Two pop icons died today. One updated Astaire’s (and Kelly’s) moves, followed PT Barnum’s model for showbiz and blazed through the ’70’s and 80’s. The other was known for her hair more than her acting. I listened to part of a newscast about Michael Jackson and while the claim was that he broke the racial barrier in music in modern times, that’s a bit overstated. Ray Charles refused to play to segregated audiences in the 1950’s in Augusta, GA and was sued by the promoter.Â
“I told the promoter that I didn’t mind segregation, except that he had it backwards. . . After all, I was black and it only made sense to have the black folk close to me. . . Let him sue. I wasn’t going to play. And I didn’t. And he sued. And I lost.”Â
courtesy minorjive.
…in Jackson’s honor I give you Mr. A in ‘Say it With Firecrackers’.Â
youtube disabled the embedded video- watch it here.
Sharon Butler’s Two Coats of Paint is a blog I follow and she always has interesting posts. Today in a guest blog post on Art21 she wrote about Mel Bochner‘s new book, ‘Solar System and Rest Rooms: Writings and Interviews, 1965-2007’. Out of work as a young artist in 1965, he was paid $2.50 per review by Arts Magazine for about $30 each month, earning his rent at the time.
An excerpt from the book:
Competency, craftsmanship, and professionalism lend these large painting-constructions a certain interest. Into shallow spaces constructed behind a heavily surfaced canvas, small wooden abstract shapes are placed in the manner of meticulous Nevelson. The keyed-down color, non-referential shapes, and small esoteric numerals and arrows do not quite achieve an intended aura of mystery. If Bonevardi aspires to enigma, his all-too-familiar international vocabulary is incapable of expressing it.
Butler goes on to say that Bonevardi did well despite Bochner’s review and his work resides in collections at MOMA and the Guggenheim.
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Blogging for the mortgage payment isn’t a bad idea.