What do we do tonight, Brain?

One of the best things that ever happened to me was during my trip to Venice 5 years ago. I had bought an all-inclusive ticket for all museums and exhibitions in the Piazza, and I was going through an exhibition of statuettes when I entered the next wing with paintings. The styles seemed somewhat familiar, but I couldn’t work out what was happening. Thankfully this incredible lady working at the exhibition saw that I was a bit confused and approached me to ask if I knew what this exhibition was. I said no, just that it had seemed interesting.

She explained that the reason why I might be confused is that I had entered the exhibition of Wolfgang Beltracchi from the end rather than the beginning. She then took me to the start and started explaining about him and his history. He has art forgeries in every style from medieval paintings to modern art and his forgery is not copying existing paintings but creating “lost paintings” that the artist might have painted or talked about painting but never did. He perfectly matched the artist style, composition, ideas, colours and medium. His materials were historically accurate and experts couldn’t determine that they were fakes.

And his wife Helene Beltracchi was incredible. She helped “backdate” paintings and provide evidence of their age. One of the things that stuck with me the most is this black and white photo, created with an old-time camera and medium and the photo itself was aged so carbon-dating couldn’t discover that it was a modern photo. It was of Helene, with her features slightly altered, dressed in an old-time, era appropriate dress with the painting in the background. can you imagine the level of dedication and the immense attention to detail required to so convincingly fake a photo to provide a reliable history of this painting existing for centuries? She helped him create fake history for a lot of his paintings.

I’ll never forget that exhibition. There were so many paintings, all of them in the styles of different artists, most of them verified by experts as genuine until his mistake with the white paint which prompted a much, much deeper examination by experts. I think the lady mentioned that they could still not forensically confirm that some paintings were fakes, but it’s been a while, I might be misremembering. I was just struck with awe at the sheer knowledge they must have of multitude of painters, not just their styles, but their lives and the way their minds worked. He painted scenes “they might have painted” and when you look at them, you could definitely see it. It hits especially hard when you have more than passing familiarity with the artist, their lives and struggles, their choices of mediums and themes. You can look at this painting and think, this is definitely created by []. It makes so much sense, it has that distinct flair and works incredibly well as a parallel to [], their earlier painting. It was indescribable. Can you imagine the skill required to back that knowledge up? To be able to perfectly mimic the styles of so many artists and be able to so accurately forge paints, brushes and canvas that experts verified them as genuine?

And he had his own original paintings as well. One of them struck a chord with me especially. It was a painting of storage rooms, storing thousands and thousands of paintings that the public doesn’t know of, because they’re the unpopular paintings, the paintings that never get exhibited, the forgotten paintings. I thought it was very poignant.

I love these people. They really did do it because they loved art, they loved playing around with art forensics, and they just had a blast. Seeing his gallery brought be such incredible joy and so many interesting things to think about. 10/10, would definitely recommend

i love this beyond the telling of it art forgery art history forgery story time make art goddammit

covington-shenanigans

what-even-is-thiss

Cory Booker has been talking in the senate for over 20 hours now

He’s not filibustering. He’s protesting the current administration.

what-even-is-thiss

For those of you from outside the US or those of you who didn’t pay attention in government class, in the US senate there’s really no limit to the amount of time a senator can speak. So sometimes if they don’t want a bill to pass they just. Don’t stop talking. To hopefully get past the deadline to vote on a bill. This is called filibustering.

Senator Cory Booker isn’t doing that. He’s disrupting “the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able”. Just in protest. This doesn’t usually happen.

what-even-is-thiss

He’s less than 20 minutes away from breaking the record of the longest speech given on the senate floor

what-even-is-thiss

Cory Booker has officially broken Strom Thurmond’s record for longest speech on the senate floor and he’s still going

what-even-is-thiss

For those of you wondering what he’s been talking about this whole time, his staff wrote down a bunch of stuff for him to read like stories from people across the political spectrum opposed to what the administration is doing. He’s also been telling personal anecdotes about meeting important civil rights leaders and other democratic senators have been pausing him for “questions” but the questions have been as long as a small speech and have both served the purpose of giving him a second to sit down and updating him on the news that he’s been missing while he’s been talking.

what-even-is-thiss

He has yielded the floor at 25 hrs and 4 mins. His eyes are so wide they look like they’re going to bug out of his skull so I don’t blame him for stopping. He said to go out and get in some good trouble.

geekandmisandry

This is the kind of bullshit that I'm so sick of fellow leftists doing. I'm not saying never push for more, but there is a defeatist attitude in shitting on anything vaguely positive will not offering a single positive thought or alternative.

All it does it deflate energy, it serves absolutely no purpose that I can see.

Nothing about it being better late than never, let's see what other democrats will put out, not is being a good start but still pushing for more. No, just shitting on the effort and anyone who feels any kind of hope from it.

Do not let people convince you that resistance of any kind is futile. You can say it is not enough and you want more, but anyone who acts like this is a psy-op or a defeatist fool and should either way be tuned out to avoid being the energy vampire that they want to be.

If you were powerless, they wouldn't be scared of you and trying every trick in the book to strip your vote or buy votes, and they are.

And despite that, Susan Crawford just won in Wisconsin, despite Musk buying votes.

geekandmisandry

See, this person doesn't actually DO anything. "Organising with socialists" is not a plan, by the way. That means nothing.

I checked their blog, they hadnt been to protests, didn't have any bills or petitions they wanted someone to sign, had no action plans about resistance only ideas.

This is exactly the kind of person I mean. They have no action of their own and they will have a billion reasons why. They might use some form of marginalisation to justify it, a disability, their location.

They do not haveany plan, just a certainty that the Democrats are not the answer. They aren't going to pick up arms, they are not going to organise or join a group to try and change the system. They are just going to say that the Democrats are not the answer.

Do the Democrats fit MY personal politics? Lol. No. Not even Bernie fit me.

But they are the only party that does exist to oppose the Republicans. That's it. If you won't invest in them then you better have a better plan without them. And you don't.

All people like this do is say it isn't enough and they want more. They are energy vampires and feckless cunts who do NOTHING to advance anything and shit on literally any positive news for not being enough.

Have Democrats been effective? Lol, no. Again.

But will I celebrate anything they do to take some kind of accountability? Yes. Yes, I will.

I will also celebrate the irony of a man protesting the Civil Rights act being overtaken in his longest speech record by a black man who is pointing out the lack of civil rights in the current administration.

Is it "enough"? No. But is it NOTHING? Also no.

And I want leftists in the US to feel as energised as possible. Because we are the group that suffers from burnout and thinks it is all pointless, and they are the ones that just keep marching forward.

That is how they took Row v Wade. Step by tiny, tiny step. They inched closer and closer and it took them DECADES. But they never gave up.

That is how a lot of progress happens.

Look, I'm all for radical action. But if you aren't going to be part of the radical action then suck it up and embrace your new "liberal centrist" action plan of get out the vote, letter writing, petitions and finding out when ALL your local and state elections are. Voting local is so, so fucking important.

It is literally so important that if you are reading this now and you DONT know when your next local election is, then I beg you to go and google it now, find out.

The republicans are trying to support Trump and Doge locally and it is wildly unpopular and voting them out locally has a huge fucking impact.

Also, carry wire cutters, a sharpie and a screw driver if you want to keep your eyes out for civil disobedience opportunities, it especially can help for defacing or sabotaging anti-homeless installations.

One act is never enough on its own, what is needed is millions of little acts. It is the momentum. Build it. You can't do that if you pay attention to energy vampires who tell you that things don't mean anything and that efforts need to be more while they make none.

labelleizzy

@covington-shenanigans tags passed peer review

dibbersify

snootchie-mcsnootchface

Marisha Ray: rock bottom is a good place to be

Brennan Lee Mulligan: theoretically you could also move laterally to a different area of rock bottom

dibbersify

cannibalchicken

got me giggling and shit

bluedelweiss

guerrillatech

ladyshinga

wizardarchetypes

I've noticed more and more in public bathrooms that people skip the handwash and just take a squirt of hand sanitizer from wall dispensers on the way out. hand sanitizer is NOT effective against most things that come out of your ass and live in public bathrooms. i'm begging y'all. please. please please please please please use the soap. i'm out here immunosupressed fighting for my life to not get naturally selected while people touch a public toilet handle and walk back to their table to immediately eat a burger

jenroses

seriously wash your hands, alcohol is less effective than soap and water for getting rid of a lot of crap.

bluedelweiss

atalana

the curse of adhd:

i will remember with absolute clarity, when the thought strikes me that i have a text to send someone, that this is the fourth time in three days i've attempted to send this specific text
i will forget, in the time it takes me to pick up my phone, that i picked it up intending to send a text

xenasaur

this is something that I think a lot of people don't understand abt adhd. and like. this shit can get scary, especially if it happens often. I hate that I can't remember what I'm doing for the entire time it takes me to do it. I hate having to pause in the middle of conversations to desperately attempt to re-trace my train of thought because I don't remember what we're talking about. like. if you don't have adhd. just try to imagine what it's like to be unable to carry out a full conversation. try to imagine your memory resetting at random intervals. what are you doing right now? do you know? because often times, I fucking Forget. in the middle of doing things. and then I'm just standing there like an idiot desperately trying to wave away the thick fog that exists in my brain 24/7. and sometimes that shit just doesn't work. and I forget for good. it's terrifying. to me, at least.