Keeper of the Clown Bell

No, No, No!!! It's not possible to create anything as fundamentally WRONG (I mean wrong in every conceivable way) as what BBDO did with the Pepsi advertisement using a scene from Spartacus that was shown tonight on the broadcast of the Academy Awards. It made me want to vomit. How could you take a powerful moment from one of the great films ( Kubrick for Christ's sake) and cheapen it with such mindless commercialism. I mean what's next? Citizen Kane, Ben Hur, The Godfather all could be used to sell soda pop or pizza or whatever... Message: You're all slaves and your moment of glory is found in drinking sugar water you pathetic, self absorbed couch potatoes.

The infamous BTK (blind, torture, kill) serial killer has been arrested in Witchita Kansas and of course he's a middle aged white bureaucrat working for the State government. And what kind of job would a "person" like Dennis Rader find fulfilling? Answer: he was a supervisor of the compliance department - perfect. BTW - Dennis Rader is a great name for a mass murder.

You know, as a person who grew up in the afterbirth of the 60s counterculture I have heard it all. There is no political, philosophical or artistic argument or POV that has not crossed my reader in the last 30 years of consciousness, but having to listen to people like Ward Churchill does give me pause. Check out these ravings from Satya magazine and see what you think of this kook. Having lived in Boulder CO for some part of my life I am familiar with his world view, but it is really only places like Boulder that these "ideas" can take root and grow. These college towns - Berkeley, Amherst, Chapel Hill and others foster a kind of "progressive" that is about as relevant to American society as the Amish people who live in a different closed society - but no less closed. But why is he on the Clown Bell Blog? Because it turns out they guy is not really an Indian (Native American as they are now called) as he has claimed to be - he's a big fat faker. Native America

People who kill themselves aren't cool. 

Last night I heard Christo and Jeanne-Claude give a talk to a smallish group of art enthusiasts in NYC. I learned something about them and their art and here are my observations. How can people live in New York City for 41 years and not learn the English language? Christo spoke like he had just gotten off the boat from Bulgaria (if there is a boat from there) and Jeanne-Caude was not much better though she did seem to know more words that he did. [I contend that if I were to spend 41 years in Sophia I would know how to speak the Bulgarian language fluently and without an American accent.] All of their art is created "only for themselves" and they could not care less if anyone likes it or not. However, everyone must live with it because they usurp all of the natural and man made elements in and around their work. As Jeanne-Claude said, "the rocks, the trees, the New York City skyline" are all part of The Gates. In my opinion this is a totalitarian world view that wor

Collectivist Narcissism 

Below are some examples of artwork that might have inspired The Gates. Though Christo and Jeanne-Claude can't seem to remember what has influenced their design I'd be willing to bet they made a trip to the Fushimi Inari Shrine on one of their visits to Japan.

Ancient Gate 

The Gates of Dawn by Herbert James Draper 

Fushimi Inari Strine - Japan 

Fushimi Inari Shrine - Japan 

Fushimi Inari Shrine - Japan 

"'The Gates' is an abomination. Call me a Philistine, but how can one improve on trees, lakes and rocky outcroppings with miles of plastic-treated cloth? " wrote ANDREA PEYSER in a valentine hate note to Christo and Jeanne-Claude published in the NYPost. Well, what crawled up her butt? I mean this isn't a permanent exhibit - she doesn't have to live with The Gates forever, only for about two weeks. Also, I think The Gates are bright and fun - my kids love them - and they bring a lot of people into the park on a cold Feb. weekend. The restaurants on the upper west side have been packed since The Gates went up. It's not as if The Gates have upside down US flags hanging from them or contain pots of Cristos poop at the base of each orange gate. God knows what many a contemporary artist would inflict on the psyches of New Yorkers were they allotted $20 million and a canvas as large as central park. Imagine what Bruce Nauman or Jeff Koons would do with that much

The music industry is evil. It's that simple, but there is such a thing as divine retribution and for Neil Portnow it comes in the form of peer-to-peer file sharing of recorded music. It's a tsunami more terrible than the wave that grew in the Indian Ocean on Boxing Day. But I say let it roll and roll until the streets of Hollywood are washed clean. "In the days ahead, you can count on the entire music community to continue to play our part in supplying hope and inspiration to us all. "

1. Intaxication : Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with. 2. Reintarnation : Coming back to life as a hillbilly. 3. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future. 4. Foreploy : Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid. 5. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period. 6. Giraffiti : Vandalism spray-painted very, very high. 7. Sarchasm : The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it. 8. Inoculatte : To take coffee intravenously when you are running late. 9. Hipatitis : Terminal coolness. 10. Osteopornosis : A degenerate's disease. (This one got extra credit.) 11. Karmageddon : It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes,

I turned on Aaron Brown's News Night program tonight to see him interview uber clown Paul Krugman on the subject of Social Security reform. Because I've been paying into this "New Deal" program my entire life I listened with interest to the Krugman barometer. In short, the Princeton "Economist" believes that SS reform will NOT pass congress and this forecast almost assures a speedy passage of whatever the President submits to the hill this summer. No one - and I mean no one - is more consistantly wrong on politics than PK. Krugman did provide one of the (unintentionally) funniest before and after moments during the 2004 election. Check out these abstracts from the NYTimes web site: November 2, 2004, Tuesday (When he thought he would win) Faith In America By PAUL KRUGMAN ABSTRACT - Paul Krugman Op-Ed column says he is moved by pictures from Florida of early polling, showing long lines of citizens waiting sometimes for hours to cast their ballots; sa

Frank Rich can be counted on to write idiotic commentary every Saturday in the NYTimes - and today was no exception. His theater reviews were politically laden slog and his time on the Op-Ed page was an embarrassment so Punch moved him to an Arts & leisure generalist - sort of like a Blog on paper. Here are a few jewels from today's effort( in red ) with commentary ( in blue ): The ensuing Washington indecency crusade has unleashed a wave of self-censorship on American television unrivaled since the McCarthy era... Oh yes, the McCarthy Era - what would a Frank Rich do without Joe McCarthy who hasn't been a force in US politics FOR 50 YEARS!!! And what self-censorship is he talking about? I wish it were true, but TV is toilet filled with stinking crap produced by friends of Frank Rich. Public television is now so fearful of crossing its government patrons that it is flirting with self-immolation...Next thing you know they'll be snipping lascivious flesh out of a

What can be said about a society that spends so much time on a "person" like Michael Jackson? How can events of the past few days be eclipsed by so insignificant a "human being"? I have an answer: There are people - perhaps a majority of "the people" that don't believe in democracy and freedom. They believe in royalty (celebrity) and fascism/socialism - they worship it. How else can you explain the ho-hum attitude about the historic election in Iraq? How can this monumental event that dominated the news broadcasts, opinion pages, two election cycles (including the Presidential election) and dinner table conversations in every home in the USA be dismissed? The election in Iraq is a great moment in human history and a vindication of the ideas that we Americans have promoted around the world since our founding. And yet... And yet just two days after this historic victory for the concept of liberty and representative government all the papers and ne