Opening Day of The New Children’s Museum

On Sunday, I spent the day at the grand opening of The New Children's Museum.  Culture Lust has decided it's the coolest new digs in San Diego.    The concrete and steel "green" building designed by local architect Rob Quigley finally came to life this weekend after much anticipation.  The place was packed all day Sunday - honestly, I didn't detect a lull in the three hours I was there.  Kids were smiling and concentrating at every turn.  In fact, the only kids I saw crying were the ones who didn't want to leave.  I overheard many a parent promise to return the following weekend as a pacifier.  If I were a betting woman...and sometimes I am...I'd bet those weren't empty promises.  I personally can't wait to go back, and I don't even have children!

I took some pics of kids interacting with the opening exhibit Childsplay for your viewing pleasure.

Culture Lust favorites at The New Children's Museum:  Brian Dick's No Rules Except...Yard.  You may think I like this piece because of the ellipsis in the title... I obviously love ellipsis.  But this piece has ellipsis and mattresses and chaos and tire pillows!  What's not to love? I also liked Mark Mulroney's Shadow Puppets and Nick Rodrigues' Porta-Party - it's a booth shaped like an iPod with a disco ball inside and an iPod full of music - you get inside and dance, groove, booty shake, what have you.  I'm thinking about commissioning one for my office at KPBS. 

Salvation, Imperial Valley Style

This past weekend, we heeded the strange siren call of the Salton Sea and drove once again into Imperial Valley.  As an amateur photographer and a collector of stories, Imperial Valley has become an obsession.  There are incredible images at every turn and generous storytellers -- real characters with a weathered but reliable charisma.  You meet them in the strangest places.  This is the story of meeting one in the middle of the desert. 

I've spent a fair bit of time around the Salton Sea (though it never seems like enough) and some surreal story always emerges from my visits to the Valley.  Last July, we went to Bombay Beach and I had a terrifying encounter with thousands (millions!) of flies trapped in a car... OUR CAR! And I'm not talking regular ole flies; I'm talking flies that had just been hobnobbing on rotting fish.  Apparently bored with miles of fish carcasses, swarms of flies decided to bum rush our car (more advice:  even if you are in the 110 degree heat of Bombay Beach, don't leave your car window cracked.  The flies will find you).  And you know what?  There's only one way to get rid of those suckers... you just have to get in the car and drive.  Imagine it right now, sitting at your desk, what it would be like to get in a sauna-like car with thousands of flies and the stench of dead fish -- now imagine having to sit there with them all over you while driving as fast as you can with the windows down so they would fly out.  I'm telling you, it tested my mettle and, well... I personally think I'm special forces material now.      

Anyway, for this trip, I wanted to see Salvation Mountain and Slab City, sans flies.  Both places were featured in two recent films:  a documentary called Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea (narrated by John Waters!) and Into the Wild, last year's feature film directed by Sean Penn.  

Slab City and Salvation Mountain are in the middle of the Mojave desert, about three miles east of Niland, California, at the foot of the Chocolate Mountains.  Driving through Brawley and Niland, we were a little worried about getting lost.   Having left the GPS at home (another genius move), we figured we'd rely on the old school method of a paper map.

Words of advice: If you can't GPS,  then you best not forget to laminate. 

It turns out Salvation Mountain isn't hard to find. Once you get to Niland, just go to Main Street (not that many streets to begin with) and head east.  Before the road bends, you catch a glimpse of the colorful, candy-like mountain in the distance.  I can't imagine what it would be like to just stumble upon Salvation Mountain.  Driving in the desert involves observations like:  "wow, look at that cactus," and,  "boy, is it hot out here," and "I wonder if there are rattlesnakes," not "hey, check out the brightly-colored mountian spouting Bible verse."  And that's why you have to see Salvation Mountain;  it's so wonderfully strange and alien.

Salvation Mountain is the work of one man with lots of paint and a simple message:  God is Love.  Originally, Leonard Knight thought he'd spread the word of God through a hot air balloon, because...you know... why not? 

He spent 10 years trying to raise the money for the balloon and then decided he would try and sew it together himself.   He began sewing in Nebraska, but the fabric rotted one winter, and when Leonard moved to Slab City he discovered his project wasn't salvageable.  It was time to give up the hot air balloon dream and figure out what to do next.  It occurred to him that he could paint a mountain into the landscape.  To that I just say: it's the desert.  Trippy ideas bounce off the land left and right.  One could attribute Leonard's dream to the desert heat or his pure evangelism, but either way I'm sure glad he stuck to it. 

Leonard estimates it's taken over 100,000 gallons of paint to make the mountain, which is constructed out of adobe and straw.  Leonard has worked on it year round for almost 30 years.  In the summer months, he works early in the morning and naps during the extreme heat.  If you visit, he'll be there giving tours, telling you about his mission, and posing for pictures. 

Leonard lives right at the base of Salvation Mountain, in a vintage truck with a makeshift cabin built on the back.  The truck is also painted in bold colors with Bible verses. Leonard has no electricity, water, or a bathroom.  He's off the grid, but has an entire mountain to show for it.

Tourists and residents of Slab City and Niland bring him food and paint.  Some even stick around to work with him for a couple of hours. 

I read that some years back, a dust up ensued over whether Salvation Mountain was an environmental hazard.  There's probably tons of lead on that thing.  Nothing much came of the controversy and in 2002, Senator Barbara Boxer placed Salvation Mountain on the Congressional Record as a national treasure.  Leonard must have told us this four or five times.  He's so proud that someone thinks it's a treasure.  

Leonard is 77 years old.  Salvation Mountain is now protected, but it's all the more special when you can see it with him. Go visit.  Bring him some paint or make a donation. 

Leonard Knight is an outsider artist, a missionary, and a classic dreamer.  You gotta love dreamers in the desert.

Sally Mann Documentary A Powerful Artistic Portrait

I just watched a new documentary called What Remains about the photographer Sally Mann.  Anyone interested in photography or the life and mind of an artist should watch this film.  It’s true I have a thing for artist documentaries, but I’m not so blinded by my addiction that I don’t see the good and the bad.  This is one of the best I’ve seen in a while. 

Mann is probably best known for a 1992 collection of photographs titled Immediate Family, which included some nude photographs of her children.  A real dust-up ensued over these images, with critics and conservatives crying child pornography.   Despite the controversy, the photographs in Immediate Family drew significant attention for combining romantic, pastoral qualities with the intimacies of family and childhood.  Time Magazine soon called her America’s greatest photographer. 

This documentary follows Mann through the creation of a new series of work called What Remains, which is about death and decay.  Mann is filmed mostly on her family farm in Lexington, Virginia where she does a lot of her photography and has an enviable studio. 

She reveals so much of her artistic process and family life in this documentary.  It’s a very intimate portrayal, to the point where the filmmaker was allowed to be present at dawn one morning when Mann and her husband are first waking up.  That filmmaker is Steven Cantor and it’s not the first time he’s turned his lens on Sally Mann.  He made a short about her Immediate Family series and the controversy.  The short is called Blood Ties and was nominated for an Oscar in 1994.  For a treat, it’s included in the What Remains DVD's special features. 

I particularly like what Mann had to say about southern artists, herself included.  She says they’re susceptible to myth, to a love of the land, and a commitment to the past.  She says what sets southern artists apart is their willingness to “experiment with dosages of romance.”  This, she claims,  would be “fatal for any postmodern artist” who’d get laughed right out of New York for such proclivities.   Having lived in the south and covered the arts for a good stretch, I think she nails that description.

What Remains is available April 22nd from Zeitgeist Films, a great resource for interesting documentaries and beautiful, auteur-driven feature films (Todd Haynes, Atom Egoyan).  I recently watched another documentary in their stable called Tierney Gearon:  The Mother Project.  It’s also about a female photographer, celebrated and famous, who also caused controversy with naked photographs of her children.  It’s a good documentary, but Gearon is such a vastly different subject than Mann; less thoughtful, more anxious, and slightly narcissistic.  She’s interesting for that combination of traits, but her personality and life experiences naturally set the tone for that film, which is completely different from the tone of What Remains. 

I guess that’s part of what I like about the Mann documentary.  It mirrors Mann’s personality and work.  It takes it’s time, soaking up the landscape, the shadows and quiet spaces, and makes room for reflection.  There’s a beautiful sequence where Mann cuts her husband’s hair, sitting outside on their land.  We learn a lot about their long life together, and the challenges they face.  It makes that simple moment of cutting his hair all the more powerful. 

Tom Fudge On The Horton Hears A Who! Controversy:  The Intersection Of Politics And Art

What do we hear when we hear a who?

By Tom Fudge 

Last week protestors caused a ruckus around the opening of a movie called Horton Hears a Who. The movie is based on a children’s book by the late Dr. Seuss, a one-time San Diego resident whose real name was Ted Geisel.  The demonstration was inspired by the story’s proclamation, by kind-hearted elephant Horton, that “a person’s a person, no matter how small.” Anti-abortion activists came to the movie’s premiere and handed out flyers afterwards, telling people that Horton’s statement explains why we need to protect the unborn.

The demonstration irked a few pro-choicers. But it didn’t bother me. I have no idea what Ted Geisel’s views on abortion were or whether he even gave the subject any thought. I do know that art speaks to different people in different ways, and the producer of the art is only half of the equation. Consumers make up the other half. And if Horton’s love of people “no matter how small” makes you think of a fetus, so be it.

Read more »

A Naked Woman House… With Pictures!

I was in Mexico this weekend and you won't believe what I stumbled upon!

You think your eyes are playing tricks on you, but they're not.  You are actually looking at a large nude torso of a woman with giant boobs.  Believe it or not, she is the home of an artist named Armando Muñoz Garcia.  He watches TV in her tummy and sleeps in her ta ta's.

This is one of the many things to love about Tijuana and Baja, California:  the spontaneous, organic, mixed-media, resourcefully constructed, unregulated, individualized, half-built, mashed up architecture.  It's so topsy turvey from our American way of life - the idea that something so significant as a home, the emblem of the American dream, can be toyed with in such a way.   I'm reminded of a show we did recently on These Days about homeowners' associations and the ridiculous rules they enforce.  I imagine a house like the one above would send some of those association board members into cardiac arrest. 

So here's what happened...we were driving along toward Puerto Nuevo and stopped so one of our passengers could do some roadside shopping.  I looked up on a hillside and saw what looked like a large face.  We got out of the car for a better view and realized the face might be attached to an entire body!  Obviously, one doesn't pass up such things, so we asked our fellow travelers to sit tight while we checked it out.  We then proceeded to cross three highways, climb some relatively steep inclines (in flip-flops) and hike up a little hill to find ourselves in front of the house of Armando Muñoz Garcia.  

Armando is a sculptor and painter who is also known for a 56-foot sculpture in Tijuana called  La Mona.  La Mona is also a dwelling, and I believe it's half-built.  She stands among a dense residential mix of homes and shacks built into the city's hillside.  I've read reports that many of the residences surrounding La Mona are squatter shacks, but I don't know that for sure.  I've seen La Mona from a distance, across a canyon, and she's something to behold.  Kind of like a Lady Liberty for Tijuana. 

Since La Mona, Armando has been busy building this residence.   He's spent the last 12 years working on her. Here's an even closer look...

Armando met us outside and seemed thrilled with our snapping pictures.  Not a shocker.  One assumes if you build a naked woman house, you're counting on some looky-loos.  We had to decline his offer for a tour because our guests, including three children, were waiting in a hot car below.  But Armando was kind enough to invite us back - an invitation I plan to take him up on as soon as possible.  Apparently, the structure is four stories - the living room and kitchen are in the tummy, the bedroom's in the chesty parts, and the head and hair will be his studio.  He plans to work on a flowing mass of hair next.

Here are the best directions I could find online.  Be sure to stop by and say hello to Armando.  He's charming and gracious and the house is crazy fun. 

I *Heart* Monsters

Stefan Bucher is an illustrator and designer living in Los Angeles.  His mission?  To draw a monster every day.  On his site, you can follow the daily monster project and watch a video of each drawing in the making (which is so interesting to watch).  Bucher has also invited visitors to make up stories featuring his monsters.  Some are twisted, others are funny.  This is one of those sites I just love - for the pure creativity and the oddball refuge it provides.  When people talk about the cream that will rise to the top in the sea of amateur websites, this one should rise for originality alone.  

Best Band Logos

Here's a list of the top 25 band logos of all time.  It's a good list, but the choices seem informed as much by good design as band popularity and influence. Obviously, the theory is that one leads naturally to the other.  But I'm sure there are some hardscrabble designers out there drafting innovative logos as I write this.  As for the Spinner list,  I do agree with some of their choices, especially Public Enemy, Black Flag and Bauhaus. 

I also found this more informative list, which has similar choices (The Stones, AC/DC, Yes, and The Who) but shares a lot more information about the designers behind the logos.  The post's author, also a designer, is Koldo Barroso and he writes: 

I have noticed that some of the best band logos are related to hard rock and heavy metal bands, such as AC/DC, Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Def Lepard, and Van Halen. For some reason, all of those bands put a special care in the visual aspect and lettering. Many of them had some of the best album cover art ever, like in the case of Iron Maiden and Meat Loaf. 

Hmmm...remember all those heavy metal boys in high school who sat in the back of class, making elaborate ink drawings on their blue, hardbound notebooks?   Drawings of fire-breathing dragons, swords, and women in metal bikinis with unbelievably impressive ....mammary powers? Gee, I wonder what happened to all of them?

What are your favorite band logos?

Some Reading To Launch Your Week

Are you a fan of Canadian pianist Glenn Gould(pictured right)?  Sony Classical recently issued "Glenn Gould: The Complete Original Jacket Collection," an 80-CD - yes, I said 80!!! -  limited edition boxed set of all the studio recordings the pianist made for Columbia and CBS Masterworks.  The price is $222, which is surprisingly cheap for all you get. 

Starbucks is defending its book choice despite evidence that the author fabricated parts of the story.  

This is funny.  The theater critic at St. Paul Pioneer Press doesn't like the latest play from the Guthrie Theater and publishes a negative review.  The Guthrie then takes out a full page ad for the play in the Pioneer Press.  The ad features a full review from the theater critic at the twin cities' alternative weekly, CityPages.  It was, no surprise, a positive review.  

Check out the photographs of artist Vee Spears.  Her collection of child portraits called The Birthday Party are mesmerizing.  She was inspired by watching children play at being adults.  She shoots on polaroid film and then does post-processing digitally. 

David Ulin of  the LA Times has an essay on rereading favorite books from one's youth - do they hold up?  When you reread as an adult, with more experience and a whole different life lens, certain once cherished books may still resonate, or they may lose their spark. 

And, finally, who knew the hugely influential economist John Maynard Keynes had such an adventurous sex life?  Evan Zimroth is currently working to decipher his sex diaries.  Yes, Keynes kept sex diaries - written with codes - and they are kept in the archives at King's College in Cambridge.  Isn't it just like those kinky economists to keep sex diaries about their conquests?  I mean, you've seen one economist sex diary, you've seen them all...  

Julian Schnabel On Arts Coverage

Sunday morning.  I'm watching CBS Sunday Morning - one of the most civilized programs on television - and Serena Altschul is interviewing painter and award-winning filmmaker Julian Schnabel.  He's talking about the scene in his film Basquiat where Christopher Walken, as an art critic, is interviewing Jean-Michel Basquiat, played by Jeffrey Wright.  The scene is a pretty damning portrayal of art critcs.  In the Sunday Morning interview, Schnabel continues his criticism, going after The New York Times arts section and its title: Arts & Leisure.

Schnabel says, "What do arts and leisure have in common?  It's an oxymoron."  I agree the conflation of arts and leisure, as well as arts and entertainment, is frustrating.  I did think it was ironic, however, that Schnabel was making the point that arts and leisure don't mix, all the while dressed in his signature pajamas.  

These Days Show on Southern California Museum Investigation

Today I produced an hour on the Southern California museum investigation.  You can listen to it here.  Our guests were Jason Felch, the investigative reporter for the LA Times who's been providing most of their coverage.  In fact, based on his piece yesterday on Robert Olson, it seems Olson is talking with abandon to the press.  It's quite a pathetic portrayal of Olson, talking to Felch in a stained undershirt, bare feet, and basically broken in spirit. 

Other guests on the show were Heath Fox, a former museum administrator (SDMA, MOPA) and now assistant dean at UCSD, Terressa Davis, Project Director for Heritage Watch, and Judith Bresler, an attorney and expert in cultural heritage law.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to include Lee Rosenbaum of CultureGrrl - only because I didn't have enough time in the hour.  She would have been great because she's been writing about the museum industry for so long and is well aquainted with investigations of this kind.  You should follow her coverage. 

Anyway, we covered a lot of ground this morning, providing the basic facts of the story, exploring what happens in museums when a donation is made, the difficulties of establishing provenance, how a looted item moves illegally from the excavation site across the border to a museum, and the international law governing the movement of antiquities.  

We also talked appraisals.  Remember, there are two important aspects to this investigation.  One is the theft of art from source countries which ends up in museums or collections.  The other aspect is really about tax fraud:   dealers who sell a piece to a collector or donor at one price - say $1,000 - but then connects that buyer to a shady apprasier who will inflate the appraisal to something like $5,000.  When the donor then donates the piece to a museum, with the inflated appraisal, he or she can report a $5,000 donation to the IRS and get a bigger tax write-off.    

Jason Felch says we've only begun to see the fall-out of this investigation.  Terressa Davis said the same thing when she and I talked yesterday. Terressa also sent the following pictures from different raided temples and sites in Cambodia.  Though the pieces under investigation are from Thailand, she said the look of raided historical sites is pretty similar.   

Above is the looted aftermath of Bronze Age cemetaries in northwestern Cambodia.  It looks looks like the moon.

Above is a looted Cambodian temple called Preah Khan.

This is a looted Cambodian temple called Phnom Banan. 

You get the idea.