From the Mundane to the Ridiculous

Global Warming at Your Service
This year the weather in western Massachusetts has been pretty incredible. Today the thermometer outside our kitchen window recorded 89 degrees. Brandon Butcher, our favorite local weatherman, said that the temperatures have not been so high since last August. In fact it felt like August weather except it wasn't as humid.

So the garden is coming back to life. This week two of our flowering trees started blooming. I tried to figure out when this usually happens and think it's at least two weeks earlier than usual.

Of course we can't really plant anything yet because until some time late in May, there is still the possibility of frost occurring.

We are in zone 5 which has temps down to -20 F in winter. It really doesn't get that cold (usually), so probably we would be 5a (or 5b, I can never remember) which gets down only to -10 F or so.

Anyway, it's pretty unusual to have it be so warm so early. And it makes it challenging to decide whether to work in the garden or the studio.

I figure that whichever one I pick, I'll probably be wishing to be in the other. But, hey, that's me all over.

Contender for World's Largest Brush Pile - home of birds, chipmunks, insects, snakes and God knows what-all.

The ravine and river down behind our yard, just starting to blush pink and green.

Global GaGa
So let me tell you what else I've been doing, I read a profile in New York magazine about Lady GaGa, and since I had never seen any of her videos, I looked her up on You Tube. Well, now I'm hooked and I have those songs running through my head.

She is the love child of Madonna and Elton John and remarkable for the speed of her fame and her daring attack on the pop music world at a mere age 24. The telephone video with Beyonce (9 1/2 minutes long) is pretty mind boggling in its intricacy as well as its themes. It's very entertaining. I find it interesting that she portrays herself as gay (or at least bi) when she is apparently straight. I guess that makes for more titillation.

She is certainly ready to try anything. She has a great team of stylists and a wonderful video director in Jonas Akerlund, who directed 12 videos for Madonna and has now done two for GaGa. The videos are full of product placement and brands - the route to today's success. Here's a link to the New York magazine GaGa Look Book. 

Still from the Telephone video. (Note the sunglasses made from lit cigarettes.)

Although some say her music is boring and not a match for the uniqueness of her appearance (or should I say styling), her songs are catchy. (Why else would they be rattling around in my brain interminably?) She has been playing piano since she was a young girl and has a much better voice than Madonna.

And just in case you wondered about her popularity:

"In a poll on Time's website, the public can vote on who they think the most influential people of 2010 are. Lady Gaga has skyrocketed from No. 54 to No.1. She is followed by Michelle Obama at 14, Snooki at 16, and Beyoncé, who is woefully underranked, at 19. Also underranked by these standards are Marc Jacobs at No. 99 and Anna Wintour at No. 122. [Time]"

So You Think You Can Write?

I know, I know. This blog is supposed to be about art - and it is - but it's also about thinking. So here's what I'm thinking...

Forget it, Daphne. I've found someone who can really write about lesbians - and about anything else. Her name is Ariel Levy and she caught my attention with her funny, informative and nostalgic piece: Lesbian Nation: When gay women took to the road, in the March 2nd issue of The New Yorker. (It's about a small tribe of lesbian separatists known as the Van Dykes who travelled around the U.S. in the 1970s seeking radical empowerment and escape from society's "testosterone poisoning" in womyn's lands. It brought me back to my one excursion to the New England Women's Music Retreat - a festive occasion, to say the least.)

My new writing idol is a staff writer for The New Yorker, formerly a contributing editor at New York Magazine (my other standby) and has written for other publications such as Vogue and Slate (about glamour and good looks on The L Word). She has authored two books, most recently Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture about pornography, feminism, sex and female behavior in the 21st century. (See Ariel on youtube talking about how pornography has influenced women's body image.)

Sorry to say, Daphne, but she's also a looker - one might even say glamorous - and yes, she's married, to Amy Norquist. You can read about their wedding or, as she termed it, "a party about love," as described by the "bride" (her quotes) in NY Magazine.

Ariel Levy, right, and Amy Norquist on their wedding day in Bluemont, Virginia.
(Photo: Thad Russell)

I do remember reading a great article by Ariel last September in the New Yorker about Cindy McCain, not that I remembered the name of the author, but this was the only place I had ever read all those facts about Cindy's background, interests, etc. that the campaign was certainly not putting forward. I loved it and now I understand why I enjoyed it so much.

So, there you go, Daphne. If the NY Times had any sense, they would give you the boot and beg Ariel to pen a few lines whenever they felt the need to expound on any aspect of lesbian sensibility, fashion or intellectual perspicacity.

Buh-bye!

It's All Connected

Man, I didn't know what I was getting into when I started untangling that ball of wax containing Madoff and Merkin. I don't claim to be cutting edge, but this stuff has even reached me, way out here on the periphery. What brought it all together for me was the New York Magazine March 2nd issue with Bernie Madoff on the cover made up like a cross between the Joker and Grandpa Munster.

I became quite interested in Madoff because a family I had known for decades lost a sizeable fortune that had all been invested with him. Since I had been receiving a small retainer from the family for doing some work at home, I indirectly was affected by Bernie's ponzi scheme. My retainer stopped when everything went up in smoke. See how wide the ripples spread? Who would think that what Madoff did would affect me since I never saved or invested anything in my life?

Then there was Daphne Merkin, whom I wrote about last week. Daphne thought she understood lesbian "glamour" because she spotted Rachel Maddow wearing makeup. Well, Daphne's brother, J. Ezra Merkin, and Bernie were "like this" because J. Ezra had been turning over huge amounts to Bernie to "invest" on behalf of several charities. Of course, J. Ezra cut a nice slice off the top of the money going over to Bernie as his share for directing the flow Bernie's way.

Now that Bernie has come clean about the giant FU he's been giving his "investors" since maybe even the '60s, J. Ezra has not only lost $billions on his clients' behalf, but on his own. What makes it even more interesting to me is that there's an art connection: J. Ezra is believed to be THE biggest private collector of Mark Rothko's work according to Lindsay Pollock of Bloomberg News. Reportedly, the dozen or so giant Rothko's (such as 9x15 feet) that he owns are worth $150-200 million and Merkin is getting calls from collectors worldwide who want to buy the pieces that are undoubtedly going on the block sooner or later. *

*Another piece of the Madoff trivia puzzle that I couldn't figure was also answered when I read that Merkin's art advisor, Ben Heller, is the stepfather of Kyra Sedgwick, wife of Kevin Bacon. I couldn't understand how Kevin, a nice Boston Irish Catholic boy, got mixed up with Uncle Bernie and lost plenty of money, but now it all makes sense - Kevin took investment advice from Heller.

This Rothko is owned by the National Gallery, "White Center", 1950

Another Rothko owned by the National Gallery, Untitled, 1949.

Isn't it odd that in all the time Bernie Madoff's been doing "business", the SEC didn't catch on that he never made any trades and that his "investments" were a complete sham? Sunday night 60 Minutes had an interview with Harry Markopolos, a financial analyst and fraud investigator from Boston, who provided the SEC with information about Madoff's fraudulent activities several times dating back to 2000. That interview was powerful stuff and if I had lost money with Madoff, I'd be suing the SEC not only for negligence but for potential cronyism. What a stink! (It's probably just as well that I had no money with Madoff because now I'd be throwing away legal expenses too.)

The latest that I heard this a.m. is that Madoff claims he should retain his penthouse plus $62 million. NY Magazine was right. He is the Joker.