Gs, Spotted

My friend Goo has a real tattoo


She always knows just what to do


She looks through her hair like she doesn’t care


What she does best is stand and stare


She can play the drums set too...

Goo, Sonic Youth, 1990

Man Orders Underwear; Chaos Ensues

A friend (let’s call him “Chandler’s Playdaddy” for the sake of privacy) received the following notice from an Amazon seller:
“Just a short note to let you know that your item was gently taken off The Green Fox’s hermetically-sealed shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and carefully placed on a royal purple satin pillow as it was lovingly brought to our Readiness Center. 
There, a team of 27 employees meticulously inspected your item and polished it up to get it in the best possible condition prior to shipping.
Our packing specialist from Japan lit a scented candle and a hush fell over the crowd as she gently placed your item into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy. Then, cheers erupted all around.
Afterward, we all had a wonderful celebration and the whole party marched down the street to the post office. There, the entire village assembled to sing and dance in joyful merriment, waving Bon Voyage to your package. 
Today, the package is on its way to you in our private jet Green Fox One, under the watchful eye of a crack team of ex-Navy Seals to guarantee its safety. 
I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at The Green Fox. We sure did! Your picture is on our wall as the Customer of the Year. We’re all exhausted, but can’t wait for you to come back to The Green Fox!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
—
Sigh.”

F-Words

Give ’Em ’El

El, El Cholo, El Cid, El Diablo, El Dorado, El Greco, El Jefé, Elle MacPhereson, 
Elle Magazine, El Niño, El Paso, El Salvador, El Torito, El Vez, LL Cool J, L.L. Bean...

Renoir-Esque Proportions

Renoir in the 20th Century, which opens tomorrow at the Los Angeles County Musuem of Art, examines the art of the last 30 years of the artist's career. 
In addition to being a master painter among his contemporaries, Renoir was also a master of changing course. His early works, which depicted everyday scenes, were astonishing in their depiction of light, luminosity and shadow; in the 1880s, his style evolved away from modernism and revisited the classical techniques of Renaissance masters. And then from the 1890s onward, he re-adapted some of his earliest techniques, including outlines that dissolve rather than delineate, and applied them to domestic scenes and grand-scale nudes of a fleshiness rivaled perhaps only by those of Rubens. (Since the Venus of Willendorf is a sculpture, it doesn't carry any weight -- so to speak -- in this comparison.) 
He was committed to painting, even if it meant suffering. Late in life he became bound to a wheelchair by arthritis, and was so afflicted that an assistant had to place a brush in his hand so he could paint. 
This special-ticket exhibition will be on view through May 9, 2010.
Dancer with Tambourine, 1909, Pierre-August Renoir


Update 02.17.2010: Renoir in the 20th Century, was reviewed by Los Angeles Time art critic Christopher Knight. His blog post includes a number of descriptive terms, including the following:
hidebound
cloying
corny
fudged
manipulation
flabby


Update 02.19.2010: Renoir in the 20th Century, was covered by Time Magazine’s Richard Lacayo in an article, La Vie En Rose. Here are a few of his most illustrative comments:
“Pierre-Auguste Renoir went out in a blaze of kitsch.”
“ . . . cupcakes don't get much more scrumptious than this.”

“ . . . the old man's influential wet dream of classical form . . . ”

“For a time, Renoir worked with figures so strongly outlined that they could have been put down by Ingres with a jackhammer.”

“It's a fine line between charming and insipid . . . ”

Look On The Bright Side

With what appears to be equal nods to John Ford and Albert Camus, this 1970s Levi’s commercial, The Stranger, wrestles with alienation, bold vision and social change. Not to spoil the plot, but it polyester is a key factor. (Thanks for forwarding, Sam!)

On a peripheral note, several of Clint Eastwood’s best westerns, including The Outlaw Josey Wales, Pale Rider, and The Unforgiven will be screening during LACMA’s Weekend Series: 
February 12  7:30 pm Dirty Harry
February 12  9:25 pm Tightrope
February 13  7:00 pm The Outlaw Josey Wales
February 13  9:25 pm Pale Rider
February 19  7:30 pm Bronco Billy
February 19  9:40 pm Honkytonk Man
February 20  7:00 pm Unforgiven
February 20  9:25 pm White Hunter, Black Heart
February 26  7:30 pm Bird

Alphabet: Don’t Cook Tonight, Call Chicken Delight

“My name, if you must know, is vla-DEE-mir, to rhyme with redeemer…” — Vladimir Nabokov, as quoted in his New York Times obituary, July 5, 1997.

Alphabet: C Some More