Wry On The Rocks

The modern day version of PT Barnum and Tom Thumb are at it again.  Larry Gagosian  and “artist” Damien Hirst, that wonderful pair that have brought the art world a rotting shark in a tank, dead sheep and maggots feeding on a cows head, have a new exhibit.  Or rather exhibits.

8 Gagosian galleries around the globe are simultaneously exhibiting a series of canvas’s on which Tom Thumb, nee D. Hirst, has attached a bunch of circles.  Actually, Tom Thumb’s assistants did the attaching as it is beneath a wealthy ”artist” like TT to stoop to glueing circles on canvas particularly when you have to glue about 1,500 of the damn things.  In the New York gallery alone, there are 74 “different” works.  By “different”, ring-master Gagosian means some of the works are small and some are big.  Some have 50 circles, some have only 8.

As usual, art critics for major media have bent semantics to the breaking point to try and justify the buzz which they alone (aside from some shrewd buck-turning “investors” like London’s Charles Saatchi) create.  For example, NY Times’s Roberta Smith wrote that the project was, “a blatant promotion of both the Hirst and Gagosian brands, and a sitting-duck symbol of the end-time, we’re-doing-this-because-we-can-decandence that has subsumed so much of the art world; another example of money celebrating itself.”

But, Ms. Smith realized that she couldn’t end there, because maybe the lack of clothes on the emperor might imperil her profession, so she subsequently and quickly writes that the project is ..”more complicated…challenges you to hold opposing ideas at the same time.”  Kind of like an art critic trying to justify what she knows is nothing but pure crap!!  But, meanwhile, mssrs. Gagosian and Hirst are laughing all the way to the bank.

AP News just released a news flash that the Russian satellite that was to probe Mars has instead crashed  into the Pacific Ocean at 2:45 AM EST.  A Russian spokesperson for the space program was quoted on the tragedy of Phobos-Grunt as saying knweyhnk, which roughly translates to “Aw, Shit!”

If any of my readers speak Russian, I would appreciate a translation of their  current  satellite name which reads in English as Phobos-Grunt.

The current political campaign was brought home to me last evening when I pondered the GOP front runner’s campaign slogan about regaining the soul of America.  It may make a catchy slogan, but has America…have I… lost my American values??  Am I out of touch with today’s values because…..

 While I don’t make a whole lot of money,  I  thought it would be OK if I did;  and I have no idea why someone would want to occupy Wall Street; the rents are too high, the streets are all one way, and bad guys periodically try to blow it up.

 I used to think Newt Gingrich made a lot of sense, which was before he became  fat, deranged and a cartoon; I think Ron Paul still makes a lot of sense, and at least isn’t fat.

 I don’t understand how FedEx can make millions and the US Post Office go bankrupt.

I don’t understand how job growth rate in our Government can grow at 15% in a recession.  (Actually I do unerstand it, just don’t like to dwell on it.)

 I have never watched a TV show hosted by Oprah, Ellen, Dr. Phil, or Billy Bush and have no interest in the fact that Beyonce had a baby, much less how much she paid for the hospital room or why she picked a Martian name for the kid.

 I can’t name even one of the Kardashian sisters and don’t care who Kate Hudson, Katy Parry, Brittany Spears, Denise Richards, Charlie Sheen or most anyone else west of the Rockies, married, divorced, assaulted or was seen canoodling with in Cabo, Martinique or the Seychelles.

I think it’s OK to dis-like the current President without being labeled a racist and OK to like Mitt Romney without believing in that buried book stuff.  I just wish he’d pick a new slogan.  One not so depressing.

According to the Boston Globe, there has been flagrant disregard of the downtown parking rules by valet parking firms and their restaurant clients.  Illegal double parking in popular restaurant destination areas like the South End and the Back Bay is particularly rampant.  Part of the problem, according to the Globe’s investigative team, is that there is little if any putative action taken against the offenders.

The article cites a case where the restaurant Petit Robert, having been found guilty of violation of parking rules, was barred from providing entertainment for 2 nights.  In Petit Robert’s case this simply required them to turn off their 30-inch TV over the bar. 

What the Globe didn’t report was that Petit Robert sucessfully sued the City when the enforcement agency was unable to prove that there was anything entertaining about TV these days.