Monthly Archives: June 2012
Back to the Radio…
I just got into the WSHC (89.7) studio and I’m setting up for my 11 – 1 show. Given the Shepherdstown Street festival combined with the number of trees that came down in the storm last night, getting in here took longer than I expected.
Elly did the driving, since I am banned from doing it for at least six months (assuming I have no more seizures.) It’s another hot day out but the studio is AC’d and relatively comfortable.
If you are outside of our area you can listen on the web at http://www.897wshc.org.
Ivan Karp, noted art dealer and proponent of Pop Art, dies at 86.
Ivan Karp died yesterday at 86 of natural causes.

Ivan Karp by Andy Warhol
In 1958, Ivan became an art dealer at the Martha Jackson Gallery while publishing short stories in the Cambridge Review and the Evergreen Review. In 1964 his novel “Doobie Doo” was published by Doubleday
From 1959 to1969, Ivan was associate director of the Leo Castelli Gallery and played a significant role in the careers of Warhol, Lichtenstein, Chamberlain and many other artists in the New York Pop Art community. From 1966 to 1969, he taught contemporary art history at Finch College and at the School of Visual Arts.
In 1969, he opened OK Harris Works of Art, one of the first galleries in the Soho district. He was responsible for the burgeoning of that neighborhood to a vibrant residential and commercial district. OK Harris continues to operate in its original space.
In 1985, Ivan became director of the Anonymous Arts Museum in Charlotteville, NY, and restored 25 historic cemeteries and family burial grounds in Schoharie County.
Related articles
- Ivan Karp, Pop Art Dealer, Dies at 86 (nytimes.com)
- Ivan Karp, Castelli Director Who Founded Soho’s O. K. Harris Gallery, Dies at 86 (galleristny.com)
Quote of the Day – everything in perspective
“Now, Teddy can rest.”
– House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to Vicki Kennedy, widow of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA)
Thanks to all of you who have called and e-mailed after my accident…
So many of you have wished me well. I am still in some pain in my ribcage (I’m calling it “airbag shock”), but, in general I’m feeling much better.
Several have asked what caused the the accident and the best I can say is “I don’t know.” Essentially I had a blackout seizure and when I finally realized where I was I was 30 miles down the road having hit two cars and a power line. When I noticed a police car behind me and I pulled over, I had no idea what was going on, or that the whole front of my car was just about gone.
Somewhere in the course of the accident I lost my Superfocus glasses… I terrible loss for me. We don’t know yet of the insurance covers the loss as part of the accident.
Anyway, they’re not likely to let me drive again unless they can figure out what causes the seizures (apparently I’ve had a couple of other ones, not while driving, over the last couple of years. Most of these include lapses of time that I don’t remember, either.)
So my computer and I will continue to travel the world… but I won’t be getting out of the yard unless someone else takes me.
Related articles
- Secy Bryson ‘Seizures’ a Real Head Scratcher (abcnews.go.com)
- Seizures: When ‘electrical brainstorm’ hits (cnn.com)
Today is the day the Supreme Court weighs in on Obamacare…
The news media is waiting with baited breath for the decision of the SCOTUS which is due today on the President’s health care plan. So many questions are waiting to be answered:
1. Will the Court’s decision be primarily political?
2. Who will suffer the most if it is overturned?:
– Young people under 26 years old who are able to be on their parents’ health care plan, who could lose that advantage unless the insurance company itself allows it.
– Protection for sick patients who can lose their coverage due to a mistake in paperwork.
– People in southern states who have the least amount of state-mandated protection on their health insurance as opposed to more progressive states.
– Women will not be able to get free birth control (this is Planned Parenthood‘s major worry.)
– The risk of coverage will increase immensely for insurance companies who will not be as supportive of the users and more supportive of themselves.
3. Will the Court separate the Mandate (the requirement that everyone have insurance) from the rest of the law?
So we await the decision which will be written by Justice Roberts and see if they use it as the standard anti-Democrat response the court has made since putting George W. Bush into office.
Related articles
- No matter SCOTUS ruling, health care cost going up (illinois.statehousenewsonline.com)
- Supreme Court decision on polarizing health care law looms (cnn.com)
- Obamacare in the Balance: Will the Court Ruling Really Matter? (dailyfinance.com)
- The Real Face Of Obamacare: Suddenly-Unemployed Young People (thecollegeconservative.com)
- If Obamacare Is Ruled Unconstitutional (andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)
- GOP plan for ‘Obamacare’: Nothing (politico.com)
- Attorney General Bondi confident Supreme Court will strike down ‘Obamacare’ (tampabay.com)
- ObamaCare Will Define John Roberts’ Supreme Court (newser.com)
- How the Obamacare Verdict Could Crush Drugmakers (fool.com)
- Obamacare Supreme Court decision roadmap (themainewire.com)
I’ve never missed a week of blogging since I started eight years ago…
…but this past week my record was shattered…as was my car and (almost) me, too.
It started last Friday when I was driving down to the Apple Store in Bethesda to get the trackpad fixed on my MacBookPro. On the way I had a car accident (if you don’t mind I’ll leave out the details) which put me in the Hospital for four days. I’m OK now…a little ribcage pain where the airbag hit… and looking forward to restarting things.
My mother and sister took care of my laptop… just got it back an hour ago… and I can get back to Under The LobsterScope. At least some things work out.
There’ll be some new posts pretty soon… just give me a chance to get it together again.
– Bill
Artist LeRoy Neiman dead at 91…
LeRoy Neiman died Wednesday evening at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan.
The 91-year-old artist painted everything from U.S. presidents to jazz musicians to the powerful animals of Africa… but he was best known for his bright, bold sketches of the sports world, capturing its motion and emotion in his brushstrokes.
He was named official artist of the Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid and in Sarajevo as well as the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. His powerful imagery of the boxing ring, including fight posters and program covers for the historic Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fights, earned him a spot in the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2007. He was so closely identified with the world of boxing that actor/director Sylvester Stallone tapped Neiman to appear in four of his “Rocky” movies.
Neiman taught at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago for 10 years early in his career before gaining recognition as a contributing artist for Playboy in the 1950s.
Staying true to his style, Neiman’s public persona was as almost as colorful as his artwork.
“I guess I created LeRoy Neiman,” the artist once said, according to the biography on his website. “Nobody else told me how to do it. Well, I’m a believer in the theory that the artist is as important as his work.”
Related articles
- Olympic artist LeRoy Neiman dies (bbc.co.uk)
- LeRoy Neiman, whose brushstrokes captured motion, emotion of sports, dies (cnn.com)
- In pictures: LeRoy Neiman (bbc.co.uk)
- Sports world artist LeRoy Neiman dies in NY at 91 (newsobserver.com)
- LeRoy Neiman, Popular Sports Artist, Dies at 91 (people.com)
- Photos: Artist LeRoy Neiman Passes Away At 91 (photos.denverpost.com)
- LeRoy Neiman Dies at 91 (thehollywoodgossip.com)
Fifth Grader banned from speaking on Major News Topic
From: The Daily What…
Kameron Slade, a fifth-grader from Queens, NY, was scheduled to deliver a speech as part of a school-wide competition at PS 195. But when the principal learned Kameron’s speech was about same-sex marriage, he was ordered to choose a new topic or lose the opportunity to speak.
Brilliant speech… very well reasoned. Perhaps the principal should choose a new career and let Kameron take HIS job.
Related articles
- (Video) Fifth Grader, Kameron Slade, Prohibited From Giving Gay Marriage Speech At School (saintleoinkblot.com)
- Kameron Slade is a Queens, New York fifth grader who won his… (veganmyway.tumblr.com)
- Freedom of Speech? School Temporarily Bans 10 Year Old Kameron Slade’s Same Sex Marriage Speech (bagladyboutiqe.wordpress.com)
- 5th grader’s winning pro-marriage equality speech banned by NY school (rawstory.com)
- Lemons to Lemonade: Kameron Slade couldn’t deliver his speech on same-sex marriage at school, so he’s delivering it to the world (cafewitteveen.wordpress.com)
- WATCH: NYC School Bans Fifth-Grader From Giving Awesome Pro-Gay-Marriage Speech (queerty.com)
- This Is All Kinds Of Wrong of the Day (thedailywh.at)
Note:
Looks like Kameron’s controversy caused enough attention to allow him to make the speech after all.
Definitive Quote… this made my day.
If you think you’re meeting your destiny on the other side of a door you may not beinterested in its design
– Ettore Sottsass
Sottsass is a designer whose work I have admired for years. This comment speaks to most people who are much more concerned with where they are going than how they get there.
Artist Paul Jenkins dead at 88
Paul Jenkins, Painter of Abstract Artwork, Dies at 88

Paul Jenkins, a colorful Abstract Expressionist who came of age during the heyday of the New York School and for several decades carried on its highly physical tradition of manipulating paint and canvas, died on June 9 in Manhattan, where he lived and had continued to paint until recently. He was 88.
He died after a short illness, said his wife, Suzanne.
Jrenkins was a contemporary and friend of both Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. In 1953 he resettled in Paris, but maintained a lifelong connection with New York.
He became well-known outside the art world in 1978 when his paintings had a starring role in the Paul Mazursky movie “An Unmarried Woman,” in which Alan Batesplayed a Manhattan artist. The paintings supposedly done by the Bates character were actually his work.“I try to paint like a crapshooter throwing dice, utilizing past experience and my knowledge of the odds,” he said in 1964. “It’s a big gamble, and that’s why I love it.”
Some Fun from Taegan Goddard’s blog:
Michigan state Rep. Lisa Brown (D) — who was banned from speaking on the House floor for
saying “vagina” — led a reading of the play, The Vagina Monologues, at the Michigan state Capitol last night, the Detroit Free Press reports.
Eve Ensler, who wrote the play, agreed to fly in from California to oversee the performance: “I’m over dudes who can’t even say ‘vagina.’ I’m over the Michigan state Legislature… censoring and rebuking and removing Lisa Brown. My vagina’s got decorum.”
🙂 Thanks To Taegan Goddard.
Related articles
- Lawmaker Performs “Vagina Monologues” at State House (politicalwire.com)
- VIDEO: ‘Vagina Monologues’ Creator Rebukes Michigan GOP Leaders For Silencing Women (thinkprogress.org)
- Eve Ensler and The Vagina Monologues Have Been Summoned to Lansing by Lisa Brown’s ‘Vagina’ Incantation [Vagina Monologues] (jezebel.com)
- Silenced Michigan Dem performs ‘Vagina Monologues’ on capitol steps (rawstory.com)
- Michigan Democrats Perform “Vagina Monologues” (unaskedadvice.wordpress.com)
- Legislators And Eve Ensler To Perform ‘The Vagina Monologues’ On Michigan Capitol Steps (towleroad.com)
- Easily offended Michigan Republicans about to get Vagina Monologued (dailykos.com)
- Michigan women lawmakers to perform ‘Vagina Monologues’ at state capitol (rawstory.com)
Things are looking up for the Housing Market…
Permits to build new homes rose sharply in may, suggesting a beginning housing recovery remains on track.
The Commerce Department said on Tuesday that although groundbreaking on new homes dropped last month, upward revisions to data for March and April put starts above 700,000 for five straight months, a first since 2008.
This means a big turn of eventst is under way: while the broader U.S. economy appears to be losing steam, housing is gaining traction and has become a relative bright spot. Homebuilder sentiment has risen to a five-year high.
“The incipient recovery in housing market activity, in short, seems not to have been affected by the recent softening in much of the other economic data,” said Ian Shepherdson, an economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York.
Starts for single-family homes, which account for most of the market, increased 3.2 percent.
My apologies for not posting…
After putting up the Joseph Stiglitz piece yesterday, the trackpad on my MacBook started playing games on me… going where it wanted to go, not where I did, and opening windows and folders I didn’t want to.
I spent most of the day cleaning the pad, trying all the downloads recommended on the help boards, loading and unloading applications, changing administrative sign-ons, etc., but it was only late in the evening that it started working more-or-less correctly again. So far this morning there is no problem.
The non-working computer also kept me from finishing the article on the arts in Shepherdstown, WV, that I am writing for the new Fluent magazine… so that will take up a lot of my day today (assuming this baby keeps on course.)
So come on back later this afternoon and I hope something will be here for you.
-Bill
Rodney King Dead at 47
Rodney King, whose videotaped beating by four police officers eventually sparked violent riots in Los Angeles two decades ago, was found dead in his swimming pool by his fiance, Cynthia Kelly. She called 911 at 5:25 am after discovering his body.
King was thrust into the national spotlight in March 1991 after a videotaped assault at the hands of the LAPD made headlines. Four officers were charged with King’s assault and with exessive use of force. Their acquittal on April 29, 1992 led to intense riots in Los Angeles, resulting in 53 deaths.
King fought a life-long battle with alcoholism, and had periodic run-ins with the law since the 1991 incident.
Related articles
- Rodney King Dead at 47 (12160.info)
- Rodney King dead at 47 (cnn.com)
- R.I.P. Rodney King, 47, Found Dead At The Bottom of A Swimming Pool (bossip.com)
- Rodney King, 47, found dead at home in Rialto (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
- Rodney King, key figure in LA riots, dies at 47 (sacbee.com)
- RIP Rodney King, 47 Found Dead in Pool (thefabulouslane.wordpress.com)