Under the Influence

I have a built-in post for Thursday because of the auspicious coincidence that created this post. You see, a year or so ago I stumbled upon the heartwarming ABC Family show GREEK on Netflix. I watched it faithfully, and recently, my friend Dana said that she was watching it, and I vowed to watch the series again. It was originally Sara Oberle's influence that prompted Dana to watch the show.

Last night I cued up the series and the episode where I left off was propitiously titled...At World's End. The episode starts with Durer's The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse:

and the words, "The End of the World! War! Famine! Pestilence! and Death!" 

Can you tell which is which? Here's what the Met has to say about the Four Horsemen:

"Transforming what was a relatively staid and unthreatening image in earlier illustrated Bibles, Dürer injects motion and danger into this climactic moment through his subtle manipulation of the woodcut. The parallel lines across the image establish a basic middle tone against which the artist silhouettes and overlaps the powerful forms of the four horses and riders—from left to right, Death, Famine, War, and Plague (or Pestilence). "

Which is weird, because on SUNDAY night, on the way back from the airport to retrieve Miss Gokey for a five-hour layover that involved the world's most delicious 2:00 a.m. dump cake, I saw giant metal sheep and horses along I-15 and said, "It's the horsemen of the apocalypse!" Akwardly googling "horse sculptures on I-15 Las Vegas" yielded this explanation. 

The episode continues with Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights:

Curse you, wikipedia! If you are interested, what you need to do is grab that paper copy of the Prado's catalog of major works that you're using now to stabilize your kitchen chair, and look at the details under a magnifying glass. The Prado's website has this to say about the Garden:

"The central panel gives its name to the entire piece, representing a garden of life’s delights or pleasures. Between paradise and hell, these delights are nothing more than allusions to sin, showing humankind dedicated to diverse worldly pleasures. There are clear and strongly erotic representations of lust, along with others, whose meanings are more enigmatic. The fleeting beauty of flowers and the sweetness of fruit transmit a message of fragility and the ephemeral character of happiness and enjoyment. This seems to be corroborated by certain groups, such as the couple enclosed in a crystal ball on the left, which probably alludes to the popular Flemish saying: “happiness is like glass, it soon breaks.” 

The premise of the At World's End episode is an End of the World party the starring fraternity throws right before its social calendar is suspended as the result of a prank. As the brothers are choosing the theme, one of them hilariously throws his arms into the air and yells, "YEAH! ART HISTORY, BABY!" And that's one of the many reasons why I love ABC Family. Obviously, if you have not previously enjoyed the show, watching just the At World's End episode will not be enjoyable for you. 

Other than the fact that this episode exists, there is not much to tell. The president of the show's starring fraternity makes a particularly moving toast: "Good riddance to the things we hate. May we not miss the things we love." 

At World's End is the season finale. The season premiere for Chapter 5 is called, "The Day After."

The cast of GREEK gets a day after...will we? Muahaha. In THAT episode, the conservative roommate of the show's central character has an even better quote:

"The first rule of living every day like the world's gonna end is to make sure the world actually ends."

And on that happy note, I believe that I still have some leftover dump cake. 

Apocalypse Foreshadowing: Earth Hour

In celebration of SPRING BREEEEEAAAAAK!!!!! 2012, the next few posts will be dedicated to experiences and images that I feel might give us an impression of what the world-as-we-know-it will look like after it ends. With this in mind, I was quite excited to kick off my vacation week by celebrating Earth Hour at the Stratosphere. Here's the article from the Las Vegas Sun that describes the event; oddly, the Sun didn't mention our own observations in Las Vegas.

Back in March 2009, I drove down the Strip during Earth Hour and was freaked out enough to want to go back this year. I chose the vantage point of the 1,100-foot observation deck, the highest observation deck in the U.S., from which to do it.

It was windy.

Here's a shot of the Strip BEFORE 8:30, with all the lights on:

Now, at the time, I thought that the minutes after 8:30 were anticlimactic. It will be interesting for me to see the comparison from DURING Earth Hour:

Yeah, it looks very different with the two photos next to each other. Nevertheless, we agreed that next year we will view Earth Hour from the top of the parking garage at the Bellagio. It was definitely more apocalyptic driving down Las Vegas Blvd. three years ago. But it was TOTALLY WORTH IT, because we stayed until 9:30, when the lights began to come back on. The casinos turned their lights on within a span of a few minutes. We stood there and "woo-hoo!"ed each time a new sign or building lit back up.

Some tourists who knew nothing about Earth Hour wandered by to find out what exactly we were yelling about, but the effect was lost on them, because they didn't know which buildings were which. It was much easier to notice the difference AFTER than it was before or during.

Earth Hour 2012 at the Stratosphere Tower was pretty much a perfect way to begin Spring Break.
There will be more otherworldly scenery to look forward to as the week unfolds.