Alternet: 'A Media Monster Is Eating the Dems'

We can't become Rush Limbaugh; if we do, we lose. And our nation no longer exists. There is too much at stake.

(Yeah... I pack all sorts of useless crap in my skull.) :dunce:

An incredibly fascinating painting. An incredibly eclectic museum. i actually like the Baltimore Museum of Art better; the Cone Collection is astounding. I live in Michigan, but love this stuff. I live for it. Don't tell my football buddies (no, I'm not gay, and yes, I am a long-suffering Lions fan.)

When I traveled for business and had a weekend stayover, I'd often seek out art museums and such to feed my more-atrophied brain cells. My visits to Baltimore have been abbrevated and I've only seen the Brickyards and the renovation along the harbor. (Making mental note.) Now I know where I'll go next time I have a chance. I *love* "eclectic."

I don't suppose the people represent anyone from history?

The scene is in the Bois de Bologne. (Which is probably why I remember the painting. I enjoyed many afternoons in the Bois de Bologne.) The character dying is Pierrot(?) the Fool/Clown while the Harlequin looks on and the American Indian is leaving. (I can't remember the other two characters.) I also don't remember much more about the allegorical meaning, except it's based on French literature/arts. (I have an incomplete liberal arts education, I guess.) My ex-wife had her graduate degree in Comparative Literature (French/English) - and I think I might've learned about this painting from her. (I'm a bit of a knowledge/trivia leech, I guess - always sucking it out of friends/family/acquaintances. Any time I meet people at parties or other gatherings, I seem to home in on what someone's passionate/knowledgable about and probe them.)

I agree it's a very memorable painting. The composition and mis en scene is, to me, very evocative. I don't recall seeing the original, only reproductions. I recall, however, an almost surreal use of color - moody and somber, yet beautiful.


On edit: Here's something I found online:

"The Duel after the Masquerade" by Jean-Leon Gerome is an all-time favorite from the Walters collection. It's a macabre and wrenching painting, alluring and stunning, but it's difficult to say exactly why. The painting depicts the outcome of a fencing duel the morning after a masquerade ball. The figures in the painting are all in costume from the night before. A man dressed as Pierrot, the famous French clown, is slumped in the arms of his friends. He is either dying or dead. The victor, dressed as an American Indian, walks away with his comrade, the Harlequin. The white snow is blood-stained, the winter mist shrouds dim skeletal trees in the background. The dying man, dressed in his clownish white costume, still grips his foil. His face is ashen, nearly as white as the snow on the ground. We can feel the profound care and concern of his three attendant friends, their sorrow and his tragedy; at the same time we feel the indifference in careless departure of the victors. It's a riveting painting.

http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/2003-10-15/news_cover.html

How come we keep hearing from the right-wingers that we are full of hate if we don't get "worked up about anything?"

What this comment means is that the blatant conservative agenda of CNN and the rest of the MSM is becoming so obvious that they have to explain it now, even if they can't explain it honestly--you know, by admitting that their corporate conglomerate owners use the MSM as an advertising firm for the Republican party so they can get their massive tax cuts. The tax cuts that killed the goose that laid the golden eggs.

Whatta buncha crap. Look at what they did to Howard Dean, and he wasn't even that angry. Justifiably indignant, yes. Angry? Like Rush, like O'Reilly? I don't think so.

To hell with Klein. He needs to sit down with Ted Turner and learn what the people really want. Unvarnished truth and real information.

testosterone is not a crime!

Whatever it is . . .

If the Dems do it, the media pillories them.

If the Repugs do it, the media praises them.


Double-standard in the media for quite some time.

And god knows, whatever works needs to be done.

We must stop looking down our noses at what Americans will pay attention to for both minutes of our collective attention spans.

Become a pompous ass like Limbaugh and make millions. Sensationalism sells but it is oh so sleazy......