"Are You Not Entertained?" An Arts and Entertainment Challenge

[goldytheGoldfish]

Sometimes I like to go to the castle in my aquarium and pop bubbles. For hours and hours.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Day 6: Something that fills you with awe
My dad used to volunteer at a library where Albert Bierstadt's "The Domes of the Yosemite" was the centerpiece of the art gallery. 10 feet x 15 feet, I used to just stare at it for ages when I'd tag along with him.

 

[curious_slut]

Day six: Something that fills you with awe

Even looking at photos, I'm just amazed that a piece of marble can look so alive. Gian Lorenzo Bernini's The Abduction of Proserpina is something I'd really love to see in person.

I can't fully comprehend how one sculpts life and movement into marble but I love it.

 

[curious_slut]

Day 6: Something that fills you with awe
My dad used to volunteer at a library where Albert Bierstadt's "The Domes of the Yosemite" was the centerpiece of the art gallery. 10 feet x 15 feet, I used to just stare at it for ages when I'd tag along with him.
View attachment 2324726

That's so beautiful There's something really magical about huge landscape paintings. Especially when you're a little kid so the scale is even more majestic.

 

[UnquietDreams]

Day six: Something that fills you with awe

Even looking at photos, I'm just amazed that a piece of marble can look so alive. Gian Lorenzo Bernini's The Abduction of Proserpina is something I'd really love to see in person.
View attachment 2324787
I can't fully comprehend how one sculpts life and movement into marble but I love it.
View attachment 2324788

Bernini is one of my favorite sculptors. Here are a couple more you may like, by different sculptors with the same aesthetic. Undine Rising from the Fountain by Chauncey Bradley. Veiled Bride – Raffaele Monti. And Modesty By Antonio Corradini, 1752.

 

[curious_slut]

Bernini is one of my favorite sculptors. Here are a couple more you may like, by different sculptors with the same aesthetic. Undine Rising from the Fountain by Chauncey Bradley. Veiled Bride – Raffaele Monti. And Modesty By Antonio Corradini, 1752.

Omg I love all of those Marble flowy gauziness is basically magic as far as I'm concerned

 

[UnquietDreams]

Day six: Something that fills you with awe

Dawn is just kissing over the hills. There are only a few of us, dawn patrolling mid week. I am sitting on Malibu Dave's stick, the one I borrowed before I got enough to buy my own, floating in the dark water. We are all acting gentlemanly, out here. That doesn't always happen. Too many tourists, and this is Santa Cruz, not Malibu, Dave notwithstanding.

I am waiting. I am still not good yet. Only a few months in, just long enough to affect my grades at UCSC. Probably won't make it next term. I have already missed a lot of classwork, floating past the waves and waiting. I worked so hard to get here, but I don't care anymore. Life is different now.

Mavericksis probably beyond what I can do. I love the Hook, and I know it. Steamer Lane is big waves. But Mavericks? Huge. But I don't handle a bet well, and paddled out with Tommy and Dave and Kelly. And I won't back down in front of Kelly. Cannot do it.

It is my turn, and I see a wave building. Timing. God, how many times have I missed because I didn't time right? But this looks good, it looks golden. I am paddling and paddling, like I was being chased.

I pop up on both feet, and don't ditch --great sign! And then, holy shit, that is a big wave! I drop, and I drop perfectly, far more from accident than anything else, sliding down the wave face. Suddenly, I look left, and the wave is there as well. For the first time, I am in the tube, surrounded by the arms of the Pacific. Remembering Dave's instructions, I lazily stick my hand into the wave, slowing, so I don't out run it yet.

There is green all around me, except the front of the tube. It is beautiful, glorious. It is better than anything.

If God exists, He is a surfer.

 

[goldytheGoldfish]

I'm 99.9% sure I'd use it for travelling. Now where to, you ask? Somewhere I've never been, maybe, and then travel back. You'd have to do it in stages to account for distance, but all the same. 18th century France is calling my name, I think.

You can become a volunteer editor for Literotica here. It's a lot of fun if you're into technical work and helps keep the gears turning.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Day 7: Something that makes you wish time travel was real
"Harlots" - an underappreciated tv series on Hulu. Not only was it an excellent show in its own right, but it was an absolute godsend for the corset and hosiery fetishists among us.

 

[curious_slut]

Day seven: Something that makes you wish time travel was real

I'd love to visit The Pyramid of the Magician in Uxmal as construction was wrapping up. It's a cool structure with a neat name but mostly I'm just curious to see what life was like prior to colonization. I don't actually know much about my ancestry on that side so whether or not my people were kicking it in Uxmal around 900 AD or any other time is anyone's guess but it feels right lol.

 

[curious_slut]

Day 7: Something that makes you wish time travel was real
"Harlots" - an underappreciated tv series on Hulu. Not only was it an excellent show in its own right, but it was an absolute godsend for the corset and hosiery fetishists among us.
View attachment 2325117

Harlots was soooooooo good! I forgot about this show. I don't think I watched the last season. One more thing to squeeze into my watchlist

 

[mpeters]

Oh I wish I’d seen this thread earlier, oh well!

Day 7: Something that makes you wish time travel was real

The Beatles’ live performances. As big a Beatles fan as I am, I will never be able to really experience what it was like to be there when the magic happened. Oh, I know the girls screaming drowned most of the music out, and at my age (even with long hair) I would probably be looked at as not to be trusted by young and old alike. I have seen some of be tribute bands, and they are great, but it’s not the same as this.

 

[curious_slut]

Day eight: Something that was created by one of your favorite artists

Horst P. Horst, Mainbocher Corset.

The way he used light and shadow in his work has always wowed me. Horst is possibly my favorite fashion photographer.
Linking this here for some more of his photos.

 

[mpeters]

Alex Ross is my favorite modern artist. His paintings are mostly comic book characters, and he has a way of distilling them to the core, and makes them immediately recognizable. His work is justly celebrated.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Day 8: Something that was created by one of your favorite artists

From Edward Gorey's "Gashlycrumb Tinies"

 

[curious_slut]

Day 8: Something that was created by one of your favorite artists

From Edward Gorey's "Gashlycrumb Tinies"

View attachment 2325705

My theory is that this book laid the groundwork for a lot of kids' eventual goth phase in high school

 

[UnquietDreams]

Day 7: Something that makes you wish time travel was real
Um, does doing this yesterday count? No? Fine.

I do not ascribe to the Great Man of History theory, or its variations, including that only great men, or heroes of old, can drive history. History is driven by all of us, incrementally.

That said...

Holy crap, the level of brilliance and political intelligence in the US Colonies leading up to the American Revolution is beyond belief. I have a complicated relationship with Thomas Jefferson, but even his worst enemies (and we'll get to one of them in a moment), granted his overpowering intellect. I have read everything he has written, including some early drafts, and the man knew so much, synthesized all of it, and could put it out in a form that would make Shakespeare weep. If only his convictions were as strong as his mind, this world would be a better place.

Then we get to his rival, Alexander Hamilton. Forget the play, read his writing. I have a complicated relationship with Hamilton as well, for different reasons. But lord, the man could write, not with Jefferson's brilliant prose, but with equally brilliant fire and passion. He wrote 51 of the 85 essays of the Federalist Papers, which were a lynch pin in getting the Constitution ratified. As the first Secretary of the Treasury, he created a financial system that saved the United States from an early death, and a system that even Jefferson as President couldn't break. Add in he was aide-de-camp to Washington and a fucking war hero (my favorite story is that at the Siege of Yorktown, Hamilton ordered his men to unload their guns so they wouldn't fire and tip off the British. He was too short to get out of the trench, so he had a grenadier, soldiers known for their size, get on all fours, so Hamilton could use him as a step. Then he got out and led his men in an attack everyone thought was doomed, and kicked ass.) Fiery, combative, brilliant, and had he been able to keep control of his dick, he probably would have been the third President.

Washington. Oh, Washington. The perfect man at the perfect time. Had he wanted to, he could have been king. Hamilton wanted him to be. Instead he did what he had to, when he had to. He led the nascent country, then, at the height of his power, stepped away to show what could be done.

Ben Franklin. Polymath. Diplomat. Inventor. First Postmaster General. One of the greatest minds of all time. Helped write the Decoration of Independence. Was only allowed to help, rather than write it himself, because it was feared, probably righfully, that he would writed hidden jokes into the document. Became an abolitionist, and fought for the integration and education of Black Americans into society. Helped save the US during the Revolution by securing French aid. And his trip home was funded by French Aristocrats who were tired of him diddling their wives. Franklin was a pimp.

Thomas Payne, John Jay and James Madison... I could go on. It was incredible that any of these men were in this place, at this time. All of them?

If time travel existed, this would be when I went.

 

[UnquietDreams]

Day 8: Something that was created by one of your favorite artists
Dante Gabriel Rossetti. One of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which became The Pre-Raphaelites as women got involved, including Dante's sister, Christina, a poet I love. Dante was a translator, poet, and artist. The Pre-Raphaelites wanted to use then modern methods to return to the abundant detail, intense colours and complex compositions of Quattrocento Italian art, especially that of Raphael and Michelangelo. (No, not the turtles.) They used poetic and mythic images for their compositions, including a lot of Arthurian and Shakespearean characters, as well as history and mimesis, the imitation of nature. But the movement was known mostly for their detailed, lush artwork. I love much of it, including later artists who called themselves Pre-Raphaelites, like Waterhouse or Edward Burne-Jones.

Here is my favorite Rossetti piece,La Ghirlandata, or The Garlanded Woman. I've linked a larger version.

This is the Brotherhood, in a nutshell, and one of my favorite paintings. (I also have a weakness for redheads...) .

 

[goldytheGoldfish]

 

[curious_slut]

Day 8: Something that was created by one of your favorite artists
Dante Gabriel Rossetti. One of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which became The Pre-Raphaelites as women got involved, including Dante's sister, Christina, a poet I love. Dante was a translator, poet, and artist. The Pre-Raphaelites wanted to use then modern methods to return to the abundant detail, intense colours and complex compositions of Quattrocento Italian art, especially that of Raphael and Michelangelo. (No, not the turtles.) They used poetic and mythic images for their compositions, including a lot of Arthurian and Shakespearean characters, as well as La Ghirlandatahistory and mimesis, the imitation of nature. But the movement was known mostly for their detailed, lush artwork. I love much of it, including later artists who called themselves Pre-Raphaelites, like Waterhouse or Edward Burne-Jones.

Here is my favorite Rossetti piece,La Ghirlandata, or The Garlanded Woman. I've linked a larger version.

This is the Brotherhood, in a nutshell, and one of my favorite paintings. (I also have a weakness for redheads...) .

View attachment 2325843

I love the Pre-Raphaelites They were slightly obsessed with redheads, no? Not that I blame them. Gingers are so cute

 

[curious_slut]

Day nine: Something that brings you comfort

I listen to the Loremen Podcast almost every night as I'm falling asleep. And yes, I have to rewind it 5 minutes every time I listen during full consciousness. The Lady of the Lake episode comes to mind as a particularly good one. I love Welsh folklore

 

[vagrantx]

Day eight: Something that was created by one of your favorite artists

John Bauer, my favorite Swedish painter, and possibly my favorite overall. Active around the dawn of the 20th century, he reignited the love for Swedish fairy tales among the population, and did so again to a little girl named V, almost a century after his death.

I'll let his art speak for itself.
(edited to add a better version of Troll Och Tuvstarr)

 

[UnquietDreams]

John Bauer, my favorite Swedish painter, and possibly my favorite overall. Active around the dawn of the 20th century, he reignited the love for Swedish fairy tales among the population, and did so again to a little girl named V, almost a century after his death.

I'll let his art speak for itself.

I love Bauer, I love this picture, and I bury myself in"fairy tales". They are breath to me.

"When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."

C.S. Lewis.

 

[vagrantx]

"When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."

Love that quote! Brings to mind that one by Picasso:

"It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."

Your inner child still needs hugs. Let them out to play as often as you can.

 

[curious_slut]

John Bauer, my favorite Swedish painter, and possibly my favorite overall. Active around the dawn of the 20th century, he reignited the love for Swedish fairy tales among the population, and did so again to a little girl named V, almost a century after his death.

I'll let his art speak for itself.
(edited to add a better version of Troll Och Tuvstarr)

So beautiful and whimsical! I've feel certain I've seen some of Bauer's art before but I need to go on a deep dive to make sure