Don’t Understand Modern or Abstract Artwork?

 

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Artwork and architecture tend to go hand in hand. Not in every case, but often. And various types of art suit particular environments. If you like modern, contemporary, IKEA (for the Danish but inexpensive design), European, minimalist architecture and interior design, you would likely select art that is abstract, modern, surreal or contemporary. When you live in a home that has a lot of white, neutrals and shapes, a more abstract piece gives you a jolt of color or texture. It helps liven up the monotony and coldness of the design. If you like in a more traditional type home, you’ll be more apt to lean towards say a landscape or seascape painting. Of course there are plenty of exceptions to these rules. My house is a combination of traditional and modern, so anything goes around here. But I think I’m more “modern” in style, adjusting my surroundings (which are more traditional) to fit my taste. So you get a little of everything.

If your home is “cottage,” you can pretty much get away with anything. Apartments and condos can go any direction depending on your overall style. The corporate world also goes in pretty much every direction these days. A corporate art collection might have cutting edge abstracts in the same gallery as a 17th century Dutch painting.

In general, if you select art that you connect with for whatever reason, there’s a good chance it will fit into your environment. The same type of person who might select an abstract piece would likely also pick more modern furnishings.

Modern means “futuristic” in terms of how people in the past saw design of the future. Contemporary means the design of now. But they can be used interchangeably and people will general get what you’re saying in the art world. Pop art – think of Andy Warhol soup cans or Elizabeth Taylor paintings. Minimalism is likely 1-2 colors and utter simplicity. Traditional encompasses art that used to take the place of photography. (Landscapes, portraits, still life)

That’s a most basic art lesson for those who want to learn more. And everything overlaps everything else at different points. So there really are no rules.

Blatant “Anti-Male” Discrimination – Woman Screws Some Other Guy, And This Guy Gets Screwed by Cook County Georgia

UPDATE: Looks like I touched a nerve with this post. But in a good way, judging from most of the comments.

“For 13 years, Hatley made payments to the state until learning, in 2000, that the boy might not be his biological son. A DNA test that year confirmed that there was no chance he was the father, according to court documents.”

This is absolute insanity, and not in a good way. First of all, any time a woman wants child support, a DNA test absolutely must be required. There is nothing wrong with two parents sharing the burden of their biological children. But there must be no doubt in this process. It should be standard operating procedure.

In this case, it’s a double whammy because the woman had sex with a second partner. And ALL sexual partners within the time frame of fertilization must be considered as potential parents of the child. Mr. Hatley could have been the one who was easier to lock into child support, maybe he had a job. Maybe Ms. Morrison simply wanted a way to control her relationship with Mr. Hatley. Who knows. But Morrison is clearly negligent for overlooking the fact she had multiple partners. Was she asleep when it happened?

I’m quite sure Mr. Hatley could have used that extra money during those 13 years. And the correct father should be liable for the entire sum of payments made by Hatley, along with the years Hatley didn’t make payments. Plus interest.

The problem with this case is that it has become acceptable in society to run men over and not make women accountable. Hatley has absolutely no connection to this other man’s child. The mother should have confirmed it, she didn’t. The State should have confirmed it, they didn’t either. And now we have a man in all kinds of legal hassle, who should have never been involved in the first place. Not only should he get all this money back plus interest, he should get payment for time spent behind bars. And it’s unfortunate the tax payers of Georgia are footing the bill for this unnecessary ridiculousness.

So I heard eHarmony.com had decided to go ahead and let gay people use the site

Turns out, eHarmony.com decided to loop-hole their way out of this. I quite frankly don’t understand the big deal. Every other personals website out there categorizes people. When you log in, you pick your preference, m4m, m4w, w4w. Then during the process, you only get matched up with people in your own category. You can go on www.match.com and look for any gender and still be under the match.com umbrella.

What eHarmany.com is doing is to allow you to plug in m4m when you start to join. THEN, here comes the kicker. If you’re gay, the prompt carries you away to an entirely different site called www.compatiblepartners.net. You can tell how serious they are about this site, if they’re picking a “.net” domain name.

So then you end up joining this second site, while eHarmony.com is allowed to exclude gay people.

When you go through the “compatiblepartners.net” series of questions, many of them weren’t even customized for the gay market. I remember seeing one entire page just about children. I get that there are gay people with children, but this could be covered with 2 questions. It should bring up adoption, rather than seeming to be a copy of a straight person’s questionnaire.

It sickens me that eHarmony took such extreme measures to keep gay people off their site. I have a hunch that if “compatiblepartners.net” ever gets up and running, they’ll probably start to get used to dealing with gay people. Then they’ll wonder why they worked so hard to keep them away.

Matt Drudge makes #6 on the Out Power Gay 50

Followed closely by Rachel Maddow at #4.  And Anderson Cooper at #3. And Ellen at #2. And Barney Frank at #1. Meanwhile, Suze Orman is way down at #22 (seems like she’s on the TV every time I turn it on discussing the economy). Wanda Sykes #35. Jodie Foster #36. Oprah’s Nate Berkus #41. Rosie O’Donnell #42. Perez Hilton #43.

Matt Drudge — the archly conservative 42-year-old owner of the right wing news–aggregating site Drudge Report—also happens to love Chaka Khan, The Young and the Restless, and sex with men. Though he often plays coy about his homosexuality — “I go to straight bars. I go to gay bars,” he once said — he had a long-term relationship with a male landscaper. The power of Drudge is formidable; he reports that his site averages 20 million page views a day. Unfortunately, his agenda is often antigay, anti-choice, and anti-tolerance. No one said power was always used for good.

Farrah Fawcett is unconscious, in hospital

This is horrible. I hope it’s not as bad as it sounds.

Farrah Fawcett is reportedly close to death.

The ‘Charlie’s Angels’ actress is said to be unconscious and in a “critical but stable” condition at a Los Angeles hospital after her battle with cancer worsened last week.

Jade Goody dies

For some reason, I actually thought she might live through this. Or I at least wanted to think it might be possible.

LONDON (Reuters) – Jade Goody, a one-time dental assistant whose final days were as closely chronicled in the media as her appearances on reality television, died of cervical cancer early on Sunday, media reported.

The 27-year-old mother of two, who married her boyfriend in a televised ceremony only last month, died in her sleep at her home in Essex, southeast England, her publicist Max Clifford said.

40% of all US children are now born to single parents

And people are worried about the gays getting the right to marry? This proves most people really have no true respect for the institution of marriage. They simply don’t like gay people and they show their disgust at the voting booth. But pretending they’re protecting the institution of marriage for the children? Reality check.

Another point about this new data is that this is children who are BORN to single parents. The 60% that are born in marriages, well probably half of those marriages will end in divorce. So 30% of children will grow up with two married parents?

CNN (Their story is about three weeks behind the AP story): Nearly 40 percent of babies born in the United States in 2007 were delivered by unwed mothers, according to data released last month by the National Center for Health Statistics. The 1.7 million out-of-wedlock births, of 4.3 million total births, marked a more than 25 percent jump from five years before.

ATLANTA (AP) – More babies were born in the United States in 2007 than any year in the nation’s history, topping the peak during the baby boom 50 years earlier, federal researchers reported Wednesday.

The birth rate rose slightly for women of all ages, and births to unwed mothers reached an all-time high of about 40 percent, continuing a trend begun years ago. More than three-quarters of these women were 20 or older.

Natasha Richardson listed as ‘brain-dead’ ****UPDATE: Sad news – Natasha has died

The actress Natasha Richardson was reported to be “brain-dead” last night after suffering a severe head injury in a fall during a skiing lesson in Canada. Richardson, the daughter of Vanessa Redgrave and the late director Tony Richardson, was admitted in critical condition to the intensive care unit of Sacré Coeur Hospital, in Montreal, late on Monday. Last night she was taken by ambulance and flown out of the city on board a private jet bound for the US, apparently New York.

It’s not exactly a shock that Rachel Maddow is a lesbian…

What was shocking is that she said on the show today (which I very, very rarely watch) “my partner’s family lives in New Hampshire…” From out of left field. No People magazine cover. No official statement. It’s akin to Andy Cooper suddenly throwing the word “partner” into a sentence. Hiding in plain view.

According to Rachel’s biography:

Rachel is 35 years old and lives in New York City and rural Western Massachusetts with her partner, artist Susan Mikula.

Biodegradable Credit Cards: The Good Kind Of Financial Breakdown

This is a “waste” of time. It sounds more like bragging rights to going green. There are a million other products we throw out each year that would have a bigger impact if they were biodegradable. It’s like trying to clean up Lake Michigan with a couple bottles of Evian. http://mespace.wordpress.com/
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Bobby Jindal Speech Text: Criticizes Obama, Both Parties

Republicans are throwing the dice on this, knowing they have nothing else to lose at this point. They take a point man, Jindal, who is “racially diverse.” Tit for tat. They know there is a decent likelihood that the Spendulus plan will fail, and possibly make things worse. They”re kind of doing what Obama was doing against McCain in the presidential election. If you loudly take the opposing viewpoint, when things don”t work out, you get credit for a great idea. Only the great idea doesn”t have to prove it would ever really work. It just needs to say “You should have listened to me. You didn”t, and now look what happened.” Jindal will likely be one of the two final Republican presidential candidates in 2012. There”s a good chance it will be a candidate of Jindal vs. Obama for the next presidency. It”s almost impossible for a newscaster to introduce Jindal without also saying “Our next Republican presidential candidate.”
http://mespace.wordpress.com
More on President Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama Kisses Clinton At State Of The Union (VIDEO)

I got the feeling Hillary thought she should be the one making the grand entrance, not Obama. Which might explain why she was the only person in the room who wasn’t slobbering all over Obama as he walked down the aisle. http://mespace.wordpress.com
More on President Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Britney’s Ex Charged With Assault

Hollywood needs a little anger management these days. http://mespace.wordpress.com
More on Britney Spears
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Sharon Stone’s Sheer Oscar Dress (NSFW PHOTOS)

Who is she not wearing? http://mespace.wordpress.com
More on Celebrity Skin
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Oscar goes to – Angelina Jolie for Best Dramatic Performance of the night

She thought Jennifer Aniston was really funny? Great acting.

No surprises at the AAs tonight. I am getting seriously tired of watching gay people beg and plead for equal rights. It feels like 1955.  Why are we still talking about gay rights these days?

(CNN) — “Slumdog Millionaire,” the little film about a poverty-raised teaboy who goes on a game show as a way to find his lost love, won best picture Sunday night, earning a total of eight Oscars at the 81st annual Academy Awards.

Gary Condit didn’t kill Chandra Levy?

If Condit didn’t actually do it, that means his career in Congress was ruined (and the rest of his life along with it) for nothing. Would the Levy family offer an apology for dragging him through the mud? Condit did have an affair with intern Chandra Levy. But is that worth losing everything?

Earlier in the day, WRC-TV in Washington reported that police were pursuing an arrest warrant for a prison inmate named Ingmar Guandique.

“President Obama are you listening?” CNBC’s Rick Santelli goes off on the massive spendulous bill

As a small business owner, I second that emotion. I personally feel like I spend my life working my ass off to pay taxes for things I won’t get or don’t want. Because i’m self-employed, it’s another huge pain in the ass to get a mortgage. So I have to work my ass off to pay for the failing mortgages of other people and I have to jump through 30 hoops to give the illusion of perfect credit so I can get a mortgage myself that I can afford.

Chris Brown public relations BS

Offer a public apology and move on. Dragging “God” into this is beyond lame. I equally blame Rihanna for this situation. People who are violent don’t just become randomly abusive one day. You have to build up a level of comfort between the two parties that allows it to happen, moving from verbal assaults to physical assaults. She made a terrible decision on who to date. Then she stayed when she should have been long gone. If you live with lions you’re going to be bitten.

(CNN) — Singer Chris Brown broke his silence Sunday, a week after allegedly attacking his girlfriend, fellow performer Rihanna, on a street in Los Angeles, California.

“Words cannot begin to express how sorry and saddened I am over what transpired,” the 19-year-old said in a statement released by his spokesman. “I am seeking the counseling of my pastor, my mother and other loved ones and I am committed, with God’s help, to emerging a better person.”

The controversial British Virgin Atlantic Airlines commercial

If this airline actually existed, I might want to fly on a plane. Feminists are outraged because it demeans women. Conservatives love it because it outrages feminists. All odd as the music playing in the background is by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, an iconic very gay singer. The original video for the song Relax depicted a gay S&M den.

Farrah Fawcett sues over rights for her iconic 1970s bikini photo

My parents had that poster hanging on the inside of their bedroom closet back in the day.

Fawcett is suing Bio-Graphics inc., Pie International Inc. and author T.N. Trikilis, claiming that Trikilis “has falsely asserted to third parties that [Fawcett] does not own any rights in the photographs.”

Fawcett says she “owns and possesses all the photographs and negatives of all the photographs taken at the photo shoot.”

The Spendulous Bill Quote of the Day

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio) described the stimulus package as a “billion-dollar-a-page” spending plan and accused Democrats of not wanting people to read it “because they might actually find out what’s in it. And in the days and weeks and months to come, we’ll know how this money will be spent.”

Watch GOP Leader Boehner throw a copy of the 1100 page Spendulus bill on the floor in outrage

We’ll give you a call if we need you Obama.

Sad News: Blossom Dearie dies. You know her as the haunting voice in “Figure 8″ of Schoolhouse Rock

Blossom Dearie, the jazz pixie with a little-girl voice and pageboy haircut who was a fixture in New York and London nightclubs for decades, died on Saturday at her apartment in Greenwich Village. She was 84.

Starbucks to begin offering “instant” coffee

Desperate times call for desperate measures. This concept has probably been floating around for years in Starbucks corporate. But Starbucks can’t be “premium” while selling Folgers. Ultimately it’s a good move on their part. There’s a demographic of people who like coffee and prefer top namebrands, who have plenty of money to spend, and don’t want to mess with grinding beans.

The Seattle-based coffee merchant said Friday it plans to unveil an instant coffee product next week. The coffee, the company said, will be introduced at events in New York and other cities. The arrival of an instant java at Starbucks, which made its name on brewed and exotic coffee concoctions, comes after about 20 years of development, the company said. Starbucks said the technology it uses could launch it into a market that pulls in about $17 billion in annual global sales.

Salma Hayek Breastfeeds African Baby Boy Stranger

I guess since most Americans don’t think twice about drinking excretions from cow breasts every day, this is no big whoop.

Darryl “I’m a manwhore” Strawberry quote of the day

So this is the woman who’s sleeping with all your husbands. Or in this case, not sleeping.

The team’s mantra on the road, he writes, was to “tear up your best bars and nightclubs and take your finest women . . . The only hard part for us was choosing which hottie to take back to your hotel room. Lots of times you . . . picked two or three.” Although he doesn’t name names, Strawberry relates how team members picked out girls from the stands for quickies. He once watched a pitcher march a frisky fan to a private room for oral sex: “I was jealous. When I saw her heading back to her seat, I gave her a sign. She smiled, turned right back around, and met me in that same little room . . . I had to be quick and run back out on the field.”

Republican Meg Whitman (of eBay fame) will run for Governor of California

Arnold can’t run again. It’s very difficult to see how Meg could possibly lose this election, despite the fact California is a liberal state. California needs someone at the helm who can turn around that failing economy. And she’s certainly proved she can turn a major business into a powerhouse from her days at eBay.  See Meg’s website for more information.

Hip Hop and Rap extravagance – On hold for now?

This was pretty much summed up in a Youtube video someone emailed today. If the economy didn’t kill the show-off rap-hop artist, this video would.

(CNN) — Gold teeth, luxury cars and diamond chains heavy enough to slump a bodybuilder’s shoulders have been ubiquitous symbols in hip-hop music for years, if not decades.

Chris Brown assaults Rihanna

I kept seeing references to a woman, and no name mentioned. Now we have a confirmation on what everyone suspected.

Police sources confirmed to the Los Angeles Times and E! News that the victim in Chris Brown’s alleged attack early Sunday morning was indeed his longtime girlfriend Rihanna.

Both had canceled their Grammy performances, and Brown turned himself in as the Grammys got underway. He was booked on suspicion of making criminal threats, and a police spokesman described him as “professional” during the booking process, the Associated Press reports.

Though he was not charged initially with battery, E! says that Rihanna suffered visible bruises to her face during the fight, which took place outside their rented Lamborghini in the fancy but quiet Hancock Park neighborhood shortly after midnight.

The most overproduced website Welcome page I’ve ever seen.

It reminds me of the opening credits for Down With Love. Way too much energy focused on something so meaningless. But still, very pretty to look at. It’s the website for the Air Force: http://www.airforce.com/

The Army, Marines and Navy have almost basic starter websites in comparison. The reason I even noticed any of this was because I kept seeing Air Force commercials featuring Asian Americans. The military has been going through an African American and Latino phase for the last couple years, so they must be moving on to the Asian population for new recruits.

It’s a very subtle change, but huge at the same time. It means the focus groups in the Air Force decided it’s now safe to target this group. It has traditionally been a Caucasian male market, but in recent years opened up to women, Latino and African Americans. If you’re Asian, these commercials would hit you like a ton of bricks, as I’ve nicknamed Asians “Invisible Americans.” Or Invisible Foreigners if you’re visiting from Asia. Asians just get no respect in American culture.

It’s easiest for the Air Force to kick down this barrier since there is a lot less machismo than say the Marines or Army. But once it’s down, they will also follow suit.

There are two other groups that compose a percentage equal or greater than the Asian target. Arabic and gay people. These groups are obviously serving in the military, but it’s far too sensitive to talk about. I give this about 5-10 years before they start marketing directly to these two communities. They need qualified bodies. If I’m being invaded by Russia, I don’t care if you’re gay, female, Asian or Arabic. If you’re firing missles at them, I’m glad you’re doing it.