I am so grateful that I was able to be part of the world's greatest art exhibition and prize exhibition. I was able to compete against artists from all over the world. And it was a fabulous experience. I learned so much. Next year will be different.
One complaint I heard vicariously from a fellow artist was that if you are "just" a conventional artist i.e. painter, sculptor, line artist you get no notoriety. It seems like the lady that recreates "Starry Night" out of dryer lint, or the woman who recreates Marilyn Monroe's face out of broken combs gets all the publicity. Yes, that is a valid point. It does seem that way. But I was so gratified today to learn that the "City Band" and the "Elephants" both made the top ten. They are both wonderful. I was also gratified to see that the luminere exhibit Friday night made the top ten also. That was truly a moment. I will tell my great grandchildren about that.
I will not live long enough to have great-grandchildren, but if I did, I would tell them about Friday night.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Friday, September 28, 2012
Little Moments
Life is but sorrow interspersed with a few moments of joy. Tonight I witnessed the luminere exhibit at ART PRIZE. It was a moment.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Gone
When young people die I always think
"That doesn't seem fair."
But then I think of how life hangs by
such a delicate thread
and it's all over so very soon anyway.
Nobody is guaranteed the next few minutes
and so there is really no such thing
as a 'premature death.'
Soon we will all be dead longer than the
pyramids were ago.
We all only taste life on the tip of our tongue
and then it's gone,
gone like the sun falling in a purple sky,
gone like a campfire in the rain,
gone like the feeling of joy at your graduation,
gone like that look in her eyes as she held your hand,
gone like your unborn children,
gone like the bait on your grandson's line,
gone like the daylight as you close your eyes
and fall into a long pleasant slumber.
"That doesn't seem fair."
But then I think of how life hangs by
such a delicate thread
and it's all over so very soon anyway.
Nobody is guaranteed the next few minutes
and so there is really no such thing
as a 'premature death.'
Soon we will all be dead longer than the
pyramids were ago.
We all only taste life on the tip of our tongue
and then it's gone,
gone like the sun falling in a purple sky,
gone like a campfire in the rain,
gone like the feeling of joy at your graduation,
gone like that look in her eyes as she held your hand,
gone like your unborn children,
gone like the bait on your grandson's line,
gone like the daylight as you close your eyes
and fall into a long pleasant slumber.
So
So there you have it. The following is my dozen picks for the best TV shows in the last 10 years. My apologies to "Dexter", "Nip/Tuck", "Six Feet Under", and a myriad of other shows that were excellent and didn't get mentioned.
But omitting garbage like "The Sopranos", "Sex In The City", and "Desperate Housewives" was no accident.
But then again, there are new gems and new garbage coming out everyday. Stay tuned.....
But omitting garbage like "The Sopranos", "Sex In The City", and "Desperate Housewives" was no accident.
But then again, there are new gems and new garbage coming out everyday. Stay tuned.....
Thursday, September 6, 2012
The Best TV in the Past 10 Years: #1: Breaking Bad
AMC
Well, here we are. At number 1. And if you have bothered to watch any TV at all in the last 10 years, you must have known this was coming. "Breaking Bad" is one of the greatest things I have been privileged to witness......ever.
Albuquerque High School Chemistry teacher Walter White has a problem. He has stage 3 lung cancer. He hasn't told his family. But he is most troubled by the fact that he has not been able to adequately put aside enough money to take care of his family or send his son Walter Jr. to college after he's gone.
Walter has a brother-in-law who is a DEA agent and occasionally he lets Walter ride along on routine busts - provided Walter stays in the car. On one of these excursions, Walter witnesses one of his flunkie burn-out students narrowly escaping from the bust. Walter has an epiphany and devises a scheme to supply the needed money for his family.
Walter decides to seek out the drug-dealing flunk-out student - Jesse Pinkman - and make him a proposition. Jesse will use his street level connections to move the product, and Mr. White will cook the best and purest meth-antphetimine on the planet.
Thus begins a saga of epic proportions. And it is a tale that I believe is the best TV in the past 10 years. Maybe ever.
Creator Vince Gilligan has taken a good premise - not the greatest premise ever - but a good one, and made it a masterpiece. There are lots of reasons.
Beyond Gilligan's vision and writing the casting was fantastic. Brian Cranston as Mr. White is truly a mystical thing of beauty. Known to millions only as the Dad on "Malcolm In The Middle", Cranston definitely gets to sit at the big people's table this Thanksgiving. Could Tom Hanks have played Mr. White? Nope. DeNiro? Maybe, but not as well. And who the heck decided to give totally unknown Aaron Paul a shot at playing Jesse Pinkman? I don't know whose decision that was but give them a raise! This kid is brilliant and for my money makes the show. Jesse was originally going to be a temporary character, but sometime in the first season it was realized that Mr. White and Jesse Pinkman were one of the best TV partnerships since Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton.
Oh but it doesn't stop there. Playing Mr. White's wife Skyler is the lovely and "Murder One" alum Anna Gunn. After a couple seasons and Walter deciding to finally confess what he's been up to, Skyler leaves him in a righteous huff, only a season later to also reach a line that she reluctantly decides to cross. Therefore she too is 'breaking bad." Next there is Walter's brother-in-law Drug Enforcement Agent Hank Schrader played by brilliant (and also a "Murder One" alum) Dean Morris. This guy knows his stuff. He brings a reality to this character in a way that is not usual. He falls totally in the moment and becomes this guy. What an actor.
Somehow Walter and Jesse hook up with the slimiest of slimey lawyers in form of Saul Goodman. Another of the cast members delivering brilliance. Bob Odenkirk plays Saul. Saul sets Walter and Jesse up with a big-time-run-the-whole-west-coast Drug Kingpin played as a mild mannered businessman by Giancarlo Esposito. RJ Mitte as Walter White Jr. deserves mention too. All excellent.
Morality questions pop up more in this show than the little gophers at Chuckie Cheese. "Breaking Bad" offers a look at these questions, and as I have wondered many times in my 26 years working with criminals... where is that line? And what exactly made the point in time when it was crossed, the right time? When, why, and under what circumstances, would any of us decide to "break bad?"
I'll admit I haven't seen the entire series, but I very much look forward to seeing it all. I will always be intrigued and wonder how it will inevitably arrive at the only logical conclusion this madness can bring.
Well, here we are. At number 1. And if you have bothered to watch any TV at all in the last 10 years, you must have known this was coming. "Breaking Bad" is one of the greatest things I have been privileged to witness......ever.
Albuquerque High School Chemistry teacher Walter White has a problem. He has stage 3 lung cancer. He hasn't told his family. But he is most troubled by the fact that he has not been able to adequately put aside enough money to take care of his family or send his son Walter Jr. to college after he's gone.
Walter has a brother-in-law who is a DEA agent and occasionally he lets Walter ride along on routine busts - provided Walter stays in the car. On one of these excursions, Walter witnesses one of his flunkie burn-out students narrowly escaping from the bust. Walter has an epiphany and devises a scheme to supply the needed money for his family.
Walter decides to seek out the drug-dealing flunk-out student - Jesse Pinkman - and make him a proposition. Jesse will use his street level connections to move the product, and Mr. White will cook the best and purest meth-antphetimine on the planet.
Thus begins a saga of epic proportions. And it is a tale that I believe is the best TV in the past 10 years. Maybe ever.
Creator Vince Gilligan has taken a good premise - not the greatest premise ever - but a good one, and made it a masterpiece. There are lots of reasons.
Beyond Gilligan's vision and writing the casting was fantastic. Brian Cranston as Mr. White is truly a mystical thing of beauty. Known to millions only as the Dad on "Malcolm In The Middle", Cranston definitely gets to sit at the big people's table this Thanksgiving. Could Tom Hanks have played Mr. White? Nope. DeNiro? Maybe, but not as well. And who the heck decided to give totally unknown Aaron Paul a shot at playing Jesse Pinkman? I don't know whose decision that was but give them a raise! This kid is brilliant and for my money makes the show. Jesse was originally going to be a temporary character, but sometime in the first season it was realized that Mr. White and Jesse Pinkman were one of the best TV partnerships since Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton.
Oh but it doesn't stop there. Playing Mr. White's wife Skyler is the lovely and "Murder One" alum Anna Gunn. After a couple seasons and Walter deciding to finally confess what he's been up to, Skyler leaves him in a righteous huff, only a season later to also reach a line that she reluctantly decides to cross. Therefore she too is 'breaking bad." Next there is Walter's brother-in-law Drug Enforcement Agent Hank Schrader played by brilliant (and also a "Murder One" alum) Dean Morris. This guy knows his stuff. He brings a reality to this character in a way that is not usual. He falls totally in the moment and becomes this guy. What an actor.
Somehow Walter and Jesse hook up with the slimiest of slimey lawyers in form of Saul Goodman. Another of the cast members delivering brilliance. Bob Odenkirk plays Saul. Saul sets Walter and Jesse up with a big-time-run-the-whole-west-coast Drug Kingpin played as a mild mannered businessman by Giancarlo Esposito. RJ Mitte as Walter White Jr. deserves mention too. All excellent.
Morality questions pop up more in this show than the little gophers at Chuckie Cheese. "Breaking Bad" offers a look at these questions, and as I have wondered many times in my 26 years working with criminals... where is that line? And what exactly made the point in time when it was crossed, the right time? When, why, and under what circumstances, would any of us decide to "break bad?"
I'll admit I haven't seen the entire series, but I very much look forward to seeing it all. I will always be intrigued and wonder how it will inevitably arrive at the only logical conclusion this madness can bring.
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