Weekly weird roundup

[pjthompson]

One more of these for the year, and then we'll see what 2010 brings us. "I want some sugar in my bowl, I ain't foolin'."

Was Caravaggio a photographer? A researcher suggests he used a kind of camera obscura to fix his paintings. Something of the same sort has been suggested for Vermeer because of the incredible attention to the psychological moment and the incredible lighting. I think that under values the creative imagination and the genius of these painters, but what do I know?

On another Caravaggian note, they've disinterred his body to try to figure out how he died.

I know Google has begun to seem like Big Brother to a lot of people, but in this case a Dreamtime story and Google Earth led to discovery of an impact crater in Australia. I can't help thinking that's rather neato kobeato.

(My friend, jmeadows, would like to bring back the word "moxie," and I seem to be on a mission to bring back my childhood epithet of "neato kobeato.")

You remember the last time you did something-or-other "once in a blue moon"? Well, New Year's Eve would be that day.

The origins of working hard all week in order to get drunk on Saturday.

Stonehenge's altar used to build a bridge, Hadrian's wall used to pave a road, mummies burned for firewood—yeah, what were they thinking?

What's that you say, Vincent? You were jealous of who? You'll have to speak up. I can't hear you.

Comments

[marshallpayne1.livejournal.com]

I never realized the word was so old.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=moxie&searchmode=none

[pjthompson]

Research geek that I am, I did. But before I researches it, I didn't. Which I suppose makes sense.

[hominysnark.livejournal.com]

Time to kick back, put our feet up on the altar, turn on the manuscript lamp, pop open a Moxie and roast some marshmallows over great-great-great-grandpa.

[pjthompson]

There's the spirit. The light from precious manuscript lamps is so homey.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Moxie shows up in my vocab.

The other one was "neato completo" in our neck of the woods--and I hear it in an unpleasant kid's voice, so it stays in memory. Interesting, tho, how it varied from place to place!

[pjthompson]

Here in Venice it was definitely said with wonder and excitement, but yes, it's so odd how if shifts from place to place. When I was a grownup person attending a art exhibit at LACMA back in the 70s or 80s one of the pieces was a room filled with a gigantic miniature cityscape. This little girl, probably no more than five, turned the corner, saw the cityscape, and cried, "Neato kobeato!" So it lives on somewhere...

[darkspires.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this gem. I am not sure whether to laugh or cry.

Of course, Stonehenge is a shock, but burning dead people for firewood? And I am not in the least sorry for the people that died from cholera after using paper made from mummy wrappings.

[pjthompson]

It makes you realize what a very different attitude people had towards historical treasures in past eras. Then again, there are a number of morons currently living who just might do the same, given the chance.

[darkspires.livejournal.com]

We went through a small town on the way to Stonehenge and there were rows of ugly Victorian twoplexes either side of the road. The tour guide told us these were put up by a wealthy mill owner to house his staff. He had Tudor, beamed houses demolished to make room for these monstrosities. He thought the old houses were ugly. I suppose it is in the eye of the beholder, but one could wish people like him had more taste.

[pjthompson]

Isn't that the truth?

[handworn.livejournal.com]

Anything involving the disinterment and examination of bones to solve historical mysteries, I'm totally there for. Just love those stories; thanks.

The camera-obscura thing reminds me of the stories that some Japanese painters painted amazing three-dimensional aerial-view landscapes by having themselves flown up in a giant kite and sketching them.

[pjthompson]

The camera-obscura thing reminds me of the stories that some Japanese painters painted amazing three-dimensional aerial-view landscapes by having themselves flown up in a giant kite and sketching them.

I'm not saying any of these things couldn't have happened—I'm always open to extreme possibilities—but I do think "researchers" tend to undervalue what creative imagination can do, the places it can take an artist.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure. Though the camera-obscura thing is also quite creative in a different way. This is rather like arguing which is the greater accomplishment-- work done "standing on the shoulders of giants"-- no doubt a quotemeister like you knows who said that-- or without that. I think there's no right answer.