Hope we have a post on Pissy's conduct at the memorial for the Dallas cops.

educator said 5:01

Okay, Buddy, you asked for it.

To wade in or to not wade in at the WWII memorial?

Greater Washington blog:   Wading in the World War II memorial is emphatically not allowed. Solemnity is the officially preferred emotion. But the memorial's buoyant design inherently invokes liveliness, and strict rules violate the spirit of the war against fascism.

"The memorial doesn't have a solemn design"

"Unforgettable Photos From The Attack On Pearl Harbor, 73 Years Ago Today"

"Under a early morning South Pacific sun, softball teams were lining up on the beach. Pitchers warmed up their arms, while batting rosters were finalized and the wives and kids came over from seaside church services. They did not know that for hours the Japanese naval fleet and air forces had been speeding across the ocean toward America's Pacific base. There, like a string of pearls draped across the docks and waterfront, was the majority of America's naval might."

"Japs Attack US" Times Square, New York

 Memorial service for the more than 2,400 killed at Pearl Harbor

A gap is the design for memorial for Breivik victims

Swedish artist Jonas Dahlberg says the Memory Wound reproduces the physical experience of taking away reflecting the abrupt and permanent loss.

Rubble taken from this slice to be used to form part of another memorial in Oslo where Breivik detonated a bomb.

The design of this project strikes me as hauntingly beautiful and thoughtful while so much of this story strikes me as odd, so very odd, like it's happening is some strange alien place, some foreign country or something. Breivik was sentenced to 21 years for killing 77 people. Gauche as it is calculating 1 year for each 3.6 children killed, still wouldn't life until he's dead dead dead be a minimum amount considered? How is it justice the man still lives and breathes? What sanctimony is served by that? Secondly, isn't it odd turning a site of national horror into a tourist attraction? Exquisite apart from those two things.

bbc

Tea party to honor fallen SEALs Chris Kyle, and others at Benghazi with sculptures

Sculptor Gregory Marra stands next to the memorial statue in tribute of Chris Kyle.

"As for our grass-roots support, we are currently working with the Navy SEAL Museum, All American Veterans Services, Tea Party Community, ACS Public Relations, and the Tea Party Tribune,” said Don Smith, a talk radio host and a public relations maven who is helping Mr. Marra wrangle the complexities of public outreach and fundraising.

 “I know it sounds crazy, but I feel their presence. That’s what happens when you’re creating a life-sized image of someone.”

I know. 

That does sound crazy. You are crazy. That is what happens in isolation, the way you work like that, meditatively, your physical motions ritualistic for prolonged periods. 

As artist and craftsman, what happens is you set your mind to a task, a fairly simple task, the big decisions are made already and it gets down to chip chip chip away careful not to do this and avoid that, repetitive ritualistic tasks that do not require the full mind to carry out and cannot contain the mind's full energy so the other part of your mind takes flight. Turns out the larger part of your mind takes flight, free form, goes where it wants, when it wants, how it wants, and enters another reality altogether while your body back there anchored by mind to task stays focused and busy at functioning and doing that on autopilot. You trick yourself into allowing yourself to connect with the universe and for the universe to connect with you in ways your ordinary material bound self prohibits. You're crazy.

Driving in rush hour is similar. You are thinking and driving, making small decisions and doing it well, and dreaming and planning at the same time. With those two thing going on, it is the ideal situation for your intuition to provide something for you. It can feel like your spirit looking ahead and providing a picture for you. You are insane.

Did I ever tell you about the time I did a commission for the man with an offering carving? I saw a very simple and attractive start to a painting and thought that outline would make a good bas relief. All I would have to do it scrape the background away and then scratch in some details. I already did one bas relieve before so that makes me, what, an expert. 

Here is my copy of the book where I saw this. Tomb of Horemheb. My book says Haremhab, the vowels were not agree upon then. 

Ha! That was the military general who followed the old courtier that followed the death of king Tut. Half the paintings in my copy have grids drawn over them in pencil. The whole thing is in pieces. That means I replicated at least half of these, and sold most of those. This book has been a treasure to me ever since I found it a long time ago when I was a wee lad. 

Bed wetter.

Kidding. I loved this book to death. It is worth a 2.25 million dollars to me. You can buy one for 29₵ 

Chipping away at the background with a dental tool. A real dental tool the dentist gave me. It is boring. Best to break up the project into bits. Leave it on the work table and return to it here and there throughout the day, throughout the week until it is done. 

It takes a whole spare bedroom. It makes a huge dusty mess. 

One night I bathed, wrapped myself with a towel, passed near the workroom with the open project, went in, sat down and chipped away, chip, chip, chip, chip, chip, chip, chip, it is very boring, chip, chip, chip, chip, chip, it is not so long and I am transported, zoop.

I am in a dimly lit cave. Back home I am physically in a cave-like bedroom at the back of the apartment, so not so remote a transport, but there I am doing what I already am doing, I went to a thousand years ago, two thousand, four thousand years ago, toiling away at wall. I drew the picture that I am working on and I am there again to correct it and to have my corrections corrected by somebody else and then together we will move on, and right before we do move on I snap back to present day where I actually am sitting there chipping away making a mess, I did make admirable progress there wrapped in a white terry cloth towel, I stand up feeling and looking exactly like a half-naked Egyptian scribe. 

So yeah, you sound crazy to me. I understand completely.