I beheld the "art surfer" - the miserable monster whom I had created
-Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, Frankenstein
THE STATE FAIR is still your best entertainment value. (It needs to be extended to two months, and midway open all summer - if an only if we can post difficulty ratings on the games and get the shysters out of there!) Our favs ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous with high ended great photos and crafts (although some of the paintings were badly displayed), incredible livestock, and foot long corny dogs...to the ridiculous favs like the around-the-campfire all-in-butter sculpture, and the write-your-name on a grain of rice stand.
miniQUIZ: The largest drive-in is Dallas's own Astro but where did the first drive-in movie open, when, and how much for admission? (Answer to come)
FASHION: Supermodels are out! The reign of the covergirl supermodel is over. Who then is replacing them? Now the trend is HOLLYWOOD STARS. The Oscars have turned into the world's biggest fashion show and because of it, your fashion mag cover girl is probably like September Vogue's Renee Zellweger. Move over Cindy, Kate, Claudia, Naomi, etc....You're being replaced by one-namers like Uma, Cameroon, and Nicole...And if you didn't know it, September is THE issue for fashion for any style mag. That's the time everyone shows off their new lines (though this year is one big YAWN)...Quote: It's foolish for Dallas to follow 'up north' fashions - wearing all black, rappers in heavy coats, plaids from Seattle...they're all cold weather fashions. Dallas has a more temperate climate and highly influenced by Latin Americans. We need fashion with more color and lighter fabrics" - Art S. Revolutionary
MUSEUMS: Did you know there was an inventors hall of fame? In a society that treats its scientists as nerds, Musea thinks they deserve highest honors. The Akron Beacon Journal article lists 6 new inductees: Kary Mullis for genetic amplification (led to DNA testing), Henry Timken who invented the tapered roller bearing in 1895, Semi Joseph Begun, inventor of magnetic recording, James L. Fergason, inventor of the liquid crystal display, Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite (and the Nobel Prize), and Douglas Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse...And speaking of museums, Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center is being designed by Zaha Hadid. The London-based architect is the first woman to build an American art museum. Well, it's about time. (Elle)
FILM: We highly recommend the re-released version of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil if it's playing in your town. After Welles finished the film the studio ruined it. He then wrote a 58 page memo on how to bring it back to the original vision (without any additional filming). A group of technicians have lovingly restored it and it may now be the BEST FILM NOIR movie of all time. One thing you notice is the 3 minute, 20 second opening shot. WOW! It seems that indie films are popping out all over. Now there's even an INDEPENDENT FILM CHANNEL. Check it out if you can afford cable and tell us what you think. And speaking of indies, wasn't that ROBERT REDFORD checking out the Inwood Theater and Lounge? Why yes, I believe it was. Rumor has it that he's about to start up a chain of indie theaters...and finally, did you get to check out the Lakewood Theater showing of the 1925 Phantom of the Opera with live organ accompaniment? Now, that's class. Also look for an upcoming 60th anniversary bash for the Lakewood. We salute! ...Answer to miniQUIZ: Camden, New Jersey on June 6, 1933. Admission was 25 cents. (Don and Susan Sanders)
ART: Dora Maar has died. Do you recognize the name? She was one of Picasso's lovers. Her collection of Picassos was one of the largest privately-owned collections anywhere. It includes 10 major oils, and hundreds of drawings, photos and sculpture - almost all of which are her portraits. The auction was late October. (AP>
IN HOUSE: Gregory K. H. Bryant's column will return next month. The Musea Reading Fund is almost $300 and we've raised the maximum per use from $5 to $10 a visit . The MAC on McKinney Ave. now has free Internet: 3 PCs and a Mac. Now that's Internet on a silver platter!...Local DJ now syndicated, Tom Joyner, is being inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in Chicago. We salute (Al Brumley/ DMN)...Dallas's best slam poet/poetry supporter, Clebo Rainey, called me to announce that Taylor Mali, featured poet in the film Slam Nation, would be (already has by now) featured at Club Clearview. Well done! I love this town!
ARCHITECTURE: Fifteen separate commissions have fretted over the Leaning Tower of Pisa...make that 16. In the fall of this year, workers are scheduled to excavate beneath the tower's foundation and try to right it a bit while placing the tower itself in a protective steel girdle. Experts say this time the danger is very real and the margin of safety for the tower is placed extremely low. 825 years and counting. (T. Hundley Chicago Tribune). And speaking of architecture, the Oak Lawn Library has been selected as one of the winners of the Texas Society of Architects Design Awards. Six of 175 projects were honored. The design was by Good, Fulton and Farrell. We salute them but also note that the library is closed on Thursday and Sunday due to a lack of city funds.(?) (D. Dillon/DMN)
MUSIC: Why was the music of the 50s and 60s so memorable? I say because it had the perfect blend of BEAT AND MELODY - ROCK AND ROLL . It died in 1970 and since then it has been either all beat and no melody (heavy metal, rap, hard core, pun, alt. techno) or all melody and no beat (MOR, new age, lite rock, etc.) and never the twain meet. - Art S. Revolutionary...And in a related story, "The Big 6" (the 6 companies who control all of the music you hear) can pretty much only get sales out of the 50s and 60s classics, and that mine is pretty well played. But there is one exception and that is the newly released box set of 225 recordings, the Complete Hank Williams. He was certainly the best country composer and certainly one of the best American composers of all time. Hunk is adding I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry to his play list as soon as he can find a copy of the lyrics...KNON, the community radio station, has sure changed since I had a show there back in the mid 80s, but one thing is sure - they are still promoting local music. Case in point is the new local hip-hop compilation Down by Sound with 16 local hip-hop acts. We salute E-A Eddie D who put the package together...and for discussion, why don't any DJs have ethnic names? Is this Nazi radio or just corporate art blanching out anything interesting on their stations? (Oh, and why aren't any of the new swing bands on the radio?
THORSTEN VEBLEN ON ENGLISH: As felicitous an instance of futile classicism as can well be found is the conventional spelling of the English language. English orthography satisfies all of the requirements of the cannons of reputability under the law of conspicuous waste. It is archaic, cumbrous and ineffective: its acquisition consumes much time and effort; failure to acquire it is easy of detection.
LIT: These new electronic books are amazingly similar to the Musea idea expressed in our Feb. 98 issue, title "The Box". They are about the size of a piece of paper and about 1 inch thick. You download a book into it and change pages by pushing a large plastic bar. In the future, will we all have just a mainframe book/slate that we fill up with a novel or two and take it with us? It'd certainly save paper, but for those of us brought up on books, it'll take some serious getting used to. The versions out now are clumsy with snafus and aren't ready yet for the big time. We'll wait and see though.. (WSJ) ...and speaking of new fangled books, The Rev. Richard Macklin (Boston) has a new way to present his zine. Loose pages with comments, cartoons, rants, even toys, stickers, and more; all are sent to you in a leather-like plastic pouch with all the pockets filled with goodies. It's an art gallery and protest meeting all in one bag!
ENDER: Is the U.S. getting all cultured up? Well, The Wall Street Journal reporter, D. Blackmon, makes a good case for it with stats like: Theater companies in the U.S. have grown from 60 in '65 to 800 today. 27 million people attended theater in '97- '98 and almost 60% outside of New York. More than 110 symphonies have been founded since 1980...indie films grew from 40 a decade ago to 139 in '97...percentage of Americans who visited art museums at least once a year in 1982 = 22%, in 1997 = 35%...percentage of Americans who listened to classical music during the year - 19% in 1982 and 41% in 1997...plus more opera companies, more fiction published, etc. Well, it all looks impressive in quantity, but now to the quality...at least for us Art Revolutionaries the arrow is going in the right direction!
Thanks for reading Musea. Tell a friend by the 15th. See ya next time!
