The other end of the telescope.

Essays, articles, links, ephemera, whatevs to pass your almost-nearly-please-make-it-Tuesday afternoon:

1. I'm not sure why he's tackling the subject now, but Douglas Wolk's overview of The Magnetic Fields is perfecto. A sample:
   

   But Merritt's crowning conceit to date can be found on the Magnetic Fields' magnum opus, 69 Love Songs, which is precisely that: three discs' worth of love songs, written in every pop idiom Merritt's capable of pulling off convincingly or mocking entertainingly: country-and-western, Celtic folk, civic-pride song, blues, Fleetwood Mac. Which of those idioms are really his? The point is that none of them are really anybody's -- or rather, they don't belong to performers, but to listeners who understand how they're supposed to be affected by them. To confuse them with realness is to mistake a mask for a face.

   
   
2. In March 2001, the Taliban took a rocket launcher and blew up two enormous, ancient statues of Buddha in the Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan. Artist Hiro Yamagata has a plan for the ruins:
   

   His program calls for building solar panels and windmills to generate power for 14 laser systems that would be positioned up to eight miles from the cliff-side where the Buddhas stood. With the mountains serving as a kind of screen, the lasers would project Yamagata's semi-abstract images of the destroyed Buddhas. The illuminated figures, limned in shades of pink, green, orange and blue, would be visible for miles, he said.

   
   Obviously, this is a politically and religiously charged move. Yamagata doesn't want to hear that, though. "I don't care about religion. And all the politics? No interest .... [Preservationists] asked me to do this, so I do it.... No other reason."
   An added bonus of the seven million dollar installation would be that the Bamiyan Valley would finally be wired for electricity. This doesn't seem to impress Yamagata either: "If we can provide electric power, why not do it? ... But I don't like the talk about doing this 'for the people.' I have no interest in that. I want to stay more dry and make this a cutting-edge, hard-core piece."
   Against interpretation, indeed.
   
   
3. Kill some time over at Foxnews.com playing FOX FAN FUN: Guess the Eyes. Here's one:
   
   Clue: He's looking out for you! (Your loofah/falafel joke here. Ho ho.)
   
   
   
   
4. Monkey.
   
   
5. The Duff veneers into Buseyville.