Bridget

Health and Medicine

Brain damage is caused by persistent depression rather than being a predisposing factor for it, researchers have finally concluded after decades of unconfirmed hypothesising.

A study published in Molecular Psychiatry today has proved once and for all that recurrent depression shrinks the hippocampus - an area of the brain responsible for forming new memories - leading to a loss of emotional and behavioural function.

It's the Fourth of July, and in addition to commemorating the nation's independence, patriotic citizens everywhere will be celebrating American exceptionalism and how much other countries have to learn from us. 

Here are seven charts from the 2015 Social Progress Index proving no one has it better than Americans, no country has fewer problems than the United States and certainly no people could be more free than the citizens of the greatest country in the history of the world.

1. Americans treat their tired, their poor, their huddled masses better than anyone else!When it comes to basic life and health amenities, the U.S. is killing it.

Source: 2015 Social Progress Index2. We have the best educational system in the world!Whoo culd posiblee no mor?

Source: 2015 Social Progress Index3. Read More

RC Hagans in Charlestown, South Carolina.

Brand new mural by RC Hagans (Previously on Supersonic) in Charlestown, South Carolina.

The "problem" with the first two James Cameron-directed Terminator films is that they were satisfying. They told a complete story and left the viewer with the distinct sense that the tale had ended, though the final moments in Terminator 2 included the visual of a dark road with a note that no one knew what the future would hold.

The threat of Skynet had been pretty definitively wiped out, but the inherent violence in people — a theme touched on throughout the movie — still existed. It was all a bit hamfisted, but it worked. The two-movie series was over.

If there's money to be made in a franchise though, we know it's never "over."

There have since been three movies released in the franchise post-Terminator 2, and each one deals with...

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Prints of this incredible drawing ‘Dragon’ by DZO is now available via FAMP Art - Get yours at http://www.fampart.com/category-s/1827.htm 

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Let me start by saying I'm not an Apple fan. There's a near-religious fervor among members of the media, the general public and an unseeing fandom that deifies Steve Jobs and his capitalism while preaching the Triumph of Design gospel. I do not consider myself one of the faithful. The company is a haughty, monied megalith that manufactures products for the urban wealthy at enormous cost to the people who make them.

But on Tuesday, Apple released Apple Music, a service to compete with Spotify. Spotify is a service I use happily, and it brings me no joy to repatriate even more of my money into Apple's bottomless coffers. But Apple Music might just be — and I have a hard time saying this — better. Read More

Jeff Koons in front of one of his sculptures. Photo by Art Comments via.

This article originally appeared on VICE UK

Sometimes, when I'm at the cashpoint, withdrawing the last £10 [$15] of my overdraft, I think about Jeff Koons. I think about the man whose orange sculpture of an inflatable dog sold for £37.1 million [$60 million], the largest sum a work by a living artist has ever fetched at auction. If I had £37.1 million, I would almost definitely spend it on a massive Italian castle over a steel balloon-animal, but clearly there is more to this blow-up dog than meets the eye: I'm told that, as you stare into its gleaming exterior, you see a warped version of your reflection looking back—kind of like those fun house mirrors, but more profound.

I met Koons recently at the Guggenheim in Bilbao—the final stop on his career retrospective: a comprehensive survey of 40 years of work, including his iconic "Michael Jackson and Bubbles" and his silver "Rabbit," two pieces that are equally recognizable for both their shininess and their creepiness. The show arrived here from the Pompidou Centre in Paris, and, before that, the Whitney in New York. It broke both galleries' records for the number of tickets sold.

In person, Koons is about as hard to size up as his great big balloon dog. I watched as he straightened his suit and led a frenzy of photographers between his works, stopping to pose at each, grinning with every single one of his teeth. For the photos, he stared at his own creations—an eight-foot knock-off of the Greek statue "Farnese Hercules," for example—as though awestruck by their sublimity. I assumed he was taking the piss, in a knowing, arch sort of way. But then he started talking.

"I hope you see that a great artist gets better," he said of the retrospective, before extolling the "raw power of his early work" and comparing his "DNA" to Picasso's. He spoke in self-help book jargon, discussing his journey to "self-affirmation." I don't know what exactly I was expecting from Koons, but it was clear almost immediately that I'd found the Kanye West of contemporary art—a man whose conceitedness actually makes him more compelling.

Balloon Dog (Magenta), 1994–2000. Mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent colour coating. 307.3 x 363.2 x 114.3 cm. Collection Pinault. © Jeff Koons

Koons was born in 1955 to a mother who made bridal dresses and a father who ran an interior design shop. He claims that he began painting at the age of three-years-old. Previously overshadowed by an older sister who, with age on her side, could walk, talk, and do literally everything better than him, painting was something little Jeff was finally good at.

Koons says he revered the work of Salvador Dali throughout his childhood, and, at 18, after enrolling at the School of Art Institute in Chicago, gave the Spanish painter a call to request a meeting. For whatever reason, Dali agreed. "He was incredibly generous," recalled Koons, who was expecting a few minutes with the Surrealist, but got an entire afternoon.

After meeting Dali, Koons "knew he could do it." He knew that he could be one of the greatest artists the world has ever seen. This self-belief manifests itself in Koons's persona, and his debt to Dali is apparent throughout his canon, from the surrealist landscapes to the recurring use of lobsters, echoing a number of Dali's works. Clearly, the experience was pivotal.

Inflatable Flower and Bunny (Tall White, Pink Bunny), 1979 Vinyl, mirrors
The Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica © Jeff Koons

By the mid-1970s, Koons had relocated to New York City to "hang out in the heart of [his] generation." Here, moving in the same circles as artists David Salle and Julian Schnabel, he says he "automatically started to have the confidence to go in strong, and to be involved with the dialogue of art." Salle and Schnabel introduced Koons to influential gallerist Mary Boone, who took an interest in his series of inflatable flowers and rabbits set against mirrors—inflatables he'd buy from cheap shops downtown, before turning them into conceptual pieces at his studio on East 4th Street.

During this period, Jeff the burgeoning artist worked a job selling memberships at MoMA to pay his way. Scott Rothkopf, curator at the Whitney and the man behind the retrospective, says "Jeff was always a salesman"—which might be why, for a brief period in the early-1980s, he became a commodities broker on Wall Street to fund his art practice. This piece of Koons trivia would be dredged up again and again in discussion of his work as commodity.

Because much of Koons's work is related to value, which, he says, is "really about potential" or, more specifically, "seeing or realizing the potential in something." Evidently, Jeff saw the value in himself—his own skill to turn something innocuous into something resembling a masterpiece. As examples, he offers up his " Puppy" art work—the giant, flower-covered sculpture of a terrier that stands outside the Guggenheim Bilbao on public display—and, once again, that "Balloon Dog."

Interested in digital art? Check out the art section on our technology website, Motherboard.

"It's like something you'd get at a children's birthday party," he said of the latter, standing in front of it proudly. "But it's also like a Trojan horse."

I walked the halls of Frank Gary's Guggenheim, taking in Koons's monsters, from the sinister, metallic "Popeye," to "Equilibrium," a series of basketballs suspended in tanks of distilled water. Like the ballon-dog-cum-Trojan-horse, they're each a trick in their own way—something disguised as something it's not.

Koons will often use cheap or industrial materials like steel to create the effect of more expensive finishes, like silver or platinum. Rothkopf calls this "material transubstantiation" and relates it to Koons's "Statuary" series, in which the artist would take something like a small junk shop statue of Bob Hope and recast the actor almost like a religious figure—a cheap disposable item becoming a coveted auction piece.

Michael Jackson and Bubbles, 1988 Porcelain. Edition no.
1/3 Private Collection © Jeff Koons

I stared into a Rococo-style gold mirror in the "Banality Room," where a porcelain pig sat behind me, across from a porcelain statue of Jacko and Bubbles the monkey. This is the campest room I've ever been in; kitsch relics of low culture reproduced for a gallery setting. By elevating items out of the banal and into the baroque, Koons comments on art practice itself—and its ability to imbue something with value.

Is this a deliberate and self-effacing critique of art as commodity? Or an earnest attempt to create something that circumvents the boundaries of taste altogether? It's difficult to know, and Koons isn't in the business of letting on: "I ask for the acceptance of everything as perfect in its own being," he offered, explaining how it was early on in his career that he called for the "removal of criticism."

"Jeff and Ilona Made in Heaven", 1990, from the "Made in Heaven" series. Photo by René Spitz via

"Made In Heaven" is Koons's most controversial series of works—a collection of garish and erotic pieces made in the late-80s and early-90s, inspired by the concept of a fictional film.

"When I made 'Made In Heaven,' I wanted to remove guilt and shame with the acceptance of biology," said Koons. To do this, he employed a number of artistic techniques, from the mock-movie poster of him posing with then-wife and former porn star Cicciolina, to a marble bust of him kissing Cicciolina, through a life-sized plastic statue of him fucking Cicciolina and, somewhat incongruously, a poodle made out of wood.

Needless to say, the project wasn't too well received, and the public condemned Koons as a raving narcissist. But for Koons, it was liberating—"Like a sex tape," says Rothkopf, "the work was emancipatory."

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Want more art? Watch our doc on the Chapman brothers:

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These days, Koons's work has descended into a caricature of itself; his faux Greek statues feel tired, repeating the same old tropes as seen in the "Statuary" series, only in reverse, with Greek-style busts cast in cheap materials like plaster, and made kitsch with adornments like flower pots. The blue "Metallic Venus" from 2010-2012 doesn't feel remotely new in the trajectory of Koons's career. Nor does "Gazing Ball," a plaster-cast statue of the Greek mythological character Ariadne balancing a metallic blue sphere on her stomach. By this point—the final room in the retrospective—I was bored.

That said, seeing Koons's work almost in its entirety (there were 100 pieces in the show) and in loose chronological order did give me a newfound appreciation of it. Until now, I had thought of the "Duchampian" readymade—existing objects re-appropriated as art—as a pretty lazy form, but was now able to understand how, in Koons's pop art-influenced world, it made sense as a meta-statement about just how the fuck someone can reproduce something so simple and make so much money out of it. If you added up the retail value of every balloon on the planet and compared it to the auction price of Koons's "Balloon Dog," the figures probably wouldn't be so different. Also, they're both useless items—decorative, at a push.

Koons maintains that art should be objective rather than subjective, and that although some art may have more "significance" to the viewer than other art, value systems are inhibiting and only without them can you achieve universal appeal. Perhaps this explains Koons' success: he makes art without value. "My joy has always been to participate in the dialogues surrounding art," he said. "The economic aspect is so far removed and abstract to me."

Whether Koons's works are intentionally critical or otherwise, the real irony is the zeal with which the art market has consumed them. No wonder he looks permanently amused.

Follow Amelia on Twitter.

'Jeff Koons: A Retrospective' runs at the Guggenheim Bilbao until the 27th of September.

Let's watch some fire-spinning.

In this clip from the Friday, July 3 episode of HitRECord on TV with Joseph Gordon-Levitt — which features a fire theme — actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt introduces footage of his late brother, Dan, whirling flame about the darkened sky like a spinning, one-man arsenal.

Pivot

The clip also doubles as a pretty great example of what HitRECord does best, which is bring together people from all over the world to create gigantic collages of imagery and sound. This scene, in particular, features Joseph Gordon-Levitt on the drums (which he would play as his brother spun flame), before several other musicians join him virtually, and it unfolds as something reminiscent of a Kutiman video.

But the real highlight is Dan's fire-spinning. (You can watch Joseph talk about his brother here, in one of the season's early highlights.) The darkened background gives way to his torches, twisting through the air. The spinner leaps and races about. And at all times, onlookers' eyes are drawn to the jumping, jolting flame.

Humans have always been fascinated by fire, and in our popular mythology of ourselves, we began our march toward modernity when our oldest ancestors tamed this primal force. We may be many, many generations removed from the earliest humans, but we still maintain, on some level, their preoccupation with flame.

HitRECord on TV airs Fridays at 10 pm Eastern on Pivot.

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They must be celebrating the 40th anniversary of Jaws. More »

For the non-ironic Confederate flag-humper, there were the protests last week outside in the statehouse in Columbia, South Carolina, where literally dozens of people celebrated coming in second during the Civil War. And for the semi-ironic Confederate flag-humper, there’s #TakeUsDown, a hashtag organized by Fox News’ cool friend.

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The Orange County Register is reporting that a dolphin leapt out of the ocean, into a boat, and onto a woman’s lower extremities, breaking her ankles. They’re smart, they’re much nastier than Madeleine L’Engle led you to believe, and they are absolutely coming for us.

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Married to the Sea

Graffiti artist Mobstr tagged the same London wall over one year in a curious experiment. He began on July 17th, 2014, and made his final contribution just a few months ago. Mobstr, who has undertaken similar projects before, explains how this cat-and-mouse game began:

“I cycled past this wall on the way to work for years,” he writes on his website. “I noticed that graffiti painted within the red area was ‘buffed’ with red paint. However, graffiti outside of the red area would be removed via pressure washing. This prompted the start of an experiment. Unlike other works, I was very uncertain as to what results it would yield. Below is what transpired over the course of a year.”

Google street-view shows part of the transformation.

More info: mobstr.org | Instagram (h/t: twistedsifter)

The wall:

The street artist:

The wall cleaner:

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Technology

There’s a new app that lets you order medical marijuana from the comfort of your own home. The web-based app, called Eaze, has branded itself as “Uber for pot.”

It’s not everyday that we get to see a crow ride on the back of a soaring bald eagle, but that’s exactly the awesome sight captured by California-based bird photographer Phoo Chan. While crows are known for harassing raptors spotted flying near their nesting territory, that didn’t appear to be the case here. According to Chan:

“…in this frame the crow did not seem to harass the bald eagle at such close proximity and neither did the bald eagle seem to mind the crow’s presence invading its personal space. What made it even more bizarre was that the crow even made a brief stop on the back of the eagle as if it was taking a free scenic ride and the eagle simply obliged.”

At one point the joyriding crow even assumed a pose that looks remarkably like the mighty “Crane” stance from The Karate Kid:

Visit Phoo Chan’s 500px gallery or Flickr page to check out more of his stunning bird photos.

[via Bored Panda]

“They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon…”

The Department of Unexpected Interspecies Friendship is seriously considering setting up a permanent satellite office in Japan. Their latest discovery is an inseparable pair made up of one Scottish Fold Kitten named Marimo and a Little Owl named Fuku. That’s right friends, these two are the makings of a real-life version of “The Owl and the Pussycat.”

This adorable pair live together at Hukulou Coffee, an owl-themed cafe in Osaka, Japan, along with a few more owls and sometimes a bunny friend too. They hang out on perches together looking cute as can be. But the best times are the cuddly shared naps and goodnight kisses:

Head over to the Hukulou Coffee Twitter feed for more photos of this awesomely sweet pair of furred and feathered friends.

[via RocketNews24]

Julie Filipenko’s “Lucid Dreams” at Hellion Gallery.

Opening Thursday, July 2nd at Hellion Gallery in Portland, Oregon is artist Julie Filipenko’s solo show of new paintings “Lucid Dreams.”  The Tel Aviv based artist incorporates hallucinations and reality into her stylized paintings that come together as wonderful dreamscapes.  Learn more on Hellion Gallery’s Website.

A family's happy boating trip in Orange County took a bloody, Tarantino-esque turn for the worst when a 350-pound dolphin jumped into their boat. [ more › ]

Stephen Colbert just filled in as host of “Only in Monroe,” an actual public access cable television talk show in Monroe, Michigan (population 20,000). 

It’s a full show, too, at over 40 minutes long, titled “July 2015.” Oh, and Eminem is in it.

INTERNET. YOU STILL KEEP US ON OUR TOES, INTERNET. 

Loki scores some Blue Sky. Next up: Digging a hole with Tucker. (x)

huffingtonpost:

Abandoned Homes Are Surprisingly Full Of Life (Or Remnants Of It)

(Martino Zegwaard)

On Thursday, June 25, Amber Pangborn gave birth to her daughter Marisa in the Northern California wilderness. Then she shielded her newborn from placenta-hungry bees and accidentally ignited a forest fire.

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