Dan Perjovschi at the Musem of Modern Art in NYC (includes video of him at work)

I went to MOMA a few days ago, mainly to see the new building, more of the collection on display, the fascinating Richard Serra show (and Van Gogh's Starry Night, the Monet, Picasso, Pollock, Brancusi's sculptures, Jasper Johns, Motherwell, De Kooning, Talouse-Lautrec, Rothko, Klimt, et al), and all the other great paintings. And then I stumbled onto Dan Perjovschi's fantastic, politically charged, and humorous wall mural. He creates these publicly on the spot--like Keith Haring did with paint, back in the day. I saw a lot of great art that day, but it took this Romanian to make me laugh.

You can download the newspaper Perjovschi created for the modern exhibit here. The New York Times review today of the show pointed out that his work is far more casual, and less formal than that of Haring's. This is true. It is a pictorial jumble of fragments that bludgeon's you with its politics. That's OK too. In some ways, this reminds me of a lot of Jonathan Borofsky's work in the 80s, where there really wasn't a message, but just deep images that spoke for themselves. Anyhow, if you're in NYC, it's worth it to see this show. The New York Times also pointed out this fascinating tidbit: people spend far more time staring at this wall that they do in front of Starry Night...arguably, the most famous painting in MOMA (or at least right up there).

Video: Dan Perjovschi creates his wall art

Note: The Richard Serra show was excellent as well. I like his epic piece at the sculpture park in Seattle, but one of these--Torqued Torus Inversion, was a real mindf'er. I know some people don't think welded rusty steel plates are a work of art, but then they are probably the same folks who think Jackson Pollack can't paint.
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Video: Tommy Chong out-debates Contessa Brewer on Paris Hilton

MSNBC thought they were bringing in an acid-burnout zombie for some stoner humor. Tommy Chong, however, mopped up the floor with Contessa Brewer. When he exceeds her expectations, she totally crosses the journalist's line and asks if he is high.

Contessa—it was pretty pathetic to see you react like a shrieking swamp sow. Have you thought of firing off your resume to Fox?



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Back to the Temple of Dendur & Uncle George

On Sunday, we went to the Met because. . .well, you don't really need a reason, do you? Del wanted to see the Egyptian collections, and I hadn't seen them since I lived in NYC. We finally got through the blocked streets, police barriers, and closed transverses, and arrived at Fifth Avenue, where the Puerto Rico Day parade was in full swing (and running three hours late). We slid through the crowd into the museum.The temple of Dendur[1] has always been my favorite exhibit at the Met. Before we arrived in the temple's pavillion, we saw hundreds of scrolls, tombs, papyrus, paintings, mummies, artifacts, mummies, and sarcophagi. Time was short, so we raced up to the American painting wing to see some old favorites, particularly "George Washington Crossing the Deleware" and then we went to see the classical/old master painting/Flemish/Florentine paintings.

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[1] According to the Wikipedia, "The Temple of Dendur, Roman period, ca. 15 B.C.Egyptian; Dendur, NubiaSandstone; L. from gate to rear of temple 82 ft. (24 m 60 cm)Given to the United States by Egypt in 1965, awarded to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1967, and installed in The Sackler Wing in 1978 (68.154)."

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Retired General George Washington Lashes Out At President Bush

Retired Gen. George Washington Criticizes Bush's Handling Of Iraq War

Video and Lyrics to Old 97's "Lonely Holiday"

This video clip of an Old 97's tune is from a Rhett Miller solo performance at The Black Cat. . .




It was a lonely holiday
I was alone -- you were away
In Fayetteville or in another state
There's so many towns I hate

When you leave me, it breaks me like a bone
But it's never as bad as when you come home
Thought so much about suicide
Parts of me have already died

CHORUS:
Lonely -- baby I'm not lonely
Baby I'm not -- I've got my imaginary friends
Happy -- baby I'm so happy
Baby I'm so -- I've got my imaginary friends
And if you don't love me, would you please pretend?

It was a lonely holiday
I was alone -- I was afraid
The bedroom walls were closing in
It must be closing time again

When you leave me, it breaks me like the note
That you said got stuck in your throat
Thought so much about suicide
Parts of me have already died

CHORUS
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Poem: Pentateuch Tales 2/How the first baby in the world commited the first murder

After they were kicked out of the garden
Adam and Eve went out into the world
To live and to work

For a time they were all alone
But one thing led to another
And God gave them a child

Eve named the first baby
In the world Cain
And named the next child Abel

When the two boys grew up
Cain worked in the fields raising grain and fruit
Abel became a shepherd

When Adam and Eve lived in the Garden
They talked with God and heard Him speak
But now out in the world

They could no longer talk with God
So they built an altar of stones
And burned offerings for the God

Whom they could not see
At the altar they made a prayer
Asking God to forgive their sins

And all that they had done wrong
They asked God to bless them
And rain good upon them

The brothers made offerings
Cain brought fruits and the grain he had grown
Abel brought a sheep from his flock

Killed it and burned it upon the altar
God was pleased with Abel and his offering
But was not pleased with Cain's fruit and grains

Maybe God wanted Cain to offer a life
Maybe Cain's heart was dark when he came to God
God showed he was not pleased with Cain

Instead of being sorry for his sin
Cain was very angry with God
And his brother Abel

When they were in the field together
Cain smote Abel and killed him
God said to Cain, where is your brother Abel?

Cain said I do not know
I am not my brother's keeper
God said What have you done?

Your brother's blood is like a voice
Crying to me from the ground
Do you see how the ground has opened

Like a mouth to drink your brother's blood?
As long as you live you shall be suffer my wrath
You will wander the earth and never find a home

And no direction home
Because you did this wicked deed
Cain said to the Lord

You have driven me away from the people
And you hide your face from me
If anyone finds me they will kill me

I will be alone and have no friends
God said to Cain if anyone harms you
They too will be punished

And the Lord placed a mark on Cain
So all who met him would know
God forbade any man to harm him

Cain and his wife went away from Adam's home
To live in a place by themselves
And they had children

They built a city
And Cain named the city
After his first child Enoch.
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This video clip is of another of the Jack In The Box Angus commercials that so outraged the competition. . .


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Belvedere Castle in Central Park

Click to enlarge

To learn more about Frederick Olmstead's castle click here. Olmstead was the designer of Central Park, Seattle's Discovery Park, and many more public works and parks...

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Lucinda Williams performs Drunken Angel on Austin City Limits

Lucinda wrote this tune about the late Blaze Foley. . .and it's about time I had a video of her here.



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Times Square, New York City

Partial view of Times Square at night--click to enlarge

Within two minutes of arrving at Port Authority on the bus from Massachusetts, I was walking in Times Square. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed the frenzy that is Times Square--the massive crowds, the insane shops, and the lights and noise. As tawdry as it was and is, I've always loved the place. It's different than it was...when I lived here, there were no chain restaurants, no bubba gump shrimp company, no olive garden. What is mainly different is what is different in NYC in general: you no longer feel threatened, and there are far more people on the streets (which is true of the entire west side, from Times Square up to the Upper West Side). Today after a play on Broadway, we walked through Times Square and I was just stunned. The vibe is still frantic, but it's now tempered. . .they've cleaned it up, and it's now for everyone... not just the brave. Sure, Rudy had a lot to do with that...but that doesn't mean I think he should be President. Or even Mayor.
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Old 97's Designs On You

This is a video clip from The Office (I think) set to one of my rapidly growing list of favorite Old 97's songs. I put it up here mainly so you'd listen to this great Rhett Miller song.



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Lovermusik on Broadway

Being in NYC the last while, I haven't had much time for the blog. We saw Lovemusic on Broadway today--an excellent show about a subject I didn't think would be that interesting... Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, and Lotte Lenya. It was fascinating, and included a bit of old school stagecraft, and at least three great acting performances. The sets weren't extensive, but were excellent. . .including a Airstream trailer that Brecht lived in in Santa Monica. There was some great stage business around the rise of Adolph Hitler--more or less a shadow puppet dream sequence.

Michael Cerveris as Kurt Weill - Definitely not your typical Broadway leading man, but an acting powerhouse (my friend Kevin tells me he was great when he was last on Broadway in a revival of Sweeny Todd (which Keelin and I saw the first time on Broadway in about 1980. Cerveris won a 2004 Tony Awardas John Wilkes Booth in Assassins, and was nominated a Tony for his Sweeney Todd.

Donna Murphy - who really stole the show, plays Lotte Lenya. She in somking hot with the critics and won a Tony for her Fosca in Stephen Sondheim's Passion.

David Pittu was totally charming as the cranky and misanthropic Bertolt Brecht.

/jack reporting from the Upper West Side, NYC (Hotel Belleclaire)...
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The Jesus Trucks and Rev. Leroy's Mobile Chapel and baptismal

By Jack Brummet, a Baptised Baptist


click to enlarge

click to enlarge



From Willy The Deuce's website:

15 years ago, California's most notorious "pimp", Willy the Deuce, accepted Christ as his Savior in a Chino prison. Paroled in 1990, Willy turned his back on "pimping" and became an ordained minister. Now known as Reverend Leroy, he has been using his "street smart" to work for the Lord. He changed his 35ft 1990 Stretch El Dorado from a rolling brothel to a rolling chapel, complete with a hot tub baptismal! He convinced some of his "stable" to also accept the Lord, and created some of the best looking altar girls God has ever seen. He started showing up at sporting events and races and changing peoples lives, by showing them even the most hardend criminal can become a servant for the Lord. You too, can now meet Him on tour with the Monster Truck Ministries. Not Saved? Get saved in the "Mack Daddy" Chapel, then let the Bikini Altar Girls treat you to a "baptism*" like none you have ever seen!

The New York City Subways

So many things have drastically changed since I lived in NYC, but maybe nothing has changed more dramatically than the subways. In the 1977-82 era when I lived here, the subways were dirty, mostly not air conditioned, smelling of urine, and there were frequent service outages, track fires, and the people related hazards like muggings, panhandling, street hassles, etc.



As I arrived in NYC on the bus after missing the train in Boston, I walked around Times Square--another dramatic change. Then I was going to hop on the train to get to my hotel on the Upper West Side. I went down to grab the No. 1 local to 79th Street--the train arrived in five minutes (this was 1:30 am). It was clean, air conditioned, and full of people! Earlier when I used to come home late, there would be almost no one on the trains and you could end up waiting 1/2 hour or more.

What an amazing transformation. I'm kind of glad it happened after I left--maybe I would have never left...
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The 1st Amendment and those seven (really about 11) dirty words

A federal court found yesterday that a Federal Communications Commission policy punishing the unintentional airing of sporadic and unexpected expletives was invalid, calling it "arbitrary and capricious" and would probably not pass a First Amendment sanity check. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not go all the way. The FCC found in favor of a Fox challenge to the policy and sent the case back to the FCC for a "reasoned analysis" of its new approach to "indecency."

Some examples of infelicities that got the pot boiling:

Bono: During a January 2003 Golden Globes awards broadcast on NBC, U2 lead singer Bono said the words "f------ brilliant." The FCC contended the "F word" in any context "inherently has a sexual connotation. It might if you are over the age of about 70. But, for everyone under the age of 70, the F word is pretty normal, everyday language and while it has grown at least a dozen meanings, ir is not really

Cher: In a Dec. 9, 2002, broadcast of the Billboard Music Awards the performer Cher used the phrase "F--- 'em."

Richie: "Have you ever tried to get cow s--- out of a Prada purse? It's not so f------ simple."

Perhaps the best part of the ruling is that--as FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told The Associated Pres--the ruling will make it difficult to impose fines for indecency. Heh heh. "Practically, this makes it difficult to go forward on a lot of the cases that are in front of us," he said. and added that an appeal was being considered."

The appeals court said some of the FCC's explanations for a 180-degree change in its policy were "divorced from reality." It countered the FCC argument that broadcasters might now air expletives all day, saying broadcasters had never done so in the 30 years before the policy was changed.

In a statement, Martin said: "It is the New York court, not the commission, that is divorced from reality in concluding that the word 'f---' does not invoke a sexual connotation."

You have to love the FCC because all they want do it protect the children! Interestingly, the court cited both President Bush and Vice-President Cheney as people who had used "fleeting expletives" on the airwaves in the last few years. Both of them were caught on hot mikes using "indecent" language that could have netted $325,000 fines.

In a statement, Fox Broadcasting said: "We are very pleased with the court's decision and continue to believe that government regulation of content serves no purpose other than to chill artistic expression in violation of the First Amendment. Viewers should be allowed to determine for themselves and their families, through the many parental control technologies available, what is appropriate viewing for their home."

The appeals court said agencies are free to revise their rules and policies, but they must provide a reasoned analysis, which the FCC had failed to do. In fact the FCC has never actually been able to provide a reasoned analysis of anything at all. In a majority opinion written by Judge Rosemary Pooler, the appeals court said all speech covered by the FCC's indecency policy is fully protected by the First Amendment.

"With that backdrop in mind, we question whether the FCC's indecency test can survive First Amendment scrutiny," she said. "For instance, we are sympathetic to the networks' contention that the FCC's indecency test is undefined, indiscernible, inconsistent and consequently unconstitutionally vague."

The appeals court said some of the FCC's explanations for a 180-degree change in its policy were "divorced from reality." It then countered the FCC argument that broadcasters might without the new policy air expletives all day by saying broadcasters had never done so in the 30 years before the policy was changed.

jack, from Boston, Massachusetts (Thursday on to NYC)
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