Potato Of The Day Episode 23

“TATER” by MCS – Oil pastel on card stock.

This photo is a gift sent from a reader, but it’s also an artwork, a response and replication of another artwork, casting shadows, altering the consumption of said artwork, an oil sketch, in turn a response to my own artwork, written interpretations of potatoes, episodic and stacked streams of consciousness, in turn a response to nature’s artwork, the humble, but glorious, potato.

At what point does art cease to be art? At what point is art reality? Do the images in our heads match the truth, the genuine physical world? Is the physical world any more genuine than the world that lurks within the mind’s eye? Do our dreams align with laws of physics? Did you read this text as I intended you to interpret it? If all you ever see is an interpretation of an object, can you understand that object? What if this was your first experience with a potato? Would you appreciate this potato more or less? Would you be able to say you understood what a potato was? Does this even count as a potato? Does it matter that I’ve labeled it a Potato Of The Day?

The shadows that rise from the corner of the photo, do those shadows have a message for us? Do they hint at the potato’s darkness? Do they unsettle your understanding of the potato? Were your opinions of potatoes pre-settled before we began this journey? If so, why did you assume to know the potato? If not, why did you not ponder the potato previously? Can you find meaning in these questions? Do questions constitute a blog post? Is a blog post art? Is the potato art? Is there real meaning within the rooted core of the potato? Or are potatoes meaningless?

Do you believe in the potato? Show me.

If you’ve got potatoes you want me to look at, email them to benandsiyablog@gmail.com.

Humpday Hymn: Prince – “Breakdown”

[DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN HIS ART OFFICIAL AGE, AND WILL HASTILY COMPLY WITH ANY AUTHORIZED REQUESTS TO BE FORGIVEN. FOR THAT MATTER, WE’RE NOT EVEN WORTHY, WE’RE SO SORRY, OMG WHY AM I STILL POSTING THIS!]

His Purpleness (we are not worthy. I mentioned that, right?) is notorious for cancelling Christmas with quickness on any and every internet violator host of his music. Sooo, while this lasts, enjoy this masterpiece from his latest double project “THE ART OFFICIAL AGE/ PLECTRUMELECTRUM“… Hopefully you catch the smooth vibes before the inevitable… breakdown.

Update: Prince has since pulled all his music from Spotify and Youtube, and also deleted his social media accounts. See? That wasn’t just crazy ramblin up there, the Purple moves in mysterious ways!

Tweet Talk: Baltimore Riots Blame Game

I’ll be honest, when Ben asked “So Baltimore…” (expecting at the very least a fact-based-quip of how bad it had gotten), I had not seen a single significant piece of news coverage on it, and had no clue of the facts about what was happening.

Then, early Monday evening I casually stopped by a buddy’s place during a bike ride, intending to pressure the cheap-ass into ordering the Mayweather-Pacquaio fight this coming Saturday. No dice, of course 😏. He was watching news coverage of the events unfolding after Freddie Gray’s funeral. I watched as CNN, Fox, and MSNBC all played virtually the same loop of violence and looting, compete with the mayor disowning the violence, and disbelief of how bad it has gotten.

Yesterday morning, after a state of emergency had been declared (read: $hit got too real), the inevitable finger-wagging stage of these kinds of events started. Undoubtedly this will be followed by an Al Sharpton cameo, then an Al Sharpton diss from the local population for ambulance chasing, and so on until the news coverage gets old and reverts back to regularly scheduled election-cycle news season.

While this African doesn’t have a take on the entirety of this occurrence and breakout, it is comforting to hear from some familiar voices, remixing their same tunes:

Morning Commute: “The Guillotine” – The Coup