The Calumny of Appelles by Botticelli (click on the image to enlarge) A little bit of history Date: 1494 Located in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy In Ancient Greece, there was a famous painter called Apelles. You might never heard of him because none of his paintings or even copies of his paintings survived. Apparently, before he died he was working on a...
"Amish Barn" by Jack Jeffers, 1980 The more I think about it, the more I realize photography is a complicated business – philosophically speaking. The other day I went to an exhibition called "End of an Era: The Photography of Jack Jeffers" where the picture above called my attention. Its title is “An Amish Barn” and, apparently, the people who owned the barn in the...
One of the problems with contemporary culture is the importance placed on originality. Many writers and artists strive to create something deemed original and when they can’t they take the easy way out, the pessimistic: “there’s nothing left to create, everything has been done already”. Now, of course there’s nothing new to create. But that shouldn’t be an excuse for lame art, should...
Major spoiler alert, kay? Many movies criticize Tv and modern culture. Take Idiocracy for example. I love this movie, but it gets a little too painful (and gross) to watch. Other movies are more reflexive and dramatic such as Network. And then there's the Truman Show. Truman Show is one of my favorite movies: it is entertaining and talks about serious things, it...
A post where I over-analyse Addams Family Values and ask a whole lot of questions. When I was a child, I used to love the Addams family. They seemed so strange and at the same time so cool. I was strange and wanted to be cool, so it was the perfect movie for me. The cast was amazing and the jokes were dark and funny....
I just remembered I never got around to writing about Persuasion by Jane Austen. I recently finished reading all her books and that makes me happy and sad at the same time. Happy because they are all amazing books and sad because there are no more Austen novels to read. Maybe it's time to start re-reading them. I recommend reading Persuasion after Sense...
(Before I begin I'd just like to say I was extremely shocked by the news of what happened in Aurora, CO. To everyone involved: my deepest sympathies, we're praying for you all.) I wrote a rather lengthy post on The Dark Knight Rises but I felt it was difficult to talk about it without giving away the end. Therefore, I made a video about...
Photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson I've recently became very interested in taking pictures for my blog. It's so interesting changing filters and composing a frame. I feel just like Austin Powers. The other day while I was taking some pictures around my house, I saw my sister sketching. I couldn't help comparing paintings and photographs. To me, the deal with cameras is that they only...
Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Caravaggio Source A little bit of history Date: 1601 - 1602 Located in Sanssouci's Picture Gallery, Potsdam, Germany After the Resurrection, Christ appeared among His apostles, but Saint Thomas was absent on this occasion. He doubts that Christ really appeared among them and challenges the Apostles with a skeptical answer: "Unless I see the nail marks in his...
Othello is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. An interesting topic for reflection is how can the audience side with Iago - the play's wicked villain - and dislike Othello. I mean, think about it. Iago is not trustworthy. He makes Othello and Roderigo believe he is on their sides, when in reality he is manipulating both. He doesn’t really act, he spends most of...
When I was in college, this question popped up a lot of times and most professors didn't seem to have a good answer for it. And I was a literature major, mind you. Deep down, I always knew literature was quite important, not only for me or for professors but for everybody. Eventually I had to come up with an answer to give...
Are modern artists substituting talent for social criticism? It happened again. I saw the painting above, didn’t particularly like it, but then I heard an amazing explanation for it. In the audio guide explanation, the artist himself, Luis Gordillo, said things like: “Man has become an infantilized clown (…), man sits in an alien environment that gives us television and magazines, like that’s...
