Monday, March 30, 2009

Origins

Friends took us to see Lily Tomlin at the Fox Theater in Redwood City last night. Tomlin reprised (and updated) routines that featured her most famous characters, Ernestine and Edith Anne. She also did some familiar bits from "The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe."

There was plenty of new material as well. Great stuff. All of it.

I don't know if it was new or not, but my favorite part of the show was Tomlin's take on the origins of language. She imagines a caveman stubbing his toe and hollering, "Ouch!" Then she has him pondering, "I wonder what I meant by that."

(It's funnier when she tells it.)

What do you think? Could "ouch" have been the first word?

Monday, March 16, 2009

Bellissimo!

In an earlier post I mentioned that I'm working on a short novel with a long title. For a small taste (just 500 words), check out the latest edition of Word Riot, which includes an excerpt called, "Bellissimo!"

Love it or hate it, feel free to leave a comment at the end of the story.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Suit and Countersuit

The feud between the Associated Press and the artist who created the famous Obama posters continues.

The artist, Shepard Fairey, sued first (a sort of preemptive strike) and now the AP has countered with a suit of its own.

Apparently, Fairey used an AP photo taken by Mannie Garcia as the basis for his highly stylized and stunningly different red, white, and blue image.

Just as Fairey's creation is not entirely his own, neither is Garcia's — after all, he did not create Obama's face.

The AP should keep in mind that the courts awarded photographers the right to create and publish images of public people and public places in order to further the nascent art of photography.

I'm not a lawyer, but I suspect the courts will rule in favor of Fairey and his transformative work for much the same reason.