Brunette of the week

Alison Bell.

Two Stooges Home Improvement strikes again!

They had to tear up part of our front sidewalk when they put in new sewer and water lines out in front of our house back in February and we finally got around to fixing it a few weeks ago.
We leveled the ground up and then we put down some gravel and leveled it up as well.
That Sparky, she wields a mean rake.

Then I mixed up bag after bag of Quikrete, we used 8 forty pound bags when all was said and done, and we filled that sucker in:Our repair job has held up well so it looks like we did it correctly. Now we need to get another bag of some other type concrete to cover it over so it looks more like the old walk. But the main thing is we no longer have a huge law suit waiting to happen in our front yard.

Is that right?

If I don't watch and rapturously praise the HBO show Girls I'm a raging misogynist, is that right?

If I don't watch Ashely Judd's TV show and praise her beauty every 10 seconds then I hate all women, is that right?

If I don't vote for Obama then I must be voting for Romney, is that right?

The answer is to all of the above is no.

Get over yourselves Lena Dunham and Ashley Judd, not everyone thinks the sun shines out of your asses.  Some of us don't want to watch you because we're not your target audience.   I didn't watch Sex and the City not because I hate women, but because the show didn't interest me, same thing with all those fucking televised talent shows.  I like music, singing, and dancing, however I don't like watching televised talent shows that feature singing, music, and dancing.

And to those of you who say my vote for Rocky Anderson of the Justice party is a vote for Romney, get over yourselves.  My vote is going to a third party, not to the dictatorship of the Republicrats.  It's obvious to me now that there is one party in charge and that's the party of incumbency.  My vote for Justice is a vote to get us out from under that dictatorship.  Grow up and stop believing the lies the two parties tell, especially the one that says that voting for a third party is a waste of your vote.

Sorry, no

This picture has been going around on Facebook and now I see it's been hitting the blogosphere:

I'd like to believe it's real but I'm pretty sure it's bullshit.

See, the first thing is if this linebacker kid really had two amazing gay dads, then they would have taught him to stand up to the bullies who were bullying this openly gay kid before there was any threat of physical violence.  Secondly, it's all written in a pretty typeface, if it was real the linebacker kid would not have typed it out on a computer, he would have written it down.

I wish we lived in a world where linebackers with two amazing gay dads did shit like threaten bullies and stick up for openly gay kids, but the sad fact is, most of the time it's linebackers who are doing the bullying.  The world of high school sports is one of the most homophobic in the world.  Misogynist as well.  The worst thing you can call another guy on a football, baseball, or any organized sports team is 'gay.'  And it's nothing to jocks to call a guy they want to demean or psyche out a 'girl.'  That's the way it is.  That's the way it was when I was in high school and I doubt it's changed much.

The above note was written by some well meaning person who wants to help gay kids in their struggle to be who they really are, but unfortunately, it's fiction.  Don't believe the hype.

Wish I was there

Golden age travel posters are the best. 

Movie review times 2

An intellectual school boy in Wales falls for a pretty girl as his parents go through some marital problems in this fine little oddly affecting cinematic gem.  The boy's parents are dealing with issues surrounding the father's depression and the fact that an old flame of the mother's has moved in across the street.  The boy in question, played to perfection by Craig Roberts, deals with his issues regarding his odd parents problems, as he deals with his own coming of age and sexual awakening.  His paramour, played by Yasmin Paige, deals with her own issues with the relationship while dealing with her mother's impending cancer surgery.

It all sounds depressing as hell but it's a sweet funny warm little film.  Every one in it turns in fine performances and it's written and directed by Richard Ayoade, best known for his portrayal of Moss on The IT Crowd.

I highly recommend this one.

This wildly odd and visually stunning film is about a man who hasn't left his apartment in months.  He's paralyzed with fear over going out due to an incident that happened when he was on an extended holiday with his friend Bunny, played by Simon Farnaby.  So instead of going out he relives the holiday over and over again in his mind until we get to the point where we find out what happened to make him afraid to go out. 

I fucking loved this movie.  It was written and directed by the guy who directed The Mighty Boosh, so you know it's going to be different.  And different it is.  It's like a Michel Gondry on steroids on a Red Bull bender film.  Every scene is a work of pop surrealism art.  It's laugh out loud funny and a pleasure to behold.  I'm sorry I haven't seen it sooner and I know it will be in the pantheon of films I watch repeatedly.  It's got cameos by some of the modern British comedy royalty, Richard Ayoade, Noel Fielding, Julian Barratt, and Rich Fulcher.  The only thing I didn't like about the film was the accent of the Spanish actress, Verónica Echegui, who played the female lead.  At the best of times it was hard to understand her, and most of the time it was impossible to do so. 

Do yourself a favor and see this film.  It will blow your mind. 

The late Howard Zinn sums up my feelings about Memorial Day

Whom Will We Honor Memorial Day?

by Howard Zinn

Memorial Day will be celebrated ... by the usual betrayal of the dead, by the hypocritical patriotism of the politicians and contractors preparing for more wars, more graves to receive more flowers on future Memorial Days. The memory of the dead deserves a different dedication. To peace, to defiance of governments. In 1974, I was invited by Tom Winship, the editor of the Boston Globe, who had been bold enough in 1971 to print part of the top secret Pentagon Papers on the history of the Vietnam War, to write a bi-weekly column for the op-ed page of the newspaper. I did that for about a year and a half. The column below appeared June 2, 1976, in connection with that year's Memorial Day. After it appeared, my column was canceled. * * * * * Memorial Day will be celebrated as usual, by high-speed collisions of automobiles and bodies strewn on highways and the sound of ambulance sirens throughout the land. It will also be celebrated by the display of flags, the sound of bugles and drums, by parades and speeches and unthinking applause. It will be celebrated by giant corporations, which make guns, bombs, fighter planes, aircraft carriers and an endless assortment of military junk and which await the $100 billion in contracts to be approved soon by Congress and the President. There was a young woman in New Hampshire who refused to allow her husband, killed in Vietnam, to be given a military burial. She rejected the hollow ceremony ordered by those who sent him and 50,000 others to their deaths. Her courage should be cherished on Memorial Day. There were the B52 pilots who refused to fly those last vicious raids of Nixon's and Kissinger's war. Have any of the great universities, so quick to give honorary degrees to God-knows-whom, thought to honor those men at this Commencement time, on this Memorial Day? No politician who voted funds for war, no business contractor for the military, no general who ordered young men into battle, no FBI man who spied on anti-war activities, should be invited to public ceremonies on this sacred day. Let the dead of past wars he honored. Let those who live pledge themselves never to embark on mass slaughter again. "The shell had his number on it. The blood ran into the ground...Where his chest ought to have been they pinned the Congressional Medal, the DSC, the Medaille Militaire, the Belgian Croix de Guerre, the Italian gold medal, The Vitutea Militara sent by Queen Marie of Rumania. All the Washingtonians brought flowers .. Woodrow Wilson brought a bouquet of poppies." Those are the concluding lines of John Dos Passos angry novel 1919. Let us honor him on Memorial Day. And also Thoreau, who went to jail to protest the Mexican War. And Mark Twain, who denounced our war against the Filipinos at the turn of the century. And I.F. Stone, who virtually alone among newspaper editors exposed the fraud and brutality of the Korean War. Let us honor Martin Luther King, who refused the enticements of the White House, and the cautions of associates, and thundered against the war in Vietnam. Memorial Day should be a day for putting flowers on graves and planting trees. Also, for destroying the weapons of death that endanger us more than they protect us, that waste our resources and threaten our children and grandchildren. On Memorial Day we should take note that, in the name of "defense," our taxes have been used to spend a quarter of a billion dollars on a helicopter assault ship called "the biggest floating lemon," which was accepted by the Navy although it had over 2,000 major defects at the time of its trial cruise. Meanwhile, there is such a shortage of housing that millions live in dilapidated sections of our cities and millions more are forced to pay high rents or high interest rates on their mortgages. There's 90 billion for the B1 bomber, but people don't have money to pay hospital bills. We must be practical, say those whose practicality has consisted of a war every generation. We mustn't deplete our defenses. Say those who have depleted our youth, stolen our resources. In the end, it is living people, not corpses, creative energy, not destructive rage, which are our only real defense, not just against other governments trying to kill us, but against our own, also trying to kill us. Let us not set out, this Memorial Day, on the same old drunken ride to death. (This was published on June 2, 1976.  Zinn's column in the Boston Globe was cancelled the following day.)

Another new work

'Birds on the lawn'

(10.5" x 9" mixed media collage on paper)

Screw what the air conditioning Nazi's say...

...and crank up your AC if you're hot or suffering from allergies.  Do it.

More two fisted movie reviews

I quite liked this atmospheric cheesy little horror film.  It's about a boy and his mother who are being hunted by group of hairy unkempt dudes for reasons which I won't explain here because if I do I'll give the premise of the film away.  There's plenty of twists and turns and gritty performances, the best of which are turned in by Kate Dickie, who I have really grown to like, and the always good James Nesbitt.

This supernatural horror film is on the cheesy effects laden side, especially towards the end.  I highly recommend it nonetheless.

This top notch documentary on the artist Milton Glaser is fist rate.  If you've never heard of Glaser you've seen his work, it's everywhere and his work has influenced generations of other artists.  This film is highly enjoyable and informative with out being snooty or boring.

The thing I like best about Mr. Glaser is that he gives back by teaching other artists and that he gives away some of his best work for free.  He's a true icon and a mensch.  If you're at all interested in pop culture, art, graphic design, or people, then you'll appreciate this film.

Two recent collages

 'Queen Maureen' 

(7.5" x 10" mixed media collage on paper)

'Three point turn'

(7.5" x 10" mixed media on paper)

Two fisted movie reviews

 This documentary tells the story of the Eames design studio and the married partners who made it work.  I was vaguely familiar with Charles and Ray Eames before I saw this but after seeing it I am astounded at how much of their work is around today and how much of their work set the stage for our modern world, especially the internet. They were pioneers in design, promotion, and art.

I highly recommend this film.

Jacques Mesrine was a notorious French criminal who killed with out compunction and stole what he wanted to live of off.  He robbed banks, casinos, killed cops, other criminals, he was in fact, the gangster that many rappers aspire to be.  And he was all this in the swingin' '60's and '70's.  These two films Killer Instinct and Public Enemy Number 1 tell the story of his criminal career.  His savagery starts in the France's war to keep Algeria under colonial control and it ends with him being assassinated by the French police in 1979.

These are very gripping violent sexy mesmerizing movies.  Cassel's performance is a thing of beauty and despite the fact that the second film sags a bit at times, it's well worth your time.  Both films clock in over two hours each but the first one flies by, the second one no so much.  But the second film is redeemed by Cassel's acting and by the luminous Ludivine Sagnier.  My only complaint other than the slower second film is that it's obvious that Mesrine is a psychopathic criminal who would kill you as soon as look at you if you crossed him or if you got in the way of one of his robberies, yet these films try to deify him a bit too much.  They try to explain why he's like he is, instead of just showing us who he was. When they inject politics into Mesrine, the film falters a bit.  However, don't let that stop you from seeing these two fine French films.

Don't be a sap

If you friend me on Facebook, don't be shocked if I'm a sharp tongued smart ass on there like I am on here.  I have no problem insulting most anyone and everyone, especially if I think you need to be taken down a notch or two.  The thing about me is, you get to take me how I am, I'm not going to change to make you happy or comfortable.  I am who I am and you can take me or leave me, and if you leave me, I don't give a shit. 

Now, go about your business.  And I'll do the same.

Random shots of a Saturday in Asheville

 I loved this all gal bluegrass group of buskers.

 The banana throne for the Monkey King!

This little dude saw me taking a photo of his mom's beauty salon window and he had to come talk to me.  I asked him how he was doing and he told me he was doing fine.  I said I was too and then I said as I walked away, "I'll see you around."  He replied, "I'll see you tomorrow."

 I wanted to eat supper in this place but I could hear my arteries hardening in anticipation, so I didn't.

 Wig store!

 Planet Bollywood.

Stone carving and sculpture amazes me.

I am pleased to announce...

 that Olivia Bonamy

 is my

 newest

pretend French actress girlfriend. 

Olivia Bonamy, la hubba hubba!

One out of three

A woman and her bitchy teenage daughter are driving down a lonely eastern European road during a rain storm.  From out of nowhere someone or something appears in the road causing the woman's car to veer off and crash.  When she gets out she's whisked off and the daughter is murdered.  Cut to the lonely house in the country where a sexy young French couple live.  You can guess what happens next...well actually you can't, sure our sexy young couple gets terrorized by some people but when you find out just who is terrorizing them and why, you'll be shocked.

Oooo, la, la, I loved this French horror flick.  It's taut, tight, and terrifying.  It's not your typical horror film and I mean that in a good way.  Olivia Bonamy as the female half of the terrorized couple is superb, and the dude playing her husband isn't bad either but I found it hard to look at anything other than Ms. Bonamy when she was onscreen.

This little French horror gem is highly recommended by me.

 Look, I'm not made of stone.  I find Greta Gerwig super sexy.  And any film that starts with her doing a nude scene and any film that shows her muff can't be all bad can it?  Yes.  Yes, it can. I hated this film and I found it unwatchable.  I loved seeing Ms. Gerwig in the buff but holy shit, if that's all your film has going for it, then pack it in.  I turned this turkey off about 15 minutes in and the main reason I hated it was the guy playing Ms. Gerwig's boyfriend.  I hated his character and I wanted to throttle him six ways to Sunday.

Maybe I'm missing something or maybe my dislike of the sap boyfriend character ruined this one for me, but my advice is to avoid this one all together. 

The best thing I can say about this terribly dated Judi Dench vehicle is that Judi Dench is very good in it.  In fact, she's the only good thing about it.  Everything else, forget it.

The plot of this miniseries is that Dench gets dumped by her husband and he hooks up with a woman who is supposed to be a much young woman, but who actually looks like she's older than him.  So dumped Judi takes a flat on her own and gets lonely.  She tries to endure and fill her days with classes, church, and by being the confidante of her ex mother in law, but eventually Dame Judi gets fed up and she moves in with her ex husband and his wife.  Shocking!

But soon enough she gets fed up with that arrangement and she moves in with her horsey daughter, who I found to be repellent but evidently she was supposed to be the epitome of late Thatcher era sexiness.  The daughter leaves in a huff and she moves in with her dad and his new wife.  Dench's character charms her new flatmates and then...oh fuck it.  If I tell the rest of the plot I'm going to vomit and convulse on the floor for hours.  Trust me, it stinks.

This mini series I suppose was supposed to be shocking in that it was all about what a middle aged woman wants and not about what her philandering husband and ungrateful twat of a daughter wanted.  It also featured a chaste little romance between Dench and one of her daughters male flatmates, in fact they run off to San Diego together at the end of the series.  It must have been shocking because she was 20 years older than him and he was a bisexual guy who liked to cruise for dudes, he makes eyes at one guy on the flight to the USA.  In the light of today's ideas and social mores, this series is eerily tepid and mostly dull.  Dench finds herself eventually and the rest of the annoying cast get more and more annoying until you, or in this case I, can't take it anymore and you actively root for their demise.

This whole series was a primer for everything that was hated about Maggie Thatcher's England in the late 1980's.  The clothes were awful, the self centered characters were two dimensional, the social services sucked, and you can almost feel the desperation and desire to be out from under the oppressive Tory regime of Maggie Thatcher and her handmaiden John Major.

I can't in good conscience recommend this one, not even for die hard Dench fans. 

Art gallery reviews

I not only make art, I like to go see other art that's been made.  And since there is a dearth of art galleries in my town, we go over to Asheville to check out galleries.  I'll say this for Asheville, there are a shit ton of galleries over there and they show all kinds of art, which is a good thing in the long run.  The only drawback to all those galleries is the fact that most gallery owners and their employees over there size you up the second you walk through the door and if they think you can't afford the art they sell or if you don't look 'cool' enough, they shun you like the plague and they freeze you out by refusing to make eye contact with you and or refusing to speak, even to say 'Hello,' to you.

Thankfully there are some exceptions to those kinds of galleries in Asheville and we happened to go to two of them yesterday.

The first was a charming gallery called Gallery Minerva.  This gallery is on the smallish side but that only enhances it's charm. Because it's on the smallish side they showcase only a few artists and the ones they were showing while we were there were fantastic.  The art, which includes paintings, sculpture, and mixed media works, is varied, eye catching, and provocative.  And the best part of this gallery is that it's owned and operated by an enthusiastic and super nice woman named Anna Parker Barnett.  Ms. Barnett could not have been more charming and engaging to us on our visit.  She was polite, charming, laughed at all my stupid banter and she bent over backwards to make sure we got to see all that we wanted.  She even went to her store room to show us more works that she didn't have room to display yet.  If all gallery owners in Asheville were as nice and engaging as Ms. Barnett, then they'd all sell a lot more art.  And I must add that Ms. Barnett is as beautiful as she is nice.

The other gallery that we visited that is an exception the usual snooty Asheville art gallery was American Folk Art & Framing.  I did not catch the woman's name who was running the place today, I believe she is one of the owners, but she was super nice and engaging as well.  She gushed over her artists, and most of them deserved it, and she took plenty of time to show us around and to make sure we saw all she had to offer.  When I told her I was a Facebook friend of one of her featured artists, a fellow by the name of Spencer Herr, she was overjoyed and she spoke at length to me about his work and what a nice guy he is.  She made the whole time in her gallery pleasant and she was helpful without being a pain in the butt.

One day I'd like to be in both galleries and if that day comes, I know I'll be in two of the finest art galleries in Asheville.

All your Caturday belongs to us

Ask for it by name

My newest non existent product label.  This is my template.  I'll be adding flavors as time goes on.

Fashion victims speak out

 "Ever since I started wearing these Rick Santorum style sweater vests, no one but this horse will have anything to do with me.  I'm such a lucky gal!"

 "Some white person gave this to me.  I gave them a box of highly toxic black mold in return."

 "This is the only bag I can fit all my drugs in and I'm not going anywhere with out my heroin because you never know when I'm going to run in to one of my grandkids."

 "I'm wearing apples but I've still got my cherry.  I promised it to Mitt Romney, he's going to take it in the afterlife."

 "Hello?  Police?  Could you please come and help chase this awful monkey away from me?"

"Life is so much better now that the Republicans have control of my body!  Praise you and me and the G-O-P!"

Another new work

'War on Women' (mixed media on paper 8" x 10").

Brunette of the week

Elizabeth Marmur.  Hubba hubba.

Design brilliance

I found these two books in a thrift store yesterday.  They were book of the month club editions, most likely from the early 1970's.  I was blown away by the illustrations on the covers.  I've seen the PBS/BBC mini series they made from these books but I've never read them. If I can stop marveling over the brilliance of the spare clean illustrations I may try to read them.

Interview with the artist as a middle aged man

In a first for this blog I, Dr. Monkey, have landed an interview with Steve Denton, an internationally known self taught artist. 

Dr. M:  So, Steve, thanks for sitting down and talking to me about your art.
Steve: It's my pleasure.  Thanks for the opportunity to plug my work.
Dr. M: When did you start making art?
Steve: I've been around art all my life.  My late father was an artist, as was his brother, my late Uncle Curt.  Both of them were technically very good artists, but both of them were afraid to make original art, they both stuck mainly to making copies of others works.  My father loved copying Van Gogh and some of the Pointillists.  Uncle Curt copied animals and landscapes out of instructional manuals.  I have a brother who makes art as well, he paints and draws houses, naked people having sex, and other prosaic stuff, it's not my kind of art but I guess someone likes it, even if it's only him.  Anyhoo, I began actually making my own art in 1999.
Dr. M: What spurred that on?
Steve: We, my girlfriend and I, were on our way back from the beach in Delaware and we had stopped to stay the night in Durham, NC and I bought some art magazines and I saw the kind of stuff that others were making, so I decided to give it a try when I got home.  Some of that first stuff was just awful and it's been thrown away, but some of it I liked so I kept it.  I made a bunch of stuff, then I slacked off when I changed jobs but I started making art again after my heart attack.  Then we geared up to sell our old condo and I stopped making art for a few years but then a Facebook thing was going around where you make something by hand and give it to people and that got me back into making art.
Dr. M: What kinds of art do you make? 
Steve:  I do mixed media works on plywood and canvas.  I also do linocuts and collages.  I use my own drawings and I use portions of copies of other things.  I incorporate inks, paint, and other things in my art as well.
Dr. M: Are there themes that run through your work?
Steve: Mainly the themes of pattern and repetition.  I like both.  And bold vivid color.
Dr. M: Anything else?
Steve: I like to use pages out of old reference books and other vintage publications in my art.  What I'm trying to do, with the bigger pieces anyway, is to put people in mind of the ancient cave paintings.  I want to get back to the primal images that were painted on cave walls, so for me the way I do that is to draw on, or use cut outs from old books, which are our cave walls so to speak.
Dr. M: Your bigger works are spare but they have a lot going on in them as well.
Steve:  Yes.  I prefer simple clean lines and then if the work needs it I add circles, drips of color, numbers, words, cutout shapes, or what ever I think it might need.
Dr. M: Are you showing your work anywhere currently?
Steve: Yes.  I'm online on Facebook, my various blogs, I'm on Society 6, and I'm in a gallery in Asheville, NC.  The name of the gallery is ZaPow! Gallery and it's downtown in Asheville.
Dr. M: Very cool.  Well, that's all we have time for, thanks for your time.
Steve: Thank you.  It's been a pleasure talking to you.  You're quite the good interviewer.
Dr. M: You're a good interviewee.  And you're quite handsome as well.
Steve: You're not so bad yourself Monkey.  I'll see ya.
Dr. Monkey: Not if I see you first!
Steve: Boo ya! 

That was my last try

My older brother Karl never got over the fact that mom gave birth to three more of us kids after she popped him out.  And as a result he's spent the rest of his life being a miserable, greedy, selfish, humorless twat.  Every time there has been any kind of reaching out to have any sort of normal familial relationship, it's been done on my part.  I've had to initiate it.  And every time it happens it ends because he gets his tit in a wringer over some 'slight' on my part.

The latest thing he's pissed off about is a joke I left under a photo of our mother that he had put on Facebook.  He wrote that she had written something unreadable on the back of the photo, so being the clever joker that I've always been, I left a comment saying that what mom had written was something to the effect that I was her favorite child because I was the smartest, the best looking, and clearly the most talented.  I tossed in this bit so he would clearly see it was a joke, "I hope this never gets posted on Facebook, hey wait, what's Facebook?  Oh well, whatever it is I'm sure Steven will be great on it since he is clearly my favorite child."  When I went back to see if he got the joke, I saw that not only did he not get it, he dropped me as a friend.

I've spent most of my life without him in it and I'll gladly spend the rest of it with out him.  As I get older I've discovered that my close friends are my family.  He was just someone who I happened to share a mother and a father with, but at no time, even when we were kids, was he any kind of a brother to me.  I tried to be one to him but it's clear he never wanted it, so to hell with him.

Happy Mother's Day mom!

This was two years before she had me and a few months before she got pregnant with my sister Linda.  I always remember my mom's smile and laugh.  I used to love trying to make her do both.

Even though it's been almost 40 years since my mother got taken from me I miss her still.

A Monkey Movie Review

Herb and Dorothy Vogel are a married couple of modest means, he was a postal worker and she was a librarian, who have amassed one of the most important private art collections ever.  They lived modestly, even frugally, so that they could buy the art they loved.  The didn't collect what was 'hot' or in vogue, although many of the artist's work they have collected have since been 'hot.'  They didn't collect what they thought was going to go up in value, in fact they refuse to sell any of their collection.  They simply collected the art that spoke to them, the art that they liked.  And if they took to an artist's work, they collected it rabidly and obsessively. 

In their small NYC apartment art is everywhere, on the walls, the ceiling, stacked up in closets, under the bed, in drawers of chests, in trunks, everywhere.  They collected so much art that they had to get rid of furniture so that they could accommodate it all.  They got all this art by living off Dorothy's salary and using Herb's wages to buy art they loved.

Slowly word got out about their collection and artists sought them out to sell them their work and museums and galleries sought them out to allow them to show all the art they had collected.  After years of living with all that art and the semi notoriety that surrounded their collection of it, the National Gallery in Washington DC contacted them about housing and curating their collection.  They liked the idea of giving their collection to the National Gallery because it's a free institution and the art can't be sold or given away by the Gallery once they take physical possession of it.  So the Vogels allowed most of their collection to be sent to the National Gallery where it will be shown and appreciated.  Both were government workers when they worked and now their art collection will be shown at a government run gallery in perpetuity.

In recognition of the enormity of their gift to the gallery, the National Gallery arranged for the Vogels to get a small annuity to subsidize their pensions and Social Security.  The thought was that the annuity would help them purchase a couch and other furniture for their small apartment now that they had pared down their art collection.  However, the Vogels had other ideas.  They used the annuity to buy more art, which will one day go to the National Gallery.

I loved this documentary about this cute little couple.  These kind of people help restore my faith in human beings.  Here they are living on a modest budget with no children to raise or look after so they spend their money on art.  And it's not the touchy feely accessible kind of art, in many cases it's minimalist, conceptual, and abstract art that is shunned by most collectors, galleries, and museums.  They not only bought what they liked, they championed it.  And slowly over time their opinions mattered and became sought after.  Imagine that, instead of some bloated wealthy fuck like that British advertising millionaire Saatchi setting the standard, it was little old Herb and Dorothy, a postal worker and a librarian.  And I love the fact they they refused to sell any of their collection and that they took steps to make sure it could not be sold after their deaths.  They loved art for art's sake and they are making sure others can appreciate it too.

If more people were like Herb and Dorothy, especially the ones with money, then this world would be a much better place.  Kudos to you Herb and Dorothy and kudos to the makers of this fine film that I highly recommend.  It's sweet, charming, and adorable.

A couple of new works

Both are 8" x 10" mixed media on pre stretched canvas.