By the shores of Gitchee Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Art Surfer,
Daughter of the Moon, Art Surfer. - Longfellow
MODERN ART is about as charming as a sledge hammer. - Art S. Rev.
miniQUIZ: Elvis did only 1 commercial. Who was it for? Answer later .
MUSIC: The Mozart scam: Have you heard the science reports that show that playing classical music for 3 year olds makes them smarter? Not so! The study was done on college students and the effect lasted only minutes. (NYT) ///// The guitar Eric Clapton used on his classic Layla took in $497,500, highest ever at auction for a guitar. (The prior record was for a Hendrix guitar used at Woodstock) The proceeds from the sale of "Brownie" will go to the Crossroads Center in Antigua, a drug and alcohol treatment center Clapton founded in '97 (Reuters) ///// And speaking of guitar, I was blown away by standard guitar player Monte Montgomery, Austin City Limits TV on 6/27/99. I haven't seen guitar wizardry like this since Jimmie Ray Vaughan! The best around! We salute! //// Rumor - What Pet Dog Guitar was seen clubbing with that cute mandolin? //// & if you have the know how to put music on websites and would like to help us with ours, contact us.
CARTOONS: Wit & wisdom of Pinky: on writing: 'My pen name is Bic'; on Broadway (sung of course) 'Are the seats filled with tourists? / Are the songs all the same? / Is the acting absurd? / Is the plot really lame?
MUSEA REMEMBERS THE PASSING OF: Victor Mature, Hollywood Hunk of the 40's & 50's /// Kathryn Murray, who with her husband Arthur made Ballroom dancing lessons all the rage /// Mel Torme, jazz singer, arranger, musician, author, actor, etc. /// Meg Greenfield, straight thinking Newsweek commentator.
TV: Look for the PBS show called "Mental Engineering". I can't wait to see it. It's a panel show that dissects and reviews ads! Finally one TV source (and only 1) that can speak against the worst of advertising. We Salute! /// And speaking of TV, have you notice that just about every drop of religion has been bleached out of mainstream TV. Nobody on any show ever goes to any church ever. Does freedom of religion mean NO religion?
miniQUIZ answer. Elvis's only commercial was for Southern Maid Donuts. (Hollywood Squares) /// And speaking of Rock & Rolls, "When Rock And Roll becomes the music of corporate America and advertisers ... 'I don't care what people say / Rock And Roll has become passe . " Art S Revolutionary.
ART: "On the bare white walls inside, she's fashioned large Braille excerpts from Charles Reznikoff's "Testimony" a poetry epic recounting the sufferings of underclass Americans. To accentuate the text, fine, rosy-red powder continuously sifts down along the walls from above. The audio component ... is a whispered rendition of Abraham Lincoln's second Inaugural address. The result is a stately, lyrical work of installation art entitled 'myein' .... It's also the official U.S. entry in the (Venice Biennale exhibition of international contemporary art.)" (Newsweek) It's also goofy as hell (Musea) . Now lets look at real artists. Quote "The young painter who cannot free himself from the influence of the preceding generation is bound to be swallowed up" - Henri Matisse. Quote: "Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend." John Singer Sargent. /// Salzburg, one of the music capitols of Europe and the world, has finalized plans for a $24 mill museum of modern art with the bulk of artworks coming from the collection of Herbert and Rita Batliner of Liechtenstein. (ARTnews) We salute!
FILM: Baltimore, Little Italy: the Little Italy Restaurant Association requested permission for a billboard to advertise their restaurants. City denied it, but the billboard was already up. What to do? Show movies on it like the outdoor film scene in the Italian classic film Cinema Paradiso. This summer they've shown everything from Rocky to Fellini and hundreds turn out. Musea salutes! (Reuters) /// Quote: I don't think you make enemies by doing films the way you want to do them. I think you make enemies by being rude, tactless, and nasty to people - Stanley Kubrick.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Here's a list of the 10 most expensive prints sold at auction: 1 Egypte et Nubie - Felix Teynard / 2 The North American Indian - Edward S Curtis / 3 The N. American Indian - Curtis / 4 Georgia O'Keeffe: A Portrait - Hands with Thimble - Alfred Stieglitz / 5 Equivalents - Stieglitz / 6 The N. American Indian - Curtis / 7 Noir et Blanche - Man Ray / 8 Hier, Demain, Aujourd'hui (triptych) - Ray / 9 Noir et blanche - Ray / and 10 Glass Tears - Ray (top price, $707 thousand) (Juxtapoz).
LIT: It's Goethe's Birthday and his home town of Weimar is celebrating the 250th anniversary of their most talented native son. He, with Schiller, ushered in the golden age of German Literature in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. We salute Dr. Faust! (NYT)
INTERNET: "Computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and weigh only 1/2 tons." - Popular Mechanics , March 1949./// New on the Musea website: the COMPLETE ZINE HALL OF FAME and our internet guide 100 FIRST COOL SITES, MUSEA'S GUIDE TO THE INTERNET. Surf, comment, and e-mail us.
CITY PLANNING. Our CAMP CHAMP of the month award goes to the former Mayor of the southern Brazilian coastal city ,Curitiba; Jimmy Lerner (sp?) who was spotlighted on Dateline TV 8/15/99. You'd think he was reading Musea the way he introduced so many of the ideas we've talked about. 1 He closed streets and turned them into community walkways and gathering spots. 2 He set up high speed bus service (every 45 secs during rush hour) that loads and moves people fast on bus only roads. 3 Shanty town suburbs were gathering trash without roads good enough to allow garbage trucks in. He trades surplus vegetables for trash. Helps farmers, poor, and cleans up. 4. Free day care. 5. Pays street kids to go to school or work for the city 6. Refuses to let lawyers and bureaucrats run city. 7. Instead of using gov. $$$ to build levees (Dallas are you listening?) he buys out the poor in the river's path, turns the vacant land into parks kept clipped by a herd of sheep, and uses the millions left to help the poor. 92% approval rate means he's doing THE RIGHT THING. And he's our CAMP CHAMP!!!
Stay cool and stay Revolutionary! Musea.