Twelfth of Never

#note.//
I never know who wrote it or that Johnny Mathis sang it and Donny Osmond. All "pop" stars, but it took the "pop" star power of Nina for me to hear it on my stream!

#singer.//
Nina Simone.

#lyric.songinhead.loop.//
Hold me close
Never let me go (#linked.data.book.//Never let me go
Hold me close
Melt my heart like April snow


#songwriter.//
Jerry Livingston
Paul Francis Webster.

Never Let Me Go

#note.//I always hear the Nina Simone song #linked.data.//The Twelfth of Never// when I think about this book. We keep the cow alive as we carve up her up and eat her sacred Brahman flesh.


#author.//Kazuo Ishiguro

Harvey.1950

#note.//
The quote of "oh so smart or oh so pleasant" comes up again and again in my head.


#quote.//

Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, "In this world, Elwood, you must be" - she always called me Elwood - "In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me.

#actor.//
Jimmy Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd.

Landscape 1 - 10

#note.//

There are 10 pieces/works. All are the same size. They reminds me of the Google Street pictures at Artistic Google. Probably because both ARE representative landscape and there's only so many ways you can abstract and deconstruct the composition.

 #object.//

Untitled (1967)

#note.//

It's a very small piece. Probably Gerhard was just messing around.

It's solvent on printed paper, probably a newspaper. The solvent dissolves the ink from the newspaper and he transforms it into two movement blocks. The top block is vertical streaks while bottom is
horizontal

#object.//
N/A

Target with Four Faces (1968)

#note.//
I took a long look at this picture. The one I saw is nothing like the one below, which I found online.

The work I saw was made with graphite, charcoal, pastel over screen on cream wove paper.

I saw from my Google search that there are many version of this subject.

In the work I saw, he has further hidden the meaning of the faces. Is he trying to make them ambiguous? The targets themselves are not the faces, and unlike the picture below, the work I saw only printed out the word FACE, but it's backwards. The four backward printed words say face: e c a f.

The screen has newspaper lettering but once we are in the target, there is only similar sized dots that remind us of letters. Have letters blurred into dots? Meaning into monotone Morse code?

The pastel give coloration and define vertical movement.

I think the stick of charcoal, on its side was gently scraped across the paper, and the natural bumps of the paper captured black dots in the same size as the printed font.

The circles of the target is only given in outline. A strong line defines the outer ring, while dashes -- the inner ones. But really the only thing that gives the "circle" identity is the highlighting scribble. Graphite scribbles provide volume and define the circles of the target. Indeed, if you look at the work from a sharp angle, the light will reflect off the graphite and give an uber highlight!

The color palette is much more muted than the picture shown below. In the work I saw, everything is darker, older, more the tone of old people's clothing, dirtied with living.


#object.//

Train Station (Hanover) 1967

#note.//
This is an offset photolithograph on off white wove paper.

Another offset work! The blur of the offset results in a ghostly image, hinting at a skull. Our ingrain brain wiring sees faces. You can't really see the skull and little ghost people in this Intersweb picture I found with Google. You have to go see the piece at the Harvard Museum! It's a small picture in real life.


#object.//

Pop Art Redefined (1971)

#note.//
I took a long look at this color screen print. It's one of Andy Warhol's classic Marilyn Monroe four color screen print on cartridge paper. I initial thought since it said "four color" screen that he used four colors. The four strong colors and the black "newspaper-like" print.

The closest picture I could find on the Intersweb is shown below, but it is nothing like the one I actually saw. Harvard has an "accident" offset print!

What I mean by this is that the blocks of each color do not sync perfectly with the black print. Unlike the picture below, the print a Harvard Museum shows blocks of pink and brown that don't line up exactly with the black print of Marilyn.

I initially thought there were four colors-- two pinks, a yellow, and a brown. These blocks of color obviously don't line up. The way the offsets occur suggests that this was done for a purpose. As with watercolor, the accidents delineate artist from amateur.

The brown hair is offset up relative to black, but the widows peak still matches. Strange, no? Or is it just me imagining things? (Don't look a the picture below. You have to go see this actual print)

The dark pink is the background. The hot pink are the lips and eyelid shadow, with the pink lips offset up from black reference. The eye-circle are in brown, unlike the picture below and are also offset up into the hot pink eyelid shadow to create a sleeping hot pink brown eye! Andy must have thought this funny.

The signature mole is also off set using the darker background pink.

There is probably four different pinks:
1. Background pink, which changes to a lighter shade
2. in a streak at the upper right.
3. Hot pink used for her lips and a collar of a nonexistent blouse? (the picture below has this)\
4. Finally the pink of the mole.

Oh. Hot pink is used for her ear rings!

You'll have to go and see a version of Marilyn and count the pinks! Enjoy.

#object.//

Albuquerque, New Mexico (1972)

#note.//

He was doing in 1972 what we are all doing now. Vertical lamp poles to segment, and half hidden living creatures. Everyone and their dystopic Mom are taking cityscape pictures like this, and even more complex ones in color.

#object.//

Indianapolis (1955-56)

#note.//
20151031.
I was at the Harvard Museum. It's free for me! I took a tour of the Pop Art exhibit. The main artist is Corita Kent but they put other works by contemporaries to show context.

Here's a Robert Frank's black/white photo called Indianapolis. It was dated 1955-56. This photo I found on the the Intersweb because I did NOT take a photo of a photo in the museum. That's usually a no, no, although I don't know why. The movement is perfect --from eyes to lips, while everything else suggest stasis.

#object.//

Hellboy

#note.//
Watched it again, this time with Lil on Netflix.

I couldn't even remember that there was a girl.love interest! It that bad?! The movie came out in 2004 and I must have watched it somewhere on Netflix?!? Did I rent it on DVD or watched it on one of my vacation movie binge?

#actor.//
Ron Perlman as Hellboy. He was also the Beast in the TV show Beauty and the Beast!

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

#note.//
Watched at the theater with Lil @Red Rock Casino/Theater - Las Vegas

This was a Guy Ritchie.director movie-- fun and stylish. I loved the split screen, multi-panel action sequences. It had the same feel as Lock, Stock and two smoking Barrel.<link> The required torture scene was uncomfortable for me because it was probably historically real, but the movie quickly adds some dark humor to bring us back into fantasy spy land again! Well done.
 
Pacing was excellent.
Dollops of semi-naked girl and well-dressed spies was vintage.
There was no ultra-violence and minimal blood.
Nothing complicated here, but enjoyable to watch.

A good wholesome, fairy-tale family movie about WWII and the Cold war!

I don't really have time to read reviews by the "critics" so here's my reaction to the short Google blurps of some reviews:

Though I strive to set aside all prejudices when the lights go down, I had a hunch that The Man From U.N.C.L.E. would be excruciating. Well, it turns out to be absolutely delightful.
David Edelstein·Vulture

CORRECT. It was enjoyable for JoJo Brand.

Note to millennials: No one stops to text or take a selfie. You've been warned.
Peter Travers·Rolling Stone

INCORRECT. Blurp is too hip for me to understand. Rolling Stone is quickly becoming irrelevantly hip.

Though the pic is solidly made, its elegant vintage flavor simply doesn't feel modern enough to cut through the tough summer competition.
Peter Debruge·Variety

INCORRECT. It's near perfect combination of vintage feel, beautiful people, innocent flirtatious sexual tension, well-done basic action sequences, and mainstream stylized violence will cut through the typical summer competition.

CONCLUSION: If I were to generalize base on a very small sample size, I would say the the older magazine reviews are out of touch with JoJo Brand.

#actor.//
I didn't recognize any of the stars, but that is typical these days when I try not to remember unless they pop up in another context.

Who are: Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander?!?

I Robot

#note.//
The only thing of note is that the movie takes a radically different view on future robots. Asimov always viewed them differently<link>. We've changed them into killers.

 #actor.//
Will Smith as ...oh I don't remember, the usual action character he plays. Now he gets to fight and destroy cool looking robots from Terminator... no, more like the liquid robots from Terminator 2<link>

Terminator

#note.//
A classic where Arnold is still bad but good.  How many times have we watched this movie?

#actor.//
Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator.
Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connors

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)

#note.//
Tongue-in-cheek fun flick. Very good stylized violence on top of classic movie memes.
The super-spy.
Killing the dog, relative, or twin brother to pass the test.


 #actor.//

Legally Blond

#note.//
For want it is, it does an excellent job. I liked it, and just as Joe T. would say Billy Madison<link> is a classic movie, I would say Legally Blond is a classic movie

#actor.//
Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods a smart, SoCal blond going to Harvard to get her man, but finds a career and the-other-man instead. She hopes to eventually marry that man, and have the quintessential modern woman's life.

Ex Machina

#note.//
Not much really new Sci-Fi, but has a beautiful killer robot. It's basically a killer robot movie with some nice acting, sets, special effects, and wanting to explore the many possible outcomes of Turing's thoughts on AI, but we end up with basically a killer robot movie.

It reminds me of how we've changed Asimov's benevolent robots<link> into a Will Smith killer ones in-- I, Robot<link>.

 #actor.//

Tig

#note.//
A Netflix documentary on the still ongoing life of Tig Notaro. She lost a Mom a freak accident, got cancer, did "legendary" standup routine just after losing her Mom and being diagnosed with cancer, fought and so far beat cancer, and has now a hot red-headed girlfriend who reminds me of her Mom.

Lucy

#note.//
Faulty science and neuroscience but OK movie. We actually use 100% of our brain. It makes no sense to say we only use 10% of our brain. What does the rest of the brain do then?!

If only drugs or artificial hormones could turn you into a demigod. What was stopping her from destroying the world on a whim?

The same problem as, The Survivors.Star Trek: The Next Generation.e3.<link>
Kevin is an immortal Douwd.

The movie had no tense once she became demi-god Lucy. A superwoman with no fault, no kryptonite.


#actor.//
Scarlett Johansson as Lucy.

Mad Max: Fury Road

#note.//
I watched it at movie theater with C. One of the most action dense movie I've seen in a long time. The magic is it is so well paced. I didn't get bored, and I didn't get overloaded. Just enough narrative to understand and motivate, but not too much to slow down the movie.



#actor.//
Charlize Theron as hero