The Minneapolis Institute of Arts has 3,000 Japanese woodblock prints from the Edo period (1600–1868). These “pictures of the floating world”or ukiyo-e feature famous beauties, Kabuki actors, landscapes, floral studies, heroes, and spirits. The collection includes work by masters like Harunobu, Kiyonaga, Utamaro, Shunsho, Sharaku, Toyokuni, Hokusai, and Hiroshige. Some of the best prints are on exhibit through January 8, 2012, along with the work of modern artists inspired by them.
October 31, 1951: the Zebra Crossing first comes to the aid of pedestrians. As mandated by British law, a new kind of road marking appears in Slough, Berks., white stripes painted on black tarmac from curb to curb perpendicular to the flow of traffic. Labor Party MP (later Prime Minister) James Callaghan commented on the resemblance to the striped African equine, and the name stuck. Someone else named the Panda Car.
Today the Zebra Crossing is found around the world, but the most famous one is only about 25 miles from the first one. It’s on Abbey Road in London.
“Sixty Years of the Zebra Crossing,” Nicola Bowerbank, Britannica Blog
The Occupy Wall Street movement has few clear principles but four chief tactics: urban camping, chanting, drumming, and hula hoops. Drumming can be effective, but it’s dangerous when practiced by amateurs. We inadvertently auditioned the NYU contingent last month, and there were clearly no music majors among them.
Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist has written about brain function, behaviour, and culture, and spoke last year at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). The video of his lecture is here, but this short animated excerpt is easier to follow and more fun:
Psychologist Dr Ana Tajadura-Jimenez and her University of London colleagues confirm what you commuters already know: a personal music player protects you in the a crowded bus or subway car.
The Illinois Supreme Court asked former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich why his license to practice law should not be revoked. Uncharacteristically, Mr. Blagojevich was at a loss for words. The court pulled his ticket. The ex-Gov, convicted on federal corruption charges, is currently awaiting sentencing, and faces up to a zillion years in prison.
Mrs. Patti Blagojevich has a new business, selling employee benefit insurance policies. In an outbreak of Illinois irony, her husband may lose his pension.
