def art

Judith Scott
(1943 - 2005)

eulogy

Edward Hopper
Nighthawks, 1942
Link: The Art Institute of Chicago

This Satan's drink is delicious...it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it. We shall fool Satan by baptizing it.
— Pope Clement VIII

El Chamizo is caffeine-free. Well, not altogether (I’m still drinking tea), but definitely off arabica and robusta. No more freshly roasted Colombian, fruity Ethipoian, intoxicating Kona, silky-smooth Blue Mountain, humble Mexican, wild Mocha, romantic Sumatra, floral Java and exotically excreted Kopi Luak. Caffeine, turns out, is poison for Chamizo’s delicate system.

Caffeine is a natural pesticide that paralyzes and kills certain insects feeding on the plants. Could this be connected in any way to our worldwide addiction to the brown elixir? When first introduced to the Arab world via Ethiopia, orthodox Muslims prohibited coffee because of its stimulant effects. The Vatican also tried banning the Arabian wine, until Pope Clement VIII got hooked after a mere sip.

Link: Socyberty

visual stimulus

Models backstage at the Duckie Brown show

President Obama's wide-eyed promise to bring change to Washington and the nation have yet to materialize, but according to the NYT, his influence is showing on the runways with a tip towards one end of what writer Grace Paley once described as the "gorgeous chromatic" spectrum.

I say, woman cannot live on bread alone...

Link: The New York Times

¡Adiós Bush!

George W. Bush leaving the Capitol on Tuesday
Link: The New York Times

El Chamizo Volador texted her friends a farewell to Spurious George as the helicopter whisked him away from the Capitol following yesterday's presidential inauguration.

In no particular order, the winning responses to "Bye, bye Bush":

Most alliterative: Ciao Cheney!
Most telepathic: U read my mind.
Most cheeky: Don’t let the door hit ya!
Most compassionate: Poor guy.
Most what the…?: Poor guy.
Most salutatory: Hello Obama!
Most patient: I’ve waited 8 years for this day.
Most eager: May he vanish fast!
Most like something Hugo Chávez would say: Hell yes!
Most southern: Yee haw!
Most festive: ¿Al fin, no? Habría que celebrar eso hoy, más que la llegada de Obama. ¿Te apuntas? (Translation: Let’s party!).

cowboys in Paris

Jerry Hall in Vivienne Westwood Opus
Link: Stylefrizz

Wandering in cyberspace, El Chamizo stumbled on a fabulous yarn about a couple of Texans who end up in Paris kicking it with mother of punk fashion Vivienne Westwood. Moral of the story: Be your hick self and the doors of "Hoite Coiture" will open wide.

"In my early days while living in Paris, France, my roommate W and I made friends with the director of one of the most popular nightclubs in Paris that went by the name of Le Bain Douche which actually means “the bath house" which is what this prime night club was in its early days. This club director was an American who had been living in Paris for a number of years before we showed up in the city. Her name was Beverly and she became a really good friend of ours mainly because she was American and spoke English! One day Beverly called my roommate and I and asked if we would like to escort her to a Vivienne Westwood dinner to celebrate Vivienne’s new line of fashion for that season. I asked Beverly over the phone, 'Who in the heck is Vivenne Westwood?'..."

Read on: My time with Vivienne Westwood and her husband, Andreas Kronthaler

travels and cosmic messaging

True to her nature, El Chamizo has tumbled south along with fellow artists and museum representatives as part of an exchange program between Chiapas and Chicago organized by the National Museum of Mexican Art.

First on the agenda was a group show at the Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas (UNICACH). Among many local artists, we met Robertoni Gómez, whose lyrical clay sculptures grace many public spaces around Tuxtla. Robertoni was kind enough to escort our group to El Zapotal, one of Tuxtla's ecological preserves that also houses a zoo. We ended the day at his studio, a rambling property where sculpture and daily life mingle effortlessly.

You can see Robertoni's work on his blog, including the phenomenal Escultura Astroarte. Made of four concrete slabs facing the sun like open books on lecterns, Astroarte projects, by means of reflective surfaces, an image of the earth that comes together as a puzzle and falls apart again in a matter of minutest only during the Spring and Fall equinoxes.

on the eve of election results

So yes, the dream has been shattered, (Amen) and I have had my nightmarish experiences, but I tell you this morning once more that I haven’t lost the faith.
...
And so it is marvelous and great that we do have a dream, that we have a nation with a dream; and to forever challenge us; to forever give us a sense of urgency; to forever stand in the midst of the "isness" of our terrible injustices; to remind us of the "oughtness" of our noble capacity for justice and love and brotherhood.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
The American Dream, 1965

Link: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute