A Fallen Angel and Artistic Irritation.

First up, a stunning Fallen Angel sculpture, from Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, who always produce phenomenal work, even when it does enter disturbing territory.

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I love this piece, the one disturbing aspect for me are the chicken wings. In my head, chicken wings belong on a chicken, not a person, angel or no. The rest of it is so beautifully done, and the angel being netted for public consumption is terribly poignant. I put this down as another win for Sun Yuan and Peng Yu. Visit their gallery.

For Angel, however, they left the controversy for the piece itself, and worked with mainly fiberglass, silica gel, and stainless steel to create the startlingly realistic body.

Via The Creators Project.

Moving on to the irritation: Christo. I’m not sure what it is exactly, that leaves me cold and highly irritated with most everything Christo has ever done, but his latest is no exception. It’s been making art headlines all over, all with the same stupid fucking theme: Walking on Water, Oooh! Aaargh. No. It’s walking on fucking piers, not walking on water. It’s a big, expensive, temporary bridge. Perhaps this is the core of what bugs me about Christo’s stuff – it’s all a cheat.

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Not impressed. Via The Creators Project (and every other art site).

By the Power of Grayskull…

there just might be a He-Man reboot.

Kellan Lutz.

Kellan Lutz.

Human thirst-trap Kellan Lutz tweeted about meeting with the filmmakers behind a reboot of Masters of the Universe, prompting the internet to subsequently geek the fuck out.  […] Hollywood has been trying to churn out a He-Man reboot for a while, with several directors and writers attached to the project, but it now seems like it’s finally got some momentum. McG, of Charlie’s Angels and early-00s music video fame, has been working on getting He-Man to the big screen and recently Lutz met with him and producer Mary Viola:

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Out has the full story.

Bodily Fluids Have Never Looked This Good.

Images courtesy of the artist.

Images courtesy of the artist.

An ecstatic mix of purples, greens, reds, and yellows flow in and out of one another in FLUID, a new series from Maggie West. Colored lights illuminate her subjects, globs of bodily fluid produced by modern-day renaissance man Christopher Zeischegg, with whom West recently entered a relationship. Better known by his former porn name, Danny Wylde, Zeischegg’s also an accomplished author and one-half of the metalcore duo Chiildren. Mixed in with the images of his blood, spit, and semen are snapshots of West’s own bodily fluids, recreating a chemistry on glass plates that’s usually only limited to the bedroom. Now, the full series appears exclusively on The Creators Project.

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“These body fluids are an essential part of both our biological makeup and the procreation process. They simultaneously have the power to transmit deadly diseases and create new life,” West tells The Creators Project. Her repertoire is a devoted study of sexuality in all its facets, from the female and male forms to a book that captures intimate kisses between couples. Unlike other examples of bodily fluid-turned-art, like Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ, Milo Moiré’s vaginal egg excretions, and Sarah Levy’s menstrual Donald Trump portrait, West’s photography doesn’t feel transgressive. “Through this series, I wanted to find an abstract way to examine the beauty of each substance,” she says.

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See more of Maggie West’s work on her website, and learn more about Christopher Zeischegg here.

The full story and images at The Creators Project.

Saint Reagan vs RNC.

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Former President Ronald Reagan’s son and namesake Ron Reagan is literally the poster-person against religion. While the younger Reagan has been doing ads on news channels for the Freedom from Religion Foundation, it will be his father’s words that will hover over the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio in July.

“We establish no religion in this country… Church and state are, and must remain, separate,” the billboard will read.

[…]

“The RNC needs to be reminded that our nation is predicated on a godless and entirely secular Constitution,” she said. “The fate of our Establishment Clause hangs in the balance of the election. We’re not voting for the next president — we’re voting for the next Supreme Court justice.”

The local chapter director, Marni Huebner-Tiborsky, agreed that the message is an important one for Republican leaders to remember. “This billboard couldn’t be any more timely, and is definitely needed to remind our political leaders and the public that political campaigns should stick to a secular platform, where real change can happen,” she says.

Full Story Here. While I do think this might turn some heads, I doubt it will make a serious impact at this late date in the game. I also think the current crop of repubs is simply too far gone to consider this seriously, although it will hurt to see St. Ronnie going against their constant screed.

Yes! Let’s kill adulterers too!

Pastor Steven Anderson (Screenshot/YouTube)

Pastor Steven Anderson (Screenshot/YouTube)

It looks like pulpit stomping pastor Steven Anderson has discovered the joy and limelight of pushing hate.  It’s easy enough to imagine he’ll do anything to stay in the limelight, too, but with Anderson, we know his views were absolutely repugnant before anyone knew who he was, and they remain that way. Seems that attempts to reason with Steve don’t work. Gosh, how surprising.

Others simply tried to reason with Steve by pointing out that the bible contains quite a list of “sins” other than homosexuality which were also punishable by death, including adultery.

In response, Anderson unapologetically says, Yes! Let’s kill adulterers too!

“Today, adultery is not punishable by law in the United States, but it should be.”

Of course there are rules, the King James-quoting pastor explains … adulterers must be tried and convicted before they’re put to death, and if America were to implement the Old Testament law, it wouldn’t be retroactive, so if you’ve already cheated, you’re safe so long as you don’t do it again.

Think about it, though. Do you really think as many people commit adultery in societies where it is punishable by death? Of course not … so you can relax about your Aunt Trudy who cheated on her husband thirty years ago. If Aunt Trudy had lived in a society that enforced the death penalty for adultery, chances are she would never have committed that sin in the first place.

Oh, those Quiverfull people, always so sensible. I have bad news for Steve though – cheaters will cheat, no matter what. People will end up falling for someone they aren’t married to, because these things happen to humans. You can make all the rules you want, it won’t stop humans from being human. Another human thing is that most people get this funny idea that they won’t get caught. Full story here.

Get Undressed and Work!

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Hat tip to rq for this one.

President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at the latest ‘all-Belarusian peoples gathering’ in June: “You know what to do, how to do it, and what goals to achieve. Everything is simple. Innovations, IT technology, privatizations, etc. – it’s all clear, we’ve done it.

“But all our life is in simple things: we should get [undressed] and work”.

In all probability, the president meant “Develop and work,” as the words sound very similar, ‘razviVAtsa’ and ‘razDEvatsa’, but who cares now?

This somewhat confusing comment led to the Belorussian equivalent of the hashtag #getnakedandgotowork trending in the country, and people did just that.

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Most comments went along the lines: “The leader says, we should.” We must say the Belorussian people do look good!

Via Delfi and RT.

Racism: The Divide is Black and White.

A Black Lives Matter demonstrator (Shuttershock)

A Black Lives Matter demonstrator (Shuttershock)

On Monday, Pew released the results of a survey showing that, eight years after Barack Obama was elected president, 61% of black people and 45% of white people say that race relations in America are “generally bad.” That’s compared with 59% and 34%, respectively, who had negative impressions of race relations in July 2008.

If you’re wondering why things have gotten so tense, Pew has also released a report that offers a possible explanation: namely, black people and white people see black people’s struggles completely differently.

The survey shows that black people overwhelmingly blame lower-quality schools and discrimination for why “some blacks have a harder time getting ahead than whites.”

A majority of white people, meanwhile, said that “family instability” and “lack of good role models” were chiefly responsible for the problems facing black communities. Only 36% blamed discrimination, and just 45% said that a “lack of jobs” was holding black people back.

In other words, while most black people think that higher levels of poverty and lower levels of economic mobility in their communities are the fault of America’s legacy of systematic racism and under-investment, more white people are content to blame black people themselves.

Here’s the key chart:

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There’s much more at Fusion, including the chart which shows that Republicans say there’s actually too much discussion about race in America.

This is mind-numbingly disheartening, that more and more, white people are simply turning their backs and declaring there’s no problem, really, if people would just stop making a thing out of race, well, no probs.