Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Painter Man - Deux

From the BBC website

A US casino mogul has pulled out of a deal to sell his Picasso painting for a record $139m (£74m) after accidentally elbowing a hole in the middle.

Mr Wynn, known for gesturing with hands while speaking, was showing the painting at his office at Wynn Las Vegas when he struck it with his right elbow, spokeswoman Denise Randazzo said.

Director and screenwriter Nora Ephron was at the incident and wrote about it on a blog site.

She said Mr Wynn raised his hand then "at that moment, his elbow crashed backward right through the canvas. There was a terrible noise".

"Smack in the middle... was a black hole the size of a silver dollar. 'Look what I've done' he said. 'Thank goodness it was me.'"


Wynn had bought the painting for 48 million dollars in 1997. Had this deal gone through this would have become the most expensive painting ever sold, surpassing the 135 million dollars paid for Gustav Klimt's Adele Bloch-Bauer I in July this year. Now this dude is a billionaire and it seems he has quite an art collection. He paid 17.4 million dollars for a Cézanne self-portrait and 23.5 million dollars for a Renoir in May 2003. He hangs these paintings in his casinos. He is an art collector. Does it automatically mean he is an art lover?

Given the prices it seems pretty hard for an art lover to be an art collector and does the vice versa can hold true? Is it hard for an art collector to be an art lover? Surely I feel. Wynn is careless enough to damage a 75 year old masterpiece when showing it off and all he has to say is 'Look what I've done' - Even if he were a very stoic person I think that's too nonchalant an exclamation from someone who has just irrevocably damaged an irreplaceable and priceless piece of art. Surely the gravity of the situation calls for some display of emotion? I would expect an art lover to show remorse and maybe great anger, not a 'Look what I've done'. I would expect someone to say that when he punches a hole in the cookie jar not in a Picasso. But then Wynn is an art collector.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Gel

This one's for my girl.

Color me any color.
Speak to me in tongues and share.
Tell me how you'd love to hate me.
Tell me how you'd love to care.
Well I just want to shake us up.

Lets mingle
And make it well.
Come together now.
Yeah lets gel.

Clothe me in any fashion.
Glitter to so mundane.
Tell me how you'd love to change me.
Tell me I can stay the same.
I just want to shake us up.

Well lets bungle
And live to tell
How we came together.
Yeah how we gelled.


Collective Soul - 7even Year Itch


Highly recommended album. The best of Collective Soul - Shine, December, The World I know, Gel - all in one lovely cd. Yeah, I still buy audio cds. I have never managed to like or get myself to like mp3- in spite of the pull of sound economics - 100+ songs on a 20 rupee disc. I have tried but all my mp3 cds lie dusty and unused. There is something about getting the originals - the recording quality, the album art, the song listing on the back, the easy browsing between songs. I am not talking mobile listening - the ipod scores over the discman humungously. When at home I like my music on cds. It's funny but I dont feel the same way about books or dvds. Cheap and pirated ones cheer me up any day. I don't get the same pangs of guilt when I pick up Lost or Friends DVDs from the street for a meagre sum. I paid as much for my Collective Soul album as I paid for all the seasons of Lost on DVDs. If you ask me, I think it was a fair deal.