They’re just trolling us now…
Despite everything going on in the world today, the second most read article at the BBC News website when I checked the news this morning was this one: Tom and Jerry cartoons carry racism warning. It’s from Amazon’s streaming service (formerly LoveFilm) and the warning on Volume 2 is:
“Tom and Jerry shorts may depict some ethnic and racial prejudices that were once commonplace in American society. Such depictions were wrong then and are wrong today.”
Emphasis mine, because of the staggering presumption of “wrong then.”
The problem, not surprising, is the character the Wikipedia article refers to as “Mammy two shoes” — presumably because she looks like the classic 19th C mammy character, and all you usually ever see are her legs.
I’m going to cry foul on anyone who calls her “the maid character” though. I’m sure I’ve seen every Tom and Jerry ever, and I recall *no* evidence she was not in her own home and mistress thereof. Thomas is clearly her cat, she’s dressed in the sort slobbing-around-the-house clothes I seriously doubt she’d wear to work. I think she makes herself a sandwich in one episode.
So this is racist because…she’s fat like Mammy? Because she talks like an American black person? Because she’s wearing slobbing-around-the-house clothes? Really, I think we have a right to insist class warriors tell us specifically what parts of this character are offensive. Because I think the answer would be far more racist than the question.
Oh, insult to injury — and I honestly don’t know if they’re flat-out trolling — this from the Telegraph today.
How the hell did we get to the point that a cartoon Siamese cat with chopsticks is some kind of deadly racist stereotype?
October 1, 2014 — 7:05 pm
Comments: 18
That it should not be in vain
So I got asked to do a flyer for the church fête in a real hurry today, and I thought, “I know — singing ewes!”
The hell was I thinking, right? Because I guess we’re going to sing songs or something. Still, I got this far before realizing that…just. No.
I went with a picture of the church. But please enjoy these two ‘tardalated ewes so my time won’t have been completely in vain.
July 24, 2014 — 10:23 pm
Comments: 17
Rule by ignorant busybodies
For many purposes, cadmium is banned in the EU. An exception has been made, repeatedly, for artists’ pigments because quantities are tiny (it’s hella expensive!) and the kind of cadmium used for colors doesn’t get into the human body that easily. The cadmiums are an important and pretty irreplaceable of light-fast series opaque reds, oranges and yellows (I use them only in the tiniest concentrations, but I’m not sure what I’d substitute).
Once again, they are considering applying the ban to colors, as well.
Not a big deal on its own, but of a piece with the EU Experience. I cannot tell you how nagged and nannied we have become. Just in the time I’ve been here — oh, the weed killers and pesticides and cleaning products that have been whisked off the shelves. Not on the advice of the experts, but by diktat of “ZOMG It’s A Chemical!” green ignoramuses in Belgium.
Beg pardon. I say Belgium. Richard North of EU Referendum makes a very good case that many of the most obnoxious impositions that we blame on the EU actually are imposed on the EU by the UN. North is a bit of a Mikey-Hates-Everything, but he does his homework.
Global governance via the UN. I know, I know. I see you over there reaching for your Reynold’s Wrap chapeau.
But if you don’t believe in a de facto, shadowy world government, lemme ask you a question: how y’all liking those twisty light bulbs?
July 7, 2014 — 10:20 pm
Comments: 20
You should probably have that looked at
How did I miss this? Apologies if everyone knew but me. Apparently, when the 30-foot-tall commemorative statue of Nelson Mandela was unveiled in Pretoria in January, nobody noticed the tiny bronze rabbit in his ear.
The two Afrikaner sculptors had wanted to sign the work on his pantleg, but were told not to. So, covert bunny. It’s an Afrikaans pun. “Haas” means rabbit, but it also means haste, and they were in an almighty rush to finish the thing by the deadline.
When it was discovered, there was kerfuffle. Also brouhaha. Some thought Mandela was a jolly man and would have wanted it to stay. Others thought not.
My favorite quote is from Mogomotsi Mogodiri, spokesman for the Department of Arts and Culture, “We don’t think it’s appropriate because Nelson Mandela never had a rabbit on his ear.” If that isn’t hilariously literal enough, he went on to say, “We’d want people to see that statue as a symbol of hope, not about something like a rabbit.”
Well. You needed a pair of binoculars to spot it, but still it had to go. So it went.
Always hungry for attention on the cheap, PETA tried to “adopt” it, but nobody seems to know where it went. So PETA went away and murdered puppies and kittens until they felt better.
Right! New Dead Pool. Here. Tomorrow. 6 WBT! Be here. Or don’t. I’m not your mother.
June 19, 2014 — 10:35 pm
Comments: 16
Here’s a strange one
You won’t be surprised to learn I spend a lot of time browsing art online. There are some astonishing people in concept art today (above, Popeye by Lee Romao). Love that sweet, sweet eye candy.
There are lots of group art sites, duh. Storage is a burden, but building an art site is still an attractive prospect — the kind of proposition where users jostle to provide your content for you.
Over the last few years — as usually happens with anything online — one site pulled ahead and became pretty much the standard for digital artists. Lots of illustrators used it as their main online portfolio showcase. I spent many a happy hour there, catching up with my favorites.
I won’t link, because CG Hub is gone. About six weeks ago, the URL went flakey and people assumed they’d forgotten to renew their domain name or something. Then the developer released a terse and strange message:
No more CGHUB. Sad day. Project CGHUB is officially closed. The reason behind this extremely tough decision is personal and will remain private. It’s absolutely not connected with business or any kind of technical difficulties. On behalf of development team I would like to apologize to CGHUB users and fans for abrupt project closure and delay with its announcement. – The Shakuro Team
Personal and private? The hell? There was even a for-pay mode and they’ve been busily refunded moneys.
The only thing I can glean is that the developers and owner of the name were different entities, and at odds. The development team has launched a Kickstarter to rebuild the site under a new name, but I don’t imagine they’ll prevail. By the time they get anything going, the circus will have moved on.
Art Station looks pretty cool.
May 20, 2014 — 9:46 pm
Comments: 7
More blacksmith
This is also a product of the blacksmith’s art. Despite the fairly elaborate decoration on the latch mechanism, it wasn’t made by a jeweler. It’s the locking mechanism of a 16th C and it’s a surprisingly fiendish object.
The entire box is made of iron. The docent couldn’t tell me how much it weighs, but she reckoned it would take four men to shift it. She let me try the lid on another similar box, and it was honestly all I could do to lift it vertical.
On either side at the top, you can see two stout rings for padlocks. Centered between them in the box proper is the keyhole, and it’s fake. It goes nowhere. The real keyhole is hidden behind a boss in the center of the lid. It slips sideways, and there’s the hole. The sound it makes when you turn the key is epic.
It is further compartmentalized on the inside for papers and jewelry and whatnot. The idea was that great men had to have lots of coin on hand to pay for everything, especially when they traveled. There are four holes in the bottom for bolts, to bolt it to the bed of a cart for just that purpose.
If Robin Hood ever did make off with one like this, I hate to think how many Merry Man it would take to file enough of a slot into it to make room for a wedge to make purchase for a hammer. I don’t know how else you’d get it open.
May 7, 2014 — 9:57 pm
Comments: 8
Steel ivy.
On Sunday, I watched a blacksmith make this on an ancient forge. It’s about the size of the ball of my thumb.
He took a quarter inch mild steel bar and hammered the end into a sort of arrowhead shape.
Folded in half.
Part straightened again (this made the big vein down the middle).
Beat the little veins into the sides of the leaf.
Nipped it from the rod, leaving a nub of the rod behind.
Turned it and hammered at the nub, over and over, until it became a long, thin stem.
Hammered the stem around the nose of the anvil until he’d tied it in a knot.
Not much more than five minutes. It was awesome. We asked to see more examples of his work, and the blacksmith reached his blackened and callused paw into his pocket…and pulled out his iPhone.
Heh.
May 6, 2014 — 9:48 pm
Comments: 13
A bargain!
Géza Nikelszky (1877 – 1966) was a Hungarian artist and this is his “Jug with Pigeon and Weasel,” for some reason.
You can own this spectacular object for a Buy It Now price of only £4,999.00, shipped direct from Budapest.
Mr. eBay may be trying it on here. One came up for auction in 2012 with a starting bid of $783. They don’t say what the winning bid was, though, so perhaps demand for…this object went through the roof in the final moments.
Uncle B sent me the link. I fear he is shopping for me.
April 29, 2014 — 10:30 pm
Comments: 11
I heart Michael Ramirez *so hard*
That’s today’s Ramirez cartoon and I just want to take a minute to say how much I admire this guy.
His picture ideas are consistently so awesome. Not just ideologically strong, but visually striking. And he pulls them out of thin air, time after time after time. Hoo boy, I have to tell you, the good strong visual ideas are the hard part.
Most of his cartoons are simple, but he can draw like a dream when he wants to. His likenesses are great and his caricatures are cruel. Despite being a staunch righty, he’s won a ton of journalism awards, including two Pulitzers. I’d say Ramirez is who I want to be when I grow up if he weren’t a year younger than me.
His father is a first generation Mexican-American and his mother is Japanese. He was born in Tokyo (maybe that’s why he didn’t get caught up in the Identity Politics Shuffle — he couldn’t decide which box to tick). I don’t know how old he was when they all moved to the States, but he went to college in California. His brothers and sisters are doctors, and he was headed that way himself before he published a political cartoon in the school newspaper that changed his mind (I don’t know what it was, but everybody demanded he apologize and he thought that was pretty sweet).
No link; I don’t remember where I read all that. I won’t pick any favorites, just do please sample this Google Images search of Ramirez cartoons. Savor. Enjoy.
The thing I love most about Ramirez? That cartoon up there. He said to himself, “black background, a few white circles, blur them a little, it’ll totally look like a circus ring.” And it totally does. Geeenius.
March 26, 2014 — 11:09 pm
Comments: 13
Angry ape face
No, no…it’s not Hillary again. Just working on my portfolio today.
This is my glamor shot.
March 24, 2014 — 11:52 pm
Comments: 17