GRUNTING AS U HIT A TENNIS BALL

Does it help the tennis player?

Some experts say it's a reflex. Others say its a tool. Sharapova, Monica Seles, and Serena Williams have been accused of doing it to deliberately to distract  their opponents. Back in 2009 Martina Navratilova said "grunting is cheating, pure and simple--it muffles the sound of the ball hitting the racket that opponents rely on as a cue."

Researchers, exercise scientists, experimented. They got 20 students to kick a 100 pound bag while grunting, then, do it without grunting. A device attached to the bag enabled researchers to measure the force of each kick. They published the result: Students moved the bat with 9% more force when they grunted.

Other experts, after other tests, have said, "It is a reflex, rather than a conscious choice--during strenuous exercise, it's instinctive to hold your breath and give a grunt."

Planet Fitness, one of the largest fitness club franchises, bans grunting in its 1,500 clubs. They will revoke the membership of the persistent offender.

Does it bother me? Yes! I'm not a tennis-watching-nut like my husband, John Cullum, is. I watch the kids who rush in to grab the balls. I observe the audience. My mind wanders. The grunting definitely distracts me ... the truth is, it gets me thinking about the player's private life.

Hey, my tennis-nut-beloved, agrees. Watch this video -- what's your reaction?
  

(VIDEO) HEAR YOUR OWN VOICE

Emily Frankel gets John Cullum explaining how he handles directors. When something he's told to do in a scene feels wrong, does he argue? Compromise? Obey?

John reveals truthfully, how tricky this can be, and how, more often than not, he manages to do what he, himself, wants to do.

SAGGING PANTS LAW

We are definitely getting fussier and fussier, even a bit persnickety, about behavior that offends us.

Like saggy pants -- you see them frequently -- some ridiculously saggy, others are offensively drooping. The wearer might be a kid, but guys who look like grownups wear pants showing the crack in the buttocks.

Why?  To be cooler? To show off their butts? To annoy us?

In South Carolina, lawmakers have been trying to ban saggy pants with "House Bill 4957." It would make it illegal for a person to wear pants “sagging more than three inches below the ileum.” According to the U.S. Library of Medicine the ileum is the lower end of the small intestine.

Violating the law: $25 fine for first offense; $50 for 2nd offense plus three hours of community service; subsequent violations: $75 fine plus six hours of community service.

A similar ordinance was passed two years ago in Timmonsville, South Carolina, where third-time offenders could face fines up to $600. But support for the statewide proposal has been dropping fast, according to NBC's station KXAN. Though proponents of the bill have said the measure is all about ending an "unbecoming" look and deny the bill is designed to target minorities, actually many voters in the area are black and...    

What's my opinion about all this?  I think it's an interesting but harmless rebellion. Look where we're going with women's cleavage  -- lower and wider and sideways to the point of showing everything.

Gee, if sagging pants gets to be seriously illegal... Golly, "what's next" could be ... ?

Eek....  or Yay?

I say eek.

GRANT WOOD ART

Grant Wood: American Gothic and Other Fables is at the Whitney Museum in New York City through June 10th.

American Gothic 1930

You probably remember seeing this painting. The Financial Times critic said: "It's hard to separate  homage from mockery, nostalgia from bitterness. An uneven talent, the Iowa native was barely known outside Cedar Rapids when the 1930 unveiling of  American Gothic, his signature work, made him a national celebrity overnight at age 39. The two glum figures are interpreted as a heartland farmer and his wife, could be read as examplars of admirable sobriety or of a repressive small-mindedness, and knowing more about the artist doesn't settle the matter. In this and many of his other paintings, Wood ennobled the Bible bound agricultural life he was raised in, but as a gay man, he also experienced its menace."

(Blogger Em's facts: They're actually Wood's sister and Wood's dentist). The pinched small-minded look of this couple is what Wood wanted us to see.)

Self portrait 1941.

The New Yorker critic said, "Still there would be no New York exhibit were it not for American Gothic. The notoriety it brought him pretty well wrecked him, eventually driving himi to drink. A hint of fame's toll can be seen in the self portrait Wood completed in 1941. The paining seems tragicomic, a show of macho resolve from a baby-faced sensitive man who would die of cancer a year later at 50. The longer I look at the picture the more I feel its subject is about to burst into tears."

(Blogger: Tears? In this portrait we perceive a straight-forward man saying confidently, with a touch of annoyance, "I paint what I see.")

Sultry Night 1939

The Washington Post critic said: "A craftsman and designer, he dabbled in impressionist painting after traveling in Europe, but found inspiration in the Flemish Old Masters and developed a self-conscious American style that combined hard lines and rural iconography. Well after he gained renown, in 1939 he created Sultry Night, that the US Office wouldn't distribute. More often Wood's wonderfully queer take on the world manifests itself in more interesting ways." Praising a 1933 painting of a truck barreling toward two cars, this critic said: "It is an ominous image and also one of the most gender-fluid he ever made--a dramatic commingling of masculine and feminine forms."

(Blogger:  Instead of hurrying to the Whitney Museum, you can Google his name and see some of my favorite Grant Wood visions of roads, land, homes, and people. 

Arbor Day 1932

Birthplace of Herbert Hoover

Spring

Spring In Town 1941

Spring  Turning

I have included this short film of Wood's concept: "Where Tillage Begins, Other Arts Follow."  A large section of the museum was devoted to a breathtaking panorama that depicted ordinary activities. Seeing the film, you'll understand his concept better than if I try to explain it with words.  

Blogger:
Having driven across America eight times before becoming a blogger, performing in more than 1000 cities and towns in the United States, the pictures on this blog are only a few of the many scenes that live in my mind. What various critics said about the exhibit that is closing at the Whitney Museum... oh my... I hope we can outgrow the small-mindedness of what they said about the man, the artist, Grant Wood.