under the radar

It has taken me a while to finally post this brief little story.
In the spring of 2012 I was walking along a quiet country road. I came upon a Gargoyle sitting at the end of stone wall. In the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania finding a Gargoyle is truly unexpected after only seeing deer, wild turkey, squirrels & birds. I don't always carry a camera, fortunately on this day I had mine so I took the Gargoyles picture.

Oddly enough, sometime later in that season on the same road, I met George the owner of the Gargoyle and the stone wall that George built by hand. As people often do in the country we got talking. At this random meeting he told me he simply had to have the Gargoyle after finding it in his travels. According to him it weighs a ton. I can believe that, it is huge. Getting it to its present location took some strenuous doing on his part.
Thank you George for erecting the wall and conceiving of this surprise in the woods.

It has taken over 50 years & Now Percy Dovetonsils has Finally become A Fashion Trend!

Marcel Duchamp’s female alter-ego Rrose Sélavy fully surfaced in 1921 — a sultry, stylish vixen in photographs by Man Ray. Her name sounds like Eros, c’est la vie, or “Eros, that’s life.” Not just a pretty picture and a fantastic name, Rrose was Marcel, snagging bylines for the Why Not Sneeze Rrose Sélavy? readymade of marble sugar cubes in a birdcage, Duchamp’s Anemic Cinema, http://youtu.be/dXINTf8kXCc and others. Glamorous, at times more evidently masculine, Rrose wasn’t the surrealist’s first genderfuck – observe his moustached Mona Lisa.

1919

Glenn Close, the actor, is the woman behind the man in 'Albert Nobbs', a movie

I enjoy watching all kinds of films and I hope to get around to see her in Albert Nobbs, a film she produced, wrote the screen play for and acts. To me she has a fascinating face as well as being a very versatile actor as demonstrated by the many characters she has played.

Glenn Close was being interviewed this morning on a Sunday morning TV Show.
The person interviewing her today asked Glenn Close any number of interesting questions. The question that really caught me by surprise was, if she watches her own movies, she replied, "No" and then rather shyly looked down at the two dogs she was walking. I did not hear much after that point in the show.

I thought to myself, I'm a painter, that would be like me NOT looking at the pictures I paint. How could that be possible, yet that is what she uttered on national television. How about a musician NOT listening to the music. Or a Doctor NOT listen to the patient. Or so forth and so on........

On my recent visit to Leif Ericson Park in Brooklyn I ran into the resident Troll. It was just he and I enjoying a bright sunny day. Please scroll down to see the Troll.



ThisTroll is very elusive, on this day I was happy to have my camera.





Leif Ericson Park location: Fort Hamilton Parkway between 66th and 67th Street, Brooklyn, New York

I'll give U Italian ART!
Didn't you always want a Mule Chandelier?

Maurizio Cattelan, Novecento

Oh.....You need something for your garden, but you are having problems with your neighbor?
Then this maybe just what you need.

Maurizio Cattelan, L.O.V.E., 2010

Dürer's woodcut is not an entirely accurate representation of a rhinoceros. He depicts an animal with hard plates that cover its body like sheets of armour, with a gorget at the throat, a solid-looking breastplate, and rivets along the seams; he also places a small twisted horn on its back, and gives it scaly legs and saw-like rear quarters. None of these features are present in a real rhinoceros. Despite its anatomical inaccuracies, Dürer's woodcut became very popular in Europe and was copied many times in the following three centuries. It was regarded by Westerners as a true representation of a rhinoceros into the late 18th century. Eventually, it was supplanted by more realistic drawings and paintings, particularly those of Clara the rhinoceros, who toured Europe in the 1740s and 1750s. It has been said of Dürer's woodcut: "probably no animal picture has exerted such a profound influence on the arts"

TIME TO STOCK UP!
Be prepared to pillage, burn, rape, plunder & destroy!

MUNICH.- The private museum of the famous Berlin sculptor, philanthropist and former construction mogul Karsten Klingbeil is going to be offered in two parts. The first auction will take place in December 2011 at Pierre Bergé & Associés in Brussels, the second half of the collection is going to be offered for bidding in June 2012 at Hermann Historica oHG in Munich. Those dates provide the unique opportunity to buy a total number of 600 significant objects that have been collected over fifty years with a lot of passion, commitment and expertise to compile this sensational collection. 40 complete suits of armour from the 15 th to the 17 th century, 120 helmets as well as pole arms, swords, daggers and shields from twelve centuries form the core of the collection. Since the legendary Hever Castle auction at Sotheby's, London, in 1983 this is going to be the most important private collection of antique arms and armours brought to market.

The illustrious names of the primary owners and those of the prominent prepossessors from the 20 th century alone provide substantial material of historical interest. Among others the pieces of the collection have been manufactured for the armouries of famous characters such as the Electors of Saxony, the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg, Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau and members of the powerful Roman noble family Borghese. Equally notable are the names of the collectors from whom Karsten Klingbeil acquired the armours and antique arms. No less than the publisher and media tycoon William Randolph Hearst, Lord Astor of Hever Castle and the Rutherfurd Stuyvesant Collection can be found among them.

Karsten Klingbeil chose a remarkably ambitious, museum way of assembling his collection and the appropriate presentation – never losing sight of his aim to document the complete development of arms and armours from the 5 th to the 17 th century, thus vividly illustrating the evolution of body protection. It has been his vision to display the entire process from the invention of the harness and its changes from the Early Middle Ages up to the Early Modern Age with special focus on the golden age of courtly art during the Renaissance and the Early Baroque. The fascination of combining perfect function with aesthetic and fashion has constantly been a motif for the extraordinary collective personality of Klingbeil and resulted in a decades-long passion to create this exceptional museum. Hence it comes as no surprise but is just a logical consequence that in addition to this the protective principles of the animal world, often serving as a role model for armours, have been documented by Karsten Klingbeil in a collection of crustaceans. A collection of crustaceans certainly does add a wonderful touch for this Museum dedicated to detailed perfection of Battle Armours.

This One Is For You Sasha, Annabelle, and Lexie![/SIZE]

Lucian Freud widely acknowledged as one of the greatest, most influential and yet most controversial British painters of his era, has died at his London home.


Over a career that spanned 50 years, Freud became famous for his intense and unsettling nude portraits.


The painting "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping", sold at auction in London for the most pounds paid for a living artists work.
Pound for pound I assume.


Lucian was also asked to paint the Royal Portrait of Queen Elizabeth.


One of Freud's most often reproduced paintings is of the Queen, who posed for Freud fully clothed. The brightly coloured portrait was donated to the Queen's collection and is one of the most controversial depictions of the monarch.
The Royal Portrait of Elizabeth by Lucian Freud



The artist in his studio.

You can vote to help put a Masterpiece in the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Design Collection
(see link at the bottom)

Put them together as an integrated unit and you have a masterpiece. And in doing so, you have a vivid testimonial to Nelson's famous 1965 evocation of "junk" as the "crowning glory" of modern consumer culture, "the symbol as clear a statement as the pyramids, the Parthenon, the cathedrals ... the rusty, lovely, brilliant symbol of the dying years of your time. Junk is your ultimate landscape."






Which one offers the most comfort? Well.....use your imagination.

One of the chairs will become a "Masterpiece" in the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Design Collection
The others become JUNK!

Visit the site below and get more information about voting for a chair
http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/748.html?page=2

This is what Courage looks like.

If you can start the day without caffeine,
If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat plain food every day and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can relax without liquor,
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,



...Then You Are Probably The Family Dog
And you thought I was going to get all spiritual didn't you..?

Vesak is the anniversary of the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and parinirvana according to the Theravada tradition. It is one of the most holy days in the Buddhist calendar, celebrated by Buddhists throughout the world but especially in South East Asia

The Vesak Day is celebrated in different ways around the world.

In China Vesak Day called Guanfo (bathing the Buddha) or yufo (Buddha’s birthday celebration featuring washing Buddha image with perfumed water). The celebrations begin before sunrise and devotees throng the temples early at dawn to meditate. As the day progresses, Buddhist devotees visit orphanages, welfare homes, homes for the aged and charitable institutions to distribute cash donations and gifts to the needy. On this occasion, caged birds are freed to symbolize humanity and compassion.

GREAT! finally a story I can truly sink my teeth into and will certainly keep me on the edge of my seat.

Will the clever Ninja conquer the evil sea creatures and save the world?
Wait perhaps he WILL discover the mysteries of the world oceans,
Then fall deeply in Love with the shark, marry the fish and live happily ever after?

uh oh I think my toast is burning

I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD lines 1 to 11


APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.

5811 8th Ave Brooklyn NY

Original drawing/watercolor by Carlo Grassini
If your neighborhood or a landmark is missing please write me and I will make corrections.
Brooklyn Bridge, The Promenade, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn History Museum, Carroll Gardens, Boerum Hill, Red Hook, View of The Statue of Liberty, Erie Basin, Gowanus Bay, Gowanus Canal, The Narrows, Lower Bay, Manhattan Bridge, Dumbo, U.S. Naval Ship Yard, Cadman Plaza, Borough Hall, South Brooklyn, Owls Head Park, Bay Ridge, Leif Ericson Park, Varrazano Bridge, Fort Hamilton, Greenpoint, Williamsburg & W. Bridge, McCarren Park, Fort Green, BAM Brooklyn Academy of Music, Grand Army Plaza, Park Slope, The Old Stone House, Windsor Terrace, Greenwood Cemetery, Sunset Park, Brooklyn Chinatown, Dyker Beach, Prospect Park & Lake, Kensington, Lefferts Homestead, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New Utrecht, Bushwick, Highland Park, Shenck House, Tompkins Park, Bedford Stuyvesant, Flatbush, Friends Field, Bath Beach, Seagate, Coney Island, Bensonhurst, General George Washington Wingate Athletic Field, East New York, Brownsville, Midwood, Brooklyn College, Brighten Beach, Flatlands, Gravesend, Sheepshead Bay, Manhattan Beach, Plume Island, New Lots, Canarsie, Marine Park, Floyd Bennet Field, Gil Hodges Bridge, Dead Horse Bay, Canarsie Park & Pier, Bergen Beach, Island Channel, Starrett City, Spring Creek Park, Pumpkin Patch Channel, Jamaica Bay & Wild Life Preserve, Horse Channel, Gateway National Recreation Area

WHAT if Dody Goodman had married Truman Capote, she would have been Dody Capote.

In the Landscape

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Master Quan Lin is more than Happy to speak with you.

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We will never see this happen again. But maybe this is the way it should be.

Harry Truman was a different kind of President. He probably made as many, or more important decisions regarding our nation's history as any of the other 32 Presidents preceding him. However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House.

The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence Missouri. His wife had inherited the house from her mother and father and other than their years in the White House, they lived their entire lives there.

When he retired from office in 1952, his income was a U.S. Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year.. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an 'allowance' and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year.

After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. There was no Secret Service following them.

When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, "You don't want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale.."

Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise."

As president he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food.

Modern politicians have found a new level of success in cashing in on the Presidency, resulting in untold wealth. Today, many in Congress also have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices. Political offices are now for sale. (sic.Illinois)

Good old Harry Truman was correct when he observed, "My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!"

McDEATH

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