February 16, 2016
Page 5
Opinion
Here and There, Then and Now By Joe Weddington
The Next Generation You know the one’s …. those video game playing, non-cursive writing, new math doing cyborgs who occasionally haunt the back rooms of our homes or show up at Christmastime with a car full of dirty laundry and a
need for money. Yeah …. those guys. The ones we are afraid of turning over the keys to the nation to, as if they could do a worse job of messing up than us boomers and Gen-X’rs. But one has to wonder when it becomes apparent
Student Essays By Sydney Becknell Pop art is now most associated with the work of New York artists of the early 1960s such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, and Claes Oldenburg, but artists who drew on popular imagery were part of an international phenomenon in various cities from the mid-1950s onwards. Following the popularity of the Abstract Expressionists, Pop’s reintroduction
of identifiable imagery (drawn from mass media and popular culture) was a major shift for the direction of modernism. The subject matter became far from traditional “high art” themes of morality, mythology, and classic history; rather, Pop artists celebrated commonplace objects and people of everyday life, in this way seeking to elevate popular culture to the level of fine
that they cannot tie a knot, read a compass or open a pocket knife, just what the future holds for the millions who know only how to manipulate a controller or a smart phone? I think they will be fine. I recently went to meet my girlfriend’s son for supper during Christmas break from his graduate school classes at Morehead and I have to say I was impressed. He looked me in the eye and shook my hand like a man. His manners were impeccable and he carried on an engaging and intelligent conversation throughout our meal. I could see the pride in her eyes as she looked at him and her feelings were completely justified because
he is really on top of his game. In a town full of college kids who have grown up seeing their friends and siblings off to war, I came to believe that maybe there is hope for this nation in the generation to come because, surprise, they are actually an ambitious lot. That is not to say that they have it all together, they still need some moral direction and guidance to fully develop their values and probably need some parental influence to wash away some of the silliness they pick up in college, but they are getting it together and that pleases me very much. We left dinner that evening and headed home.
She was smiling and going on and on about how hard he had worked in school and how far he had come. He was an impressive and engaging figure until we parted and I had to admit myself that he was quite a young man. By comparison, I came home to my own kids, all of whom I am very proud. My daughter is a full time worker, entrepreneur, college student and Mommy. How the heck does she do all of that? My tall and broad-shouldered son is a good looking young man who is coming into his own. He is sarcastically witty and a bit of a class clown (he must get that from his mom) but even though he spends a
lot of time with a game controller in hand, he is an intelligent young man and if I am any judge of things, he will turn out just fine. There is also a young man my ex-wife and I took in and raised throughout his formative years and he turned out to be a fine young husband, father, provider and Christian leader of his family. All of that makes me smile. I may not be rich, but by heck I have been successful and with kids like all of these taking the reins, as I said, I think that our tomorrows are going to be just fine.
Pop Art art. Perhaps owing to the incorporation of commercial images, Pop art has become one of the most recognizable styles of modern art. By creating paintings or sculptures of mass culture objects and media stars, the Pop art movement aimed to blur the boundaries between “high” art and “low” culture. The concept that there is no hierarchy of culture and that art may borrow from any source has been one of the most influential characteristics of Pop art. It could be argued that the Abstract Expressionists searched for trauma in the soul, while Pop artists
searched for traces of the same trauma in the mediated world of advertising, cartoons, and popular imagery at large. But it is perhaps more precise to say that Pop artists were the first to recognize that there is no unmediated access to anything, be it the soul, the natural world, or the built environment. Pop artists believed everything is inter-connected, and therefore sought to make those connections literal in their artwork. Although Pop art encompasses a wide variety of work with very different attitudes and postures, much of it is somewhat emotionally removed. In contrast to
the “hot” expression of the gestural abstraction that preceded it, Pop art is generally “coolly” ambivalent. Whether this suggests an acceptance of the popular world or a shocked withdrawal, has been the subject of much debate. Pop artists seemingly embraced the post-WWII manufacturing and media boom. Some critics have cited the Pop art choice of imagery as an enthusiastic endorsement of the capitalist market and the goods it circulated, while others have noted an element of cultural critique in the Pop artists’ elevation of the everyday to high art: tying the commodity status of
the goods represented to the status of the art object itself, emphasizing art’s place as, at base, a commodity. The majority of Pop artists began their careers in commercial art: Andy Warhol was a highly successful magazine illustrator and graphic designer; Ed Ruscha was also a graphic designer, and James Rosenquist started his career as a billboard painter. Their background in the commercial art world trained them in the visual vocabulary of mass culture as well as the techniques to seamlessly merge the realms of high art and popular culture.
Angles and Cues By Carolyn Schwartz
Comfort in a Sandwich Sometimes the restaurant menu pulls me in many directions. A salad? That would be a healthy choice. Soup? I love soup whether it is summer or winter. Something new or different? I do enjoy trying new things. Once in awhile I just have to order a hot brown sandwich. I know, I know. It is packed full of carbs and calories. I don’t eat one very often consider that, please. If you’ve never had a hot brown, it’s a confection of turkey, bacon, Mornay sauce, cheese, tomato, ham - well, those are the typical ingredients. There are several other variations these days. It’s an interesting story, this creation of the hot brown. During the 1920s the Brown Hotel in Louisville hosted a dinner dance every evening. They drew about 1,200 every night. Unbelievable, don’t you think? The evening’s entertainment lasted until the wee hours of the morning, and, of course, just like us, those dancers were hungry and needed a snack. It seems that the most common late night/early morning offering from the hotel’s chef was ham and eggs. Tired of that routine, Fred Schmidt,
a Brown Hotel employee, created a variation of Welsh rarebit as an alternative. From Wales, this recipe called for melted cheese to be heated and poured hot over toasted bread. Of course, this was a knife and fork meal. Flavorings could be added to the cheese such as mustard or cayenne pepper to give it a little kick. Schmidt used turkey in the hot brown. This was unusual since most people only ate turkey during the holidays. He placed the slice of turkey on a slice of white bread, added Mornay sauce, a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and oven-broiled the creation until the sauce bubbled. Mornay sauce uses butter and flour to make a roux. Whipping cream and Pecorino Romano cheese are then added. The sauce is finished when it thickens. Schmidt then topped the sandwich with pimento and bacon strips. Most of the hot browns that I have had include ham and often are topped with a slice of tomato. They are creamy and cheesy and could be placed in a column headed comfort food as far as I am concerned. How can you go wrong with bacon and cheese - and tomato - and Mornay sauce? At least once in awhile.
LOUISA How To Reach Us: • Mail: Post Office Box 330, Paintsville, Ky. 41240 • E-mail: info@aroundpaintsville.com
P.O. Box 330, Paintsville, KY 41240 Around Paintsville, Around Prestonsburg and Around Louisa are newspapers of general circulation available free at locations in Paintsville, Prestonsburg and Louisa. It is distributed free. It is also distributed in bulk at area schools, hospitals and locations where our community gathers. The papers mission is to serve you, our community, by covering the lives and events of Paintsville, Prestonsburg and Louisa.
Kathy J. Prater, Editor - kprater@aroundpaintsville.com • 792-5221 Advertising: advertising@aroundpaintsville.com • 606-657-1089 Published by Around Town, Inc. The publisher reserves the right to refuse any material including advertising or editorial copy. Editorial content is not the personal opinion of the publisher. Reproduction of any materials without the permission of Around Paintsville is prohibited.