Polka Power

For some reason or other, I've been extremely tired this past week. Every morning I've been running late and every night I tell myself I'll update the blog the next morning :( I guess we all have those kinds of unproductive weeks...well, it wasn't exactly unproductive, just blog-wise. And I have already started my random flower blog, although that has also been rather neglected.
On the news front, one of the first events since I joined a ballroom team is a rookie-veteran dance. I somehow got assigned to polka and must, within the next week, not only learn it but to come up with a routine for my rookie. Let's just say that after watching polka videos on youtube, I am finding myself coming down with restless-leg syndrome.

Link of the day: www.questionablecontent.net
What is it: a comic updated every Monday to Friday and reads like a (slightly) less incestuous version of Friends or Will & Grace. Actually, to compare it to the popular TV series is not quite fair of me. The comic is actually pretty educational, with its constant allusions to alternative / indie music.

Artist of the day: Jim Dine (1935- )
Who is he: an artist who exhibited alongside Warhol, Lichtenstein, Ruscha, and other artists in what became known as the first Pop Art exhibition. I came across Dine's name in a NYT article, and was intrigued by the inclusion of his massive head (cast in plaster) in the famous Getty Villa amidst classical marbles of Roman and Greek antiquity. The article quoted Dine as resisting the label of a Pop Artist and it is not difficult to see why. So while his latest foray into sculpture and poetry may still stem from the concept of reworking icons (in this case, sculptures that have come to stand for classic ideals even in our popular culture), I do not see in his work the same counter-"cultural" challenges that other pop artworks exhibit. However, this is not to say that Dine is not encouraging viewers to reposition the familiar. I have yet to learn more about Dine, so for the time being, I'll keep my ignorant blabberings to a minimum.