This is a photograph of Salvador Dali & Walt Disney taken in the 1940s. I am guessing that it is in California.
:
Art Game II
This is a water colour painting by my cousin, Martha Outt Harns, done in 1987. She is now 87 years old & sadly, lives in a residential facility for Alzheimer’s Disease patients. I wanted to post this as part of the Art Game series as a tribute to the body of work that she left us. This painting shows some degree of Thai dance culture, in terms of the hand & finger positions, but the costume design, as I understand it, is her interpretation or composite of similar costumes from South East Asia.
Art Game III
This is a result of my point & click camera. The Art Game series has inspired me to record the art I see around me in San Francisco on a daily basis. Not all art has to be within the walls of a museum or a palace. It can be part of your daily life, if you let it. I call this one Kitty Cat Sidewalk, not knowing who created it, nor what (if any) name was given to it. It was taken not very far from where I work.
CODA: I had a funny, sweet, naughty, smartest-cat-in-the-world. Her name was Marnie, after the Alfred Hitchcock movie. To the best of my ability to know, the only thing she ever shoplifted was my heart. She was in my life for 15 years, before she died. I miss her very much. To Marnie, my little meow-face!
Art Game IV
Atlas Stands Unnoticed Before The Holy Wisdom
I started this painting in 2007. It was rejected. I repainted it, after years of pain, in 2010, understanding it was growth which caused both the pain & the release of the cause of that pain. Now, the painting is free & in so being, it has released me from much sadness.
Copy this magic link to your TEXT WIDGET : <a href=”http://allaboutlemon.com/art-game/” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://allaboutlemon.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/art-game-logo-allaboutlemon1.gif” border=”0″ /></a>
Art Game V Jay Defeo/The Rose
This monumental painting by artist Jay Defeo is one of the most astonishing & spiritually moving works of art I have ever experienced in my life. I first became aware of it several years ago by taking a class called Women In Art History, City College, San Francisco. It's history of having to be removed from an apartment here in San Francisco, due to the eviction of the artist & the story of having the bay window that was it's original backdrop setting removed & a crane used to hoist it to the street-level moving van added to my intrigue of the work. I was impressed by the photographs I had seen & by what I had read about the struggles of the artist. But NOTHING, NOTHING at all could have prepared me for the emotional & spiritual experience of seeing it in real life, real time, minus the bay window that was it's original backdrop. Much has been written about this work. The only thing I can add, with a tone of urgency is: Please, take the time to see this for yourself while it is back in San Francisco, at the Museum of Modern Art. It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Photography can certainly show you what it looks like, but you need to experience this in person, as an active viewer, in order to be fully overwhelmed. My paltry words do not do it justice, not at all!
Art Game VI
Art Game VI: Andy Warhol-Knockoff
This is a painting of Andy Warhol @ a cafe entrance on Divisadero Street, San Francisco. I liked the idea of it being more or less street art, not in a museum & not costing several millions of dollars. It's not signed. Post Mortem would make that a bit of a challenge, even freaky. Calling it a knockoff is a tip of the hat to Jean-Claude Van Damme & to Warhol, since they both did the same thing over & over & over. One was a genre artist, the other is an genre actor. Duplication must be in the wrist & the timing. Makes the term monetize seem rather quaint. Enjoy!
Art Game VI
No Smoking Sign. This is the international standard glyph for "No Smoking." It is simple & well designed, making it's simple message obvious to all who can see. Why is it still being ignored by people? This is a question for which there is no simple answer. I hope that by posting this work of functional art, the message can be repeated: You deserve to have a full life that does not include destroying your lungs or harming the environment. Think: if every tobacco field were turned into a forest, how good that would be for the planet! That, alone, is a very exciting concept. Help make it a reality!
Her Imperial Highness, The Princess Melita Bonaparte, has an urgent appeal to make to all DIVERGENTS–Appeal to the Highest Powers to save your beloved DIVERGENT STANDEEE from being tossed into the DUMPSTER! It is bound to happen–that is the sad ‘company policy’ that Her Imperial Highness has learned from her informants.
Princess Melita Bonaparte has always known that she inherited being DIVERGENT from the late Princess Marie Bonaparte. She studied Freud & then she read Veronica Roth’s book to prepare for being thrown alive into the dumpster! Only you can save the standee from this fate!
ONLY YOU can help. Princess Melita has done everything she can to help preserve & protect these works of art for your enjoyment, and for the enjoyment of future collectors.
Princess Melita Bonaparte has no hands but yours. Her heart she gives freely, but you must provide her your hands. She is your passionate advocate, your Monarch of Absolute Love.
Be Dauntless, in your support for DIVERGENT!
Princess Melita Bonaparte, now restored to the Imperial Line, read DIVERGENT cover to cover-pleading with theatre managers to save the standee from the Dumpsters. Can we have a stay of execution?
Coming 21 March 2014.
Princess Melita Bonaparte found her brother, Prince Roland Bonaparte II, as part of the DIVERGENT STANDEE. Single handed, an Army of One, she attempted to preserve & protect this wonderful treasure from ending up in the AMC Dumpster. She has no hands but yours!
The newest addition to my active vocabulary is ‘standee.’ In the film world standees (pluralform) are the generally oversized, free-standing photographic (and sometimes accessory-laden) promotional items that serve to advertise films @ the multiplex theatres. AMC 1000 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco is one such venue. I imagine that some film festivals of newly released “A List” motion pictures have them. Some of them may be filtered down to some repertory houses that might have room for them.
By the grace of a horror film–so January 2014 of me-Paranormal Activities: The Marked Ones, I have become enchanted with them. I see these items as having potential for collectors, those with the green stuff & the space, and those of us who have a particular interest in one or two items. Other possibilities for re-use could include schools, kindergartens-even the opposite end of the age spectrum, assisted living facilities, might be good repositories for some items. It would be a valid re-use, and provide a charming, if somewhat temporary second home for some of them. It would be nice to see the studios engage in some planning that would prolong the shelf-life of these items. Tossing them into the dumpster is just another symptom of American waste.
The Original “Standee” for the upcoming Muppets Film MOST WANTED
This is the original version of the Disney Muppets film standee for Most Wanted. Here, you can see the image of the ever-brilliant Tina Fey.
At the very least, the theatre chains could at least keep them up whilst the films are still showing. It seems to brutal of the managers to toss this art-form into the dumpster in such a premature fashion.
After slight editing, there may be two characters you may have seen before?
Alas, Tina Fey was headed out by Her Imperial Highness, The Princess Melita Bonaparte. Also, Captain Spaulding makes an appearance. Beneath him lurks Princess Melita’s Twin Brother, Prince Roland Bonaparte II. They got their heads together @ 1000 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco. Keeping your head off my shoulders allowed me to photograph these. Usually, it’s due to the ‘kindness of strangers.’
YOU TUBE TRAILER FOR THE MUPPETS: MOST WANTED
The Muppets have been around for a very long time & have engaged some of the most talented humans of their era.
GAGNANT DE LA FAMILLE BONAPARTE ASSOCIATION meilleur film de l’Année 2013
Both Their Imperial Highnesses, Princess Melita Bonaparte & her recently discovered twin brother, Prince Roland Bonaparte II, voted unanimously for this prestigious award to be presented to cast & crew for this wondrous cinematic achievement. There was still hiding & confusion in the process of each woman to come to terms of who they were on an individual level & how they were perceived by others & how they eventually integrated the reality of being lesbian within & without. But the viewer undertands they ultimately got there. It has a far different sort of pathos than did the American film that, on a huge & heroic scale, first broke through these barriers (Brokeback Mountain), but it succeeded in a believable manner in showing that life is not a fairy tale, and that nothing is static. “Happily ever after,” that famous line in fairy tales, and eerily recounted in the homily provided by the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the wedding rites of the doomed marriage of the Prince of Wales & Lady Diana Spence applies to all of us, no matter our religion (or lack thereof), language, cultural background, or orientation.
Being a couple is difficult, no matter what the situation.
There has been much already well written about this amazing film. I think one key word is believability. The characters were written not to be larger than life nor other worldly, but a combination of the complex & mundane of urban life in the Western world, in this case Lille, France.
No matter how hard we may wish to try, some things are just not meant to be. This film deals with this issue, not through the back door, but right on through the front door. It is difficult to surrender to that, and often frustrating to “settle,” but often times that is what is required in order to survive. Friendship & mutual respect, given enough time, can overcome the unintended wounds inflicted by romance, by passion.
After the summer turns to autumn in our lives, we can (if we are open to it) see that & accept it. I believe the actors & film makers did that with a rare grace & dignity, seldom afforded within the same boundaries in which is fully shared the erotic nature of life. All of this was treated with kindness.
Interspersed within this framework are many references to art, philosophy, careers, business, ambition, children…but I have to confess, that my favourite part was the introduction of raw oysters by Emma to Adele. When she told Emma that she thought they had the texture of snotballs I screamed laughing. No one else thought it was funny, and days later, I am still thinking about how, when (as snotnosed kids) when one of us got a horrible cold, and hocked up a good one, we’d say “Fresh oyster for you.” The other ‘food’ confession was that Adele ate her scabs as a little girl. No one else laughed at that one, either, and it was funny. These are the sort of mundane & silly confessions that two people who think they are finding a mate will share with each other. It was in the small things that the greatness of this film was revealed, the plain day to day humanity.
Go have your own transformation, and enjoy shell-fish on your own & at your leisure. You owe it to yourself to try something new to celebrate this artistic achievement!
You Tube Video of Blue Is the Warmest Color (La vie d’Adèle)
San Franpsycho is the store for your unique make-over. It carries many hand designed items that have a twist & an edge that you won’t find in mainline stores–the very name of their business foretells a shopping experience going beyond a ‘one size fits all’ mode of thinking. You can get your skull poster right here.
Here is the address information for this store of unusual & fun merchandise.
Sometimes there is even a delivery truck emblazoned with their distinguished logo & branding parked in front. I don’t see it too frequently, so I am guessing that they keep busy delivering their products with the unique take on the Goth look.
Here are some point & click shots of the delivery truck.
This would be almost as much fun driving around town in as it would be driving a hearse. The design is just plain crazy. How could you not just love this?
They replaced eye candy with skull candy, well, sort of–another detail of the delivery truck.
Just bone up on your parking skills & you could be their delivery person!
They did a fine job in terms of their branding–the logo is simple, yet very identifiable as being ‘in The City.’ They find clever ways of repeating their logo on various products for the young & young at heart.
Well designed & used on many of their products. “If you are going to San Franpsycho, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair…”
Show your inner core, the one we all have to deal with sooner or later.
Hang loose & celebrate your spinal column with some spare ribs.
This skull poster was one of the first things I bought @ San Franpsycho. It was just the perfect thing for Halloween & Dia de los Muertos. As Mae West once provocatively said, “He’ll be back.”
The fellows who worked in this store were quite nice & helpful. Never met a Goth I did not like. Not sure if they use this term for their products, but it seems to fit. They were friendly, let me browse the store without making me feel as if I were an intruder & I found some fun things that fit into my budget. So, if ever you are in a Gothic mode of dress, here is a good place to stimulate your energy & the economy.
Drink in the logo–if you are a vampire, you now have a place for your overflow on a good night.
If inclined, you may co-ordinate your shirts with your drinking glasses or vampire storage. There are always lots of non-conformist possibilities @ San Franpsycho.
For petroleum-free transportation, check out their skateboards–They have retained the logo, but embellished the City with cursive calligraphy, straight from Charlemagne’s Era!
You won’t have to worry about expired transfers when riding one of these beauties.
You can show your brand loyalty from head to toe.
A cap that would tempt Edith Beale in her All American Flag waving choreography!
This is where they do a lot of their shirt artwork, right in the store.
What goes into Goth–the untold story behind the fun & ready-to-wear logo!
His Imperial Highness, Prince Roland Bonaparte II, wearing a creation from San Franpsycho.
Prince Roland Bonaparte II as shown in Dia de los Muertos, 2013-San Franpsycho style. Photograph by Karen Latunski
Beneath the disguise of Captain Spaulding, is Prince Roland Bonaparte II, brother & arch-rival to Princess Melita Bonaparte. His Imperial Highness, Prince Roland, has kept a low profile, mostly auditioning for inconspicuous ‘extra’ work @ Paramount Studios.
He was threatened by a metermaid, he claims–but we really think he wanted to cut a piece of pie, while distracting the staff of The Green Chile Kitchette on Church Street. He is begging to be a spokesman for the PIE shack, or even for laundry detergent.
He thought that no one would ever spot him in this disguise, that he could be left alone, anonymous. Such was not to be.
A vanilla milkshake for Captain Spaulding, in real life, Prince Roland Bonaparte II.
Captain Spaulding (in reality His Imperial Highness, Prince Roland Bonaparte) stalking Princess Melita Bonaparte who, once again, auditioned
for a part that had already been cast. She will never learn–but we can well understand her terror of Prince Roland!
Photograph of Prince Roland Bonaparte II as Captain Spaulding by Carmen Patron
Thomas Outt 