Book launch!

Posted on March 6, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

Please pardon the overt self-promotion, it’s just that Book Launch Day comes so seldom these days.

Anyway, and intended for a rather narrow audience, we introduce today Strategies for Training Excellence. Available now, as usual, with our good friends over at Smashwords, and also over at the Kindle Store.

Self-promotion nearing completion: if you find yourself needing to teach adult courses, seminars, training of any kind – my book has got you covered. It’s cheap, dirt cheap, but don’t let that fool you. It’s exhaustively researched, proven in the field and written the best way I know how.

And there the self-promotion ends. Not a moment too soon either. Let us wash away the stain of this awkwardness with a dose of cute puppy.

Posted in New Post | Tagged , | Leave a comment

A tradition of gore

Posted on March 3, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

Bullfighting is bloodsport. Let’s set aside euphemism and accept that fact from the outset.

There’s never a reprieve, nor any chance of a languid, bloodless match. The sands of the corrida will always turn red. Each and every time a bull, a horse or a man – sometimes all three – will suffer, bleed and die.

Last October, matador Juan José Padilla suffered a horrific goring that cost him an eye and sent shockwaves through the bullfight world. On Sunday, March 4 he’s back in the ring, eye-patch and questionable depth perception and all, for his first post-injury bullfight.

The passion that brings him back is difficult to comprehend, even for some Spaniards. But every Spaniard understands this is one of those seminal events, like the famous mano a mano spectacles of the last century (where rival matadors would tour the country in highly choreographed tournaments) – that transfixes the Spanish-speaking and bullfight-appreciating worlds, and ensures bullfighting will never die.

And it probably won’t, despite the efforts of groups like PETA. In 2010 the semi-autonomous region of Catalonia became the first mainland Spanish territory to outlaw bullfighting, but its doubtful that’s the start of a trend.

Because bullfighting, throughout southern Spain, is ingrained. It’s a way of life. Foreigners and outsiders can come to understand it, but only through years of immersion and cultural and linguistic fluency like Hemingway mastered before he treated the subject fictionally, in the Sun Also Rises, and as a journalist, in Death in the Afternoon and The Dangerous Summer.

Of course by then, he was no longer an outsider. For most of the rest of us, we outsiders, there’s little such chance of learning, understanding, in any way appreciating bullfighting. We see blood, we see slaughter, we see an incomprehensible enthusiasm fueled by something we think is supposed to be repellent.

Maybe we should also try to see a wider view, one not so colored by our own cultural preferences. The signficance for Spain of bullfighting is obvious and undeniable. Something has made la corrida a bedrock of Spanish character. This alone argues for it as a legacy from antiquity. And if we follow other clues from elsewhere in the Mediterranean, we can guess that some form of the sport goes back millennia.

But whether or not bullfighting pre-dates the founding of Rome, it seems sure it’s here for now, in Spain and elsewhere, for the foreseeable future.

We outsiders can get used to that, or picket with PETA, or we can gnash our teeth then ignore it. It’s possible though not likely we can even bring ourselves, through cultural curiosity, to appreciate something about bullfighting – perhaps something about what bullfighting means to Spain.

Maybe here’s where we can start, and it’s maybe even somewhere that Spain and the Minoan bull-leapers from antiquity can meet us halfway: the corridas de touras of Portuguese bullfighting:

Posted in New Post | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Davy Jones Dec. 30 1945 – Feb. 29 2012

Posted on February 29, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

Hey hey I’m a monkees fan. Always have been, even if I haven’t always been willing to admit it. Davy Jones died of a heart attack at age 66, just like a thousand other grand-dads did today. But somehow Davy is always going to be an awkward yet velvet-voiced English teenager, happily transplanted into Marsha Brady’s world; right where we needed and right when. Wouldn’t have wanted to live in a world without the Monkees, and I thank the late Mr. Jones for seeing that I didn’t have to.

Posted in New Post | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Weaponizing the culture wars

Posted on February 24, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

The culture wars are, and have been, a charred and cratered part of our political landscape. The divisions between church and state, between private life and the public commons, are becoming ever more blurry and ever more contentious.

Would it be alarmist to say we’re nearing civil-war levels of disagreement here? Probably so…but only just. The fact is, every partisan and culture warrior is soul-deep convinced that his or her side has a monopoly on truth and propriety, and is equally convinced of the criminally wrong-headedness of the other side. That’s a recipe for a  fast-simmering conflict if I’ve ever seen one.

But just in time a powerful new weapon is being deployed, one that simultaneously gets results and (hopefully) de-escalates the incipient violence. That weapon is humor.

Don’t misunderstand: comedians have always been front-line soldiers in the culture wars; just ask Lenny Bruce and George Carlin. But what happened this week is an absolute game-changer in how comedy (and a touch of public scorn) can marshal timely, needed change.

What happened was, the phrase “transvaginal ultrasound” became a punchline.

This was in response to a bill in the Virginia state legislature, that would mandate that every woman seeking an abortion first undergo an ultrasound. The purpose of the requirement is, clearly, to induce second thoughts (or at least crippling guilt) upon any woman who sees her fetus on the sonagram screen.

Several other states, including Texas and Ohio, already have similar laws on the books or in development. The Virginia bill, however, was the first that specifically called for ‘high-definition’ ultrasounds, presumably to produce clearer, more guilt-inducing images.

But there’s only one way of producing such images: internal, or transvaginal ultrasound, which requires the insertion of the transducer wand pictured above.

The reaction from the Pro-Choice side was predictable, and loud: the procedure was compared to state-mandated rape, and was said to be part of an ongoing and increasingly strident attack on women’s health.

And so it went. The protestations might have had merit, but they didn’t get much of a sympathetic ear – not in Virginia, at least. But then a funny thing happened, literally.

On the Daily Show, Jon Stewart quipped that “Transvaginal Ultrasound” was the name of a jazz-fusion band he’d once seen in concert. And Amy Poehler, appearing on Saturday Night Live, said that Transvaginal is her favorite airline. “I have so many miles on Transvaginal that they upgrade me to ladybusiness.”

Some might say they were making light of a serious situation. Perhaps, but you can’t argue with results. Virginia Governer Bob McDonnell, who had previously supported the proposal, now says he wasn’t aware of its invasive requirements. As of Wednesday, he’d convinced the GOP leadership in the legislature to withdraw the bill.

It’s all but certain Virginia will press forward with a re-worded version of the law, this time calling for external ultrasounds. Thus, neither side can claim full victory here.

But in leveraging comedy and mass media for the purposes of ridicule, to keep a misbegotten law from taking effect, a certain class of culture warriors has taken this conflict to a new level – arguably a much better one.

Which brings us full circle, perhaps in more ways than one. It’s said that in Celtic-age Ireland, a class of poetic druids called Bards were often called upon to confront corrupt monarchs with scathing satires and scornful songs. Just a verse or two was usually enough to raise blemishes, even physical illness, and often drove offending kings from power.

If the modern-day Bards are half as effective, then our continuing culture wars are going to be entertaining indeed.

Posted in New Post | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Art as magic

Posted on February 18, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

The best art forms present themselves with just a hint, maybe more than a hint, of the mystical.
This has always been so, and you can still see it in the unearthly realism and perspective that Leonardo was painting five centuries ago.

But the best of the best art forms are created anew. They show us magic we’ve never seen before.

Thus we bring you the work of Shigeo Fukuda and Brandon McConnell, two artist-magicians committed to altering everything you think you know about the creative process.

Minds, prepare to be blown.

Posted in New Post | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Whitney Houston, August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012

Posted on February 12, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

We can speculate, and most of us probably already are. Whitney Houston’s excesses and over-the-top lifestyle were her cultural calling-cards for the latter part of her career.

Did they lead to her death? That question will probably be answered in a few days, so I see no need to dwell on it now. The how and why of her passing pale in comparison to the when. She was only 48, and that’s far too young to go.

RIP Whitney Houston, and thanks for the music.

Posted in New Post | Tagged | Leave a comment

Fathermucker!

Posted on February 6, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

Author Greg Olear is talented, funny and kind enough to share his platform with fellow scribes.

“Fathermucker” isn’t an expletive (at least not really); it’s the name of Greg’s 2011 novel, and his hilarously unerring blog. Both book and blog look at the challenges, rewards and pitfalls of 21st century parenting.

Realizing that some of those fellow scribes might be able to contribute two cents (give or take) to the parenting discussion, Greg frequently turns Fathermucker.com over to guest bloggers. The Deconstruction has been proud to see some of its good friends appear under Greg’s broken-lollie header.

And now it’s our turn. The Deconstruction (or more specifically, Pat Worden) will be guest-Fathermuckering this Tuesday, February 7th. Head on over and check it out, and be sure to read the entire site, it’s all good stuff. And buy some of Greg’s books, while you’re at it. A fathermucker’s gotta eat, after all.

Posted in New Post | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Liveblog: Superbowl XLVI

Posted on February 5, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

So what have we here? What we have here is a team from Boston that claims to represent an entire region, and a team from New Jersey that claims to be from New York.

Schizophrenia Bowl? It very well might be. After all, the QB from that Jersey team seems to be perpetually stuck in the shadows of his father and brother; one solution might be to bring home another Superbowl ring. So in that pursuit, where does he find himself today? Inside his brother’s home stadium. That’s sibling rivalry writ large.

The opposing QB doesn’t have such problems. He’s just faced with the daily horror of seeing what a supermodel looks like first thing in the morning.

We could continue to ridicule (in fact, we will)…but the fact remains that today’s match-up is a near-exact clone of 2008′s Superbowl XLII. That’s evidence of further schizophrenia but we can forgive that. Because the 2008 game, which the Giants took by 3, was one of the best Superbowls football games sporting events THINGS we have ever seen. And we want more.

Kickoff’s off in five hours, give or take. Let the excitement build to fever pitch. Then return here for the rootenist tootenist football liveblogging you’ll see this lifetime. No need to watch the game, the Deconstruction will have you covered, play by play.

Until then. For now, let the pregaming commence.

6:22 pm: Okay, let’s do this thang…

6:25: “Coin toss ceremony”. Really? I love this game but damn does it take itself a little too seriously.

6:29: If Hyundai is any indication, then we can expect some damned silly commercials. Don’t mind at all that I was up getting a cold brewskie then.

6:31: My 3 year old just called him “Eli Manic.” Out of the mouths of babes…

6:34: Eli is throwing just fine, thanks. So why all the running?

6:35: That’s what I’m talking about. Throw the ball, get a first down.

6:37: Second sack. Don’t hold the ball, Eli.

6:39: Oh lordy, a vampire-specific car commercial. How did we not see this coming?

6:40: Wow. A safety as punishment for Tom Brady’s cowardly throw-away. Nice!

6:45: Back to the Giants. This is how we play football.

6:46: Ahmad Bradshaw just ran about an eighth of a mile a hair’s breadth away from being out of bounds.

6:49: Whoa…

6:50: The Pats lose a chance at a turnover by having too many men on the field. Wtf?

6:51: Touchdown! The Giants are dominating this game.

6:54: New rule: I drink a craft beer every time I see a Bud Light Platinum commercial. That’ll show em.

6:55: And I drink a shot every time I see those stupid polar bears.

7:01: Brady just threw for a first down. His best play so far equates to Manning’s most average.

7:02: One quarter down. Al Michaels just said that the Patriots look “unsettled.” Not a resounding vote of confidence for the Boston boys.

7:07: Brady’s pass just knocked down. That’s gotta hurt.

7:08: Field goal for the Pats, takes us to 9-3, Giants up.

7:13: Okay, I take it back about the Giant’s ground game. First down.

7:19: Giants just dinged 5 yards for illegal huddle. This seems to be the game of obscure penalties.

7: 22: We interrupt this football to see a half-naked David Beckham. Why??

7:25: Brady back in the hotseat. This poor bastard just can’t complete a pass.

7:26: Okay, he completed that one. An inch or two short of first down.

7:28: Back to the Giant’s ground game. Bradshaw just found a nice big hole to run through.

7:31: Tough holding penalty. Giant’s lost their first down and are about to punt.

7:37: Coming up on the two-minute warning; Patriots starting to hit their stride.

7:43: A bit of a drive; Pats are moving down the field. Less than a minute left in the half.

7:47: Brady’s definitely in scoring territory now. Pretty exciting last few seconds….

7:49: Touchdown, New England!

7:50: Point after is good, which puts New England in the lead, 10-9. Great half!

7:52: And that’s one half all done. This has been some fine football thus far. And now…Madonna. No offense to the Material Senior Citizen but I’ve got an unbroken record of not watching half-time shows. Is Downton Abbey on yet? Back in 30 minutes….

8:06: Checking in on the peanut gallery, I see that the Count of Monte Fisto just accused me of lusting after David Beckham. Wouldn’t that make me a Spice Girl?

8:22: Back at it. So far the star of this game, in my house at least, is Sam Adams Coastal Wheat. Good stuff.

8:24: As Chad Ochocinco catches a big pass, my wife opines: “People shouldn’t be allowed to change their names for stupid reasons.”

8:28: New England scores again. Should I scroll up and delete that bit about the Giants dominating this game?

8:34: Giants back on offense, with a drive of their own.

8:37: Well, three points is better than none, right?

8:40: “Aerial coverage by Budweiser.” As someone who grew up in the shadow of the Goodyear blimp I call BS on that. One more reason to drink craft beer.

8:47: The delight I feel watching Tom Brady getting sacked kind of interferes with my journalistic neutrality.

8:54: Giants back in scoring position. NOT a dull game!

8:55: 17-15 now.

8:59: Start of the fourth quarter. This game is flying by.

9:03: Wow, what a play – Brady dodges two near-sacks, then throws an interception. Should have just let himself get smacked.

9:04: The first turnover of the game puts Manning back on offense. Let’s see what he does with that.

9:06: Not wanting to dwell on the commercials, but finally we see Matthew Broderick recreate (sort of) his greatest role. Funny, but it would have been funnier if they hadn’t spent the last 2 weeks hyping it. Simmer down, advertisers. Your commercials really aren’t the main event here.

9:08: Back to the football, thankfully. Manning seems a little shaken but he got lucky with a defensive offsides.

9:13: The Giants are moving downfield with a series of very nice passes. Another drive? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves….

9:17: Aaand then the Giants start hobbling themselves with stupid penalties and bad time management. The drive stumbles.

9:23: New England is back on offense and not looking bad – even though New York’s defense is particularly on their game now. Nice pass by Brady for some serious gain of real estate.

9:27: So what I meant to say was, the Patriots are dominating this game. Very much so.

9:29: Five minutes left in the game, and a first down for New England. If they score again this game is over.

9:31: Well, no score for Brady so Manning’s still in it. Let’s see what he can do with the opportunity.

9:33: Holy smokes, what was that? A forty yard pass? That could turn things around.

9:37: And another good throw puts the Giants back in scoring range. Don’t count these fellers out yet.

9:39: Two minute warning. It’s a nailbiter, campers.

9:41: Bill Belichick looks like his piles are getting achy. Oh wait, he always looks like that.

9:43: BOOM! Touchdown, New York.

9:45: The talking-head consensus seems to be that the touchdown is bad news for New York, because it means that Tom Brady has nearly a minute to move back downfield and score. We’ll see….

9:47: Score is now 21-17 in Giant’s favor. Brady is at his own 20-yard line. It’s all about the Giant’s defense now.

9:48: Brady sacked at the 13-yard line on a third down. Giselle is gonna leave him for that.

9:50: But then he throws for a first down. I was just about to predict his defeat, too.

9:52: Once again, too many men on the field. “Why can’t these guys count?” my wife asks.

9:53: And it’s all over. Tom Brady wrapped it up with a hail-mary into the end-zone but it was all for naught. The Giants win 21-17

9:55: Eli Manning as MVP? Probably. That was a damned good game. Fine liveblogging too, if I do say so. Thanks for tuning in, and goodnight.

Posted in New Post | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Superbowl Super-blog!

Posted on February 1, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

No one here at the Deconstruction claims to be a sports expert. But as we’ve said before, when it comes to American sports culture, we know there’s only One Big Game.

That’s why Superbowl Sunday, February 5th, will mark our first (possibly ill-fated) experiment with live-blogging. Just log on here, sometime around kick-off…or at least around the time the first beer gets poured.

Really, you don’t want to miss this. We can’t promise insightful sports commentary, but we’ll guarantee entertainment. Indeed, with the amount of alcohol likely to be involved, it’s probably going to be a train wreck.

You’ve always wanted to watch a train wreck, haven’t you?

Posted in New Post | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Revisiting Cthulhu (with videos!)

Posted on January 29, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

There’s been an avalanche of inquiries and more than a few requests that we look back in on Cthulhu and the rest of the pantheon of Lovecraft‘s Very Creepy Ones.

But lest we speak too much of them, and stir their aeonic sleep in the deep, let’s cut straight to the tape. YouTubers have embraced Cthulhu more completely than the devilish sycophants Lovecraft described, who breathlessly await the aligning of the stars and the arise of Lord Cthulhu. One suspects the YouTubers also breathlessly await that.

Check ‘em out anyway, presented in order from the pleasantly entertaining to the utterly spooky. Enjoy.

Posted in New Post | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Rebuttal to libertarianism

Posted on January 23, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

Found myself in a verbal disagreement with a libertarian today. Which was disconcerting, because just based on etymology, I’d assume I’d be in agreement with anyone self-identifying with a variant of the root word ‘liberty.’

Indeed, I’d even self-identify as having libertarian sympathies, or leanings – putting myself somewhere on that ideological spectrum, tending toward “leave me alone, Uncle Sam.”

But ‘leaning’ isn’t good enough, I think, for the average libertarian. The average libertarian, at least those of my acquaintance, are ideological purists; libertarianism must be an absolute, from their point of view. Anything less isn’t good enough.

Ideologically pure libertarianism doesn’t mean limited government, it means no government; or at least no government as far as regulation is concerned. Governments are for organizing militias, the reasoning seems to go. The rest of society can organize itself.

Today’s discussion revolved around environmental regulation; something I feel pretty strongly about: favoring the little we have and wishing we had lots more. There’s nothing ideological about that stance, just a yearning for less poison in our air, water and food.

“It’s not the government’s business to be regulating that stuff,” said the Libertarian. It’s a line I’ve heard before, almost word for word. I usually respond by asking then whose business is it? and am usually treated to a discourse on the corrective nature of free markets (poisonous air, water and food are bad for business, therefore…)

This time I responded with “Sez who?” which sounds punk-ish, but I honestly didn’t mean it that way. I truly wanted to know: according to whom is regulation not the business of government?

I’ll turn that question on its head, by answering its inverse: Who says that governments should be in the business of creating regulation? Why, the U.S. Constitution, and all of historical precedent.

A broad statement, but easy to prove. Every government, ever, has regulated civil enterprise. The vast majority of those made no distinction between this and the rest of their law-giving.

Were some of those governments more successful than others? Sure. But you’d be hard-pressed to ascribe the fall of any of them purely to the ways they regulated their markets.

The constitutional argument is almost as easy: Article 1 Section 8 grants the government the power to regulate interstate and international commerce. It’s my opinion, and I think it’s a fair and reasonable one, that just about the entire federal regulatory body is authorized under the Commerce Clause.

Many would say that’s a stretch, indeed would say that by making that stretch, by regulating that is, the government is defying the Constitution, as per the “powers not enumerated revert to the state” doctrine. If the framers didn’t specify specific regulatory parameters, then it’s up to the states, not the federal government, to do so. So says the strict-constructionist wing of the libertarian movement.

But again, I say, centralized regulatory authority has been the norm throughout history. If the Framers had thought that undesirable, it’s certain they would have spelled that out. The absence of language regarding regulation, beyond the Commerce Clause, doesn’t prove the Framers disdained it. It proves they understood and accepted what all those other countless governments knew: governance is regulation.

So I say to the libertarians, the unyielding dogmatic ones, that the paradigm you argue for defies constitutionality, and there’s no evidence – none – that it works. It’s never been implemented outside anarchic zones: places where government by definition did not exist. Outcomes in such places are seldom pretty. Correlation isn’t causation, though, so I won’t blame the outcomes on whatever (totally) free markets that might have existed or thrived in that anarchy. But by the same token, I can’t imagine the markets did much good either.

So it’s a dangerous experiment, and an unlawful one, that the libertarians want to subject us to. One that would have far, far many more losers than winners. I want nothing to do with that experiment.

I’m for liberty. I’m for commerce, too. To the extent that the self-described libertarian will say that government infringement on these things should be “minimal,” then he and I can agree, and can sort out the definition of minimal later. But to the extent that he uncompromisingly insists on dogmatic libertarianism, then I reject him as every radical should be rejected. Radicals are always dogmatic, and their ideas are always dangerous.

Posted in New Post | Tagged | 2 Comments

Nevermore

Posted on January 19, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

Today, January 19th 2012, was Edgar Allan Poe‘s two hundred and third birthday. It was the third consecutive year that the Poe Toaster failed to materialize.

The Toaster, for all my life and much longer, offered an elegant annual salute to the father of American poetry and inventor of the modern short story (who was also, not uncoincidentally, the first American fatality of the self-inflicted writerly lifestyle). Every year in the early morning hours of January 19th, the toaster would leave at Poe’s original burial site a half-bottle of cognac, and three red roses. Everything I know about the way Poe lived and the way he died tells me he would have understood and approved the gesture.

From possibly as early as the thirties, certainly the forties, this beautiful and enigmatic ritual went on. In latter years vigils would be kept, and glimpses caught of the Toaster; but only the vaguest descriptions: tall, darkly clothed, wearing a wide-brimmed hat. Even the vigil-keepers seemed to know, even after a cold-night’s vigil, that the mystery of the Toast was most of its allure. So they always kept their distance and let the ritual go on, unimpeded.

There have of course been copycats and hoaxers, some of them sloppy enough to bring the wrong cognac or the wrong number of roses, or to even leave the tribute at the wrong gravesite.

The real Toaster, whether it was a single hero or a family of them, seems pretty certain to have ceased the tradition on January 19th 2009, Poe’s bicentennial.

I’m sorry to see such a simple treasure go, but I’m happier it ended this way – under the same inscrutable Toaster’s whim that started it – versus any of the horrible media-soaked alternative fates I can think of.

The story of the Poe Toaster will by all rights be something we can tell to the next few generations, who’ll understandably doubt it, probably wondering how anyone could ever believe such a thing.

I’ll hold out hope for that one grandchild, the one who’s read and enjoyed Poe, and who wants the story to be true. And I’ll hold hope that they’ll ask me, “When will the Toaster be back?” Just so I can answer, “Nevermore.”

Posted in New Post | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Turn off your damn phone

Posted on January 12, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

In the great scheme of things and compared to the larger woes of the world, it’s not that big a deal. On this we can probably all agree.

But those woes, those great schemes, are precisely what we seek to escape when we engage in art and culture. And when the escapism is rudely interrupted by the thoughtlessness of others…well, it’s probably not a hanging offense. But sometimes we wish it was, don’t we?

I’m haranguing here about the philistine at the Philharmonic (New York Philharmonic, to be exact), who on Tuesday night wrecked a performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony with a marimba ringtone. According to witnesses, it went on and on and on. Conductor Alan Gilbert eventually stopped the concert, turned toward the area of the offending racket and asked for it to stop. After he repeated his request a few times, it finally did.

Again, this might not be the world’s worst transgression. The offender very well might be a fine fellow, perhaps an altruistic friend to widows and orphans. He probably shouldn’t be judged too harshly for that one lapse.

But you know, that one lapse was so easily avoidable. It’s something we all can avoid, something we all very much should avoid, whenever out and about engaging with our fellow earthlings in whatever culture that trips our trigger.

It’s this simple: turn off your damned phone.

Posted in New Post | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Cultural destruction

Posted on January 6, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

Art inspires emotion. That is its reason for being. But what if those emotions are incomprehensibly negative? What if the inspiration is to destroy?

No idle speculation, this. A brazen (not to mention expensive) bit of art vandalism occurred just last week, at the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver. Carmen Tisch (pictured here in what can only be called smug mugshot), physically attacked a 1957 painting by the abstract-expressionist for whom the museum is named. She punched, scratched, and — wait for it — dropped trou and attempted to pee on the painting before being subdued and arrested. As of this writing there’s no known, um, water damage to 1957-J No. 2, but the surface damage she inflicted is estimated at $10,000. The painting itself was last appraised at between $30 and $40 million.

Tisch’s motives remain unknown, although Denver police report she was intoxicated when booked. Drunken vandalism certainly isn’t unusual. Most drunks prefer to take out their aggression on the nearest lamp post, however. Some other factor apparently prompted this drunk into becoming an unusually hands-on art critic.

And that, sadly, isn’t unusual and it isn’t new. Art vandalism has a long and sordid history. Iconic paintings like Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Rembrandt’s Night Watch have been attacked several times. Implements of destruction have ranged from knives, hammers and acid; to seemingly innocuous items like pencils, chewing gum and (in one hurled attempt on the Mona Lisa) a terracotta mug.

The motivations for the attacks are just as varied. Mental illness and religious fervor are probably most common (both or either of which might have been the impetus for serial vandal Hans-Joachim Bohlmann, who damaged more than 50 publicly displayed paintings between 1977 and 2006). Unrecognized, unsuccessful artists have also been frequent vandals, lashing out in jealousy; although they’ll often insist they were merely “editing” unworthy or inferior art.

For most, the motivations are as inexplicable as the act. Unlike the casual vandalism with which most of us are more familiar, art vandalism usually requires a fair amount of planning and forethought. When the attack occurs in a museum, as most do, the vandal knows he or she has almost no chance of escape. And yet they go ahead with it.

It’s interesting to note — and it verifies the timelessness of this phenomenon — that the modern usage of the word ‘vandal‘ originally referred to just this sort of destruction. Although we apply it today to any type of willful or petulant defacement, the word vandalisme was coined by the bishop of Blois in 1794, to describe the attacks on artwork concurrent with the French Revolution. He was recalling the Germanic tribe known as the Vandals, whose sack of Rome in the 450s resulted in, you guessed it, the destruction of innumerable classic artworks.

Such timelessness can only mean one thing: art vandalism is with us to stay. Contemporary artists might well shudder at the thought that their work could one day be targeted. But as always, we search painstakingly for the positive: Could it be that vandalism of art brings, backhandedly, some sort of recognition to that art? Maybe. I have to admit that until a few days ago, and even though his work evidently can fetch eight-figure pricetags, I’d never heard of Clyfford Still.

Posted in New Post | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

100 Years in 10 Minutes

Posted on January 2, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

What were the most consequential events of the last century? A more subjective question can’t be asked. This video takes a crack at it though, with one hundred years worth of highlights; from Roald Amundsen’s South Pole expedition in December 1911, to the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident in Japan. You might not agree with every event that made the cut, but this is still a fascinating look back. Enjoy!

Posted in New Post | Tagged , | Leave a comment