Dem Bones

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Artsy

http://www.artsyschmartsy.com

Go there, then pick up the forthcoming (soon!) issue of INFO magazine, for a feature about artsy, a chap who wears cheaters and is learning about art. Interviewed by Judith Ann Moriarty in her digs overlooking splendid Milwaukee, Schmartsy reveals himself fully. Let Stella hear if you like it. As I write, susceptibletoimages.com seems to be down, but by the time you read this, hopefully it will be up. Who’s making paintings these days worth viewing? Tom Kovacich. . See them at Gallery 218. Photographs? Kevin Miyazaki at inova/Kenilworth. Sculptures? Bernini, but he’s dead.

Should VS have a sex column, or is sex dead? Can’t seem to locate Nikol Knows which was featured online at Milwaukee Magazine .Oh well, great sex usually doesn’t last forever anyway.



I’m thinking of running a blog about “condo rules.” Some of them are hilarious. Here’s one:” If your doggie pees or poops on the elevator carpet, perhaps it needs diapers. It is not the job of the concierge to clean up what doggie does.”

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Blog Meat

In continuing an explanation about the meat of blogs, I’ve been re-reading the November issue of the Atlantic, specifically, Andrew Sullivan’s “Why I Blog.” There’s more online at http://www.theatlantic.com/blogging. The secret seems to be links, Duh. I’ve been clueless.



The other big deal clue is “if you don’t paddle, you’re dead in the blog waters.” Or something like that. This suggests that genuine bloggers, blog at least once daily, and often twice or more, and whoa! there’s a whole generation running around that have never written anything other than blogs, a frightening thought for one who really actually truly believes that writing is way beyond blogging. That said, I’m including a link to Milwaukee artist Tom Kovacich, http://www.thomaskovacich.com. He exhibits at Gallery 218, is a modernist, and from that standpoint, would seem a nice fit for blogging which Sullivan describes as postmodern communication. In a recent email he commented that he had read Judith Ann Moriarty’s vitalsourcemag.com feature about MAM’s Act/React exhibit, and also Dem Bones take on art critics. He sent me a fruit basket as a reminder.

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Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Blogging For Naught?

Maybe I don’t get it, don’t quite understand blogging and the point of it. The November Atlantic has a fine feature (Why I Blog), which explains the author’s take on blogging. I still don’t get it, even though he calls it “writing out loud,” and seems to think it beats regular writing with editors breathing down his neck. I’m beginning to think that I’m lost in blog land. It’s been around for a decade and the field is pretty crowded. Is there a secret that successful bloggers use to get attention? Nastier writing? Wildly controversial content? Or does one have to be a star? Should I cut back on my blog postings? Should I escalate my postings? Reinvent my persona? I’ve written hundreds of blogwords, and only received two comments: one was from fellow VS blogger Bobrow and the other you can read about in my “The Big Louse” posting in Dem Bones.

I never go to blogs other than the VS blogs. Maybe that’s the problem. IS that the problem? Do successful bloggers spread themselves all over the place? Do they advertise in hardcopy publications? Do I even care? I guess I do, or I wouldn’t be blogging on about it. Frankly, the most fun I have with “Dem Bones” is digging up fun images from Wikimedia. Perhaps people are actually reading my blog and are too busy to comment. Or too lazy. Or too blogged-out. Perhaps the blog craze is reaching the bottom of the word-well.

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Monday, November 10, 2008

Shameless Shirt-Tailing

I’m going to be in Kansas City in December and plan to stroll over to the Kansas City Art Institute to see “Political Persuasion” Street Posters for Barack Obama.” The posters are from the private collection of a professor at the Institute. It’s near the splendid Nelson Gallery of Art (with a splendid new addition described by Paul Goldberger of the New Yorker magazine as the best museum addition of this decade). A few blocks away is the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. MAM’s current executive director, Daniel Keegan, was in charge there prior to his California sojourn.


Interior, Steven Holl addition, Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City

People imagine K.C. as a big cow town, and yes, at one time it was home to some impressive stockyards, but it’s way more than that these days. The Missouri river rambles through downtown, a downtown gripped in the condo craze, but also the site of the revival of a number of old venues. I’ll be Amtrak-ing there via the Hiawatha to Chicago and then on to the Southwest Chief for a ride across Iowa and south to Missouri. Seven hours and twenty cups of bad coffee and I’ll be in the grand old Union Station, and directly across from Liberty Memorial Hill where 175,000 Obama fans rallied recently.

Like all cities, K.C. has some really bad public art and some awful galleries with awful art: schmoozy florals, cowboys on horses, big eyed kittens, etc. The Nelson will certainly be on my list of places to view art worth viewing, and the new addition features contemporary art, plus a Noguchi sculpture garden. The landscaping surrounding the building was designed by Mr. Kiley, who also designed the gardens at MAM, as well as the Chestnut Grove adjacent to the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts.


Exterior, Steven Holl addition, Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City

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Friday, November 07, 2008

The Big Louse (Pl. lice)

I’m not going to give the louse who commented to my “Big Snooze” blog much space except to say thank heavens for the “Details” section that allowed me to track down the perpetrator. The lousy comments had nothing to do with my blog content (about a day at the Milwaukee Ballet), but instead was a rant about drug use. Eureka, I traced it back to a site that sells booklets on “How to Pass A Drug Test.” Oddly, it came from Sand Point, Idaho, where Sarah Palin grew up. I spent a week in that town, enroute to Seattle, on the trail of a louse-lawyer who screwed me out of quite a bit of money. It was a useless trip as the attorney I consulted in Seattle told me it would cost me greatly to chase the creep and get my $$$$ back Ah yes, Stella was a fool back then, but the trip wasn’t a total bust. I did get to visit the Pacific Rim, and (in Montana) was stopped by a cop who advised me not to be hot footing it across the countryside at night. Those were the days when Montana had no speed limit.

In the pursuit of art, I’ve included a decent line-drawing of a louse. Just so you know.

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