About the Flaneur
![Gustave Caillebotte. Paris Street, Rainy Day (La Place de l’Europe, temps de pluie). 1877. Oil on canvas. Art Institute of Chicago. [Source: Wikimedia Commons]](http://blindflaneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/gustave_caillebotte_paris_street_rainy_day_1877_wiki.jpg "gustave_caillebotte_paris_street_rainy_day")
I walk through my blindness the way I wander down streets in Paris: unfettered and alive, alert to the raw material of the senses. I am a flaneur. Come along with me. Just don’t try to take my arm, unless I ask. What’s a flaneur? Read the first post, Return of the Flaneur to Galerie Vivienne. After that, try Foot Rage and the Blind Flaneur. Then stay tuned.Kiki: Man Ray’s Dada Muse
The legendary Kiki of Montparnasse posed for Man Ray’s Le violin de Ingres (1924). See more from Imaging Paris.Lee Miller: Surrealist Muse
Lee Miller traced a meteoric trajectory from flapper fashionista to surrealist muse. She played the Statue in Jean Cocteau's first movie. Picasso painted her portrait. She apprenticed with Man Ray and later became a noted war photographer for British Vogue. Read more.Miss Tic: Paris Street Art
Poet and street artist Miss Tic isn't exactly a kid in a hoodie with a can of spray paint. Maybe she can still run like hell when the police show up, but can she sprint in high heels? Well-known in international avant-garde circles, her work is exhibited now at the Venice Biennale as well as the alleys of Paris. Read more. See Ethics of Love for a video montage of Miss Tic's provacative poetry. More Paris Street Art.
The Lake and the River
![Fog at Isle Royale [Source: wildmengoneborneo.com]](http://blindflaneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/isle_royale_fog.jpg "Fog at Isle Royale [Source: wildmengoneborneo.com]")
I’ve canoed on Lake Superior for almost as many years as I’ve been losing eyesight. I return year after year like a migrating loon to learn the other side of a slow, uncertain process that we could call “going blind.” After 35 years with the lake as my teacher, I know what lies on the other side. I call it letting go of sight. Read Big Water. See more about the Great Lakes.
What is a village? A small place, yes, as wide as the world, layered with histories and stories, where you can walk wherever you want to go. My vision of that place is Yellow Springs 2.0.
Not This Pig
If there is an emerging genetic underclass, I could run for class president or class clown. Read more in Not This Pig (2003).Re-Imagining Accessibility
![Shepard Fairey’s “Barack Obama/Hope” image went viral during the 2008 election. Then controversy about the image’s source transformed it into the poster child for fair use in the public debate over copyright and free culture. Now FULAB takes “Hope” as its icon [Image source: Wikipedia]](http://fairuselab.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/shepard_fairey_hope_2008.jpg "shepard_fairey_hope_2008")
Re-imagining accessibility through the transformations of culture -- particularly the transformative promise of accessible technology for people with disabilities -- is the work of the Fair Use Lab. What does Shepard Fairey’s Hope poster have to do with accessibility? Read more: Shape-Shifters in the Fair Use Lab [MiT6 2009]Blind Photographers
In the moment when Paul Strand photographed her surreptitiously on the street in New York, the social engineers who created a system for licensing beggars never imagined that a blind woman had culture or could make culture. She herself may not have imagined it. Paul Strand probably didn’t give her much credit for making culture, either. Read more: Curiosity & The Blind Photographer [MiT5 2007] See more on blind photographers.BottomFeeder U.S.A.
![Grant Wood. Parson Weem’s’ Fable. 1939. Amon Carter Museum, Forth Worth.. Steven Biel describes the painting: “Parson Weems, imitating Charles Willson Peale’s pose in The Artist in His Museum (1822), opens a red velvet curtain on the legendary scene: Augustine Washington, elegant in crimson coat, white ruffle, tan breeches, silver-buckled pumps, and green tricornered hat, grasps in his right hand the slim trunk of the bent cherry tree. A row of cherries dangles from the perfectly rounded treetop, mirroring the very cherry-like fringe of the Parson’s curtain. Augustine’s outstretched left palm and furrowed brow signal a serious inquiry. His son George, boyish in stature and dress—coatless, with sky-blue breeches and petite buckled pumps—is manly in his expression. In fact, his white-wigged head is that of Gilbert Stuart’s portrait and the dollar bill. He points with his right hand to the hatchet in his left. Wood chips lie in the circle of soil at the base of the tree, its lower trunk smoothly incised and poised to split off. In the background, a well-dressed slave couple harvests the fruit of a second tree.” [Alt Text Source: Common-Place/ http://www.common-place.org/vol-06/no-04/biel/ ]](http://www.bottomfeederusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/grant_wood_parson_weems_fable_200px.jpg "grant_wood_parson_weems_fable_200px")
BottomFeeder U.S.A.
Tag Archives: Sarah Palin
O.K., Founding Fathers: Prepare To Eat Historical Reenactments!
When I was a little kid, I learned everything I Know about rugged individualism astride the mechanical horse outside the supermarket. I demanded, righteously, I begged, pitifully,, I wheedled and cajoled my parents to get a quarter to ride the beast. How did Stephen Colbert know that in my heart I was a Defender of Liberty reenacting the patriotic ritual of Paul Revere’s ride? Those redcoats weren’t going to get my guns, not even the plastic ones. Continue reading
Gabrielle Giffords reads First Amendment
On the second day of the 112th Congress (January 6, 2011), Congresswoman Giffords read aloud on the House floor the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Continue reading
OK, Kooks Who Are Mad As Hell — Chill out!
A video flashback of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords discussing political violence following her vote on the health care bill and Sarah Palin’s target ad, via TPM. Below is the ad from Sarah Palin’s website, reposted today on Huffington Post. Continue reading
All Together Now: “Spill, Baby, Spill!”
This happens whenever I doze while listening to Morning Edition. I had this crazy dream. All those patriotic delegates at the Republican National Convention – the smiling mob who roared at Sarah Palin’s self-congratulation about pit bulls and lipstick – every one of them flew to Louisiana on their own dime. BP and the Chamber of Commerce didn’t pay a penny. And they were mucking around in the swamps with baggies and soda straws, prepared to siphon oil off sick birds. And Rudy Giuliani was cheering them on: “Spill, baby, spill.” Continue reading
When Sarko Schmoozed Sarah
Beware, Carla Bruni. Sarko’s attention is beginning to wander! SARAH PALIN AND SARKOZY ( HUGE PRANK CALL ) KILL 2 BIRDS 1 STONE: MONTREAL — A Quebec comedy duo notorious for prank calls to celebrities and heads of state has … Continue reading
She Can Dress A Moose, Too
The first thing we learned about Sarah Palin after her national debut in September was her prowess in killing and dressing a moose. She sounded like a cross between Annie Oakley and Amy Semple McPherson, and what gun-loving, God-fearing, red-meat … Continue reading
Amy Poehler DoesThe Moose Hunter Rap
Saturday Night Live – Update: Palin Rap – Video – NBC.com Whoa, if you get into the trailer for Oliver Stone’s “W” at the end of this clip, you may need another hit of Talking Heads. I thought “Once In … Continue reading
Tina Fey’s Kids Say “That’s Mommy!”
Not sure I’m willing to suspend my disbelief tonight when Sarah Palin appears on SNL. Hunter S. Thompson smoking ibogaine on the campaign trail in ’72 couldn’t have concocted politics as surreal as this. So, for a reality sandwich, here’s … Continue reading
Let’s Get A Little Mavericky
Sarah Palin didn’t have much of a bar to cross to exceed expectations in the debate, but Tina Fey surely did. SNL’s opening bit last night wasn’t as brilliantly funny as the past two weeks (see Palin/Clinton and Palin/Couric) but … Continue reading
