David Markson, The Last Novel
Work of Art: The Next Great Artist
Chicago, Chicago Transit Authority
Tower of Power, Urban Renewal
Something about a small brown glass bottle and an eyedropper underscores being sick. I am under the auspices of a most sever earache which, even to this sufferer, sounds a totally pussy malady, but it is so debilitating and disorienting. It feels at first like a full size egg has been pushed into my head and then the bird hatching from therein is periodically trying to peck its way out. I need the salve of tinctures and whitey progressive funk to see me though. As my wife was dropping me off at work this morning, she reminded me of an appointment tomorrow and I said I thought that was Friday, and well, tomorrow is Friday, so I guess when Chicago asks if anyone really knows what time it is, I should just keep my mouth shut.
SPOILER ALERT ABOUT WORK OF ART
My girl Jamie Lynn got voted off Work of Art, maybe deservedly, but her biggest aesthetic and conceptual crime is that she clings to the perpetual adolescentization of adults that plagues us all. There is no reason to hold onto that youth when we can do so much more with the age we are now. Ryan's cool-guy-car-art was the worst. When you say, if you are the type to say, you can't judge art, I put his up and defy you to not decry its dumbness. See adolescentization, in his and really just about everyone on that stupid show - Miles and his naps, Jaclyn and the unbearable burden of her bod, that other guy and his girlfriend. It perpetually bothers me when art school kids don't do cool things. No one expects profundity, but dude, get your pampered spectacle on. Dare a little. Even the Real Housewives understand that and they are the most arrested developers possible.
The only one I really liked this round was Abdi's portrait of himself as a black NASCAR winner and he ruined it with confetti.
1975-
ReplyDeleteTower of Power song(only so much oil in the ground) is 35 years old. What about this message did the Baby Boomer generation miss? I have 1972 McCall's/Good Housekeeping magazines with recycling articles...my parents never mentioned this concept in our house. I did have an eccentric great aunt who had stacks of newspapers all around her house, for recycling, I presume. I do know the South is a little slow in picking up trends, but this is lost on some of my own Gen X members and younger. So my theory is that ideas for sustainability have been around for a long time and some folks are more naturally attuned to this kind of concept: hippies, artists, tree huggers, Rachel Carson, Tower of Power.