Monday, November 30, 2009

Dogged by boredom: What is it that makes a person interesting?

"We had just explored the Olympic Sculpture Park at the edge of Puget Sound, with works by Alexander Calder, Claes Oldenburg, Richard Serra, and Louise Nevelson, including an amazing giant cedar log inside a climate-controlled greenhouse, covered with plants and mosses to reproduce the process of forest decay, in which the viewers are said to be part of the art. Freight trains rumble through and under the site, while across the sound to the west, the Olympic Mountains create a monumental counterpoint."

To find out how one man looks at this thorny question, click here.

Back to Reality: Watching Others' Lives, and Watching Our Own

"What’s on TV tonight? Other people’s private lives, often in excruciating, appalling, and grubby detail.

On The Learning Channel, you can watch total strangers try on their wedding gowns while the salon staff makes catty comments about the bride and her family behind their backs. Or watch the Duggars raising their 'Eighteen Kids and Counting,' Jon and Kate and their brood of eight, or the 10 offspring in 'Table for Twelve.'”

Click here for more from Anne Morse.