Art Talk, Gimme a Break It’s Still July – Offseason Sunday Open Thread

I have dedicated much of my life to useless pursuits and I have the liberal arts degree to prove it. Let’s set aside the liberal and focus on the aggrandizing, classist, hazy, subjective, undefinable and worthless “art”. It’s not Science nor Technology nor Engineering nor Mathematics. Nor Accounting nor Business Management. Which means [snort, air quotes] art is nowhere to be found among the disciplines that push us towards progress, whether uncontrollably (artificial general intelligence), deliciously (Empanada Assembly Lines), or smotheringly (Barbie / Oppenheimer hype).

Both movies open in two weeks. Get a fucking grip, dammit.

Artists can get to be geniuses, although raw intellect is not required for art. Art deals more in the sensorial and suggestive, rather than in abstract thought and deductive reasoning. And sure, critical reasoning and scientific research may consist of a higher-calling-type of activity, but it’s one that requires ignoring human desires as thoroughly engrossing as lying on a couch doing squat shit. Some say art fuels the soul; I say you can enjoy art while lounging, which is divine in my book.

Love awakens more feelings than lust, and I think art operates in a similar manner. You look at an object or listen to a jingle, but a piece of art gives you an experience. You feel something while looking at a sculpture or a huge mural, or get jolted while listening to a symphony, or to a rock opera, or an arrestingly personal dis on your fashion sense.

Art draws you to explore more thoroughly what is before you—or maybe, instead of provoking admiration, it repulses you. Art traffics in the irrational, which is beyond STEM stuff but thoroughly human and natural. And irrational stuff can get prettay, prettay, pretty awesome.

Art is the opposite of commonplace. This is how I would distinguish a thing from an artistic creation: a creation requires an author, craft and intention. Surveillance videos are not art, just a depiction of stuff. Faces of Death videos… I was shocked that the lighting was so uneven, at least in the one I saw back in the 90s. Nawt art. Found-object installations and stuff like a banana taped to a wall… Well, those are events within the art community. That is a fact. But since art is intrinsically subjective, I says NAWT ART.

Which, by the way, this is my beef with conceptual art: it’s idea driven. Sometimes the idea is WOW, but there’s gotta be more than that. I think a work of art must have some craft behind it, a skillful hand or design, I think. Don’t get me wrong: exploiting the wealthy art patrons’ Emperor-with-no-clothes angst is very, very satisfying. I just ask for the artist to demonstrate skills, among which could be showmanship:

Yeah, Banksy rocks–duh!

NFL NEWS

-NFL Training Camp dates are here. Rookies will start reporting by July 18 and veterans by the 25^th. The Steelers report on July 26. The Hall of Fame game is on August 3, Jets @ Browns.

-But regarding now, is there anything happening?

Unless you count the supplemental draft, which is Tuesday, and for which two players are available.

SPROTS TONITE

WNBA

Las Vegas Aces @ MinnesoUta Lynx – 6:00

Atlanta Dream @ Chicago Sky – 7:00

Gold Cup Quarterfinals

But now, it’s personal.

EEUU hosts Canada – 6:30

TOP FLIGHT FÚTBOL

Secsi Mecsi – Apertura

Monterrey hosts Atlas – 8:00

Argentina

Banfield hosts Arsenal Sarandí – 6:30

Defensa y Justicia hosts Lanús – 6:30

Bolivia

Universitario de Vinto hosts The Striongest – 6:30

Perú

Deportivo Binacional hosts Deportivo Garcilaso – 7:30

Venezuela

Zamora hosts Portuguesa – 7:15

FINALLY,

It bothers me that “art” carries with it a hoity-toity association. Yes, refinement could be a defining quality for art, but it’s not the only one. Terms like “folk art” or “outsider art” reinforce that notion, much like “white trash” reinforces white supremacy. Living in misery or being a horrible person is not restricted to non-whites, just as everyone is capable of producing art and seeing art in every type of creation. Which I like, although it’s hardly artful or novel.