AKISH WOULD APPROVE

It's good to see some people in positions of power and influence have a good sense of humour.

Guggenheim's Deputy Director Nancy Spector, in declining a request from The White House to borrow a Vincent van Gogh painting to decorate the wall of their private residence, declined the request but offered instead a sculpture by Maurizio Catalan called America which is an 18 carat gold toilet.  See:

ART NEWS

The White House declined the offer.

Priceless!

THE TRUMPS WANTED THIS







THEY WERE OFFERED THIS
.

Well done Nancy Spector and The Guggenheim.

"YOU'LL MISS ME WHEN I'M GONE ....."

...... my mother used to say to me when I was cheeky to her. You know? She's right. I miss her now she's gone.

Some people aren't missed although their awfulness in certain areas of arts, music (Florence Foster Jenkins), literature, science (creationists) and poetry (Coleridge) live on.

One such is William McGonnagal whose reputation and fame far exceed his poetic ability.

MCGONNAGAL DIES AGAIN

William Topaz McGonagall (March 1825– 29 September 1902) was a Scottish weaver, poet and actor. He won notoriety as an extremely bad poet who exhibited no recognition of, or concern for, his peers' opinions of his work.

He wrote about 200 poems, including "The Tay Bridge Disaster" and "The Famous Tay Whale", which are widely regarded as some of the worst in English literature. 

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Robert has gone again. He has once again deleted his blog. This has happened before but usually he just deletes all his posts. Either way his posts which variously include his bizarre views on creationism, science, religion, history, the role of commercial cleaners in society and his home-grown poetry are lost forever.

I think I miss him.

SINGING WITH HIMSELF

THE MUSIC CURMUDGEON posted a silly Christmas song in his latest post. My apologies on behalf of CURMUDGEONS INC.ⓒ.

In 1985 when I heard Aled Jones singing "Walking In The Air" it gave me goosebumps. I'd heard it sung before by Peter Auty as it was a song in the film The Snowman but it was the release of the Jones version that got all the Christmas playtime.

The song cut through all of the usual yuletide crap both old and new and I have very fond memories of it.

Below is Jones singing it as in 1985 but also as his older self singing it last Christmas.
It still has the magic with the extra bit of interest in the older Jones singing as well.


ALED JONES AND ALED JONES - WALKING IN THE AIR

EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY

There's been quite a bit of discussion amongst CURMUDGEON INC.ⓒ members this morning following the outrageous behaviour of members of The Bass Bagging Confederation.

Some members have advocated turning the other cheek and making peace with this vile and dangerous outfit.

Others have pushed for direct and appropriate retaliation and to employ Baxter's own methods by removing his head.

maybe though we should just laugh it off.

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

It must be getting close to Christmas as Richard (of RBB) has sent out his annual Christmas letter which was up to its usual form. This year it seems to me that Christmas isn't making much of an impact as compared to other years. Are we over it?

Robert in his soon to be deleted blog post .......

FATHER CHRISTMAS IS NOT REAL. SO WHAT THEN

 ... laments the demise of Father Christmas and wonders if Christmas in entirety will disappear (at least I think that's what he said but with Robert's posts - who knows?)


In The Altered States of America the Trumps have lit up the White House lights thereby making a better target for the North Koreans and others and will no doubt be saying a lot of prayers.

"Take your best shot Little Rocket Man, I'll be in Florida" - Donald Trump

In the past The Curmudgeon, as part of CURMUDGEONS INCⓒ's creed of bringing useful and informative facts to our readers has posted histories of some Christmas institutions. See below:



CHRISTMAS CARDS


CHRISTMAS TREES


CHRISTMAS CRACKERS


CHRISTMAS LETTERS

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Today we'll look at the history of Christmas lights.

Auckland has a whole street in Ponsonby where almost all of the residents light up their houses at Christmas. This has over the years developed into a tradition and people come from miles around to view them.

Generally these are done quite elegantly and not over-the-top kitsch like the yanks do:

Although to be fair, they can produce some elegant ones as well:

The origin of Christmas lights was in Northern Europe where Christmas is in mid winter and the days are short and the nights long. In the 1700s, way before electric and gas house and street lighting was invented, folks stayed indoors after nightfall because it was too difficult and dangerous to venture out.

The advent (see what I did there?) of the celebration of Christmas brought about a new tradition of distant relatives coming to visit. Invariably these visitors would turn up after daylight hours and, being unfamiliar with the places they came to visit would become hopelessly lost and often not found until the spring thaw. Something needed to be done.
Some bright spark (or more likely a candlemaker) came up with the idea of putting a candle or candles in the window so that the visitors could see the light.


AS LONG AS I CAN SEE THE LIGHT - JOHN FOGERTY

Soon everyone was doing this so, although it was safer for visitors there was no identification of the right house to be visited and many an unfortunate or embarrassing event ensued.

Eventually a solution was found and households developed their 'signatures' of different configurations of candles or lanterns in different windows. These were adapted with different colours and later, with the invention of gas and electric lighting the entire house could be lit up in a unique and interesting way thus guiding the visitors to the correct house.

Of course, in the case of unwelcome relatives the householder could pretend that they had run out of candles or the gas or electricity was off thus leaving the house in darkness.

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I trust that this was useful.

ALLEGRO NON TROPPO

Do you remember this?


ALLEGRO NON TROPPO (trailer)


Robert put a link to Saint-Saens - Violin Concerto No.3 in B Minor I: Allegro non troppo in his comment on my THE MUSIC CURMUDGEON bless him.


I remember seeing this when I was at university in the 1970s - it may even have been shown at the excellent cinema we had on campus where I skived off went to see many good films.
It was a parody of Disney's Fantasia (also brilliant) and had some very advanced techniques of incorporating animation with real film.

Well worth a watch.

FOR YOUR EDIFICATION

Here is a fascinating Post from the past.

Enjoy.

A PREVIEW OF PRETENTIOUSNESS

BRIAN STRONG

The problem with being retired and not earning is not having that discretionary spending for some of the nice things in life - at at least not being able to buy things on impulse. We have to plan what we want well ahead and save towards it.

I'm really pleased we bought the Brian Strong work above Land and Water Study 1 (2004).
It's beautiful and really well framed on a floating mount - I've done some of these when I owned a framing gallery and never managed to do it as well as this.

Strong says:

"Our New Zealand landscape is the constant provocation and inspiration behind my paintings. In recent work, the landscape is composed in such a way that it gives us several images within the space of the painting"

BRIAN STRONG

I love his paintings like these:

600 x 527mm

481 x 304mm

But sadly they are too expensive for us to buy

OUTDOOR ART

Outdoor artwork has to be quite robust to withstand the elements and also has to be pretty firmly attached to walls, sheds and fences to withstand burglars.

We've always liked to decorate the outside of our houses with interesting bits and pieces that we've brought with us from house to house. Some of these get lost or damaged in transit and I notice, when looking to photograph them now, that I'm missing some really nice pieces. Hopefully they are still wrapped up in the basement from the time when we were overseas.

This Pacifica motif painting is painted on roofing iron. It is quite large and very hardy. We bought it years ago from the annual Auckland art show and had it in the outside courtyard of our Point Chevalier home. It has made the transition to the North really well and I affixed it to the garden shed.

As you can see from the larger photograph below it adds nicely to the outside view of the house and property. I'm well pleased with it.

This is also a large piece. It is a carving from native hardwood made by James Atutahi. He called it Piko Piko. We bought it from a local gallery soon after we came to Northland. It is very imposing and beautifully sculpted. While robust I don't want it to be too exposed to the wild weather and we keep it in the covered porch by the back door.

This little guy was given to us many years ago and has graced our houses in Christchurch and Auckland before finding a place outside the dining room exit to the side deck. I've always liked its whimsy and find it cheery.

We used to have lots of little interesting ceramics and I notice a few empty places here. With the storms we've had over the last year some might have been blown off (remember the deck furniture chair?) I'll have to have a look under the deck before The Old Girl discovers that some are missing. The antique barometer still works. It needs a bit of a clean up and the wood oiling. Note to self: do this before The Old Girl notices.

This ceramic sculpture is made up of old teacups and pots. It's quite funny and very bright. Some bits have fallen off it over the years but it has a good spot on the fence amongst the flax and ferns, It never fails to raise comments from guests sitting on the deck.

OK, it's not art but this little brass ship's bell (still working) has been on our houses for as long as I remember. I got it from an old wine and spirit merchants we were closing down in he 1980s (the barometer came from there as well as it has an Usher's Whiskies printed on it.

Once again not art, the terracotta chiminea nevertheless makes for a great feature on the deck. In Auckland we used to set a fire in it when having BBQs but up here it just sits. The Aztec sun motif matches the location well and while we don't get too many smokers here it is a good ashtray.

ANOTHER WINDOW

Richard (of RBB) said that he's looking forward to more window photos and hopes that they will feature on THE CULTURED CURMUDGEON.
I'm not sure if I published this one before but I took a photo just now just in case:

This is the window made from very old glass that is at the top of the French doors that lead out to te deck from the kitchen.

Enjoy Richard.*










* Ha, the trickery of the English language. When I say 'Enjoy Richard' I don't mean that you should enjoy Richard , I mean, who would do that? No, I mean it as a request to Richard for him to enjoy the fact that I published a photograph of another window.

SOME LANDSCAPES

Well I'm pleased to say that this blog is proving to be very successful.
While we have mentioned that THE CURMUDGEONSⓒ are not into frequency as quality is what drives the three blogs and their posts, I thought that it is time to write a new post.

A very eminent blogger who has been blogging for nearly twenty years and has followers all over the world recently reviewed this blog and regretted that there weren't more posts to inspire him. This blogger (I won't mention his name as I'm not a name-dropper) is very highly placed in the performing arts arena. He/she plays for a major city's symphony orchestra and has performed with world leading string instrumentalists like Stephane Grappelli and Robert Prowse.

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Today I have photographed some of the landscape-oriented paintings we have hanging in different parts of our house. Please note that in the interests of retaining the true essence of the artwork I haven't put too much emphasis into the technical perfection of the photographs. I think that this would distract and detract- don't you?

CYNTHIA TAYLOR

Sunshine after the rain - Northland

Cynthia Taylor is known for her unique New Zealand inspired paintings. She grew up in a family of artists and has been exhibiting since 1970.

"Landscapes remain my first love and has played a big part in both my paintings and my life. I think of myself as very much a New Zealand artist.." - Cynthia Taylor.

PETER MCINTYRE

Gum tree

Peter McIntyre was one of New Zealand's most famous artists. He also came from a family of artists and his son Simon is very active as a painter today. His daughter Sara is an accomplished photographer as well.

McIntyre had the title of official war artist for 2NZEF in the second world war. It was in North Africa that my father met him and maintained contact for the rest of their lives.  This oil painting was given to my mother by Peter McIntyre in the 1970s.

IAN ROBERTSON

The Pumpshed

Robertson was a very prolific New Zealand artist and quite a character. He excelled in the mixed use of oils and acrylics and was able to put vibrant life into his paintings. The greens in this painting virtually shine out of the canvas  and light up our study.

SIMON WILLIAMS

Sandy Bay, Rakino Island - triptych.

Simon Williams is a New Zealand artist who studied his craft in Europe and worked in Australia where he won major awards. In New Zealand he has made a name for himself with his outstanding paintings of the islands in the Hauraki Gulf. This island is Rakino which I flew over every second week in a helicopter to Waiheke Island when I worked for a wine company there. I love this view which is faithfully recorded. This is a very large painting in three panels and takes up one wall of our lounge. It is also meaningful for The Old Girl as she bought it in memory of her father who died in 2006.

(my photo)

(Website photo)

HAROLD COOP

Various

Harold Coop is The Old Girl's favourite artist.

He is a New Zealand eye surgeon who is as celebrated in his medical work as much as he is in his artistic work. We have about twenty of his paintings and I should collate them for another post.

These are some of his 'landscape' paintings that we have in the house. we have others in the apartment in Auckland which I don't have photographs of.

Mount Cook - acrylic

Coastal

Coastal Bay oil

Urupukapuka watercolour

TONY ROCHE
Wanganui River

Tony Roche is a New Zealand artist (born 1961)  who specialises in landscapes.
He is sought after wth his paintings being snapped up by world-wide collectors.
This oil painting is reminiscent of the great artists of the 19th century with the vibrant colours and super-real bush scenes.

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We at THE CURMUDGEONSⓒ trust that you enjoyed this little preview and welcome you to come visit us sometime soon. Visual art is gentle and such a nice life-enhancement. It doesn't assault the senses like some forms of music does. THE CULTURED CURMUDGEONⓒ will publish future posts on 'acceptable' music but will never abuse viewers with indulgent instrumental solos particularly from percussion instruments. Thank you.

FAMILY BUSINESS

We have a couple of nice paintings I bought separately some time ago.
I bought them for their individual characteristics which I liked at the time and which seem to have become stronger as they suit the house we now live in so well.

The first is by Wayne Sinclair and is a small oil painting named 'Morning Glow - Matangi'.

It's aptly named as it positively glows even in low light conditions. He's captured the morning sunlight lighting up the forest really well. We keep this in the lounge  on a small pedestal on the hearth. It really adds something to the room.

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The second is a much larger painting by Robyn Barclay named 'Tuscan Sunflowers'.

This is stunning and we keep it in the kitchen where it catches the sun during the morning through to late afternoon and generates a warm and happy feeling. I love it when artists can create and enhance moods.    

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The family connection is that Sinclair and Barclay are husband and wife - a relationship that I was unaware of when I separately purchased the paintings .                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

DIVA

I watched Jean-Jacques Beineix's film DIVA today.
It is 36 years old and still as stunning and fresh as when I first saw it.

DIVA-(trailer)

I was spurred on to watch it again because I heard Anna Netrebko singing   Ebben? Ne Andro Lantano from Alfredo Catalani's opera La Wally when Lynn and I went to the Aotea Centre on Saturday night.

See here:  I'M A HAPPY CHAPPIE

The La Wally aria features strongly in the film (sung by Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez) and I must admit may have been the trigger for my love of opera after I saw this film in about 1982.

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DIVA was one of many outstanding French films of the 1980s. Films like The Last Metro, Betty Blue, Bolero, Subway, etc were my first choice for viewing and are still watchable now.  Directors like Malle, Truffaut, Godard, Rohmer, Besson, Beineix and the like had an edginess and incredible style about them that endures and leaves behind the Hollywood crap of the day.

(Jean-Luc Besson who directed Subway, a couple of decades later directed The Fifth Element which had a strong operatic theme as well.)