Liberty Remembers
(click)
Mike’s second movie.
Crank up the volume. (sorry rakkity – 7.8 mb)
Click here and then scroll down to see the unpainted building.
Link to the Concert In The Park
Sunday, April 30, 2006
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The eyebrow piercing and diamond stud, coupled with the “I got lucky in Texas” tshirt on a, what, maybe 11 year old leaves me judging the wrong thing here. But your little short was cute and the mural is captivating.
Comment by La Rad — April 30, 2006 @ 5:39 pm
And the little bastard slipped my Rolex off as I was talking to his blond buddy.
Comment by michael — April 30, 2006 @ 5:47 pm
You came, you saw, you congregated … How great that you had that encounter! Makes the visitation doubly worthwhile (and you nailed the soundtrack, too!). Thanks also for the link to Grohe’s dedication (though itself a lesser piece than your own … ). ‘Tis rich food you feed us, Michael!
Comment by adam — April 30, 2006 @ 7:29 pm
You know the photo you took driving down the highway? My sensation was that I was moving. Well done.
I’m pretty sure you didn’t have a rolex … but did they take something?
Comment by Jennifer — April 30, 2006 @ 8:09 pm
No, I was riffing on La Rad.
Comment by michael — April 30, 2006 @ 8:18 pm
What was that nickname…oh yes, flippant buffoon.
Comment by La Rad — April 30, 2006 @ 9:42 pm
OK, so am I the only one who kind of hates the murals?
Comment by Jennifer — April 30, 2006 @ 11:04 pm
Yes, which means you have to explain yourself.
Comment by michael — May 1, 2006 @ 6:48 am
re: sorry
No need to be sorry. Downloaded at work in 5 sec, copied to a thumbdrive, an will savor it tonight.
Comment by rakkity — May 1, 2006 @ 1:18 pm
Jennifer, you’re not alone. I wouldn’t necessarily say I hate them, as I’m developing a sick fascination, thanks Mike. It’s kind of like being drawn to look at a horrific car accident. The picture of a concert in front of a mural was almost too much.
Comment by Chuck Ruthenberg — May 1, 2006 @ 2:52 pm
Thanks Chuck — sick fascination is exactly what I feel. Yeah, the broken-down walls were worse, but I’d way prefer a mural that doesn’t pretend to be something else.
Comment by Jennifer — May 1, 2006 @ 5:57 pm
I think I understand what Jennifer’s saying. In looking at Mike’s first movie, I had the feeling of being in virtual reality. I thought of all those Science Fiction stories by Kornbluth and Pohl, Gibson, etc that had commercials blasting directly on pedestrian’s retinas, or holograms displaying whatever the government or corporations wanted people to see. Very Orwellian.
But Trompe de l’Oeil murals go back for centuries. They’re all over Italy and parts of France. Some of the really old ones are as real as the Bucyrus one.
Comment by rakkity — May 1, 2006 @ 6:06 pm
I marvel at the gift that allows a person to give three dimensions to a two dimensional space. I love these murals for that alone, and find no guilty pleasure in enjoying them, although I much prefer the subject matter in the first movie.
Thanks, Mike. Had you not gone out of your way and risked life and limb (fatigue, pierced 11-year-olds, etc.), I might never have even heard of this home-grown version of the Trompe de l’Oeil in Europe of which Rakkity speaks.
Comment by FierceBaby — May 1, 2006 @ 6:42 pm
I guess you could see a concert in front of a mural which includes blue skies and puffy white clouds as a Blade Runneresque surrender to a world only wistfully remembered, but if a pun is a joke exploiting different possible meanings of a word, might that scene be an enacted pun? Speaking of which, if a play is pretending in front of a set, might not that concert/mural be considered a play without an audience? IOW, I have no idea what you two are reacting to. Except, possibly, to make fun of my newly adopted world.
By the way, the boy with the brown hair pointing at his big brother (in the second movie) told me the woman in the window is his aunt .
Comment by michael — May 1, 2006 @ 9:36 pm
Boy, you’re sensitive, Mike.
I just realized, looking at his aunt, that it’s the shadows that bug me. The oh-so-distinct and “accurate” shadows make the real shadows look wrong.
Comment by Jennifer — May 1, 2006 @ 9:54 pm
But a stopped clock is right twice a day, and Bucyrus’ mural at least gets once — on semi-sunny days, anyway …
I’m with FB on the appreciation thing, and it’s the incongruities of means and intent — not to mention vision — which fascinate. That the local populace ignores or embraces (or merely accepts) is perhaps too real to ponder — certainly to react to. Why speculate where we could ask? The rest is open to surmise and wonder.
Comment by adam — May 1, 2006 @ 11:08 pm
I didn’t mean to offend earlier. I’m ever grateful for the glimpses of the mid-west and I couldn’t hope for a more observent iris through which to experience it than Mike’s. My comparison to a tragedy was regarding such patriotism in today’s political climate.
Incidently, I heard through the grapevine that the brunet’s auntie has a new boyfriend who calls himself ‘uncle‘ Elvis.
Comment by S. Trompay — May 2, 2006 @ 1:23 am
If we don’t celebrate the sacrifice how do we talk the next generation into killing for land, spice, oil, etc.? Somehow I look right past the content which might address Adam’s point. If you walk near these buildings, in a natural 3-D environment, you’ll see they a far less impressive than brilliantly lit on our computer screens. I’m sure the townspeople see them mostly when out-of-towners arrive.
Incidentally, My brother-in-law was commissioned to design a building side in Cincinnati thirty-five years ago. He didn’t do the painting and the mural was far less elaborate (the faces in “Liberty Remembers” are of Crawford County, Ohio war dead), but his nut and bolt theme looked just as “real” from a distance.
It’s funny, but I was bumping shoulders with this Bill the day I took my pictures. We didn’t talk; we merely jockeyed for position. I’m impressed, S. Trompay, that you were able to Google him up so quickly.
Lastly, Adam and Diane and I were talking about how Eric transformed a flat roof into a pointed one. Adam said, “Unless he’s a far better painter than even I give him credit for and he can control the sky, he rebuilt the building.†I was so taken with the art, I’d given myself over completely to the illusion. Here’s the answer.
Comment by michael — May 2, 2006 @ 6:41 am
I forgot to ask, S, how did you do that?
Comment by michael — May 2, 2006 @ 6:32 pm
To Adam, re 16, accuracy of shadows: Actually, only twice a year; once a year if you factor in the foliage. OK, so normal people wouldn’t notice a difference in the length of the shadows in a week or two, so you’ve got about 14 “right” times if the weather cooperates.
Comment by Jennifer — May 2, 2006 @ 7:01 pm
Mike,
I’d imagine I did it in a simliar manner to the way you did it.
I googled a picture of elvis. I opened auntie in photoshop,and cut out the black in the window (pixel by pixel at points, zoomed in around 700%) then I shrunk Elvis until he was about the right size and added him in a layer below the auntie layer. then I added in black where I’d taken it away.
Comment by S. Trompeur — May 2, 2006 @ 7:53 pm
What kind of crap are they teaching you our there? You’ve probably forgotten your pet name for Photoshop…Photoslop. I’d hate to think you’ve become one of us.
Btw, Elvis in Flickr’s max view size looks damn good.
Are Mr. and Mrs. Tompeur coming out to see you in a month or so. Or did I imagine a conversation to that effect?
Comment by michael — May 2, 2006 @ 8:41 pm
I’ve said lots of inflammatory things and don’t show any sign of stopping. I believe it was someone from your neck of the woods who said, “Speak what you think to-day in words as hard as cannon-balls and to-tomorrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.”
The addition of Elvis was a sophomoric effort, if that; I’d never tried anything like that before. People can do miraculous things with Photoslop and I’m sure your recent posts are a mere inkling of the photographs you’ve doctored to perfection.
It’s true a mid-west contigent will be out for a west coast tour. I’m busy trying to play the prepared host.
Comment by S. Trompeur — May 2, 2006 @ 10:22 pm