Reviews

This is a flower from a tree - I think it looks like parrot beaks. Anyway we've been seeing things. Last week we went on a public radio movie binge and saw the two public radio movies. Prairie Home was a stirring reminder of why some people are on radio - Garrison Keillor is very, very odd looking! And WordPlay was a fascinating reminder that Bill Clinton is smart and able to solve problems, so it made me nostalgic for the days when the U.S. was run by someone who was smart and could solve problems.
TAXIDERMY! We also popped into downtown LA and saw the Rauchenberg combine show at MOCA. This was a rather comprehensive show of just Raushenberg's combine work. It was very interesting and actually I thought it packed a greater visual punch than the Rauchenberg retrospective at the Guggenheim a couple of years ago. That show was so huge that you were beat down by the sheer output of the man. There were a couple of paintings that had a chain and a brick attached to them, so that they couldn't run away, a commentary on slavery? Who knows, but just fabulous to see a chained brick painting. And of course the famous goat combine was there. The kashmir stuffed goat surrounded by a tire and standing on a painting is a classic Rauchenberg image. And I was glad to see that it had been cleaned up and restored. The last time I had seen it the goat was rather dusty, but now it's coat gleams. The amount of stuffed animals in the show made me think that maybe Rauchenberg was into taxidermy the way David Sedaris is into taxidermy and that maybe they are related, since this taxidermy fetish is genetic; Gengis Khan --> Bob Rauchenberg --> David Sedaris. Makes sense doesn't it?
We also went to the Hockney portraits show, and I found out - once again, but like oysters you have to try occasionally to see if your tastes change - that Hockney's work leaves me cold. I did enjoy seeing a portrait of a friend of mine, but the paintings did not move me or transport me or make me think of anything except that Hockney paints a lot of paintings. He has a good work ethic.
Speaking of paintings I was cruising around and checked in on my friend M. and she put some lovely watercolours up on the web.

Watercoloursbymolly

I also found this blog site of a painter who is, I guess, attempting to paint one painting a day. At least his blog is titled one painting a day. He paints a lot of images from video games, which I guess is the next step of art dealing with pop art, and there are some images of circuit boards that I rather like. But it is this painting of toast being buttered that I think is pretty fun.

toast painting

We've also bought a lot of music, and I must say that I bought the new Neil Young album simply because he has a song called lets impeach the president, because I've never really been a Neil Young fan, that's for rather older surfer dudes, not moi. But it is a rollicking album, and Young's raspy voice makes singing along, at the top of your voice as you drive down La Cienega with your windows open very fun. "LET'S IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT!"

Yeah baby!