This would have been better for Valentine’s Day than on President’s Day, but I hadn’t heard it until now, thanks to Pandora. 20-year-old Stephen Sanchez, going with a retro sound that has me wondering if his mother is a Chris Isaak fan.
97 million views! Sanchez was on Colbert last year. I usually only watch music acts on his show that I already know. Just shows to go ya.
P.S. Something about that song reminded me of something else, but it took a while to realize it was this.
Before the Digital Age, in the Print Age of the 20th century, there was the general view that art belonged to one of three categories. I think of it as the Art Pyramid, with the bottom level having the largest audience, and the top having the smallest.
I’ll add socio-economic labels, based on the amount of money that was required to enjoy each of the levels.
Where the distinctions get muddied a bit is with an artist like Andrew Wyeth, who could be viewed as having followed in the footsteps of his illustrator father, N.C. Wyeth. Frank Frazetta was a comic book artist whose paintings were in the tradition of pulp magazine covers, and yet they had a quality that rose above the subject matter.
In Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, fictional billionaire Miles Bron decorates his Greek island estate with fine art that he has purchased. He even has the Mona Lisa on loan from the Louvre, explaining that the museum needed money during the pandemic. One of the pieces in Bron’s collection, shown in the background here, is Girl with Hair Ribbon, by Roy Lichtenstein.
This is the complete image, as appropriated by Lichtenstein.
I say appropriated because he copied it from a DC romance comic book drawing by John Romita, Sr., as revealed by fellow Westfield State alum, David Barsalou.
This video has a British upper class analysis of Girl with Hair Ribbon. The picture’s “intellectual provocation” and lack of “organic unity” are considered apart from its original context, except for a generic reference to “the comic book cartoon.”
How did Roy Lichtenstein elevate a lowly comic book drawing by John Romita from the bottom of the Art Pyramid to the top? This is the subject of a new documentary, Whaam! Blam! Roy Lichtenstein and the Art of Appropriation. Personally, I have come around to the view that Lichtenstein went beyond taking inspiration from comic book panels to the outright and sustained swiping of work done by others.
https://gizmodo.com/lichtenstein-comic-art-appropriation-documentary-review-1850042171
The Word has returned!
Say The Word and you’ll be free.
LBJ, dead 50 years ago today, at only 64 years old. Johnson was president for barely more than five years. Incredible, considering the profound changes that swept through America. There was Viet Nam and Civil Rights riots, but what a time it was to be a kid, with comic books and music!
The MAGA crazy hats in the House are going to hold the debt limit hostage — and the nation with it — in their mad hatred of FDR and LBJ. That’s what they’re really talking about, isn’t it? Ending Social Security (1935) and Medicare (1965).
The Carrot won’t work with those freakish loonies, so use a Stick. Forget about being a Good Cop, be a Bad Cop. There’s no point in trying the Easy Way, so make it go the Hard Way. And for goodness sake, kick that silly little lying boy scammer Santos, or whatever his name is, out the door.
I wouldn’t be paying attention to this nonsense, except for Social Security and Medicare. I started paying into those programs over fifty years ago, and now I’m collecting my benefits.
A comparison between the newly-discovered classified documents from Biden’s time as VP, with Trump’s classified documents from his time at POTUS.
The two aren’t comparable but, okay, let Republicans insist there’s a double standard, and drop the docs as a basis for prosecuting Trump. Doing that will free Special Council Jack Smith to concentrate on what matters most — Trump’s attempted coup.
Wait, there’s more!
The Justice Department can either stop looking into Trump’s document handling, or it can open an investigation into Biden’s document handling.
Even more! Classified documents were found in Biden’s garage! He’s stupidly handed a free ball to the Republicans, and they’re going to run with it.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/12/politics/joe-biden-classified-documents-counsels-office/index.html
I already considered Biden too old to run for re-election. In my opinion he’s been doing a good job, but he already has a low approval rating, and now his credibility is shot. The Democrats need to find another candidate for 2024, and not VP Harris, who’s been a lot of nothing.
