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April 28, 2007

Rabbit

(Warning: the bunny experiences some duress.)

Dave/id L. passed this along as a follow up to a conversation that I either don't remember, or wasn't a part of. I wish I has been, or could.

More movies and arty stuff here.

Here's a rabbit movie of another sort:

And yet more bunnies here.

Posted by mary at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)

April 27, 2007

Mariachi Audiences

I've recently switched to "Mail" from Entourage, and this has meant the resufacing of some very very old emails indeed when I use the search function.

One just popped up from my "actively dating" days (I'm not really sure what I mean by that, except that I was doing a lot of dating back then) where I expounded on my theory about how when two performative people go on a date they should be able to hire a third person who would act like a talk show host and mediator, gently interceding: "Mary, if I can interrupt -- that's a really interesting point you just made, I wonder if Mr. Jones here has any thoughts on this?" etc. Sort of like a verbal chaperone.

Then I thought you should also be able to hire a modest audience to follow you around -- like those bands in Mexico restaurants that serenade you at your table, only the opposite, so instead of performing for you (which, frankly, makes me uncomfortable), they would laugh and clap when you said something so that you, as a performative person, would feel good about yourself. Maybe that would make me uncomfortable, too, but I'm not sure. I think I might like it.

'Cause I really hate it when I can't get a word in edgewise and no one listens to me. Maybe this is why I'm so interested in projects that invert the relationship between performer and audience. I'm just not a very good audience member by nature.

p.s. You may wonder what this Dog LOL has to do with anything, and the truth is, not much -- well, nothing. I guess you could argue that dog looks kind of like a dog you might meet in Mexico. Nat made this LOL and it was just in time to throw up with this, which would otherwise not have an illustration. Maybe I'll include an image macro with all my entries from now on.

Posted by mary at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)

April 26, 2007

Political Campaign Image Macros

Nat has bridged the gap between Historical Image Macro and Political Image Macro -- just in time for the 2008 elections! ... I think 40 point bold Impact font messages superimposed on pictures is JUST the level of discourse we need to move this country forward in the 2008 elections.

Not to mention keeping the ape hands off of us.

Posted by mary at 4:25 PM | Comments (0)

Oregon Governor Image Macros

Nat has risen to a challenge set forth by Greg, who pointed out that Dr. John McGloghlin, the "Father of Oregon," is simply cruisin' for a LOLin'. (Good Lord, Nat -- you don't think McGloghlin was creepy enough already??)

I extended the challenge to include all the Governor's of Oregon because, after all, there are many to choose from.

I also shared some instructions on kitteh as a second language that might be helpful.

Some may point out that Oregon Governors are not as cute as cats or walruses, but they are not without their own, particular charms. Look at George Woods and his crazy beard, for instance. What do you think is living in there??

And something tells me there might be a cheez burger in John Davis's future ...

This recent entry inspired my response to Nat's (even scarier than usual) vision of McGloughlin:

Another stroke of brilliance from Nat -- Would we have more buckets if we had a sales tax?

Here's one from Pete, and he would totally know what those robotz are up to.

Greg rises to his own challenge.

Posted by mary at 4:06 PM | Comments (0)

More Historical Image Macros!

These courtesy of Greg S., an actual practicing public historian.

I was looking for this image for my Superfund talk and couldn't find it for some reason.

By the way, if you like image macros, you might be interested in Chris Higgins's blogging on the topic over at Mental Floss.

Posted by mary at 10:31 AM | Comments (0)

April 19, 2007

Historical Image Macros

So, the more I think of it, why not try to convey the sweep, drama and complexity of history by way of image macro? Museums and other history educators are always trying to find ways to communicate to the young. I think I'm actually going to a museum conference in May. I wish I'd thought of this in time to put together a panel!

More to come as I think of them! (I need to figure out how to get the outlining going on my fonts --brushing? is that what it is? that's how bad I am at PowerPoint and how much I have to learn from the thousands and thousands of industrious youth making image macros. Sigh.)

(I am reminded in this project of the people who have converted the great speeches to Powerpoint.)

Posted by mary at 1:38 PM | Comments (1)

April 10, 2007

The Fine Art (of) Image Macros

Like a lot of people over the age of 30, I first became aware of image macros with the briefly-ubiquitous Nancy Pelosi impeachment visual. Once I noticed them, it became quickly apparent that there was a huge world of image macros out there.

I became particularly intrigued by the sub-set of image macros known as "LOL Cats." (Chris pointed out that this would be a great name for a band.) I discovered them first by clicking on someone's signature line in a Woot forum, which begs the question of how incredibly bored must I have been to have been doing that and the answer is, pretty bored, but not as bored as you might think.

Anyway, here see my first venture into the art of LOL cats -- not a cat, not even a live animal but, to me, very, very gratifying. It was a hand-made e-card to a friend who had sent me possibly my favorite email of the year, which read simply: "THERES A SQUIRREL IN MY HEATER!!!!!" (subject line: "SQUIRREL"). Followed sometime after by the message, "THERE"S A SQUIRREL IN MY FIRE PLACE!!!!!!" (subject line: "squirrel"). I suggested he spend some quality time at squirrels.org and listen to the "This American LIfe" story about the flaming squirrel before trying to smoke his visitor out. This exchanged ended with one of weirdest emails I've ever received, which simply repeated the phrase, "The squirrel is gone!!!" for 498 pages and made my email crash.

Anyway, back to the image macros.

Shortly after I first noticed LOL cats, boingboing blogged them, which made me feel like I truly had my finger on the pulse of the internets, albeit in a 30-something way.

And after making my LOL squirrel, I was hooked!

Then I started thinking: why should l33t speak slogans in big ugly fonts be limited to defacing images of cute animals? I've been going to a lot of artsy things lately: why not fine arts image macros? The image macro form itself is reminscent of Barbara Kruger.

So, here are my examples of Fine Art Image Macros. If I were an art history teacher, I'd have my students do this as an assignment -- my students would probably do a better job. If I had them. You could probably do a better job -- and if you do, let me know! Some of my friends already have, as evidenced below.

Here are some directions (just replace the word "cats" with "fine art.") And here's one of many l33t generators.

Note: I'm also sure something like this has been done before, but I haven't found it yet with my brief search for "fine art image macros." I found the concept mentioned here -- I was thinking of doing Dante's Inferno as image macros, too!) Livejournal is a HOTBED of image macros, btw, if you didn't already know. I'll bet there are many more examples of fine art image macros in there. It also seems like something something awful would have done. Be that as it may! Here the ones I made in a hurry.

(after the O RLY Owl).

A FAIM by Nat, inspired by this of course.

Another one with the same inspiration.

(A FAIM by Nat inspired by the "invisible__________" line of thinking.)

(A minimalist version of the same thing, also by Nat.)

Nice one from Chris -- Pwned -- I'll say!

Here's Pete's Contribution:

Higgins's contribution to the Fine Art (of) Image Macros. I h8z it when th@ happens!!! (loosing ones contact lens in a wheat field).

Another one from Chris -- awesome, but is it ART?

Posted by mary at 8:05 AM | Comments (1)

Watch My Fingernails Grown Day 3

Some might say that blurry pictures of my fingernails defeats the whole purpose of this project, but I say it makes it "art." And more flattering -- like boudoir finger photography.

Notice that my fingers are shinier, too. That's from the buffing.

Posted by mary at 7:58 AM | Comments (0)

April 4, 2007

Watch My Fingernails Grow!

Look what exciting content I have for you now! I may end up moving this to its own domain, watchmyfingernailsgrow.com (available as I type! usually I buy domains before I blog them, but my readership is down so I think I'm safe).

Here are the fingernails on my right hand as they look on Sunday. They have been recently chewed. I bought a new nail file and will attempt to stop chewing them and take pictures on a regular basis.

I should make this a pay-per-view feature.

Posted by mary at 7:44 AM | Comments (0)