Author: DOuG pRATt

OHHH… ALRIGHT… $42 million, and that’s my final offer

Yesterday, Christie’s auctioned a Roy Lichtenstein painting for $42,642,500. The painting is “OHHH… ALRIGHT…”, from 1964. I had to smile (maybe it was more of a smirk) when I read this in the catalog listing.

The seamless surface of Ohhh…Alright… may look as if it was rolled off a printing press in a matter of seconds, but it is actually the product of a long, painstaking procedure. Lichtenstein chose the original illustration from the DC comic book Secret Hearts, which Lichtenstein has made his own by subtly manipulating its content.

Attributing the source material that Lichtenstein used is undoubtedly thanks to the diligent research of David Barsalou, whose Deconstructing Lichtenstein project reveals what’s really behind Roy’s “monumental iconography.”

“Barsalou is boring to us,” comments Jack Cowart, executive director of the Lichtenstein Foundation. He contests the notion that Lichtenstein was a mere copyist: “Roy’s work was a wonderment of the graphic formulae and the codification of sentiment that had been worked out by others. Barsalou’s thesis notwithstanding, the panels were changed in scale, color, treatment, and in their implications. There is no exact copy.”

OH... ALRIGHT !... DECONSTRUCTING ROY LICHTENSTEIN © 2000 DAVID BARSALOU

Nonsense. I don’t deny that Lichtenstein had his own style, but “OH… ALRIGHT…” was copied from a panel in a DC romance comic-book that was drawn by Bernard Sachs, and Barsalou is the only reason why Christie’s acknowledges that. If Art is supposed to be about Truth, Deconstructing Lichtenstein is an essential resource.

The best, and most evocative, use of Lichtenstein’s work I have seen in another medium is by our own Miss Lia Pamina, featuring Margo Guryan’s sublime “Love Songs”.

The Beeb on Sparky

It’s hard to believe it’s already been three years since the controversial biography Schulz and Peanuts, by David Michaelis. You have until next Tuesday to listen to a BBC Radio 4 feature on Charles M. Schulz.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/vrvdm/

I’m a bit surprised to hear Jeannie say, “David did a marvelous job…” Russell T. Davies, who brought Doctor Who back from hiatus, chimes in with the factoid that long before the Tardis, Snoopy’s doghouse was much bigger inside than it appeared outside.

Michael J.

Mike Fox’s stage name is Michael J. Fox. Mike is a great guy. I make a point of featuring Mike every so often because I have a personal connection to him, for a reason that some of you know. Tonight, Michael J. is the guest programmer on Turner Classic Movies…

… and tonight he’s also appearing on the CBS series The Good Wife.

Back in September, Fox talked about his life with Parkinson’s Disease with Sanjay Gupta on CNN.

In need of a blog post, Who to turn to?

I have several posts in draft form, but they haven’t come together yet. Besides being busy with real-life stuff, I’ve had my mind on things other than this site; although I did update WordPress to the current version, and for the first time I was able to take advantage of the automated update script, so it took all of five seconds, with no ill effects, as far as I’ve noticed. Amazing.

The Doctor Who spin-off, Torchwood, is available on Netflix HD streaming. I’ve watched half a dozen installments from the first season, and it looks and sounds great, but so far I’ve been slow to warm up to the series. I’m doing better getting used to Matt Smith as the new Doctor, and Karen Gillan as the new companion, Amy Pond, is definitely a major asset to the series. So, stuck as I am for a blog post, I’ll embed these webisode videos that Bismo pointed out to me.

Season 5 of Doctor Who isn’t available for free on Netflix yet, but Amazon has it. Paying $12.87 to buy — not just rent! — all thirteen episodes is a bargain, but with a $10 credit from a previous purchase, I procured it in HD for only $2.87. A measly 22-cents per episode! And as Bismo has seen, played with the Roku HD-XR on my Panasonic 720p projector, the picture quality is stunning. Who needs Blu-ray? Who doesn’t.

Deus ex machina for Keith Olbermann

The crisis of Keith Olbermann’s punishment for flagrantly defying MSNBC’s rule against political donations without prior notice to management is over. There was concern that management was looking for a way to take Olbermann down a couple of pegs, if not squeeze him out all together, in favor of a less expensive alternative. An online petition appeared, demanding Keith’s return, and it was signed by upwards of 250,000 people, including me — approximately the same number that attended the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. Suddenly, the suspicion surrounding his suspension is ended, because he will be back anchoring Countdown on Tuesday. Good.

Jon Stewart rightly took Olbermann to task for mis-characterizing Massachusetts junior senator Scott Brown, but Stewart was wrong at the Rally to Restore Sanity when he lumped Olbermann in with the cable TV personalities on Fox News. Olbermann took Stewart’s chiding in January to heart and admitted he was wrong, yet at the rally Stewart played a portion of the original clip anyway. Similarly, Olbermann agreed with Stewart about his “Worst Persons in the World” segment, so he discontinued it.

Olbermann is highly partisan, and he sometimes goes over the top, but he relies on facts, and although he may sometimes jump to conclusions, he doesn’t outright lie and mislead. Keith is a strong voice against the lies and distortions promulgated by Fox News. He’s made it clear to Jon Stewart that they’re on the same side, and I think The Daily Show host needs to acknowledge he doesn’t have a monopoly on righteous indignation, and Olbermann’s firebrand approach is just as valid and valuable as his own jocular, yet no less insistent, variety.

Pratt extracts bat

Over four years ago I put up a bat house in our back yard…

… but did any bats move in? Nope. I thought it might be due to the disease that’s decimating the bat population around here, but then, while cleaning out the gutters, I found a bat.

A dead one. Not due to the disease, but trapped as it tried to escape from behind a bedroom window shutter. I loosened the shutter, pulled out the unfortunate winged mammal, and tossed it into the woods.