Thessaloniki

A big moon hangs close to the white tower, over a city that I love.

Photo from www.kairos-holidays.com

Look Out Mr. Potato Head, Here Comes Picasso

What is one to do when stuck on a problem?
Surf the net, of course.

And what does one find?
An opportunity to create like Picasso in a format akin to a childhood favorite, Mr. Potato Head.

And what is the result?
Mine is below, but you'll have to make your own.
Visit PicassoHead. And don't forget to view the gallery.

Is that Elmer Fudd back there? I think I need practice...

100 Fun Questions to Ponder...and Answer

For the fun of it. Read 'em fast and answer as you go. You'll laugh at least once and smile perhaps one hundred times.

I'm curious about #27 and find #47 and #48 interesting. And, of course, I want to know #75.

All fun. Enjoy!

1. Are you an innie or an outie?
2. Have you ever written a song?
3. Can you make change for a dollar right now?
4. Have you ever been in the opposite sex's public toilet?
5. Have you ever written a poem?
6. Do you like catsup on or beside your fries?
7. Have you ever been a boy/girl scout?
8. Have you ever written a book?
9. Have you ever broken a mirror?
10. Are you superstitious?
11. What is your biggest pet peeve?
12. Do you slurp your drink after it's gone?
13. Have you ever blown bubbles in your milk?
14. Would you rather eat a Big Mac or a Whopper?
15. Have you ever gone skinny-dipping?
16. Would you ever parachute out of a plane?
17. What's the most daring thing you've done?
18. When you are at the grocery store, do you ask for paper or plastic?
19. True or False: You would rather eat steak than pizza.
20. Did you have a baby blanket?
21. Have you ever tried to cut your own hair?
22. How did that turn out?
23. Have you ever sleepwalked?
24. Have you ever had a birthday party at McDonalds?
25. Can you flip your eye-lids up?
26. Are you double jointed?
27. If you could be any age, what age would you be?
28. Have you ever gotten gum stuck in your hair?
29. Do you ride roller coasters?
30. What's your favorite carnival ride?
31. What is your dream car?
32. What is your favorite cartoon of all time?
33. Have you ever eaten a dog biscuit?
34. If so, would you eat another one?
35. If you were in a car sinking in a lake, what would you do first?
36. Have you ever ridden in an ambulance?
37. Can you pick something up with your toes?
38. How many remote controls do you have in your house?
39. Have you ever fallen asleep in school?
40. How many times have you flown in an airplane in the last year?
41. How many foreign countries have you visited?
42. If you were out of shape, would you compete in a triathlon if you were somehow guaranteed to win a big, gaudy medal?
43. Would you rather be rich and unhappy, or poor and happy?
44. If you fell into quicksand, would you try to swim or try to float?
45. Do you ask for directions when you are lost?
46. Have you ever held a Mexican jumping bean?
47. Are you more like Cinderella or Alice in Wonderland?
48. Would you rather have an ant farm with no ants or a box of crayons with broken points?
49. Do you prefer light or dark bread?
50. Do you prefer scrambled or fried eggs?
51. Have you ever been in a car that ran out of gas?
52. Do you talk in your sleep?
53. Would you rather shovel snow or mow the lawn?
54. Have you ever played in the rain?
55. Did you make mud pies?
56. Have you ever broken a bone?
57. Would you climb a very high tree to save a kitten?
58. Can you tell the difference between a crocodile and an alligator?
59. Do you drink pepsi or coke?
60. What's your favorite number?
61. If you were a car, would you be an SUV or a sports car?
62. Have you ever accidentally taken something from a hotel?
63. Have you ever slipped in the bathtub?
64. Do you use regular or deodorant soap?
65. Have you ever locked yourself out of the house?
66. Would you rather make your living as a singing cowboy or as one of the Simpsons voices?
67. If you could invite any movie star to your home for dinner, who would it be?
68. Do you need corrective lenses?
69. Would you hang out with / date someone your best friend didn't like?
70. Would you hang out with someone your best friend liked, but you didn't like?
71. Have you ever returned a gift?
72. Would you give someone else a gift that had been given to you?
73. If you could attend an Olympic Event, what would it be?
74. If you could participate in an Olympic Event, what would it be?
75. How many pairs of shoes do you own?
76. If your grandmother gave you a gift that you already have, would you tell her?
77. Do you sing in the car?
78. What is your favorite breed of dog?
79. Would you donate money to feed starving animals in the winter?
80. What is your favorite fruit?
81. What is your least favorite fruit?
82. What kind of fruit have you never had?
83. If you won a $5,000 shopping spree to any store, which store would you pick?
84. What brand sports apparel do you wear the most?
85. Are/were you a good student?
86. Among your friends, who could you arm wrestle and beat?
87. If you had to choose, what branch of the military would you be in?
88. What do you think is your best feature?
89. If you were to win a Grammy, what kind of music would it be for?
90. If you were to win an Oscar, what kind of movie would it be for?
91. What is your favorite season?
92. How many members do you have in your immediate family?
93. Which of the five senses is most important to you?
94. Would you be a more successful painter or singer?
95. How many years will/did you end up going to college?
96. Have you ever had surgery?
97. Would you rather be a professional figure skater or professional football player?
98. What do you like to collect?
99. How many collectibles do you have?
100. What one question would you add to this survey?

Survey from http://www.cfcl.com/vlb/Memes/Questionaires/100questions.html

10 Lessons the Arts Teach

A reminder about the arts and their value:

1. The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships. Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it
is judgment rather than rules that prevail.

2. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution
 and that questions can have more than one answer.

3. The arts celebrate multiple perspectives.
 One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.

4. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving
purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.

5. The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.

6. The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects.
The arts traffic in subtleties.

7. The arts teach students to think through and within a material.
All art forms employ some means through which images become real.

8. The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said.
When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.

9. The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source 
and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.

10. The arts' position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young 
what adults believe is important.


SOURCE: Eisner, E. (2002). The Arts and the Creation of Mind, In Chapter 4, What the Arts Teach and How It Shows. (pp. 70-92). Yale University Press. Available from NAEA Publications. NAEA grants reprint permission for this excerpt from Ten Lessons with proper acknowledgment of its source and NAEA.

April 1st in Early March

The latest images from the April 1st Project. Click to enlarge.

The Groove is in the Art

Note: If the text is orange, it's a link.

Thanks to 50 Watts, I discovered Groove is in the Art.

There was a time when cover art, be it book or album, was a provocative and interesting addition to what was inside. Another lost art. But thanks to the owner of Jive Time Records in Seattle, we can enjoy a bit of the past. A few samples here, more on the site.