elisi's humble abode

80-Year-Old Man Masters Excel To Create Amazing Paintings
80-year-old Tatsuo Horiuchi from Japan is known all around the world for his incredible drawing skills. However, he doesn’t use pencils, pens, or paint for his art. Instead, he creates masterpieces in Microsoft Excel!

What's extra crazy about this, is that looking at how he creates his pictures I'm sure I did something similar when I was a teenager. But with WordPerfect, which had a drawing programme? Or maybe it was a different programme... IDK, it's a long time ago. But I created pictures by manipulating shapes, which is what he is doing as far as I can tell. Except his are utterly exquisite.

~

The book that sank on the Titanic and burned in the Blitz
One of the most lavishly decorated books the world has seen was despatched from London to New York in April 1912. The jewel-encrusted edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám was taken aboard the RMS Titanic and sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

~

Daily Dimash: Dimash - El Amor En Ti | Almaty | Concert



This song premiered at Dimash's 'Stranger' concert in Almaty on 23rd of October, 2022. Fans had long been asking for a Spanish song, and this was definitely worth waiting for: You get four Dimash's - three holograms and one real. The result is out of this world beautiful. ♥

(At this point, the only thing on my bucket list is to see Dimash in concert...)


Dimash Masterpost

It's FRIDAY. So let's have GOOD THINGS.

First of all - Friday:

Friday by girlpire

Summary:

Today is the longest day of Angel's life, and the only person who understands is the last person he wants to be around.

Today is the shortest day of Spike's life. He just doesn't know it.

If you only had one day to live the rest of your eternity, how would you spend it? Who would you spend it with?

girlpire is one of my favouritest writers (and a good friend), and I was thrilled when she recently got an AO3 and began uploading her old works. And Friday is... one of THOSE stories. Something that stays with you - something that you can't describe adequately, but that is effortlessly better than 99% of anything else you ever come across.

Just the concept is brilliant: It's a Groundhog Day story, but from the perspective of one of the people caught in the loop. And it's so well done. (I'm gushing, but it really is that good, and that clever.) Please note the tags (just in case there is anything triggering) - it's a dark story in many ways. Mostly though: Mmmmmmm, Spangel.

~~~

Other good things:

Is there any good news today?
(Tumblr post with lots of things from The Happy broadcast)

War Horse creators' refugee puppet set for epic walk
A giant puppet of a child, made by the War Horse creators, is to embark on a 5,000-mile walk from Syria to the UK to "rewrite the narrative about refugees".

A Message from Members of the UK and Irish Publishing Community
We stand in support of trans and non-binary people and their rights.
(** This list of 1,521 was updated from the original list posted on September 30, 2020 and which had over 200 names.)

And here is the corresponding list for the US and Canada.

A B.C. research project gave homeless people $7,500 each — the results were 'beautifully surprising'
Participants found housing faster, boosted food security and reduced spending on substances, study found

For anyone needing Arwen/Aragorn joy in their life

ETA: The friends who drove a bus behind the Iron Curtain
In the summer of 1968, a group of friends adapted a double-decker bus and took it on a journey to Eastern Europe. Sponsored by two Scotch whisky-makers, they encountered Soviet tanks, a Romanian beer shortage and a perilous Yugoslavian mountain pass.

And finally, today's art. For once not by a woman artist, but by Joseph Cornell who is one of my alltime favourite artists:


(x)

PETITION:

Reform the Gender Recognition Act.
Reform the GRA to allow transgender people to self-identify without the need for a medical diagnosis, to streamline the administrative process, and to allow non-binary identities to be legally recognised.

If you oppose trans rights, you oppose rights for everyone. You may not see the connections directly, but they’re there. Trans rights are a harbinger of more freedoms for everyone. Suppression and elimination of trans rights is a harbinger of fascism.

— take it e. zje (@Emmy_Zje) September 20, 2020

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The 6 month mark in any sustained crisis is always difficult. We have all adjusted to this "new normal", but might now feel like we're running out of steam. Yet, at best, we are only 1/3 the way through this marathon. How can we keep going? THREAD /x

— Dr Aisha Ahmad (@ProfAishaAhmad) September 20, 2020

(Thread here: https://twitter.com/ProfAishaAhmad/status/1307697965260328961)
(Unrolled here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1307697965260328961.html)

~

NEW HYPERBOLE AND A HALF!!!

Richard
(AUTHOR NOTE: My publisher told me I could post a chapter from the new book. There were 25 chapters to choose from, but I chose this one. Because I wanted to give you a love letter. And it seemed like the most appropriate love letter to give you would be an extremely indirect one that screams, "DO NOT FEEL SCARED—I AM JUST INTERACTING WITH YOU!!")

~

And you even get art today! :) 'A Smell of a Lime Tree' by Tetyana Yablonska (x):

( 2020 is a RIDICULOUS year. I'm not sure if this is more ridiculous or scary )

~~~

ANYWAY. Here is some utterly gorgeous art that popped up on my Twitter timeline. 'a trick of the light' by Erin West (x).
Her Twitter here: https://twitter.com/swordandsnore (Pinned tweet has more info/links)

THERE ARE NEW BITS IN STAGED ON NETFLIX ALERT ALERT THERE ARE NEW NEVER BEFORE SEEN BITS AAAAAAH

— Lauren 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🐻🐀 (@BestOmens) September 4, 2020

I CAN CONFIRM THAT THIS IS TRUE. :O :D

~

in tears over the hope-themed september issue of vogue korea, which features eight women, all in their 90s and 100s, who live in korea's countryside and are "as beautiful as flowers" 😭💐💖 https://t.co/8r9An1h09G pic.twitter.com/HKAmjw5dKh

— karen han (@karenyhan) September 3, 2020

~

Because of my mother's countless sacrifices, like leaving Somalia with only courage, hope & children in her hands. And her taking me to the library and showing me the power of books.

Today I have a book published & seeing the joy on her face means the world to me.#Alhamdulillah pic.twitter.com/3CO5noWRQN

— 🚀MΛG!D (@MagicMagid) September 3, 2020

~

And finally today's art:

Suzy González. Reaching, 2018. Dyed corn husks on canvas. Website: https://suzygonzalez.com/home.html (x)

John Boyega: 'I’m the only cast member whose experience of Star Wars was based on their race'
During Britain’s Black Lives Matter rallies in June, John Boyega wrote his name in the history of racial justice. And here, in his first interview since finishing Star Wars and that unguarded address from a Hyde Park stage, he explains how both platforms inspired him to make a stand, but for very different reasons. Now, starring in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe as a Met policeman in the depths of institutional racism and breaking his industry’s expectation of silence, actor and activist is speaking with one voice

If you can’t read the full article pls pls let your top lip and bottom lip become one. ❤️

— John Boyega (@JohnBoyega) September 2, 2020

~~

And something completely different:

Kierkegaard on Popular Opinion, the Petty Jealousies of Criticism, and the Only Cure for Embitterment in Creative Work
“I need the enchantment of creative work to help me forget life’s mean pettinesses.”

~~

And today's art: Rut Blees Luxemburg. Das Offene Schauen/Viewing the Open, 1999. Photograph, C-print on paper, mounted on aluminium. (x)

With thanks to kass for the link, this is super depressing:

We Don’t Know How to Warn You Any Harder. America is Dying.
We Survivors of Authoritarianism Have a Message America Needs to Hear: This is Exactly How it Happens, and It’s Happening Here.

~~

Speaking of elections, this is a very important point:

Someone said recently that progressives need to understand voting isn't like dating, there is no perfect candidate. It's like taking a bus. If a bus doesn't go EXACTLY where you need to go, you take one that goes close. You don't stay home and have a hissy fit.

— @JaneWaverly (@janewaverly) August 29, 2020

~~

And then a Brexit link (from 4+ years ago):

Brexit: A Tale of ‘Ancient Ethnic Hatreds’
What if columnists wrote about the U.K. the way they do about the Middle East?

~~

Instead of art, today you get a video (with thanks to kerkevik):



(Have had a rather lovely Bank Holiday weekend and tried to relax. It mostly worked. Hope you are all OK. Have done my best to scroll through my flist, but that's all. <3)

I'm so tired of all the bad news and the storms and the damage and... everything. So here, have another Hepworth sculpture. Just because I love it. ♥ (It feels - tender. And I think we need tenderness.)

Barbara Hepworth, Mother and Child
1934
Pink Ancaster stone


(More info here)

ETA:

First an article from just a couple of days ago:

Vox: The kindness is the point
The DNC’s best argument in the time of coronavirus: Joe Biden, unlike Donald Trump, is a decent man.

This sort of ties with something I've been meaning to post for a while. Thanks to a now-forgotten recommendation I listened to one of Ezra Klein's podcasts, 'Why Ta-Nehisi Coates is hopeful'. (Follow link & scroll down.) Can't remember exactly when it's from and I can't find a date, but I'd say... June?

It's all chewy & interesting, but this is the part that really struck me so I transcribed it (bit long, so put it under a cut):

( Read more... )
And this seemed like a suitable art work for this post:

Revisiting The Work Of Sonya Clark: Unraveling The Confederate Flag (x). The work is from 2016 and you can read about it here.

Nebulous 55 by Erica Baum, 2011 (x)

https://guggenheim.org/artwork/28569