Category Archives: Uncategorized

by Alexandria | 29 June 2019 · 9:20 am

Gustave Courbet

#ArtSaturday Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet, 1819 -1877
French painter who led Realism movement

Courbet c 1860s, Photo by Atelier Nadar pic.twitter.com/vZkt69Q6ZE

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet
Courbet rejected Romanticism by painting only what he could see, i.e., unidealized subjects, whether human, animal, or nature.

After Dinner at Ornans, 1849 pic.twitter.com/JPh7TAixoF

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet
Courbet’s early paintings brought him recognition because he did not paint religious or historical subjects, as was usual for painters of the period.

Stone Breakers, 1849 pic.twitter.com/JSbvu9s7qw

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet
Courbet painted peasants and workers in their daily lives, paving the way for Realism in painting.

The Farmers of Flagey on Their Return from the Market, 1850 pic.twitter.com/3SEUBStoOR

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet
Painting rural subjects or peasants was considered “vulgar” and was looked down upon, which made Courbet’s works controversial.

Burial at Ornans, 1849-50
(display @ Paris Salon exhibition 1850-51 brought Courbet instant recognition and fame) pic.twitter.com/2gtI1d6x60

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet
His early work included many self-portraits.

Self-Portrait, with Black Dog, 1842
Self-Portrait (with Black Dog), 1842
Self-Portrait with Leather Belt, 1847
Self-Portrait, with Cello (also, The Cellist), 1847 pic.twitter.com/2rrD5BpLAh

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet
Self-Portrait, with Pipe (also, Man with a Pipe, 1848), is one of Courbet’s most famous self-portraits. pic.twitter.com/CMVRaCsOle

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday
The Man Made Mad with Fear (1843) is a self-portrait that Courbet later made into one of his most famous paintings. pic.twitter.com/doI7GLEji4

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet
His dramatic Le Désespéré (Desperate Man), also, Self-Portrait, as a Desperate Man (1843-45) is one of the most startling self-portraits and one of Courbet’s most famous works. pic.twitter.com/T7VlVq3oaM

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet
Courbet claimed that he painted his self-portrait every time he changed: in that way, he said, he had painted his own autobiography.

Self-Portraits, 1842, 1843-45, 1848 pic.twitter.com/inB1OLjIcq

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet
Courbet’s paintings made him a celebrity although many people said they did not understand his “message,” and some denounced him as a “socialist.”

The Meeting (also, Bonjour, M. Courbet), 1854 pic.twitter.com/G3LhcOqGNZ

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet
Although Courbet attended art school for a short time, he was unhappy there and dissatisfied with his studies: academic classes promoted idealism of nature and of the human form.

The Wheat Sifters (also, The Grain Sifters), 1854 pic.twitter.com/1Kjjl4ko9u

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet
Though some of his work caused outrage, Courbet attracted the patronage of Alfred Bruyas, a rich collector who bought The Bathers (1856), one of Courbet’s most famous paintings. pic.twitter.com/sXCXjhdQCU

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet
Bruyas’ patronage allowed Courbet to be independent and work only at his painting. His most famous work from this period is The Artist’s Studio (1855). pic.twitter.com/F6vDg442xR

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet
In 1855, the Salon jury accepted ten of Courbet’s paintings for the exhibition.

Snow Effect, c 1860 pic.twitter.com/xnhMLxQCuJ

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet
Summer 1869: Courbet visited Etretat, painting several pictures that brought him universal praise, including The Wave (1869). pic.twitter.com/kVFKVvjaDo

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet
1869: Courbet visited Etretat in the summer and painted several pictures that brought him universal praise, including The Cliffs at Etretat, After the Storm (1870). pic.twitter.com/bU9ihgo63u

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet
After the 1870 exhibition, where Courbet’s work was universally praised, his reputation as a modern artist was solidified.

Sea Coast in Normandy, 1867 pic.twitter.com/iFtmZ7dLnj

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet
One of Courbet’s favorite subjects for painting was the nude female form.

Woman in the Waves, 1868 pic.twitter.com/VtZqXSTUos

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet
It is believed that some contemporaneous collectors of Courbet’s nudes bought the paintings specifically to destroy them because many of his paintings were considered “obscene.”

Nude Woman with a Dog, 1861-62 pic.twitter.com/cbMuqkSk82

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet

Woman with a Parrot, 1866 pic.twitter.com/QaMi0msal5

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet
Two of Courbet’s most suggestive and graphic nudes, Origin of the World (1866) and Sleep (depicting two nude, sleeping, female lovers) (1866, were in private collections & hidden from public view till 1988.

The Irish Girl, 1865-66 pic.twitter.com/avFCj5BvXw

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

#ArtSaturday Courbet
1877: At age 58, after a lifetime of heavy drinking and ill with serious liver disease, Courbet died.

Stream in the Jura Mountains, 1872-73 pic.twitter.com/S7sjZYFZPI

— Dr. Alexandria Szeman: #BelieveSurvivors (@Alexandria_SZ) June 29, 2019

To Make Cynics of Us All: Devil, the Horror Film

#NoSpoilers

There is a long history of stories about humans being influenced or tempted to commit evil by some outside being rather than by their own nature. In Christian translations of Genesis chapter 3, a serpent in the Garden of Eden tells the first woman, Eve, that she will not die if she eats the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Her mate, Adam, joins her in eating the fruit, and they do not, in fact, die after eating the fruit: they are only expelled from the Garden of Eden, which stands as a metaphor for their previous innocence of their own disobedient nature. Despite the fact that the serpent told Adam and Eve the truth, the serpent has long been associated with the evil and with the Devil if only because he revealed the evil that already existed in mankind.

In Christian tradition, the Devil is supposedly the absolute incarnation of evil and is completely separate from God, who is ostensibly all powerful, all knowledgeable, and all good. In most stories that follow the Christian tradition, then, meeting the Devil becomes an encounter with evil. Such a meeting may provide the protagonists with an opportunity to learn that all humans contain both good and evil (Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” 1835), to do evil themselves (Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker,” 1824, which itself was based on 16th century German legends of Faust) or to resist doing evil, perhaps by outwitting the Devil himself (Stephen Vincent Benét’s “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” 1936).

Devil, a 2010 American horror film, is based on a story by M. Night Shyamalan, originally written as a “nod to Agatha Christie’s” mystery novel And Then There Were None, where a group of people, each of whom is guilty of something in his past, is trapped in an isolated area and mysteriously dies one at a time. The film’s director John Erick Dowdle changed the original story by adding something he called a “Devil’s Meeting,” which he claims is a based in a legend of the Devil coming to earth to “test evildoers by tormenting them.”

I’m not exactly sure why the Devil would “test” evildoers, and I can’t find any outside corroboration for any tales or legends of such devilish tests. Instead, I’d imagine that the Devil would be happy to have humans doing bad things. In The Book of Job, “the adversary” or “the opponent” (ha satan), which is not capitalized, is considered to be merely the opposite side of an argument. In Job, the adversary tests a man who has never encountered adversity in order to test the man’s absolute faith in God. The adversary does not test a man who is already defying God by going against His commandments and committing evil. Nevertheless, despite the fact that the idea of the Devil’s “testing evildoers by tormenting them” makes little theological or philosophical sense, the horror film Devil is actually an intriguing and unsettling suspense film.

Chris Messina (L) and Matt Craven (R ) in Devil © Universal Pictures

After a jumper plunges to his death from an office building, Detective Bowden (Chris Messina) comes to investigate, only to be plunged into another mystery when an elevator stops, trapping 5 people inside. The trapped people include a young woman (Bojana Novakovic) who plans to leave her rich husband and take all his money,

Bojana Novakovic, Devil © Universal Pictures

an older woman (Jenny O’Hara) who is a thief,

Jenny O’Hara, Devil © Universal Pictures

a temporary security guard (Bokeem Woodbine) with a history of violence,

Bokeem Woodbine, Devil © Universal Pictures

a mechanic (Logan Marshall-Green) who intentionally did not sign himself in at the security desk,

Logan Marshall Green, Devil © Universal Pictures

and a sleazy salesman (Geoffrey Arend).

Geoffrey Arend, Devil © Universal Pictures

When the occupants begin to die, police and others begin to suspect a murderer is trapped in the elevator, targeting the other passengers.

Jacob Vargas and Chris Messina, Devil © Universal Pictures

While one of the buildings security guards (Jacob Vargas) is filling Detective Bowden’s ear with ghost stories that his family told him, based on the guard’s belief that he saw something in the elevator on the surveillance video,

Bowden (with the microphone, below) is desperately trying to determine why someone might want to kill the others passengers trapped in the elevator.

Some critics and viewers complained that Devil was too short, was while others complained that the story was somewhat convoluted, by which I think they mean how some of the characters’ stories were ultimately related to those of others. The film does have some minor elements of the supernatural, but they aren’t as important or scary as the psychological aspects of guilt, good, and evil, which involve everyone in the story, even the detectives who are there to save the trapped elevator occupants.

The film is better than its ostensible supernatural elements, which are so sparse, it’s almost like they were put in more by accident than deliberation. Devil is available for rent or purchase on Amazon, on YouTube, on iTunes, and more.

♦

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Game of Drones: Game of Thrones, Bore-i-fied

Spoilers
Don’t Listen to These Podcasts
Till You’ve Seen the Shows

I tried to find a photo of someone sleeping on HBO’s wildly popular series Game of Thrones, but wasn’t successful. The closest I could find was a photo of a character dead, and even when it was the murdered Jon Snow, his eyes were open.

That seems appropriate if you’re a fan like I am, lying awake counting down the days between seasons. That stretch can be unbearably long — longer than summer or winter in the series itself — and it’s going to be longer this year since season 7 will air later in 2017 than it has in previous years: the show-runners wanted to film the series in winter, now that Winter Is Here, but what grief for fans, eh?

Fortunately, Drew Ackerman, aka Scooter, aka @DearestScooter on the Twitter, has just the thing for all us deprived GoT fans. In an off-shoot to his wildly popular SleepWithMePodcast, which is designed to “bore you to slumber” — if you can stop laughing — with its “ingeniously” imaginative stories and meandering introductions, Drew has given us Game of Drones. And these podcasts are wonderful, I gotta tellya, even if they are designed to put you to sleep. You’re gonna love them. I’ve listed each Game of Drones extended episode below, preceded by my brief overview of the GoT season, in case you forgot what happened, and I apologize in advance for not being nearly as ingeniously funny as Dearest Scooter.

◊

Season One

Based on the fantasy novel A Game of Thrones, Book 1 of the best-selling series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, season 1 of HBO’s Game of Thrones is set in the fictional land of Westeros, composed mainly of The 7 Kingdoms, where royal claimants and usurpers fight for the right to sit on the Iron Throne. Season One concentrates on three major families: the Lannisters, the Starks, and the Targaryens. Their stories become interwoven with their claims to the throne, and their loyalty to their ruler.

Game of Drones, Season 1
10 hours

◊

Season Two

Based roughly on A Clash of Kings, Book 2 in George R. R. Martin’s best-selling series of novels A Song of Ice and Fire, HBO’s critically acclaimed and award-winning Game of Thrones continues its exploration of power, politics, family obligations, love, and betrayal, in the second season. As the battle for the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms of the civilized world erupts once more, everyone now knows that “Winter is coming. The surviving members of the three major families — Lannister, Stark, and Targaryen — continue the quest for survival and power, this time amidst rebellions, uprisings, and war. They are joined and betrayed by members of various other Houses.

Game of Drones, Season 2
10+ hours

◊

Season Three

Based in part on the first half of A Storm of Swords, Book 3 of George R. R. Martin’s best-selling fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, the third season of HBO’s Game of Thrones, created and written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, the stories of the inhabitants of Westeros and the Lands beyond continue. Love, power, and betrayal are its major themes as the War of the Five Kings intensifies. The third season of Game of Thrones gets viewers more intimately involved with the peripheral characters, bringing them to the forefront. Though there are multiple, ultimately converging storylines, the excellent writing and powerful acting keep the viewers engaged without confusing them. Even the scene transitions flawlessly guide viewers from one character — or group of characters — to another, and back again. The acting is riveting, with some previously minor characters taking center stage, and some previously “evil” characters gaining the sympathy of the audience.

Game of Drones, Season 3
11+ hours

◊

Season Four

Season 4 of HBO’s award-winning series Game of Thrones is based principally on the second half of A Storm of Swords, Book 3 in George R. R. Martin’s acclaimed fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire. Season 4 also includes material from Book 4, A Feast for Crows, and Book 5, A Dance with Dragons. In Season 4, the writers of Game of Thrones continues to explore its themes of love, betrayal, and power, on the familial and national level. The storyline is expanded to explore themes of loyalty, hubris, spirituality, religious beliefs, religious intolerance, as well as the morality of violence. The principal families — Lannister, Stark, Targaryen, and Tyrell — remain, and their stories are deftly interwoven with those of new characters.

Game of Drones, Season 4
10 hours

◊

Season Five

Season 5 of HBO’s Game of Thrones, is adapted primarily Books 4 and 5 in George R. R. Martin’s best-selling fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire. Along with Books 4 and 5 — A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons — the writers returned to Book 3, A Storm of Swords, for additional content. They also had access to material from Martin’s as-yet unpublished Book 6, The Winds of Winter. Season 5 of the dramatic adaptation won a record number of Emmy Awards for a series in a single year: 12 awards out of 24 nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series. Created and (mostly) written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, the show’s writing, acting, and design are all brilliant, and Game of Thrones deserves every award it’s won.

Game of Thrones Season 5 unites many of the storylines that have been converging during the previous 4 seasons. The major families who started the drama — the Lannisters, the Starks, and the Targaryens — are joined with the Tyrells, the Martells, and the Boltons. The only remaining Baratheon, Stannis, is still waging war against the King of the Seven Kingdoms. Season 5 also takes one of Season 4’s major themes — religious intolerance — and puts it in the forefront of the drama. Although family loyalty still determines most of the characters’ actions, the quest for power is intimately intertwined with any family obligations.

Game of Drones, Season 5
12+ hours

◊

Season Six

Season 6 of HBO’s Game of Thrones is based on the as yet uncompleted Book 6 in Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, The Winds of Winter, and includes a “significant amount of material” from the Books 4 and 5 — A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons. The author provided a detailed outline to show creators Benioff and Weiss. The sixth season proved to have more weaknesses than the previous ones, and it may have been due to the fact that the show-runners were working from an outline, no matter how detailed, rather than culling the story from completed books. Still, this season had some of the most powerful moments of the entire series, some of which Martin will be hard-pressed to reproduce on the printed page.

The battle for the Iron Throne gets vicious as the major families — the Lannisters, the Starks, and the Targaryens — are joined by other families — the Tyrells, the Martells, and the Boltons — the latter of whom either want to rule the Seven Kingdoms themselves or who want revenge for wrongs inflicted by the three primary families.