#Gary McDonald | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dianessunflower · 1 year

Text

Art in The Good Fight (2017-2022) - Part 2

part 1 here:

this part 2 is mostly about s6, because i think you can really track what the art is doing for story and character. so, let's get into it!!

still mad the new partner Ri'Chard took away this beauty, but they're forgiven for 603's art history references.

in the scene with the Dr, Diane mentions Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, originally attributed to Pieter Bruegel the Elder (oil on canvas, c. 1560). it's in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels.

this is absolutely fascinating, because the composition of the painting is original—to give prominence to the 'low' subject matter, being the agricultural figure, rather than Icarus, to whom Diane is drawn. this is called 'Mannerist inversion' (yes i screamed, i'm a nerd).

this piece is brilliantly used this ep. Icarus, small, drowns unnoticed by everyone else. death happens all the time, and we move on. i'm reminded of Diane's sane little corner. the world is oblivious to the tragedy of hubris, concerned only with themselves. seems apocalyptic...

which leads me to my next point. behind the Dr is a Jean Andran engraving of a painting called Winter, part of a Seasons series now in the Louvre by Nicolas Poussin from the 1660s. and what does it depict? the flood. 100% premonition of impending death.

i love that *someone* has done their NY homework and seen that Guggenheim Hilma af Klint exhibit (i am not jealous at all), because also in the Dr's office is af Klint's Tree of Knowledge, No. 5 (Kunskapens träd, nr 5), from the 1915 W Series.

for various reasons, af Klint was for a long time ignored in favour of Kandinsky, Mondrian, Kupka etc in modern Western nonrepresentational art (also her queerness 🍵). her work has two overlapping levels, one biographical and one relating to the history of humanity.

the Tree of Knowledge series is part of her series of 193 Paintings for the Temple, which was af Klint's vision for the future as given to her by a spiritual medium, to depict 'the immortal aspects of man'. hence, she uses iconography from Christianity and Hinduism.

each piece in the Tree of Knowledge series is a variation on a theme, a tree with a heart-shaped crown. and there's a progression to the biblical allusion to Genesis symbolising innocence to fall from Grace, but there are also organic forms and ornate details.

the Tree of Knowledge (of Good and Evil) is usually paired with the

symbol of the Tree of Life, and in af Klint's work, signals binaries melding into unity. but the tree also signals Buddhism (the fig tree), the Tau/life force, the Arasa Maram in Hinduism.

the colours have meaning, yellow for female and blue for male. put them together and it becomes green, and the colours have become purer. this is No. 5, so the white radiations that were pale rose-coloured in No. 4 are now inverted.

af Klint probably knew Rudolf Steiner's colour meanings—yellow as spirit, blue as soul. green as the lifeless image of the living, peach-blossom the living image of the soul. white as the soul's image of the spirit, black as the spiritual image of the lifeless (cf swans).

the 12 sections in the top lotus leaf crown seem to represent the zodiac, months. also, there's a multi-coloured, lobed 'cross' in the small box middle-right, which maybe suggests the first awakening of the higher self?? compare this to the unity of colourful two birds in the bottom circle. there's a lot to be said about how this art represents how humans navigate their smallness in the world.

as seen on 604 in Diane's office, this is Street Musicians, by the American artist Norman Lewis (oil on canvas, 1948). part of the post-war movement.

from 605, i have identified some of the pieces Ri'Chard chose for the office, and they were clearly chosen for reasons. (unfortunately i couldn't find Liz's but i love the home decor and don't doubt this was also carefully chosen.)

this is by Kara Walker, known for room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes. her work illustrates the origins & legacy of slavery in the American South. i suspect there's a Civil War reference too. the 1994 piece riffs on Gone With The Wind (MOMA).

i really love this one. this is Holy Mountain II by Horace Pippin, a self-taught artist post WW1. he was influenced by Edward Hicks, a Quaker minister who painted interpretations of Isaiah’s biblical prophecy of world peace and harmony in nature (Peaceable Kingdom, c 1830-32).

though the gatherings seem tranquil, the Holy Mountain series is very dark. poppies, soldiers, grave markers, a limp body hanging from a tree... Holy Mountain I refers to D-Day, Holy Mountain II to Pearl Harbor Day, & Holy Mountain III (Smithsonian) to Nagasaki.

so there are parallels between WW1/Civil War, but it is also very Eden-esque. i rather like that the pastoral figure in a white dress with the yellow cheetah is the centre focus. all very biblical, which fits right in with Ri'Chard's style. Pippin himself stated that,

"'Holy Mountain' came to my mind because the whole world is in such trouble, and in reading the Bible (Isaiah 11:6) it says that there will be peace in the land. If a man knows nothing but hard times he will paint them, for he must be true to himself, but even that man may have a dream, an ideal and 'Holy Mountain' is my answer to such dreaming."

i was thinking about how much gold Ri'Chard brought into the office in the context of his Brand™ (1 & 2 old decor, 3 & 4 new, but none identified yet oop)

there are other etchings in the Dr's office: top: 'Rotherhithe' by James McNeill Whistler from the Thames Set (1860, V&A) bottom: 'Clearing a wreck on the north coast of Cornwall' by Thomas Rowlandson (c 1809-1822, British Museum).

Dr Dude likes ships that's all i can say 🤷‍♀️ but actually i think there's something interesting about all the Flood references in the Dr's office, like Diane is drowning. possibly, there's a subtle allusion to a very famous painting, Le Radeau de la Méduse, by Théodore Géricault (1818-19, oil on canvas, Louvre).

this is an icon of French Romanticism, depicting the aftermath of the wreck of the French naval frigate Méduse, which ran aground off the coast of what is now Mauritania on 2 July 1816. what's so interesting about this painting is that it presents ordinary people, rather than heroes, reacting to the unfolding drama. as Christine Riding says, the painting represents,

"the fallacy of hope and pointless suffering, and at worst, the basic human instinct to survive, which had superseded all moral considerations and plunged civilised man into barbarism."

by 607, Diane's office art has changed to a piece called Three Tumblers by Daniel Clarke (2018), perhaps a reference to her revolving office bar. also did we notice her flower obsession has dulled a little? but there are still orchids all around the office. i'll leave you to google the meaning of the original Greek word 👀

elsewhere in the office, FIRES abound on the digital screen in the conference room. flood, fire…and?

where there's a mansion, there's sure to be art (609): Asher Brown Durand, Landscape—Scene from "Thanatopsis" (1850, Met); Max Ferdinand Bredt, In the Courtyard of the Harem; John Frederick Lewis, Intercepted Correspondence (1869).

in 609 when same sex marriage is overturned (and Christine Baranski's acting chops is on full show with her shocked face), the image on the tv screen is Witch burning in Regenstein, Saxony-Anhalt, 1555. It's a wood engraving after an original printed on flyleaf (Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg).

frankly there's a lot of misinformation about witch trials, not least of which is that they happened a lot later than most people think (ie. not the medieval period). the early modern period 16-17th centuries were the height of the European witchcraft trials.

and it was an ongoing, systematic persecution that resulted from the targetting of Christian heretics and Jews throughout the 14th century, and gradually both the church and scholars became more and more obsessed with demonology. it was really about the 'other', the concern about the loss of a certain way of life.

Diane, of course, calls herself a wench, so i think it's interesting that her s6 arc eventuates with her heading up a female-only law firm in DC working on women's rights and Roe v Wade. i dislike the way that the word 'witchhunt' is misappropriated like other historical terms in modern contexts, but it's probably fair to call the current backsliding on women's rights a witchhunt. so i love this double meaning.

finally, i wanted to return to how Diane's office art tracks her journey. the Surrealist art was the tone of the show throughout. but the violence seeped into the everyday and everyone just got used to it. hence the second painting is war (contrast the flowers).

but then Diane chooses to stop PT108. almost immediately, a bullet lands on the realist painting of a woman (where does she end up? in Washington DC fighting the good fight for women).

the violence doesn't end there. and then the office literally explodes & you can see a painting is off-centre. which seems like a good metaphor for where the world is at.

so yeah, the progression in Diane's office from Peony Girl to Post-War to a painted version of Chris is just chef's kiss. the way it tracks her psyche in s6? i'm obsessed.

#the good fight #diane lockhart #christine baranski #gary cole #kurt mcveigh #audra mcdonald #the good wife #the good universe #nat's tangents #nat's art history threads #it's missing the good fight hours #i mean it always is #but especially thursdays #although it still seems surreal that it's actually ended #maybe i am just in denial #who knows

21 notes · View notes

laserpinksteam · 2 years

Text

Series finale: The Good Fight (created by Michelle King, Robert King, Phil Alden Robinson, 2017-2022)

The superior spin-off of The Good Wife has ended with a potent climax to the paranoid simmering throughout this season, maybe even the whole series. Always massively entertaining and captivating, sometimes cringy and meandering, never stuck in a rut. I will miss you.

#bingeing microdosed #the good fight #the good wife #christine baranski #audra mcdonald #sarah steele #nyambi nyambi #charmaine bingwa #andre braugher #gary cole #john slattery #series finale

16 notes · View notes

krispyweiss · 1 year

Text

Album Review: Tommy Emmanuel - Accomplice Two

A veritable mix tape of some of Tommy Emmanuel’s favorite songs as recorded with some of his best musical friends, Tommy Emmanuel’s Accomplice Two is itself fodder for an Emmanuel fan’s playlist.

Ricocheting across an hour of various artists playing varying styles of music, Accomplice Two is the sonic equivalent of a drive on a hilly country road as the musicians recast their own songs or play Emmanuel originals alongside covers from the likes of Doc Watson, Townes Van Zandt, Johnny Cash, the Rev. Gary Davis and others.

There’s high-test bluegrass both instrumental (“Doc’s Guitar/Black Mountain Rag” with Billy Strings; “Precious Time” with Sierra Hull) and vocal, as when Emmanuel joins forces with Molly Tuttle and Little Feat with Sam Bush for “White Freight Liner Blues” and “Cajun Girl,” respectively.

Jamey Johnson brings weepy, formulaic country on “Daddy Frank (The Guitar Man);” Michael McDonald serves up soul of the blue-eyed variety with “Someone Like You;” and Raul Malo ends the LP on a weird, Lawrence Welk note with “Faraway Places.”

Being a certified guitar player, Emmanuel does best when collaborating with other guitar players including Jorma Kaukonen (“Another Man Done a Full Go Around”), Yasmin Williams (“Mombasa”) and Larry Campbell, who sings “Everybody Loves You” with his wife, Teresa Williams.

Richard Smith, Jerry Douglas, the Del McCoury Band, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and David Grisman also hop in the passenger seat for this up-and-down voyage with Emmanuel. Sound Bites found some legs unpleasant; others worth retracing again and again.

Your mileage may vary.

Grad card: Tommy Emmanuel - Accomplice Two - B-

5/10/23

4 notes · View notes

uapro · 1 year

Text

#Aliens #space the final frontier #UFOs #UFOlogy #UAPRO #Gary Lesley #Extraterrestrials #Happy Meal #Pic by JTEM #McDonalds #Image by JTEM

2 notes · View notes

c-40 · 1 year

Text

A-T-3 111 Diana Ross - That's How You Start Over

Opening track on 1983s Ross album, co-written by Michael McDonald and his regular writing partner Ed Sanford, and produced by Steely Dan producer Gary Katz

That's How You Start Over Michael McDonald on keyboards

youtube

Love Will Make It Right written and keyboards by Donald Fagen

youtube

#1983 #diana ross #donald fagen #michael mcdonald #gary katz #disco #detroit #usa #80s music

2 notes · View notes

lordspectrus · 2 years

Text

Now this is what differentiates Spotify's AI from a human DJ... imagine putting that together intentionally as a playlist. Lol. But it's kinda interesting!

3 notes · View notes

gordsellar · 4 months

Text

youtube

The great baritone sax player Gary Smulyan playing Thad Jones' "A Child is Born" gorgeously with: Ian Macdonald - piano Jason Emmond - bass Joe Barna - drums & cymbals

The band also has a trumpet/flugelhorn player, Joe Magnarelli, but he sits out this number.

#Thad Jones #Gary Smulyan #Joe Magnarelli #Ian McDonald #Jason Emmond #Joe Barna #Youtube

0 notes

mrbopst · 6 months

Text

Featuring music by Goat, Galen and Paul, IDLES, Of Tropique (Electric Cowbell) and many others, a new edition of The Bopst Show is now available for free public consumption on Podomatic or wherever you get your podcasts.

0 notes

therealefl · 1 year

Text

Exeter City Anxiously Await Decisions From Key Players

According to Devon Live’s Daniel Clark, Exeter City boss Gary Caldwell is hoping for contract decisions from four key men as he prepares for another League One campaign in Devon. Josh Key, Archie Collins, Kevin McDonald and Jonathan Grounds have all been offered new terms at St James Park, but as yet none have put pen to paper. Although Caldwell hasn’t set a definite deadline for the quartet to…

View On WordPress

#archie collins #Bolton wanderers #exeter city #Gary Caldwell #Jack Sparkes #Jamal Blackman #jay stansfield #jevani brown #Jonathan Grounds #Josh key #Josh Sheehan #Kevin Mcdonald #league one #Swansea city

0 notes

9kmovies-biz · 1 year

Text

Matthew Modine UFO Documentary: Accidental Truth UFO Revelations

A still from the new documentary Accidental Truth: The UFO Revelations.Image: 1091 Pictures A lot was happening in 2020 so there’s a chance you may have missed something—like the fact the New York Times published a story basically saying aliens are real. The claim was based on a document stating that the government has found unexplained objects that were “not made on this earth.” You read that…

View On WordPress

0 notes

digitaldiscipline · 1 year

Text

PERTINENT to tumblr's interests

HOLY SHIT.

Repost from @planetrockradio

•

Dolly Parton has revealed the STAGGERING track-list for her forthcoming rock album, the appropriately titled 'Rockstar'. Clocking in at a whopping 30 songs, the record features a who's-who of rock royalty collaborators, as well as 4 different but unmistakably Dolly-style album covers.

1. "Rockstar" (special guest Richie Sambora)

2. "World on Fire"

3. "Every Breath You Take" (feat. Sting)

4. "Open Arms" (feat. Steve Perry)

5. "Magic Man" (feat. Ann Wilson with special guest Howard Leese)

6. "Long As I Can See the Light" (feat. John Fogerty)

7. "Either Or" (feat. Kid Rock)

8. "I Want You Back" (feat. Steven Tyler with special guest Warren Haynes)

9. "What Has Rock and Roll Ever Done for You" (feat. Stevie Nicks with special guest Waddy Wachtel)

10. "Purple Rain"

11. "Baby, I Love Your Way" (feat. Peter Frampton)

12. "I Hate Myself for Loving You" (feat. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts)

13. "Night Moves" (feat. Chris Stapleton)

14. "Wrecking Ball" (feat. Miley Cyrus)

15. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (feat. P!nk & Brandi Carlile)

16. "Keep on Loving You" (feat. Kevin Cronin)

17. "Heart of Glass" (feat. Debbie Harry)

18. "Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me" (feat. Elton John)

19. "Tried to Rock and Roll Me" (feat. Melissa Etheridge)

20. "Stairway to Heaven" (feat. Lizzo & Sasha Flute)

21. "We Are the Champions"

22. "Bygones" (feat. Rob Halford with special guests Nikki Sixx & John 5)

23. "My Blue Tears" (feat. Simon Le Bon)

24. "What's Up?" (feat. Linda Perry)

25. "You’re No Good" (feat. Emmylou Harris & Sheryl Crow)

26. "Heartbreaker" (feat. Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo)

27. "Bittersweet" (feat. Michael McDonald)

28. "I Dreamed About Elvis" (feat. Ronnie McDowell with special guest The Jordanaires)

29. "Let It Be" (feat. Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr with special guests Peter Frampton & Mick Fleetwood)

30. "Free Bird" (feat. Ronnie Van Zant with special guests Gary Rossington, Artimus Pyle and The Artimus Pyle Band)

Holy, and I repeat this, shit.

2K notes · View notes