Ridiculous and Insulting.
The Masters of the American West exhibit closed today.
Last week I went to see it. I love art and I suppose I'm always hoping I'll see a piece that gives me chills or makes me loose track of time just looking at it, which happens once in a while, and has happened twice in all the years I've gone to the Autry Western Heritage Museum, which, since 2003 has been the Autry National Center.
I was walking around the gallery, and I knew I wanted to write about it, and after I saw Mian Situ's paintings of 1902 San Francisco China Town street scenes, which I loved, and JoAnn Peralta's "Spanish Shawl," which beautifully featured the play of candlelight through a shaw, and Scott Talliman Powers "Daily Bread," a painting of an old man panhandling, well I thought if I was going to write about it, I needed to take some notes.
I took a small 3X5 lined paper notebook and a pencil out of my purse and started to write down the names of the artists and the pieces; maybe later I'd figure out which one was my very favorite. Then there was a secutity guard telling me I was not allowed to take notes or "sketch!"
Whaaat!?!
A woman using a laptop which she seems to have taken out of a polka-dot rolling suitcase was writing/typing on the balcony.
Students with paper and pencils roamed the lower galleries.
I was not taking pictures with a cell phone as some people were.
I did not have any camera with me at all.
I didn't bring any brats in stollers, particularly not the screaming and running brats so often being pushed around the Autry since it's across the street from the zoo; the main reason not to go there on weekends.
I was using my pencil to write, not stab paintings.
I wasn't physically too close to any paintings, nor did I try to touch a sculpture.
I guess the days when people actually go to museums with sketch pad and art supplies, as I did in my teens, is over: Too much concern over someone lending their pictures, notes, sketches, drawings to forgers and counterfeiters?!
It was explained to me, because I asked to speak to a higher authority, and a woman named Lauren spoke to me, that because the museum does not OWN the paintings and scultpures on display, they have this policy.
THAT'S WHY YOU HAVE SECURITY GUARDS! I said.
C Christine Trzyna 2012 All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights.
3/18/12
3/15/12
STEVEN KING'S 11/22/63 : CHRISTINE TRZYNA BOOK REVIEW
This is a big, heavy hard cover book. It's a long read and it's also a page turner, if, like me, you've been reading around the Kennedys and the Assassination in 1963 for years.
Steven King's 11/22/63 is a book with a few genres intermixing.
It's a story with a mystical - spiritual - quality to it, though King's reputation for gore is maintained with murders and mass chaos. You have to accept that a form of time travel is possible, though it's not science fiction but more a time warp that can be accessed.
There's a love story, one that provides the funniest moments.
But mostly what the Kennedy assassination story and Steven King's book is, is a MYSTERY story. Writing this book was a challenge not only because of the many genres that might have competed for prominence and become confusion in a lesser writer's manuscript, but because it's easy to find yourself searching for the information that his research brought forth, information that you know is controversial, such as if Lee Harvey Oswald was really the assassin and a lone gunman or not, and not sticking with the fictive story.
Steven King is so successful, a master, so maybe it's difficult to say anything revealing about his work overall. I've read Cell and The Dome, and one or two other titles over the years. I'm not a fan of gore but at least he's generally realistic with its possibilities. I do love the way he has set his characters in circumstances. I was left feeling satisfied with the read, which required that I stay home an entire weekend, in bed, with some crackers and cheese and the book.
Steven King's 11/22/63 is a book with a few genres intermixing.
It's a story with a mystical - spiritual - quality to it, though King's reputation for gore is maintained with murders and mass chaos. You have to accept that a form of time travel is possible, though it's not science fiction but more a time warp that can be accessed.
There's a love story, one that provides the funniest moments.
But mostly what the Kennedy assassination story and Steven King's book is, is a MYSTERY story. Writing this book was a challenge not only because of the many genres that might have competed for prominence and become confusion in a lesser writer's manuscript, but because it's easy to find yourself searching for the information that his research brought forth, information that you know is controversial, such as if Lee Harvey Oswald was really the assassin and a lone gunman or not, and not sticking with the fictive story.
Steven King is so successful, a master, so maybe it's difficult to say anything revealing about his work overall. I've read Cell and The Dome, and one or two other titles over the years. I'm not a fan of gore but at least he's generally realistic with its possibilities. I do love the way he has set his characters in circumstances. I was left feeling satisfied with the read, which required that I stay home an entire weekend, in bed, with some crackers and cheese and the book.
3/9/12
PITTSBURGH TOONSEUM WAREHOUSE THOUSANDS OF COMIC BOOKS RUINED
Donations are coming in... The Associated Press story went from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette to newspapers around the country. Thousands of Comic Books were ruined.
"Executive Director Joe Wos says the most valuable comics weren’t at the warehouse, but some of what was lost will be "very difficult to replace." He says much of the material was waiting for transfer to the ToonSeum’s new on-site library.The ToonSeum is one of only three museums in the country dedicated exclusively to the cartoon arts."
"Executive Director Joe Wos says the most valuable comics weren’t at the warehouse, but some of what was lost will be "very difficult to replace." He says much of the material was waiting for transfer to the ToonSeum’s new on-site library.The ToonSeum is one of only three museums in the country dedicated exclusively to the cartoon arts."
3/3/12
ROLLING STONES : MIDNIGHT MILE
Remember when I first heard this song being captured by the magical mystical quality of it. The lyrics brought me right to a country road, the land covered in snow, the moon high in the sky, and walking alone on it. Today I am struck with how "Asian" the melody.
3/1/12
2/23/12
BLUE NEON NIGHT : MICHAEL CONNELLY'S LOS ANGELES : DVD REVIEW
BLUE NEON NIGHT is one of the first films I've seen that is about a writer's reasons why and I'm already ordering his book "The Narrows," as the first Micheal Connelly I'm going to read.
His genre is detective fiction. He has a consistent character - the detective - through his whole series of books. In this DVD Connelly discusses the way Los Angeles as a city, a city that is a sunny place full of shady characters, informs his fiction. The film itself consists of brief passages in which the author discusses his writing, along with readings of various passages that mention the streets and buildings of Los Angeles, which are filmed as if you were going on a ride with the detective. Prior to making his living as an author, Connelly was a journalist with a beat. Not a native, he found LA to be his city, a city where you can find everything including the contradictions.
LINKING TO HIS OFFICIAL WEB SITE NOW!
His genre is detective fiction. He has a consistent character - the detective - through his whole series of books. In this DVD Connelly discusses the way Los Angeles as a city, a city that is a sunny place full of shady characters, informs his fiction. The film itself consists of brief passages in which the author discusses his writing, along with readings of various passages that mention the streets and buildings of Los Angeles, which are filmed as if you were going on a ride with the detective. Prior to making his living as an author, Connelly was a journalist with a beat. Not a native, he found LA to be his city, a city where you can find everything including the contradictions.
LINKING TO HIS OFFICIAL WEB SITE NOW!
2/19/12
DIANE VON FURSTENBERG : A SIGNATURE LIFE : BOOK EXCERPT
DIANE VON FURSTENBERG with LINDA BIRD FRANCKE : A SIGNATURE LIFE : BOOK EXCERPT
about designing a perfume.
pages 104-105
"I want something that simply smells good, like cut fresh flowers, a scent you can inhale and almost swallow, like you can with the smell of a roasting chicken," I told people at the different companies, whose perfumers are called "noses."...
"I understood what I meant, but the chemists and noses did not. The poor account executives kept bringing in new notes in various combinations to our office, but they were always too heavy, too obvious, too reminiscent of another fragrance of another time.
"I tried words such as "alive," "Up," and "Open: and urged them to use only white flowers such as jasmine, honeysuckle, lilac, hyacinth, gardenia. But not gardenias in full flower; young, green gardenias has the lighter, fresher scent I was looking for. But nothing came of my efforts. After I had sniffed and worn and rejected a hundred or so samples, we were stalemated.
about designing a perfume.
pages 104-105
"I want something that simply smells good, like cut fresh flowers, a scent you can inhale and almost swallow, like you can with the smell of a roasting chicken," I told people at the different companies, whose perfumers are called "noses."...
"I understood what I meant, but the chemists and noses did not. The poor account executives kept bringing in new notes in various combinations to our office, but they were always too heavy, too obvious, too reminiscent of another fragrance of another time.
"I tried words such as "alive," "Up," and "Open: and urged them to use only white flowers such as jasmine, honeysuckle, lilac, hyacinth, gardenia. But not gardenias in full flower; young, green gardenias has the lighter, fresher scent I was looking for. But nothing came of my efforts. After I had sniffed and worn and rejected a hundred or so samples, we were stalemated.
2/16/12
ONLY YOU MARISA TOMEI and ROBERT DOWNEY JUNIOR
OK - So you know I've been "movie deprived" and have been making up for it over the last couple months. So, "Only You," was a Riomantic Commedy I thoroughly enjoyed. Maybe thats because I'm a fan of Robert Downey Junior, or because this film had an element of syncronicity and magic to it.
"Damon Brinkley" is the buzz word: Character Faith Corvatch of Pittsburgh is 9 days away from marrying a podiatrist when a friend of her fiancee calls to say he's in Ital and won't make the wedding. Faith was 11 when, while using a Ouiji board with her brother, she asked for the name of her future husband and what did it spell ? "Damon Brinkley." (I played the Ouiji board once with a teenage friend and when we asked what spirit was communicating it spelled "Jesus Christ." So much for my girlfriend pushing on her end to make it spell. I got the hell out of her too fluffy pink bedroom and ran all the way home and that big full moon sitting on the top of the hill sure did spook me!)
Ok, but then when Faith is a full blown teenager, she goes to a crystal ball reader and guess who the mystic says she will marry? "Damon Brinkley!" The man on the phone from Italy is named "Damon Brinkley." How could she get married without first meeting her soul mate? Of course she has a couple friends who support her choice, though they see that if she could do this then maybe she shouldn't get married. What follows (I won't spoil it for you) is a romp through Italy...
The movie ends with Faith knowing just who Mr. Right is.
"Damon Brinkley" is the buzz word: Character Faith Corvatch of Pittsburgh is 9 days away from marrying a podiatrist when a friend of her fiancee calls to say he's in Ital and won't make the wedding. Faith was 11 when, while using a Ouiji board with her brother, she asked for the name of her future husband and what did it spell ? "Damon Brinkley." (I played the Ouiji board once with a teenage friend and when we asked what spirit was communicating it spelled "Jesus Christ." So much for my girlfriend pushing on her end to make it spell. I got the hell out of her too fluffy pink bedroom and ran all the way home and that big full moon sitting on the top of the hill sure did spook me!)
Ok, but then when Faith is a full blown teenager, she goes to a crystal ball reader and guess who the mystic says she will marry? "Damon Brinkley!" The man on the phone from Italy is named "Damon Brinkley." How could she get married without first meeting her soul mate? Of course she has a couple friends who support her choice, though they see that if she could do this then maybe she shouldn't get married. What follows (I won't spoil it for you) is a romp through Italy...
The movie ends with Faith knowing just who Mr. Right is.
2/12/12
CASANOVA'S LOVE LETTERS : DVD/FILM RECOMMENDATION
The world's greatest lover, or a man so controversial in his own time that it wasn't until the 1960's that his sexsational memoirs could be published? This BFS Entertainment (Canada) three disc video was fascinating and so well done that I listened to the entire miniseries twice! (OK I was also crocheting at the time!) Subtitle "The Key to Immortality is to lead a life worth remembering." So, Casanova started out in life as a musician - a fiddler - born into a theater family in Venice Italy.
His second chance in life was to go into the priesthood. He fell in with wine, women, and rich patrons.
He was also, like many at the time, someone who grew fascinated with the mystical search for the elixir of life (Kabbala and other interests not Catholic (though he apparently continued to worship and go to Mass into his elderhood), and perhaps sexual escapades were part of that. Maybe sexual experimentation was not the point at all. Or maybe in the 19th century in Europe love and romance were very much part of seduction?
I don't want to ruin this film experience for you by telling you the whole story... Of course part of the question is, do we have an erroneous view of the morals of 18th century Europe? Is the way he lived so unlike the way so many are living today?
C 2011 Christine Trzyna Book Review All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
His second chance in life was to go into the priesthood. He fell in with wine, women, and rich patrons.
He was also, like many at the time, someone who grew fascinated with the mystical search for the elixir of life (Kabbala and other interests not Catholic (though he apparently continued to worship and go to Mass into his elderhood), and perhaps sexual escapades were part of that. Maybe sexual experimentation was not the point at all. Or maybe in the 19th century in Europe love and romance were very much part of seduction?
I don't want to ruin this film experience for you by telling you the whole story... Of course part of the question is, do we have an erroneous view of the morals of 18th century Europe? Is the way he lived so unlike the way so many are living today?
C 2011 Christine Trzyna Book Review All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
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