~ Mark

Art really saved my life because art is how I proved that I wasn’t a malingerer.

Interview with Chuck Close. A long, wonderful discussion of his life and work. Topics include playing to your strengths, supportive parents, taking art classes in a brothel, and much much much more.

Why Elite Shoppers Eschew Logos

~ Mark

It’s signaling, folks. Really interesting stuff. Geoffrey Miller talks about this in Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior, which I recommend highly. In my review I summarized Miller on the three basic ways we signal through our purchases: conspicuous waste (in this context, perhaps fine fabrics, oversized garments, layering, duplicated accessories), conspicuous precision (luxury watches, perfect cut & fit, subtle hand-stitched details), or conspicuous reputation (recognizable logos, patterns, etc.). Few books have affected my everyday thinking so much. (via putthison)

Why Elite Shoppers Eschew Logos

The Wrong Stuff : Those Three Little Words (“Honey, You’re Right”): Harville Hendrix on Being Wrong

~ Mark

Anger is an attempt to coerce a person into surrendering their reality, so that there’s only one reality in the relationship instead of two. And when the anger triggered by the anxiety doesn’t work, people experience depression. Depression is the experience of the loss of power: “I can’t make my world happen.”

Once they go into depression, couples—if they stay together—will then enter a bargaining stage. The bargaining goes like this: “Well, OK, I’m different and you’re different, so let’s make a deal about whose reality is going to be in the forefront.”

The Wrong Stuff : Those Three Little Words (“Honey, You’re Right”): Harville Hendrix on Being Wrong

~ Mark

Dallas and Los Angeles represent two distinct models for successful American cities, which both reflect and reinforce different cultural and political attitudes. One model fosters a family-oriented, middle-class lifestyle—the proverbial home-centered “balanced life.” The other rewards highly productive, work-driven people with a yen for stimulating public activities, for arts venues, world-class universities, luxury shopping, restaurants that aren’t kid-friendly. One makes room for a wide range of incomes, offering most working people a comfortable life. The other, over time, becomes an enclave for the rich. Since day-to-day experience shapes people’s sense of what is typical and normal, these differences in turn lead to contrasting perceptions of economic and social reality. It’s easy to believe the middle class is vanishing when you live in Los Angeles, much harder in Dallas. These differences also reinforce different norms and values—different ideas of what it means to live a good life. Real estate may be as important as religion in explaining the infamous gap between red and blue states.

Virginia Postrel, A Tale of Two Townhouses (via christmasgorilla)
~ Mark

https://www.tumblr.com/audio_file/mlarson/932406630/tumblr_l6wyq7ypq01qzdvhi?plead=please-dont-download-this-or-our-lawyers-wont-let-us-host-audio
http://mlarson.tumblr.com/post/932406630/audio_player_iframe/mlarson/tumblr_l6wyq7ypq01qzdvhi?audio_file=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tumblr.com%2Faudio_file%2Fmlarson%2F932406630%2Ftumblr_l6wyq7ypq01qzdvhi

oldhollywood:

Ennio Morricone – Once Upon a Time in the West (via Once Upon a Time in the West: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (vocals by Edda D’ell Orso)

“For me the music is fundamental, especially in a Western where the dialogue is purely aphoristic. The films could just as well be silent; one would understand all the same. The music serves to emphasize states of mind, facts and situations more than the dialogue itself does. In short, for me the music functions as dialogue.”

-Sergio Leone

~ Mark

filmspool:

Untitled by Lukasz Wierzbowski

Can two pretty girls ever blend in to he background? The ugliness of their surroundings makes the two pretty ladies look out of place, while their strange outfits that match the sofa they are sitting on anchor them in the scene. Their bare legs stand out in particular in this shot. I love all the patterns, in their outfits, the floor, and on the sofas they are sitting on.

I need to stop neglecting this site.

Yes. Yes, you do. Filmspool is one of my favorite tumblrs.