Christmas Music For You & Yours

I am not sure one is properly able to celebrate Christmas without music. Here is a small selection from my personal favorites. Hopefully yours too. Do enjoy them this Christmas and in future Christmas' to come.

Kevin Conroy: BATMAN Forever

                                                                                                                                                         

                              

     

 From the very first words you spoke; we knew you were Batman. It was the sound, the tone, the heart of the character; we hadn’t realized it but we had heard the voice collectively in our minds forever. We celebrate your life, your many accomplishments, we mourn your passing.

Kevin explains the importance of Batman to the multi-generational fans of the character.

Basquiat-isms

I have never known an artist that didn’t have something to say. At the very core of it all it’s communication that is the thing. The form can be dance, sculpture, music, or quilting…on and on. There is something of a story, a narrative, and some explanation, a dissection of every element of any and every work. The graffiti artist is among the greatest exponents of this idea and it is essential to the form. “Look at me through my work, I have a message, I have a story, I am here and I matter.” 

Jean-Michel Basquiat spoke cryptically and expressively first on walls and shortly following on canvases. He was somewhat shy but he expressed himself eloquently and poignantly in his spoken words. His thoughts and commentaries are now collected in book form “Basquiat-isms” edited by Larry Warsh. It is certainly of interest to his admirers across the globe. It is an excellent collection of the voicings he imparted within his short but all so vastly incredible life.  

In his brief twenty-seven year life Basquiat went from poverty and complete obscurity with such a meteoric progression that it could easily be referenced to as “over-night success.” It was really by no means so, as it unfolded in reality, referenced as so easily a thing as it might appear. It was however methodically planned, executed and created by his sheer will, determination and profuse understanding of the then (nineteen-eighties) New York art scene. It was no done without a measure of difficulty. Basquiat went from graffiti bomber (SAMO) to gallery representation to collected and sought out phenomenon, to now canonization. The book “Basquiat-isms” is a representation of this. It can inform, entertain, amuse and on occasion baffle you. I have sampled it here. Do enjoy and hopefully choose to seek it out for it’s entirety.

Quotes & Illustrations

"I like to have information rather than just a brushstroke. Just to have words to put in feelings." 

                                                                                             Jean-Michel Basquiat

 

“I don’t think about art when I work. I think about life.”

                                                                                                             Jean-Michel Basquiat

                                                                                                 

"Magic doesn’t especially Interest me. I like the intuition that tells me a work is finished." 

                                                                                                              Jean-Michel Basquiat

I was trying to communicate an idea. I was trying to paint an urban landscape. I was trying to make paintings different from painting that I saw which were mostly minimal that were highbrow and alienating.

                                                                                                         Jean-Michel Basquiat

"I usually put a lot down and then I take a lot away, then I put more down and take even more away, so it’s like a constant editing process."

                                                                                                         Jean-Michel Basquiat

"I like words that jump off the page when I see them."

                                                                                                         Jean-Michel Basquiat  

  

                              "I am what I am, what I am, what I am."

                                                                          Jean-Michel Basquiat

"It’s pretty primal; whatever I feel at the moment…sometimes it’s political sometimes not, I don’t know."

                                                                                                         Jean-Michel Basquiat

                                                                                                

"I think there are a lot of people that are neglected in art...I don’t know if it’s because of who made the paintings or what; but…Black people are never really portrayed realistically or I mean not even portrayed in modern art"

                                                                                             Jean-Michel Basquiat

"The more I paint the more I like everything."

                                                                                       Jean-Michel Basquiat

"Since I was 17, I thought I might be a star."

                                                                     Jean-Michel Basquiat

"I cross out words so you will see them more; the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them."

                                                                          Jean-Michel Basquiat

 

"I think I make art for myself, but ultimately I think I make it for the world."

                                                                                   Jean-Michel Basquiat

"I don't like to discuss art at all"

                                                                                Jean-Michel Basquiat

  - Other artist in this series include:  Ai Weiwei, Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Keith Haring  and Futura -  

What's Wrong With She-Hulk?

 

NOTHING!!!

Disney and Marvel TV have come up with a winner this time out. As a long-time fan of the Stan Lee and John Busema creative collaboration “The Savage She-Hulk” I am thoroughly enjoying this recent incarnation. I was on-board beginning with issue #1 in 1980.The series couldn’t be more faithful to the character of the transformed Jennifer Walters. Nor could it be more entertaining and at times in it’s unique way provocative.  

Lee’s idea in creating She-Hulk was to avoid what could have been, potentially a loss and overall problem for the Marvel franchise. The identifying name and image of “She-Hulk” had not been copyrighted and was open to anyone that wanted to do so. Lee wisely obtained the copyright and his choice was timely. The creators of this new TV series; “She Hulk: Attorney at Law” even made copyright infringement the subject of an episode in this, the first season.

As written and along with the portrayal by Tatiana Maslany of the title character on the current program the production is very much a satirical take on comic book themes and the genre itself. The fourth wall is routinely broken, the villains are absurd clichés and the laughs are perfectly timed often subtle mind games. This TV incarnation is an almost literal version of what writer/artist John Byrne did following the Lee/Busema run on the Savage She-Hulk book. The satire, the breaking of the fourth wall, the leaping in and out from the mediums physical boundaries is pure Byrne; the character was also known to have conversations with Byrne himself (often complaining to him) as the stories were unfolding. The TV production has followed the Byrne tenure to perfection. The subsequent artistic teams following Byrne have stayed with his take and followed him in turn.  

At this point to address the issue alluded to in the blog title; “What’s Wrong With She-Hulk?” there have been criticisms with many detractors falling into the disgruntled line of complaints and derision.  The malcontent many fans find have broad and personal dis-satisfactions. Many on-line critics give voice to their perceived disdain for the writer’s skills, catering to the “Woke” audience and the emasculation of male characters. This is something that I don’t necessarily find to any real degree within the show myself but it is something of a problem on many other franchises today. These problems do have their merit. It will always be true that beauty and wit are in the eyes, ears and tastes of the beholders. These folks essentially have different ideas of what the program should be, they haven’t read the comics and their expectations or far different than what they are receiving as content. They don’t seem to realize they have every right to stop watching at any time, during any broadcast and find something closer to their personal likings and fancies.    

Ironically the disillusioned continue to watch “She-Hulk” and seem to relish their mal-content. I think it’s fantastic! The show remains captivating, engaging and a controversial vision. It is the best of all worlds. One of the truest measures of the content and worth of a thing is the ire that it arises in the audience of the unannointed the “Unbelievers.” Stan Lee spoke often of the “True Believers.” Which one do we choose to be, which one do we want to be?

For those that are among the undecided or the unviewed, take a-look-see.  I think there is a good chance for you to enjoy She-Hulk. Join the mirth and the mayhem. Remember; don’t worry, be happy! 

Good Golly Miss Molly!

 

 She is a force unto herself. She is also, like the second side of a rare coin a force that is selfless, giving and dedicated to humanity. Her actions are especially dedicated to the oppressed of humanity; many times outcasts and the victims of the world’s multitude of oppressors. This; as a focus meaning, the rich, the one percenters. She is also an artist, illustrator, writer and film maker.  Her work is sought-out and included in the collections of institutions such as MoMa and The New-York Historical Society. She is successful at what she does. This wondrously industrious young woman, Jennifer Caban is better known by another name. Her nom de plume by the way is Molly Crabapple.

Molly Crabapple in her time has gone far beyond lip service to her causes. Including such as the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, the many times illegally held and abused detainees of Guantanamo Bay, The Syrian ISIS Resistance Radicals and other disenfranchised Americans of all stripes. She’s a radical. It is more than evident in much of her art and in her approach as well. She is at heart springing for the counter-culture and fast becoming a just outside the edge main-streamer.

Molly Crabapple is a second generation artist; growing up her mother was a commercial artist. As a result she say first hand that there was money to be made using art or one’s talents for profit. Molly; never short of creative ideas, sold drawings and illustrations for profit regularly and in tough times posed unabashedly for nude photographs, pretty much for anyone (artist or not) that could come up with $100 and a camera; this was Molly the entrepreneur/ business woman.  Molly worked for several years as the House Artist at “The Box” an avant-garde Manhattan night club. She remembers that fondly as being “The Box’s Toulouse-Lautrec.”    She was also one of the original “Suicide Girls” and worked in Burlesque. You will find with Molly Crabapple there is a definite burlesque sensuality and a kind of  French/Rococo influence  tinged with her own wit and humor. These qualities are implicit within many of her most successful pieces. And sometimes; on occasion, they are simply magnificent cartoons.

Molly Crabapple is one of the most successful, engaging and productive artist in today’s art world. I highly recommend her memoir “Drawing for Blood.” It is completed with illustrations, well written, beautifully packaged and provocative.

What remains here is a continuation of “Miss Molly’s” drawings, posters, videos etc. Hopefully yours’ to Enlighten, Embrace & Enjoy!

       "A History of the War on Drugs"  

         Molly Crabapple  & Jay Z   

 

                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                              

                        

       

                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                         

                           

I think that school just isn't for everyone. A lot of people don't learn well when they have to sit in a place for eight hours. A lot of people learn best lying in their own bed, teaching themselves from books.

…and I was a bad student. I was a brat. If I was a teacher, I would not have liked myself.

"I Have Your Heart" 

by

Molly Crabapple