The Anchoress

Sorry for the silence over here but my site has been having some serious problems, partly due to attack, partly due to other issues, and I’ve been down a lot. My hosting service thinks they’ve got a handle on it, now. Let us pray!

Here is a little reward for putting up with it:

Jack: You are both a disgrace to the Donaghy name!
Jack’s Dad: It’s pronounced “Don-a-fee,” you lace-curtain half-an-Englishman!
Jack: When I think of all the things that I’ve been holding inside me that I wanted to say to you… [raises fists] Well now I’m gonna let “Saint Patrick” and “Saint Michael” DO MY TALKING FOR ME!
Jack’s Dad: [raises fists] You’ll have to get through “Tip O’Neill” and “Bobby Sands” first!
Eddie Donaghy: You call those fist names?! [raises fists] Say hello to “Bono” and “Sandra Day O’Connor!”
Jack: Those are the stupidest fist names I’ve ever heard.

~30 Rock, Episode 1.17, “The Fighting Irish”

Ahhhh….brings back memories…(H/T Shrine of the Holy Whapping)

I confess I’ve never seen the show, and I don’t know that the humor is “art” exactly, but the definition of art is so fluid, it may not matter.

Speaking of art, Julie at Happy Catholic is wondering why a sculpture of a balloon animal and Michelangelo’s Pieta can both be reckoned as art, when they seem to require very different levels of skill and imagination.

Gerald at Closed Cafeteria was on the same bugaboo on the same day, and made a very similar and simple comparative point. Gerald has an awfully good eye (his photographs are wonderful), and his comparisons are jarring. One does not have to be an “enemy” of modern or abstract art to wonder when you draw the line and say “whitewashing a canvas and calling it art does not count.”

But then again, it has always been up to the artist to declare what constitutes “art.” This year we’ve learned that your used feminine products can be exhibited, if that’s all you have to say about yourself. But then again, as long as there are people willing to pay for it…

Finally, I think this kid Kierra should take Mrs. Conyers’ place: she’s got her head on straighter than many adults. Including, probably sometimes, me.