Ploafmaster General

Tonight Valerie and I were privileged to attend "A Conversation with Chuck Close" at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts here in Richmond. Preceding the event was a book signing wherein the artist and his biographer signed my newly-acquired copy of Chuck Close: Work. That was one of my gifts from Valerie for our 6th wedding anniversary, which is tomorrow :-)

At any rate, the conversation itself also featured the artist and his biographer, alternating between anecdotes, personal history, technique, and opinion. Everything was so engrossing for both my wife and me that I found it jarring when an official from the museum walked on stage to inform Mr. Close that they were essentially out of time. I don't think I'm the only one in the sold-out auditorium that would happily have stayed another hour.

It was a real thrill to have a living treasure of the art world in my fair River City. I look forward to the arrival of the Picasso exhibit this winter.

Boy, howdy, does this movie look good...and part of its concept, at least as provided by the trailer, reminds me of the play, The Madness of King George III.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aS4hoOSlzo&rel=0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3&w=640&h=390]

So I don't expect it to be heavily updated, but there's now a website for the Edgehill Civic Association. I put together this little Wordpress blog so the neighborhood organization could be a bit less reliant on paper flyers, and, if we're lucky, act as a source of information about our little corner of Richmond.

Jerod Gibson created a whole series of posters for a number of movies (and one TV show, so far). Each poster contains the silhouette of an iconic image from that film with a host of quotes contained therein. From the faux distressed backgrounds (which are tastefully muted colors) to the choice of typeface for the quotes, these are real gems.

There are only 12 posters available now, but I look forward to what he might add in the future.
(via Quipsologies)

The restaurant kitchen may indeed be the last, glorious meritocracy—where anybody with the skills and the heart is welcomed.

Michael Ruhlman was able to post a complete chapter from Anthony Bourdain's book, Medium Raw, on his website. It's a fine read and certainly makes the book sound enticing.

check boxes

lists of action items and discussions offline
that started offline in a meeting around a conference table to begin with

goals with no purpose beyond self-congratulatory displays
of business acumen

check dem boxes so you can keep your job

check dem boxes so your boss can check his boxes
so your boss can check her boxes
so his boss
her boss
can deliver a pat on the back

so you can get a pat on the back
with all the force of a golf clap

check dem boxes so you can prove you did something this year
so you can earn your paycheck
so you can climb that ladder
so you can check different boxes
on a different list

Carytown, Richmond, VA.

A friend of mine recently told me that his wife saw a yet-to-be-opened bagel shop on Cary Street. Well today I saw it for myself in Carytown on my way from the bank to the farmers' market.

Jaks Bagels & Deli is expecting to open late October, and I'm pretty pumped. All you have to do is search my site for "bagel" and you'll get the picture. They're not likely to supplant my craving for porkroll, egg, and cheese sandwiches on poppy seed bagels that only Cupertino's can fulfill (in the Richmond area), but having a bagel shop closer to home has me pretty excited.

I laughed so hard at this I almost wet my pants:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2yD4yDsiP4?fs=1&hl=en_US&hd=1&w=640&h=385]
(via jnonfiction)

As of today it seems you can listen to/download two tracks for free from the upcoming Sufjan Stevens album, The Age of Adz.

Check it:

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer.swf/album=4246425639/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=000000/

Tonight marks the start of the 2010 season of the National Football League, and last year's champions, the New Orleans Saints, face Brett Favre and the Vikings. I'll be sitting in class for at least the first quarter, but I'm excited for the return of my favorite sport, even if it looks like my New York Football Giants are in for a mixed season...again.

Dear goodness, please take a good hour or five to gawk at the photographic art of Dan Winters (Flash, yeah, but it's worth it).
(via Jason Crowgey)

Holy shnikes, there's apparently some chance that Harvey Keitel could replace Steve Carell on The Office.

Don't know how realistic this is, but it'd be hilarious to see the new boss go kinda nuts on Dwight with a stapler.

One of my favorite reasons or listening to Pandora is the discovery of new music. Tonight on my way home from class I discovered Blind Pilot, a band with some tasty acoustic-driven pop rock. Check out their video for "Go On, Say It" below:

[vimeo 5580872 w=640 h=360]

Blind Pilot "Go On, Say It" from Team G on Vimeo.

(The song I heard on Pandora, for the record, was "One Red Thread")

I feel like this has been posted all over the Internet today, but this video (as of this writing) still has fewer than 4000 views. Let your ears be glad as you see all the people mentioned in the title of this post get down to musical business in the best way.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G5JaicYuVU?fs=1&hl=en_US&hd=1&w=640&h=385]
(via too many people to list, but it bears posting everywhere)

'Cause if it's natural
Something glowing from inside
Shining all around you
It's potential has arrived.

From What is the Light by The Flaming Lips

Please do yourself a favor and watch a few of these short films about Simon's Cat. It'll make your day filled with jolliness.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuf61OjvoPQ&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_GB&feature=player_embedded&fs=1&w=640&h=385]

PX 70 Color Shade film from The Impossible Project.
A door in a back alley off Harrison St. in Richmond, VA.

Awesome piano playing. Heart-stopping piano destruction.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcm_u6ls0Ac?fs=1&hl=en_US&hd=1&w=640&h=385]
(via yewknee)

With the All Delighted People EP only just released last Friday (Go listen! It's incredible!), this news is startlingly exciting: Sufjan Stevens has a new full-length album releasing on October 12th of this year. If you preorder The Age of Adz in the next two weeks you get a download code to snag the music in MP3 format two weeks before your physical media ships.

So. Pumped.