Bye Bye, Maybach
Andy Warhol’s Childhood Endeavours
Warhols You Can Afford: Andy Warhol’s 1950s Children’s Books
Before his Marilyn Monroe and Campbell’s Soup prints, the pop art legend illustrated books—and they’re still available and inexpensive
Andy Warhol may be one of only seven artists in the world to have ever sold a canvas for $100 million, but it turns out you don’t have to be a billionaire to own “a Warhol.” In fact, you can do so for next to nothing.
In the late 1950s, Warhol belonged to Doubleday’s stable of freelance artists, making a living designing book covers and illustrating dry business books. Shortly before halting his love affair with the corporate world in fear of compromising his flirtations with the art world, he illustrated six stories for the excellent Best In Children’s Books. (Cue in my recent review of little–known children’s books by famous “adult” authors.) Among them was the story “Card Games Are Fun,” from Best of Children’s Books #27, published in 1959.
Giant Mermaid Sighted In Germany
A “mermaid” sculpture rises in Germany’s Alster lake.
Boats gather around a sculpture of a mermaid in the inner city ‘Alster’ lake in Hamburg August 3, 2011. The four-meter-high sculpture made by Oliver Voss will be in place until August 12. REUTERS/Morris Mac Matzen (GERMANY – Tags: SOCIETY)
One of the more intriguing aspects of David Bowie’s appearance is that his eyes seem to be of two different colors….
Bernie Kosar Rocks
Cleveland Browns: Top 10 Best Pop Culture Moments
8. I Am Number Four
The 2011 hit movie “I Am Number Four” stars a character named Bernie Kosar after the beloved 1980’s and early 90’s Cleveland Browns quarterback.
Main character John Smith finds a dog and names it Bernie Kosar. This dog is not just any dog, but a shape-shifting being from Smith’s homeplanet of Lorien.
I’m not going to go any more into detail on the movie plot; it only gets weirder from there.
‘The job was gone, the gun was loaded, and a voice was saying, “You’re a waste, give up now, do it now.”’
Learning to Cope With a Mind’s Taunting Voices
Living With Voices: Joe Holt, a computer consultant and entrepreneur who has a diagnosis of schizophrenia, describes how he’s learned to manage the voices in his head.
LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. — The job was gone, the gun was loaded, and a voice was saying, “You’re a waste, give up now, do it now.”
It was a command, not a suggestion, and what mattered at that moment — a winter evening in 2000 — was not where the voice was coming from, but how assured it was, how persuasive.
Losing his first decent job ever seemed like too much for Joe Holt to live with. It was time.
“All I remember then is a knock on the bedroom door and my wife, Patsy, she sits down on the bed and hugs me, and I’m holding the gun in my left hand, down here, out of sight,” said Mr. Holt, 50, a computer consultant and entrepreneur who has a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
E-Trade Baby Boom Boom Boom
The Complete Spot Paintings
A HIRST EXTRAVAGANZA
Love his work or hate it, even art-world cynics have to admit that when it comes to masterly marketing few artists can beat the British bad boy Damien Hirst. When he surprised everyone in 2008 by holding a two-day auction at Sotheby’s in London that included everything from dead animals submerged in tanks of formaldehyde to his signature medicine cabinets and swirl paintings, about 21,000 people flocked in to see what looked like an elegant retrospective. And despite the reeling of the financial markets back then, collectors and speculators willingly invested in the Hirst brand. The auctions — of 223 examples of Mr. Hirst’s art — totaled $200.7 million.
As part of his sales pitch he announced that he would no longer be making spin or butterfly paintings, and that his production of dead animals and spot paintings would be drastically reduced. Not exactly. Reminded of that statement in a recent telephone interview, he chuckled and said: “I keep trying to end them. But then I get these crazy ideas, and I can’t stop.”
Gagosian Gallery around the world — 11 in all — will hold its own version of “Damien Hirst: The Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011.” The show will open on the same, not yet determined day in every city — New York, London, Paris, Los Angeles, Rome, Athens, Geneva and Hong Kong — and run from mid-January through February 2012.
Homemade Tomato Ketchup
TRAILER: The Power Of Six
See the trailer for ‘The Power of Six,’ the sequel to ‘I Am Number Four’ — EXCLUSIVE
Last year, everyone was eager, eager, eager for I Am Number Four to become the NBT (short for Next Big Twilight). Not only was the first book in the alien-in-high-school series released with much fanfare, but it was adapted immediately into a film starring Alex Pettyfer and Dianna Agron.
If Edgar Allan Poe Wrote Amazon Reviews
Customer Review
5,715 of 5,819 people found the following review helpful:
Make this your only stock and store,
By Edgar
Once upon a mid-day sunny, while I savored Nuts ‘N Honey,
With my Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 gal, 128 fl. oz., I swore
As I went on with my lapping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at the icebox door.
‘Bad condensor, that,’ I muttered, ‘vibrating the icebox door –
Only this, and nothing more.’
Not to sound like a complainer, but, in an inept half-gainer,
I provoked my bowl to tip and spill its contents on the floor.
Stupefied, I came to muddle over that increasing puddle,
Burgeoning deluge of that which I at present do adore –
Snowy Tuscan wholesomeness exclusively produced offshore –
Purg’ed here for evermore.
And the pool so white and silky, filled me with a sense of milky
Ardor of the type fantastic of a loss not known before,
So that now, to still the throbbing of my heart, while gently sobbing,
I retreated, heading straightway for the tempting icebox door –
Heedless of that pitter-patter tapping at the icebox door –
I resolved to have some more.
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
‘This,’ said I, ‘requires an extra dram of milk, my favorite pour.’
To the icebox I aspired, motivated to admire
How its avocado pigment complemented my decor.
Then I grasped its woodgrain handle – here I opened wide the door; –
Darkness there, and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams of Tuscans I had known before
But the light inside was broken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only words there spoken were my whispered words, ‘No more!’
Coke and beer, some ketchup I set eyes on, and an apple core –
Merely this and nothing more.
Back toward the table turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
‘Surely,’ said I, ‘surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore –
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; –
‘Tis the wind and nothing more!’
From the window came a stirring, then, with an incessant purring,
Inside stepped a kitten; mannerlessly did she me ignore.
Not the least obeisance made she; not a minute stopped or stayed she;
But, with mien of lord or lady, withdrew to my dining floor –
Pounced upon the pool of Tuscan spreading o’er my dining floor –
Licked, and lapped, and supped some more.
Then this tiny cat beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grand enthusiasm of the countenance she wore,
Toward the mess she showed no pity, ’til I said, ‘Well, hello, kitty!’
Sought she me with pretty eyes that seemed to open some rapport.
So I pleaded, ‘Tell me, tell me what it is that you implore!’
Quoth the kitten, ‘Get some more.’
Gene McDaniels Gone
Singer of one of the best breakup songs ever…
John Glassco on Creative Non-fiction
from McGill-Queen’s University Press
John Glassco on Social Media and James Frey
Canadian Bookshelf recently sat down with Brian Busby, author of A Gentlemen of Pleasure: One Life of John Glassco, Poet, Memoirist, Translator, and Pornographer. John Glassco (1909-1981) is best known for his Memoirs of Montparnasse, the controversial chronicle of his youthful adventures and encounters with celebrities in the Paris of James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, and Ernest Hemingway. Less known are his poetry, his instrumental role in the foundation of modern translation, and his numerous – and widely popular – works of pornography.
JW: What do you think Glassco would make of the James Frey controversy and the rise in popularity of creative non-fiction? Did Glassco consider himself a made-up self? I’m also trying to imagine what Glassco would do with social media, if he would subvert or embrace it.
BB: It’s interesting to consider what relationship, if any, Glassco might have had with social media. He was, at heart, very much an Edwardian—though he was just four months old when that era ended. His own tastes were to a large extent rooted in the years enjoyed by Edward VII. We see this in his final fantasy, Guilt and Mourning, an unpublished novel set in a Montreal that has somehow avoided the technological advances of the 20th century. Had Glassco lived to be a centenarian—or even a mere nonagenarian—I very much doubt that he would have taken to social media except in one key area: his sex life. Here, the world would have become a less lonely place. I dare say it would be much easier to meet people who shared his interests over the Web than through personal ads.
As to Frey, I wonder how much attention Glassco would have paid the controversy; he had so very little interest in the prose of his own time. That said, he did enjoy a good hoax—and perpetrated some of the very best. We might get a sense of his reaction to the Frey controversy through his own memoirs. In a letter to Kay Boyle, he writes, “I look on the real value of ‘memoirs’ as being not so much a record of ‘what happened’ as a re-creation of the spirit of a period in time.” So he telescopes and rearranges time, invents dialogue and encounters, dresses “naked facts” and in the end produces a work that Malcolm Cowley considered “the most accurate picture of Montparnasse”.
[ click to continue reading at McGill-Queen’s University Press ]
Exhibition A Print Salon @ Half Gallery
Quinoa and Avocado Verrines
Verrines showcase the simpler side of French cuisine
by Karen Fernau
French cuisine remains synonymous with intoxicatingly rich flavors and classic dishes such as crepes suzette and boeuf bourguignon.
Yet there’s a lighter side to French food, one minus sticks of butter and gobs of duck fat. One such dish is a verrine – artfully layered foods in a glass. Popular for decades in France, this chic dish is gaining traction across the pond in eateries and home entertaining.
A glass might be filled with red quinoa, leek sprouts and tomatoes, and another with avocados, smoked salmon, chives and fromage blanc.
Layered verrine recipes:
Avocado, Salmon and Cheese Kiwi, Mascarpone and Jelly Quinoa, Alfalfa and Avocado
A verrine, which translates as “protective glass,” can be savory or sweet, and served in any glass, from crystal champagne flutes to clear plastic tumblers.
bjork: crystalline (directed by michel gondry)
Art Books 2k11
The Origin of the (Book as a) Work of Art
Midway through a party for Thornwillow Press at the St. Regis Hotel last night, a book publicist brought up Heidegger. “It’s all about the thinginess of the thing,” he said gloomily, sipping champagne, after a discussion about why Montblanc pens was sponsoring a book party. His point was that nice pens, small letterpress books, the St. Regis, fine stationary – these are all formerly rather ordinary objects that have now become rarified.
The book in question was It Happened Here, a history of the St. Regis Hotel by Lesley M.M. Blume, the first in a series of “libretti” by Thornwillow Press that intends to transform books, as Van Gogh once did with a peasant’s shoes, into art (by emphasizing the books’ beauty, their status as “limited edition,” and by charging $40 to $400 dollars for them.) As the press release for Ms. Blume’s book put it, “the Libretto Library is dedicated to the belief that physical books – tangible, aesthetically pleasing, letterpress printed and beautifully bound – have a new and even more important place in our lives: as repositories of permanence in an increasingly ephemeral world of letters.”
Thornwillow is not the first publisher to treat the book as a thing divorced from its more equipmental characteristics. The most recent example would be James Frey, who avoided a traditional publisher in the United States and printed only a limited run of the physical edition of his book, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible, through Gagosian Gallery (along with a $6.99 e-book). And the representatives of New York publishing who are involved in the Thornwillow series – Andrew Wylie, the literary agent; Jonathan Galassi, the publisher of FSG and Lorin Stein, the editor of The Paris Review are themselves men who have distinguished themselves by maintaining a certain decorous ideal of literature, life in New York, and dapper dress. (They are joined by Henry Finder, editorial director of The New Yorker, Michael Shnayerson, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and Ms. Blume.)
Miles Davis Is Cool
A Beginner’s Guide to Miles Davis
Miles Davis is cool, but you knew that already. Disputing the musician’s coolness is more arduous a process than proving the moon landing as a hoax. Miles Davis is cool because he branded an album Birth Of The Cool and nobody objected; because he wore sunglasses in inappropriately dark settings; because under those shades his eyes could pierce through titanium; because he turned his back to audiences of thousands while performing; because he ingested every drug available in the United States during his lifespan; because he complained about an arrest for marijuana possession on the grounds that he preferred cocaine. His is a timeless, transcendent cool, always grounded in his art, even when dressed like the test tube baby of Ronald McDonald and Parliament Funkadelic. Cool was his ethos, his brand, his platform to cross party lines, to turn fair-weather jazz fans into diehards and influence artists as disparate as the Allman Brothers, Pink Floyd, and Prince. For any musician, critic, enthusiast, or curious listener, Miles Davis is required listening.
Miles Davis grew up in East St. Louis, Illinois and kissed his first trumpet at 13 years old. He was a professional within four years, cutting his teeth with the locals and sitting in with bands traveling through the city. Davis graduated high school and feigned interest in the Julliard School Of Music to facilitate a move to New York. His true intention was less academic. During a previous stint in singer Billy Eckstine’s band, Davis played with saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and essentially followed them to NYC.
A sophisticated, complicated approach to melody and improvisation called bebop was developing in the after-hours clubs of Harlem. Parker spearheaded this new language as far back as 1939. By his 1944 arrival in the city, Davis seemed late to the game. Truly, his timing was remarkable.
Winehouse Gone
Lucian Freud Gone
Painter Lucian Freud dies aged 88
Realist painter Lucian Freud, one of Britain’s most distinguished and highly regarded artists, has died aged 88.
New York dealer William Acquavella said Freud had died at his London home on Wednesday after an unspecified illness.
Freud, a grandson of the psycho-analyst Sigmund Freud, was born in Berlin in 1922 and fled to Britain with his Jewish family in 1933, when he was 10.
Freud – particularly known for his paintings of nudes – became a British citizen in 1939.
‘Lived to paint’
Mr Acquavella described Freud “as one of the great painters of the 20th Century”.
“In company he was exciting, humble, warm and witty. He lived to paint and painted until the day he died, far removed from the noise of the art world.”
Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate gallery, said: “The vitality of [Freud’s] nudes, the intensity of the still life paintings and the presence of his portraits of family and friends guarantee Lucian Freud a unique place in the pantheon of late 20th Century art.
“His early paintings redefined British art and his later works stand comparison with the great figurative painters of any period.”
Former Observer art critic William Feaver, who knew Freud for more than 40 years, said Freud was someone who had “restored portraiture to its proper place”, by focusing on all types of people, not just successful businessmen and their wives.
Beavis and Butthead Back
Beavis & Butt-head return to MTV feisty as ever
SAN DIEGO — When the ever-adolescent Beavis and Butt-head return to MTV in the fall — nearly two decades after their heyday — even their own network won’t be safe from the trash-talking duo’s mockery.
Creator Mike Judge came to San Diego’s Comic-Con on Thursday to talk about the reboot of his beloved animated characters and offer a peek at the new season, which is set to premiere in October.
In their new incarnation, the two perennial teens — still wearing their AC/DC and Metallica shirts — riff on music videos, YouTube submissions and MTV shows such as “Jersey Shore” and “Teen Cribs.”
“They’re also watching UFC fights,” Judge says.
IMAGE: Paramount Pictures
Crouching Wendi, Hidden Rupert (BeatsRunnin remixed)
Don’t fuck with Wendi Deng!
Bang Zoo
Adult film star Raul Armenteros charged with 22 counts of animal cruelty after gruesome discovery
James Arroyo Jr., and Raul Armenteros were charged with 22 counts of animal cruelty.
A Florida adult film star was arrested earlier this week on animal cruelty charges after cops found goats, roosters, pigeons, guinea pigs and ducks crammed into his van.
Police were called to the van in Miami after someone reported hearing a crying child in a car, according to WPLG.
Instead of a baby, they were shocked to find a mini petting-zoo crammed inside.
“All the animals in the van appeared to be in distress and lacking of water,” according to the police report.
One of the goats died later that day.
James Arroyo Jr., 44, and Raul Armenteros – who is known in the adult film community for his role in “Bang Bus” — were arrested when they showed up at the van 45 minutes later.
James Frey Reading @ Amagansett Public Library – Saturday, July 16
Calendar 07/14 to 07/24/11
Andrea Kowch’s “Pheasant Keeper” is on view in a new show opening at Richard J. Demato Fine Arts in Sag Harbor on July 16.
SAT JUL 16
Cut Flowers, a lecture presented by the Marder’s Garden Lecture Series. 10 a.m. 20 Snake Hollow Road, Bridgehampton. Free. 537-3700.
Entomologist Talk with Rebeckah Schultz of Ray Smith & Associates at Bridge Gardens. 10 a.m. to noon. 36 Mitchell Lane, Bridgehampton. Free/$10/$20. Reservations required, 283-3195.
Andrew Gross reads from his novel “Eyes Wide Open.” 5 p.m. BookHampton, 41 Main Street, East Hampton. Free. 324-4939.
Poet Carol Muske Dukes reads from the collection “Twin Cities.” 6 p.m. Canio’s Books, 290 Main Street, Sag Harbor. Free. 725-4926.
David Patton, ophthalmologist discusses his autobiography “Second Sight: View from an Eye Doctor’s Odyssey” 1 to 2:30 p.m. East Hampton Library, 159 Main Street, East Hampton. Free. 324-0222.
James Frey discusses his book “The Final Testament of the Holy Bible” 6 p.m. Amagansett Public Library, 215 Main Street, Amagansett. Free. 267-3810.
SUN JUL 17
Author Dava Sobel will speak and sign her book “Longitude.” 4 p.m. Shelter Island Historical Society, 16 South Ferry Road, Shelter Island. Free. 749-0025.
The Sausage Workers
Feet first into the meat grinder: Gruesome death for sausage factory worker chewed up in front of his horrified colleagues
Father-of-four was conscious when he fell into machine – Coworkers watched in disbelief as it ripped his legs off
A 26-year-old sausage factory worker suffered a grisly end when he slipped and fell feet first into a meat grinder which chewed off his legs and killed him.
Father-of-four Michael Raper was trapped from the waist down for two excruciating hours after he become entangled in the huge auger at the Bar S Foods plant in Lawton, Oklahoma.
Amid gruesome scenes co-workers watched in horror before frantic emergency workers managed to cut the machine in half and free him.
Bob Frey — Songwriter, Teacher
Bob Frey — Songwriter, Teacher
Bob Frey teaches at the Perpich Center for Arts Education in Golden Valley, MN. It is is a comprehensive, tuition-free public high school offer ing a rig or ous academic program, with intensive course work focused in the arts. Kids from around the state come to pur sue their high school education and their passion for the arts.
Bob has a gift for song writing and performs regularly around town. Take a listen to some of his songs on his mySpace page. He honed his craft in the bars and coffee houses of his home town of Cleveland, Ohio, as well as in Oxford, Ohio and Chicago for merly fronted The Buskers.
Bob is older brother to James Frey the author of A Million Little Pieces. You probably know all about that controversy.
On a sadder note, Bob’s wife Laura Ferster has been battling, so far successfully, cancer. She is still going through treatment with a strength and determination no doubt buoyed by Bob’s constant love and support. I wish the both much strength and Laura a full recovery.
DeLeon DeMicoli’s “Blood Atonement” to appear in WARMED AND BOUND: A Velvet Anthology
Warmed & Bound is an anthology of short stories stitched together by the people at The Velvet and edited by the beautiful and talented Pela Via. The anthology began as a giveaway for a fundraiser to redesign The Velvet, and quickly became an entirely different animal altogether. The book will be released later this summer, and will be available at most, if not all, major online retailers, and also in e-formats for your e-Reading pleasure. Check back often as updates and announcements become available.
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DeLeon DeMicoli lives in San Francisco, CA. When he’s not writing, he trains in Mixed Martial Arts |
Sherwood Schwartz Gone
RainForest
Jungle Gymnasts on a Farewell Tour
Rob Strong
HANOVER, N.H. — The border between wildness and civilization, anarchy and order, was something that perpetually intrigued the choreographer Merce Cunningham. When the curtain rises on his 1968 “RainForest,” we’re at once in a singularly Cunningham vision of feral behavior. Though the piece is famous for its décor of helium-filled silver pillows by Andy Warhol — six of which hang like a forest’s foliage while the rest are loosely scattered around the stage like undergrowth — they wouldn’t seem the least bit wild were it not for the behavior of the dancers.
Feet and hands move like paws; bodies crawl along the floor; heads nuzzle or butt or, as if sensing alarm signals, turn sharply or slowly. In one image that often causes laughs in the audience, a man softly shoves a supine woman with his head and she rolls like a log. In an even more striking image, a woman swings upside down from a man’s arm like a monkey on a branch.
Zoology and social anthropology were often inseparable for Cunningham, who choreographed many works known as “nature studies.” “RainForest,” he said, was partly inspired by “The Forest People,” the anthropologist Colin Turnbull’s account of his time living among a tribe of African Pygmies. Cunningham, however, loving ambiguity, also reminded people that he himself grew up in Washington State, near the temperate rain forest of the Pacific Northwest. In an interview with the choreographer Trisha Brown, he said, “The forest was my first art lesson.”