Jan 26 2021 - Bernie's Mittens

 

Bernie Sanders wore some BIG MITTENS to the inauguration. Something that would have been a gift from Mr. Rogers. The sight of those mittens has resulted in millions being "smitten".  The mitten maker was Jen Ellis:  "I made Bernie’s mittens as a gift a couple years ago. They are made from repurposed wool sweaters and lined with fleece (made from recycled plastic bottles). #BerniesMittens" See some of the creative places he has shown up HERE  - it is an endless scrolling of Twitter fun. at #berniesmittens Don't you want to participate? Swapping Sanders into new places got easier when NYU grad student Nick Sawhney created a website that lets users place the image in any Google Street View photograph. Sawhney told Wired magazine that the site took off well beyond his expectations, and he panicked as its popularity brought him increased fees. (He's accepting donations and made a deal with the cloud platform that hosts the site, and says he has enough cash on hand to keep the site alive for another week or so, Wired reports.)   Here's one of the fund-raisers. It is a Tobey Time Crochet doll being sold on eBy and the proceeds go to Meals on Wheels.  Bernie has his own storefront and the crew net sweatshirt is popular.  He's expecting to raise "a couple of million dollars".    This is another set of motion blurs - at Charles Daley Park on Saturday.  You can really get a sense of the Lake Effects clouds in these images.  Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Sep 29 2020 - Sell That Meme

 

Can you sell memes?  And what is the Meme Economy?  You must be able to - that's because memes surpassed Christ in online popularity since 2016.  And the MemeEconomy (as it is known) has been with us for a few years already. Etsy tells us this: You can buy, sell, or trade your Memes, safe in the knowledge that ownership will be tracked securely – thus ensuring your memes are not plagiarized. On Etsy, you can sell whatever meme-inspired creation that you're able to whip up. In 2017, Reddit created a team to take on the Meme Stock Market: They called the trading tool NASDANQ, a cheeky financial system for an alternate universe where meme is king.  It is a system where you can buy shares in memes, betting on their success.  Go to the Meme Economy to buy, sell, share, make and invest in templates freely - scroll through the ads HERE on reddit.   I went to knowyourmeme.com where you can buy a lot of stuff considered best sellers.  I found it disconcerting that the most popular one is  'Epstein didn't kill himself' And you can scroll through the latest images of proposed memes.   I found Esquire's roundup of the best memes of 2020.  I think you have to scroll through yourself.  Find them HERE.   In retrospect, we had memes in our childhood - knock knock jokes and Alexander the Great jokes come to mind.  Here's how I know my age: the 6 oldest memes on the Internet came about in 2000.  They do reference the dancing baby of the 1990's.  Before that, we are part of history and fit into folklore.  How quaint! It was open house on the weekend at Floyd Elzinga's studio located in Beamsville.  He's the metal sculptor with the well-known pinecone sculptures.  Here's a small sample.

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Sep 28 2020 - Monday Memes

Wake Up on the Bright Side    What is a meme?  Meme, unit of cultural information spread by imitation. The term meme (from the Greek mimema, meaning “imitated”) was introduced in 1976 by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his work The Selfish Gene. Examples of memes include beliefs, fashions, stories, and phrases. In previous generations, memes typically spread within local cultures or social groups.  Today we see it as an image, video, piece of text, etc., that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users. I went to knowyourmeme.com to find out about memes.  This site is a sort of meme library where there are categories such as confirmed, submissions, researching, newsworthy, etc.  Then there are subject groupings like culture, events, people, sites, subculture.  I've copied the summaries for a few "confirmed memes that are popular:" Slender Man (a.k.a Slenderman) is a mythical creature often depicted as a tall, thin figure wearing a black suit and a blank face. According to the legend, he can stretch or shorten his arms at will and has tentacle-like appendages protruding from his back. Depending on the interpretations of the myth, the creature may cause memory loss, insomnia, paranoia, coughing fits (nicknamed "slendersickness"), photograph/video distortions and can teleport at will. The urban legend has inspired fan arts, fictional creepypastas and a mockumentary series in the style of the 1999 indie horror film Blair Witch Project. As the character has grown in popularity, he's gained a number of other nicknames including The Operator, Der Großmann, Mr. Slim, The Administrator, Daddy LongLegs, Mr. Thin, The Tall Man, The Thin Man and Slendy. Doge is a slang term for "dog" that is primarily associated with pictures of Shiba Inus (nicknamed "Shibe") and internal monologue captions on Tumblr. These photos may be photoshopped to change the dog's face or captioned with interior monologues in Comic Sans font. Starting in 2017, Ironic Doge formats gained prevalence over the original wholesome version.  Navy Seal Copypasta (also known as the “Marine Copypasta”, "Internet Tough Guy Copypasta” and “Gorilla Warfare Copypasta”) is a facetious message containing a series of ridiculous claims and grandiose threats that portray the poster as an Internet tough guy stereotype. In the original post, the writer claimed to be a former Navy Seal with a long history of combat experiences, using comical typos and hyperboles like "Gorilla Warfare," “300 Confirmed Kills” and “I can kill you in over 700 ways with just my bare hands.” Since its emergence in mid-2012, the copypasta has spawned a variety of spin-off stories, similar to the John Copypasta meme. There seems to be a large body of information on memes, about memes, and containing memes.  I have just walked into the Library of Memes and it seems to be the size of the Library of Congress.  Are memes "Time Wasters" or contributing to our social culture. They certainly comprise part of our economy - people are making money on memes.  At the bottom of each page is Know Your Meme Store with posters, t-shirts and mugs for sale. Today's image is poison ivy.  Beautiful colours in the fall, a rampant climber, but also a ground spreader.  Once you look, you can start seeing it everywhere.  It grows alongside Virginia Creeper too. You can see more pictures here - https://www.poison-ivy.org/poison-ivy-fall

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