April 2011

Comment Protocols

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I CLOSED THE COMMENT SECTION on the previous post [on David Lynch] because it was turning into a pissing contest. In all candor, it is good for people to speak their minds and to be passionate about the subject at hand. Problem is, vehemence has a tendency to obliterate the subject. Please do argue when you are up for it. I have no stock in kumbaya and am not particularly interested in sweet harmony. Contention is valuable. Anonymity makes it easier—a good thing—but it also greases the wheels under the urge to take personal swipes—not a good thing. Continue Reading
David Lynch: Artist as Entrepreneur

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THERE IS MORE THAN ONE CONTENDER for the title “Full Service Artiste.” At least, H. Niyazi thinks so. Niyazi is the invaluable art history maven and pundit behind Three Pipe Problem, a lively blog aka 3Pipe.net. He nominates David Lynch, included on 3PP’s posted list of key topics—Caravaggio, Georgione, Titian, Vermeer, et alia. (Just why Lynch is sneaked in to the pantheon is something to take up with 3PP. I am just telling.) If you are old enough to remember Twin Peaks,  a top-rated TV serial in the 1990s, you should know Lynch. Continue Reading
James Franco, Artiste

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I NEVER WATCH THE ACADEMY AWARDS, not necessarily out of scruple but because I can’t. There is no working TV in my house. (Part scruple, part laziness, on that point.) So I had no idea who James Franco was until I came across Joe Queenan’s description of him in The Weekly Standard:
For decades, Hollywood has been waiting for the full-service artiste—writer, director, producer, screenwriter—who can lay claim to the scepter of Renaissance Man once held by Orson Welles. Woody Allen couldn’t quite pull it off.
Continue Reading