Category Archives: media

Some thoughts from watching cable in New Orleans

1. The commercials on MTV are a problem. They’re nothing but ads for things pertaining to sex and alcohol. That’s probably not even the worst of it. The proactiv ads make me want an uglier world. People can only be confident if they have unrealistically clear skin? Add it all up and you can see …

January 14, 2012 – 5:25 pm | By ashok | Posted in media | Tagged | Comments (4)

Is Addiction Ignorance? On Peg O’Connor’s “In the Cave: Philosophy and Addiction”

Thanks to Joshua Rocks for recommending O’Connor’s article. 1. Peg O’Connor pushes us to think metaphorically in her posting “In the Cave: Philosophy and Addiction.” Her summary of the Cave allegory in Plato’s Republic: There is a cave in which prisoners are chained facing a wall. They cannot move their heads and therefore cannot look …

January 10, 2012 – 1:33 am | By ashok | Posted in media | Comments (1)

The State of Media, 1/3/12

Google Trends: “Vinny Jersey Shore” (nsfw, if you need an explanation) vs. “Ai Weiwei” (ahem) That we consume lots of trash is not a problem. I’ve seen the first season of Jersey Shore and do not hold watching the series against anyone. It would be ludicrous to ask people to come home from work and …

January 3, 2012 – 2:29 pm | By ashok | Posted in media | Comments (0)

Recommended: The New York Times Magazine, 12/22/11

Even before the “These American Lives” section, which contains accounts of lives like Dave Boyle’s – [Dave Boyle:] It culminated one night, after I’d done this Freedom of Information Act request, asking for the licenses of the 6 a.m. bars. Twelve hours later, my garage blew up. – even before that section there exists a …

December 28, 2011 – 10:48 pm | By ashok | Posted in media | Comments (0)

Skyrim and Political Philosophy

Spoilers galore ahead. Not intended to be correct or comprehensive by any means. Certainly not objective. I simply want to make a few observations and get the Elder Scrolls community talking. 1. Once upon a time there were dragons whose power may have stemmed from words. They established a rule of sorts over men. Then …

December 26, 2011 – 3:01 am | By ashok | Posted in media, philosophy, politics | Tagged | Comments (0)

Eugène Delacroix, “Christ on the Mount of Olives” (1824)

Delacroix, “Christ on the Mount of Olives” (a much better image can be found at the article below, or just through google. I used Zoom In like 20 times.) Géricault’s aesthetic heir, Delacroix, is arguably the star of the show. Whatever his medium, the confines of the rectangle seem barely able to contain his energetic …

October 24, 2011 – 3:07 am | By ashok | Posted in media | Tagged | Comments (0)

Picasso, “Still Life With Chocolate Pot” (1909)

Picasso, “Still Life With Chocolate Pot” (1909) [Picasso] doesn’t seem so much to reinvent tradition, in the words of the show’s title, as to simply explode it, without ever losing track of the constituent pieces, which he combines and recombines in stunning ways. He does odd things with his mediums, for example, applying watercolor and …

October 8, 2011 – 7:31 pm | By ashok | Posted in media | Tagged | Comments (4)

Anthony Jacobus, “Silence!”

For me, Anthony Jacobus’ “Silence!” series starts with this portrait of a woman in period costume. The greys and whites take on linear and swirling shapes; the clash between young and old is nowhere more evident than in her youth and the decayed panel behind her. She doesn’t look defeated or exhausted to me – …

September 11, 2011 – 1:56 am | By ashok | Posted in media, writing | Tagged | Comments (1)

About those South Park Underwear Gnomes…

There are some things I don’t mind overthinking, i.e. Xenophon or Yeats. I don’t want to give South Park the same sort of consideration, even though it can be brilliant at times. I just want to add one observation to a rather puzzling episode. The “underwear gnomes” are famed for their business plan: Collect [steal] …

August 5, 2011 – 12:18 am | By ashok | Posted in media, politics | Comments (3)

Why was Casey Anthony news?

Curious to hear your opinions on this. It’s easy to see why she’s news now: the verdict stretches “reasonable doubt” in a lot of people’s minds. But why was any of this important before? My brother argues that this is the new media generation’s “O.J.” Social media and the Internet supposedly played a big part …

July 5, 2011 – 10:35 pm | By ashok | Posted in media | Comments (3)