"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new sights, but in looking with new eyes."

It’s the Tony Awards tonight! An Enemy of the People. A play that could have been written yesterday. [John Oliver surely agrees on that:)]  Jeremy Strong choosing wisely. In fact all of Ibsen’s plays- even the 5hour Peer Gynt…hello social media: "Out there, where sky shines, humans say: 'To thyself be true. ' In here, trolls say: 'To thyself be enough.' "  Broadway is now the “home of audacity” - Alex Edelman. Stephen Sondheim surely smiling from somewhere…

Heartening Merrily We Roll Along has proved success after initial 1981 failure. Sondheim gives no plot and x3 hit singles. Broadway mayn’t change the troubled world; it may change troubled you. Hell’s Kitchen, The Outsiders-”the message not the messenger”. 

Multi-screen video art presentation easily can fall into pretension. Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour- Frederick Douglass feels so unforced. Evolving. Meditative. Make it your last MoMA exhibit stop. Relax on the banquets, the A/C and let time spend you. MoMA’s quite ‘hit’: Käthe Kollwitz. Many know the posters, war art angst: the darkness. Now we know she was a master sculptor in line, ironically her actual sculptures on show rather pale. Woman with Dead Child (Frau mit totem Kind). Who was doing that in 1903? Not Munch, not Picasso. Playwright August Strindberg in painting, nature not human figure. Kollwitz akin Henry Moore out of place out of time. Yet time and place always there the revelation.

Donald Sutherland just slunk away ..Hawkeye Pierce in Robert Altman's MASH 1970 promulgated him.

200 films. That sure teaches you some. He believed that an actor could be force for change. Quietly. Stealthily

He took on roles else would shun: 1900, Casanova [1996]

Eye of the Needle [1981]- mesmeric with Kate Nelligan. At least I spake thus when he was alive! Now gone. Death strange and beautiful. At least ought. A life...

No Mow May? Good intentions, bad approach, critics say

Other problems with the practice, Yeh noted, include “confusing insects when the grass is suddenly low again. That gives predators the opportunity to take advantage of them.” There’s also the potential to disturb a nest of bunnies when mowing, she said, calling the discovery “the most horrible experience you can have.”

And so: the road to pond hell is waved by good ripple intentions. But not yet!

Wasn’t going to mention this. JULIAN ASSANGE. All reasons. Reasons may you never understand. Piers Morgan supports opinions. More thus dignity. Sense of quiet belief. Belief that on rare occasions political stars may all align and things happen. Alignment sense cursed? After Chelsea Manning’s pardon none of it made sense any more. Legally, morally [well who the ‘f’ cares]. Imagine all such legal monetary fight used for good deeds?! Save lives. Some still care. Some still shed tears. Still human.

Goodbye For Now

Humor went straight through

prison bars and walls of stone.

Coughing from the lungs

like any man in the ranks,

he marched singing a popular ditty,

rifle in hand upon the Winter Palace.

He’s accustomed to frowning looks,

but they do him no harm;

and humor at times with humor

glances at himself.

He’s everpresent. Nimble and quick,

he’ll slip through anything, through everyone.

So- glory be to humor.

He- is a valiant man.

-Yevgeny Yevtushenko

All will miss Ozzie broadcaster Phillip Adams who retires from his 33 year-old little radio show equiv of American late night TV. Only without celebs. Driving 5hours each way from his farm to host ABC’s Late Night Live, it became a podcast unmissable for its breath of ideas. So here’s a love we share Ballet Maestro Adams. At least some dreams came true so no disappointment there. Barry Humphries to boot! You do what you can against adversity, engendered demons. Belief! 

Screenwriter Robert Towne (1934- 2024)

One helluva career. Chinatown is film history DNA. The Firm (1993) certainly hasn’t dated.

On Los Angeles: “It’s a city that’s so illusory… It’s a sort of place of last resort. It’s a place where, in a word, people go to make their dreams come true. And they’re forever disappointed.” Guess you won't hear that on a late night talk show:)

KITTY’s re-decorating, guess she’s grown ‘accustomed to her face’. Seth Myers would feel right at home and under the carpet here! :) Heaven forfend, the feline Harry Nilsson!

By a Whisker

Paton Miller- Dogs & Cats 14x17” graphite

Researching these artists Indivi Sutton + Edith Baumann and artist/teacher Paton Miller appeared PURRWECT for my website. Keep making art as Jerry Saltz encourages. Someone will find you. If not, then at least you found yourself! Something, particularly in America, lots of folk waste lots of time and money tryin’ to figure out.

Upstate Art Weekend


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Posted on June 15, 2024 .