Pax Arcana
Among the more clever zombie threats of recent years has been the popular art exhibits of German artist Gunther von Hagens, who displays cadavers and in various positions and states of disrepair to the gawking delight of paying guests. Not only do the Bodyworlds exhibits fill the war chests of our zombie enemies, they [...]
Posts Tagged as ‘art’
May 7, 2009
Dead people be doin’ it
May 6, 2009
Streetfights! Swordsmen! Artists! Scandals! Puns!
Pax Arcana
If the central thesis of a new book by a pair of art historians is correct, everything you knew about how Vincent Van Gogh lost his ear is wrong.
When we were kids, we were told he cut his own ear off after being jilted by the love of his life. When we were teenagers [...]
February 16, 2009
Like Whistler’s Mother only with more broken glass
Pax Arcana
In America, when someone puts on a mask, spray paints the inside of a train, then smashes a window and hurls himself onto a platform in the station, we call it vandalism. In Sweden they call it an art project:
The unidentified student included video of the vandalism in his thesis at the University College [...]
January 27, 2009
Your animal paintings are all wrong
Pax Arcana
Pablo Picasso once said that art is the lie that tells the truth. He also said French chicks will screw anyone with a paint brush and a fancy grammaphone, but that’s beside the point.
The point is that artists sometimes get things wrong. And not on purpose, like the surrealists or whatever, but just because [...]
November 6, 2008
The man who made things awesome
Pax Arcana
Have you ever seen this before?
OK, how about this one?
OK fine, but have you ever seen one of these before?
If you recognize these branding icons and dozens of others, then you’re already familiar with the life’s work of Raymond Loewy, French expatriate and creator of many of the world’s most influential industrial designs.
Wired celebrated [...]
September 30, 2008
Jesus was eating eels
Pax Arcana
Probably the most disturbing Bible story — at least to high-minded epicureans food snobs like Pax Arcana — is that of the transubstantiation. According to mainstream Christian dogma, Jesus turned the wine and bread served at the last supper into his blood and body. (And lo did his disciples say unto him “Aw, gurrrg, [...]
May 7, 2008
They killed the art jacket
Pax Arcana
Most advocates for expansive stem cell research will cite potential benefits such as curing cancer or regrowing damaged human nerve cells.
Not this guy. I’m holding out for tiny living mouse jackets.
That’s why I was saddened to hear of the demise of the Victimless Leather exhibit at the New York Museum of Modern Art.
What, no [...]
April 24, 2008
Great moments in hilarious graphic design
Pax Arcana
Years ago, I didn’t know graphic design from Father Scott’s beard. Then I married the joyous and age-appropriate Mrs. Pax Arcana, a designer so talented her skillz will literally set your eyeballs on fire.
I can’t say I’ve absorbed any of that talent (though this guy might beg to differ), but I do know this [...]
April 4, 2008
Virginia newspaper takes courageous stand against art, freedom of speech
Pax Arcana
Whenever people ask my thoughts on the current crisis in newspapers, I offer the following anecdote:
I was once told to cut a reference to eBay from one of my stories, because the paper did not want to “call attention” to the Internet. This was in 2006.
In related news, Romenesko* today links to a story [...]
November 19, 2007
Amends
We at Pax Arcana feel bad for wasting so much of your time with goofy videos, goofy writing, meat, and news about colleges and sports teams you hate.
To make amends, we offer the following discourse on the history and importance of the Mona Lisa:
