Eye by Tony Tasset

This post is a bit of potpourri. It has no central theme, so you could call it scatter-brained, if you like. I prefer the description, eclectic and I hope it pleases.

Based upon a single Facebook comment, we can assume that Dave safely made it to Hong Kong. It is not much to go on, but unless someone has rather cleverly hacked his account we must take this as proof of life. I would like to hear more of how he is doing, but not at the cost of a four-figure cell phone bill. Stay tuned.

I filed a claim with my insurance company for damages from last month’s hail storm. I had already decided to ignore the baker’s dozen dents in the Prius, when our neighbor came to us last weekend. He explained that he and most of our surrounding neighbors have already contacted their insurance companies and arranged for their new roofs. Further, when he asked his adjuster, what does hail damage look like, the adjuster pointed to our roof and pointed out the damaged spots. I called my insurance company on Monday and started the process.

I would like to recommend “lex-i-con VALLEY” with Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo, a Slate podcast on language. Etymology, the study of historical linguistic change, especially as manifested in individual words, has always been a subject of interest for me. Discussions of words and language, when well done can be both informative and entertaining. However, when it is performed poorly, it can be as dry as dust. “Lex-i-xon” is now in the mist of a multi-episode investigation of gender in language. Come on guys, I can hear your eyeballs rolling back into your heads already. Hear me out.

Their latest podcast is about gendered pronouns, like, he, him, his versus she, her, hers. The fundamental question of this show is what to call people of unknown gender. He, him, his is the default, but in the 1970s a pair of female Harvard divinity students petitioned the university to start using gender neutral pronouns. Faculty pushback was immediate, one dean accused the two of pronoun envy and another labeled the pair, distaff theologians. A word of warning, explicit language is used on the show.

Tony Tasset’s “Eye” supplies the graphic for this post. It is part of the collection at Laumeier Sculpture Park. The following is Laumeier’s description of this work.

Through this gigantic, blue eyeball Tasset creates tension as the sculpture stares, larger than life, across the landscape and back at the viewer. Modeled after Tasset’s own eye, the never-blinking, constantly conscious piece watches over Laumeier day and night. The human eye is simultaneously unique, individual and emblematic. By focusing on a key part of the body, Tasset speaks to a commonality among us. It addresses how we engage and perceive each other while concurrently asserting a prophetic, perhaps even omniscient, presence.

I heard on the radio this morning, a young man’s shout out to his mother, “Mom you are the Bomb.com!” It’s a little late for Mothers Day, but as I say, better late than never.