A slight correction, f. Lanny Davis has a

gold-plated Rolodex

Jesse Jackson, Jr. has had a gold-plated Rolex.

I love it! allan just won’t let me get away with a darned thing.

I’ll go fix it right now, allan. Many thnx for the correction.

But you can’t deny that this man does did have a gold plated Roledex being Jessie Jackson’s son and all.

I initially scoffed at stories claiming he was manic-depressive – but reading now the accounts of what he spent all that money on, perhaps it is true.

Oh, yes, Elliott. Manic-depressive, bi-polar conditions can be very challenging–for everyone involved.

I think the elk settle it, may he never again disappear into a cloudbank like that.

His wife, Sandi Jackson, also pleaded guilty today–to filing false tax returns.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/sandi-jackson-pleads-guilty-too

Good evening, fatster, thanks especially for the European news. Bulgaria is down and Greece can’t be far behind (again).

One might think Congress would take a look across the pond, say we don’t need this, and do something to stop the sequester. But (although I thought differently yesterday and may think differently) tonight my guess is they will punt by giving it another short-term extension.

And how about that Picasso! I guess the guy knew how to economize.

slight edit: … may think differently tomorrow) tonight …

I doubt Spain is too far behind Greece, either, E. F. Beall–particularly given that report about the scandal swirling around Spanish politicians. from a couple of days ago.

Also, I’d be tickled if you’d click on the Siqueiros link (Picasso item).

Regarding Picasso using house paint. . .

Jackson Pollock did the same, and was fond of alkyd enamel for his “drip” paintings.

I went to New York’s Museum of Modern Art for the Pollock retrospective in 1998. Along with the paintings I recall seeing a photo of Pollock at work in his Long Island studio. There were gallon cans of Dutch Boy (or some sort) all over the place, and what a mess! A four year old would have had great fun doing that as well.

I understand house paint isn’t a good medium, though, for a fine art painting even when it’s kept indoors out of the elements. Apparently it won’t last more than several decades, but don’t recall if there were conservation problems mentioned among Pollock’s works.

Ah, yes, maa8722. And did you know Pollack studied with Siqueiros? You might enjoy that article, too. :)

I guess it goes to show that art is only peripherally a matter of the materials you use, as theorists like Arthur Danto would indeed maintain. Probably neither is the true artist thinking very hard about the work’s posterity.

and @ 11

Yes, he seems to have been quite a guy, fatster; I’d never heard of him (only Rivera and Kahlo among Mexicans) before this post, so thanks.

Here’s a nice picture of Siqueiros with Pollack (Pollack’s on the right).

❖ Go people! “The government of Bulgaria has quit after nationwide protests against austerity measures.”

interesting website that’s from.

Thanks/Hi

I heard the Bulgarian finance minister speak last month in Moscow. I thought he was one of the saner members of the panel, less austerian. Maybe something was lost in translation.

So they have bugs that can kill you if they don’t like what they hear?

You raise something very interesting, Knut. The guy you speak of, Simeon Djankov, has been a rising star in European financial circles, having gotten his PhD at UMich under a big shot in the academic version of economics, Alan Deardorff, and then having had an eye-catching career at the World Bank before his Bulgarian government post. So, at least, Wikipedia.

Now it turns out that he either resigned or was forced out two days before the government gave up as fatster reports, I suppose throwing out a sacrificial lamb in an effort to quell the protests. (His policies did indeed reduce Bulgaria’s budget deficit and NYT calls him “the architect of painful fiscal probity,” although this conflicts with your impression.)

Although I haven’t found another source for it, the Wikipedia article also claims that he rescinded his resignation yesterday as soon as Prime Minister Borisov submitted his. He was Deputy PM in that government in addition to Finance Minister, so I wonder if he’s angling for the top job.

Re: #14. . .

Thanks for the photo. I’m one of many who is not as familiar with Mexican art as I should be.

I’m familiar with Rivera, though, based on his association with Trotsky and the menage a trois including the two of them plus Frida Kahlo. That was quite a story, which long after became a disjointed but page turner of a novel, La Lacuna.

For me Mexican art’s color spectrum often seems out of kilter, blue phobic, and then I have difficulty remembering a work other than the excellently crafted objects themselves. It’s something I’ll have to work on.

Sequeiros seems a name of Portugese extraction — anything to that? Is there a Brazilian connetion in his past?

Re: my #19. . .

Rembrandt was blue phobic, too, so I’m not referring to just Mexican art that way.

I live in the Detroit area. The consensus around here is that Governor Snyder will appoint an Emergency Manager from Detroit. There has been some speculation about who the EM will be: Freman Hendrix, who lost to Kwame Kilpatrick in the runoff in 2005, is one name bandied about.

Fun fact: the State Treasurer is Andy Dillon, a Democrat who served as Speaker of the House during his party’s short-lived control of that chamber and who ran for governor as a conservadem in 2010 and lost in the primary.

Sad to say, tammanytiger, I figure you’re right on that Detroit Emergency Manager sitch. I try to keep an eye out for news on it, and hope you’ll update us if I do miss something. Much appreciated.

I don’t know about the Siqueiros’ ancestry, maa8722, sorry to say.

You might find this of interest, too, in terms of blue–this from Picasso.

:), mafr and . . . Good early afternoon!