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tcpipA good portion of this weekend has been spent updating my article for the Polish Journal of Aesthetics on "Bullshit Art", where I target my pet loathing of "Abstract Expressionism". Funded by the CIA as a successful weapon against Socialist Realism (bullshit is more powerful than lies), it attracted a movement of immature and individualistic wankers who produced works of little to no aesthetic value. Indeed, it was willfully and deliberately anti-aesthetic. It is an act of beauty that, in the course of this revision, that the universe through Jens Hanning has provided "Take the Money And Run", two blank canvases for which the Kunsten Museum of Aalborg paid $116K AUD, which I claim is the ultimate ironic negation of the abstract expressionist logic. You really cannot get better than that. Well, perhaps next time if someone is funded for an installation piece and hands in an utterly invisible and insubstantial piece. I might even hire some space just to do that. See, I have been inspired by ironic abstract expressionism!
In a more substantive manner, I spent a good portion of yesterday in the company of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
caseopaya at Westgate Park, a substantial corner of inner-city Melbourne that I had not yet visited in my almost thirty years here. Nestled under the Westgate Bridge, a pretty substantial engineering project, the Park consists of a saltwater lake (which turns pink in summer), a freshwater lake (with plenty of birds), and wetlands that are the home of green growler frogs. Frogs I tell you! It's been years since I've seen or heard frogs in the wild. It dove-tailed quite well with the arrival the day previous of a small collection of plants, seeds, and potting mix that I've purchased to add some greenery to the apartment. It has long been part of my personality that I find myself desiring a foot in each of the sublime experiences of nature and the prosaic artifacts of the polis. Of course, I've hardly purchased enough I can see myself in a few months surrounded by as much foliage as I am by books.
Recently, I posted some sadness in the passing of Steve Perrin, an original author of RuneQuest and the Society for Creative Anachronisms. Now I sadly have to make similar remarks for Terry K. Amthor, who was a co-author for original Rolemaster, the science-fantasy setting Shadow World, and some acclaimed Middle-Earth supplements. He was very inspirational to me in my teenage and early twenty years with Rolemaster in Shadow World resulting in a three-year Rolemaster game at the Murdoch Alternative Reality Society (MARS), all of which led to the publication of Rolemaster Companion VI. Many years later I had the pleasure of having him as an interview subject for RPG Review. I hope the RPG community can keep Shadow World alive as an ongoing project. I think he would have liked that.
In a more substantive manner, I spent a good portion of yesterday in the company of
caseopaya at Westgate Park, a substantial corner of inner-city Melbourne that I had not yet visited in my almost thirty years here. Nestled under the Westgate Bridge, a pretty substantial engineering project, the Park consists of a saltwater lake (which turns pink in summer), a freshwater lake (with plenty of birds), and wetlands that are the home of green growler frogs. Frogs I tell you! It's been years since I've seen or heard frogs in the wild. It dove-tailed quite well with the arrival the day previous of a small collection of plants, seeds, and potting mix that I've purchased to add some greenery to the apartment. It has long been part of my personality that I find myself desiring a foot in each of the sublime experiences of nature and the prosaic artifacts of the polis. Of course, I've hardly purchased enough I can see myself in a few months surrounded by as much foliage as I am by books.Recently, I posted some sadness in the passing of Steve Perrin, an original author of RuneQuest and the Society for Creative Anachronisms. Now I sadly have to make similar remarks for Terry K. Amthor, who was a co-author for original Rolemaster, the science-fantasy setting Shadow World, and some acclaimed Middle-Earth supplements. He was very inspirational to me in my teenage and early twenty years with Rolemaster in Shadow World resulting in a three-year Rolemaster game at the Murdoch Alternative Reality Society (MARS), all of which led to the publication of Rolemaster Companion VI. Many years later I had the pleasure of having him as an interview subject for RPG Review. I hope the RPG community can keep Shadow World alive as an ongoing project. I think he would have liked that.
