nope. Fashion accessory. Sorry.
Boots are pull on, lace up and possibly button up.
Zippers are a shortcut and a failpoint.
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Fair enough on that. But they are not a fashion accessory they are for armor. They no longer look pretty thats for sure.
I think I would be happier with buckles which I see on the newer boots than laces though.
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Art is dead, and weâre watching it rot away in the form of modern art. Also, the idea that art has to be original, make a statement and not be representative is not the voice of an artist, itâs the voice of a bureaucrat who is busy obfuscating what they do in order to hide the fact that they are no longer necessary. Actually, I donât quite believe that, but it makes a good headline.
Art before photography:
Thereâs plenty of meaning and thereâs a definite style to it, but itâs perfectly OK to be representational, aesthetically pleasing, accessible to someone on the street (even if theyâre illiterate in an artistic and real sense) and have the main meaning fit in a small plaque under the painting. This is bullshit:
(Iâm not picking on this artist in particular, just the whole style in general).
After photography, the ability to be representational no longer had much value. Whatâs more, a lot of the functions of painted art could be reproduced at a much lower cost in terms of time and effort. Photography can even do some things a lot better than art. Some art tries to make it obvious that this is a human work, showing the process. Other art looks at the psychology of the artist, makes the viewer question assumptions, emphasises the environment, uses shock value etc. Itâs not that these things have no value, but Chinese factories can reproduce art and copy the passion of the artists. Computers can mimic the form of the artist. Photography can also be art in this sense, and often in a much better sense where it captures beauty that is invisible to the naked eye, or so complex that an artist couldnât reproduce the precision.
IMHO, the main functions of art historically speaking are not dead, theyâve just been taken over by other media like film. I would mourn opera or other forms of art much more than paintings and sculptures, if they lost their status in society. If you go to Chatsworth House, youâll see a number of sculptures:
Vanishingly few artists could recreate these by hand nowadays, but these were also there a while ago:
The second one is more realistic, but probably much easier to make, and you can put out as many copies as you like:
So yeah, basically a lot of art making a point is just artisanal bullshit hiding the fact that it doesnât have a point.
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I get your point (have you read The White Goddess?).
But Waterhouseâs Lady of Shallot is post-photography⌠in fact color photography had already been invented, and the process published. Although I guess the philosophic underpinnings of the pre-Raphaelite movement make it somewhat aproposâŚ
Lady Lilith is just up the road from me in Murdertown. The Delaware Art Museumâs pre-Raphaelites are verra nice, if you get to the mid-Atlantic area itâs worth a visit.
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Delaware should be a tourist destination.
I donât know if thatâs strong enough to be considered a truly unpopular opinionâfor most people who donât live in or near Delaware itâs probably an occasional thought although more likely to be a joke (see both Wayneâs World and The Simpsons).
Itâs just my nature to think that almost anywhere has something interesting and worth visiting. Years ago when I was planning a trip to Cleveland a lot of people would give me a look of disgust and say, âWhy would you want to go to Cleveland?â
Even before I had a clear plan of what I was going to do there I immediately said, âWhy wouldnât I want to go to Cleveland?â
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While a lot of modern art is utterly awful conceptual bullshit, thereâs amazing art out there as well. I just think the forms are different.
Nobodyâs really doing marble sculpture on that level these days, but have you ever seen art by Ron Mueck? Thereâs as much sheer skill in one of his sculptures as a classic marble bust, and the way he plays with scale and form is really awesome to experience in person. And theyâre so detailed and massive that they arenât being duplicated by Chinese factories (yet).
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It is, for the Japanese. 
They flock here during certain parts of the year. The combination of the various museums in the northern, industrialized part of the state and Longwood Gardens just over the border in PA pulls in a lot of cheerful, camera-bedecked Japanese families, as well as elderly people who donât speak any English.
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My SO was working in Cleveland last year, so at the end of summer I drove me and the boy out to see what he was building (pretty cool, a pump station 240 feet below ground) and to see what Cleveland had to offer. Well, and I say this as someone who lives in the Detroit area, there are areas that felt much less safe than the majority of Detroit. Immediately downtown, though, itâs touristy and safe as houses. We visited the aquarium, which is small, but nice; the science museum, which was in much better shape and a fair bit bigger than Detroitâs; the farmerâs market on the opposite side of the freeway from the science museum (I know that market is somewhat famous now thanks to Andrew Zimmern, but I canât recall the name). Oh, and we visited a pretty nice beach north of Mentor where we collected some sea glass, but didnât swim because the water was too cold. Added bonus: Cedar Point is about 2 hours away.
Conclusion; why wouldnât you visit Cleveland? Thereâs more to it than just the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
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Iâm very envious that you got to visit the aquarium and science museum. I was only there for two days so I went to the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame and the Cleveland Museum of Art.
And also the Botanical Garden which, at the time, was still under construction. It was nice but not as it probably is now. I honestly didnât realize it was still under construction. There was a big sign and I wandered in thinking, why are so many of the plants still in pots? And then I saw signs of work crews although I think the actual workers were at lunch. Itâs still pretty funny to me that it was open enough that I could just wander in.
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Those who supposedly âhacked the electionâ (by which I mean whoever leaked information from the DNC to the public before voting started) did the American public a service we damn well ought to be grateful for. That information deserved to be known, and if it sabotaged Clintonâs campaign, that is entirely the fault of those who wrote the documents that were leaked, and not the fault of the leakers.
The so-called âevidenceâ that Russia was involved in leaking information to the American public is laughable. It was more likely a patriotic American citizen, although it could easily have been China or another outside player.
Putin would rather that Clinton had won. Trump is unreliable, self serving and volatile, and his connections to the Russian mob and the esteem which with the Russian public views Trump make him more dangerous to Putin than Clinton could ever be. Putin needs a US leader he can demonize at home but also diplomatically negotiate with abroad. Trump is not as good as Clinton for either of those purposes.
As soon as Trump takes power, the narrative will switch from âwe have always been at war with Eurasiaâ to âwe have always been at war with Eastasiaâ. The media will happily demonize China or some Islamic country for every so-called cyberattack and the public, by and large, will forget that they were doing the same thing to Russia the week before.
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I will never be grateful to anyone who aided Donald Trump in becoming President.
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Me neither! I just disagree with blaming the person who revealed the chicanery that did so. Itâs shooting the messenger and thatâs never, ever a good idea.
Not sure if that made sense, grammatically, but at least itâll be unpopular, anyway I gotta go reprogram my car now.
(You should add an unpopular opinion to your post, btw 
)
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What kind of mediaevalist are you?
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A multimediaevalist?
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The Phantom Menace was ok. Nothing special, but worth the dollar I paid to see it.
The Force Awakens was better, Iâd say a notch or two higher, call it pretty good. Nevertheless, I think that TPM was a more creative, if less successful, film as it actually tried to do something new, rather than simply rehash and recycle elements of the original trilogy.
Note, before anyone mentions it: Better roles for non-whites and women is one nice new thing that was brought to the table, but this wasnât enough for me to get excited about it.
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The Phantom Menace was of course awful, but at least it had Darth Maul. Until it killed him off* in the most pointless way.
I agree - more diversity is a good thing to have in a film, but I donât think it has a lot of influence on how engaging a film is. Some films can be too obvious about ticking the right boxes, and they just stop being that fun to watch. Other ones get it right in a more natural way, which actually improves the film.
*I know what some people might say, but heâs dead to me.
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TPM is a purposeful rehash of the original as well.
The prequels werenât great; they really showed what a poor writer and director Lucas had become. But! The creative team who worked on them really went hog wild on new aliens, new ships, and new ideas; from what theyâve said, theyâd just brainstorm and create and fill walls with wacky concepts, and Lucas would come in and point to things he liked and walk out. So while as stories they arenât so great, as sources of new creative ideas for the Star Wars movies, theyâre terrific.
The âmaking ofâ book for Force Awakens shows a process that was very much in flux up until the last minute. Disney/Lucasfilm/Abrams was understandably nervous about trying to make a new Star Wars sequel, wanting to make a crowd-pleaser while still kicking off a new storyline. Now that theyâve succeeded in that, Iâm hoping the next movie pushes the creative envelope a lot more. They can afford it.
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Well, I havenât seen TPM since it was new in theatres, so I canât discuss it in depth, but it didnât feel as dedicated to re-doing re-configured bits from the original trilogy, which is how I felt about #7. In the broad outlines of the story, yeah, very similar, but the original Star Wars is pretty generic in the broad outlines anyway, so not as bothersome to me.
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