Gregory Wolfe: Art in a Fallen World

Looking at color makes me happy....color helps evaporate tears from my eyes.

I posted a few more pictures of my cadillac ride...We have a black cadillac and my mom had as a college girl.....she kept her first car, Grey Cadillac, that was all grey...and raised 6 kids and kept that Cadillac working... anyway, we really had fun going downtown to Pittsburgh on the red brick road on the hills.I was the youngest and got to sit on the middle hump coushin ....so I could see out the window...amazing how all six children and Mom and Dad fitted in such a car.

The master of painting light was Turner. He didn't get all messianic about it, neither did he use whimsical and 'nostalgic' subjects. How can you be nostalgic about something you never had? If I had a wall that large to spare, I certainly would not invite the likes of Kinkade to decorate it. We have on the Eye some very talented artists. I await comments with interest. What the hell is Christian Art? If it's just art made for or by Christians, then Kinkade's work might be called Alcoholic Art, but they prefer to remain Anonymous, or maybe if the artist were a keen gardener it could be called Compost Art - the possibilities are endless. It's spring! the 'Glory of God' if that's the way you appreciate it is all around us. Happy weekend everybody. 

We had a blank wall in what my grandkids call "The Club" room.  Two of our grandchildren were at loose ends one day so we went to the local paint store, bought blues, yellows, oranges, greens and reds.  We painted that wall.  It was blue for the background, green grass on the bottom, white clouds in the sky, a huge sun and huge flowers dancing across the wall and reaching half-way up.  With all the "art" in my house, that wall was my favorite. 

Whether produced at copy factories of mass production & sold in shopping malls or exchanged on street corners in Paris for a loaf of bread, the soul of the true artist is a tormented spirit trying to turn the world of chaotic thought into a presized canvas of microcosm"ed" reality. I can see the Citizen Kane images of Mr. Kinkade's last drunken moments where the man who realized his "dream" became the little boy with the "dream" before him. We should perhaps not judge these things. As Kerouac wrote some fizzle and some go out in flames.

There was a "Twilight Zone" episode where a room full of people were watching films taken on vacation. The upshot of it was that for some this was heaven and for some, hell. As in art......different strokes.....Thomas Kinkade or Picasso....all in the eye of the beholder.

Andy is correct, perception is largely subjective for higher functioning mammals (people). That's a mixed blessing, it creates opportunities to feel great joy, great sadness, and everything on a sliding scale between the extremes. I'm unsure whether my dog's inability to see colors is a plus or a minus. Life as a kid in the 1950's with that small screen black & white television sometimes seems to have been pretty good. Or perhaps ignorance was bliss.....

No Bert, it wasn't ignorance, it WAS good

Andy, your Club Room art is true art.

Color it memorable.

Thomas Kinkade is unlikely ever to be accused of having left a stone unturned when it came to monetizing his products: television shopping networks, franchise gallery opportunities and the wide availability of his work kept his name and output in the art publishing and gift industry at the forefront.
Judging from the pressure put on family and friends by the persons we knew to have got into the franchise deal, the stuff did not exactly sell itself… at least at comfortable margins.
To be fair, they were more economic opportunists than apostles of that particular genre of greeting card imagery wherein home and cottage are depicted as emitting soft honey-colored welcoming light in the midst of an almost cartoonish world of green and flourishing plants and flowers.
Home is, as a practical matter, the place we are most reluctant to leave and anxious to get back to. Where, in its familiar quiet dryness, lie all of the sight and scent triggers to decades of memories.
On the other hand, in an ideal Kinkade cottage, my passport and the control for the electric grill outback would probably have a place and be in it… I have no idea where the  hell they are.
The fact that the artist was shown across after tying one on, is a surprise but not a disappointment.

Interesting:

http://www.artofthesouth.com/Thomas_Kinkade/thomaskinkadegalleryfranchise.php

Sorry as talented as he was the first thing I think of when I see his paintings is "pandering".  He had to have talent to do what he did but his paintings were like sugar coated deep fried twinkies with a side of whipped cream, state at them too long and you go into sugar shock.  He was a mass marketing machine, it seemed like every painting was carefully choreographed to sell posters of it to his adoring fans.   I guess that's the thing about art and tastes, we all have different opinions and reactions.  For me, when it comes to American masters, give me a Wyeth (it doesn't even have to be Andrew, it could be anything by any of the artists in his family, although master bedroom is a favorite) or Hopper or Russel or O'Keefe or Homer or Cassat.

As valuable as museums are at showcasing our (ever-changing) idea of ART, they tend to make us feel that if it's not "museum quality" then it's simply not art.  And how very wrong that is!  I don't know if it's art, but I know what I like....it's almost a trite phrase these days, but that doesn't make it any less true.  We've been presented with paintings by elephants splashing paint about with their trunks and goaded into thinking it's art.  We've seen "installations" by Christo--and probably helped pay through them with taxes that supported grants--swaths of cloth stretching distances.  Surely they are not more art than the cloth stretched to dry at a dyer's establishment?     I would bet that most of us have possessed the most beautiful art of handmade cards from children.  Perhaps what makes most art art, is that stamp of individuality--exactly what we erase/ignore when we mass market it.                Have never been a fan of the Kinkade style--it rather creeps me out.  But again.....I don't know if it's art, but I do know what I like--and don't.

Kind of back to yesterday and choices - if you could pick 6 paintings to have on your walls, what would you have? I'm very fond of Impressionists, so I'd have Monet, Manet, Degas, Van Gogh, Lautrec and Turner. I know nothing about American artists.

This is the most thought I have ever given to Thomas Kinkade. In this day and age of "branding" just seeing his artwork in every mall I ever went to kind of put it in the pretzel category for me. And further to that, knowing how Warhol manufactured his "art" made me even more cynical about it. I did not know that Kinkade was spreading the Word. Haven't heard too much about him spreading the Money, of which there must be a LOT.

Anyway, his art is not to my taste but I have met people who not only appreciate his work, actually collect it. STONEY said it all better than me but he was nicer. HAZEL your 5:50 was great and ANDY I like that wall in your house too!

Aaaawww, Carol~ I have a folder of my son's offerings. There's a picture titled 'Edward threw my bike in the brook' another one 'We went on a double decker bus with no roof' and 'I helped Haze to clean the chimeney' (that was hilarious - it hadn't been used for years and was full of bird nests) and the funniest one 'The dog ate something bad.' The artwork makes me laugh every time I look at it. I dare not frame them as I fear the colours will fade.

I know.....I my wall, and it's signed too

My credentials in Art are successfully completing an Intro to Art -101 course back in 1967 along with a darkened auditorium crammed full of classmates who's only trait in common was being in the throws of a post-lunch stupor watching narrated slides as well as just knowing what I like, but seldom questioning myself as to why.

I always believed that art was the one place where anyone could flourish; even if it was only in their eyes. That somewhere or even many 'wheres"', someone else would appreciate it.

I still have a rare collection of pieces that were prominently displayed on various refrigerators created by my then young sons and grandson. Priceless.

Never was a fan.  I actually think there will be a lot more information about unflattering business deals coming from his estate. I am convinced it was the stress frm the shady business dealings that killed him kinda like Kenneth Lay of Enron.  It seems a lot of his merchandise ends up in the clearance bins at work, I guess maybe also most people have woke up form the "sugar coma" and are looking around asking what's the big deal about his pictures? Altho there was a run on his Religious Fiction Novels the week after his death.. Hmm... Art is certianly in the eye of the beholder & for me I would rather behold a Terry Redlin, A Linda Daniels, George Bungarda, Or a beautiful/silly photography taken by friends. Art that makes me smile is what I like & all of these artists have some works that make me smile whenever I see them.  I can't really say that about Kinkade's works. Maybe I tend to find more peace ine image of dogs or classic hollywood actors being in paintings?    
       

We don't know much about the human conscience, except that it
is soluble in alcohol.

  John Mortimer, 1923 - 2009 He wrote the Rumpole books, but his observation applies, I think, in this case

the reason they put windows in walls is to let us see the art outside            well, that and to let in air and light,and let smoke out....

Kinkaide makes me think of purple, really deep purple. I think his paintings had a lot of deep murky purple renditions of flowers in them.  I don't know -- I've got to say I feel sorry for him.  A sort of pathetic figure - his work, and I'm sure he knew it - was trite.  It evoked "ohs and oohs" from people who don't like to hang a question mark on a work of art, people who probably keep the plastic on their new furniture so it doesn't get old looking, and they like knicknacks, and God, I think, too.  .... And unless he could only paint cottages and lamplight, and I'm thinking he could do more - he sold out, his talent and his name and ultimately his soul, for money - and nobody with a talent likes to use it like that, but it's such a temptation to take the money and tell yourself you can always get off the commercial merry-go-round - work on something "good" and reclaim your name - but time pushes on like a steamroller and time passes and you're still that mass produced painter of light and you hate yourself and your "art" and so you jump into a bottle of whiskey - often.  Until you die of all of it. ...............................   He could have extricated himself years and years ago, but he didn't, more artists don't than do - and I think it's sad, and I feel sorry for him, it must have been an awfully frustrating life.

Nachista~ I'm with you on the Wyeth paintings works from N.C. to Andrew Jamie and daughter. Have enjoyed visits to their museum in Chads Ford PA many times. I particularly like the Helga series and the story behind them. I haved loved many of Renoir's works. Among living artists, I enjoy LeRoy Neiman's sports art.

Carol~ Re: children's and 'at-home' artists, our house if full of my wife's oils, pastels, charcoals from third grade on. Also, the apple not falling far from the tree as it were...we came home one day after 3-4 hours absense to find  our son Jim's ( at age 11 and known to you now  as Ummgawa) bedroom wall painted , ceiling to floor corner to corner  with a Budweiser beer can label. Reluctantly we had to tip our hat because it was very well done an remained 'til it was destroyed in a house fire. To any of you who have read his book, you won't be surprised.

Hazel~ you're breaking my heart! I wish you could have them loaded so we could see your son's art!!

Hazel~ you're breaking my heart! I wish you could have them loaded so we could see your son's art!!

RE: my earlier window to the world; today is Earth Day, go look at some....no, I mean really close...see the 'bugs'?, on a microscopic level...if you have, you may have seen some of the most intriguing,colorful,spell-binding, even erie, other-worldly, kinds of art....but, on a more pedestrian level, look at flowers, birds, and the people that parade by in all their colorful plumage.....what artist can only more than hint at the spectacle of twilight? There is a purple in there somewhere, against the translucent golds and grays...orange and yellow like Kincaid's, but much more magnificent,and flowing, and never the same way twice....if your window looks on the water, and in the gentle wind driven ripple, the reflection of that sunrise/set is faintly disturbed, you may in fact what kills an artist- the competition

rings90 ~
Good choices… better ones.
I looked around (had to actually) and four things hanging here have dogs including one Wyeth. There's a Wyeth: "Canvasbacks," and then, some other game birds; a Thomas Eakins sculler (Max Schmidt) and a J Haller 1890's remarqued etching of a Dutch country scene worth about the $8.00 I paid for it at an estate sale… I love it.
Frankly, the artist of light held not attraction… rather the opposite.
If you can't compete with a wall...

“I may be the wrong person for my life.” wrote the great Thomas McGuane. Unfortunately some follow that rabbit into the rabbit hole. I prefer to sing that old hip refrain modified the TT way. If loving me is wrong I don't wanna be right. May be a crock but keeps me out of doing myself any harm or actually inflicting discomfort.
The word of the morning. Bacon Omelets and strawberry jam.

If Kincade has talent, it's a tastemakers talent. He jumps on a trend with the best of them. What really sets him apart is his aptitude for marketability rather than art in its purest form. In an instant he became the apostle and "painter of light." He found a commercial niche and claimed it in the name of divine inspiration. On one hand this seems a treacherous slope and on the other hand it seems to have brought joy to thousands. The only thing certain in art is death and taxonomy…

(To date this author has not purchased a Kincade painting, and is saving her pennies for Michael Schlichting's "Revealed.")

Kinkade...! sorry ...

George Hall~ You know I''m useless at compuer stuff. No hope of posting my son's great works of art, I do treasure them, along with the hand made Mother's Day cards, and a kids picture book titled 'My Mom is Great' which he had edited in black felt tip pen - a little book to cherish!

Lately my husband has scanned all the saved hand drawn works of art from our daughter's unspoiled early years.  The originals are without a doubt fragile and yellowed, but they're preserved digitally now.    George you are a fortunate man to have a talented wife (and son) who can light up your rooms not only with her presence, but with her works of art!

It must be food time - what did you have for lunch, what's for dinner?

Another case of ‘you can take the boy out of manufacturing, but you cannot take manufacturing out of the boy'

The walls of the rooms that I claim as mine are all decorated with free stuff ‘that fell off the back end of a forklift' on the way to a dumpster during one of the many Telephone Communication Systems plant closing in the early ‘90s that was the result of changing their focus to software engineering and being service providers instead of being totally vertically integrated..... That was being the maker of the stuff too.

Anyroads, I got a tip from our Director of Public Affairs that this forklift event was going to take place. The factory was closing soon, it was her last day, and she knew I would appreciate the stuff being hastily disposed.

The stuff was a file of correspondences between an architect and the VP of Facilities, as well as rolls and rolls of blueprints and drawings for a proposed manufacturing facility that was to be built for a one of our branch plants in the mid 1950's.

Many of the prints were showing their age but still very beautiful to me. I have mounted and framed some and taken better care of the rest. The letters were typed but signed by the Architect, who intermixed business, personal beliefs, dreams of further beautifying Southern Cal, his pleas for additional funding and advances, as well as assuring that this project would be completed as promised, even in the event of his ‘passing', which wasn't too long afterward.

Frank Lloyd Wright was a much better artist, designer, and engineer than he was as a business man. The more I learned of him, the lower his pedestal became so I had to separate that from his skills and accomplishments. Actually, it was a relief to know that he really sucked at some things.....made him a little more human.

He was my hero when I was just a boy dreaming of making my father's wishes for me to become an Architect come true. I just didn't have what it took at the time to fulfill that wish (now that would have been a ripe post for the recent "guilt' topic) but did find something else that I loved doing for 34 years.

I sure admire those that do have them.

I think I'll take a walk in the park and admire nature's exhibit there. It's always open to the public if they would just slow down a tad.

Thanks for listening..... be well

Peter Lake~ Take Floyd with you for your walk in the park, his smiley faced enthusiasm will lift your spirits.

Art is so subjective. Anything can be called art if you have enough imagination.  I love it when people take everyday things and tranform them into art pieces, it makes you think about their function and their place in your life.  I believe the trendy kids call this upcycling.  I also love functional things that are sturdy and last forever, I think that they are beautiful in their reliability and durability...like this  
http://nachista.blogspot.com/2012/02/food-photos.html to me that washing machine is a work of art in and of itself and I can also use it to make art now that no one uses it for its original purpose. It still works by the way.

I have a friend in Scotland who is a puppeteer and art therapist.  She always tells me that art is a skill that can be developed by anybody.  She says that people draw at the same level as they did when they stopped creating freely as a child.  The really good ones never stopped.  Her approach is to take 5 minutes every day and just create.  For her it is drawing, but it can anything that pushes you to be creative.  Here's a link to a blog post I did about her

http://nachista.blogspot.com/2012/03/change-your-spots.html

My little sister has always claimed she has no artistic ability, our sister who is 2 years older than I am was the artistic one she was always drawing and painting and doodling.  Little sister surprised herself and all of us by making some beautiful art to hang in her home when their budget was too tight to buy original art from someone else.

http://nachista.blogspot.com/2011/09/brag-alert.html ;

Of course if you are more into technology you can make your own art at this site

http://www.drawastickman.com ;

It's interesting to me, Southsider, what you said about FLW's pedestle getting lower the more you knew so you had to stop - I do that too, often - I fall passionately in Fascination with an artist and with the internet right here and I've always loved research - and I wind up researching like mad, getting to know the artist inside out, and usually it's not good for my impression of the artist.  I didn't have the common sense just to stop, and as you said, learn to separate the artist from the art...................Fitzgerald, oh my heavens, 40 years having FScott as my avocation, the guy couldn't have been as good as I once thought or as evil as he became the more I read.  It was his writing that I liked at first, then I got to know the writers who wrote about him, and then I wrote my own, and a couple of years or so ago, I found myself really really angry at the guy.   I got past that, laughed at myself, and am enjoying his writing again..........................But the tragedies in Wright's life -( not far from her HudsonJ we're going this summer on a )- the fires at Taliesin, his treatment of women in general, people in general - his huge sense of entitlement and his carelessness - to name a few of his lousy personality traits-- by the time I finished Loving Frank by Nancy Horvath, I was really really angry at him - in spite of my intense "like" of his homes especially the houses, up here in Wisconsin and in Illinois.  But I'm over it now, and I have two biographies of FLW waiting to be read, and I'll read them, but I've got to learn to stop learning about these artists because it colors my feelings in a bad way for their works.  ... and I'm pretty much an all or nothing kind of person, so I wind up cutting off my nose to spite my face - missing a gallery opening because I'm "mad" at the artist who's been dead for decades or more.    No one ever accused me of going just halfway - my loss.   PS:  take your camera on your walk.... 

Peter Lake that is awesome.  He was a great artist, but I'm with you, I have to separate his personal life and short comings from the art lest it remove the joy from the art.  In fact there are a lot of artists, musicians, actors, etc that are like that for me.  Just enjoy the art and forget about the hijnx.

I meant to say in paranthesis above in 4:34 that I intend to take a roadtrip to Taliesin finally this summer...    I have no idea how it turned out as it did.   Maybe it's because someone is talking to me about how SWAMP PEOPLE is on at 6 o'clock and he won't stop teasing me --I can not longer keep up two conversations at the same time, in addition to typing..........Excuse me, I have to go put a bag on husband's head so I can't hear him talking to me, or maybe duct tape.......................EXASPERATING man!

Hazel it is almost 3pm and all I've had today is a diet Dr. Pepper, I should eat something but I've had very little appetite for weeks and I have no desire to cook or bake for myself.  I've been eating in social settings so I don't starve, just can't get back into the groove of eating alone...it used to be something I looked forward too.

Something cheap but nice…

http://www.petermanseye.com/photos/593501

NACHISTA..for me its a Coke. I'm going to have a baked potato. I guess.

Hazel, Northsider, Nachista..... Thank you.  I will take Floyd A Doggie and a camera with me. Not many posts today, but a lot of real good ones. Northsider, make sure you leave some breathing holes for your Hubby if you go the Duct tape route......

nachista~ Yes, my dear, the no appetite, no eating thing is a big problem. Hope you are drinking loads of water, not Coke! I confess to a liking for Ginger Ale - which is zero alcohol. I do force myself to drink several glasses of water per day, then curse when I have to get up in the middle of the night to pee and can't get back to sleep. Some days I eat, other days I can't be bothered, so I do understand what you are saying. Not that it has anything to do with the topic of the day.

My limited exposure to Mr. Kincade's work, let alone his frightening aesthetic, did not send me seeking more; when I learned people were actually building subdivisions based on his work, I could scarcely believe. (Yes, I have paintings -- too many for our walls -- and love each one.)
 
GEORGE HALL AND UMGAWAA, with breath 'bated, I've awaited news of U's book.  Plese tell!!

Hazel I went to my parents home and at the leftovers I knew mom would try to send home with me when I visited tomorrow.  I typically don't drink soda but a house guest had left the can in the fridge.  I'm a camel...water and lots of it all day long.

PARK--you must be the nicest person on t he planet (your 1:15)!

O, brill! One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest is on the tele!

We own a Kinkade print of the Santa Barbara Mission.  It's a rather subtle composition compared to most of his other works. It is prized by us as much for the subject matter as for the artist or the art.  I'd rather own a Turner, but then again I'm not ashamed to say I enjoy reading a Zane Grey novel. Mass produced art, signed and numbered prints, serve both the artist and the collector.  Better they make a living from prints than a grant funded by the tax collector.                                                                                                                                                           http://www.thomaskinkadegallery.com/store/index.php/the-old-mission-santa-barbara-1998.html                                                                                                                                      ;   

Peter Lake ~
For a long time but nothing is forever, it was possible to visit a warm and agreeable family and read, over the wide arched openings between vast rooms, words in the eagle feather typeface of the genius Frank Lloyd Wright.
The wisdom came from people who had some but the font was as if he, at his steady best, had perched on a scaffold and lent his hand and skills to simple beauty.
Time stopped in that place… or tarried.

http://www.myfonts.com/person/Frank_Lloyd_Wright/

Georgia ~
"frightening aesthetic"
Lovin' that.
Ollie took his first steps in this house… light enough.

I've been in a restored (legitimately) FLW house here -on the shore of a nearby lake, it's one of the few examples of Wright homes that exist in this part of Wisconsin.  I've never known why that is so, and why there are no Wright homes here on Lake Geneva, but I'm guessing he had one of his many dust ups with a certain architectural firm from Chicago (the owner) who was building the bulk of the gilded age homes here along the lake.  At one time there was just down the street from POPEYE'S (marjorie) and Scuttlebutts (PeterLake) toward Flatiron Park (south I think?) - all of that area was at the turn of the last century The Geneva Hotel, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and he supervised the building (bad idea) and it didn't go smoothly, but the Hotel opened but was only in business for two or three years.  It looked like a FLW design, long and low and wood beamed- it looked out of place with the Victorian houses that surrounded it -- and wouldn't you know, one night, it burned down.  To the ground.   Which is something that happens a lot to those old homes and structures on Lake Geneva that mother and dad built, but children and grandchildren don't want to pay for.  Suddenly:  a fire.  Not a thing left but the land, and I imagine that was the whole point.   I wish people wouldn't be so careless with structures that are no longer useful to them.  Destroying them is destroying history, in my book, but then they never asked me for my opinion, and now I will hush up I've gone on for too long ... 

Hazel ~ When my kids were really, young, nursery school young, they brought home some fingerpaintings.  They were done on red paper with yellow paint that had been thickened with something.  I framed them, I think there were three or four of them, and hung them in my living room.  It was always fun to listen to the comments about my "art".

Correction:  Hotel Geneva was demolished; there was no fire.  It fell into disrepair and was divided up and rented out to various establishments notably (or not notably) Snoopy's Bar.  Good thing Wright wasn't around to see that.   Other fires happened however, and they were "of suspicious origin" but not FLW's Geneva Hotel.  It was left to grow old ungracefully and inelegantly.  It's windows live on in the Lake Geneva Public Library, and reproductions can be purchased at the Lake Geneva Hysterical (sic) Society................................(Laugh Out Loud.)  Everybody's out to make a buck, aren't they?  

Hazel- in One Flew Over the Cocoo's Nest, where Jack Nicholson's character hijacks the fishing boat and introduces the nuthouse residents as "Doctors"...brilliant and hilarious. My favorite part of the movie.

Stoney, I love the prairie and craftsman fonts and use the often. I too enjoy poster art.....of the same influence

Northsider, still have not visited Wisconsin Wright homes but often walk around his Oak Park Studio and homes he designed in the area and toured his Taliesin West home, studio and school. ....... His chairs are back breakers ...... I do like his statues and in his southwest studio, there is a big Japanese influence from his working there.

Hazel......great movie....enjoy and beware of popcorn in the duvet...nos da

Peace out

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was filmed in Salem, Oregon.  The Native American doctor in the film was actually a psychiatrist at the hospital, and played himself.  The hospital is now headed for the wrecking ball, except for the front entrance.  At least part of a grand building will be saved.  Don't ask me how I know this stuff, and no, I don't wear my white jacket that buckles in the back after labor day :)

Nicholson is so terribly believable in Cukoo's Nest, you know?  He's crazy, probably, but I love watching his kind of crazy.  He did a movie years ago with Helen Hunt and Greg ? and it was called As Good As It Gets- his character had OCD and he just made me laugh so hard.  And I love the title,As Good As It Gets - some days that's just what I think, this is as good as it gets, which isn't bad at all, but it's as good as it gets....anyhow, I thought Nicholson was crazy funny in that movie, Hunt was pretty and sharp as usual, and I do believe I heard she wore a dress from J. Peterman.  The one that Nicholson's character didn't like.  No accounting for taste...

Park~ I probably shouldn't admit this but AS GOOD AS IT GETS  is one of my favorite all time movies. Hey! Everbody can't be deep thinkers!

That film is so funny. Yes, Ummy, the fishing boat bit is the best! Still not as good as the book.
Duvet time in Wales - I was cheating and under a duvet on the sofa. My sofa duvet is the one I haul outside to watch the moon or the stars. It has so many food stains that it could be framed and passed off as a work of art. Nos da dear people, x

Hang on a minute - we managed to get through the whole day without addressing the 'fallen world' bit of todays topic.

Jack Nicholson seems to be extremely comfortable playing stranger and scarier roles than most people ..... As in The Shining. He's got Jack Nickolson Eyes.......as in who am I watching now?

He makes the movies that he is featured better.... No matter how good or bad they may be.

As Good as it Gets does get to me on a couple levels. Helen Hunt was awesome in that dress.

Mr. Guest ~
Looking forward to the Big City fun day too although it sounds ambitious.
Thanks for the quartermastering.
Interesting spot No Bars Island?
Great rowing photos. Who took them?

As Good as it Gets was the last movie I laughed out loud at in the theater
It was unusual in that my lovely bride did the same. Although we get along swimmingly, our senses of humor rarely cross at the same time, that movie was one exception.

on your recomendation I shall watch it if it comes around on any of the media I have access to.  I have not been to House On The Rock, anotherFLW creation, in maybe 30 years. When I first was allowed in, there were no fences, you could bring a food basket and thermos and stay all day,there was that much to see...and, you could actually remove a book from a shelf,and sit and read as you ate. There was something there that still is unbelieveable to folks when I describe it...it was a coffee table-glass topped,that allowed you to observe a reel to reel tape recorder (remember those?-and for you 'kids' out there, that was before CDs,and after wire recorders, but before cassettes,&8-tracks)the reels of which were the size of 26" bicycle wheels!!!  Classical music through out the place made an environment  of peace, probably part of the original enchantment that led to the design- -and there were windows in a gallery that looked down into a crevice at ground level -House on the Rock actually was built on top of an out-cropping, and had steel cables attaching it for safety.  You could,and I did, see deer walking the trail below that gallery....and in the basement was/is a museum...an incredible museum, of period machinery the likes of which you can only imagine, as no matter how well I would be able to describe it, it would not do justice to  the OOOHHSS and AAHHSSS that you hear and make in person....but the last time I was there, there were cattle herding (well, people herding) fences to keep you moving, and away from the couches and books I knew and loved, but there was a gift shop......

CHEFD..................yes, she IS fabulous! I'm a huge fan of her fabulousness. Youse fabulous too baby............... Glad you noticed, I'll put a wink there!
 
PL......................your 4:12 is wonderful & melancholy..........................
 
Thomas Kinkade was not my cup of tea, but when I read his obituary in the Times, there was a line that explained the reason that he almost never featured people in his work; he wantd people to insert themselves into the scene. I can say that when I would come across a painting of his I did get the feeling that living by a babbling brook in a tiny, cozy cottage surrounded by a forest was enchanting. He seemed tormented. RIP Mr. Kinkade........................
 
NACHISTA.............if possible, go out to eat w/ a friend or alone, but eat!

wanted.....doh!

UMGAWAA, I've seen As Good A It Gets three times, and could see it again. I'd not change one iota of cast, dialogue, setting, anything. You make me want to get it out right this minute. 
 
Still waiting to hear about your book!!!!
 
NACHISTA, i JOIN hazel N URGING YOU TO DRINK.  fROM SEVERAL KIDNEY FAILURES i LEARNED DEHYDRATION CAUSES THEM -- trust me, dear: You don't want one.  80 oz of liquid daily, I was told (some you get nin food, especially fruits and vegetablees; most you must drink xdrink drink)

And all you (with me) Jack NIcholson fans, remember my admonition to see A Few Good Men. Not at all what you'd think, and Nicholson is marvelous, as always.