercer uma oposição intelectual, há melhor do que o BE: há universidades e centros de investigação, podem ir para o ISCTE (como dizem as más línguas) ou para o CES do professor Boaventura.
18 Jul 09:12

Telephone

by Warren Ellis

What I like to do is take that video of David Lynch talking about the horror of watching films “on your fucking telephone” and watch it on my fucking telephone, and then I think about things like why, in Britain, we call the television the telly but we call the telephone the phone, and that maybe we should have called the television the vision, except of course that they were once called televisors, so we could have called it the visor, which is actually kind of nice, and in Spain they’re still called televisors so why the fuck not, and also it occurs to me that once upon a time people could listen to concerts over the telephone, and now we can make phone calls through our televisions, and given that “film,” “television” and “phone” are now words that denote spaces around things rather than the things they originally defined, I think I’ll watch a film on anything I like and all devices are now called “scopes” until further notice.

17 Jul 12:52

Esther Honig — aventuras no Photoshop

by João Lopes
Esther Honig
Só mesmo a estupidez corrente do imaginário dos "famosos" confunde a beleza com um factor universal, sem história nem raízes culturais, para mais instilando essa violência moralista segundo a qual o padrão "obrigatório" e "escandaloso" da beleza é a nudez feminina...
Esther Honig, jornalista de Kansas City, promoveu um curioso e, à sua maneira, didáctico desafio no sentido de, precisamente, relativizar qualquer padrão de beleza — ao mesmo tempo, enaltecendo-o. Como? Partindo do Photoshop, esse aparato corrente de técnicas que, segundo ela, nos EUA, "se tornou um símbolo dos inalcançáveis padrões de beleza da nossa sociedade".
Assim, Honig enviou uma imagem sua a cerca de quatro dezenas de especialistas do Photoshop de 25 países. Com um pedido muito simples: "Façam-me bonita". Os resultados, disponíveis no seu site, são a ilustração exemplar do adágio que não esquece a subjectividade de qualquer olhar, proclamando: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" (a versão portuguesa possui um toque mais sentimental: "Quem o feio ama, bonito lhe parece").
Índia
Alemanha
Marrocos
Grécia
15 Jul 13:32

Book Posters by Gunter Rambow

by Dan

1976_10

If you follow me at all on Twitter, you’ll know that I’m working on a post about meta-covers, or book covers with books on them. It’s proving to be a much more difficult task than I first imagined, and it’s taking a very long time to pull it all together. It is, finally, almost done, and I hope it will be on the blog in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, however, I came across these remarkable book posters by German designer Gunter Rambow for S. Fischer Verlag from the 1970s while compiling images for the post, and I thought I would share them now while you wait.

1978_15_S_F_78

1979_01_2_SF1

1979_04_SF4 1979_03_2_SF3 1979_06_2_SF6 1976_12 1976_11 1979_05_2_SF5

1979_02_2_SF2 1976_08

There is also a book, Gunter Rambow: Plakate / Posters, that collects Rambow’s posters from 1962 to 2007 when the Museum fur Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt mounted a major exhibition to his work.

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15 Jul 13:25

Motion Silhouette | a storybook of light and shadows

by Johnny

motion sihouette storybook (6)

Motion Silhouette is a fascinating little storybook designed by 25-year old designers Megumi Kajiwara and Tatsuhiko Niijima. By cleverly inserting delicate paper cutouts between each page, the story doesn’t come to life until the reader begins to manipulate the silhouettes with a flashlight. Trees grow taller, trains get closer and ghosts show their scary faces. It seems like the perfect tale to tell in the dark.

Given the level of craftsmanship involved, the books are made-to-order and can take a bit of time to arrive, but the designers are selling them for 6000 yen each. You just have to email them to place your order.

motion sihouette storybook (1)

motion sihouette storybook (1)

motion sihouette storybook (2)

Motion Silhouette is actually the second in a series of light and shadow storybooks that the two designed. The first was simply called silhouette. If you like what you saw be sure to check out the making-of video, which is almost as beautiful as the book itself.

motion sihouette storybook (2)

motion sihouette storybook (3)

motion sihouette storybook (3)

motion sihouette storybook (4)

motion sihouette storybook (5)

Source: KYOTA | Colossal

10 Jul 14:45

¡Cuidado! No pises el chicle

by Kirai
Pedro.A

Esta es una foto de un cuadrado marcado en el suelo de un ascensor que pone “¡Cuidado, no pises aquí! Acabamos de quitar un chicle pegado pero todavía quedan restos”

@pipo comentaba en el post sobre el Rainbow Bridge que no se veía basura por el suelo, ni siquiera un mísero chicle en las fotos de nuestro paseo. Por supuesto, sí que hay basura por los suelos en Japón (Hay guarros por todo el mundo), sobre todo en zonas ajetreadas como Shibuya, Shinjuku, Roppongi o Nanba en Osaka. Pero por lo general, las calles de Japón suelen estar muy limpias, los japoneses/as son muy pulcros.

Esta es una foto de un cuadrado marcado en el suelo de un ascensor que pone “¡Cuidado, no pises aquí! Acabamos de quitar un chicle pegado pero todavía quedan restos”

chicle

Seguir leyendo más sobre la limpieza japonesa.