by Marty Coleman | Feb 18, 2013 | Carl Schurz, Idealism - 2013 |
What an ideal day to start ‘The Ideal Series’ here at the NDD.
Do you have an ideal? Do you try to reach it or do you try to be guided by it to a life well lived? Tell us your ideal.
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Drawing and questions by Marty Coleman, who is learning to sail his ship.
Quote by Carl Schurz, 1829-1906, First German-born American elected to the US Senate, 1869
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Trivia question of the day
Who opened the first kindergarten in the US?
Answer in the comments below or if you don’t know, come back tomorrow for the answer.
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 15, 2013 | Antonio Porchia, Judgment - 2013 |
Eyes Down Illusion
If you are always looking down the illusion becomes reality, that everyone else is below you. They become inferior and needy. They are a burden to you. They aren’t worthy of respect or true care and attention like you are. They are less than you and you are on top. You are not only at the highest point, you ARE the highest point.
Eyes Up Illusion
If you are always looking up the illusion becomes reality, that everyone else is above you. You become inferior and needy. You are a burden to them. You aren’t worthy of respect and care and attention. You are less than them and you are on the bottom. You are not only at the lowest point, you ARE the lowest point.
Eyes Up and Down Reality
If you are looking up and down there is no illusion, there is only reality; some above, some below, some equal. You are not inferior or superior. You are not a burden nor are they. All are worthy of respect and care and attention, no matter where they are. You are not less and you are not more, you are not on the bottom nor the top. You are simply among friends.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Antonio Porchia, 1886-1968, Argentinian poet
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 12, 2013 | Bodyless Ghirl Ghosts - 2012-2013 |
Unsuccessful Milking
Last we saw the bodyless Ghirl Ghosts they were learning how to milk cows after their food fight in the ski chalet. The milking didn’t go too well since they have no hands. They either had to use their mouths, which they thought was gross, or bump heads with a cow’s teat in between, which was also not very successful because they slipped off the teat and hit each other’s head each time. Even ghosts don’t like getting head butted.
What They Shop For
But what Ghirl Ghosts do like to do is go hat shopping. Since they don’t have bodies it’s really not fun to go clothes shopping. They like to go to clothing stores, but just to watch people change clothes and then pull pranks on them. They especially like stealing men’s underwear and women’s bras in their changing rooms and then laugh as they have to walk out with too much ‘information’ showing and bouncing. But they also get depressed because they can’t try on the clothes.
The Bodyless Body Image issue
Eight of the ghirls ghosts went back to the hotel to take naps. Two of them had head colds as well, which is the only kind of colds bodyless ghosts actually ever get. The other seven decided to check out ‘Not Topless’, the cute little hat boutique in Wolla Tompo, the ski resort where they were staying. Penelope, the leader of the Ghirl Ghosts tried on two hats, one of which was cute and wavy-like, while the other was a boy’s top hat. She liked it but the other girls laughed at her, saying she looked like a boy ghost. She had always hated when people told her that she looked like a boy when she was not a ghost and had a body, mostly because she was thin and didn’t have any hips or boobs to speak of. She used to wear a lot of make up, especially false eyelashes and bright orange lipstick to make sure everyone didn’t think she was a boy. So now, even though she only had a head, it made her feel bad and she started crying.
Sharita told her to get over it, that they all had something that bugged them about themselves. She herself was always told she was a slut, all because she had a lot of curves and walked so the curves kept curving. Now that she didn’t have a body she never got called that but she still felt that the other girl ghosts thought of her that way. Sharita started crying too. Ethel, the one who started the food fight earlier, and still had some applesauce stuck on her forehead, told how when she had a body it didn’t work and she hated it. Sharita asked between sobs what that meant. Ethel said she had been in a unicycle accident and had become paralyzed from the belly button down. She said that she didn’t have any sensation below that and never had sex or an orgasm or anything like that in her whole life. She started to cry.
The Lonely Saleswoman
So now there were 3 bodyless ghirl ghosts crying while trying on hats. The other four started to cry hearing those stories and they all apologized to each other for being insensitive. The saleswoman, who wasn’t a ghost and did have a body and had been on her feet for 12 hours started crying as well. All the ghirl ghosts went over to her and nuzzled her (they can’t hug so they nuzzle), telling her they were sorry and that they would buy the hats and go. The saleswoman said she didn’t want them to go because she had no friends and was very lonely. She wasn’t crying because her feet hurt and that she was tired but that seeing them all have fun and cry together made her feel even more alone. She said she had all sorts of body and head issues and no one to talk to about them.
The Ghirl Ghosts told her to close up the shop and then they went in back and listened to her tell all her stories. They all cried together and had the best time.
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Drawing and short short story by Marty Coleman, who loves hats on women.
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 11, 2013 | Pope John Paul II, Thus Sayeth The Pope |
Since Pope Ben is going to retire this month I thought I would round up some interesting quotes from Popes recent and past and see how they illuminate things, both intentionally and un.
The Halting Hand
Who’s hand is that keeping them from seeing each other? Does the abused one hide or does the friend ignore? Do they have an almost invisible fence of hurt that keep them from reaching out? I have been accused in the past of probing too deep with people, asking too many personal questions, wondering about thing more intimate than I should wonder about out load. I will take that criticism and live with it because I would rather be accused of asking too many questions than not enough. I would rather be told I am being too pushy than to find out a friend of mine was abused or committed suicide and I hadn’t ask a question I really thought I should ask.
The Papal Irony
This quote is by Pope John Paul II, the Pope before the current and soon to resign Pope Benedict. I think it is a true statement. I think it is also a very ironic one considering the trouble the Catholic Church has had for decades in excusing the most unchristian and immoral behavior one can imagine. I am not suggesting Pope John Paul II knew anything about it but it is now obvious that child molestation and sexual assault has been going on a long, long time within the Catholic Church. It’s also obvious that many Priests and Bishops put their hands up and blinded themselves to the assaults. They cared about the political fallout and the monetary implications if the secrets got out. I am sure they were disturbed at some level about the actual assault as well. But obviously that was down the list in importance, that is why the best solution for them was to send the offender off to another parish or area of service so the blood would be washed from their hands instead of actually turning the criminal offender into the police.
That is ironic.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, who is not Catholic
Quote by Karol Wojtyla, 1920-2005, Roman Catholic Pope (John Paul II) 1978-2005
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Trivia Question of the Day
What is the sedia stercoraria and what was it used to prove among Popes?
Come back tomorrow to get the answer
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 9, 2013 | Art, Artists I Love, Francisco Goya |
I am going back in time again. This time to Spain of the 18th and 19th Century. Francisco Goya was a master painter and printmaker whose work ranged from sophisticated royal portraits to illicit nudes to disturbing depictions of war and violence.
Francisco Goya – Self Portrait – 1795
Pretty and Sweet
He started out as an apprentice at age 14 and quickly moved up the ranks due to talent. He eventually came to the attention of King Charles III, becoming an artist on the royal payroll. He did pretty and sweet paintings of the Royal family to earn his keep. At least they look that way to us now. But at the time he was known for not sugar coating the looks of his subjects. He would be similar to a portrait photographer now who uses very little Photoshop on his work.
Francisco Goya – Duchess of Alba – Oil on Canvas – 1795
Francisco Goya – The Straw Manikin – oil on canvas -1792
Even while he was painting supposedly idyllic scenes he was also infusing them with sometimes satiric or critical commentary about the state of Spain.
Francisco Goya – King Charles IV of Spain and his Family – oil on canvas – 1800
The Fox in the Hen House
For example in the painting above the whole family is gathered but the Queen is in the center indicating greater power. And behind the King on the right is a painting of Lot and is daughters from the Old Testament, a very obvious allusion to corruption and perversion at the time. How he got away with these slights is a mystery, but he did.
Yea, so?
You might be asking, why do I love this guy anyway? He looks like a pretty average painter of pretty boring Royal portraits, so what’s the big deal?
Here’s the big deal. in 1792 Goya came down with a mysterious malady, still unknown to this day, that caused him to go deaf. It led him to become withdrawn, introspective and much more willing to create images that were filled with his dreams, nightmares, disillusionments, madness and violence. These were directed at humanity, at France, at Spain, and the ceaseless political intrigue and the brutality of war. We would almost certainly not care or no much about his work if he had not turned to these subject matters so decisively. He didn’t give up his work as a painter of society and royalty, but he did work alone and intensely on images that were the complete opposite of his public image.
Los Caprichos
During my Sophomore year at Brandeis University I was able to study the prints of Goya at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston. Two series really stood out to me.
The first was ‘Los Caprichos’. In these images he depicts the folly of society, satirically making fun of both the high and low.
Francisco Goya – Now They Are Sitting Well – etching/aquatint – 1799
Francisco Goya – Blow – etching – 1799
Francisco Goya – Pretty Teacher – etching – 1799
The Disasters of War
The second series that stood out even more was his ‘Disasters of War’. Spain had been invaded in 1808 by Napoleon’s army and conflict ensued for 6 years. In response Goya painted his most famous piece, as well as countless prints for his series.
Francisco Goya – The 3rd of May – oil on canvas – 1808-1814
This painting turned the corner in art from the classic world to the modern. With this image Goya inspired centuries of artists to come to be bold and unsparing in their depictions of the true nature of war.
Francisco Goya – This is Worse – etching – 1815
Francisco Goya – Bazan Grande with Dead – etching – 1814
These were not published until 35 years after his death.
The Black Paintings
Even when the fighting was over the Bourbon dynasty was restored to the throne, setting back many decades of enlightened liberal progress in Spain. Goya was distraught over this. But worse yet was the likely dementia he was starting to experience. His images became dark, disturbing treatments of not just society’s woes but his own internal struggle.
Francisco Goya – The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters – etching/aquatint – 1799
The etching above wasn’t done towards the end of his life, but it illustrates both the mental madness he might have been experiencing and his belief in reason as a bulwark against such monsters, in life and in society.
Francisco Goya – Colossus
Francisco Goya – The Colossus – oil on canvas – 1812
Francisco Goya – Saturn Devouring his Son – 1823
Madness
This image was painted on the walls inside his house, along with many others called ‘The Black Paintings’ from his later years.
I can just imagine the torment he had in his head. But the amazing thing, and the reason he is an artist I love, is he kept creating. He pushed forward and unflinchingly showed his vision of the world, for good and for bad.
The Secret Maja
And now, just so we don’t end on a completely macabre note, here are two very similar images of the same woman. They never were displayed publicly during his life but were displayed in the home of the owner and commissioner of the pieces. There is no consensus on who the woman is but some think she is the Duchess of Alba that is shown at the top of the article.
Francisco Goya – The Clothed Maja – oil on canvas – 1800
Francisco Goya – The Nude Maja – oil on canvas – 1800
It was quite the scandal for him to have painted the nude in the first place, but it was even moreso because there was no pretense of mythology or religion. It was an image of a real woman, not a long gone historical figure. It’s probably the first major European painting to be painted and presented in this way since the Roman era.
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Fall/Winter 2016
Winter/Spring 2015
Summer 2014
Winter 2012/2013
Winter 2011/2012
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The images in this article are all from the fantastic site ‘WikiPainting‘. I highly recommend exploring it.
If you would like to read more about Goya I would recommend starting here at the Metropolitan Museum of Art page about him. Of course you will find the most information about him in Spain, primarily at the Prado Museum where many of his masterpieces are on display.
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 8, 2013 | How To Kiss - 2013, Mistinguett |
I have been all three of these kisses to women throughout my life. I liked being the exclamation point the best, and disliked being the question mark the most. Being a comma didn’t matter much, unless I thought I was an exclamation point, then it was a bummer. In general that is when you are hurt, when you think you are one type of punctuation, but the woman decides you are another.
I was a comma in 2002 when a woman I started to date had me in between some other guys she was dating. I could tell she was not going to stop her sentence with me.
I was a question mark many times. The thing about being a question mark is you don’t usually stay that way. The question is answered pretty quickly and you are either going to become an exclamation point, a period or a comma in short order.
And my ego would like to say I have been an exclamation point more than a few times, but I can at least say I have held that punctuation title twice, to the two women I married. Of course I turned into a very long comma to my first wife, but I was exclamation point for a while at least.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, who has given all 3 types in his life.
Quote by Mistinguett, 1875-1956, French singer and actress.
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 7, 2013 | How To Kiss - 2013, Remy de Gourmont |
My First Kiss
I might be a man but I remember very well my first kiss.
I had gone to my very first dance. I was 12 years old and was going to be entering 7th grade. I went to a thing called ‘Sports Night’ at the Jr. High I was going to attend in Los Angeles. I suppose somebody somewhere was in a gym playing sports, but I was in the room with the band, the girls and the dancing. And then I saw the girl. My first over the top, heart beating fast, crazy puppy love girl. Her name was Lisa Millward and I was smitten the moment I saw her. I don’t remember how we met but I found out she was 1/2 grade ahead of me so she knew the ropes of the dances having gone before. She was my first ‘older woman’ as well as my first love.
We danced the night away and I fell in love with her in the course of those few short hours. It wouldn’t be the last time I fell in love with someone on the dance floor, but it was my first. Far too quickly it was time to go. We both went outside to wait for our parents to come pick us up. We talked for just a bit, then the moment came. She leaned in, I figured out what she was doing so I leaned in and we kissed. It was pretty unexpected on my part so I didn’t have enough time to really get nervous about it. It was just a smidgen longer than a peck but it was on the lips and that made it count. My heart was beating crazy fast, I remember that much.
Here is the kicker. My father and sister had just driven up in the car to pick me up and witnessed the whole thing. Of course, my sister made merciless fun of me, saying I was leaning in at some ridiculously awkward angle and looked completely dorky. I think my dad enjoyed the moment of his son taking that leap.
My Second Kiss
Back in those days you used the phone book to look everyone up. The listings usually just had the mom and dad’s names so I probably called every Millward in the book until I found her. We made arrangements to go bowling with a group of friends. It was a lot of fun but I was distracted the whole time because I wanted to have a real kiss with her, not in public view this time. I kept trying to think about how I could make that happen.
After bowling the two of us took a walk down to this 3 story office building at the end of the strip mall. There was an elevator that was all by itself, outside the building, connected by outdoor walkways to each floor. I decided it would be the perfect place to have a real kiss. We got in the elevator and went up. Then we went down. Then up again. Then down again. The whole time I was a nervous wreck, completely frozen in my inability to make the move. Finally, after probably about 5 trips up and down I did what any crazy in love 12 year old would do, I pulled the stop button on the elevator between floors and kissed her. It was glorious and wonderful and the highlight of my life up until that moment (and for quite a while after that).
The Aftermath
The first part of the summer was the best ever. I went to the beach or went swimming or did something else with her almost every day. We kissed a lot. But alas the fates were cruel. My father took a job 3,000 miles away in New York and before the summer was out we were gone to live in Connecticut. I pined away for her all the rest of the summer and well into the next school year. We sent love letters and I even got a Valentines letter with a big heart on the front that she had drawn with lipstick.
The letters started to dwindle off over the course of the spring, from my side as well as hers, but I still was madly in love with her. We drove across the country to visit California that next summer and I was crazy with anticipation about seeing her again. It didn’t turn out all that great. I found out my friends back in Calif had sent the Valentine’s letter as a joke to me (how I missed that it wasn’t from her I have no idea) and she really just wasn’t all that interested in me anymore. I was hurt but not terribly so. I had already started to realize this wasn’t going to be a lasting thing while back in Connecticut, having found other girls who peaked my interest in kissing.
What that relationship really taught me was how easy it was for me to fall in love with the idea of being in love! I have moderated that some over the years, but I don’t really ever want to leave it completely behind. After all, being in love is a feeling worth being in love with.
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Drawing and revealing biographical sketch by Marty Coleman, who has yet to find Lisa on Facebook.
Quote by Remy de Gourmont, 1858-1915, French Symbolist poet
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Trivia Question of the Day
If you were going to give a ‘nachkussen’, what sort kiss would you be giving?
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 6, 2013 | Anonymous, How To Kiss - 2013 |
Today is Day Two of How to Kiss week! You know what you can do if you don’t like it.
Kissing Ass
Way back when, in the last century, I worked at a restaurant called Eulipia in San Jose, California. I worked there for 13 years, most of those years with the same people. We were a very close crew and did some pretty funny things with each other after being together for so long.
One day a waitress/manager, who I had been working with for many years, was standing on a step stool, reaching up to turn on the stereo system for the day. I am not sure why that day I did this but I walked by and without thinking twice hugged her around the legs and kissed her jeans covered butt, which was just perfectly situated at my eye level. She turned around and screamed, ‘MARTY!’ with a bit of astonishment but also with a smile and a laugh. I looked up at her and said, “You always want me to kiss your ass, so now I have!” and walked on. We had a good laugh about it for many years after that.
Most of the time kissing ass is really not nearly that much fun. Do you have a kick ass kiss ass story, good or bad?
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Drawing and revealing biographical sketch by Marty Coleman, who, after all, does have a reputation to uphold.
Quote by Anonymous
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Answer to yesterday’s trivia question
Question: What is philematology the study of?
Answer: The study of kissing, of course. Learn more kissing trivia about it here.
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 5, 2013 | How To Kiss - 2013 |
My Favorite Ad
I am in the minority here, but one of my favorite Super Bowl ads this year was the Go Daddy commercial featuring the supermodel Bar Rafaeli and the actor Jesse Heiman (playing a computer geek) kissing. The ad pretty much has become the most hated ad of this year’s crop but I love it and here is why.
Hidden and Exposed
I love it because it exposes people’s prejudices and they don’t even know it. Here is an easy question to ask yourself if you hated the ad. Would you have hated it if it was the supermodel Bar Rafaeli kissing the model from the Calvin Klein commercial that aired around the same time? Would you have hated it if it were Ms. Rafaeli kissing Ryan Gosling? Or any other very handsome, sexy, and otherwise attractive man? I am going to take a guess that you would not have hated it. If you say you still would have hated it, then I suggest you wouldn’t have hated it nearly as much. If you say you hated it, then do you also hate watching the Bachelor kiss 10 girls per episode with hot, wet kisses?
Taboo
I know there are all sorts of ‘reasons’ people have said it was disgusting. But what I think is the number one reason is that people made an unconscious judgment while watching that ad. The judgment came because the visual image had broken a taboo, a taboo of status, beauty and class.
Without knowing it, you just knew it was wrong. Why? Because hot supermodels are not suppose to like or be attracted to dorky, overweight, nerdy and unattractive geeks, that’s why. They do not belong to the same class. They are breaking as big a taboo as almost any other one. It’s disrupts and upsets how the world is suppose to be. And when that is thrown in your face, the result is anger and disgust.
Truth
But the truth is it’s your problem, not theirs. They are actors in an ad, yes. but I will take a guess that if they had been real lovers you saw on a park bench doing that, you would have had the same reaction. And in the park or watching it on TV, It is not they that need to change, it’s you. You are the one with the unspoken prejudice, not them.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, who kissed his first girl when he was 12 at a dance. Man, did I fall hard for her.
Quote by Sylvia Plath, 1932-1963, American poet and writer
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Trivia of the Day
Question: what is philematology the study of?
Come back tomorrow for the answer
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 4, 2013 | It's Randumb |
Do you think this statement is true?
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Drawing, quote and question by Marty Coleman, who was pretty random this morning.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, who
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