Dharma Art

A few days ago, I returned from a weeklong retreat at Karme Choling, a Shambala retreat center in Barnet, VT. I awoke at 6:30am each day to the sound of a conch shell being blown. While there, I read three books, watched a few DVDs, went on 6 or 7 hikes, ate an abundance of organic vegetables, sat by a campfire, attended 5 or 6 lectures, and took a few yoga classes. (And, as you might expect, there were hours and hours of meditation practice each day!)

One of the books I read was Dharma Art, by the center's founder Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche. Here's an interesting quote from the book about the creation of "aware" artwork:

"We give up aggression, both toward ourselves (that we have to make a special effort to impress people) and toward others (that we can pull something over on them."

Over the next several postings, I'll publish works taken during my stay. (If you can't wait that long, I've posted many at www.flickr.com/lgfindlay). This one was taken inside the azuchi (Zen archery range building):

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

With law school starting in only two weeks, I resigned from my post as President of the Nashua Area Artists Association (NAAA) today. I encourage blog readers to attend the NAAA's 54th annual Greeley Park art show, to be held Aug. 18-19 in Nashua NH. About 100 NAAA members will be displaying works there; the two-day event is the largest show of its type in the area.

Also on the schedule: the New England Photo Expeditions Meetup group is having a display at Gallery One (Nashua, NH) through the month of August. An opening repection is planned for today, from 2-4PM. For driving instructions, visit www.naaasite.com

World's Coolest Pinhole Camera

From boingboing.net and f295: "This beautiful ceramic pinhole camera was made by Steve Irvine and documented on the Pinhole Forum. It's made of stoneware fired at 1,300C, and takes a four inch by five inch piece of photo paper. The negative holder is made from three strips of black weather stripping."

More on "Hotness"

A particularly snarky blog entry* on the correlation between intercourse and intelligence hypothesizes that the "fact" that higher-IQ types have fewer partners earlier in life than their more "average" peers has absolutely nothing to do with the presence of pen protectors or the absence of social skills. Instead, the author posits that "sexual behavior (or at least the investment needed to procure a partner or sustain one) may compete with time/resources required for other goals, and intelligent people may have more demanding goals."

I'd argue that talented people have equally demanding goals, and another recent survey suggests that creative types (artists, inventors, etc.) have ***more*** partners than their uninspired peers. How to explain the seemingly incongruous results?

Does this mean that intelligence and creativity are unrelated? Perish the thought!

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*At the end of the entry, the 98-pound weakling kicks sand in the face of the Charles Atlas type, then run away by suggesting that testosterone may depress IQ. (Wonder what singer/actor/poet/film critic/testosterone-fueled modern Renaissance man Henry Rollins would think about that one?)

Photographers: Hot or Not?

Men's Health Magazine queried a thousand women on "hotness" factors for men. See below to see how photographers fared:



No indication as to whether the publication will query their readers on how "hot" they find female photographers. (And for the record, I totally concur with the other women about a man who can cook....)