HandJob

Comment

Comment by Ian C Dengler on July 14, 2013 at 5:55am

haha!

you've worked it out as I do for my stamps. I started out as a political philosopher also. I don't have the EU regulators to joust with--indeed it is somewhat the contrary as each state largely goes its own path. I do have an Eco-Censorship stamp which I'll put up presently.

Do I get much comprehension from my stamps? Who knows? every time I look at them, I work out another interpretation.

I follow the "practice, practice!" rule: if I don't try out an idea, I'll never get to the next stage. Perhaps one in ten works meaningfully, or still seems alright a few days later.

Back in the day, I made elegant borders, in the manner of Donald Evans typing hardly on the keys to dotify a little paysage. Then came the mail around, and the faux surprise of the ARRIVAL all sigilated with official cancellation.

I would also hand draw the whole thing with

COIN OPERATED VACUUM CLEANERS

CREEPY CRAWLY IUDS

BOY SCOUT BANANA CANOE

EXHALING FOR GOOD POSTURE

nipple caPITalism

OVERWEIGHT SKI JUMPER ACCIDENTS

PERSONALIZED NUCLEAR MISSLES

and then..gradually .the story took over and I have up all the edging. Dommage, non?

Comment by Valentine Mark Herman on July 14, 2013 at 5:34am

This is getting rather intellectual for me.

A long, long time ago, I taught a university introduction to political philosophy course called, rather pretentiously, entitled 'From Plato to NATO'.

It would have been much more interesting to have labelled, and taught, it as 'From NATO to Plato', but alas the powers-that-be in the Department wouldn't allow that.

From alcohol to lead, another substance that the body inadvertently/unconsciously produces as a a result of eating food that contains trace elements of it. The European Commission attempted to ban the use of lead in all industrial products (I was lobbying against its complete and immediate ban in ICT equipment), and took great pleasure in pointing out that lead was in humans, and wass the intention to ban those too? 'Of course not' was the reply.

What you are doing with stamps and philosophers is intriguing, but I have to ask how many of your 'audience' understand it?

Even if the answer is 'Not many' or 'None', you'll have to continue, not in the least because it interestes you.

I await the Holy Universe/Rosenkranz (without Guildenstern) stamp.

It's Bastille Day. To the barricades!

Or, more likely; a flea market.

Comment by Ian C Dengler on July 13, 2013 at 8:58pm

That is the idea: meta-banalities that describe body functions and therefore correct to any and all of them. The human body constantly produces small amounts of alcohol itself. Normal levels of 0.01 to 0.03 mg of alcohol/100 ml are contained in the blood. By contrast, a blood alcohol limit for driving of 0.05 per cent is equal to around 50 mg of alcohol/100 ml of blood. And we are all piss-a-longs. Target Farts? Oh that’s just breathing to mosquitoes (well, the female variety). As for Descartes: well, no bloody vampirism (drink therefore I am) no blood pressure. ‘Anger’ is really a metaphor for just kicking the feet along with verve. The contrary would be…uh..an empty stamp (no borders) with Zen as a theme (no need of words or music). Maybe that would not be extreme enough: The 'Void' of emptiness of Buddhism is only a stage. It is still mentionable so not the ultimate. It says there is really nothing. So there’s the Advaita stamp:           

 

The stamp I am doing for tomorrow features that theme: holes in the universe with(out) Berkeley

The dedicatory is to Sven Rosenkranz, a contemporary agnosticalist of perhaps proto-Buddhist skepticism.

Comment by Valentine Mark Herman on July 13, 2013 at 8:32pm

On mini-haikus (sort of)..

..the last film I saw -- about 20+ years ago -- was called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Or Mutant Ninja Teenage Turtles. Or... any combination of those 4 words.

Here are the lyrics to Monty Python's philosophers' song:

"mmanuel Kant was a real pissant

Who was very rarely stable. Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar

Who could think you under the table.

David Hume could out-consume Schopenhauer and Hegel,

And Wittgenstein was a beery swine Who was just as schloshed as Schlegel.

There's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach ya' 'Bout the raising of the wrist. 

Socrates, himself, was permaently pissed....

John Stuart Mill, of his own free will,

On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.

Plato, they say, could stick it away;

Half a crate of whiskey every day.

Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle,

Hobbes was fond of his dram,And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart:

"I drink, therefore I am"

Yes, Socrates, himself, is particularly missed;

A lovely little thinker but a bugger when he's pissed!"

Comment by Ian C Dengler on July 12, 2013 at 3:10pm

It is argued that perhaps 90% of painters beg the questions with a 'gestalt'--something perhaps pleasing to the artist and therefore the audience should flow by the same tide. Dress manufacturers can count on sizing and market restrictions to keep product moving along, but museums have a harder time. Lucky are those who collect paintings representing the world of big, round eyed mammals from cows and tarsiers to the "Big Eye" paintings by the artist Margaret Keane. This is the world of landscapes, offspring, foliage, fruits 'n foods, handsome youthful nudity, impressionistic flux and dabbled irregularities--the wabi of Japanese craft aesthetics.

And then there are the idea painters, perhaps 1%, for whom the lyric or symbolic story line dominates over everything else. Stop signs are fine for this; propaganda fide, instruction manuals, physics diagrams and mathematical proofs make this the other end of visual analytics.

What about that little in between of perhaps 9%? That's where stamps figure: they have a necessity of reference--if only by issuing authority and numerical value. I prefer to use the USA and its various cantons as issuing authority, since that heightens the story line. Alaska is cold and snowy, Hawaii and Alaska are tropical (good for hurricane stamps), Arizona is dry, Louisiana is fulsome crocodile land, Kansas and Iowa are farm utopias.

I add on a mini-haiku, usually three words which are entirely ambiguous--you can read them every which way:

SAME SEX ROBOT (well, it's marriage a la mode when you splice a wire)

PSYCHIC DOG TRAINING (who wants a pet that can't figure out what you wish it to do?)

REGIONAL SOLAR ECLIPSE (there are shadows everywhere in the universe, including one's memories)

Then I add a file name--short--but a play off of the story board within the stamp.

And finally there is the subject line, or comment, in the case of this site.

For the last few months I've been tagging self-identified philosophers, largely academic as such life-styling typifies the THOUGHTOLOGISTS of the Western world since the later 19th century. Each gets a subject line that summarizes something they have argued and that also anticipates the storyboard within the stamp:

Tibor Machan: philosopher without an exit strategy.

Mark Jago: philosopher of happy modal projectionism.

Jagewon Kim: philosopher of blank spots in science.

They are all to be found on the internet in recursive occlusion (same old hermetic bludgeoning).

Philosophers are no more obtuse than anyone else, but are willingly public in making this clear. A wonderful opportunity for the stamp maker.

Comment by Valentine Mark Herman on July 12, 2013 at 2:31pm

The trouble, Ian, is that the more way out your (or one's) sense of humour, the less people are likely to understand it. Perhaps you should switch from art to mime, as that is not language based.

Where can I find the philosopher stamps?

Comment by Ian C Dengler on July 12, 2013 at 5:50am

haha! my 'English' language jokes don't really do well at all. Right now I'm running the "famous philosophers" series (each stamp has a real philosopher-summary as subject header), and that's been about as unsuccessful a joke series as I have in conscious awareness.

Comment by Valentine Mark Herman on July 12, 2013 at 4:44am

Bonjour! No, some jokes are goood, in the sense that they make you laugh/smile. Humour is difficult in Europe, because there are so many cultures/languages/approaches to religion-society-politics-sexuality/nationalities, etc, that any joke involving any of these is bound to offend somewhere. It's safer to talk about sport an/:or the weather.

The title apart, Ilike the stamp -- and thanks for the 'interpreation' of it -- and suggest that you leave 'Traditional Donkey Petting' unchanged: it's intriguing, and, I suspect, means different things to different people.

Which is how it should be.

Au revoir

Comment by Ian C Dengler on July 11, 2013 at 9:30pm

Bad joke? that's a challenge: all jokes are baad and how else would humor work? I think you have the idea behind my stamp: we stroke the animals--including ourselves, and then there's the glue factory. I like to force the eye to the edges when I construct a stamp story which means pushing the donkey eye right to the edge, and use the forelegs as an exit on the lower right. The body of the animal, along with the Kansas Post, does the same for the upper right. The colors block out well, and I'm still trying to improve on the slogan: "traditional donkey petting."

We have traditional put-downs for people (more 'donkey"); and strokes for kids (donkey with expectations); there's the politician with a reassuring speech (donkey public), and then how does the Great Almighty do with us??

Comment by Valentine Mark Herman on July 11, 2013 at 9:11pm

From an on-line compendium of really bad 'jokes':

SMART-ARSE ANSWER OF THE YEAR 

A High School teacher reminded her pupils of the next day's final exam.

'Now listen to me, I won't tolerate any excuses for you not being here tomorrow.

I might consider a nuclear attack or a serious personal injury, illness, or a death in your immediate family, but that's it, no other excuses whatsoever!'

A smart-arsed kid at the back of the room raised his hand and asked, 

'What would happen if I came in tomorrow suffering from complete and utter sexual exhaustion?'

The entire class was reduced to laughter and sniggering.

When silence was restored, the teacher smiled knowingly at the student, shook her head and sweetly said,

'Well, I suppose you'd have to write with your other hand'

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page