Skeleton Trivia for Thursday, 2024-09-05
Édouard Manet, if you’re reading this ... I have some questions
Hiya Skeleton Crew,
Red triangles! Yesterday was all ’bout red triangles, for some reason.
Answers to Last Time
I’m sure any Red Sox fans in the audience’ll recognize the big Citgo sign towerin’ over Fenway Park.
Bass Brewery’s iconic red triangle logo was the first trademark to get registered under the U.K.’s Trade Mark Registration Act of 1875, dont’tcha know?
Today’s Trivias
Trivia 1
There’s this famous paintin’ by Édouard Manet with the Bass logo in it, goes by the name Un bar aux Folies Bergère:
When I first saw Édouard workin’ on it, I told him, I said, “Buddy! That reflection in the mirror, it don’t make no sense!” I mean, look at it! There’s a guy in the mirror that obviously ain’t there in real life!!
Well I guess that really ticked him off, ’cause he said to me «Non, espèce de scélérat squelettique! C'est la réalité!!» an’ then he grabbed me by the humerus ’n’ dragged me off to the dang Folies Bergère itself (which was like a mile away!) to show me in person how the reflection worked.
In fairness to him, he was right, the reflection DID look that way in real life, I’ll admit that was a li’l œuf on my zygoma. I can even see why Mr. Manet was miffed at me, since artists’ve been workin’ for centuries on how to capture reflections ’n’ perspective ’n’ all sorts a’ qualities a’ light in all sorts a’ ways. So y’know, sorry again, Eddie, in case ya happen to be readin’ this!
A’ course, nowadays computers can do all this stuff kinda perfectly. They use algorithms ’n’ the such to figure out how, for each pixel in a picture, how a beam a’ light might bounce ’round through a 3D space to end up at that pixel.
What’s this computer graphics technique called?
It’s a kinda computationally intensive way to make images, so in the past it was mainly used in things like renderin’ Pixar movies where ya could wait a long time for the algorithms to all do their thing. But nowadays ya can buy fancy-pants graphic cards that do what’s called “hardware acceleration”, meanin’ that this technique’s gettin’ used more ’n’ more in real-time situations, like in video games.
Trivia 2
The Folies Bergère’s been a part a’ Paris life for over 150 years! What American-born dancer, actress, ’n’ civil rights activist first became famous for headlinin’ shows at the Folies Bergère—maybe most notably in the 1927 revue Un Vent de Folie where she performed in a skirt made outta fake bananas?
In addition to her bein’ an icon a’ the Jazz Age, this lady also did a heckuva lot to support the French Resistance in WWII, which she got recognized for by the French government:
She was awarded the Resistance Medal ’n’ the Croix de Guerre
She was inducted into the Légion d'honneur
She’s the first Black woman to get inducted into the PANTHÉON! (by way a’ symbolic interment)
All a’ which is pretty doggone impressive if ya ask me.
OK then
Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee