It's all a matter of perspective

Apparently I made too big a deal last time about who stands in front in our post-run selfies because now we’re doing that whole Renaissance vanishing-point thing with Rob and Scott shrinking into the Florentine distance, albeit with an anachronistic scattering of focal points. ART!

Or ALBUM COVER!

In need of a BAND NAME!

POSSIBILITIES:

The HIPAA Violations
The Moist Selfies
Holy Shit It’s Early
Running Shoes Are Expensive
Jake and the Not Jakes
Does This Stink?
Two Guys Who Do Lots Of Theater And Who Is That Guy Who’s Always Hiding In The Background?
Scott And Two Guys Who Do Lots Of Theater
Three Guys Who’ve Never Done Follies Together

I'll keep working on it ...

I swear I’m just getting amazinger and amazinger at photography—especially artistic portraiture

To wit: the exquisite composition and compelling narrative of this group selfie that I took just this morning after our run:

I call it The Beatitude of St. Rob, and it truly rivals the Renaissance masters in the way it frames Rob—representing the Cedar Rapidian god Guy With The Newest Running Shoes—between the verdant fecundity of the trees as he’s flanked by his noble warrior Me and his also-noble-but-in-the-background-so-as-not-to-pull-focus-from-me warrior Scott as we depict the noble warrior mementos mori of Oh My God I’m Dying Because It’s So Muggy and Oh My God I’m Dying Because I’m So Sweaty. The rooftop in the background is, of course, a metaphor for the ethereal certitude that there’s a house behind us and it has a roof, while the three figures in the foreground are mathematically equivalent to the three miles we just finished running. Renaissance masters dig representational stuff like that.

Please do not reproduce and sell this image, as its copyrighted and I’ll make snide comments about your wardrobe choices on Facebook if you do. And watch for the next in my series of Renaissance Masters Artistic Portraiture By Jake(R) on Wednesday, where we’re going to force Scott to be in the foreground for once.

Happy 332nd birthday, Johann Sebastian Bach!

Fun Bach fact 1: Johann Sebastian Bach is considered to be one of the definitive composers of the Baroque Period in music, which lasted from 1600 until the year of Bach's death in 1750. Following the Renaissance Period, which explored independent, interweaving melodic lines in a style known as polyphony, Baroque music introduced the concept of tonality, where music was written in an established key. The highly ornamental and often improvised music of the Baroque followed the key-based chord progressions played by the lower instruments of the basso continuo.

And though all symphonic music from the Baroque Period forward is collectively known as "classical music," the official Classical Period as we define it today directly followed the Baroque, lasting from 1750 to 1825. Its definitive composer was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.