PARENTS OF SIERRA Cerrone and Ashley Morgan  from the left, Joe and Joan Cerrone and Linda Kenny  speak at a wrenching Fallsburg assembly Tuesday.
FALLSBURG  December 26, 2006  Raw emotion, raw photos and raw presentations filled the Fallsburg High School auditorium Tuesday.
Standing in front of lifesize images of their daughters, Lorraine Werner, Linda Kenny, and Joe and Joan Cerrone tearfully spoke of the day each of them was told their children had died in horrific car accidents.
“To tell you the truth, I still can’t believe I will never see her again,” said Werner of her daughter Katheryn.
Just 16 when she rounded a curve too fast and slammed into a tree this past October, Katheryn was trapped in her Volvo 850 as it caught fire, her mother related to a whisper-quiet room.
By the time emergency workers arrived at the River Road curve near Woodridge, Katheryn could not be saved.
“All it takes is a second,” said Lorraine, speaking as much of life as any driving distractions her daughter may have faced.
Yet even in death, Katheryn was making a difference, inspiring her friends  Fallsburg High School students Emily Grigsby, Krystal Perrello and Lauren Pratt  to create this Safe Driving Assembly last week.
It was a heartwrenching, stomach-turning two hours, but one that kept most of these students’ classmates glued to their seats the whole time.
“We took two hours out of today in hopes to extend your life,” explained Principal Mark Plescia to the more than 200 high-schoolers  all of whom voluntarily attended.
Understanding how unforgettable an image can be, organizers presented visceral photographs of wrecked cars and accident sites … but they also backed them up with personal, sometimes eyewitness accounts of the tragedies.
“I’ve had to look a father in the eye and say, ‘What kind of outfit do you want to put your daughter in for her funeral?’” recalled Colonial Memorial Funeral Home owner Anthony Perito with a shudder.
“Life stops on a dime,” stressed MobileMedic owner Albee Bochman of Hurleyville, who’s seen hundreds of accidents “and hundreds of dead bodies.”
He asked the audience to hug their neighbors, which the students initially undertook with titters of laughter.
“The reason that’s important,” said a sober Bochman of his request, “is that there is a high chance some of you will be involved in a serious accident.”
There was a warning within that message, too  one that Joan Cerrone drove home in an emotional, angry presentation.
That day was June 15, 2004, when 14-year-old Sierra, her 15-year-old friend Ashley Morgan, 17-year-old Santiago Mendoza and 18-year-old Maximilian Gonzalez got into a brand new Mercury Mountaineer SUV with driver Brett Cabrera, 17.
All Monticello students, they headed toward Sackett Lake, where Cabrera’s reckless driving put them square into a utility pole and apple tree  and ejected the two girls and Gonzalez.
All three died at the scene, while Mendoza and Cabrera were taken to the hospital for their injuries.
“That bum was going like 90,” said Joan Cerrone through gritted teeth. “… And yes, I hate him for that.
“He killed my daughter,” she continued bitterly of the man who is serving three years in prison for the accident and a related charge.
“I have a life sentence,” she added to a shocked crowd. “I pray to God every day that you won’t have to go through what I go through.
“Trying to talk to a teenager is like trying to nail Jell-O to a tree,” Cerrone acknowledged, “[but] if I get to one of you, I’ll be really, really happy.”
That was the thinking of Allan Kelso, as well, a middle-aged Crystal Run Village resident who dramatically illustrated the effects of a car accident.
Painfully hobbling up to the podium, Kelso talked of the drunk-driver crash that killed his parents while he, just 4 at the time, was riding with them.
The brain injuries he sustained resulted in cerebral palsy, and his disfigurement at the hands of this tragedy was plainly evident to the audience.
The wrenching presentations were temporarily calmed when District Attorney Steve Lungen gave a few statistics illustrating the reasons why car accidents are the #1 killer of teenagers in America, but even he, too, told of how his family’s lives were shattered when his 19-year-old sister perished five decades ago in an accident caused by a drunk driver.
“What right do any of you have to put someone else’s life at risk?” he asked the crowd. “When you get into a car, you have to have a conscience on your shoulder… ‘I’m sorry’ doesn’t bring kids back.”
A law enforcement officer the students know well, former School Resource Officer and Town of Fallsburg PD Detective Simmie Williams, drove that point home.
“I only met Katheryn Werner one time, and that was in the morgue,” he said, his voice breaking. “I don’t want to see you guys there.”
“I’m not here to scare you, but rather to make you aware,” added Fallsburg graduate Gloria Vazquez, a friend and classmate of Guadalupe “Jasmine” Martinez, who perished in a one-car accident in 2004. “I just don’t want any of you to go through what I went through.”
Vazquez has a few years more driving experience than those she was speaking to, and shortly before watching a tearjerking slide show of Katheryn and Jasmine’s lives, she pleaded with the teens in the audience  indeed, with everyone who would listen:
ERIN PECK, RIGHT, loads her family into the car in Lake Huntington. From the left are 4-year-old Martin, 6-year-old Jacob and 9-year-old Bruce.
“I did everything the State Education Department [SED] told me to do,” the Lake Huntington resident recalls.
But the Sullivan West Central School District stood firm: her 4-year-old cannot be bused to St. Peter’s pre-K program in Liberty.
“All schools who have a full-fledged pre-K might have some obligation,” he relates, “but we don’t have a pre-K program here.”
SW has a limited pre-K program where about 16-18 special-needs students are accepted annually based on a pre-screening process, according to Derry.
Jeffersonville resident Kim Breihof tried to get her daughter into SW’s pre-K this year, but the 3-year-old tested at the level of a 4-5-year-old.
Breihof and Peck are two of a handful of parents upset with SW for not providing pre-K or even transportation to local private schools offering such.
“They already go to the [three] private schools in Liberty,” Peck explains, referencing SW’s busing of K-12 students to St. Peter’s Catholic school, Light and Life Christian Academy and Glory to God Christian High School.
“She’s a good hour or hour and a half late to school every day,” says Breihof of her daughter, as the registered nurse has to get her three other children ready for school at SW  and then dash off to work after dropping her daughter at St. Peter’s.
Peck, for her part, finds it ironic and frustrating that she has to drive her one son to St. Peter’s while an SW bus takes her two older boys to the same place: St. Peter’s.
According to Derry and SW Board Chair Arthur Norden, state education law indicates that public schools only need to provide transportation to private schools in the same way they do for themselves.
In other words, if SW buses a second-grader to its Jeffersonville campus, by law it must also bus a second-grader to a local private school. There are certain limitations and requirements, but the essence of the law is equal treatment.
That’s why Norden and Derry have sent the matter to the school’s attorney for review and are awaiting a reply. Thereafter, the board will discuss it in executive session, as it applies to particular students and is thus private.
Breihof and Peck aren’t optimistic, however, and an SED spokesman’s recent remarks do nothing to change that feeling.
“The one certainty in the area of transportation of students to non-public pre-K is that if the child receives special education services and has an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) that says the child will attend a particular school, the district must provide transportation,” wrote SED spokesman Tom Dunn to the Democrat’s request for clarifying the law.
“In all other cases, the issue could become the subject of a 310 appeal to the commissioner [of education], wherein a petitioner (parent) appeals to the commissioner to reverse a decision made by a school district,” he continued.
“Recognizing that potential for an appeal, as the commissioner’s spokesman, I am constrained from commenting further.”
“By the time I filed an appeal and got an answer, my daughter would be in kindergarten,” Breihof pointed out.
So for now she’ll keep paying the $555 a month for St. Peter’s pre-K and latchkey programs and deal with the transportation issues  even while her husband, a sheriff’s deputy, is intensely training for six months at a K-9 academy.
That’s also why all of Peck’s children continue to go to St. Peter’s, adds Peck, who runs a construction company with her husband, Paul.
Both mothers admit the issue will soon be over for them, but what about other families seeking pre-K?
It is legal, said Derry, and SW’s pre-K offerings might easily stay limited for a long time to come.
“Absolutely we are not considering it,” Derry said of adding universal pre-K. “It is a tremendous expense, even when it is aided.”
This font is called GoodCityModern, designed in 1991 but based on the print in the Gutenberg bible. The designer is Andrew S. Meit, a software tester at Altsys Corporation who found a reproduction of a Gutenberg page in a type book. I obtained a copy of this font from the Santa Barbara Macintosh Users Group, who in turn apparently found it some time ago on-line. Lombardic capitals were included with it.
The name GoodCity is a translation of the name Gutenberg, and Modern refers to the digital version's inclusion of all the characters in the modern alphabet.
Throughout the Renaissance, the appearance of the printed page had much in common with that of the pen-lettered page in fine books. You may be interested more in writing than in printing, however. So where do you find examples of writing besides the ones you've already seen in calligraphy books? In unexpected places, that's where!
Here are some I found: A facsimile of some recipes from a fifteenth-century manuscript of The Forme of Cury, printed on the end papers of a modern cook book1. In a book of Scottish history2, a letter from James IV of Scotland to his "dearest brother" Henry VIII of England, and a letter from Edward VI of England, nine years old, to his uncle and Regent, the Duke of Somerset.
Actually, any book on a period subject, or a subject with historical traditions, is likely to have some interesting tidbits. For example, the font you are reading on this page, called Arrighi, was originally designed in 1925, but based on a font designed at Rome and Venice in the 1520s by the calligrapher Ludovico degli Arrighi. This information I found in a recent book on typography, written by a man who is both poet and book designer3.
How about the public library as a source of interesting used books? I paid $4 for a beautifully illustrated book on the work of the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch. Another time I got a Penguin book on Islamic art for $1, and a how-to book for making period-looking sand castles for forty cents. So, next time you're in the public library, remember to have a look at the used books for sale!
As for the day-to-day stuff of the SCA, in April we had a fun Roman Holiday, thanks to our friends in Darach. Along with the fighting were workshops on belly dancing, bawdy drinking songs, Roman & Celtic mythology, and leather working, and more! I saw a number of folks happily sewing leather pouches. And in May, a visit from Queen Ceinwen at Isles Anniversary, Medieval May Faire, and the coronation of King Edric and Queen Albra.
June 7th to 16th will be the Society's Thirty Year Celebration in Portland, Oregon. There will be classes, dancing, and bardic circles as well as the usual merchants, tournaments, and war scenarios.
It's been suggested (I should've written down who suggested) that we put together an SCA bibliography based on books available in the library where we do our next demo - say, UCSB, or maybe City College. I think it's a great idea, and there's no need to put it off to the last minute. So, if you'd like to contribute to a bibliography project, here's what we need:
Title and author of any book you think is a highly recommendable book on an SCA subject, the publication data (including date, edition number, and ISBN), and a paragraph or two of review telling why the book is recommended - and mentioning any shortcomings the reader should be aware of.
We'll be planning the project in the coming weeks at A & S meetings, which are on Sunday afternoons. Dance practices are again on Thursday nights. Hope to see you there!
[Illuminator's Note: The GoodCityModern and Lombardoc fonts are included in the ATM-GOCM.ZIP file. The Lombardoc font is used as the drop cap at the beginning of a paragraph. The GoodCityModern font is used for the rest of the paragraph text. This file is an Adobe Type1 font package which should be compatible with either a Macintosh or a PC with Adobe Type Manager installed. You can download the font by clicking HERE. I was unable to locate a copy of the Arrighi font, though it is sold by Adobe. But here is some information about Ludovico degli Arrighi da Vicenza and a few other font artists. To see a list of very useful decorative fonts, visit "winsite". - Lord Alfonso]
On Tuesday 31st May, the Italian National Day was celebrated in Esbjerg. The event was hosted by the Ambassador of Italy, in cooperation with the City of Esbjerg and Niels Winther Shipping/Grimaldi Group – parent companies of SAL.
SAL also took part the event. Managing Director Henrik Otto Jensen says: “It is a great honour to be part of this special event that celebrates the strong relationships between companies in Italy and Esbjerg. At SAL, we benefit greatly from our partnership with Grimaldi Lines and our close cooperation with the Italian automotive industry.”
The celebration took place in Esbjerg, where SAL is based, due to Henrik Otto Jensen’s long-term connections with Italian companies and his honorary knighthood of the Italian Republic, which he received in 2015.
The National Day was celebrated with a concert by the Italian/Danish duo Paolo and Kathrine Russo, music entertainment by local music artists and an exhibition of Italian cars. Also at the event, Managing Director of Hotel Arctic A/S, Erik Bjerregaard, was awarded honorary knighthood of the Italian Republic.
Attendees at the event included the Ambassador of Italy, Mr Stefano Queirolo Palmas, and his wife, Mrs Ornella Cuppone; the Mayor of Esbjerg, Johnny Søtrup; Italian citizens living in the region of Esbjerg and companies cooperating with Italy.
The Italian National Day (Festa della Repubblica) is officially celebrated on 2nd June. The Ambassador of Italy has been on tour to celebrate the day in five different parts of Denmark.
“It is a great honour to be part of this special event that celebrates the strong relationships between companies in Italy and Esbjerg. At SAL, we benefit greatly from our partnership with Grimaldi Lines and our close cooperation with the Italian automotive industry.”
There was a time when comic strips and the artists who created them were so popular, they'd appear on the cover of major national magazines -- as is the case here with Li'l Abner and his creator, Al Capp. Time and Life both cover-featured Capp's comic strip.
The Shmoo was a hugely popular Capp character -- shown here on a certificate given out to kids who'd bought government savings bonds.
Abner and his folks in a B&W still from the motion picture version of the wonderful Broadway musical based on the strip.
A pair of Abner frame tray jigsaw puzzles. Y'know if you turn these upside down to place 'em on a scanner bed, comedy and/or tragedy may ensue....
The Harvey Comics Group, which published the Abner comic book, put together this promotional booklet showing media coverage of the strip. Cover and first page shown.
One of many examples of licensed Abner merchandise. This candy box comes from the defunct Dogpatch theme park in Kentucky.
Sometimes I try to explain to people how popular newspaper comics were to the general population. Most people don't believe, and even the ones who do don't care.
There have been times when I've tried to impress upon folk the popularity of strips like L'il Abner, Dick Tracy, Terry and the Pirates, Prince Valiant, Flash Gordon, etc.
About Banksy: “It would not be dignified for the Academy to have somebody come up wearing a monkey’s head.”
It set off a really interesting debate about Banksy’s Oscar-nominated documentary “Exit Through the Gift Shop.” It also helped remind me that I caught up with the movie late last year and never wrote a proper full-length review of it. “Exit Through the Gift Shop” was one of 2010’s best, and it ended up at number four on my list of best movies of the year. So here’s my opportunity!
Anyway, what follows is a debate between myself, Scene-Stealers contributor and artist Michael Bird and Commercial Artisan co-chair Jon Sholly. This discussion goes beyond the merits of the film and goes into what it may mean to the art community itself. It starts with a couple comments from some other friends, whose last names have been removed to protect their privacy. Enjoy:
I think Banksy is a franchise, and its run by Mr.Brainwash. Exit is a total fraud, and kinda made me a little angry that I watched the whole thing. It used so much recycled footage from other graffiti docs.
Banksy is one of the few from that generation that actually has the chops to be a fine artist. Most of the rest of them are useless, with dick and fart jokes masquerading as social commentary (Shepard Fairey is graphic designer/illustrator …at best). I absolutely felt bait-and-switched because I knew the work of the various players before I went in thinking I was getting a doc on Banksy. I got his one-note-joke, alter-ego instead. Great. I don’t think its the best doc of the year. I don’t even think it is a good doc. Its a prank. And if those qualify as docs now, I think “Jackass 3D” was better.
it’s not just a prank. he did with film exactly what he does with street art: take the form of something and alter it to make a different point. it IS a great doc because it questions the very nature of its ‘truth,’ and by that nature, any notions of truth in documentary filmmaking. who cares if it recycled footage from other graffiti docs? that’s only part of what it was about. the movie challenges the notion of what it means to be an artist in the first place. those tricky questions that lie in the chasm between art and commerce are raised naturally through the progression of the narrative, whether that narrative is partially fabricated or not. fascinating stuff–the best doc of the year, hands down!
‎”the movie challenges the notion of what it means to be an artist in the first place.” How does it do this? Or does it challenge whether an audience recognizes what an artist looks like? For my view of it, I get that he thought he was doing something clever there, turning reportage into prank into rhetoric. I just didn’t learn anything new from him doing that. I kept looking for a larger point and I couldn’t find one. That art exists because of witless benefactors is not new. Artists acknowledge that when we make work, it is unlikely that others will understand what we get from making it, and it isn’t necessary (well, some us feel that way — some still write editorials into their work). His master stroke here is that he was able to trick several gullible, but well-meaning benefactors into buying mass produced artwork because of hype? Art has always been sold on hype. My mom knows this. The best that comes out of this is that people think twice before they buy a piece of art, lest it be a prank?
Well I think the movie succeeds because it shows that a prank can be art. That an artist can exist solely as a brand instead of an individual. Value judgments aside, this movie actually illustrates a “challenge to the notion of what it means to be an artist.” Whether or not it’s bullshit is irrelevant.
I saw that Kinkade report..nice one, Michael! But I humbly submit that because this art “comes from a fan,” the film also gives credence that expression, even if its bad art, can come from a real place–and that everybody is going to see something different in art and choose what they like–like Kinkade. I love the ‘prank as art’ thing, even if Duchamp did it first; what’s wrong with being the cinematic equivalent of Duchamp? Bottom line: good movies show and don’t tell and by showing all different sides and intersecting lines of thought about this subject from buyers, press, artists, fans, etc., Banksy has created a stimulating work of art and managed to further Herzog’s idea of an ‘ecstatic truth’ that is arrived at partially by falsehood. It’s fucking brilliant, man. Maybe the masterstroke was calling it a documentary in the first place.
Well, I’ll tell you, I obviously don’t like the film. To that end, there’s no point in arguing taste. I didn’t even think it did what it was trying to do well. Mileage will vary.
That aside, my main reason for disliking it is that it seems to posit that street art is the only valid art because it is free art. Bullshit. Second, it makes people distrust art as commerce. That’s a really bad thing because it takes advantage of the fact that people are really insecure about their understanding of art, and leverages an expensive prank on them. Now what was already seen as an elitist field is now more so, because its fully possible to the uninitiated that the artist is just making fun of them, and struggling to understand or contemplate it could be a folly. Great.
One could make the case that the reasoning for doing this is to sort of idiot-proof the audience for art, or that it’s a teachable moment. Maybe, but then we live in a state that just decided that it doesn’t need art anymore. Why? Why is an institution as foundational as art being shoved to the margins? It’s because conservatives have decided that art and the arts are the playground of gays and intellectual elites and real people who do real work aren’t going to pay money for an industry that mocks them and their values, and especially not in a tight economy. Ask them, that’s exactly what they’ll tell you.
Duchamp put down a urinal and called it a fountain. It was less a prank and more to say that any avenue to artistic expression is a valid one. I point out that it was done in 1917 to make the case that most in the art world already know this. I agree that a prank can be art (and I still sincerely contend most of Jackass’s are better). I agree that wherever there is a medium it can be a means to saying something of value.
What I disagree with is that Banksy was saying anything at all original or important with this piece, and further, the reckless disregard he has for the implications of this film show his perspective to be a nihilistic one. It’s immature and does nothing to enrich. It provokes, but merely for his own self-aggrandizing. I do wonder why he needed to document his own work in this; why he needed to show an obvious difference between himself and his creation. Its almost like he was worried someone might mistake all of his work for a prank. Whatever would be the harm of that, the next time he tries to cash in on “official” Banksy art? Does he have the ability to make a second documentary?
I feel I should boil it down: Banksy’s only prank is the prank he is playing on the film community. But he is doing it at the expense of the art community, and that pisses me off.
Jon- I agree with almost everything in that article. I’m just not clear at what point Guetta started collaborating.
Michael- You wrote: “I do wonder why he needed to document his own work in this; why he needed to show an obvious difference between himself and his creation.” Because the film doesn’t work without it. He’s actually exposing the largely unfamiliar film audience to what it is that makes street art “art,” and then challenging them to recognize it in a setting where they are predisposed to like the Kinkade-like guy. I don’t think it does a disservice to the art community at all, but I can appreciate that you do. I’m not in that community and you are. The fact that it gets people talking about this issue at the same time that the GOP is cutting off arts funding everywhere is a good thing, I think.See More
You remember that scene in “Basquiat” when the guys are trying to steal the metal door that has some SAMO graffiti on it? And how when Basquiat tries to sign it so they can get more money for it they beat the shit out of him? Same point, told in less than a minute, and with an experience that actually enriches the viewer’s appreciation for art. I do love a good debate Eric, and this has been fun.
Wait! Once a point has been made in a movie, something similar can’t be done again? After watching this movie I felt an appreciation of street art that didn’t have before. That experience is invalid?
Responsibility for validating your experiences watching a film is yours alone. If you got a great experience from watching this, I would never seek to take that away from you. What I am saying is that the same point can be made with less collateral damage. I don’t even mind if it is provocative (and I shouldn’t given the work I make). What I mind is someone who poses as an art outsider pissing all over his chosen field because he thinks it will be impressive to the film community. Some street are is very impressive. It’s not my favorite, but it has a place. Banksy’s is among my favorite of that field.
It does bring us back to the question is marketing an artform, if it is then banksy is certainly one of the foremost artists in that field. I definitely have a greater appreciation of street art as a whole than I did before I watched the movie so I don’t feel that he betrayed the street art community for the sake of his movie. The best thing it raised for me is how far does using your influences go before it becomes plagiarism or just uncreative and unoriginal. I agree with a few of the points that Michael made but I’m not sure I get why when Duchamp plays his “prank” it validates all artistic expression but when someone else does it its just a prank.
Xavier: It wasn’t my point that Duchamp was playing a prank. That point belongs to someone else. My point was that Duchamp was utilizing a non-traditional media to make an art-based observation. It was one of the most influential pieces of art of the 20th century in that it opened up all media – especially appropriated media — to artistic expression (even pranking, I suppose, if only performance-based in some way). It was rather controversial in that.
It isn’t my point that anyone else playing a prank is void of artistic expression, either. Instead, it was my point that Banksy’s film is damaging to art because of the implications of his “documentary.”
That’s the part I don’t agree with I’m not sure exactly how Banksy’s film is damaging to art, I just don’t see it. He’s inviting debate about the nature of art and I don’t think he does it in a dismissive or damaging way. I wasn’t saying you thought Duchamp was playing a prank but I was more asking when is something a prank and when is it as you say “utilizing a non-traditional media to make an art based observation”, who gets to decide this and how do we determine it, is it based on the intent of the artist, the impact it has, the reaction of the public and their interpretations?
I am not playing the arbiter or what is prank and what is art observation. I am taking the film at its word that it is a documentary. Others are making the case that it is an art based observation via prank. Fair enough, I say. That’s their case to make.
My point is that which I stated: The film makes the viewer doubt whether commerce should have any place in art, and that’s a fairly glib stance to take for someone who makes money from art (as Banksy clearly does). Further, I am suggesting that stance is damaging to others who are trying to make money from art not spray-painted on walls (like myself).
I think the debate you’d like to have is whether or not I think I am entitled to decide. I’m not. So I guess I’m on your side in the debate. Everyone should decide for themselves. I’m merely stating my opinion, and standing behind it by defending it. The outcome is not finite, nor even likely measurable. But I feel my concerns are valid. You’re entitled to disagree.
Alright then taking the film on the basis that it is a documentary would change the viewing experience I’m sure to the point where I don’t even know what opinion of it I’d have if I had watched it with that presumption. It is an interesting argument and maybe you’re right that the film does take a largely negative view of commerce within the art industry.
Nevertheless I think that as a film it succeeds and is very entertaining. For me the most interesting part was Thierry’s own show and the backlash from others in the street art community who felt he had ripped off the styles of those who he had been filming. This for me raised the most interesting question, when does something stop being influenced and become a rip off, and how far do you have to adapt or reinvent the original works that influenced you before it becomes your own?
I had a discussion with my boss a while back after seeing Exit Through The Gift Shop, which I took as a documentary. He believes Banksy may not be just one person, but a collective. I don’t think it’s damaging to art per se, depending on who you are and how you look at it.
I don’t think that the focus is the ability of art to be overvalued monetarily, but instead a condemnation of the artist persona and the fame that surrounds it. Sure there is the comment about how much a Banksy work made at auction, but that comment was only to reinforce that now all “serious” art collectors now had to have a Banksy. It’s not about money. It’s about the fame and spectacle that builds up around an artist, and which may be in direct opposition to the artwork being created.
Banksy is the perfect person to make this particular statement because of his anonymity. He is able to garner cred and success. We kinda need to take him seriously, but he avoids the fame and constructed social persona that artist are often forced into once they are well known.
The fame of street art is an affront to the statement of most street art. It’s rebellious, DIY, and antiestablishment. Banksy’s documentary mocks the process of fame, including the Johnny-come-latelys.
If it were a doc about money, then money would be front and center. We’d have a steady progression of dollar signs marching across the screens. Instead the comments are simple that brainwash didn’t earn his fame, but stole it from a rising art movement.
Because of this the documentary, regardless of whether it is “real” or “created”, works, and works well.
Trey, I think that’s a good interpretation, and I’d likely agree with you if it weren’t for one thing: We are to assume that the work really did sell and they really did make the money on it that they purport.
If they did — and since they do not contradict the assumption that they did — the end result is that the casual viewer sees these transactions actually happen and happen to suckers. And the people who purchased the work weren’t just collectors. So given the above, how on earth would the casual viewer assume they can tell what an impostor is and what an authentic artist isn’t?
If they weren’t crossing into the domain of setting up their work in installed spaces and it were only in alleyways, I could buy that the film is only going to indict the commercialization of street art. I think it indicts the hyping and selling of all art and if artists were only setting on their hands and not inflicting themselves into the public space, no one would ever see their work and no one would ever buy it. Banksy may not like it, but we can’t all go repurposing billboards.
Eric Melin guest host Whitney Mathews review the new bromance comedy “I Love You, Man,” starring Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Jon Favreau, Jamie Pressly, Rashida Jones, J.K. Simmons, and Andy Samberg. “I Love You, Man” gives Paul Rudd a chance to flex his leading man chops, but does it give him a good character or […]