BillHeise | November 17, 2011
I’m a contrarian, so I’m always surprised when anyone understands what I understand about the world; but it appears that Bryan Appleyard has written an article that aligns so closely with my feelings on the history of aesthetics that I thought I’d it review it here. It appeared in the Intelligent Life supplement in the [...]
BillHeise | October 25, 2011
I’ve been working on my first scholarly book on Spenser’s Book of Holinesse in his six book (and still uncompleted) Faerie Queene (I know; how cool am I?). I am going to publish this serious academic work before I publish my already completed satire on Art in the Age of Talk Radio, because in my [...]
BillHeise | March 1, 2011
I posted this far-too-long note on Facebook today in response to my friend Larry’s question about union membership. He had posted this video by a smug guy on his Facebook page. I responded with my usual questioning about the math of this guys post. I had heard that the deficit was not 137 million dollars [...]
BillHeise | June 12, 2010
I’ve been working my way through the silent film era in Germany recently, and I have to admit that silent film is one of those things that takes getting used to. The pictures are often grainy (1920’s Golem), the stories are often abbreviated (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), and scenes take far too long to [...]
BillHeise | June 11, 2010
Steiglitz was one of the innovators of the Photo-Secession Group, which gave rise to a school of its own. Affected by the found object, cubist painting style, and other modern art developments, he replaced the ‘objective’ experience with a ‘subjective’ experience at the center of photography. But he was an innovator. And just like most [...]
BillHeise | June 7, 2010
There’s just one more thing about It Might Get Loud. Here’s an interview that I never saw before of Jimmy Page, god of guitar, being asked what he’s going to do with his life. Interviewer: Are you going to take up skiffle? Jimmie Page: No, I’d like to take up biological research. Interviewer: What do [...]
BillHeise | June 7, 2010
This is a video of Alfred Stieglitz, one of the most influential (if not the most) photographers of the Early Modern Age. Unlike sculpture and painting, which were also undergoing vast transformations at the time, photography was an entirely new medium. As you watch this video, you will notice that much early modern photography is [...]
BillHeise | November 23, 2009
Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for this “fascinating” way to look at history of empire: This diagrammatic portrayal of the history of empire would argue against the Leninist-Machiavellian position that “he who grabs more is greater.” There appear to be extra-national forces that operate on historical events. For instance, Portugal (circa1970) has the largest empire in [...]
