JennA

I am wondering if this is what Dan means by "friends" though. I think the question is getting confused by equating a "friendship" with being just friendly or amicable. Being on good terms, keeping in touch, etc. is not the same as a true friendship, I think, in the sense Peikoff meant. I don't think he was saying that the end of a love affair means you never speak or see each other again--it means that you can't undo your history together. A friendship does not have that kind of history--its a completely different kind of relationship. Dan said he maintains a very close friendship with his former lover, that they discuss current lovers, and are still very intimate. That kind of friendship is what I can not imagine. Dan--is this really how your relationship is? (Her coming to your wedding doesn't really say that much, you know.)

I agree with Blackdiamond. You can't "unlearn" or forget what someone is like on a physical level, and that kind of level isn't part of a friendship. Trying to be friends with an ex would mean just trying to ignore that physical awareness of each other that you will always have. Like he says: its better to just be "amicable" than to try to be friends.

Hi-- I just found this hostel near Telluride, as a possible cheaper place to stay at OCON. Back Narrows Inn They say its a 1/2 hour drive away from Telluride, and $30 a night for a hostel bed in a shared room. It says they have private rooms too. I once stayed at a beautiful log cabin lodge hostel in a different part of Colorado, overlooking Grand Lake. It was gorgeous, and I could hardly believe it was a backpacking hostel! I don't know if this one is anything like that, but it could be good.

It sounds like you have a very happy marriage, Inspector--which is wonderful. I have to take issue with this part of what you wrote though. Any time I have been on a date that seemed like an interview, the date was the complete opposite of fun. I enjoy being asked about my beliefs and talking about the things I enjoy, but not in the style of an "interview". What if you find out you aren't really right for each other? Then the date will seem pointless. If you are just going out to have an enjoyable time with someone new, it should still be fun and seem worthwhile, even if it doesn't lead to more.

Wow--this is really beautiful! The image looks wonderful to me--if it doesn't do it justice, it must really be gorgeous in real life. Do you know of attractive and elegant buildings that imitate an older style, using modern construction materials and methods? I would love to see an example if you know of one. I can't imagine that kind of building being anything except incongruous (and ugly) because the older style was invented to make the most of materials used at the time, and isn't really suited to things like concrete pre-fab, etc. (I think you probably know a great deal more about architecture than I do, but that is my understanding of it.) Sigh...I wrote a lot more about Walmart the first time I tried to post this, but somehow the post disappeared and I can't remember the great, insightful things I wrote. I'd better go to sleep now... I'll try to remember the rest of what I meant to say and post it later.

Hmm Dismuke, you offer a lot to think about--I enjoy your posts very much for that reason. However--in this case I do not understand the point you're making. If Walmart had a choice between Roark and Keating for a total redesign of their stores, are you saying there is possible context that would make Keating the better choice? That his secondhandedness would be a value for a Walmart-type business? If so, I don't agree. First-handed thinking will always be better, even if the market for your product is the lowest common denominator.

This is very interesting, and I partly agree. A quality of movement in my own artwork is crucial for exactly this reason. However, there are other aspects of life an artist might choose to focus on as more crucial to their own sense of life. Vermeer did not focus particularly on movement in his work--although there is movement in the way the viewer's eye is carried through the composition. But its a quiet, background kind of movement--not the forefront of his style. The clear, contemplative quality of his paintings would not be so strong if they didn't also have a certain stillness to them. Although I agree with you and Andrew that Bryan Larsen's work could improve, he has some strong points, especially his skill at composing. "Just The Beginning" leads the viewer through three-dimensional space quite well, although I dislike that piece because the figure proportions are off. But if you look at some of Larsen's recent pieces, like "Waking Among The Clouds" he is really starting to come into his own, in the sense of finding visual forms for his ideas that are not just symbolic. There is much more liveliness to the forms and the paint quality too. I was lucky enough to see it in person in a large show of his work, which is much better than a computer screen image. (I couldn't figure out how to get the image of Waking Among the Clouds over here, but its on bryanlarsenfineart.com.) I would add that it is very, very, very hard to integrate all the elements of a large scale figure painting--composition, drawing, color, space, not to mention narrative and theme. Andrew, if you are studying art, you may already have some experience with how difficult this is. That is what Bryan Larsen is trying to do. He may not be there yet, but most great artists have taken the majority of their lives to reach that level, if they ever reach it at all. I have a lot of respect for that kind of ambition. That said--I like all the criticism in this thread. Every artist can use some good, thoughtful criticism.

I am just now reading this thread, and wanted to respond to this. Thank you so much for posting this fabulous letter. It sums up the truth about this entire debate so perfectly, especially your final sentence:

I really enjoyed Prison Break when it first started too, but I don't know if it will continue to be good. A lot of the interesting conflict seems to have dissipated now. If they kept the story focused on Michael Scofield and his brother, instead of bothering with the other prison breakers, I think it would be better.

What an incredibly cool idea for a thread...I have enjoyed a lot of what has already been posted, but I had to add this painting by Ingres. It fits all three categories, as far as I am concerned! Also for the feminine category, this is one I love:

I took it as: you like to fantasize about difficult, challenging women.