More Useless Information...
I smell "Collector's Item"...
Also...
(Click the title to find the source of the news...in case it's not available later)...
Actor Brad Pitt has been hospitalized with a flu-like illness. Pitt, 41, checked himself into an undisclosed Los Angeles area hospital Monday night complaining of flu-like symptoms, his publicist Cindy Guagenti said Tuesday. There were no other details and the name of the hospital wasn't disclosed for security reasons.
Pitt was in Ethiopia last week with his "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" co-star Angelina Jolie to pick up the actress's newly adopted baby girl, the second child she has adopted. Guagenti said it wasn't known if the actor contracted the illness while in Africa.
"I think he has the flu," the spokeswoman said.
The "Troy" and "Fight Club" star separated from "Friends" actress Jennifer Aniston in January after 4 1/2 years of marriage and she filed for divorce in March citing irreconcilable differences.
Hopefully he's OK...(That Rosie O'Donnell is adopting kids all the time, and nothing ever happens to her...I guess they're not from Africa though...)
Pablo Picasso, Acrobat’s Family with a Monkey (1905).
Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Göteborg, Sweden
I was in an art gallery many years ago, and I heard a child calling her mother over. When she got there, the little girl said, "I can paint that!" and she pointed to a Picasso painting (not the one pictured above)...I chuckled at first, but then I realized that there are probably many adults who share in this misguided notion. What they fail to realize is that the work has a context in the history and development of human creativity...There was a guy in the 1940's named Han van Meereren who had painted Vermeer forgeries that were hailed by experts as some of the painter's (Vermeer's) best works. Though he was in a lot of trouble, van Meegeren's vanity led him to believe that the experts had to acknowledge that he was as good a painter as Vermeer. This argument, however, is incorrect. The context in which the paintings were created determines their significance in art history. Basically, Vermeer's work was the product of the process he went through to develop his own style; whereas van Meegeren had Vermeer's paintings as reference material and the benefit of 300 years of hindsight, in terms of artistic progress...(but to his credit, he did figure out a way to age his paintings to look as old as the originals). It's like when first year art students are tasked to emulate an artist's work. Some try to tackle the cubist phase of Picasso's work...needless to say, they usually fail...largely due to the fact that they are trying to sprint before they have even learned to walk...According to Picasso, "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."
Someone listening to the Beatles for the first time may wonder what all the hype is about...this person may fail to realize their contribution to the development of modern music and the significance of their work. The same is true with someone who watches "Citizen Kane" for the first time now...they may say, "What's the big deal?" The answer is context...it set a precedent in filmmaking which has become so common that the original may lose some of its impact with a new audience...I know that I watched the remake of "The Italian Job" before seeing the original...The new one was made for me. The original was made for guys my dad's age. I didn't get it, I guess. (I'm not even going to bother watching the Richard Chamberlain version of "The Bourne Identity"...).
I guess these are unoriginal times...They finally got Batman right at least...An article in July's Esquire talks about the trend of remakes, briefly discussing "War of the Worlds", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (Johnny Depp is cool as hell, but I just don't know how they could possibly top the sinister original...) and "The Bad News Bears"...(which looks like it could be funny...edgy...I like Richard Linklater's work overall, and I liked "Bad Santa"...)
So, while you're watching the credits rolling...after sitting through "The Dukes of Hazzard", wondering why you thought it could possibly be good...Perhaps, you can think ahead to King Kong which (hopefully) will give us some faith in the "re-imaginings" that I'm sure will continue long after we're pushing up the daisies...
(As a bit of an aside, but not completely unrelated...I've always found it funny when Fez on "That '70s Show" would say "Good day" to some one, then the person would try to talk and he would cut in with, "I said good day!"
That line is actually from "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory"...when Charlie's Grandpa Joe asks Mr. Wonka about the lifetime supply of chocolate, Wonka says that they get nothing because they broke the rules:
Willy Wonka: "...You lose. Good day, sir."
Grandpa Joe: "You're a crook. You're a cheat and a swindler. How could you do a thing like this, raise up a little boy's hopes and then dash all his dreams to pieces? You're an inhuman monster."
Willy Wonka: "I said good day!"
We know Fez likes candy...So I guess we can allow that...
Also, I found this in the "Memorable Quotes" section and thought it was pretty good:
[about Star Wars]
Michael Kelso: "There's no way it's better than Planet of the Apes. I mean, those apes were really good actors". )
Do you think they'll ever remake "The Six Million Dollar Man"?...
Maskatron was/is my all time favourite toy...
Hugo was my second favourite...
I wonder if anyone will ever have the balls to re-imagine "Citizen Kane" or "The Godfather"...
Anyway, that's it for now.
'Til next time...
Your Pal,
posted by Zambo at 10:51 PM
2 Comments:
Hi Bucket.
I hope things are going well today.
As for the Picasso painting, some would say it was simply part of his "circus" phase and that it, like most of his paintings, has an autobiographical significance...
But anyone who has seen the "Planet of the Apes" films (1968-1973) knows exactly what the little fella's thinking...If you don't know what I mean, check out "Escape From the Planet of the Apes",(1971) and then "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes",(1972)...Ricardo Montalban's character, Armando, plays a key role in the ape uprising...
(In the series, I would have to say that "Beneath the Planet of the Apes", (1970) was simply a shakedown to make money based on the overwhelming success of the original...It pretty much sucked...one could watch the other four without really missing anything...If anyone disagrees, that's your right...but you'd be wrong...Even a purist will tell you that it sucked by comparison to the rest of the series...).
So, Bucket...Would you like to share anything about yourself? If not, that's cool...Do you think you'll set up a blog of your very own one day? Just wondering...
Your Pal,
Zambo.
P.S. If you haven't seen the "Planet of the Apes" films mentioned above, you really owe it to yourself to do so...
(I liked the Tim Burton remake too. Tim Roth was truly amazing...yet he wasn't even nominated for anything that I know of! Paul Giamatti is always good...and let's not forget Marky Mark, who is pretty cool...Helena Bonham Carter was good in "Fight Club"...I'm not too sure I like her overall though...not as much as Burton does anyway...)
Hi again.
By the way, I forgot to mention that the toy pix were taken from the web...If you do a Google image search for "Maskatron" and "hugo", these image are there...I didn't acknowledge the source...Sorry. I just wanted to illustrate what I was talking about...Although I have these toys, I haven't photographed them...my Hugo puppet has no accessories though...
Your Pal,
Zambo.
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