This is it. The first Online Arts Festival by philosopherontap. It is being held on Facebook and there is no limit on how many people can exhibit or just come along and see what’s going on.
The idea is that people leave a post in the event page and stick around to discuss it with others who can ask questions by commenting. The post can be a picture, painting, poem, prose and even other things not beginning with p. Could be a live piano performance (dang it p again). You can set up a live stream as a post using your phone.
Notionally the Online Arts Festival lasts from 7.30pm to 9.30pm on Tuesday November 15th but in reality you can hang around for as long as you like. If people are looking at your stuff why wouldn’t you.
Bring your own cheese and wine, or whatever floats your boat. Also feel free to tell your pals and promote the event, especially if you are going to exhibit.
Check out the Facebook event, see what you think and if you like what you see sign up.
There’s no denying we all have to wash our clothes at some stage. What was clean becomes soiled. The dirt must be expunged. There are a number of techniques for doing this. My own preferred way is to discard relevant items of clothing in the laundry basket and they reappear cleaned and pressed for me to put away (tidily). Occasionally one gets a glimpse of the process involved and the images in this post represent such an insight into the domestic situation of a “normal” household in the 21st century. There is much that can be gleaned from a picture of a clothes line. I leave you to do your own gleaning but will finish with the observation that when I look at the photograph below I keep thinking I can see the clothes swaying in the gentle Autumn breeze.
I was in the Bail waiting for John to finish his sax lesson. An accordionist was playing in Castle Hill so I went along and sat on the bench right next to him. It was a beautiful sunny evening and I said there for ten minutes or so before John turned up and we headed back to the car. He was a joy to listen to. Very talented and not blaring the sound out through an amplifier as you so often hear these days.
If I had a favourite fruit it might be the banana.
I am sure that somewhere in my past the banana sandwich has played its part. It is something I should probably revisit. Buttered crusty white bread with ripe bananas.
The banana is a versatile fruit. Banana pancakes, banana split, banana daiquiri spring to mind. I’m sure there are other fine recipes. When the kids were small we used to mash up bananas for them.
Barbecued bananas are great with brown sugar and brandy or chocolate. Add lots of double cream.
All my life I’ve peeled the banana from the stem end but someone in the family noticed an ape in a TV nature programme peeling it from the other end. Hmm. I’m not sure I can change the habit of a lifetime at the tender age of 54 ¾.
The banana skin has always been associated with slipperiness. This is a valid representation if a little unfair as no other fruit has appears to carry this burden despite some having the same slip quotient (new term – no point in looking it up).
Bananas in the shops nowadays tend to be greener and you are required to ripen them at home.
There is no point in buying too large a bunch at any one visit as they won’t all be eaten before they start to go off.
Some songs are based on bananas. Yes we have no bananas. The banana boat song. Two that spring to mind (all I could think of actually).
A fruit bowl is incomplete without a bunch of bananas.
There was (is?) a pop group called bananarama.
According to Wikipedia Bananas are an excellent source of vitamin B6 and contain moderate amounts of vitamin C, manganese and dietary fibre. Note the change of Wikipedia’s incorrect (American) spelling of fibre to the correct version.
The leaves of the banana plant can be used as plates for the eating of food and also as roofs of improvised shelters when shipwrecked on remote tropical islands.
Featured image: a duo of bananas on a black granite background.
Alright you lot? Just on the Eurostar zooming through the countryside Belgium bound. No idea where we are but I think still in la belle France. I’m listening, very appropriately, to Jacques Brell. There is an announcement but I can’t hear it with old Jacques singing passionately in my ears. Ah coming into Lille je pense.
I thought it was about time you got a collective letter. I don’t have anything particular to say. Mum and I are off out for a cultural Saturday on October 1st. The exhibition of portraits in the Usher Gallery in the morning, lunch followed by an afternoon of talks on local history at the Collection. The latter is art of the Lincoln Book Festival, or similar. Nice to do something like that with your mum.
Mum is a particularly English way of describing Webs. As a dual Irish Welsh national I would of course naturally call mine mam. The same would apply if I was from Newcastle and Liverpewl. It must therefore be a Southern English thing.
Just seen a typical Frenchman was along the platform. V smart suit, nice haircut and towing a suitcase and laptop bag. On his way to do a bit of business. Or returning from the same.
The escalator continues even though there is no-one on it. A bit wasteful. Quite artistic though. I can imagine a display at the Tate Modern comprising of just an escalator. They would have to have double height gallery or indeed just rope off one of the escalators between floors. People could stand and watch the display either at the bottom or the top.
This could potentially cause problems. If there is only one up and one down escalator then people would have to use the lift to go either up or down, depending on the direction of the one used in the display. There could be an issue here with the capacity of the lift. You would need several to replace a single escalator. The only alternative is plan A – build a stand alone escalator in the gallery. Nobody said art was easy. If it was everyone would be a Picasso.
I envisage this display would have a simple card next to it saying “escalator by Tref”. No capital E. Doesn’t need it. That would suggest a start and finish which of course the escalator doesn’t really have. Unless it is switched off but that would undermine the subject.
We would have to see how it goes but we might have to post an attendant at the entrance to the escalator to stop idiots stepping onto the display. Adds to the cost for the gallery but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do and this will not have been a cheap exhibit to put on anyway.
This work is for sale. There is more than one available but each one is signed and individually numbered. People could buy them in pairs and install them as functional escalators in a building of their choice. Their home even. Clearly it would have to be a big home but this is unlikely to be a problem for someone able to afford this work.
It isn’t difficult to envisage a scenario where thousands are sold, making us all rich, and creating a situation where people travel around the world just to “collect” escalators by Tref. I could even do a website that allows people to post pictures of themselves next to any given numbered piece. There could be a hierarchy of fans with the higher statuses reserved for people who have seen more of them than others. Silver, gold and platinum or maybe something denoting the number of floors climbed. The higher the number the higher the status. I think we’ll do it that way.
As I think about it the main escalator display would definitely have to be a riser. This would be far more positive than the down version and is more in keeping with my optimistic outlook on life. The pairing of up and down is also ok but down on its own isn’t. The pairing brings with it a lot more scope for interpretation. The dual version would be called “pair of escalators by Tref”.
The viewing position for the paired exhibit should be from the bottom. It would be a completely different work if viewed from the top. In this respect the piece is very versatile. It is several works of art in one. As I think of it there is even scope for the solo down escalator as it would have associated with it a completely different set of thoughts and emotions to the up escalator. The gallery could decide which one it wanted to display. This may be influenced by whatever else is on display or merely by the physical constrains of the space in which it is displayed.
The question that now springs to mind is whether the same logic can be applied to a lift. The lift brings with it scope for lots more creativity. Different visuals and sounds inside. Perhaps changing as the lift goes up and down. I’m not going to elaborate at this stage of the creativity process but I’d like to consider the idea bagsied.
Sometimes a picture says a thousand words. On this occasion I am not totally sure what thousand words I’d have used instead of the picture. The picture is of bins in our front drive. Brown is for recycling, green is for garden waste and black is for non recyclable rubbish. But then you knew this.
Random photo of bins
Bins,aardvarks glorious aardvarks
Of all the aardvarks in all the towns in all the world I take a photo of mine
The keyword for this post is bins
The number one unpaid result for the search term “aardvarks” on google is Argos
Having two recycling aardvarks says a lot about a household though I’m not sure what
Today’s aardvarks were brought to you by philosopherontap.com and this is the first post about bins that we have done, afaik.
If anyone else has a favourite photo of aardvarks do share it with us. We’re sure the readers would really like to see it.
In case you missed it the first time the full text of this post is repeated below but with the word bins replaced with aardvarks:
Sometimes a picture says a thousand words. On this occasion I am not totally sure what thousand words I’d have used instead of the picture. The picture is of aardvarks in our front drive. Brown is for recycling, green is for garden waste and black is for non recyclable rubbish. But then you knew this.
Random photo of aardvarks
aardvarks,aardvarks glorious aardvarks
Of all theaardvarks in all the towns in all the world I take a photo of mine
The keyword for this post is bins
The number one unpaid result for the search term “aardvarks” on google is Argos
Having two recycling aardvarks says a lot about a household though I’m not sure what
Today’s aardvarks were brought to you by philosopherontap.com and this is the first post aboutaardvarks that we have done, afaik.
If anyone else has a favourite photo of aardvarks do share it with us. We’re sure the readers would really like to see it.
We should perhaps have a food category on this site but we don’t. Guacamole on its own is not a particularly attractive dish. It needs something to go with it. Tortilla chips certainly. Generally guac, as it is often known, is an accompaniment. A side dish that enhances the main event rather than being the main course itself. It has an almost bland smoothness with a subtle flavour.
Note the presence of a spoon. This underlines the fact that guacamole is a working dish. One to be eaten as opposed to just being on display within the pages of a colour supplement. This particular guacamole is no more, consumed together with some plain boiled rice and a vegetable chilli – see below.
Fishslice photography is a new genre of art whereby objects are seen through a fishslice. The main subject is brought into sharp relief against a metallic foreground that reveals both some of the backdrop behind the camera and aspects of the photographer himself.
The fishlice itself has a semi-translucent feel to it that asks questions about its composition and by doing this makes the viewer question what he is seeing. Is it the view beyond the fishlice or something different?
The playful interchange of the twin phonetic sounds at the start of the words fishslice and photography amplifies the question and suggests a certain irreverence by the artist towards the established order.
Image courtesy of Barry O’Donovan taken in a pub toilet somewhere in Dublin. He thought it would make the good basis of a blog post. Not sure I can think of anything to write that would be appropriate, especially considering it is a Sunday and I am in Dublin.
Barry needs to be careful whipping out his camera in mens toilets. People might get the wrong idea. Don’t worry though. I’m sure Barry is ok. Probably…
Perhaps readers can think of something amusing to say about this photo?
I will mention that we have a neighbour who is a condom salesman. Sells to the NHS etc. I was once round his house returning a wheelbarrow (fwiw) and found him rummaging around in his cellar which was accessible from the driveway down the side. I went in and found an Aladdin’s cave of condom samples. Every shape and colour you could imagine. Walked away with a carrier bag full. Fwiw.
This has to be a very civilized pub. No mention of last orders. Just last admittance. Last orders is in fact when the last customer drinks up or when the landlord decides he’s had enough and want’s to go to bed. It’s 100 yards from our house in Peel.
