Blogging since 2002
So far, the most expensive book in my collection set me back $250.
Maybe some day I’ll be able to purchase things like this too. Drooool.
Capek, Karel. R U R ROSSUM’S UNIVERSAL ROBOTS: KOLEKTIVNI DRAMA… [Praha]: Aventinum, 1920. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 7-96 [97] [98: blank] [99: colophon] [100: blank], original decorated lavender wrappers, printed in brown and black, all edges untrimmed. $12500
First edition. 2000 copies printed. Signed by Capek on recto of first leaf.
On the way home have seen this crowd of people watching some “performance art” dealy with dancing manikins and drag queens in sparkly gas masks. Big whoop. I’d be a lot more surprised if that store sold good espresso. I wonder how they pay the rent for that place. A storefront like that near Times Square must cost at least 10 grand a month.
Well, I thanks to the wonders of email, I found out some things about the sculpture. Pat Willard, who writes for the awesome “Around the Quad” newsletter, was kind enough to answer my question and provide the following info:
The author of this sculpture is a Lithuanian artist V.K. Jonynas. He is pretty famous, and even has his own museum.
The title of the sculpture is “Education”.
The sculpture was knocked down by a truck that backed into it. Very Khrushchevian :).
Just now, talking to my boss on the phone, I used expression “in one fell swoop”, referring deployment of files from SourceSafe. I am puzzled about what “fell” means. I thought it was related to “swell”. I could not have been more wrong:
From http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-fel1.htm
We now never see it outside this fixed phrase (or perhaps only occasionally in poetic use) but once it was a common word in its own right. One of its relatives is still about: felon, which comes from the same Old French source, fel, evil. Originally a felon was a cruel or wicked person; only later did the word evolve to mean a person who commits a serious crime.
That’s fitting, especially considering the nature of SourceSafe.
Oooh, I wanted to steal that sign.
Interestingly enough, the creators of the sign knew that, and added a meta-warning at the bottom.
I am back from my vacation.
We rented this nice cabin in the Poconos in a place called Shawnee.
This abstract sculpture was once proudly standing near Ingersoll Hall. Now it rusts in the grass. I wonder who made this monstrosity and what it was called.
Strangely enough, twisted pieces of metal welded together are closely associated with sculpture these days. When I think of sculpture, I think about granite, marble, wood, clay or bronze. I think about chisels and wax models. Rebar and welding apparatus I closely associate with construction work.
A friend of mine met her boss’ daughter carrying a huge pile of rusty metal somewhere. She asked her about what is she was going to do with it. She became very surprised and answered – “Don’t you know? I am a sculptor!”
I wish Dan Maynes-Aminzade had a livejournal….