The Off Topic Topic

[Admiral Yi]

Speaking of LaGuardia, read a review of a book on LaGuardia and FDR.

Biggest takeaway is that NYC got hugely disproportionate amounts of WPA money, mostly used to build subway lines.

All this time I thought only people in DC rode in comfort on the federal dime.

[jimmy olsen]

I would have preferred a girl.

[Neil]

I would have preferred a girl.

Why do you have to be like that?

[DGuller]

No thread about Detective Fontana dying?  Is everyone else also getting used to various famous people dropping dead all over the place?

Helen Thomas...

I didn't hear about it.

[Savonarola]

Re: realism, yeah, I agree it's the wrong word, but many don't know the term "illusionism."  In fact, I didn't till two minutes ago.   But it turns out that's what I really like in painting.  In this regard, you can compare Dali to, say, Leighton (either) or Raphael, and I think he's closer to their really cool techniques (particularly Leighton) than he is to Rivera's.  Particularly in how objects are sharply delineated from each other and backgrounds, having three-dimensional and discrete appearance.

It's silly to Dali realist, sure, but you might have to if you didn't have hifalutin terminology to bring to bear on him--which I don't, really, because I lack the serious interest in painting that I have in comics or film (I've often suspected you can only choose two media, tops, to really care about).  And I'd imagine most people are even less well-armed than I am in this regard.  So I guess my main point is that it's not inappropriate to cut some slack.

P.S. hey, I forgot about Max Ernst.  I give a shit about him too.  Europe After the Rain is rad.

Hifalutin terminology about art is what separates us from the apes (except the apes who paint, of course).

If you're ever in St. Petersburg Florida check out the Salvador Dali Museum.  It has a huge collection of his juvenilia, a decent collection of his surrealism and his later "Atomic Mysticism."

I saw a lecture once by French photographer Léon Herschtritt.  He had gone to Dalí's studio in order to photograph him.  Herschtritt said he spent the whole day trying to get Dalí to not act up while a Chinese intern did all Dalí's painting.

[DGuller]

Speaking of LaGuardia, read a review of a book on LaGuardia and FDR.

Biggest takeaway is that NYC got hugely disproportionate amounts of WPA money, mostly used to build subway lines.

All this time I thought only people in DC rode in comfort on the federal dime.

Define "on the federal dime".  NYC is a huge federal tax donor, partly because well-functioning mass transit system increases population density, which in turns makes the economic engine more efficient.  I'm sure that investment paid for itself many times over.

[Sheilbh]

Did Britain jump on the equal primogeniture wagon too?

I don't think we have yet. We would if there was a girl but it's got to get approved by all the Commonwealth too. They have in theory but it'll take time.

Breaking story about a Southwest flight from Nashville to LaGuardia with some kind of issue.

Dreamliner?

[MadImmortalMan]

NYC is a huge federal tax donor, partly because well-functioning mass transit system increases population density, which in turns makes the economic engine more efficient.  I'm sure that investment paid for itself many times over.

But mostly because Wall Street. They're paying NYC those taxes that CdM is not paying in Maryland right now. 

[Admiral Yi]

Define "on the federal dime".  NYC is a huge federal tax donor, partly because well-functioning mass transit system increases population density, which in turns makes the economic engine more efficient.  I'm sure that investment paid for itself many times over.

Leaving aside the issue of the quality of the investment, it was an investment that NYC got and other cities didn't.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Dreamliner?

737.  Landing gear problem.  It seems they landed without the nose gear, or the nose gear collapsed, or something similar.

[Caliga]

Dreamliner?

IIRC the entire Southwest fleet is made up of 737s.  I've flown Southwest many, many times and every flight has always been on a 737.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Dreamliner?

IIRC the entire Southwest fleet is made up of 737s.  I've flown Southwest many, many times and every flight has always been on a 737.

Yeah, I don't think they have anything else.  Just different versions of the 737 painted differently (do they still do that?  Shamu planes and such?).

[Caliga]

Yeah, I don't think they have anything else.  Just different versions of the 737 painted differently (do they still do that?  Shamu planes and such?).

I think so, but I've never flown on a Southwest flight with anything but the regular livery.

[Ideologue]

Hifalutin terminology about art is what separates us from the apes (except the apes who paint, of course).

Also our large penises.  Look it up!

I'll totally check out the Dali museum if I'm ever in St. P.  But Florida...

[Jacob]

... alternately, you could go to Catalonia. They have a lovely Dali museum a bit outside of Barcelona.