“Remapping Africanness” by Anouar Majid on the complicated understanding of Arabs in Africa, giving an interesting example of sportscasters during the African Cup of Nations. “I almost got in trouble when I first came to New York in 1983 for insisting to an offended Jamaican that I was African. Obviously puzzled that a non-black could make such a claim, the Caribbean man became openly hostile, even though we were in an academic setting. But I was no less confused by his response—a native of Jamaica, a country on the American continent, was denying me the right to be from Africa, the landmass that includes my native Morocco. It was, to say the least, an odd scene. Bystanders, mostly white, were amused by the dispute because they, too, had their own understanding of Africa based on their own history with race.” (via.)
Until 1948, Olympic medals went out for “oil painting, sculpture, architecture, music and literature.” (via.)
“She’s like part ballerina, and part assassin. From the moment I saw her, I had visions of her dressed up like Marlon Brando in The Wild One… I imagined all of the competing gymnasts in a reform school exploitation flick, with Shawn as the good girl who doesn’t really belong there, and Nastia as the leader of the pack who teaches her it’s better to be bad.” – Karina Longworth on gold medal winning Nastia Liukin.
Steven Popkes posts about Nature’s documentary on the Antikythera mechanism, and the machine’s relevance to the Olympics: “The Games had to happen every four years on the full moon closest to the summer solstice. Now, let’s think about that. This machine related the lunar cycle to the solar cycle– two cycles that have no natural connection…. [it] had to figure out solstices, full moons, etc., in relationship to one another, with nothing but rods and gears. And it does it beautifully.” Last year, the New Yorker had a long article about its significance. More in todays NYT.
Graffiti in the Wilderness: Rock Climbing in a Granite Museum
Yesterday afternoon, my father took my sister and me out rock climbing in the Quincy Quarries. He has climbed nearly every weekend for the past seven years. My sister never had, and I’d only climbed indoors and that was a few years ago.
The rocks in this suburban Boston climbing park are completely covered in graffiti, unfortunate as it makes the surface slippery and more difficult to grip. Visually though, it is interesting.
We think of graffiti as an urban thing. And nature as something separate. But the nature that exists not too far from the city is usually a pale substitute. Graffiti is always found in transportation centers — subways, trains, bus stations — the stations, the bathrooms, or the cars themselves. Marking a place you’ve been and don’t intend to return for a sense of permanence.
But we also unintentionally leave traces of ourselves in the near wilderness. Maybe JG Ballard’s themes are the concerns of children. As a child in suburbia, the same woods that seemed so expansive, contained random traces of civilizations like long abandoned rusty tricycles with the tires removed and moss growing over the handles. Trash and shattered glass, a bobby pin, a sock, a condom wrapper — the outside world is rarely experienced as something pristine — people always leave something behind. This may be why the longer you live in the city, the more likely you are to shun nature entirely. It is never as pure as you imagine it to be.
Rock climbers become obsessed with the surface textures, not unlike how in bicycling you are much more aware of little bumps or pieces of gravel in the road. It is similarly an individual’s journey and an intellectual sport. Just like you dodge the cars on your bike, you need to think about where to position yourself and how to grip. I wouldn’t be surprised if this were to become a fad the way biking is now.
Plus, it’s emotional. It’s fear rather that physical exhaustion that prevents me from ascending any higher than 20 feet. When we visited my grandmother a half-hour later for blueberry pie and ice cream, I was still feeling the rush. My hand was shaking as I lifted my fork like I had too much coffee.
In May, I read the quarries were cleaned of graffiti in order to film a Tina Fey movie. Can they really clean the paint off? Or do you paint the rocks granite grey?
Anyway, they didn’t do much of a job. I can’t imagine this much graffiti only collected in the two months since. But I’m not complaining. If only it were less haphazard — really beautiful work that respects it’s surrounding, and is mindful of those good nooks climbers need to get their feet in. Like, what I wrote about tagging houses, if only it were work as good as Swoon, Imminent Disaster, Conor Harrington, Armsrock… If the rocks will be covered with paint, why not graffiti that’s really great? The state could turn it into a legal graffiti park and maybe attract real talent. Think of it as an induced-Stendhal Syndrome.
Quincy quarries images by The Urban Pantheist, art by Swoon
Previously:
Urban Safaris: Graffiti Sites Considered for Heritage Protection
With Speed Graphic Cameras, Art is a Crime [Scene]
Related links:
- Quincy Quarry Panorama
- The Battle Over Central Park, New York magazine.
Martin Creed’s “Work No.850″ at the Tate Duveen sculpture gallery in London involves a runner in athletic attire sprinting through the gallery every 30 seconds. (via.)
“According to a recent study in the Journal of Orthopaedic Sports Physical Therapy, the annual injury rate at classical ballet companies ranges from 67 percent to 95 percent. And those are just the injuries in which (dancers) had to take a day off,’ says Dr. Nancy Kadel, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of California, San Francisco… unlike professional sports teams, many classical ballet companies don’t have the money for on-site doctors and physical therapists.” – Hartford Courant. (via.)
“Fixies” your sport is actual a fetish. Momus on the NYTimes design blog compares fixed-gear bike snobbery to an art movement. “You could almost see cycling, and its attendant aesthetic, as ’something worth dying for.’” More on his website.
Last month, ESPN magazine had a cover feature on prosthetic advances, referring to Oscar Pistorius’ unjust ban from the Olympics and that fact so many wounded Iraq solders are athletes. “In Chariots of Fire, the hero comes under heavy scrutiny for using his era’s version of steroids: a coach, at a time when the sport frowned upon outside assistance. So if we can adjust rules of sports to the time, why not for prosthetics?” (via.) UPDATE: Great news! Pistorius won his appeal today and will be running in the Olympics.
“There are ethical ways to train and ride horses, but the competitiveness going on in all parts of the industry these days is pretty horrifying. Thoroughbred race horses are “backed” (first ridden) at one and a half years of age, raced at 2. Derby horses are 3 years old. In other disciplines, most horses aren’t ridden at all until they are at least 3 years old. [Eight Belles] broke down because she was a big baby.” – Audacia Ray. “Their bone skeletons seem to be getting lighter and frail,” says Sally Jenkins, “Is Horse Racing Breeding Itself to Death?”
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