SPRINGTIME

Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime, Springtime........

Bronx Botanical Garden - Orchid Show

Beneath the Sea

America's Largest Scuba and Dive Show - Meadowlands Exposition Center 

Yup,  that's where I spent my Sunday. I feel so suburban. 

How grandparents are being replaced by Google

Grandparents are being replaced by the internet as rising numbers of children ignore family advice for answers online instead, a new survey has found.

Researchers found that older generations are being replaced by Google, Wikipedia and YouTube, with their grandchildren not asking them basic questions that they can look up themselves.

According to the survey, fewer than one in four grandparents say they have been asked for advice on basic domestic chores such as washing clothes, learning to cook a family recipe or sewing a button.

Only a third of those surveyed said they had been asked "what was it like when you were young?".

And 96 per cent said they asked far more questions of their grandparents when they were young.

Article Here

Somebody That I Used To Know - Acapella version

Before the internet, when there was only 13 channels on TV and VHF, where did this talent display it's self.

Marriage Support Hits Record High

ABC News reports: 

Support for gay marriage reached a new high in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, marking a dramatic change in public attitudes on the subject across the past decade. Fifty-eight percent of Americans now say it should be legal for gay and lesbian couples to wed. That number has grown sharply in ABC News/Washington Post polls, from a low of 32 percent in a 2004 survey of registered voters, advancing to a narrow majority for the first time only two years ago, and now up again to a significant majority for the first time.

Philadelphia - Day Visit

I checked out the Barnes exhibit in it's new location.  It was clearly more accessible, brighter, and roomier than the original location.  Although the original location was difficult to find, it was more intimate and highlighted the controversy between Dr. Barnes, his art collection and the City of Philadelphia. Quick fun visit. I often forget Philadelphia is a true city.

"Outsider Art" - Philadelphia Museum of Art

"Great and Mighty Things": Outsider Art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection

March 3, 2013 - June 9, 2013

The power of self-taught artistic talent, the drive of the human spirit to create, and the wonders of highly original inner worlds revealed. These are just a few of the reasons why the Philadelphia Museum of Art is proud to debut the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection, a promised gift to the Museum of more than two hundred works by self-taught artists.

Discover the visual strength and original beauty of these works by twenty-seven untrained American artists, each with a moving personal story, many from disadvantaged, rural backgrounds far removed from the mainstream art world. This exhibition surprises and challenges museum goers, forces examination of the conventional definition of the word “artist,” and shows that good art is good art regardless of the maker’s résumé. Visitors will see unforgettable works, dating from the 1930s to 2010, by passionate artists who made objects of seductive richness that can stand alongside the best of modern and contemporary art.

What is Outsider Art?

What is “outsider” art that it should be given this confusing designation (outside of what?), be treated as a separate entity from mainstream art, and often be shown only in specialized museums and sold by particular galleries? The basic answer is that it is art made by people who have not gone to art school, who usually do not operate professionally or earn their livings as artists, and who create, for the most part, with limited or no connection to the art world and its dealers, galleries, collectors, critics, schools, and museums. Not categorized by styles, movements, or trends, it is art made by individuals who are driven to create by their own particular inner compulsions, which may be visionary, derived from memories, evangelical, or popular-culture inspired. It is almost always strongly influenced by local or regional cultures and often is made from found, homemade, or unusual materials.

The best outsiders produce work that is out of the ordinary, edgy, imaginative, or even obsessive-compulsive. Their creations are frequently raw or crude in execution but masterful in color choices and composition. Many of these self-taught artists create large-scale “environments,” some of which derive from the southern African American yard-art tradition.

Recognized as a specific field from the early twentieth century in Europe—at that time associated with the art of the mentally ill—and in America since the 1930s and 1940s, outsider art is now a global phenomenon, albeit a minor one within the full spectrum of twentieth- and twenty-first-century art. It occupies a position parallel to but not identical with mainstream modern and contemporary art.

Remember This "We can talk or not talk forever"

Huge Problem: Most People Don't Realize It

Smaller States Find Outsize Clout Growing in Senate

The disproportionate power enjoyed in the Senate by small states is playing a growing role in the political dynamic on issues as varied as gun control, immigration and campaign finance.


The Constitution has always given residents of states with small populations a lift, but the size and importance of the gap has grown markedly in recent decades, in ways the framers probably never anticipated.

What is certain is that the power of the smaller states is large and growing. Political scientists call it a striking exception to the democratic principle of “one person, one vote.” Indeed, they say, the Senate may be the least democratic legislative chamber in any developed nation.

There is a widening demographic split, too, with the larger states becoming more urban and liberal, and the smaller ones remaining rural and conservative, which lends a new significance to the disparity in their political power.

Article Here

Civil Rights: Gay vs. Slavery

Quite Telling

Hipster Hate!