Models at a Fashion Institute of Technology show wore a pair of oversize lips and blown-up “monkey” ears. Credit… Bennett Raglin/Getty Images For Fashion Institute of Technology.
Mr. Huang said the intent of his show was to explore the beauty in body parts that we don’t appreciate — a thesis that stemmed from his feeling of embarrassment about his crooked finger, which he said he always hides in public.
“The accessories used during the show were intended to be reflections of my own body features and perceptions of their enlarged proportions, which should be celebrated and embraced. They are not ugly features,” he said.
(Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura, “F.I.T. Model Refuses to Wear ‘Clearly Racist’ Accessories,” NYTimes, 2-23-19)
Illuminated skyscrapers in Heihe can be seen from almost everywhere in Blagoveschensk. Credit… Davide Monteleone for The New York Times.
… Regardless of where the virus comes from, he added, Russia has nothing to fear: “Two hundred grams of vodka will kill any virus.” (Russian Aleksandr Kozhin, who lives in Heihe, China, across the Amur River from Blagoveshchensk, Russia)
(Andrew Higgins, “On Russia-China Border, Life and Commerce Frozen by Coronavirus,” NYTimes, 2-24-20)
Amid the racks of guns at the Shot Show, many people were saying that the firearms industry should embrace a more inclusive marketing strategy, if it wants to broaden its reach. Credit… Lisa Marie Pane/Associated Press.
“What I’m not going to show is a guy, with one hand, just jacking it up in the air…” (Jeremy Flinn, of Stone Road Media marketing agency, referring to military-style rifles)
(Tiffany Hsu, “Gun Makers Battle ‘Trump Slump’ With a Softer Sales Pitch,” NYTimes, 2-23-20)
Photograph: François Lochon/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images.
“I’m OK but I have diarrhoea.” (Said to be Warhol’s common answer to a routine “How are you?”)
(Kathyrn Hughes, “Warhol by Blake Gopnik review — sex, religion and overtaking Picasso,” theguardian.com, 2-22-20)
‘I lift my skirt to oppression and dishonesty’ … a cast from Sarah Lucas’s Power in Woman exhibit at the Sir John Soane’s Museum in London. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian.
This article is about Catherine Blackledge, author of “The Story of V” (2003), which “explores the vagina from a scientific and historical perspective.” It introduces me to the word and the tradition of anasyrma — “the centuries-old gesture of lifting one’s skirt to display female genitalia and ward off evil.”
“Most parents in the UK choose to use vaginal euphemisms such as flower, tuppence, fairy, bits or front bottom… If the UK wants a new non-anatomical word, my vote is for verenda. It’s an old word for the vagina and means ‘the parts that inspire awe or respect’. Grace, gravitas and a great provenance combined.”
(Alison Flood, “‘Vagina is not a rude word’: the scientist fighting to empower women, one word at a time,” theguardian.com, 2-20-20)
A model walks the runway wearing Junkai Huang during the Fashion Institute of Technology’s runway show how [sic] on 7 February in New York. Photograph Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for Fashion Institute of Technology.
It might be nice if schools of fashion were insulated from the culture so as to indulge in questionable tomfoolery on the runway with impunity, but it isn’t so. Every so often a mess is stepped in. Someone in charge must then wipe off their Ferragamos and exhibit contrition over unintended consequences, misperceived perceptions, intentions gone awry, etc.
Following an online outcry over the event, Joyce Brown, president of the Fashion Institute of Technology, said she recognized there was an “unfortunate and disturbing reaction to the use of exaggerated ears, lips and eyebrows… Regrettably, we failed in this instance to recognize a creative statement that could have negative consequences.”
This is the standard simulacrum of apology. It calls the reaction unfortunate and not the stimulus. “I’m sorry you’re upset by what I did” isn’t the same thing as being sorry for doing it.
A uniquely forthcoming apology was uttered by Jonathan Kyle Farmer, chair of the modern fine arts fashion design course which ran the show.
“… I now fully understand why this has happened… I take full responsibility and am committed to learning from this situation and taking steps to do better.”
(Oliver Milman, “New York fashion college apologizes for runway show criticised as ‘clearly racist’,” the guardian.com, 2-20-20)
“Early Moon,” 2019. Oil on canvas. Credit… Matthew Wong Estate and Karma, New York.
Matthew Wong took his life on October 2, 2019, in Edmonton, Alberta. He was 35. His obituary in the NYTimes described him as “a promising self-taught painter whose vibrant landscapes, forest scenes and still lifes were just beginning to command attention and critical acclaim.”
His mother, Monita (Cheng) Wong, said Mr. Wong was on the autism spectrum, had Tourette’s syndrome and had grappled with depression since childhood… In a telephone interview, she spoke of his sense of isolation, and of his struggles with depression. “He would just tell me, ‘You know, Mom, my mind, I’m fighting with the Devil every single day, every waking moment of my life.’”
“Winter’s End,” 2019. Oil on canvas. Credit… Matthew Wong Estate and Karma, New York.
Mr. Wong’s paintings also synthesize from Chinese landscape painting, Van Gogh, Vuillard, Milton Avery, Alex Katz and Lois Dodd. But his brush strokes convey their own sense of urgency and speed, which downplays mastery for the sake of direct communication.
And Mr. Wong took equal inspiration from natural forms — leaves, trees, their branches, grass, stones, bushes — translated them into a his own vocabulary of semiabstract strokes and shapes.
Sources Neil Genzlinger, “Matthew Wong, Painter on Cusp of Fame, Dies at 35,” NYTimes, 10-21-19. Roberta Smith, “A Final Rhapsody in Blue From Matthew Wong,” NYTimes, 12-24-19.
The mirror-walled downstairs bathroom, one of Armstrong’s favorite rooms in the house, includes a marble bathtub, gold-plated swan fixtures and Rococo-inspired sconces above a carved marble sink created from an antique French birdbath. Credit… Chris Mottalini.
“Leave It All Behind Ya.” (Slogan printed on photos of himself sitting on the toilet that Louis Armstrong would send to his fans.)
Some days everything I read tastes good and I succumb to a shameful quotation binge.
“This wasn’t the pot calling the kettle black. This was a six-burner Wolf range calling the dorm-room hot plate a stove.” (Frank Bruni)
“Biden hitched up his sock suspenders and performed, for once, with unflagging verve.” (Will Wilkinson)
“Her bangs weren’t shaking, but she spent much of the night on the ropes as she sparred with a pot-stirring Pete.” (Maureen Dowd)
“… Needed to stop and frisk himself for a good answer on all his N.D.A.s…” (Maureen Dowd)
“It is not my attraction that needed to be questioned, it is his.” (Vanessa Springora)
Gucci Fall 2020. Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times.
A word on fashion from Vanessa Friedman, then I’ll pipe down.
“… Max Mara’s pinstriped Aqua-execs, in their ruffle-scale-sleeve navy, beige and brown suiting, rope-belted high-tide trousers and whale-size puffers.”
“… Where Luke and Lucie Meier gracefully balanced pristine monochromatic tailoring and a curvaceous classicism in a silent pantomime of communion between opposites…”
“Whether you worship on the altar of fashion or roll your eyes in horror and sacrilege at the metaphor, dressing is itself a kind of minor daily ritual, and clothes are what we all wear to perform our lives. A fashion show has always been, and still is, the most concentrated reminder of that.”
Sources Frank Bruni, “Despite His Billions, Bloomberg Busts,” NYTimes, 2-20-20. New York Times Opinion, “Winners and Losers of the Democratic Debate,” 2-20-20. Valentine Faure, “France Gets Its Weinstein Moment, NYTimes,” 2-20-20. M. H. Miller, “Louis Armstrong, the King of Queens,” NYTimes, 2-20-20. Vanessa Friedman, “Gucci Declares the Death of the Fashion Show Greatly Exaggerated,” NYTimes, 2-20-20.
“The woman, Ingrid Escamilla, 25, was stabbed, skinned and disemboweled…”
“Look, I don’t want the topic to be only femicide… This issue has been manipulated a lot in the media… I ask feminists, with all due respect, not to paint the doors, the walls. We are working so that there are no femicides… That is why the participation of citizens is important. If there hadn’t been a Revolution, we wouldn’t have the 1917 Constitution.” (President Andrés Manuel López Obrador)
(Kirk Semple and Paulina Villegas, “The Grisly Deaths of a Woman and a Girl Shock Mexico and Test Its President,” NYTimes, 2-19-20)
President Trump with Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, center, and the Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos in 2017. Credit… Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images. [Source: Kara Swisher, “The Epic Battle Between Trump and Bezos Is On,” NYTimes, 2-18-20]
Acronyms lend dignity and swagger to the entities or concepts they miniaturize. They attach like decals or tattoos to virtually every American institution, whether it be political, medical, corporate, military, legal, educationist or digital. It’s no accident that names are often created with a view to the acronyms they form, which makes them tendentious, forged shortcuts.
Take, for example, the ten-billion-dollar, ten-year, cloud computing project for the Defense Department called the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure project: JEDI.
I’ve tried to parse the name semantically with little certainty. “Joint” means “combined.” So the JEDI project is a project for:
(a) infrastructure whose purpose is to defend combined enterprises?
(b) infrastructure built by combined enterprises whose purpose is defense?
(c) infrastructure created for the benefit of both “enterprise” and the Defense Department?
(d) none of the above?
No matter. What’s important is that it spells JEDI, which has a sought-after vibe (unlike, say, SNAFU and CHAOS).
A 1976 drawing by Fatima Meer that she made while doing time in a women’s jail during South Africa’s apartheid era… Credit… Constitution Hill Museum Collection.
This is an article about drawings made by persons who were in prison. They were featured in an exhibition at the Drawing Center that ran through January 5, 2020. Author Jillian Steinhauer quotes cartoonist Lynda Barry, who sounds the familiar theme that we all draw as children and grow away from it subsequently.
In the opening of her new book, “Making Comics,” the cartoonist and MacArthur fellow Lynda Barry reminds her adult readers that they made art when they were young, even if they self-consciously stopped doing so long ago. “There was a time when drawing and writing were not separated for you,” she writes. “We draw before we are taught.”
(Jillian Steinhauer, “Prison Art: A Dark Place Where the Muse Never Leaves,” NYTimes, 12-12-19)
Miné Okubo rubbed charcoal on paper to create “Untitled (Mother Bending Over Child),” circa 1942-44. Credit… Japanese American National Museum.
“Walled City,” made by Abdualmalik Abud in 2015. He spent almost 15 years at Guantánamo Bay, and drew this cityscape from memory. Credit… Abdualmalik Abud.
The “science of reading” approach is based on phonics, which sounds out the letters of words: Bit. Buh! Ih! Tuh!
The “balanced literacy” approach believes “exposing students to the likes of Dr. Seuss and Maya Angelou is more important than drilling them on phonics.”
One of the most popular reading curriculums in the country — used in about 20 percent of schools… was developed by Lucy Calkins, a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is widely admired for her emphasis on helping students develop a love of reading and writing. (Dana Goldstein, “An Old and Contested Solution to Boost Reading Scores: Phonics,” NYTimes, 2-15-20)
Drills versus exposure. Science versus love. There’s no doubt which should prevail.
In teaching Spanish I learned to avoid grammar and drills in favor of instilling in students a passion for traveling abroad. I helped them imagine the many scenarios — airports, restaurants, taxicabs — in which they would spontaneously utter, “Do you speak English?”
In like manner the U.S. Army trains platoons to parade in flawless formation using an approach called “balanced marching.” Sergeants renounce drills; instead, they foster in new recruits a love of rhythmic walking and synchronized motion.
When exposure and love replace science and drills, almost anything you can imagine virtually teaches itself.
Gucci men’s, fall 2020. Credit… Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times.
[Subheading] Whether designers acknowledge it or not, World War II still shapes their collections. Even at Gucci. (Guy Trebay, “At Milan Men’s Week, the War Lives On,” NYTimes, 1-15-20)
I can’t resist marveling at the look of this Gucci lineup and quipping that the plaid background pulls it all together! The models evoke for me waifs who have had to dumpster-dive for remnants and cast-offs in order to clothe themselves.
High fashion is a mysterious and perplexing world to me. I enjoy keeping an eye on it, not to ridicule — that’s simplistic and counter-productive — but to see where it points. How do designers develop their ideas and make their choices? In what ways is World War II reflected here? I would love to converse with a Gucci insider to find out.
EthicalDative 
Crooked Finger, Vodka, and Other Shebangs
Mr. Huang said the intent of his show was to explore the beauty in body parts that we don’t appreciate — a thesis that stemmed from his feeling of embarrassment about his crooked finger, which he said he always hides in public.
“The accessories used during the show were intended to be reflections of my own body features and perceptions of their enlarged proportions, which should be celebrated and embraced. They are not ugly features,” he said.
(Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura, “F.I.T. Model Refuses to Wear ‘Clearly Racist’ Accessories,” NYTimes, 2-23-19)
… Regardless of where the virus comes from, he added, Russia has nothing to fear: “Two hundred grams of vodka will kill any virus.” (Russian Aleksandr Kozhin, who lives in Heihe, China, across the Amur River from Blagoveshchensk, Russia)
(Andrew Higgins, “On Russia-China Border, Life and Commerce Frozen by Coronavirus,” NYTimes, 2-24-20)
“What I’m not going to show is a guy, with one hand, just jacking it up in the air…” (Jeremy Flinn, of Stone Road Media marketing agency, referring to military-style rifles)
(Tiffany Hsu, “Gun Makers Battle ‘Trump Slump’ With a Softer Sales Pitch,” NYTimes, 2-23-20)
“I’m OK but I have diarrhoea.” (Said to be Warhol’s common answer to a routine “How are you?”)
(Kathyrn Hughes, “Warhol by Blake Gopnik review — sex, religion and overtaking Picasso,” theguardian.com, 2-22-20)
(c) 2020 JMN