I suppose, if there were a part of the world in which mastodon still lived, somebody would design a new gun, and men, in their eternal impudence, would hunt mastodon as they now hunt elephant. Impudence seems to be the word. At least David and Goliath were of the same species, but, to an elephant, a man can only be a midge with a deathly sting.
—Beryl Markham
—found in West with the Night (1942)
foofaraw · /ˈfu:fəˌrɔ:/ · /FOO-fə-rah/. noun. Originally fussy, vain or tawdry. Now: frivolous trappings, trinkets, or a great fuss or excessive amount of attention. From two languages: French fanfaron (boastful), Spanish fanfarrón (vain, ostentations, braggart). See also: brouhaha, commotion, fracas, hubbub, furore.
“Presumably he is their leader, though you expect a little foofaraw from an entity known as the Big Prune.” (Mary Roach)
”…when all the geegaws, foofaraws and flummery are cleared away, don’t we all fight our own particular, contemporary, pressing problems…” (Harlan Ellison)
“I never cursed your tower guards
& I dare translate their foofaraw.”
Yusuf Komunyakaa“Whatever foofaraw was roiling the rest of the country always seemed far away.” (Lionel Shriver)
A Weapon for Extortion Long Ignored in Alabama Prisons: Cellphones · These prisoners show how to turn pain and monotony of lockdown into art
Resurrecting the art of China’s dragon scale bookbinding (includes somewhat erratic video). ※ The technique resembles fore-edge painting, featured here before: ▸ Fore-edge Painting 1947 - Unusual Occupations Series · Fore-edge Paintings at the Lilly Library · ▸ A Hidden Art Form You’ll Flip For
Enter Planet Miranda July, where a curly haired creative goddess does just about everything, always in her own inimitable way. As the story says at the beginning, “Welcome to Planet Miranda July. Population: one, or maybe 5 million, depending on how you count souls.”
Astronaut, which shows an endless stream of YouTube videos with zero views—against the back drop of a Earth viewed from close orbit—is strangely compelling. ※ At the opposite end of the film spectrum, ScreenplaySubs lets you watch movies with the screenplay, synced to the video, on the side. Fascinating.
This week’s curiosity cluster, a condition I have a hard time, umm, picturing: Wikipedia: Aphantasia. The aphantasic are unable to conjure images in their mind’s eye. · Imagine a dog. Got it? I don’t. Here’s what it’s like to be unable to visualize anything. · When the Mind’s Eye Is Blind · Aphantasia: More people are blind inside then you’d think · Of course there’s a subreddit for that: r/aphantasia
Thought-terminating clichés. They are what they are (and you use them too). ※ And while avoiding these, remember: when asked to explain, we become less partisan. I’m feeling doubly seen.
Beside the point? Punctuation is dead, long live punctuation
Eye Candy! → Fabio Viale’s marble sculptures + tattoos · Pareidolia Sand Faces (in single grains of sand!) · Faig Ahmed’s trippy carpet art (scroll down) · Congolese dandies: Meet the stylish men and women of Brazzaville – in pictures · The surreal art of ‘unnatural lighting’ · Tobias Hägg’s aerial photography · 2020 Comedy Wildlife Photography Award finalists Thanks, Reader M.!
Today in 1501, in the early morning hours, Michelangelo begins work on his sculpture of David, which he would finish a little less than three years later. Standing seventeen feet tall (until very recently, I assumed the statue was life-size…seeing it on video with people next to it blew my mind and continues to make me question my perceptions) and weighing more than six tons, plans to place the statute on the roof of the Florence Cathedral were scrapped in favor of a public square. Michelangelo carved this sculptural, cultural icon from a single block of marble that had laid abandoned for decades after two earlier sculptors had failed at trying to work the dense, Carrara marble, leaving it damaged and supposedly unusable. A bit of David trivia: his right hand is significantly larger than the left, possibly an homage to the Biblical David (whose name means “strong of hand”)…but there are no good explanations why, as was only discovered in the 90s, David is cockeyed: his left eye looks forward while his right looks out into the distance to his left.
▸ Joe Wells stand-up bit on having a non-autistic brother
▸ WAP in ASL. This may be better than the official video…in its own way. And you’ll learn a few signs.
Fires (because 2021 is a literal dumpster fire) ☡ 9/11 anything (because nearly 200k dead from Covid) ☡ 9/11 again (because no increase in unity, only racism) ☡ Florida felons (not) voting (because venality) ☡ Peter Thiel (because Peter Principle) ☡ Sturgis (because bikers for virus?)
Reader B.: “Lamott is exactly right. ¶ wlkwos!”
Another Reader B.: “So happy to hear about Allie Brosh. Thanks for keeping me connected.”
Reader P.: “Speaking of sand art, this guy made sand art in bottles that sometimes took up to a year to make! You Have to See This $22,000 Sand Art“
Reader S.: “Gregory Prescott’s portraits are so beautiful. I encourage everyone reading to take a minute for them and the Body series. Body beautiful.”
Reader V.: “AI photo-realistic renderings of people in paintings are like those images that seem to flip between one thing and another, except they flip between creep and cool.”
I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you. Just press ‘Reply’ or email to: clippings@katexic.com.
And while you’re still here, why not forward this to a friend?