by Sandy | Apr 26, 2015 | Artist, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Exhibits, Galleries

We’ve enjoyed Bob’s online presence for several years and now we get a chance to see his work up close and personal as part of a group show, “Know Yourself At Every Age”.
Stop by and meet him on May 1, 2015. More than 25 pieces of Bob’s art will be on view until the end of the month.
“Know Yourself At Every Age”
Bob Martin – Artist Reception
Friday, May 1, 2015, 6 – 10 PM
First Studio, 631 N. 1st Ave, Phoenix, AZ
PS – you can also see some of his work here!
by Sandy | Apr 16, 2015 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Exhibits, Museums

“The works presented in Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic raise questions about race, gender, and the politics of representation by portraying contemporary African American men and women using the conventions of traditional European portraiture. The exhibition includes an overview of the artist’s prolific fourteen-year career and features sixty paintings and sculptures.”
“The exhibition includes a selection of Wiley’s World Stage paintings, begun in 2006, in which he takes his street casting process to other countries, widening the scope of his collaboration.“
Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic
Brooklyn Museum Until May 24, 2015
200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York
(Image: Shantavia Beale II, 2012. Oil on canvas)
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by Sandy | Mar 30, 2015 | Art, Blogroll, Exhibits, Museums

Philadelphia Museum of Art’s “Represent: 200 Years of African American Art highlights selections from the Museum’s exceptional holdings of African American art and celebrates the publication of a catalogue examining the breadth of these noteworthy collections. With work by renowned artists such as Henry Ossawa Tanner, Horace Pippin, Jacob Lawrence, and Carrie Mae Weems, the exhibition showcases a range of subjects, styles, mediums, and traditions.”
“Represent: 200 Years of African American Art”
Until April 5, 2015
Philadelphia Museum of Art
2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA
(Image: James Baldwin, 1963 – Beauford Delaney, 1901 – 1979)
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by Bob Martin | Feb 21, 2015 | Actors, Art, Movies, music

Whiplash was not a movie that was on my radar. Never saw an ad, a promo or trailer for it before seeing it. And there is a lot to be said for seeing or experiencing a movie without any preconceived notion. It was a splendid accident.
What Makes Whiplash a Gem!
Here is my spoiler alert, which is a list of what I believe every good movie should look to accomplish.
- Excellent Script – no wasted lines
- Actors who look and feel the role- believable and alive
- Story line – you can relate to it.
- Beautiful Cinematography – supports the narrative in an imaginative and beautiful way. Gorgeous.
- Meaningful Music – it is there for the right reasons, it engages the viewer.
- Direction – clean, precise, efficient and purposeful.
A nod to J.K Simmons, a solid professional, who deservedly has a bright spotlight beaming down on him.
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by Bob Martin | Feb 18, 2015 | Art, radio, Writers
There are a ton of people, like myself, waiting anxiously every Thursday, when the next episode of This American Life’s spinoff “Serial” becomes available. If you are not one of us, I suggest that this radio series will have you thinking differently about Justice, The Justice System and your personal responsibility. What I’ve learned so far is that for most everyone in this country
- Justice means to do what is expedient.
- Prejudices or racism resides covertly within our brains and is always a factor in the decisions we make.
- Truth, nothing but the truth is a lie. It more like tell me a story that I could believe.
- Lawyers, be they prosecutors or defense attorneys, are not good or bad. There is no Black or White, just a dull Grey.
- Having a little bit of money can prove to be more dangerous than poverty.
- If you are poor and unlucky you will spend some time in jail. The third certainty in life after death and taxes
Serial is not 48 hours etc. It is far superior to anything that is currently on the air (TV or Radio) that I know about. I don’t have any idea how this story will end up and more importantly I am not rooting for one side to win or lose. What is fascinating is that we have so much faith in the notion of Justice when we should be absolutely terrified.
Finally pay attention to this spoiler alert on the Serial home page
Serial is a podcast designed to be listened to in order. If you’re just landing here please go back and start with Episode 1.
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by Sandy | Feb 15, 2015 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Film, Movies
Shrove Tuesday, (February 17, 2015) and all pre Lenten celebrations, such as Mardi Gras / Carnival, immediately brings to mind the terrific 1959 film “Black Orpheus”. 
Made in Brazil by French director Marcel Camus, it is the classic Greek romantic tragedy of Orpheus (Breno Mello) and Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn) set against the back drop of a high energy samba troupe.
The costumes, the music of Rio de Janeiro, the dancing, and all those pretty people being chased by a man in a skeleton mask – fabulous.
Even if you haven’t seen “Black Orpheus”, you are probably familiar with its great music by Antonio Carlos Jobim, including “Manhã de Carnaval” (written by Luiz Bonfá).
It’s on DVD, watch, do some samba steps, you’ll have fun.
Per WikiPedia: “Black Orpheus” won the Palme d’Or prize at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival as well as the 1960 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the 1960 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film.”
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by Sandy | Feb 9, 2015 | Art, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Exhibits, Museums

“With the advent of Modernism in the 20th century, line became its own definitive subject for artists, who no longer used it merely for representational purposes. Line: Making the Mark presents examples created since that historic shift by artists including Louise Bourgeois, Jasper Johns, Willem de Kooning, Sol LeWitt, and Barnett Newma. The exhibition explores the sundry ways that artists are making marks, whether directly or indirectly. Artists may press pencil directly to paper or brush ink right onto a surface…”
“Line: Making the Mark”
Museum of Fine Arts Houston / MFAH, Until March 22, 2015
(Image: Jasper Johns, “Cicada”, 1979)
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by Sandy | Feb 5, 2015 | Art, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Galleries, Museums
“Cubism, the most influential art movement of the early twentieth century, still resonates today. It destroyed traditional illusionism in painting and radically changed the way we see the world. The Leonard A. Lauder Collection, unsurpassed in its holdings of Cubist art, is now a promised gift to the Museum.”

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition includes…”eighty paintings, collages, drawings, and sculpture by the four preeminent Cubist artists: Georges Braque (French, 1882–1963), Juan Gris (Spanish, 1887–1927), Fernand Léger (French, 1881–1955), and Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973).”
The Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection
Closes February 15, 2015
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
5th Ave and 86 Street, NYC
FYI: Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement pioneered by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso…instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context. (per Wikipedia)
(Image: “Man at the Café”, Juan Gris 1914)
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by Sandy | Feb 2, 2015 | Artist, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Museums
“In 1978-79 Andy Warhol produced Shadows, a monumental, 102-part series of silkscreened canvases. The work’s internal compositions are culled from photographs of shadows taken in The Factory, the artist’s New York City studio.”

“MOCA’s presentation will feature the full collection of paintings from Dia Art Foundation. Installed edge to edge, the series of abstract panels-once referred to by Warhol as “disco decor”-create a haunting, environmental ensemble.”
“Andy Warhol: Shadows”
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
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by Sandy | Jan 29, 2015 | Art, Blogroll, Galleries, Museums
The Dallas Museum of Art presents:
“Small Worlds: Edouard Vuillard and the Intimate Art of the Nabis”

Beginning in the late 1800s, a group of artists, including Edouard Vuillard, Paul Bonnard, Maurice Denis, and Félix Vallotton , “calling themselves the Nabis, a Hebrew word meaning “prophets,” …forged a new relationship to many of the same subjects that had fascinated the impressionists a generation before: the modern city, its streets and public spaces, and the status of the private self in relation to this public sphere.”
“Small Worlds: Edouard Vuillard and the Intimate Art of the Nabis”
DMA / Dallas Museum of Art – Until April 15, 2015
1717 North Harwood
Dallas, Texas
(Image: Maurice Denis, “Portrait of a Young Girl”)
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