Attention, dear Whovians!

I know you're out there. This one's for you US.

Before you hit the "play" button, I challenge you to contemplate this: would YOU eat seeds from this fruit???



Well. THAT bar's been set pretty high.

Drooling. Simply drooling...

rebecca.

 

...when everyone likes a good scream a wee bit more than usual.

So if you're looking for something to do this weekend, or if you happen to need a good movie suggestion because you're coming up blank, CLICK.

Highbrow entertainment, it isn't. But you're looking for horror and gore. It's full of win. Especially right NOW, with TODAY'S blog post which reviews "The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Meet Dracula". Not gory, although that depends on whether your definition is literal or figurative or even poetic. It's definitely a train wreck when you factor in multiple singing opportunities for Paul Williams and Shawn Cassidy. Wait'll you find out who stars as Dracula AND who drives the bus...

Don't worry, there are chainsaws and co-eds in the forest a'plenty in other offerings. Which are legion.

Laughing, popping corn, snuggling on the couch with the dog, with a sinfully gleeful anticipation of throaty screams,

rebecca.

 

...which is not really the best, most ragingly over-the-top-with-superlatives description I could come up with for my new photography crush, Nicholas Beatty.

Go see for yourself.

Brace yourself, though. If you like Dia de los Muertos, or skulls, or Catrinas even a little bit, have smelling salts at the ready. You're in for the swoon of the week.

Not only is his work good, it's supported by >gasp!< brilliant research and writing of a high quality.

(What are you still doing here? Just, you know, come back after you're sated...)

Fanning myself rapidly and heading back in for more,

rebecca.

 

Ever try something on mid-knit? CLICK.

Recognize anyone? Maybe not you...

Just. Priceless.

 

Jeff Koons is an artist. I know this because he is listed in loads (yeah... remember that word. You may want to use it. Or not.) of catalogues. Oh -- and I learned about him in art school. Even back then, heated disputes arose. (This is another good context for "load" again. There will be others. Just pointing it out, though it may or may not be my opinion.) He's a pop artist, which may go some distance towards an explanation.

My point here is that the guy is controversial. He sparks conversation. His work sells for multimillions, regardless of the currency in question. That fact sparks even more controversy than his work.

He's got a new exhibit. It's at the Palace of Versailles.

I just about fell over laughing when I heard this.

Why?

Imagine a collection of vintage 1960's vacuum cleaners, all picked up from a day's shopping at thrift shops, arranged on individual white stands, covered by individual plexiglass boxes. Now put them in a lush and lavish bedroom fit for Louis Catorze.

THAT'S why. And it's only a beginning of why! Here's a taste of what one salon looks like.


photo from Getty Images via daylife.com

Yup. It's a lobster.

Here's some art criticspeak about the exhibit!!! CLICK ONE CLICK TWO CLICK THREE

It's not even his idea!

Now, I'm ok with that to an extent. There is, after all, "nothing new under the sun". (NOT a reference to the Sun King, btw...) I didn't say that, that's why it's in quotation marks. It's from the unknown author of the Book of Ecclesiastes, a writer widely believed to be King Solomon. No one knows for sure if it really was him, but everyone pretty much agrees with the wisdom of the statement. The thing is, when you do go borrowing something that you know full well not to be yours, the polite thing to do is to give credit.

In 1917 a French artist entered a peculiar sculpture into a New York art show and signed a sort of 'pen name' to the front of it. Here is a photo of that entry.


photo from writedesignonline.com

It was absolutely scandalous at the time, and not just because it was a urinal. It was also the beginning of Marcel Duchamp's career in the United States and the challenging, indelible mark he made on 20th Century Art, regardless of how established he was in France before his emigration.

What was the scandal?

For one thing, Duchamp didn't make it. He simply picked it up, wiped it off, signed it, dated it, and submitted it. Some poor schmuck accepting submissions probably got screamed at for weeks by a Women's Committee committee, and that must have been about the most miserable he'd be for a good decade or so, til the Great Depression, if they let him live that long.

Here's the biggest sin of all, though: artists (at the time) didn't get to determine what art was. The art critics got to make that call. Artists create, Critics declare. Because of all of the mighty declarations made over this (in all normal contexts) insignificant chunk of porcelain, the dialogue raised the level of this extraordinary submission to the level of art, defying the critics and empowering the artists.

Another very famous and scandalous Duchamp Readymade (1919) was his alteration of a cheap print of Leonardo daVinci's Mona Lisa. He scribbled a curly moustache on her upper lip and pointy goatee on her chin and wrote in the white space beneath the painting, "LHOOQ". If you say the letters out loud in French it sounds more like "elle ahsh O O cooh", and means (according to my art history profs), "she has a cute arse".

Marcel Duchamp was a god to us.

So why not Koons? Well, maybe he is.

Maybe I'm jealous.

Maybe I'm hoping you'll think about it yourself, not needing to know where I stand. I will say this: do kind of wish Koons would tip his hat either to Duchamp by signing something "Mutt", or to Rene Magritte by making a print of something and writing underneath it, "This is not a ____." He could even take something that is obviously NOT a pipe and write "Cesi n'est pas un pipe." Unfortunately, Jeff Koons seems not to wear a hat to tip.

(To give Koons a bit of credit, I don't believe he does the "ready-made" borrowing anymore. When those works are seen, they are on loan from someone's private collection. The works he's made popular lately resemble figured and mylar baloons. They look so convincingly like colossal mylar baloons, you'll want to know how you can get one for yourself!! Except they are in fact stainless steel. I can't find a source to confirm it, but I think the lobster hanging a the top of this post is also steel that's been painted.)

Maybe right this minute, I'm revelling in the whole "there is nothing new under the sun" PLUS "what goes around comes around". I kind of feel like the New York art world of almost 100 years ago is getting even with the Paris art world of almost 100 years ago (and not missing by more than, say, 100 years) by putting what looks like cheap plastic tschochkes and every day appliances in the Sun King's palace. Hey, it's dialogue, right?

It makes me giggle.

It remains for you to determine whether it's a load of news or just a steaming load.

Looking for a dustbuster to frame and hang on the wall,

rebecca.

Fair warning: this video is old school, Country-Western, a fine Patsy Cline-ism of a song, and may not be to your musical taste. Widen your horizons this once, if you're not a country fan. (I'm not usually; I have some exceptions.) I wouldn't post it if it wasn't worth it. Here are some coping mechanisms if you need them. You prob'ly won't.

If you object to this style of music, then imagine the women as drag queens. (NOT a stretch. And just mayb-- Naaah.) It would be a great cabaret song. They need more glitter and feathers, and perhaps to accessorize with the knitting needles that light up.

Alternatively, put Camper Van Beethoven or REM or The Blues Brothers (with the barmaid saying, "Oh we got BOTH kinds. We got Country AND Western!!!" pre-show at Country Bob's Country Bunker) in their place, and you might be better entertained. I like this just fine, though my imagination likes the "covers" too. 'Specially the Jake and Elwood one, just after they sing "Sometimes it's ha-a-a-a-ard to be a woman..." ANYWAY...

Ready? >giggles<





I can't stop laughing. Even after the 5th time through; I think I'm laughing harder the more familiar I get with it. It's JUST. THAT. GOOD. True, even!

Didja catch the shout out to Elizabeth Zimmerman? Rawks.

Holding my sides and hitting "Replay" again,

rebecca.

 

This is some outstanding embroidery. I have a new string-crush. CLICK to see!!

Please make sure you browse the rest of her embroidery photos. Ni-i-i-i-i-ice.

Wiping away the drool (and reaching for the floss and hoops),

rebecca.