We are spending several hours in the "Admiral's Lounge" in the Miami airport, waiting for our flight to Guyaquil. So far so good. Lenny claims this is the first time he has read an actual pink paper copy of the Financial Times (he says he's only read it online). I seem to remember having read it at some point in my life. In Cambridge? I never found it very compelling on or offline.Thanks, Elaine, for the suggestion that I read this.Coffeehouses were natural haunts for many of the best players. In his book, “Chess Was My Life,” Mr. Lilienthal described encounters in 1929 with Mr. Capablanca, in the Café Central in Vienna, and with Mr. Lasker and Alexander Alekhine, the fourth world champion, at the Café König in Berlin in October 1929.
At the Café de la Régence in Paris, once the epicenter of chess in Europe, Mr. Lilienthal regularly played with great players like Savielly Tartakower, but also people better known in other fields, including the artist Marcel Duchamp, who Mr. Lilienthal said was “the most talented French player,” and the composer Sergei Prokofiev, who was of master strength, according to Mr. Lilienthal.
This is my present. Miriam and Alice picked it out for me on a visit to the Smithsonian. I bet they are cooking something for Evelyn this morning! Such thoughtful little girls.
Stoneware Tea Bowl with Plovers
Water Jar for Tea Ceremony with Plum Blossoms
Serving Dishes
Porcelain Bottle
Bottle in Tea-Whisk Form
According to "World's largest Mona Lisa appears at Shanghai Expo" 999 Chinese painters (who usually make copies of famous masterpieces for the export trade) created this 300 square meter work of gigantic art. Each small square is 30 by 20 cm. The work was unveiled yesterday.
One of the Marcel Duchamp mysteries that had occurred to me as I've viewed reissues of his works in museums throughout the world is this: How in the 1960s did he manage to find not one but quite a few urinals of the exact sort that he originally signed R.Mutt for the famous non-judged art show in 1917? The original work, titled "fountain" was rejected and then lost or smashed -- no one knows what actually happened to it. A photograph survived.“Fountain” was not a coveted art object until well after the second world war, when Duchamp became a cult figure among Pop artists. In response to the art world's desire to see his legendary lavatory, Duchamp authorised curators to purchase urinals in his name in 1950, 1953 and 1963. ... Then in 1964, in association with Arturo Schwarz, a Milan art dealer, historian and collector, the artist made the momentous decision to issue 12 replicas (an edition of eight with four proofs) of his most important ready-mades, including the urinal. ... One of the many ironies of the Schwarz urinals is that they are carefully crafted earthenware sculptures modelled on the Stieglitz photo of the “original”.The article continues with a discussion of the locations and the mysterious appearances of other signed and unsigned urinal replicas that may or may not be authentic Duchamp remade readymades. Needless to say the concept of authenticity is elusive in this discussion. No surprise: Andy Warhol played a role. All the usual dada antics resurface as I love them to do. The article concludes:
Duchamp's relationship to commerce was not naive. Although he preferred to give away his work rather than sell it, he made a living as an art dealer for many years. Duchamp was also an able chess player who could think a good few moves ahead. One wonders whether the Dada master, who challenged the notion of the authentic artwork, might not be amused by the way these questionable “Fountains” muddy the waters of his current market. “My production,” he once said, “has no right to be speculated upon.”Duchamp set up the art world and keeps playing tricks long after his death. What a pleasure for a lover of dada. Almost better than his most famous remade readymade, Mona Lisa with a drawn-on mustache. For more see Marcel Duchamp is Relevant.
In the museum in Toronto yesterday, I saw a fascinating work (left). It depicted a face by using bodies and depicted hands by using legs and feet. Obviously, this reminded me of Arcimboldo, who composed faces of many different things -- fruit, books, animals... The image was part of a depiction of the earthquake in Tokyo in 1855. The work, according to the label, is from an album of prints made by anonymous artists just after the quake, and depicts a carpenter with the tools of his trade shown on his kimono; in his hand is gold, suggesting that he was profiteering (I think). The image composed of faces is said to be directly influenced by by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861).
New York Cabs Gouged Riders Out of Millions
Thousands of taxi drivers overcharged riders more than $8 million by switching the meter to double the rate, according to the Taxi and Limousine Commission. About 3,000 New York City taxi drivers routinely overcharged riders over two years by surreptitiously fixing their meters to charge rates that would normally apply only to trips outside the five boroughs, according to the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission.
The National Park Service has tried to deter the vultures by hanging a vulture corpse high above the parking lot. The vultures don't seem to learn from this example. If it would work to actually shoot some of them in the act, they will never know -- vultures are a protected species. The one depicted at left died a natural death, or so says the Park Service sign.
The anhinga is also called a "snake bird" -- see why?
Here are Jean and Jack, who walked with us through the beautiful Morikami Gardens near Del Ray, Florida today. Mr. Morikami was part of an agricultural settlement near here in the first quarter of the 20th century. After the end of the settlement (and its unconscionable confiscation in World War II) he remained in the area and acquired a large tract of land, which he donated to the state for a park and Japanese garden.
A Deer Scarer -- this long tube fills with water, over balances, hits the lower stone with a large noise (to scare the deer) and then tips up and fills again.
A classic stone garden is among the very beautiful and numerous gardens here. The garden does not include labels to tell the visitors the names of the plants. The idea of a Japanese garden is the whole, not the individual parts. I appreciate this philosophy!
Surrounding the museum building are a large number of Bonsai and other dwarfed trees and plants. I was especially fond of this one, because it was in bloom. Many are twisted and formed quite beautifully. They compliment the impressively formed trees in the full-sized gardens, which are often staked with horizontal round staves of smooth wood to retain a desired shape.
The museum displays change from time to time. Today there were several rooms from a typical Japanese house, such as this kitchen. Note that visitors are told to open the refrigerator and cupboard doors to see (behind plastic shields) the contents that might be present in a Japanese house. There were also other rooms: even a non-working example of an electric toilet.
In every parking lot in the Everglades are big warnings about vultures. No, it's not that you should watch your little puppy or your toddler. It's the rubber and silicone gaskets on your rental car. The vultures love them. So they walk or waddle around nearby, waiting for you to leave your car unguarded. They don't run very fast when you approach them, either. I saw a couple of them ignore a fairly large dog.
