Builders install a deck at the popular Cave of the Winds attraction at Niagara Falls State Park, in Niagara Falls, New York. Construction is nearly finished on this year’s deck building at the base of the American Falls.: photo by James Neiss / The Niagara Gazette via AP, 4 May 2016
At the #MetGala, everyone seems a little starstruck - even the stars: image via NYT Fashion @NYTFashion, 4 May 2016
Man slaughtering an ox: Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1635-40, pen and brown ink, white body colour, 117 x 150 mm (Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich)
Hunting Still-Life (detail): Willem van Aelst, c. 1665, oil on canvas (Private collection)
The Slaughtered Ox: Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1655, oil on wood, 94 x 69 cm (Musée du Louvre, Paris)
At the Met Gala: Maria Sharapova: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
At the Met Gala: Maria Sharapova: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
Metropolitan
In the jungle of marble men and women
made of molten money
translated into slabs of slaughterhouse plasm --
you look at their grandly bared display arms
and think for the briefest moment of Aleppo burning
and then of raw viscera and dead game
painted by the Dutch --
the horror of the corporeal --
the old masters were right about these things --
cocktails with ancient sculpture at the met gala
feels like a visit to the oasis
a general view of escapism and denial
floated on everybody's offshore accounts --
in a way
you'd almost like to see their kind torn limb from limb,
their flesh gnawed by savage beasts --
and not a kind way.
At the Met Gala: Cocktails with ancient sculpture: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
At the Met Gala: Cocktails with ancient sculpture: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
Ghatkopar has become home to hundreds of farmers and their families who have flocked from the drought-hit Marathwada region of the Indian state of Maharashtra. They have travelled hundreds of kilometres in search of work and water.: photo by Subhash Sharma for The National, 4 May 2016
At the Met Gala: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Jason Statham: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
At the Met Gala: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Jason Statham: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
Women in the camp stack supplies on tree branches to avoid their being eaten by wildlife: photo by Subhash Sharma for The National, 4 May 2016
At the Met Gala: Anna Ewers and the designer Jason Wu: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
At the Met Gala: Anna Ewers and the designer Jason Wu: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
Women leave the camp to fetch drinking water: photo by Subhash Sharma for The National, 4 May 2016
At the Met Gala: From left, Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale and Marcus Wainwright: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
At the Met Gala: From left, Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale and Marcus Wainwright: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
Anusha Jadhav travelled to the camp with her husband, Dadarao, and their son, “We want to stay in Mumbai,” Anusha says. “Even if it rains, we don’t want to go back.”: photo by Subhash Sharma for The National, 4 May 2016
At the Met Gala: Ms. Byrne, left, and Selena Gomez: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
At the Met Gala: Ms. Byrne, left, and Selena Gomez: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
A general view of the ‘Temporary Drought Refugee Camp at Barvenagar’ on the outskirts of Mumbai: photo by Subhash Sharma for The National, 4 May 2016
At the Met Gala: from left, Bryan Lourd, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
At the Met Gala: from left, Bryan Lourd, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
At the Met Gala: A swirl of textures.: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
At the Met Gala: A swirl of textures.: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
A security guard sits next to an empty water tanker before it is refilled: photo by Subhash Sharma for The National, 4 May 2016
At the Met Gala: Circuit-board details: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
At the Met Gala: Circuit-board details: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
A woman sits on a terrace at Tiki hostel in Cantagalo favela, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Hostels in a few of Rio’s more than 1,000 slums serve not only as a cheap housing alternative for the more adventurous among the estimated 500,000 foreign tourists expected to arrive for the Olympics in August. The establishments also open up the rich culture of the city’s shantytowns for travellers, giving them a glimpse into once “no-go” areas where about one-fifth of Rio’s population lives.: photo by Pilar Olivares / Reuters, 4 May 2016
At the Met Gala: Feathered and curlicued: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
At the Met Gala: Feathered and curlicued: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
A souvenir hawker fans
herself behind a veil at her stall selling Mao Zedong souvenirs outside
the ‘Water Dripping Cave’ compound, where Mao Zedong stayed briefly for
11 days in 1966 and is thought to have contemplated the start of the
Cultural Revolution there in Shaoshan, Hunan Province in central China.: photo by
How Hwee Young / EPA, 4 May 2016
Jack Huston and Poppy Delevingne at the Met Gala: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
Jack Huston and Poppy Delevingne at the Met Gala: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016
#DropOutTrump #DropOutHillary BECAUSE YOU ARE THE SAME LIARS: image via J.L. @jmargera, 4 May 2016
Breaking: SFPD now mandated to carry 3-foot batons to respond to "homeless, person-in-crisis and non-firearm" calls: image via Joe Eskenazi @EskSF, 4 May 2016
Need a pick me up? Here's my friend and colleague @VivianHo interviewing an important looking man with a pop tart: image via Kale Williams @sfkale, 3 May 2016
The Republican Jewish Coalition congratulates Trump as presumptive nominee: image via Ben Jacobs @Bencjacobs, 4 May 2016
The hashtag #DropOutHillary is blowing up on @twitter and we applaud #Twitter for allowing users to tweet freely: image via SOCIALITE NATION @SocialiteNation, 4 May 2016 Beverly Hills, CA
"I think he's a butthole." -- Commenter on @realDonaldTrump in 1989: image via Jon Campbell @joncampbell, 4 May 2016
Not that there was much doubt - but Trump tells Lester Holt that the Muslim ban is very much an idea he stands by: image via Sopan Deb @SopanDeb, 4 May 2016
A Sotheby’s employee holds the Lesedi La Rona Diamond in New York City. The diamond the size of a tennis ball that is the largest discovered in more than a century could sell at auction for more than $70 million. Sotheby’s says it will offer the Lesedi la Rona diamond in London on 29 June.: photo by Pascal Perich, 4 May 2016
A Sotheby’s employee holds the Lesedi La Rona Diamond in New York City. The diamond the size of a tennis ball that is the largest discovered in more than a century could sell at auction for more than $70 million. Sotheby’s says it will offer the Lesedi la Rona diamond in London on 29 June.: photo by Pascal Perich, 4 May 2016
A woman walks past street art in Beirut, Lebanon: photo by Hassan Ammar/AP, 4 May 2016
A woman walks past street art in Beirut, Lebanon: photo by Hassan Ammar/AP, 4 May 2016
Fans dressed as movie Star Wars characters to celebrate on Star Wars Day in Taipei, Taiwan: photo by Chiang Ying-ying/AP 4 May 2016
Fans dressed as movie Star Wars characters to celebrate on Star Wars Day in Taipei, Taiwan: photo by Chiang Ying-ying/AP 4 May 2016
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump arrive to speak to supporters at Trump Tower in Manhattan following his victory in the Indiana primary: photo by Spencer Platt, 4 May 2016
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump arrive to speak to supporters at Trump Tower in Manhattan following his victory in the Indiana primary: photo by Spencer Platt, 4 May 2016
With his family by his side, Republican presidential candidate Sen.
Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks during his election night watch party at the
Crowne Plaza Downtown Union Station where he announced he was suspending
his bid for the Republican presidential nomination: photo by Scott Olson, 4 May 2016
With his family by his side, Republican presidential candidate Sen.
Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks during his election night watch party at the
Crowne Plaza Downtown Union Station where he announced he was suspending
his bid for the Republican presidential nomination: photo by Scott Olson, 4 May 2016
Stunning juxtaposition of images!
ReplyDeleteThank you, my friend. I know you've witnessed how these several overlapping discontinuous worlds that allegedly constitute the world we live in have begun more and more to grate and grind upon one another in passing, as might seismic faults or bits of bone. The aggravation and strain seem evident everywhere, even and perhaps especially in those places where customarily most carefully concealed.
ReplyDeleteTom, These picture pairings are the best commentary on our culture's elective myopia I can think of. Not to mention, how we got--or made--Trump. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteDavid
Magnificent post. Is it just me, or is some of this a bit disheartnening too? :)
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, Michael and David.
ReplyDeleteMy sense is that these days maybe more than one or two of us is wondering Is it just me?
Of course, maybe it's just us, wondering this.
But it is indeed more than a bit disheartening, and anyone who hasn't yet been wondering is probably going to be wondering sooner or later.
Possibly it's better not to know and not to wonder, all things considered.
It may be just The Shadow who's wondering if those shadows behind Poppy and Jack mean something.
Poppy and Jack don't seem to be wondering... yet.
Probably it's just the lighting.
There seem to be people who believe the Met is a respectable place.
Tom,
ReplyDelete"cocktails with ancient sculpture" at the Met Meat Market -- how bizarre . . . one hopes not to make "a visit to [such an] oasis" (not that one would be allowed entrance without such wardrobes, jewels and hairdos). Trumps + Clintons = Oligarchs United "Give me my scallop shell of quiet,/ My staff of faith to walk upon. . ."