Brian Ulrich

Ulrich's Copia series involves a typical rhetoric of 'consumer waste' and abandoned buildings, but they really have an unexpected drama. The candid thrift store shots are lit suspiciously well and the store buildings particularly remind me of my own hometown. They're not overly political, some are even sort of sweet. Thrift store portraits are really great.

He says:

Through large scale photographs taken within both the big-box retail stores, and the thrift shops that house our recycled goods, Copia explores not only the everyday activities of shopping, but the economic, cultural, social, and political implications of commercialism and the roles we play in self-destruction, over consumption, and as targets of marketing and advertising. By scrutinizing these rituals and their environments, I hope that viewers will evaluate the increasing complexities of the modern world and their role within it.

Mischel Marshmallow Test

Heard this on the RadioLab podcast. Wish I could find footage of the original, but this is a reenactment of the Walter Mischel experiment. Kinda sounds mean and awesome. I think it shows greed more than self-restraint. 'Bird in hand...'

'Mr. Meany-Face' himself, after suckering some other kids into good behavior.

Big Gay Mayor

I think it's kinda sweet.

SAN ANGELO, Texas — The mayor of a West Texas city abruptly resigned Wednesday, picking love over his love of office.

J.W. Lown told the San Angelo Standard-Times in a telephone interview from Mexico that he was involved in a relationship with a man who does not have legal status in the United States.

Lown, 32, said he didn't want to take the oath of office knowing he was "aiding and assisting" someone who is not a U.S. citizen. He was to be sworn in Tuesday but did not show up for the ceremony.


"We had to do the right thing and come to Mexico and wait in line for a visa," Lown said.

The job of San Angelo mayor pays $600 annually. The mayor is elected at-large, serves a two-year term and has no additional power beyond that of other city council members.
More.

Edward Gorey - The Hapless Child

The best children's story ever.





If you haven't seen Gorey's Tarot Cards - 'The Fantod Deck', here they are.

Valerie Hegarty

Niagara Falls (2007) Foamcore, paper, paint, wood, glue, gel medium

Valerie Hegarty is destroying some things we think we cherish. Mostly, she asks what happens when ‘beautiful’ objects are destroyed by forces of nature that those very objects represent and/or exalt. Her works bulge with the irony of their supposed destruction: a painting about the infinite meditative sublime seems to have been through a great flood itself. But it's different than, say slashing the Mona Lisa, maybe because these things are distinctly 'American' or that I saw them as a kid at antique shops - they're a different kind of precious.

Renovation (2002) paper, cardboard, paste, paint, 8' x 14' x 14'

Or maybe it's about entropy, and shelf lives of ideals. It's all well and good to revere the natural world until you're attacked by a swarm of beavers. See more here and here.