JayB

What about the figure in front of the left-most Gorilla's right hand? Is there a group called the Mannequins that would work for the figure in the bikini in the window?

Got it - U2.....

What about the two "u" thingies spraypainted on the building in the back-center?

Painting of the woman holding a baby on the left?

Are those things coming out of the storm drain behind the queen "The Roots?"

What about the manequin in the Bikini in the window on the left?

Agent Orange?

Group of cars in the back center seems like it might be Cars

What about the groups of dudes in white on the right?

I think the watermelon with the shades is "Blind Melon"

Figure on the right is "Alice in Chains" Is the Iron Statue "Iron Maiden"

I think it's actually Cypress Hill. Anyone ID "The Lemonheads" in the fruit cart on the right yet?

Starter: The three people by the lamp-post on the right represent "The Cowboy Junkies."

Wonder when the folks at the OED are going to start in on this one.

That photo looks like it was taken along the I-10 (I think that's the highway) beachfront in the greater Gulfport/Biloxi area - or somewhere along the Gulf Coast anyway. Seems like from what I've read the buildings in N.O. are intact, but muddy and mold-ridden - rather than physically destroyed.

Time for you to brave the Bobos, put on an air of smug conservative intellectual superiority, and go to an art museum So name 5 renaissance-era artists widely known for their depiction of idealized females that are considerably heavier than either today's ideals or those of the Hellenic/Hellenistic period - without recourse to Google.

I think that the response to this has been quite amusing thus far. If this were the male physique that were under discussion, I doubt that people would be dredging up paintings depicting naked men with guts and claiming that the gut had once been viewed as the apex of male physical perfection, and that any deviation from that was the result of a media conspiracy to lower the average male's self-esteem.

Even if that's the case, if you integrate all idealized representations of the "perfect" female form over all times and cultures I doubt you'd end up with anything like a titian-era figure.

I think that the "Bobo's in Paradise" is more or less apolitical - more of a class skewering - BoBo is short for Bourgeois Bohemians - than a political rant. Might be a painful experience for those that actually shop at places like "Restoration Hardware" though.

Vail has to be the most overhyped resort on the planet. The terrain accessed by Crystal's Chair 7 alone absolutely destroys everthing that Vail has to offer, except perhaps low-pitch groomers. I say this even having the way, way, way, way overhyped back bowls more or less to myself during a storm that shut down I-70.

Anyone from the site supposed to be out there this week?

Physical ideals have been around for a while - witness the physiques on display in hellenic/hellenistic statuary. Right. And that culture's sentiment on beauty is represented in those statues. This Hellennistic relief shows their notion of the idyllic female form with a few more pounds on the hips than our culture's most popular representations. A millenia and a half later we see this:It seems the plumpness of the idyllic female form is inverse to the availability of food to the general populace. In our "Super-Size" culture of plenty, we herald the shapes of Tyra Banks, Halle Berry, etc., as the pinnacles of form. Were the women depicted by Titian really representative of the ideals of his time? If the ideals depicted in his paintings were truly widespread it would seem as though you'd see them embodied in the works of more than a single painter, and you'd have dozens and dozens of paintings, frescoes, etc out there idealizing women that check in at two bills. Perhaps this is the case, but the fact that Titian is the one and only artist that comes up when people claim that at one time, a copious amount of adipose tissue was the sine qua non of the female form makes me suspicious.

Great photos Mike, Dylan, and Darrin.

I thought that book was dead-on as well, but then I guess that's no surprise. I think my favorite concept was "Status-Income Disequilibrium."