Wrather Thoughtful

"You are comfortable with feeling like you have no deep understanding of the problem you are..."

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:12:00 -0800

“You are comfortable with feeling like you have no deep understanding of the problem you are studying. Indeed, when you do have a deep understanding, you have solved the problem and it is time to do something else. This makes the total time you spend in life reveling in your mastery of something quite brief. One of the main skills of research scientists of any type is knowing how to work comfortably and productively in a state of confusion. More on this in the next few bullets.”

- What is it like to have an understanding of very advanced mathematics? - Quora via kottke

I think this is equally true of artists, and is related to what Keats called negative capability:

when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason

When you are a artist of any stripe (I am reliably annoyed by the word “creative”—or maybe just the people that use it; ditto “maker”), you spend so much time between the much glorified inception of a project and the much lauded finish. It’s mostly middle, and middle is muddle, and you have to accept that. You have to accept that you live with a certain level of mess all the time.

There are useful and not-useful kinds of regimentation in an artist’s life. The useful kind (and the kind I have the hardest time with) is routine: you must return, every day, to the blank page, undeterred by whatever terrors or frustrations you found there yesterday.

The not-useful kind is a sort of interior, conceptual regimentation, which manifests itself as a kind of knowingness: “Oh yes, I’ve seen this before.” The longer you are able to live with the (perhaps delusional) belief that this could be something new, the greater your chance that it actually is new.

What if I have to Choose?

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 09:42:06 -0700

What if I have to Choose?:

via dooce

merlin: Gottfried Leibniz - Wikipedia, the free...

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 23:02:24 -0700

merlin:

Gottfried Leibniz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Just awful.

And, clearly, not the best of all possible wigs.

Am I crazy, or does Leibniz look just like Leo Laporte?

(via PostSecret: Sunday Secrets)

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 20:36:40 -0700

(via PostSecret: Sunday Secrets)

Vibration. See the unseen: Cymbal at 1,000 frames per second....

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 10:29:24 -0700

Vibration. See the unseen: Cymbal at 1,000 frames per second. (by FlukeCorporation)

via Kottke

Splitscreen: A Love Story (by JW Griffiths) via kottke

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 10:28:00 -0700

Splitscreen: A Love Story (by JW Griffiths)

via kottke

This is what the Google results for “english literature...

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 10:23:44 -0800

This is what the Google results for “english literature graduate school programs” should be.

If Google Search Results Had A Sense Of Humor | someecards.com

Photo Opportunities : Corinne Vionnet (via kottke.org)

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:56:06 -0800

Photo Opportunities : Corinne Vionnet (via kottke.org)

Jailbait Is as Jaibait Does

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 21:26:02 -0800

Jailbait Is as Jaibait Does:

From the LA Weekly, it’s the “Top 10 Amateur Teenage Girls Playing The Runaways’ ‘Cherry Bomb’ in their Bedrooms.”

"According to an alarming new study released Monday by the University of Chicago, children raised in..."

Sat, 05 Feb 2011 10:08:59 -0800

“According to an alarming new study released Monday by the University of Chicago, children raised in households where alcoholism is present are at a significantly greater risk of writing and performing a one-man show than those who grow up in a more stable environment. The study found that males raised by alcoholic parents are 40 percent more likely to someday force their friends to attend a self-penned theatrical production about their life experiences, and the same painful behavior is eight times more prevalent in women over the age of 30 who have alcoholic fathers than those who do not.… A report released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said that alcoholism is the third leading contributor to one-man shows, outpacing having immigrant parents, surviving cancer, and having an ex-girlfriend.”

- The Onion via Playgoer

This is the web right now - The Oatmeal HTML CHEETAH BALLS! The...

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 20:27:48 -0800

This is the web right now - The Oatmeal

HTML CHEETAH BALLS!

The whole cartoon Internet SOTU thing is fantastic.

Phrases I could stand never to hear again, Part 1

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 21:53:22 -0800

“In this media-saturated age…”

Filmography 2010 (via genrocks)

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 23:08:50 -0800

Filmography 2010 (via genrocks)

American English Dialects

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 17:38:20 -0800

American English Dialects

A chilly solstice (and lunar eclipse) - The Big Picture -...

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 16:13:22 -0800

A chilly solstice (and lunar eclipse) - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Boy oh boy do I wish MY title were “Chief Druid.”

Admit it—you've done it. I sure have.

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 13:26:33 -0800

It’s a Shakespeare Play and Someone Grabs His Crotch To Indicate A Dirty Joke.

How to be a Bad Director [Minnnesota Playlist]

What We Work For

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 17:05:10 -0800

Hours of rehearsal can go into the most sublime, subtle, and sensitive acting moment on stage.Then, at any given performance, some guy with too much phlegm can just cough right over it…and no one will notice your work.

via Playgoer

The Crisis of the Humanities Officially Arrives

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 21:17:27 -0700

George M. Philip, president of SUNY Albany, announced that the French, Italian, classics, Russian and theater programs were getting the axe.

The Crisis of the Humanities Officially Arrives [Stanley Fish, Opinionator Blog, NY Times]

The Social Network is Better Than Any Play I've Seen This Year

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 09:39:56 -0700

Isaac Butler, on Parabasis, observing that The Social Network is better than any play he’s seen this year:

We have to understand that this is what we’re competing with. We have to understand this both in terms of aesthetics and business practices. We have to stop assuming our audience shares our prejudices about different mediums being superior or the intrinsic value of live experience. This is why things like the advertised ticket price matter, even if the average ticket price is lower. If we think our audience isn’t calculating cost and quality and value to determine whether going to see shows is worth it at a particular theatre, we’re being naiive. Yes, in some cases studies show that raises prices will trick people into thinking what they’re going to see is better, but that’s not a universal phenomenon, it’s untested with theatre specifically and there’s no evidence that the effect doesn’t degrade over time.

Thoughts after reading some blog comment threads.

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:19:55 -0700

As long as there are humans, there will be battles for status and there will be jerks.

Conversations about whose battles for status are more legitimate is itself a battle for status. Undertaken, largely, by jerks.