So there's a website called the Cari Institute that does its best to name and categorize movements in consumer design. From the 1950s to 70s, medieval aesthetics were in vogue, often in the same bright colors that we would associate with the hippie movement. This was around the same time movies like Camelot were being made, so fascination with medieval themes was in the air. Cari Institute appropriately calls this period Mid-century Medieval.
I wonder how people at the time received it, if it looked like a medieval vessel to them or if they could see straight through the marketing like we can now.
Incidentally, this sort of aesthetic would come back in the 1990s, though in more of what we would think of as a Renaissance aesthetic. Think Six Pence None The Richer and Ever After
I saw a post about an artist not wanting to use their nice, clean, perfect art supplies; wanting to save them for the perfect idea to make the perfect art piece. They asked for advice on how to escape this mindset.
I wasn't the only to reply, but my two cents was that if you're going to make art, your supplies are going to get trashed. I then talked about how in college, my friends and I would use all of our supplies on one drawing: picking up dark ink with lighter markers, contaminating the watercolor palette by not rinsing the brush, and wearing our colored pencils down to nubs. It was almost a contest to have the shittiest looking supplies.
After hitting enter, I realized I missed making art like that. I also realized I had some paper I'd never used despite holding onto it for years. I also had some sketches I hadn't made pieces out of yet... I think you can see where this is going. I got all my supplies out and made this piece.
"Billboard Jesus" | Ink, Watercolor, Colored Pencil, Acrylic on Bristol Paper | 11"x14" | 2026
this was submitted as a one sentence horror story, but it feels like it could be an old jewish joke, like the one about the two rabbis proving g-d doesn't exist or the saying 'people plan, g-d laughs'
Even more, it sounds like the beginning -- the set-up -- of the joke. Can’t you hear Carl Reiner opening a bit with this line, or Shalom Aleichem using it to kick off a story?
Well I'm not quite an old Jewish man just yet, but let me give it a shot...
Losing confidence in Himself, G-d became an atheist. He decided to go down to Earth, to walk among humans and see how they found meaning.
He wandered the world until he came to a town, where he happened upon a pastor. "Come to our church this Sunday!" said the pastor. But G-d shook his head. "I don't believe in G-d anymore," he told the pastor sullenly. "And besides, I really shouldn't be working weekends." . . .
He continued wandering, and as night fell, he realized he had no money for a hotel. Walking down the darkening sidewalk, he passed many shivering folk, some young and thin, others old and worn and grizzle-bearded, looking not unlike himself. Just as the rain began to fall, he happened upon a priest. The priest looked him up and down, and said, "You look cold, my son. We're hosting a men's shelter at the church tonight; you can sleep there, and come to Mass tomorrow." This time G-d agreed. He slept well and was warm, and in the morning sat for Mass. They blessed him in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but he felt beside himself and decided to leave.
By this time G-d was quite hungry. He stopped by a deli, but still had no money, so all he could do was watch the fresh steaming bagels be made. On a bench outside the deli, a man was eating a bagel with lox. As he finished eating, G-d noticed there were still some scraps of food on the waxpaper. Unable to help himself, he asked if he could have the scraps, before the man threw it away. "Please sir, I'm so hungry. I'd just like that crumb of bagel there, and that little shred of lox. I think I could make a bisl of fish last quite a while." The man shook his head. "I cannot in good conscience give you my trash," he said, "But come inside, I'll get you your own bagel. I'd offer to get you coffee—but that's trash too."
So the man bought G-d some breakfast and sat with him on the bench. "Thank you so much," said G-d. "How can I ever repay you?" But the man just shrugged and said, "I'm a rabbi. Buying bagels I don't get to eat is part of the job description."
G-d thanked the rabbi again, and ate in silence. "Rabbi, can I ask you a question? I feel I haven't been on this Earth too long, but already I've seen much misery. How do you do it? How do you still believe in G-d?"
The rabbi pondered this. "I believe in joyful things. I believe in kindness, and people choosing to help each other. And isn't that a kind of godliness?" (G-d suspected there was a bit more to godliness than that, but he let it slide.) The rabbi continued: "I've prayed to G-d every day for the last 30 years, and I will every day til I die. And if He answers my prayers, all the better! But tell me, my new friend, what's your name?" G-d hesitated and said, "It's a little hard to pronounce..." The rabbi chuckled and said, "No matter. Say, it won't be anything like Shabbos dinner, but my wife is baking a delightful fig pie today, and I'd like to have you over for dinner to enjoy it." G-d nodded. "I do like figs..."
That evening, G-d sat for dinner with the rabbi, the rabbi's wife, and their four children. The meal was delicious, the rabbi's family was incredibly welcoming. Their conversation was friendly but never prying, and the children laughed and played with each other. Several times, the youngest child tugged on G-d's sleeve for his attention before her father motioned for her to go play with her siblings. G-d began to see what the rabbi had meant about the joyfulness of life.
At the end of the night, G-d stood up to leave, and felt renewed. The rabbi said, "My friend, don't leave us so soon!" And G-d replied, "I will always be with you, for I am the Lord Your G-d." And they understood it to be true.
He had done this sort of thing a few times before and generally knew how it went. As expected, the rabbi and his family fell to their knees, weeping with joy and awe. He did not expect the youngest child to walk right up and tug G-d's sleeve again. He smiled graciously down at her, and she looked up with the wonderful bright eyes of a child who understands nothing but the urge to play. In a high voice, she said, "Knock knock!" G-d couldn't help but laugh. "Who's there?" He replied cheerfully.
Suddenly from across the room, the rabbi swore loudly and rudely. Dismayed, G-d asked, "What troubles you?" He saw the rabbi was trembling, half in rage and half in embarrassment. "I'm sorry Lord! Thank you for this, thank you so much for gracing us with your light, Baruch Atah and so on, it's just..." The rabbi swore again. "Thirty years of daily prayer, Lord, and a KNOCK-KNOCK JOKE is what you'll answer?"
hey captain-acab, this is the highest compliment i can bestow: it would not have surprised me had i found that story in a book of traditional fables in the shul library
Look, someone has to be the first to make up any traditional Jewish story, why not @captain-acab? If we all keep telling it, then in a generation or two it'll be traditional.
I'm trying so hard not to comment on a Reddit thread I found of this photographer who makes digital collages out of his work. "It's just Photoshop!" Alright then wiseguy, let's see you take two well shot photos and stick them together in a clever way. I know Adobe is trying to dumb down their software for us, but I'm willing to bet you're going to get lost in the settings 5 minutes into loading up the software.
SpaceX shared new details about a crewed Mars flyby in the lead-up to Thursday's Flight 12 launch attempt.
"During the live webcast, SpaceX played a video of cryptocurrency billionaire and civilian astronaut Chun Wang speaking from Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic Ocean. Wang, who has gone to space one time before, explained that he will embark on a Starship flyby of the Moon and Mars."
Ah, yes, the crypto dipshit who rode in a rocket once is going to *checks notes* command a mission to Mars.
SpaceX is such a fucking joke. I don't know how anyone with self respect can work there.
The notes are all talking about dying from the hubris of it all, but personally I'm here for the madness of isolation, tedium, and lack of fine dining, plus the added mutiny because he tried to take the class divide with him.
I live in the US and one of the things that really reframed the way I think about animals was when someone I knew in Brazil posted a picture of a marmoset hanging out outside their window and I realized that monkeys were to them what squirrels are to me. Recently a friend in Hungary sent a picture they took at the zoo of a raccoon and it was like my worldview was being shifted all over again because what was to me the mildly annoying, somewhat cute, critter that makes weird noises behind my house at night was a wonder to someone else. They have little hands and bandit masks. They wash their little hands. How is that NOT a wonder? All animals are cool I’m just used to raccoons.
Being from Texas, the encounter that put it into perspective for me is I met a couple living in NYC, who asked me what animals I had seen lately.
So I told them about the blue jays and cardinals that visit the backyard and the nest of phoebes under the eave of the house and they were fascinated and asked for more.
So I told them about grackles and their shrill cries and the barred owls that howl like monkeys in our oak tree. They were impressed we had a tree and asked how old it was and I said my estimate was around 80-100 years old, and that its size meant we would get a good number of fireflies in the summer. They really went crazy for that and asked for more.
So I told them about the anole lizards that change from green to brown and mark their territory by displaying their red throat crest, and the Texas spiny lizard I saw hanging around my potted plants, which is a decently rare sighting in a backyard. I think that led to the time I got to pet an armadillo that was being rehabilitated and they were super fascinated by that and asked for more.
I think all I had after that were yellowjackets and my attempts to find equilibrium with them and they were even fascinated by that. They didn't even have wasps to contend with in NYC! That's how starved for nature they were. And it made me realize not everyone has what I pass by everyday as I get up to make my coffee.
Power's out, so for fun I'm going to try to remember all the urban legends from my (christian) university:
There was a bell that would ring across campus to mark the hours, with a particular song that would play at 11:00 as a call to chapel. One student discovered that the bells are actually played from a CD over some speakers in the belltower, and did the only reasonable thing one could do with that knowledge: replaced the CD so it played ACDC's "Hells Bells"
There's a tradition among the boys that if you propose to your girlfriend while attending school there, you get thrown in the front fountain pond (I witnessed this). There was a legend that the girls used to have their own tradition: the proposed and her friends/sorority would all run to the fountain at midnight, take off their bras, throw them in the water, then run back to their rooms, presumably in a more free and bouncy state. Naturally, at a christian university, this was highly scandalous.
There was a couple who got married and came into the health counselor because they weren't finding the sex to be that enjoyable. After some probing, it was discovered the new husband was attempting to have sex with his wife's belly button, and neither of them knew better. (I've also heard this is a legend that every school claims, but the fact they would have been sheltered religious kids at our uni sold it for us)
There is a huge building on campus that used to be a museum, and sat derelict during my time there. It was a frequent location for urban exploring. A persistent rumor had it that a giant snake lived in the ceiling. (Also it was generally haunted, but that goes without saying.)
Yet another example of AAVE (and even Black queer AAVE with the 🤏🏾) making it into advertising and entertainment via "Gen Z slang". Can't say I didn't laugh though 🤣 I admit Petco got me with my love for my pet. Nonetheless!
Graphic designer here, the so-called "Millennial PR Team" is writing copy like how our boomer professors taught us. In reality, the text would be cut way down to something like "Crazy deals for crazy families. 3 for $25." No one is reading ads like in old magazines anymore.
Y'know, I kinda feel like when you get to the point that the general reaction to hearing about a failed assassination attempt is "Ah man, missed again. Maybe next time." you might be overdue for an impeachment.
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