h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

And there's always the sibilant Brian Sssssewell - who's so far up himself he can floss his teeth with his shoelaces .

Kat - I think Mol's the person to ask about arrangements for proxy voting.

I don't know. Having someone tell me that because I did not take any formal art training I can have no valid opinion smacks of hubris and elitisim. Now, I will be the first to admit that I am an elitist and have more than my fair share of hubris. While I am not trying to be hypicritical here, I do see people with classical art appreciation schooling as being at least as elitist and pridefull as I.

I have no formal training in painted art, I have had formal training in photography. I can see compisition in a painting, I can see the way colour is used, I can see how the artist is trying to express something with his work. I maintain that the same can be said of a photographer. Can you look at Ansel Adams' work and not see the effort? Yes, photography is a recording medium. When it boils down to it one can only record what is there, while a painter can create anything, but you can still effect the way the scene is recorded. When I took my still life photograph of three crystal wine glasses, I spent weeks trying out different exposures, different placements, different light sources. I was trying to capture the light traveling through a wineglass that was lit from the bottom. I eventually used a different camera than I started with to get the exact feelign I wanted out of it. I then made multiple enlargements of the picture to use differing techniques of development till I found the exact light saturation that I wanted. And you tell me that my efforts were just to record some glass? I call that art even if no one else does.

[Ormy]

Ah yes, Sister Wendy pointing at a painting of a nude and saying 'Her pubic hair is lovely and fluffy.' I laughed so hard I nearly broke something.

I have just had the most spiffing evening and am now going to bed in a very good mood indeed. You guys are just brilliant. You're my besht matesh, sho y'are...

[BB]

Just crawled in as well, after a great evening.

And

HI to Courtesy for when he finally gets this far through the backlog (that will be after he gets back to the US)

We had Sister Wendy in the US, too. She was on PBS.

I am trying to come up with the perfect passage to read at the dedication. I can find wonderful things that have nothing to do with libraries. But my board wants something that will launch the library into the future. Their exact words. Sigh. I found a modern mystery where a librarian is murdered during a building project.

> the sort of fantasy artists that put women in leather bikinis usually put oiled muscular men in loin cloths.

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

> A year ago I was driving along listening to a radio four program about printing when they talked about Fleet Street and the bringing of the printing press to London. This was done by one William de Worde.

Oh, wow! I had no idea that de Worde was a real person. That's one of my favorite Pratchett books, possibly because it's about the industry I work in. (Well, obliquely.)

> I would like to display something on the whiteboard each morning - possibly interactive, possibly not - that will wake my students up, perhaps provoke a bit of discussion and may be even cause some learning to happen when they're not expecting it and their defences are low. Has anyone any ideas?

Amy, a math teacher of mine in high school would put a visual word puzzle up on the erase board every day. You know the kind... Write the word 'Stand' on the board, and then draw an eye below it. 'I understand.' At the end of the class, he would ask us if we'd figured it out, and somebody would volunteer the solution.

> I am trying to come up with the perfect passage to read at the dedication.

You'd think there'd be something pithy in Farenheit 451! Or something by Mark Twain. I've always liked the Groucho Marx quote - "Outside of a dog, a book is my best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."

> And you tell me that my efforts were just to record some glass? I call that art even if no one else does.

Marv - not sure who you were responding to, but I've always said that art is what you like. A good composition and selection of contrast requires creativity. These skills are useful for art and photography.

I think Marv was just putting out his feelings on the matter, he can correct me if I am wrong.

Tomorrow I begin working the system. I was declared ineligible for unempolyment insurance 3 months ago because of the way they work things here. Based on their rules, I should be eligible tomorrow.

*Z staggers in and falls over*

Just back from a lovely mini meet in London. Which is a long way from Birmingham dammit! Agapanthus, Sol, Courstey and BB, you're all great *hic*

Off to Bath tomorrow to get tested for STIs, it's a loooong story, and am I going to let that stop me telling it? I think not.

One of my friends, lets call her F, has developed a habit of getting rather drunk and having causal sex with strangers whose identity she then forgets. Now I'm no prude and I happen to think that causal sex with strangers is a great hobby, you met lots of interesting people, and get to have lots of good sex. But if you can't remember it in the morning and feel like you can't stop your self then it's not so good.

After lots of conversations we've come to the conculsion that this is Not a Good Thing. For one thing some of these strangers might be good in bed and worth a second go, or even (shock horror) a dinner date.

I managed to convince her that it would be worth getting swabs done for various STIs, her response was 'I'll go to the clap clinic if you do'

B*gg*r

Anyway as I am on first name terms with everyone at the Birmingham STI clinic we've decided to go further afield. I've never been to Bath and frankly if someone's going to stick a swab *there* then I want to look at some Roman Ruins to compensate for it.

Well, while it might be a waste of time for you, it's always good to see how that process works from the customer end!

[Sol] Who also really enjoyed last night.

Art - hmmmmm. I agree with whoever said that it is what you make it or think it is. Defineable, to me, belongs in the science department...

Personally, what I really feel as art are the things that "speaks" to me. Couple of examples:

Even with artists I like (Magritte, Vaserely, Lichtenstein, Cartier-Bresson, etc) I can go to an exhibition and walk by some or most - but then feel compelled to contemplate some pieces for a long time.

In Ghana, we were looking at a lot of wood carving works, for instance Ashanti masks. Most were surely created to just have enough artistic impression to make dumb tourists like myself by them - but then, we stumbled over this carving of a tribesman's face. I just stopped in my tracks and literally felt it connecting to me in some way. I just pointed at it to my wife and she just nodded. Obviously it showed - we had a hard time haggling it down in price

The most frequent "art feeling" I get is by the written word. I just love when somebody has the skill with words to create something unexpected with a small twist, a last second flick of the tail so to speak. That can be in The Literature - or in something as simple as a song lyric. Guess that "Words got me the wound and will gee me well. If you believe it."

{[caer]} <----seems to have a lot to do today

I'm tired... I don't know why, I had a good nights sleep and wasn't out on the lash last night (instead I watched Doctor Who for the third time).

Have fun at the clinic Z! Try not to sit on any toilet seats before hand (what? Everyone knows you *really* get STIs from toilet seats).

Morning all

for those that were out debauching last night

For those salonistas that feel that art can only be appreciated when you have an art education I have a question. I'm genuinely intersted to know if the things you know about the background to a piece or the codes within it can change the way that you emotionally respond to a work of art? It might be difficult to tell because you already have that knowledge before you see the piece so you might not know how you might have responded if you *didn't* know that stuff, but I wonder if your inital response becomes tempered by your knowledge.

The only original artwork I have bought is a landscape of the australian bush. I caught a glimpse of it through the window of a gallery I was passing and it called out to me. It continues to make me feel happy whenever I look at it.

k

I watched Dr Who for the first time last night, thought it quite good myself. Shame the video mucked up the recording of Fred Dibnah while we were away though (durn that summer time 1 hour shift).

Bleck.

5 hours sleep and a lot of ale do not a good worker make.

Z- was I righ about the trains?

I think everyone's response to art is valid, whether they've had an education in it or not. With that caveat firmly in place, I have to say I spent a lot of time studying history of art for someone whose main degree was literature. So I can't do the fresh naive-in-a-good-way response. I like taking people who haven't seen much art to galleries and seeing what they think. Nevertheless, I love knowing things so very much, I'd much rather look at art and such with my brain going aha! and of course and well that explains etc.

When I was studying Eng Lit, a lot of my fellow students complained that all the hard work learning stuff about authors and techniques and etc took the fun out of reading - they couldn't do it anymore without analysing and thinking about the book and for them that made it less enjoyable becasue it felt like work. Well, I suppose I'm weird, because I was in Seventh Heaven. I can read a good book five or six times, happily absorbing the plot, and the subtleties, and the techniques, and putting the book into context, and so on. I think I get a great deal more out of a book now and it doesn't feel like 'work' at all. But I am in a minority among my Uni peers. So The fresh naive-in-a-good-way approach is frankly more FUN for most people. Which is a very good thing indeed. There is a slightly puritanical tradition among British arty-literati to pretend that a view or response is somehow less worthy if you enjoyed it. Is this so in the States as well? Anyway, it's UTTER . There would BE no art or music or literature if they weren't inherently enjoyable.

Well, that's my outburst for the day. Off to eat cold pizza now (S made it last night and of course I wasn't home for supper. Yup, he can make pizza from scratch, and it's proper pizza, not that ghastly doughy stuff. I love that man).