Looking at Cartoons, Getting Along

Launched on Nov 29 2006, now 2,100+ posts...This bilingual blog - 'आन्याची फाटकी पासोडी' in Marathi- is largely a celebration of visual and/or comic ...तुकाराम: "ढेकणासी बाज गड,उतरचढ केवढी"...George Santayana: " Everything in nature is lyrical in its ideal essence, tragic in its fate, and comic in its existence"...William Hazlitt: "Pictures are scattered like stray gifts through the world; and while they remain, earth has yet a little gilding."

मेघदूत: "नीचैर्गच्छत्युपरि च दशा चक्रनेमिक्रमेण"

समर्थ शिष्या अक्का : "स्वामीच्या कृपाप्रसादे हे सर्व नश्वर आहे असे समजले. पण या नश्वरात तमाशा बहुत आहे."

G C Lichtenberg: “It is as if our languages were confounded: when we want a thought, they bring us a word; when we ask for a word, they give us a dash; and when we expect a dash, there comes a piece of bawdy.”

C. P. Cavafy: "I’d rather look at things than speak about them."

Martin Amis: “Gogol is funny, Tolstoy in his merciless clarity is funny, and Dostoyevsky, funnily enough, is very funny indeed; moreover, the final generation of Russian literature, before it was destroyed by Lenin and Stalin, remained emphatically comic — Bunin, Bely, Bulgakov, Zamyatin. The novel is comic because life is comic (until the inevitable tragedy of the fifth act);...”

सदानंद रेगे: "... पण तुकारामाची गाथा ज्या धुंदीनं आजपर्यंत वाचली जात होती ती धुंदी माझ्याकडे नाहीय. ती मला येऊच शकत नाही याचं कारण स्वभावतःच मी नास्तिक आहे."

".. त्यामुळं आपण त्या दारिद्र्याच्या अनुभवापलीकडे जाऊच शकत नाही. तुम्ही जर अलीकडची सगळी पुस्तके पाहिलीत...तर त्यांच्यामध्ये त्याच्याखेरीज दुसरं काही नाहीच आहे. म्हणजे माणसांच्या नात्यानात्यांतील जी सूक्ष्मता आहे ती क्वचित चितारलेली तुम्हाला दिसेल. कारण हा जो अनुभव आहे... आपले जे अनुभव आहेत ते ढोबळ प्रकारचे आहेत....."

Kenneth Goldsmith: "In 1969 the conceptual artist Douglas Huebler wrote, “The world is full of objects, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add any more.”1 I’ve come to embrace Huebler’s ideas, though it might be retooled as “The world is full of texts, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add any more.” It seems an appropriate response to a new condition in writing today: faced with an unprecedented amount of available text, the problem is not needing to write more of it; instead, we must learn to negotiate the vast quantity that exists. How I make my way through this thicket of information—how I manage it, how I parse it, how I organize and distribute it—is what distinguishes my writing from yours."

Tom Wolfe: "The first line of the doctors’ Hippocratic oath is ‘First, do no harm.’ And I think for the writers it would be: ‘First, entertain.’"

विलास सारंग: "… इ. स. 1000 नंतर ज्या प्रकारची संस्कृती रुढ झाली , त्यामध्ये साधारणत्व व विश्वात्मकता हे गुण प्राय: लुप्त झाले...आपली संस्कृती अकाली विश्वात्मक साधारणतेला मुकली आहे."

Saturday, July 30, 2022

What Did Caveman See?

आदिमानवाची कला हा कार्टूनिस्ट्स चा आवडता विषय आहे ...

Artist: Ed Fisher, 11 Feb 1956

पण खालील कार्टून एक वेगळ्याच पातळीवर जाते... ते सुचवतय की एखाद्या माणसाला straw figures जंगलात दिसल्या आणि त्याने त्या गुहेत येऊन काढल्या... मला हे विलक्षण वाटले

Thursday, July 28, 2022

Shnarf! Shnorfle! Shnuff! Shnort!.....A Pig Rooting In Pudding

Artist: Unknown to me

Monday, July 25, 2022

Sant Eknath and Greek island of Santorini

Fox News reported on October 11 2018:

"...In a sweeping move for equine rights, the Greek island of Santorini has formally banned “obese” tourists weighing over 220 pounds from riding local donkeys, after outcry from animal rights activists won international media attention and backlash in recent months.

In July, the animal rights group Help the Santorini Donkeys began petitioning for a weight restriction for donkey riders, as increasing numbers of overweight tourists have been reportedly opting to ride – not walk – up the steep hills of the popular cruise ship destination..."

courtesy: Sant Darshan Museum, Satya Sai Pandurang Kshetra Hadshi, Mulshi, Pune

Saturday, July 23, 2022

Science vs Religion and Other Fights

Artist: Tom Gauld

Wednesday, July 20, 2022

चित्रकार अनंत सालकर यांच्या तीन देवियाँ...Three Ladies by Anant Salkar

सौजन्य: चित्रकार सालकर, वाङ्मयशोभा, बुकगंगा.कॉम

वाङ्मय शोभा, सप्टेंबर १९५८

वाङ्मय शोभा, जून १९५८

वाङ्मय शोभा, सप्टेंबर १९५७

Saturday, July 16, 2022

Nicolaes Maes and Rembrandt

Ferdinand Mount wrote in March 2020 for TLS:

"... At times, Rembrandt and Maes do work exactly the same reflective magic. Compare, for example Rembrandt’s “Girl at a Window” in Dulwich with Maes’s picture of the same title here, both so quiet and so infinitely arresting.

Yet, for the most part, what Maes does not so much lack the capacity for as actively abjure is the theatricality that makes Rembrandt’s great biblical masterpieces: those poignant figures carrying out their destiny in a pool of light, dwarfed by the surrounding darkness – seen in abundance at the recent exhibition, Rembrandt’s Light, at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. If there is drama in Maes, it is what we now call “immersive theatre”. We are part of the action; there’s no proscenium arch; if there is a stage, it’s an apron stage. We are walking the same street, enjoying the same fresh air of Amsterdam or Dordrecht, dawdling at the same back door with the girl selling milk.

Compare Maes’s portraits of the armaments king Jacob Trip and his equally formidable wife, Margaretha de Geer, with Rembrandt’s portraits of the same couple on show upstairs with the National Gallery’s other Dutch pictures. The Rembrandts are marvellous representations of a fierce and undimmed old age. But they are distanced from the spectator – that is part of their emotional power – while in the Maes version, Jacob and Margaretha seem to be in the room with us, unsettling presences..."

“Girl at a Window”, and at bottom, portraits of Margaretha de Geer, wife of Jacob Trip

Thursday, July 14, 2022

Any Horse Will Do Show Jumping....

Artist: Zachary Kanin

Sunday, July 10, 2022

जी ए कुलकर्णी जन्मशताब्दीला सुरवात....GA Will Be 100 Soon

आज, जुलै १० २०२२, जी ए कुलकर्णी यांची ९९वी जयंती आणि उद्यापासून त्यांच्या जन्मशताब्दीला सुरवात

फ्रॅंक अॅडम्स यांनी काढलेल्या १९३७च्या चित्राचे मी केलेले रूपांतर....हा अत्यंत "हौशी" प्रयोग आहे आणि कृपया त्याकडे तसेच पाहावे...

मूळ चित्र आवडल्याने हा प्रयोग करावासा वाटला आणि प्रभाकर गोरेंच्या लंबकाच्या घड्याळा ऐवजी वालुका यंत्र वापरले.....कारण जीए म्हणतात ना वेळ कसा खिशाला भोक पडल्याप्रमाणे निघून गेला, तसा वेळ वालुकायंत्रातून जातो, लंबकाच्या घडाळ्यातून नाही!

गोरेंचे मूळचे चित्र पुस्तकाइतके महान आहे

Wednesday, July 06, 2022

... आणि ब्रेसियर पांढऱ्याची काळी झाली!...Janet Leigh@95

Today July 6 2022 is Janet Leigh's 95th birth anniversary

The late Ms. Leigh (1927-2004) is most well known for playing the role of Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Pyscho', 1960.

Patrick McGilligan says in ‘Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light’, 2003:

“...The scenes where Marion wore only lingerie were a unique challenge for the costumers: what kind of undergarments should they be, and how racy could they be without offending the censors? There was some talk of having the actress’s bra and slip made to order, but the director scotched that. Marion’s undergarments would send a clear message to the female sector. “That just won’t work for the character,” Hitchcock told the costumers. “We want that underwear to be identifiable to many women all over the country.”

“There was great equivocation,” recalled costume designer Riggs, “about whether Janet would wear a black or white bra and slip in the opening. It went on and on. We had each ready, of course, and not until we were almost ready to shoot did Mr. Hitchcock finally choose white for the opening, black for after she steals the money. It was strictly for character statement. He had an obsession for the ‘good’ girl or the ‘bad’ girl.’ ”...”

courtesy: Paramount Pictures

Monday, July 04, 2022

जी. एंच्या मते माधव आचवलांची जणू खासगी दौलत...Gina Lollobrigida @95

#GinaLollobrigida
Luigina "Gina" Lollobrigida tuns 95 today, July 4 2022

जी. ए. कुलकर्णी:

"...Ingrid Bergmanदेखील अविस्मरणीय आहे. आणखी एक नाव आठवते, पण आता ते वापरू नये असे वाटते: Gina Lollobrigida. जणू ती त्याची खासगी दौलत असल्याप्रमाणे इतर कुणी तिचा उल्लेख केला, की (माधव) आचवल काय भडकत असे!..."

(पृष्ठ १८९, 'जी एंची निवडक पत्रे', खंड १, १९९५)

जी. एं. नी मिस लोलोब्रिगिडा यांचा उल्लेख आपल्या पत्र व्यवहारात आचवलांच्या निमित्ताने किमान आठ-दहा वेळा केला आहे!

याच मिस लोलोब्रिगिडांनी 'शालिमार', १९७८ नावाच्या अत्यंत भिकार हिंदी सिनेमात (मी बघितलाय तो!) काम करण्यासाठी करार केला होता (मला ते अगदी लहानपणच चांगल आठवतय) पण त्या सुदैवाने त्यातून बाहेर पडल्या. माधव आचवल (१९२६-१९८०) यांना या घटनेचा नक्कीच आनंद झाला असेल.

एका फेसबुक ग्रुप मुळे मला मिस लोलोब्रिगिडा यांचे असंख्य फोटो आणि काही विडिओ बघायला मिळाले. त्यानंतर मी त्यांचा "Come September", 1961 हा सिनेमा सुद्धा पहिला. मला त्या सामान्य (विशेषतः इन्ग्रिड बर्गमन यांच्या तुलनेत) वाटल्या. काय जादू केली होती त्यांनी आचवलांवर कुणास ठाऊक!

पण तत्कालीन आवडी-निवडी अशाच असतात. त्याला कशाचीच फुटपट्टी लागत नाही. अभिजात कला, कलाकार मात्र दीर्घकालीन आनंद देतात.

as Sheba, poster of ‘Solomon and Sheba’, 1959

courtesy: United Artists

Friday, July 01, 2022

Eats, Shoots & Leaves....Bamboo Metaphor

“I fear there are only so many bamboo metaphors the average reader can tolerate.”

Artist : Edward Steed, The New Yorker, April 2013