What is SOPA anyway?

Great question!  And one that many others have asked, particularly in the past day or so.  Yesterday, January 18^th, you may have visited your favorite website (Wikipedia, Google or Wired, among others) only to discover that they were participating in a “blackout” for the day.  Sure that may have been inconvenient, but what if that one-day blackout was permanent?

SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) are two bills that have been in Congress and are set to be voted on by the Senate on January 24th.  The point of the bill is to crack down on copyright-infringement  by restricting access to sites that host pirated materials.  If passed, these bills will set regulations on web content and allow the government to block these websites from the internet or its search engines.  Giving unnecessary power to the government to control our now open and free internet is worrying to say the least.  Many sites have become active in encouraging its readers to sign petitions that will show our distaste of this bill.  Google’s “motto” for the blackout, “Stop Piracy, Not Liberty”, resonated most clearly with me.  While I appreciate an effort to protect our citizens’ privacy, I think it’s just as important to protect our citizens’ freedom of speech.

We already have many freedoms censored:  literature, art and video games all get censored on a regular basis.  When we allow one thing to be stripped of free speech, it opens the floodgates for everything else to be amended or suppressed as well.  Cutting social networks, blogs and other internet resources in turn cuts our access to knowledge and information.  With the potential to harm functionality of small businesses, it cuts jobs as well.  Most importantly, it cuts our basic constitutional right to speak our mind and be individuals in a nation of such varied cultures, races, backgrounds and lifestyles.

• 4.5 million people spoke up today and signed Google’s petition
• 103,785 people signed petitions through the We The People website (according to the White House blog).
• 25,000+ blogs on WordPress went black to support the cause
• 12,500 WordPress blogs added a “Stop Censorship” ribbon to their sites
• 50,000 sites promised participation in the online demonstration on Fight for the Future.org
• An average 2,000 calls per second were made through Engine Advocacy, a service that helps people call their local Congress members
• 4 million people used Wikimedia to look up contact information for their local representative

Our efforts are working: PIPA co-sponsor Florida Sen. Marco Rubio announced yesterday that he is withdrawing his support of the bill!  Just because the blackout is over, doesn’t mean the fight is.  Support the protest of SOPA and PIPA by spreading the word, signing a petition, making sure you Twitter this article, share it on Facebook and LinkedIn (using the buttons below this article) or re-post it on your blog* to enlighten your peers, colleagues and readers.

(*If used on a blog, simply let me know that you’re using it by emailing me a link at artfeedonline@gmail.com and you must also link back to this site!)

I’ll admit that I’m bummed I didn’t get to write my review of The Book of Mormon earlier. After getting to see it during its first week of previews, let me say, with thorough sincerity, how deserving of awards and attention this show really is. But I think I’ll save all that for the review I just decided that I will still write. With several other shows currently playing that I’m absolutely anxious to see (especially War Horse and Normal Heart), and some that I’m pretty sure I can miss and never feel a hole in my heart (Sorry, Priscilla Queen of the Desert), the awards were all around worth the watch.

Highlights:

The performances:
Really the reason to watch the Tonys every year. It’s the perfect coming attraction for what you’re missing and should look forward to seeing. Every year, I pay close attention to what I haven’t seen and decide on which ones I must catch. Catch a performance now from the Best Musical:

The fashion: What’s an awards show without seeing Hollywood’s hottest at their best and at their worst. Get the highlights at Fed By Fashion.

The host: Neil Patrick Harris was a great host. He also became a trending topic on Twitter, mostly due to his opening number:

Memorable moments:

• Brooke Shields stuttered her way through a segment with Neil Patrick Harris and had to be given a sheet of paper with lyrics. She tried to make it right later on by poking fun at herself …only to curse on live television and get bleeped by the network.
• Nikki M. James (Book of Mormon) was adorably emotional and she truly seemed surprised by, and grateful for, her “Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical” win.
• “I want to thank my dad for his edge and my mother for her sweetness,” said Trey Parker after one of his many wins for The Book of Mormon.
• “It’s the proudest moment of my career. Being involved in something this important is I think a once-in-a-career opportunity. I’m so proud to be shouting out this message that needs to be heard, 30 years later.” Ellen Barkin, during her win for Normal Heart—a play about the AIDS epidemic.
• Mark Rylance, from Jeruselum, reciting a poem by Louis Jenkins for his acceptance speech. “Why? I don’t know. I was getting a little bored. I always think you should prepare something to say.”

The winners: See the winners at the Tonys website here.

There are already “lessons” posted online on how to play the guitar and a search for “Google Les Paul” provides a slew of videos and links of peoples’ recordings and song covers.

Read a great summary about Les Paul and his influence on jazz and pop music on lespaulonline.com.

Want to show off your talent? Post your links and videos in the comments! I may just post them into this article!

Disclaimer: The following video isn’t me. It is bassistuk. Check out his other google guitar videos!

The Katonah Museum of Art partnered with art historian Marcy B. Freedman to present the series “When Giants Collide: Rivalries in Western Art,” which offers a fascinating exploration into the rivalry between two famed artists.  This week’s lecture topic was:

Call me an art nerd, art advocate or art-obsessed (or all of the above), but I just can’t get enough of events and lectures that get to the meat of art: its history, its anecdotes and its significance.  Pair an underrated gem of a museum with an articulate art historian and High Renaissance art, and—dear heavens—you have me by the heart. Luckily for me, I had the delight of attending this lecture which did just that.

Though I’ve studied Renaissance art a bit, I still learned from Freedman’s lecture.  She was engaging and informative; giving stories, quotes and anecdotes to support her facts.  Not only did the two featured artists work during the same time period, they were also in direct competition—feeding off of one another’s successes and thriving on each other’s failures.  The Renaissance’s tendency toward egotism and puffed bravado was well at play.

Leonardo was refined, showy and ostentatious.  He was also agitated that the younger Michelangelo, more rouged in appearance and reserved in temperament, was making a name for himself and (—how dare he?—) causing the type of stir that could overshadow his own spotlight.  Still Michelangelo was no saint and knew how to dish it as well as he could take it.

Renaissance Italy was a society that often pitted its master artists against one another in order to encourage production of the highest possible quality of work.  Leonardo and Michelangelo were both among those commissioned by The Council Hall of Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy to capture the spirit of triumphant battles on murals for the Hall.  This was the most obvious head-to-head competition between the two artists.  Though neither saw their work to completion, rendered drafts demonstrated a distinct difference of artistic preference, direction and concern.  Leonardo presented an emotionally-charged glorification of soldiers at battle while Michelangelo focused on the soldiers at rest, showcasing his expert depiction of the human form.

With no clear winner between the two artists’ overall careers, it should be noted that they also had different artistic approaches. Michelangelo, working in private and sheltered surroundings, was more disciplined within a strong art focus.  Leonardo, a procrastinator who invited friends to watch him work, was spread among broader areas of interest and showcased expert knowledge in all disciplines.  Still, whatever their approach, the constant tension between the two and the desire to top one another, egged each of them toward further success and acclaim.

Marcy B. Freedman’s insightful lecture approached the topic at hand in a way that would reflect the larger view of the Renaissance society and its attitudes of the times.  Determined to make their work their own within this society, Da Vinci and Michelangelo portrayed a world newly crafted in their own distinct ways—paving the way for a whole new set of brilliant rivaling artists.

There are two more lectures in the series: “An Illusory Battle in Paris Ingres vs. Delacroix” (April 5) and “Provocation and Respect: Picasso vs. Matisse” (April 26).  I’ll definitely be attending on April 26th, so stay tuned for another review!  I can’t wait!

Related Articles:

• Whitney Museum: new location details
• “American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity” preview: Metropolitan Museum of Art
• “Whitman, American Art and the Civil War” review: Katonah Museum of Art
• “Young Archer” preview: Metropolitan Museum of Art
• “American Stories” preview: Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Google launches Art Project

Introducing Google.com’s newest innovation: Art Project.  Launching today with 17 participating museums from around the world, Google presents over a thousand works of art for its viewers to examine in greater detail than ever before.  Not only that, but you can take a tour of these museums, zoom in to ungodly degrees of megapixels, create your very own “masterpieces,” and save them to a collection.

Take a virtual walk through a museum of your choice.  Look at the floor plan, choose your destination, mosey around the gallery and click on a work of art if it interests you.

Read about the work, read about its artist, view other work by that artist and watch related YouTube videos.  Get close and personal with every aspect of the art.
Become one with the masterpiece.

Go to town nitpicking your favorite artist’s technique and precision.  You’re no longer restricted to only viewing artwork from behind a museum stanchion that sits a few feet away from the wall.  Zoom in on whichever work of art you decide to further explore in extreme detail. With high-as-heck resolution.  Move your cursor around the work, dig on its colors, its technique and take a snapshot of detailing that you truly adore.

Save the snapshot to your account, with your own notes, to view anytime you wish in a collection that you organize and name yourself.  As if this project wasn’t interactive enough, send your collection to friends and family to view.

Sure, Google is no replacement for going to Florence, visiting the Uffizi Gallery and ogling over Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus,” but it’s a good substitute to tide you over as you collect those frequent flyer miles and get there in person.  So until then, Google is your best friend.  Hugs for Google: We’ll be BFF’s for life.

Participating Museums:

Joining the video will be 3 elemental structures that put the video and works contextually in place with Time, The World and The Museum, taking the personal accounts in the video and expanding them into constructs that are relatable to viewers through several other forms.

The online video series, which will update every Wednesday throughout 2011, will officially launch tomorrow, January 5th, with 4 videos posted. Quoted from the museum’s website, they are:

• Small Things: Associate Director Carrie Rebora Barratt looks for tiny works of art in the Museum’s collection.
• Virtuosity: Paintings conservator Michael Gallagher talks about the appeal of technical virtuosity.
• Maps: Medieval art curator Melanie Holcomb explains how maps help her make sense of the world.
• Tennessee: Video producer Christopher Noey describes how various works in the Museum bring to mind his childhood state of Tennessee.

Upcoming themes include White, Black, Religious Art, The Ideal Man, The Ideal Woman, and Light.

To view the new feature, visit www.metmuseum.org/connections.

My expectations were, in most ways, met.  Still in limited release, I had the pleasure of viewing Black Swan on Tuesday night.  Leaving the theater, I was captivated, excited and contemplative about what I had just seen.  I found myself thinking about the contrast between the two extremes that combine to form an intriguing portrait of a confused and eager-to-please ballerina. She had all of the ambition and self-destructiveness to propel her to the top of fame or drag her down to the depths of her own mental landscape.  The juxtaposition between black and white, good and evil, stiff precision and unbridled free-spiritedness were all stretched between torment and beauty–two extremes, melting into some shared form of psyche.

Shadowing the story of the classic fairytale Swan Lake, the movie turns a darker corner; following not only the performance but delving into the personal lives of its characters as they are engulfed by the poignancy of the story itself.  Natalie Portman plays Nina, a dancer who is a perfectionist vying for the part of Swan Queen.  She exhibits all of the qualities for the “White Swan” but struggles to also display those of the “Black Swan” vital in completing the Queen’s persona.  Nina is both terrified of, and enamored with, Mila Kunis’ Lily, a free spirit and Black Swan in every sense of the phrase.  To be truly perfect, Nina needs to become imperfect.  In doing so, she spirals into the unknown, blurring her personal sense of reality in the process.

Set to a lush set of mostly black and white detail, the costumes designed by Rodarte oozed with richness, the makeup characterized concepts without words and the music, based on Tchaikovsky’s infamous Swan Lake, was the perfect backdrop to the graceful White Swan and the falling Black Swan.

I have to say, in all honesty, that the movie was not exactly what I expected from the trailers and early reviews, but it in no way disappointed.  I was under the impression that Nina’s home life with her ex-ballerina mother was more oppressive than overbearing and while the movie included some disturbing and violent ideas, I anticipated more of them.  That being said, I’m glad that I didn’t get what I expected.

Though it was psychologically perverse, the movie was more grounded in reality and thought-process—which, knowing Aronofsky’s work, is what I hoped for rather than the violent “thriller” vibe I got from trailers.  This base of reality made the movie eerily more affecting, relatable and significant.  Aronofsky exquisitely portrays Nina’s slowly twisting self-perception and gives a genuine interpretation of the crumbling of a fragile perfectionist.

OPRAH’S 10 Terrific Reads of 2009: Her book choices for the well-renowned Oprah’s Book Club is like a golden stamp of approval from a true lover of literature. Every book she chooses becomes a hit!

Oprah’s 10 Terrific Reads of 2009

NEW YORK TIMES‘ 100 Notable Books of 2009: The golden throne of literary success. Even a nod in their Book Review section is the true mark of exceptional literature that is sure to entertain, educate and enlighten! Choose a book from this list and you really can’t go wrong!

NYT 100 Notable Books 2009: Fiction/Poetry, part 1
NYT 100 Notable Books 2009: Fiction/Poetry, part 2
NYT 100 Notable Books 2009: Nonfiction, part 1
NYT 100 Notable Books 2009: Nonfiction, part 2

Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for more gift guide ideas!
Next up, Children and Teen Book Guide 2009.
Next Week: Etsy Gift Finds.
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