Art SurfingIt puzzled all our kith and kin,
It reached an awful pitch;
For one of us was born a twin.
Yet no 'art surfer' knew which.
-Henry S. Leigh
Quote: Art S Rev. to Corporate Art: "I have a computer and I'm not afraid to use it!" (But to my readers: E-mail me at 112374.474@compuserve.com. I'd love to hear from you.)
miniQUIZ: Choose one. Vegas animal and magic act. Siegfried & Roy got paid for a 5 yr. contract: 1)$470,000 2)$ 4,700,000, or 3) $47,000,000. Answer later.
FASHION: Land's End's website allows shoppers to punch in their hair color, weight, and size. Then it creates a computerized model to try on the clothes you're interested in. (AP) .... And speaking of fashion here's Musea's fashion forecast for women: straight hair is the style, blue lips will be big, black is fading and color is coming back, plus look for some luxurious ponchos to be THE fashion coat... And finally we ask why are fashion mags so boring? Beautiful models, glamorous clothes , jet set surroundings, and they're still as dull as old stock quotes. Anyone? Anyone?
STACKS OF PAPYRUS: The library of Alexandria, Egypt had the largest collection of books in the ancient world. Now in '99 it looks like it's coming back. A huge library and cultural center is being erected at the site of the old library. It'll be one of the 10 largest in the world, with 8 million volumes plus a planetarium, museum, and an antiquities restoration lab. Locals, say it'll look out of place in their poor town like a silk stocking on a wooden leg. We salute the project but like our own Fair Park, don't forget the community surrounding it. Either bring both together or serve a lot of cake! (Let them eat...) World Press Review... & speaking of history this quote from professor William Cronon: It's hard to persuade historians and civilians that history doesn't-shouldn't-endorse one master narrative. (Preservation).
LET'S CARRY THE AGE THING FURTHER Dept.: In architecture - this comparison: In Luxembourg they're celebrating the 1,300th anniversary of the founding of the abbey in the town of Echternach by Saint Willibrord 698 AD. In Dallas, The Dallas Morning News is reporting that because of City Hall mangling of an address, the old Lemp Brewery Building in Deep Ellum was demolished. And why is that a big deal? Because now that it's gone we have only 11 buildings left built before 1900. Discuss.
QUOTE: The greatest taboo in American TV, radio, film, and the media is opposing ads - You can talk about anything except that- Art S Rev. ... And speaking of taboo breaking, The Dallas Morning News did a piece on local literary reviews and mention Musea heavily (2/10, Tuesday) though it didn't mention our anti-ad or anti-DMN behavior. Check it out and see what you think.
miniQUIZ answer: C.
LIT. & ZINES: First a question by Alden Scott Crow: Why isn't there a good science zine out there? There's a real science void - (or should we say black hole -ed.) out there... If you grew up on Nancy Drew then you'll be interested to know that though author Carolyn Keene was really a number of authors, for 23 of the first 29 (including the first, The Secret of the Old Clock} the author was really 93 year old Mildred Benson. "She (Nancy) was ahead of her time. She believed she could do anything. Then she did it." She (Mildred) got paid $125 a book and cranked out a new one every 6 weeks. She also wrote the Penny Parker Mysteries and more. We salute this influential author. (People)... And finally this 1st: The first anthology of Gypsy poetry, The Roads Of The Roma, has been published in Britain. (You know about the Gypsies don't you. They along with homosexuals are the holocaust victims no one talks about.)
CAMP CHAMP this month is Erykah Badu (though we don't excuse her for signing with the Big 5) who recently remembered her roots and donated sizable cash to community radio station KNON (that I might add that I was fired from for being too radical - but I won't). Anyway the station is important to this town and Erykah is a champ for giving back some $$$. (The Met)
GEM FROM THE PEN: "Ms. Wager and Ms. Jenkins, ...know the value of showmanship and provide plenty of hooks to draw the viewer in. The hooks on WORM DRESS, a piece they created as a team, are literal. Her simple polyester shift is covered in fishing lures and plays, in a simple but perfectly balanced way, with concepts of fashion and sexual allure." Charles Dee Mitchell/ The Dallas Morning News. ...Now lets leave the goofy and talk about real art. The Valley House Gallery (one of the best and most beautiful) is hosting a show of Early Texas Art with works by the VERY underrated Frank Reaugh. a superb landscape artist, plus a beautiful, circa 1945 downtown Dallas painting by Florence McClung. Musea says check it out 972/239-2441.. Also we are pleased to tell you that the landscape, "Pencil Desert", a surreal mix of pencil and landscape by this editor is showcased in the Amsterdam zine ARTBRAIN #3. Jerden Ter Welle ed. (Color too!)
And 2 readers answered our who-did-the-pool-playing-dogs-painting as the POKER playing dogs artist D.M. Coolidge. But we had another name. Can anyone clear up the mystery?
BEST TV: 2 shows from PBS: FRONTLINE, "THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL" told about the Rwanda genocide of '94 where in 100 days 800,000 people were hacked to death at a rate 5 times faster than the Nazis gas ovens. The show makes it clear that the Western Powers and the U.N. knew about it and did nothing to stop the massacre except to send in troops to get their citizens out! And if you are old enough to read this you (and I) did nothing either. It must never happen again.... In a lighter program, RECORD ROW, Cradle of Rhythm & Blues tells about the Chi-town St. that had all the record co's like Vee Jay and Chess that launched Chuck Berry, Etta James, Muddy Waters, 4 Season, and a personal fav. Jimmy Reed. Vee Jay , in a quirky footnote to history was the Beatles 1st US record co.!
FILM: Hollywood is trying to do a remake of THE KING & I ('46 film Anna & The King of Siam, later film and Broadway Play, The King & I with Yul Brynner). It was based on the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, an Englishwoman invited to the court of Siam to teach English to King Mongkut's children. But the Thais want nothing to do with it and the nation''s Film Board refused to let 20th Cent. Fox film it on location in Thailand, maintaining it insults their revered King Mongkut and portrays him as a brutal buffoon. P.S. Hollywood - insulting the monarchy in Thailand is punishable by 3-15 years, and to his people King Mongkut is considered a Buddhist scholar and linguist who helped bring his nation into the modern era. Maybe someone should bring 20th Cent. Fox into the modern era. (AP)
ENDER (From a Wall St. Journal editorial, "This Is an Avant-Garde?") "Since when did people purporting to be working on the cutting edge start expecting government funding for their work? Isn't there a contradiction in there somewhere? Would a Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp or Man Ray have produced work to shock the bourgeoisie and shatter aesthetic standards and then ask the public to pay for their careers? Perhaps, but only as an ironic prank."
STAY REVOLUTIONARY, and someone win the $10 (p. 3) See ya soon!