July 3, 2009
I'm blond, I like Helvetica.
An advertisement for a student art show...one that I think I'd enjoy.
For Elaine and Bruce.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:44 AM | Comments (1)
July 2, 2009
On the impermanence of the Internet
Jack Lail on disappearing newspapers. I got a friendly email the other day about a broken link on a page I have up for my students - it happens allthe time.
via Prof. Reynolds.
blogged from my iPhone. Somebody please tell me there's a mobile version of MT!!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 5:59 AM | Comments (1)
July 1, 2009
Don't worry, the economy is practically improving!
Best misleadingly optimistic headline I've seen (via news.google.com) lately:
Euro-zone June manufacturing PMI hits 9-month high MarketWatch - 39 minutes ago LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Activity in the 16-nation euro zone's manufacturing sector continued to fall in June, but contracted at the slowest pace in nine months, according to the Markit manufacturing purchasing managers index released Wednesday.
I'm sorry, but one only hits a high when one is rising, not falling.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 5:12 AM | Comments (1)
June 30, 2009
May in Chattanooga
I have been flickr averse lately for some reason - I still have piles of things to post from Europe (all of Torino, Dusseldorf and Essen). Things have gotten out of order -- but this is one of the better photographs I've taken lately: coral bells in my parents' backyard, early May.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:52 AM | Comments (0)
Celebrity deaths in threes
Michael Jackson, Farah Fawcett, and now Billy Mays? I guess the rest of them can sleep peacefully for a few weeks.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 3:47 AM | Comments (1)
June 24, 2009
La la la - on the road
Airport blogging by Rochester Free WiFi.... You know, I should have told everyone sorry in May and extended my stay, but for remarkably little more than that would have cost me I'm on my way back to Germany for a visit. Spur of the moment, but it will be fun!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 2:19 PM | Comments (0)
How - Biblical.
Eli Raz was peering into a narrow hole in the Dead Sea shore when the earth opened up and swallowed him.
I avoid Dead Seas. They sound like places where the wrath of God would cause the earth to swallow you up.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:58 AM | Comments (2)
Hmm - what're the Classical topoi for the exposure of babies?
I read an interesting catalog from an exhibition about the depiction of children and childhood in ancient Greek art a couple of years ago - Coming of Age in Ancient Greece, but I am not remembering if there was anything much about the exposure of unwanted infants. Somehow I always think of this as a male response - but read this article about women and men responding babies with facial abnormalities. Hmm.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 6:39 AM | Comments (0)
June 23, 2009
Using Google Earth for archaeology
This is neat - looking for crop circles with Google Earth. I knew that people were doing this, but follow the link to see pictures!
via (well, after following some links) Brian Tiemann
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:57 AM | Comments (1)
June 22, 2009
The unintended consequences of giving art back to those from whom the Nazis stole it.
In 2006 the relatives of Dutch-Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker used the proceeds from the sales both privately and at auction of restituted art to pay off the millions of dollars worth of legal fees and expenses that had accumulated over the nine years it took to finalize their agreement with the Dutch government. As of April 2008, they had already sold two-thirds of the 200 Old Master paintings they reclaimed. Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that the same number of paintings that hung in museums around the Netherlands prior to their restitution are still hanging in museums or public spaces today.The families recovering the art are turning around and selling it. Of course, they are entirely within their rights. After all, just because these paintings have been hanging in public collections for 60 years or so doesn't been they belong to the public.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 11:15 PM | Comments (2)
Shipment Tracking?
I've commented before on the two-edged sword we have in shipment tracking. Worse, though, is when you get an email at 3 p.m. announcing that your new computer is on campus (two days earlier than expected!) but that you can't pick it up until the invoices are all complete and assembled!! Argh!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 6:27 PM | Comments (1)
June 21, 2009
We put the 'NO' in Innovation!
As a conservative do I have to start eating breakfast cereal?
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 5:51 PM | Comments (3)
June 19, 2009
David Bowie makes even MORE money off my generation than he has already.
Lincoln MKZ. Talk about target marketing. Here's a picture of the car.
Here's the video with music. Tell me, people over 35, that this doesn't say "buy me! buy me!"
Maybe there's SOME hope for the American car industry after all.
Here's the whole cover version.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:35 PM | Comments (3)
June 18, 2009
NOT a good summer for aviation
Pilot dies mid-flight; plane lands safely in NJ
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 3:16 PM | Comments (0)
June 17, 2009
Harvard Homicides through the ages
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 10:20 PM | Comments (0)
Why I've ordered a new 13" MacBook Pro
I have a cracked LCD, and that L really does stand for liquid. The oozing liquid is bad and getting worse pretty rapidly. I waited until Apple announced the new MacBook Pro lineup, paid off the remainder of the payroll deduction loan for the broken one, and have ordered a new one.
Oh, well.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:20 AM | Comments (3)
June 16, 2009
Sorry, Judge Sotomayor - Google makes it seem all so clear
Sotomayor belongs to an elite single-sex club.
"I do not believe that my membership in the Belizean Grove violates the Code of Judicial Conduct," Sotomayor wrote. She told senators that the group involves men in some of its events and that she was unaware of any man who had tried to become a member.
Yeah. Try this from the first google hit, the group's own website:
Having observed the power of the Bohemian Grove, a 130-year-old, elite old boys' network of former Presidents, businessmen, military, musicians, academics, and non-profit leaders, and realizing that women didn't have a similar organization, Susan Stautberg and 26 other founding members created the Belizean Grove, a constellation of influential women who are key decision makers in the profit, non-profit and social sectors; who build long term mutually beneficial relationships in order to both take charge of their own destinies and help others to do the same.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 6:29 PM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2009
Remakes
The Seven Samurai.
The Magnificent Seven.
Now a set-in-the-Middle-Ages version. I'm sure it will be highly accurate. *HUGE SIGH*
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:43 AM | Comments (1)
June 10, 2009
Cuba or Palau?
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:17 AM | Comments (3)
June 9, 2009
It's not just a job, it's an adventure!
I still get the Chronicle of Higher Education's weekly email jobs list of art history positions. After all, one never knows....
This week there's only one job - English Composition and Art History - in Kurdistan! The American University of Iraq - Sulaimani is hiring.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:29 AM | Comments (2)
June 8, 2009
Art theft Squad and Murder!
Combining two of my interests, art theft and Law and Order, the Los Angeles police arrest one of their own art theft specialists for murder! I expect the L&O version ripped from this headline shortly.
Even better:
Last week, undercover officers surreptitiously trailed Lazarus as she did errands one day, waiting until she discarded a coffee cup, straw or something else with her saliva on it, Beck said.
And it was a match!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:19 AM | Comments (2)
June 5, 2009
Digitized Incunabula
Early printed books go online now! Here's the BBC story. Cambridge University has a grant from the Mellon Foundation to make books like the first printed Homer (first use of italics!) and their Gutenberg Bible available online.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:54 AM | Comments (1)
June 4, 2009
The feigned innocence of legal arguments
Ah, the disingenuity of lawyers!
Read the excerpts from the argument here against Yale.
I'm only going to cut and paste a funny:
"Yale's continued and wrongful detention of the unlawfully confiscated 'The Night Cafe' is prohibited by customary and international treaty law," Konowaloff's attorneys wrote in the filings. (my emphasis)
You can detain a painting?
On a more serious note - of COURSE Mr. Clark knew the painting he bought came from the Commissars! Just like the Forbes family knows why all those Faberge products hit the market. It wasn't a policy of willful ignorance, as the lawyers argue - it was the way the art trade worked. Right of conquest and all - the Soviets won. It wasn't fair and square, but it was clear cut.
And of course the purported descendant wants the Night Cafe back. But he shouldn't claim much moral high ground. I'm with Yale on this one.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:29 AM | Comments (0)
