Author: Abbey

Generally when one hears about a man-made object on the bottom of the ocean floor, particularly a work of art, one will assume that it made its way there by accident. And, in a typical art gallery, in an effort to minimize damaging effects on the artwork, signs are posted reading “do not touch” and “no food or drink.”  One artist, Jason deCaires Taylor is challenging these conventions in his underwater sculpture installations, although, unless you’re a fish the “do not touch” rule still applies.

Taylor’s sculptures function as anchors for artificial coral reefs – artificial in the sense that coral couldn’t develop on the locations before, because there were no surfaces stable enough to support its growth. In some of the installations, coral began to colonize the sculptures naturally, while in others, already damaged or fragmented pieces of coral were “planted” in holes in the sculptures to give them a chance at new life.

Ever-changing, each sculpture functions as a piece of “living” art – its appearance in a constant state of metamorphosis due to the organisms whose life it supports. In some of the pieces, coral growth appears sporadic and untamed, but in others, such as “La Jardinera del la Experanza” and “Hombre en Llamas,” it is clear that the artist had a fairly specific plan in mind for coral growth.

Along with his underwater pieces and utilizing the same artistic principles, Taylor has started to experiment with “living” art out of the water. His shore-bound installation consists of a hollowed out sculpture filled with soil, compost, and seeds. The piece is covered with holes that plant life may grow through, so the sculpture will be in a constant state of growth and change with the seasons.

If you would like to check out Taylor’s work for yourself, click here to be directed to his website.

Rules of etiquette have been plaguing mankind for centuries. It can be a daunting task to navigate the subtleties and intricacies of gentlemanly or ladylike behavior. One man, however, seems to have managed to pinpoint the art of being a gentleman in a list of currently 43 rules on his website titled “The Rules of a Gentleman,” which you can access here. This website’s guidelines range from heartfelt advice about love to comical suggestions of classy smoking habits to old classics such as holding the door open for a lady. The charmingly lighthearted manner of this website makes it a very enjoyable read, which one can only imagine will remain entertaining and perhaps even instructive as the list increases.

As enjoyable as this list of rules for a gentleman was, I was disappointed to discover that I could not find a comparable list for ladies, so I decided to try my hand at beginning such a list. Below are my attempts at a few rules of a lady.

*Note – Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple decades, you know that smoking is bad for your health, so don’t do it.*

I would love to hear your suggestions for more “rules of a lady.” Feel free to post them in the comments below.

A

More Fun: If you try to navigate to a nonexistent page on “The Rules of a Gentleman,” this message will display.  I thought it was quite clever.

Update: “The Rules of a Gentleman” website appears to have been deleted.  Sorry everyone.

Jane Austen’s novels have been captivating readers for two centuries now (Sense and Sensibility was first published in 1811), and I, like so many before me, am an unabashed Jane Austen addict. So, you can only imagine my excitement when I heard the English department was offering a course on Jane Austen this semester. Of course I signed up, and on an average day, the Jane Austen class is fairly typical, though still extremely enjoyable, but yesterday, the entire class got to attend the English Country Dance lesson we had been promised on the first day of class.

If you’ve ever read one of Austen’s novels, the importance of balls and dance is obvious.  Many of the most important social interactions and connections of her stories either take place or begin at a dance, and a character’s dancing expertise has a tendency to correlate with some aspect of his/her personality.  For example, Mr. Collins’ foolishness in Pride and Prejudice is emphasized by his terrible dancing at the Netherfield Ball, and Mr. Knightley’s chivalry is exhibited at a dance. While reading one of her novels, the reader can sense that dancing was supposed to be second-nature to the people of the time and that to dance poorly was a sign of bad breeding or poor manners.

In several movie adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels, English country dancing is depicted, and the actors always make it look so elegant and easy. This misconception is quickly combated, however, by just a few minutes of dance instruction. As a whole, my classmates and I managed to bumble our way through the dances we were taught, and even made it look like we knew what we were doing a time or two, but the truth of the matter is that though learning the dances was incredibly fun, they are nowhere near as easy as they appear in movies. The basic moves are fairly simple, but putting them all together and remembering which part you are supposed to play in a particular dance gets confusing very quickly.

Learning the basics of the dances that Jane Austen’s characters engage in so frequently gave me a new respect for this apparently simple social activity and since my own attempt at dancing was so atrocious, made me feel a little less judgmental of Mr. Collins’ poor dancing in Pride and Prejudice.

Libraries are some of the most fascinating places in the world.  There’s something about walking into a building full of books that opens the imagination when one visits for fun and helps one concentrate when one needs to work.  Recently on Stumbleupon I ran across this article which lists one blogger’s opinion on the most beautiful libraries in the world.  The libraries included range from old-style baroque buildings to much more modern strctures, and I have to agree with the writer that each of the included libraries is beautiful in its own way.

At the end of the post, there is a link to another list of beautiful libraries in the United States that is also worth checking out.  I was shocked though in this particular list that the Library of Congress wasn’t included.  However, it was fascinating to see other beautiful libraries in the country that are less well known.  It would be amazing to see some of these libraries in real life and explore their collections.

spring

It’s that time of year again – “Spring Break.” The unfortunate truth, however, for those of us who will be stuck in this state shaped like a piece of winter outerwear is that it is so Not Spring. Sure, there’s no homework for the next nine days, but there will still be cold and probably another several inches of snow. And, what Michigan winter would be complete without a full-fledged ice storm? Granted, I haven’t heard any reports of ice on the way, but when it comes to Michigan’s winter weather, I’m incapable of being an optimist.  All this boils down to one undeniable fact – I, and I’m guessing a few other Michiganders, am/are suffering from a severe case of Cabin Fever. The only thing standing between me and running around like a madwoman aiming my hairdryer at the snowdrifts outside my door is the knowledge that if I manage to hold onto my sanity and dignity through March, the sun is bound to shine a little more and the world to grow a little greener.

In a somewhat misguided attempt to make myself forget that it’s cold and grey outside, I decided to search for some poems about Spring. While I failed in happily reconciling myself to enduring another month of Winter, I did find a couple poems on poemhunter.com that I would like to share.

This first poem by Robert Seymour Bridges perfectly describes the feeling of waiting for the transition to Spring to occur:

Spring

While yet we wait for spring, and from the dry
And blackening east that so embitters March,
Well-housed must watch grey fields and meadows parch,
And driven dust and withering snowflake fly;
Already in glimpses of the tarnish’d sky
The sun is warm and beckons to the larch,
And where the covert hazels interarch
Their tassell’d twigs, fair beds of primrose lie.
Beneath the crisp and wintry carpet hid
A million buds but stay their blossoming;
And trustful birds have built their nests amid
The shuddering boughs, and only wait to sing
Till one soft shower from the south shall bid,
And hither tempt the pilgrim steps of spring.

~Robert Seymour Bridges

Spring

In it’s first stanza, this poem by Robert Frost calls for us to be happy when it is Spring and not to anxiously look forward to the Fall. While the situation here in Michigan now is not exactly the same, perhaps these first lines can be a source of inspiration for patience in our wait for the Spring.

Spring

A Prayer in Spring

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.

~Robert Frost

Spring

Have a wonderful Spring Break, and stay warm!

This is an amusing video I found on Yahoo news about a new men’s Levi’s jeans cut called the Ex-Girlfriend. The reporter in the video flippantly mocks the new fit and the men who would choose to wear them. I found it quite funny that discussion of the jeans was included in an “odd news” segment. When you consider some of the ensembles seen on high-fashion runways or the outfits worn by celebrities such as Lady GaGa or Helena Bonham Carter, super-skinny jeans are positively tame in the odd fashions department.

Skinny pants for men really aren’t a new phenomenon. In a cursory Google search of men’s fashions in the 1700s and 1800s, you can find multiple examples of “skinny” breeches. The image to the left, for example, is from 1795, and the man’s breeches look at least as tight as the “odd” Ex-Girlfriend jean. So, to lessen the “odd” factor, perhaps we should just think of the skinny jeans fit as an update on antique men’s breeches fashions.

I can’t help but wonder if the writers of this video segment have been hiding under a rock for the past several years. Skinny jeans have been cropping up in men’s fashions for quite a while. I remember seeing guys walking around my high school in skinny cuts (thus my amazement both at this being considered newsworthy and the “odd” label). Now if only the bulbous trunk hose of the Renaissance would come back into fashion, then they would really have a story . . .