July 4, 2008
Australian Graffiti
The current show at the Hoffman Lachance Contemporary is a graffiti-based work by this group of Australians. You should check it out! I went for opening night; the various artists have their own diverse way of how to create. The show, entitled '10,320 Miles to Melbourne,' continues for a couple more weeks. It's located at 3100 Sutton Blvd, in Maplewood, and is open 12-5 Wednesday through Saturday.
| By Nathan Gemayel | 10:23 AM | Comments (0)
July 3, 2008
Bozo's Grand Prize Game is Over
I remember watching Bozo the Clown on WGN. I loved the Grand Prize Game: bucket 1 won you a box of Archway Cookies, bucket 3 won you a wagon, bucket 5 won you a Shwinn bicycle, bucket 6 won you a trip for 4 to Disneyworld.
The skits were always so bad, and always involved cream pies. Cookie would always find ways to trick the red-haired clown. Goodbye Bozo!
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century, died Thursday of congestive heart failure. He was 83.
Although not the original Bozo, Larry Harmon portrayed the popular frizzy-haired clown in countless appearances.
His publicist, Jerry Digney, told The Associated Press he died at his home.
Although not the original Bozo, Harmon portrayed the popular clown in countless appearances and, as an entrepreneur, he licensed the character to others, particularly dozens of television stations around the country. The stations in turn hired actors to be their local Bozos.
"You might say, in a way, I was cloning BTC (Bozo the Clown) before anybody else out there got around to cloning DNA," Harmon told the AP in a 1996 interview.
"Bozo is a combination of the wonderful wisdom of the adult and the childlike ways in all of us," Harmon said.
Pinto Colvig, who also provided the voice for Walt Disney's Goofy, originated Bozo the Clown when Capitol Records introduced a series of children's records in 1946. Harmon would later meet his alter ego while answering a casting call to make personal appearances as a clown to promote the records.
| By Nathan Gemayel | 9:25 PM | Comments (0)
Zaragoza World Expo!
As many of you know, I lived in Zaragoza, Spain for a couple of years where I did mission work and learned to love the people of region of Aragon. It's a city of 650,000 people right in between Madrid and Barcelona. On June 14th the World Expo, otherwise known as the World's Fair, came to Zaragoza! It's a huge fete for a city considered one of the oldest in the country, dating back to 24 B.C.
The theme of the 3-month-long festival is "Water and Sustainable Development," which is an obvious concern in our world today. Zaragoza 2008 will be structured around five theme pavilions and eight large eco-geographical areas comprising the 63 participating countries; Europe's largest fresh water aquarium has been built as well! There's a new pedestrian bridge that crosses the river Ebro, which is the entrance to the Expo 2008 and at the same time multi-level exhibition area. 10.000 visitors per hour will frequent the Main Pavilion of the world exhibition. It was designed by engineers, Zaha Hadid Architects & Ove Arup.
The Aquarium at Expo Zaragoza 2008 is a tribute to rivers, "revealing their deep soul and hidden fragility".
Penélope Cruz hugs it out with Fluvi, the mascot for Expo Zaragoza 2008, in Zaragoza, Spain, on Friday. The actress was on hand to receive a medal from the Spanish city for her support of the upcoming Expo.
The exhibition's most emblematic feature will be the Water Tower, a transparent building 60 metres high designed by Enrique de Teresa Trilla to evoke a drop of water.
Bob Dylan has recorded a new version of his 1963 classic A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall for the water-themed world fair. The song reportedly includes the singer's spoken comments on the importance of clean water across the world.
Go Zaragoza!
| By Nathan Gemayel | 5:41 PM | Comments (0)
June 30, 2008
ALF Lives On!
That's right...ALF is online at hulu.com! You can go there and watch any episode you want to see. When I was a kid I loved ALF and still think he's a pretty funny guy, or alien. I just watched an episode last night and that Tanner family is really annoying...I don't remember that from way back when...
| By Nathan Gemayel | 10:12 AM | Comments (4)
June 29, 2008
Sin, Faith, and a Wedding!
I went to a wedding on Friday for two good friends of mine, Nathaniel Thompson and Suzy Norcliffe, who's last name is now ironically, Thompson as well. OK, so they're married to each other...but you get the point. I don't know what it was about this particular wedding, but I was rejuvenated with the Gospel through the ceremony. It was very encouraging to hear Revelation 21:1-5 and to think about the New Jerusalem coming to earth, to think of living in a New World where relationships will be good and death will not be upon us. How encouraging to have hope in a world where disaster and suffering is the feature every night on the news.
I was reminded of my need for Christ. To focus on the good of Christ and the many blessings we receive from the Lord is natural, but to only go there and not to our own reality as sinners is bad for our dependence on Him. What I am saying is that we must be aware of our fallenness, our sin, and our tendency to walk away from Him. To pray for our sin to be revealed to us is good, when we recognize this, we are able to come to the Father more humbly and thus see a striking need for a Savior.
I'm reminded of "Christina's World," by Andrew Wyeth. We often run astray, and want to do our own thing. However, we can always go back home. This might not be the interpretation of Wyeth, but, I like the peacefulness of the painting, and the possibility of looking back with comfort.
That being said, since we've been saved by Someone who offers peace and who's beauty is so evident in our lives, and who's hope is refreshing in what can be a dry world, let's go back.
Here's a song sung at the wedding:
Faint were we, and fears possessed us
Bruised were we from many falls
Hope was gone and shame distressed us
But His love would pardon all
We were lost when Jesus Found us
Found the sheep that went astray
Raised us up, broke and bound us
Taught our hears to know His way
We will sing (bathed in His riches)
We will sing (of the love He spoke in blood)
We will sing (We are held by His promise)
We are carried by the faithfulness of our God
by: Nathan Partain
To realize how incredible He is, we must realize how polluted with sin we are. However, with this stark realization comes faith...and with it, hope.
| By Nathan Gemayel | 7:07 PM | Comments (0)
White AND Square, What a Concept
Contemporary art seems pretty stupid sometimes doesn't it. However, sometimes it's in the abstract, or in this case, the minimilism, that we can see a point being made before us. It was in Picasso's exaggerated lines that we saw desperation or anger, in Dali's work we saw a man observant of the violent nationalism of Spain, with Duchamp we are able to ask the question, "What is art and what is not art?" It seems that Robert Ryman might challenge that same debate some 60 years after the first urinal was purchased...but unintentionally. Ryman's "Midland," which was created the year I was born, 1976, seems pretty absent of anything creative or artistic. At first glance it's just a board painted white. Wow! That's interesting, right? Welp, it's actually an aluminum sheet to which white paint has been applied to it using a brush. I know, I'm not helping any am I. What was Robert Ryman trying to say with this piece of artwork? I wonder. He believed that much could be said without abstract expressionism. Thus, no weirdness, (other than the fact that it's a white square I mean). I believe he was encouraging people to think about the actual process of making art. He wanted to think about the various ways of using a brush, and daringly enough, he wanted to use the color white, or shade depending on who you talk to. At this point in his career he was also concerned with the way it fit into what was going on around it, such as the wall, the lighting, and the elements that go with the artwork.
I tend to be an appreciator of art that is obvious, or loud, or entertaining. Why else would I enjoy Gaudi so much? However, if I just take a second to think about the artist and the context of how and why the painting was made...there might be more to it. Could a painted white square be stupid? I don't think so...
| By Nathan Gemayel | 6:29 PM | Comments (0)