Speak Up Archive: Quipsologies<br />~ Vol. 61 ~

Despite a two day delay, some punch this edition of Quipsologies has.

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Eagleton identifies at least three reasons why “cultural theory must start thinking ambitiously once again”: 1) Capitalism has entered what could be its most ‘totalizing’ phase—it has become global and ruthless, 2) “The gang of predatory, semi-literate philistines” and “semi-fanatical fundamentalists” who rule the United States are in danger of ending history “for real”, and finally, 3) The West is under pressure to justify its way of life in [the] face of the Islamic fundamentalist challenge. — Abdelkader Aoudjit on Terry Eagleton and theory after postmodernism.

Perhaps as a way of emphasizing Terry Eagleton’s first point in the previous quip, here’s photographic evidence that the notorious Philips male nut shaver campaign has finally reached New York.

The advantage Bon Jovi has right now is that he’s playing in a space where there are no real parameters. When it comes to drawing the male eye, we all know about slinks, smiles and other “beguilements,” but what women like (what they pore over, as opposed to pin down) is still a very undefined area. While I’ve never been a fan of his music (although I can’t deny “Livin’ on a Prayer” rises to an apex, more than any other anthem), he’s a man who makes a second count, when a camera is on him in any context. — Mystique Without Camp: The Allure of the Leading Man

The Competing Orthopraxies of Three-Button Suits in Japan

The perfection of style is to be clear without being mean. The clearest style is that which uses only current or proper words; at the same time it is mean — witness the poetry of Cleophon and of Sthenelus. That diction, on the other hand, is lofty and raised above the commonplace which employs unusual words. By unusual, I mean strange (or rare) words, metaphorical, lengthened — anything, in short, that differs from the normal idiom. Yet a style wholly composed of such words is either a riddle or a jargon; a riddle, if it consists of metaphors; a jargon, if it consists of strange (or rare) words. For the essence of a riddle is to express true facts under impossible combinations. Now this cannot be done by any arrangement of ordinary words, but by the use of metaphor it can. — As an interdisciplinary source in aesthetic theory, it’s hard to beat Aristotle’s Poetics, recently posted on Denis Dutton’s site.

The current issue of the online journal Senses of Cinema features articles on the pictoral qualities of John Ford’s Young Mr. Lincoln and the influence of Nicolas de Staël in the films of Jean-Luc Godard (“Uncle Jean” in my circles).

On celebrity product placement: To them, free. To you, £ 595.

Paging Ms. Lupton… DIY is currently suffering a 75% slump in Britain.

Pssst… wanna write like a MFA graduate?

Currently across the street from yours truly, a show of new paintings and old printed matter by Gary Panter at Sandra Gering Gallery, 534 West 22 St, New York.

One color, badly printed, badly trimmed, in bad taste — yet the most amazing calendar I’ve seen in quite some time.

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~ ARMIN ~

It is honor-giveaway month in the design industry: Paula Scher receives the minimally-bestowed Type Directors Club Medal; Masamichi Udagawa, of Antenna Design New York, receives the 2006 Muriel Cooper Award from The Design Management Institute; and, Sara Little Turnbull, director of the Process of Change, Innovation and Design Laboratory receives ICOGRADA’s Achievement Award.

Top 10 Strangest Gadgets of the Future.

I think I detect some very subtle sexual innuendos in this Ridgid calendar of pin-up girls interacting with heavy, sometimes phallic-like machinery. [Thanks to Josh for the link]

Make the perfect paper airplane. Step by step. Video.

A compilation PDF of design writing by Paul J. Nini, faculty member in the Department of Design at the Ohio State University.

Winning selections from the 4th annual Design Against Fur design competition.

Tired of having to repeat typesetting advice? Of course you are. You can buy this T-shirt. Or at least see the detail.

Classic books get Pulp’d. [Thanks to Jeff Gill for the link]

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~ JASON A. TSELENTIS ~

Continuing their mathematical approach to marketing with + signs, Apple + Nike could equal one helluva combination, allowing you to “tune your workout.” I can’t wait to see the interface on iPod’s screen.

Will we see the end of platter-based storage media now that Samsung plans on using only solid-state technology?

For those of you moonlighting afterhours, check out some of the racy domains that may (or may not) be available.

Learn about what Web 3.0 means, and decide if you think it makes upgarding from our current 2.0 version. Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web, thinks we need to change how the web works. Yes, change again.

There’s one more reason why Open Office or Writely appear to be good alternatives to Word. And it has to do with security.

For a mere $562 million, you too can have your own newspaper; Philly’s Daily News and Inquirer are faced with new ownership.

See what parts of the world do searches for American Idol (or any other useless information) by using Google Trends. You can even compare search volume and region by entering more than one word, but try this metasearch to see what happens if Google doesn’t have enough search volume.

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~ RANDY J. HUNT ~

Jonathan Harris (of 10x10 and Wordcount noteriety) and Sepandar Kamvar have collaborated on two more illuminating datamining pieces that explore emotions as expressed through blogging. Lovelines mines pages looking for expressions of love and hate pairing them with metadata such as geographic location and author age when possible. We Feel Fine works similarly, searching for “I feel…,” but is visualized and engaged in an altogether more beautiful way. Both are mind-boggling.
Makes one wonder how many of these are from MySpace pages.

Old-school Apple brand evangelist Guy Kawasaki admits he was late to enter the world of blogging. If you’ve loved his books quirky approaches to navigating the worlds of business & technology marketing, catch up with his look back at his first 100 days in the blogoshere. Check out No. 3; which kind of blogger are you?

Jeffrey Hollender is well-respected for founding a consumer products company, Seventh Generation, founded on priciples of environmental and social sustainability. Last week, Hollender met with Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott, and wrote about it. Enter this one with an open mind, after the morning (organic) coffee.

The Tate launches Your Collection, a curatorial experience.

Seriously, Armin. I spent what seemed like hours at that link. Thanks for showcasing it, Randy. I'd love to see what other links you have, are they someplace on del.icio.us?

On Jun.01.2006 at 12:56 PM

> What's so tasteless about the calendar?

Su, the collision of:
1. celibate priests
2. sex appeal
3. porno-level (the cheap porno) photography and printing

On Jun.02.2006 at 03:10 PM

I always button all of the buttons on my three button japanese style suit. I never heard about the convention of only using two of them, it's silly and looks bad.

On Jun.02.2006 at 03:40 PM

Kingsley:

Okay, the priests are generally attractive. Likely moreso than the the average priest. Photographers are not usually out to photograph ugly, even mediocre, things. And?

Sorry, but when somebody claims that a thing is erotic[1], it's more often a reflection on them then than the subject. It's not like they've got the priests rolling around on the beach with Speedos. It's pointless to argue the photographer's intent without citation. All I can observe is that the thing wasn't titled say, "Shaggable Priests of the Vatican." Things were clearly left open to interpretation, which at worst potentially makes this a cheap joke.

Here's the 2003 version(again, with snarky commentary). It would seem that at least a few of the priests like the attention, even.

[1] ...and particularly when the claim is that it's inappropriately so

On Jun.03.2006 at 04:42 PM

If they are going to have a calender w/ attractive
priests, what is their intent, their selling point?

It's the same reason why calendars with photos of
college women sell like hotcakes.

That's why it's tasteless.

On Jun.03.2006 at 09:15 PM

I like the priest calendar. I don't see the problem with this. Handsome priests? So what? As a little Catholic kid I hung around priests a lot with no roblems. One of my best friends is a priest. I can see Michealangelo's faces in some. It's interesting just because it's so different. If anyone finds it tasteless, its a reflection on their OWN inherent problems with the duality of celibacy and eroticism. One needn't be a guilty homophobe (Catholic or otherwise) to enjoy the portraits.. This is beauty in rare places.
Besides, I need something besides another cute kitten calendar for next year...

On Jun.03.2006 at 10:39 PM

I need that 'shaggable priest' callendar. Just for the confusion value. If I ever join a convent, someone please get one for me. >:)
Personally I find nothing wrong with nice looking clergy. They are human, they have bodies: Why shouldn't some of 'em look quite nice? Is it wrong for beautiful people to be clergy, and therefore presumably taking themselves out of the breeding pool? Or is the reaction caused by the recent accusations of rampant paedophilia in the church?
Who cares? It's an interesting callendar.

On Jun.04.2006 at 02:12 AM

So what if they made a calendar dedicated
to hot nuns?

Or better yet,what if there was a magazine
dedicated to hot nuns, including a centerfold
of the month?

Btw, I think that nun in the preview for
the movie Nacho Libre, to be hot.

On Jun.04.2006 at 04:30 PM

Nice try, but you're still avoiding the issue and making the same assumption, Frankie. If the calendar simply says, "Some Nuns," then what, beyond your subjective interpretation and sexual proclivities, makes them "hot?" If I look at the same calendar and think they're all a bunch of pigs, then what happens? (Yes, exaggeration. But I do in fact find most [super-]models extraordinarily bland, if not downright homely.)

A magazine avowedly dedicated to "hot nuns" is an entirely different thing, by virtue of self-definition. Notice how you seem to be trying to turn my own question back on me? So: Given the simple reality that most photographers do not usually set out to capture the unattractive, where is it stated that the priests were chosen for sex appeal? (No, they're not necessarily the same thing.) What evidence is being presented for taking the word sexy from your mouth, and putting into the photographer's?

On Jun.04.2006 at 06:55 PM

Su:

What do you think was the purpose of putting
together this particular calendar of priests?
And what criteria were these priests chosen by?

Their accomplishments?
Their nationality?
Their looks?

...
The issue was never about
the preferences of photographers.
This wasn't some project where people just shot
pictures of what they liked, and put it together.

If this calendar was truly about capturing the
personality of priests, then I'd say they did a
pretty shitty job.

...
Taste is subjective, so we must discuss this
from the viewpoint of Intent and Criteria.

Again, I ask you, what do you think the intent
and criteria of this calendar is?

On Jun.04.2006 at 11:57 PM

Funny how on top of not a single one of my questions being answered, the burden of proof keeps being shifted to me, despite my not having anything to prove. There are some really basic fallacies being exercised here, and I've pretty much lost all interest(*fanfare*), but one final attempt.

I'm fully allowing for the possibility that the priests were chosen for sexiness(again, as opposed to some baseline non-ugliness). You, on the other hand, are assuming it. I want support. You are consistently avoiding giving it, while simultaneously trying to reverse my own (rephrased) questions on me, which is just plain weird.

Taste is subjective, so we must discuss this from the viewpoint of Intent and Criteria.

Uh huh. The photographer's intent and criteria. Which I can't find, but you seem to presume to know. Citation?

I'll answer your questions anyway, though: I don't know. But more importantly, I want you to admit that you don't know, either. Or state your sources, in which case I will submit a formal retraction.

At the risk of futilely asking for another source, where'd that come from? Who said anything about capturing personalities? At least there wasn an "if" in front of it this time.

On Jun.05.2006 at 05:02 AM

I'm fully allowing for the possibility that the priests were chosen for sexiness(again, as opposed to some baseline non-ugliness). You, on the other hand, are assuming it. I want support.

You want proof that these "priests" were chosen for their looks?

My source

(Excerpts below)

According to zomata.com: Italian news from Italy (2 March 2004), one of the models has now admitted that he is not a priest. Actor Yuri Antonosante, 23, who is the cover star and Father January, says "Every time I go on a casting call they ask, 'Father, what are you doing here?'".

It's a shame if some or all of the models are not priests, but does it matter? Will anyone be asking me for their money back? Should I be asking photographer Piero Pazzi for my money back? The press seems to have decided early on that these were documentary images of Roman priests, and created a story out of it. I do not know Piero personally, but my feeling is that he enjoyed the joke (and the publicity) and decided not to correct them.

To be fair, Piero has never actually said they were real priests, and if you read his response to some doubting visitors to this website ("Doubting Thomas", below), it is clear that he was having fun with some archetypal and traditional Italian images, not necessarily in a realistic way.

The calendar is giving many people pleasure, fun and food for thought, and through this website alone it has raised £450 for my favourite charity.

**Here is more on Piero Pazzi, the photographer:

..I asked photographer Piero Pazzi to clarify his intentions with the calendar. Piero says that it is true that priests do not walk the streets of Rome dressed like that, but there are some closed religious communities where they do.

All the articles of clothing came from providers of religious apparel, and Piero's choice of models and how they are dressed is part of his strategy to create a visually pleasing souvenir of the Vatican, conveying its history and tradition, but not necessarily realistic. Basically, he says, he wants to photograph things and people that appeal to him..

Here is the link to the Zoomata story:

(Excerpt)

The closest these priestly poseurs get to the holy cloth is with one former altar boy turned model, the rest of the hunks in the Calendario were models or students dressed up in rented holy gear.

Su, hopefully, these sources are good enough
for you. Btw, if you're debating me, I would
appreciate it if you left out the passive
aggressive crap.

On Jun.05.2006 at 10:32 AM