Updates: Life, Death, and Air Sex

I passed the MPRE for my state. Ole!

Since I cannot smell, I drank bad milk today. Hooray!

Also, since I am so out of the loop, I didn't know that artists Sol Lewitt died two days ago at age 78. (no jubiliant exclamation here)!

His life was nothing if not diverse: he served in the Korean War, worked for Seventeen magazine and then as a graphic designer for none other than uber-architect I.M. Pei. All of these influences fed into a diverse body of work -- from minimalist sculpture to enormous wall murals (which often irritated viewers since they were executed by his studio rather than by the man himself). The man at least had a sense of humor, evident in a series of photos where he portrayed himself burying his own minimalist sculpture (read: minimalism is dead).

Lewitt was described in the New York Times as creating "deceptively simple geometric sculptures and drawings and ecstatically colored and jazzy wall paintings." At the museum where I worked, there was a huge Lewitt mural on the wall. It was a mughal (that is muslim architecture in India) design painted in muted, primary colors. The beautiful colors -which I think were done in lush encaustic (color suspended in wax)- and the regularly repeating pattern always created a sense of calm for me. Lewitt once said, "Successful art changes our understanding of the conventions by altering our perceptions." I guess if you consider transforming my draconian museum into a place of reflective beauty, well, mission accomplished.

Lewitt will be missed.

And just so that we don't end on a particularly poignant note,
and also just in case you were feeling like your life sucks,
it's good to remember that there's always somebody who's worse off
and then make fun of that person.

Take these men in Japan, who particpate in "Air Sex" because they are supremely unlucky in life. You probably shouldn't watch this at work.

Enjoy.