who?
first july | ten post meridiem
"At the Design Museum, many of the people walking from case to case are in their early forties. Most of them, I'd wager, have lived for twenty-odd years with this artwork sunk deep in their record collections. They have each owned their own Peter Savilles, and the trip here is a bit like setting out on an archaeological dig, keen to identify the foundations of what they know."
Goddesses bless commodification and mass production. Picasso said, "People do not buy my paintings, they buy my signature." The aesthetic value of Picasso's paintings will always be superceded by their cult value, by the microscopic upheavals in status between wealthy and wealthier as each signature changes hands, regardless of whatever other marks happen to be on the canvas in question. But a Peter Saville is for everyone; millions of people all over the world have hugged and smelled and no doubt done other unspeakable things with his works, all while developing close associations with the eerie ecstatic echoic sounds they conceal, and then gone out to share in the same while bumping sweaty bits with the rest of the plebs. Sure, you can buy Picasso books and wall posters, but these are not the forms nor the subbacultas his art was incubated in. "[A]lbum cover design has never been highly regarded within the design profession..." = precisely why it resonates so strongly with so many people. Like - paradoxically - the gothic in, well, everything (see what I did there?).
Not that any of you care, but here's my All Star ballot.
AL*
C - Jason Varitek
1B - Carlos Delgado
2B - Bret Boone
3B - Hank Blalock
SS - Nomar Garciaparra
LF - Garrett Anderson
CF - Vernon Wells
RF - Ichiro Suzuki
DH - Edgar Martinez
*I don't vote for Yankees on principle. Not that that matters much this year anyway.
NL
C - Javy Lopez
1B - Todd Helton
2B - Jose Vidro
3B - Mike Lowell
SS - Edgar Renteria
LF - ALBERT PUJOLS
CF - Jim Edmonds
RF - Gary Sheffield
I accept that the voting for the All Star Game generally makes the results of Presidential elections seem brilliant and carefully thought out by comparison, but if Sosa gets the start this year in place of Pujols the entire MLB fanbase can eat satchels upon satchels of dicks (that means you Japan!). The latter is 2 home runs away from the mid-season triple crown! He's hitting .391!! The last time anyone hit .400 in a season was Ted Williams in 1941 (he hit .406). I don't think Pujols will finish the season over .400 but give credit where it's due, when it's due.
I hate the All Star Game.