Thursday, June 28, 2007
Look at this Neo Rauch. He has replaced his usual aimless zombie people with clowns, and to great effect. I've always said to myself, "Corny, that guy is good, but he needs to LIGHTEN UP, afterall, this isn't 1982, the wall is down, bro, get yourself some cheesey fries and relax!After I do some good hard thinking about Neo Rauch and how times have changed, I like to sit back and enjoy a cold one in the back yard. The thing is, now the sun is in the front of the house in the evenings. Blimey! So I found an old bench upstate and a cement donkey planter, et voila! an urban oasis -forged out of the barren cement wasteland that was the front yard of The Mounds!
But there's a problem.... I might be scared to go outside. There is a lady, Teressa, the big Italian lady-boss of Powers Street. She's an oldish woman who sports housecoats and strechy pants, grew up on Powers Street and is the center of the Powers Street social scene. Her kids all live in different houses on our block, they're always gathering outside her place, I suppose it's nice for them. I began saying hello to Teressa a couple of months ago when I'd take George out for early morning walks. Teressa would bless her when I walked by. Soon we started to chat and then she invited me into her little front yard area to sit. I didn't want to be rude, but I also didn't want to sit in her area. I like the idea of being friends with the neighbors, but if we started talking, I would have to reveal that I was raising George with another woman and I could envision her old school Italian Catholic disgust. As I knew she would, she asked about George's birth and I explained that I was adopting her. It was awkward, though she said that George was still a blessing, (Thanks). I've complicated matters by not mentioning the fact I'm adopting her with Mrs. Cub, who gave birth to her. So lately I've been avoiding Teressa. I head out in the opposite direction for our morning walk, going three blocks out of my way for a cup of Gimme Coffee. I know I need to tell Teressa and let her judge me as she will....Maybe it won't be so bad, George is cute and always smiles at her, after all, she's is a blessing for fucks sake.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
stands for the extra number of hours a day I will eat, paint and hang out doing stuff on the new "wakefulness drug" that got FDA approval last Monday. Take it and you don't get fatigued, even after days without sleep. No side affects -and it improves your memory to boot. Thats 3400 bonus hours of awake time a year, or 136,000 more hours if I live another 40 years. Thats an extra 15 years of livin'! Dont tell me it's too late to pick up the Rumiphon or the Symphonium or the Fluba! Read more about the pill that will change my life for the longer here at this blog. Here's a helpful chat board guide to getting it cheap on the web and how it mixes with your favorite party drug.
Monday, June 18, 2007
stands for the 10,000 years (or less) since god created Adam and the dinosaurs. Now there is a 27 million dollar museum to prove it! The Creation Museum which contends to be based in science, opened in Kentucky with protesters at hand and protesters protesting the protesters.Concieved by people who get epileptic when they hear the words "radiocarbon dating", this museum -dispite being increadibly misleading and damaging to the brain's of young visitors who are taught that the creation of the world as told in Genesis is factually correct and that dinosaurs didn't survive because there wasn't enough room on the arc, has really cool animatronic displays of man and dinosaur living together, just like in Land of the Lost!
This is what the museums designer, Patrick Marsh, formerly from Universal Studios in LA had to say, "as for scientists, so much of what they believe is pretty fuzzy about life and its origins."
A reporter collegue of mine from the Gardian Newspaper out of london went on a visit and asked Marsh about early human fossilized remains.
"There are no such things. Humans are basically as you see them today. Those skeletons they've found, what's the word? ... they could have been deformed, diseased or something. I've seen people like that running round the streets of New York."
Apparently the scene of Eve being created from adams rib is realistic and parents are warned that children may be scared. Or scarred. Either way, it begs for a road trip with a stop over to nearby Big Bone Lick state park near Beaverlick KT. But why, Mister The-Flintstones-Is-A-Reality-Show, if you believe in the bible, do you need to prove it with science? Ok?
The best response to this travisty is from This Week in Science the totally excellent podcast out of UC Davis. They're hoasting a contest to make a billboard to announce the opening of the new Unicorn Museum across the street from the Creation Museum. Enter your Billboard design at their website. Scroll down to june 8th for deets.
Here are some pics
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Amazingly I didn't get kicked out of France for having a french accent that causes escargot to shrivel up in pain. Seamonkee and heir Tyson were there as well as Leo, Torbin Geiler, and my amazing in laws, Roxanna and Danny Geffen, and of course George and Mrs. Cub, who I picked up at the airport the morning before the opening. Seeing them walk through the arrivals gate was one of the happiest moments dans ma vie.
We spent time at the Musée du Quai Branly, an astounding collection of indigenous art, and a highlight of the trip. The museum is designed by Jean Nouvel, the same guy who did the Cartier Foundation and is the namesake of Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt. Apparently Brad is a fan of his work. Ok? Get over it.
We liked the building from the outside, hidden behind a wild garden of tall grasses and thick climbing vines that cover some of the walls of the building, but inside was a strange dark maze of leather walls, you feel like you are entering the heart of darkness, We thought the jungle metaphor was overdone, condescending really. However the objects glow in the darkness and beauty is stressed over back story. Most amazing to me were elaborately decorated skulls from Papua New Guinea. The head was thought to be the container of the soul, so skulls of ancestors were preserved, cleaned, then overmodelled and painted in the image of the deceased, sometimes decorated with beads and stuff, they reminded us of Damien Hirsts newest bit of soul searching art, except with a disturbing beauty and depth that arises out of the awe of the mystery of death unlike Hirst's decidedly choadish attitude "Death is such a heavy subject, it would be good to make something that laughed in the face of it.” Right.
We spent a day wandering through the ancient Eqyptian collection at the Louvre, it was a friggen parade of famous masterpieces that really blew us apart. We did this with Seamonkee and Tyson, fun as it is to look at art with them -Tyson having recieved a real education in Britian, actually knows her history and is a trove of insight, Seamonkee is in a perpetual state of wonder that is completely infectious, Seamonkee immediatly got caught up by some ancient Egyptian knick-knack for 20 minutes and I'm like, this is the LOUVRE man, there's like a jillion ancient egyptian knick-knacks! George was getting antsy being strapped into the stroller which becomes a rolling babytorcherchair after a few hours, so we parted ways, only to hook up with our compadries a day later for drinks in Mountmartre, followed by more drinks in the swanky 8th Arrondissement and a dinner of beef tartar on bun, meant to be a hamburger.
What else? We shopped for clothing for George, we visited the Eiffel tower, the Tuileries, the Luxenbourg gardens, but most magical and a must see next time you visit paris is the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont in the 19 Arrondissement.
Built in the 19th century, mountains of garbage were transformed into surreal English-style gardens, featuring a large rocky cliff with a suspension foot bridge 100 feet high just begging people to jump off it, a waterfall, a grotto, and a Roman-style temple to top it all off. Torbin and I learnt that Leo has a serious fear of hights, The big guy's legs buckled under him as we walked out on to the high bridge, he made it across but was practically crawling back. Sad, yet kinda funny.
Another interesting stop was to the Deyrolle, a strange shop on the rue du Bac that sells taxadermy 'n stuff. Downstairs is a quaint garden shop -I bought a yellow canvas hat, très provencial chic, upstairs they've got animals and bird stuffed and for sale. Taking taxadermy to the edge of acceptability, they had stuffed chicks, baby bunnies and a little black lamb which was REALLY pushing it. Generally shopping was good but expensive with the dollar in it's weakened state. I bought music boxes for George including this sweet little tune from the magic flute and other french songs which are familiar to me from probabley from listening to this album when I was a wee bit, which by the way is great if you have a little kid, download it for free here. I also like the German album, theres a demented song about a lady who marries a mouse.
This wasn't much of a food trip since eating dinner at 9pm every night with a baby in tow was tricky, but lunches at the museum were lavish 2 hour long wine drenched affairs with cigarette breaks every half hour, for this and crepes complet, we thank the French.
Check out some pics from Paris, some of them come courtesy of Tyson and Seamonkee.
This was a longer post because I'm going to end the blog soon and I'm already feeling nostolgic. A large and complex countdown-to-the-end will begin next week.
