"You heard me, Coltrane"

Maps

I don't know how I found this website but I just thought this map was hilarious.

“This map is basically what would happen if you got a bunch of Japanese guys in a room, got them drunk, and then asked them to draw what they could remember about America on a bar napkin. Hell, that’s probably how this game was originally designed,” says Andrew Vestal on Yukihime.com

When in Rome...

I just got home from class, and on my way I ran into one of the most interesting people I've ever met in my life: Alvin C. Sella. Sella is a legend in the UA art department. I heard about him on my first day in art class as a freshman.
"He'll rip your work up and throw it out the window if he doesn't like it." That was my introduction. Fast forward two years and it was my turn to take his famous figure drawing class. I will never forget walking into this room and setting up my drawing pad on the easel. I was nervous, frightened even. After a few minutes I heard a shuffle and, "you ready girls?" Two girls strolled to the center of the room and dropped robe. Now I had to add awkward to the mixture of feelings. Sella tells us to go and that he wants to see what we've got.
By the end of class, and Sella's infamous criticism, one girl started crying and left, never to return. All I can say is I'm glad that girl wasn't me, even though we had a fallout one day where he tapped me with his cane and scattered by paintings all over the floor. He liked me though and I knew it so I never let it get to me. A year after I left that class I was in the art department and the secretary said I had a message from Sella. It was a W magazine with a page flagged. I opened it up and it said, "Kate, this looks like you." The opposite page which was stark white, he had signed. This was his apology. I know this because he later asked me if I ever got his message and explained. I know to some this might sound trivial, but to me this man is a monument and a symbol for what I always thought college was about.
So today, when I walked into the art department office and Sella was sitting there I couldn't help but laugh. He remembered me and called me by name. We chatting for a moment in Italian after I told him what I was studying, and then he walked away in his red socks holding a bag of Halloween candy.
Hopefully this won't be our only encounter while I'm here.
Sella's website.

Coeur d'Coeurs

Pushing Daisies

Oh...my...dear...God!

Happy Halloween!

Cut Paper

Today while in the French Quarter I saw this man's work from across the street and decided to check it out. I find it to be so beautiful and delicate. The works are hard to appreciate strictly from these photos but I wanted to include them to give an idea of what he's all about.
I'll post a link a.s.a.p.

Amazing documentary about hosts in Osaka, Japan. I highly recommend watching this film.
Also, I have to mention this guy's shirt...I mean come on, that's just badass.

Pablo

Yep, old boy was born today. My figure drawing teacher knew him personally and told me a quote he heard directly from Picasso's mouth. Ask me about it...it's quite inappropriate!

Anyone going? Let me know! I'll be there with bells on...or maybe a Whoopie Cushion costume.

America F#%& Yeah!

Right now I am reading I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert. I swear I am trying hard to be extremely judgemental but I cannot stop laughing. I'll leave you with a short excerpt:

I am reminded of the works of Walt Whitman, the nineteenth-century poet, naturalist, and all around man's man, who, through his epic lyricism, defined the character of this new nation. He said,

"I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume, you shall assume."

That "I" he was talking about? It's me.

I think that quotes speaks for itself.