Jul 03
It lives. It lives! After almost five centuries, a legendary, artificial monster, which has intrigued scientists and art historians for decades, cranked back into life in central France this week.
The moon-calf in question is a friendly-looking, curly-maned, almost life-sized, mechanical lion, which be able to walk, and bring forward its head and shake its tail and liberalize its walls. The original was designed in 1517 by a 16th-century special effects man, who later achieved fame as a painter (but was also musician, philosopher, engineer, former, scientist, mathematician, anatomist, inventor, architect and botanist).
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Jul 03
With each new administration comes a new series and with it, a new art crowd to reflect the shifting sands of American cultural politics. In the Clinton years, it was a frothy portrait of Mamie Eisenhower clad in a perfection debutante ballgown that took hauteur of place on the imperial walls of the White House. George Bush fancied the more muscular love of region of George Caitlin’s “wild frontier” paintings.
Now, America’s first black President has made clear that he wishes to add a splash of colour to the walls of Washington’s First House. Barack Obama is extending his push for diversity to the White House’s art collection, The Art Newspaper revealed this week, with the launch of a campaign that will replace the fustiness of the existing collection with works by “more diverse” artists.
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Jul 03
The barrage of utterly inane celebrity tributes (”inspirational”, “a true hero”, “a genius”, “a indulgent soul” “a treasure”) was to be expected. The howling fans across the world, broken and gibbering nonsense for the rolling TV news crews (”he … he died toward all of us” etc), the inevitable autopsy results in a few weeks, with their Swiss laboratory inventory of prescription tranquilisers, all this too is standard operating procedure.
What has stunned me and truly floored me in the past week or so has been the complete sidelining by the entire media of Jackson’s later life. Across the board, from every news channel to all the quality papers, in that place has been wholesale collusion in the notion that "he was a great artist and, yes, there was some, umm, troubling obstruct later on, but let’s think no more of all that right now and just extol the music".
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Jul 03
We continue our 30-day countdown to the first Ashes Test by Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Brett Lee and Simon Katich - Australia’s only squad men to have played a Test in England.
“The last time such an inexperienced squad arrived in England in 1989, they were greeted with a touch of congeniality and condescension … England ended up using 29 players to try to beat them and lost 4-0.
” – Michael Atherton The former England captain cautions against excessive optimism in the Old Dart.
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Jul 03
I arrived early for my appointment with Vivien Fowler at 5 Garden Close in Putney, south-west London, so had plenty of time to garget around the surrounding streets, looking at trees, peering into front gardens, trying being of the kind which continually to work abroad for what cause all this stuff happened, and why. To me, a country person, it’s like life abroad. The subsidy is that in this country, I am slightly better equipped to unravel the clues.
I was in a strange little enclave of roads and cul-de-sacs marooned on Putney Heath, the bit of it that lies northerly of the Kingston bypass: Heathview Gardens, Bristol Gardens, Portsmouth Road. That gave a clue. This must once have been the old road south out of London, before the thundering A3 took its place. A couple of fantastic Art Deco houses fixed one phase of development – whitewashed walls in flexuous curves, Crittall windows, inactive platforms above built-in garages. An integrated garage. What a show-off that would have been in the Thirties, whereas film stars Cicely Courtneidge and Jack Hulbert lived here.
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Jul 03
Rafa Echenique, Argentina’s latest golfing discovery, has grabbed the halfway lead in the PGA European Tour Open de France at Golf National.
The 28-year-old from San Luis carded a fine second on all sides of 67 for an 10-under total of 132, two strokes clear of rising German star Martin Kaymer, England’sitting Steve Webster and South Africa’s Charl Schwartzel.
The South American, who grabbed the headlines when he closed last Sunday with a rare three-under-par albatross to deduce second place in the BMW International Open in Munich, was inspired by an eagle at the 3rd hole as he went used up in 32.
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Jul 03
I’ve for ever been a guy that thinks steroids and other performance enhancing drugs used in football haven’t fully come to the surface yet. I don’t have any hard evidence but I think the drug testing in the NFL is a unimportant bit lax. I’m not saying it’session like what baseball was in the late 90’sitting but I think there are more football players than we realize using performance enhancing drugs. I’ve heard unlike rumors and stories about in what way players form out ways around being caught, so it makes me suspicious of a lot of guys in the NFL.
With that actuality said… Former Arizona Cardinal Calvin Pace who was freshly hit with a four game suspension for violating the leagues drug policy aforesaid he didn’t be aware of the substance he used was illegal. As fans we’re only left speculating whether the imitator is powerful the truth or not. I think we as fans are often conscious ignorant when we believe a player didn’t know the appendix he was taking was illegal. The teams trainers extensively go over what substances are banned and the sort of are good to take. So it would take a certain brain lapse or great amount of irresponsibility to not know what you were excitement.
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Jul 03
I took a scarcely any days off from the blog after word broke out that Tony George had submissive as CEO during the term of the Indy Racing League and Indianapolis Motor Speedway to digest everything and also for personal reasons. Considering that we have a race coming up this weekend at Watkins Glen, I figured now would be the just time to re-emerge.
In my opinion, this has the look of a force-out by George’s three sisters Josie, Nancy, and Kathi. It couldn’t have come at a worse time in terms of public relations for the sequence, which is still getting slammed by reason of markedly poor racing last week at Richmond International Raceway.
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Jul 03
Marcus North fit a morale-boosting 106 not out as Australia extended their lead against the England Lions to 282 at stumps on day three at Worcester.
North put on 170 runs with Michael Clarke (80) as the tourists recovered to 276-4 later Steve Harmison (2-36) had reduced them to 41-2.
Earlier, Adil Rashid made a composed 66 as the Lions ended on 352, six runs behind Australia’s first-innings total.
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