Author: Mark

~ Mark

Being cheerful is really no recipe to get down to work: nothing happens until paranoia, jealousy, competitiveness and guilt arrive.

Alain de Botton.
~ Mark

Don’t Be A Free User – Pinboard Blog. (via)

Avoid mom-and-pop projects that don’t take your money! You might call this the anti-free-software movement. […]

So stop getting caught off guard when your favorite project sells out! “They were getting so popular, why did they have to shut it down?” Because it’s hard to resist a big payday when you are rapidly heading into debt. And because it’s culturally acceptable to leave your user base high and dry if you get a good offer, citing self-inflicted financial hardship.

Damien Hirst prepares to unleash another round of art for buyers – latimes.com

~ Mark

I like this litmus test that Damien Hirst suggests:

If I put a painting outside a bar at closing time, and it’s still there in the morning, it’s a crap painting.

He also suggests the market for art is bigger than you think, even at his prices:

I remember flying into L.A. at a time when my paintings were 20,000 to 50,000 pounds and looking at the swimming pools here and thinking everyone who has a pool can afford one of these. The market is so much bigger than anyone realizes.

I hadn’t thought about it that way. Also, on the idea of masterpieces vs. ubiquity:

You also have to ask yourself as an artist, “What would be more appealing … to have made the Mona Lisa painting itself or have made the merchandising possibilities — putting a postcard on everyone’s walls all over the world?” Both are brilliant, but in a way I would probably prefer the postcards — just to get my art out there.

All this reminds me of one section in Andrew Potter’s The Authenticity Hoax, a part where he writes about Robert Hughes’ criticism of Damien Hirst’s work:

“The idea that there is some special magic attached to Hirst’s work that shoves it into the multi-million-pound realm is ludicrous,” [Hughes] wrote. But there is a special magic attached to Hirst’s work. That magic is the spectacularly successful brand known as Damien Hirst. And for those to whom the brand is successfully markted—hedge fund types, tycoons of all sorts, generally anyone who happens to be cash-rich but taste-poor—it makes his products worth every cent. […] Some people think a Lamborghini is vulgar, and lots of people can afford yachts. But put a Damien Hirst dot painting on your wall and the reaction is, “Wow, isn’t that a Hirst?” The point is, Hirst is not selling art, he’s selling a cure for rich people with severe status anxiety. Judging Hirst’s work by the criteria of technical skill, artistic vision, and emotional resonance is like complaining that the Nike swoosh is just a check mark.

Damien Hirst prepares to unleash another round of art for buyers – latimes.com

Magical Thinking – Psychology Today

~ Mark

5. To name is to rule. […] After watching sugar being poured into two glasses of water and then personally affixing a “sucrose” label to one and a “poison” label to the other, people much prefer to drink from the “sucrose” glass and will even shy away from one they label “not poison.” (The subconscious doesn’t process negatives.) Rozin has also found that people are reluctant to tear up a piece of paper with a loved one’s name written on it. Arbitrary symbols carry the essence of what they represent.

I also like this bit on rituals and luck:

People who truly trust in their rituals exhibit a phenomenon known as “illusion of control,” the belief that they have more influence over the world than they actually do. And it’s not a bad delusion to have—a sense of control encourages people to work harder than they might otherwise. In fact, a fully accurate assessment of your powers, a state known as “depressive realism,” haunts people with clinical depression, who in general show less magical thinking.

Woody Allen nailed it:

We need some delusions to keep us going. And the people who successfully delude themselves seem happier than the people who can’t.

Magical Thinking – Psychology Today

Bluebrain’s App Central Park (Listen to the Light) – NYTimes.com

~ Mark

[The app] uses a global positioning network to activate different themes as the listener wanders through the park. The app contains more than 400 tracks, each tied to a location. They were written to fit together harmonically like a sonic jigsaw puzzle.

I’d download it on iTunes if I lived anywhere nearby. Oh, and how cool would it be if they had a bigger map with famous recordings from around NYC? Take the “A” Train at the relevant time? Maybe cue up a random clip from a CBGB show if you’re strolling down the Bowery? Or a Gaslight Cafe recording if you wandering around Greenwich Village? Or a bit from Heartbeats/Boats and Buoys if you wander over near the river? Please tell me someone has beaten me to this idea.

Filed under: sound sculptures.

Bluebrain’s App Central Park (Listen to the Light) – NYTimes.com

Elf

~ Mark

Elf. Overall: ugh. I like the physical comedy bits (e.g., the escalator scene) and the wink-wink references to other films (Bigfoot, LOTR, Back to the Future, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, etc.). Good premise, good opening, then goes stale. The last half-hour is a total waste. So mechanical. Disappointing.

~ Mark

They cannot admire you for intellect. Granted–but there are many other qualities of which you cannot say, “but that is not the way I am made”. So display those virtues which are wholly in your own power–integrity, dignity, hard work, self-denial, contentment, frugality, kindness, independence, simplicity, discretion, magnanimity. Do you not see how many virtues you can already display without any excuse of lack of talent or aptitude? And yet you are still content to lag behind.

Marcus Aurelius.