Category: art

Lorin Duckman, 74 Years Old

Celebrating a birthday, especially one in the 7os, brings reflections on the past and projections about the future. The good news: my blood, medicated as it is, tests perfect. The bad news: my blood, medicated as it is, has rejected the Moderna Covid vaccine. So, a very happy day, followed by a depressing Doctor visit. Such is life.

I don’t have much of a voice anymore, my career and reputation having been wrecked in 1998. I try to do acts of kindness, everyday which is not always easy. You should too.

Dick Allen, Dead

Dick Allen deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Baseball deserves to be in the hall of shame. How did Corona virus stop a virtual vote?
When I attended Penn, I saw him play many times. Gave the usher a dollar and he let me sit in a box on first base side. No one went to games. A few times I think he smiled over at me. I cheered when he hit, caught and just stood around fixing the dirt.

Valencia Reserve Closes Facilities

So, now we don’t even have a pool to swim in until everyone who came in contact with a covid positive neighbor are tested. One person stops residents of 1,000 homes from enjoying the amenities. Person remains anonymous, nameless. We don’t know male, female, republican, democrat.

No pickle ball, not that I play. The covid positive talked to someone who played so that got closed, too. Many here avoid masks anyway.

Tennis courts, clubhouse, everything, including bocce, shuffleboard and basketball. No problem getting a parking space, because no one is using any of the recreational, educational, creative or entertainment venues.

A chaise is available at appropriate social distancing, but the pool deck cannot be accessed. I’d say we were in hell; temp over 100 degrees, global warming caused and many here are Republicans. Good thing I don’t need medical care, because the hospitals are filled, their staffs overworked. Death rates climb. Don’t worry about us, Publix remains open. Total Wine delivers.

Sharon Orders In

So, I got fucked for calling Nancy Mukasey Rothenberg, Princess Nancy. She was absent from court, often, planning her wedding, leaving her cases unprepared, I was told. It was a Jewish insult, according the Commissar Stern, a term abhorred by Jewish girls/women, though none I knew. Sharon never got her Prince, like Nancy did, she got me. What Sharon does well, like some Jewish women, is she orders in. And in this time of Corona, that is a skill devoutly to be wished. We are still married, despite Nancy’s efforts to cause otherwise. Is she?

Nathan Bedford Forrest Removed

In September, we visited Memphis, ostensibly to see the Motel, Graceland and Sun Records. Arriving early for our tour of the place where Elvis recorded, we walked to a nearby park which had been the subject of litigation and consternation over a monument erected to honor Nathan Bedford Forrest.

An American flag flew over the statue’s base. I was appalled. Here is a man who massacred 300 helpless black Union soldiers and served as the first wizard of the KKK and not only do they have a monument to him, but after it is removed they fly an American flag.

As an artist, I love to look at statues, reminded as I am of their three dimensional quality,  a level of visual arts not allowed to photographers, as well as their historical value, but they belong in  museums where people have the choice of looking at them or looking away. And parks, nature parks, educating people about nature and schools, where people learn to read and think, should not be named after them. 

Yes, he is an historical figure and someone who should be studied. But so should Dr. King who was murdered in the same area. No statue stands at the motel, a place our tour guide neglected to have the bus stop. I wouldn’t want one there either, but I would have wanted to step out on the terrace and cry.

Yesterday, I watched The General, one of the greatest films ever made, starring America’s leading comic actor. But, is it still relevant as it portrays a Confederate victory, a Rebel outsmarting the Union Army? Yes, as a historical artifact. Not worthy of a statue, though.

 

Morikami Reopens

Morikami Museum and Gardens reopened today. It is like we were reconnected to our lives. We see new things every time we go and never seem to stop loving being there.

Summer colors on the way. Plants haven’t really awakened, but will as the rain and sun return. The reds aren’t that red and the yellows are a little green, but who cares.

Not that I know what the symbolism of all the sculpture or the shapes of the gardens, but I feel it.

Overflow

Not that we don’t have enough problems, but it is now Hurricane Season. Covid causes death, despair and disease. Rain and wind destructs, demolishes and decimates. Any way you look at it, society gets eradicated in an unpleasant way.

The canals await the rainfall, already over their early June limit. Deadly frogs live around them. Lizards and geckos which didn’t die due to climate change (no cold spell) abound and there is no species to eat them or drive them away. Unbelievers continue to ignore the signs, partying on the beaches and in the clubs. Well, so-be-it.