Yup, this is Florida. Not only are we getting overrun by six foot dinosaurs, pythons and the usual native snakes and gators, but now there's a problem with wild hogs.
The Florida solution ? Put guns in the hands of nine year old girls and send them out to blast the hogs straight into hell where they belong.
I personally have nothing against hogs, it's armadillos that give me headaches, digging holes without end and rooting around in my yard and making the dog go through the screen after them.
I also have nothing against nine year old girls and I have nothing against guns.
American citizens certainly have the right to bear arms.
It just somehow seems a little off kilter.
Oh, and of course, blame the Spanish for the problem
Here's the story copied from somewhere on AOL.
Wild hogs aren't native to Florida. They are thought to have been brought to the area by Spanish explorers, according to the SWFWMD. They root with their broad snouts to find food, which can greatly damage habitats.
"The District only allows hogs to be controlled through hunts when the damage they cause is at unacceptable levels, and damage is occurring more frequently and with increasing severity," the management district said.
Young hunters had to submit an essay about why they wanted to participate in the events scheduled for Oct. 17 and Oct. 24 at the Edward W. Chance Reserve's Gilley Creek Tract.
Cecilia Plummer, 9, of St. Petersburg, plans to hunt, she told the newspaper.
"They're creepy," she said of the hogs. She learned to shoot during a recent camping trip.
Each young hunter must be accompanied by an adult, and their guns must remain unloaded until they arrive at their hunting site.
Not everyone supports the idea.
"We don't think having a young child shoot an animal and watch that animal die before his or her eyes is a positive thing in any way," said Nick Atwood, the spokesman for the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
appraisals and authentication
I have been declining offers to appraise and authenticate the newer work by the surviving highwaymen who are currently painting and marketing their work.
With canvas transfers such as this:
Item number: 250507325072
ROY MCLENDON SR. CANVAS TRANSFER HIGHWAYMEN
YELLOW POINCIANA 1/100 PURCHASED DIRECTLY FROM ARTIST
http://cgi.ebay.com/ROY-MCLENDON-SR-CANVAS-TRANSFER-HIGHWAYMEN_W0QQitemZ250507325072QQcmdZViewItemQQptZArt_Paintings?hash=item3a53666e90&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
now being offered on eBay, I will now accept new paintings on canvas for physical inspection to determine exactly what they are.
Also, I know that there are quite a few giclee prints of Livingston Roberts' work, so I see a more pressing need for the naive collector to be protected from possible misrepresentation of these products.
I am not claiming that transfers, prints and giclees are worthless, far from it. They are, in fact, an opportunity for a collector to get a very affordable decorative piece of art by a favorite artist.
The true value of an original oil painting is considerably higher than that of a reproduction of the same scene. Scammers and crooks, of course, know this and use it to their advantage. EBay is a favorite place to misrepresent prints as original art, and it occurs much more often than you even want to know. If you think it's unusual, well.........dream on.
It takes a trained "eye" to determine the subtle differences in most cases. I've got that covered for you if you wish to take advantage.
Therefore I now offer to examine new paintings, or what LOOK LIKE new paintings by the highwaymen and issue certificates.
The fee will be the standard $ 100.00 per piece for my expert opinion.
Needless to say, you don't need this service if you are buying Robert Lewis's $ 75.00 five by sevens, but you might consider the service for a Roberts or McLendon with rare elements.
As "Protector of the Naive", I may sound a little arrogant, but keep this in mind, gentle reader, I am here for two reasons. To help you and to make a living as I do so.
No one, make that NO ONE, has more experience in this market.
I've seen a lot of highwaymen paintings, and a lot of art in general, but remember the words of Aerosmith's Steven Tyler:
"You ain't seen nuthin' til you're down on a muffin."
With canvas transfers such as this:
Item number: 250507325072
ROY MCLENDON SR. CANVAS TRANSFER HIGHWAYMEN
YELLOW POINCIANA 1/100 PURCHASED DIRECTLY FROM ARTIST
http://cgi.ebay.com/ROY-MCLENDON-SR-CANVAS-TRANSFER-HIGHWAYMEN_W0QQitemZ250507325072QQcmdZViewItemQQptZArt_Paintings?hash=item3a53666e90&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
now being offered on eBay, I will now accept new paintings on canvas for physical inspection to determine exactly what they are.
Also, I know that there are quite a few giclee prints of Livingston Roberts' work, so I see a more pressing need for the naive collector to be protected from possible misrepresentation of these products.
I am not claiming that transfers, prints and giclees are worthless, far from it. They are, in fact, an opportunity for a collector to get a very affordable decorative piece of art by a favorite artist.
The true value of an original oil painting is considerably higher than that of a reproduction of the same scene. Scammers and crooks, of course, know this and use it to their advantage. EBay is a favorite place to misrepresent prints as original art, and it occurs much more often than you even want to know. If you think it's unusual, well.........dream on.
It takes a trained "eye" to determine the subtle differences in most cases. I've got that covered for you if you wish to take advantage.
Therefore I now offer to examine new paintings, or what LOOK LIKE new paintings by the highwaymen and issue certificates.
The fee will be the standard $ 100.00 per piece for my expert opinion.
Needless to say, you don't need this service if you are buying Robert Lewis's $ 75.00 five by sevens, but you might consider the service for a Roberts or McLendon with rare elements.
As "Protector of the Naive", I may sound a little arrogant, but keep this in mind, gentle reader, I am here for two reasons. To help you and to make a living as I do so.
No one, make that NO ONE, has more experience in this market.
I've seen a lot of highwaymen paintings, and a lot of art in general, but remember the words of Aerosmith's Steven Tyler:
"You ain't seen nuthin' til you're down on a muffin."
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Alfred Hair
I've seen an awful lot of unsigned Alfred Hair paintings at this point, maybe a hundred, maybe more. I no longer find it to be unusual. It was less than important to have a signature on these things forty years ago, it was only important to get 'em painted and sold.
I happen to have two unsigned Hair 24x36's, available right now, that the Tysons (remember them ?) have consigned to me to sell for them.
Occasionally, a little while after I sell one from inventory, the Twilight Zone effect comes into play, dimensions shift, life and the after-life intermingle, and these very same paintings appear on eBay with signatures. I have no idea how many times they have changed hands since I sold them, but................
I can document at least three such instances.
I felt it was my duty, as a protector of the naive, to fight the good fight and do what I could to get them removed from their listings, so far, successfully.
( I pause now to pat myself on the back.)
I'm not the police, but is fraudulent to forge signatures.
There is a fairly nice unsigned four footer on eBay right now. Scroll way down on the listing to see a special offer.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330363832815#description
I happen to have two unsigned Hair 24x36's, available right now, that the Tysons (remember them ?) have consigned to me to sell for them.
Occasionally, a little while after I sell one from inventory, the Twilight Zone effect comes into play, dimensions shift, life and the after-life intermingle, and these very same paintings appear on eBay with signatures. I have no idea how many times they have changed hands since I sold them, but................
I can document at least three such instances.
I felt it was my duty, as a protector of the naive, to fight the good fight and do what I could to get them removed from their listings, so far, successfully.
( I pause now to pat myself on the back.)
I'm not the police, but is fraudulent to forge signatures.
There is a fairly nice unsigned four footer on eBay right now. Scroll way down on the listing to see a special offer.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330363832815#description
Monday, September 28, 2009
Another real quick one
Struck me funny. Maybe you, too ?
from SarahKSilverman
I feel pretty lucky. Thousands of people die every day and it's never me.
from SarahKSilverman
I feel pretty lucky. Thousands of people die every day and it's never me.
Friday, September 25, 2009
A quickie : A headline today
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to St Pete.
St. Petersburg firefighters accidentally run over victim they were sent to help
By Jamal Thalji, Times Staff Writer In Print: Friday, September 25, 2009
St. Petersburg firefighters accidentally run over victim they were sent to help
By Jamal Thalji, Times Staff Writer In Print: Friday, September 25, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Beanie's place
This is certainly the lazy man's way of doing it, but I want to share this in case you missed it.
Copied and pasted directly from the Treasure Coast Palm.
I HOPE THEY DON"T MIND.
ST. LUCIE COUNTY — During his lifetime, A.E. “Bean” Backus refused to allow the small art gallery on the Fort Pierce riverfront to bear his name.
The gallery wasn’t about him, he argued, it was a showcase for all local artists.
Now about to open its doors for a 50th season, these days the gallery’s reputation is inextricably linked with the Backus name. It’s the place that keeps his artistic and personal legacy alive.
“He was the most generous man I’ve ever known, a genuinely good human being,” said gallery Director Kathleen Fredrick, who spent much of her youth hanging around Backus’ studio.
But how do you do communicate that and his incredible talent almost 20 years after the man’s death?
“Our mission is to tell Bean’s story and to explain his artistic legacy,” Fredrick said, “and we need to tell it in a more compelling way than we have in the past.”
One way will be to create an expanded area of the gallery devoted to showing more of the gallery’s personal collection of Backus landscapes together with interpretative panels that describe his history and development as an artist.
To Fredrick, Backus has grown from being regarded as an interesting Florida landscape painter — a regional talent — to an important 20th century American painter in the same league as, say, Winslow Homer.
In 1958, a local businessman, Al Shapiro, persuaded Backus to support the building of a gallery in Fort Pierce. Shapiro wanted to name it after Backus; Bean would have none of it.
He wanted to showcase the burgeoning talent he saw on the Treasure Coast. Backus taught and encouraged a small army of budding area artists, including the Highwaymen.
He matched Shapiro’s $1,000 seed money, produced a rendering of a small minimalist-style building, urging the community to raise the rest of the $12,000 cost.
They responded with a flood of $50 and $100 checks. The smallest recorded contribution, Fredrick noted, was a $7 check from a lady who worked at the courthouse.
The original gallery, which opened in 1959, wasn’t much more than a roof held up with columns. There was a rock garden in the center and rainwater flowed toward the center of the open pavilion.
They hung artwork on cut nails on the outside of the building, hoping the deep roof overhang would protect paintings from summer rains.
That didn’t work, and by 1968 the gallery board decided to add walls and air conditioning and make the place a proper indoor gallery. They’ve gone from strength to strength ever since.
Whatever Backus’ reputation as an artistic pioneer, it’s the man Fredrick recalls with overwhelming affection.
“People who first met him saw the gregarious side: joking and friendly. But he was very modest, shy and retiring. He was the man with 10,000 friends. He didn’t have an abrasive bone in his body.”
Backus lived by a “pass it on” philosophy taught him by his Uncle Reg (who paid for him to attend art school in New York). In order for $1 to do any good, Uncle Reg argued, you have to give away $10. Nine dollars may go to waste, but the tenth will do the trick.
Yet Bean was pretty hopeless with money and, Fredrick is sure, if he’d ever been in charge of the business side of the gallery, they’d have had to shut the doors within a week.
“You can’t put artists in charge,” she says, “they use another whole area of their brains.”
Even though Backus rarely showed the world any ill-will, he did have his pet peeves, Fredrick recalled with laughter.
“He hated all intolerance, cigarettes, the banjo, and John Denver.”
I really wish I’d met him.
I, TOO, HATE JOHN DENVER, but damn it, I love my cigarettes. And I've liked the banjo ever since I saw "Deliverance".
Copied and pasted directly from the Treasure Coast Palm.
I HOPE THEY DON"T MIND.
ST. LUCIE COUNTY — During his lifetime, A.E. “Bean” Backus refused to allow the small art gallery on the Fort Pierce riverfront to bear his name.
The gallery wasn’t about him, he argued, it was a showcase for all local artists.
Now about to open its doors for a 50th season, these days the gallery’s reputation is inextricably linked with the Backus name. It’s the place that keeps his artistic and personal legacy alive.
“He was the most generous man I’ve ever known, a genuinely good human being,” said gallery Director Kathleen Fredrick, who spent much of her youth hanging around Backus’ studio.
But how do you do communicate that and his incredible talent almost 20 years after the man’s death?
“Our mission is to tell Bean’s story and to explain his artistic legacy,” Fredrick said, “and we need to tell it in a more compelling way than we have in the past.”
One way will be to create an expanded area of the gallery devoted to showing more of the gallery’s personal collection of Backus landscapes together with interpretative panels that describe his history and development as an artist.
To Fredrick, Backus has grown from being regarded as an interesting Florida landscape painter — a regional talent — to an important 20th century American painter in the same league as, say, Winslow Homer.
In 1958, a local businessman, Al Shapiro, persuaded Backus to support the building of a gallery in Fort Pierce. Shapiro wanted to name it after Backus; Bean would have none of it.
He wanted to showcase the burgeoning talent he saw on the Treasure Coast. Backus taught and encouraged a small army of budding area artists, including the Highwaymen.
He matched Shapiro’s $1,000 seed money, produced a rendering of a small minimalist-style building, urging the community to raise the rest of the $12,000 cost.
They responded with a flood of $50 and $100 checks. The smallest recorded contribution, Fredrick noted, was a $7 check from a lady who worked at the courthouse.
The original gallery, which opened in 1959, wasn’t much more than a roof held up with columns. There was a rock garden in the center and rainwater flowed toward the center of the open pavilion.
They hung artwork on cut nails on the outside of the building, hoping the deep roof overhang would protect paintings from summer rains.
That didn’t work, and by 1968 the gallery board decided to add walls and air conditioning and make the place a proper indoor gallery. They’ve gone from strength to strength ever since.
Whatever Backus’ reputation as an artistic pioneer, it’s the man Fredrick recalls with overwhelming affection.
“People who first met him saw the gregarious side: joking and friendly. But he was very modest, shy and retiring. He was the man with 10,000 friends. He didn’t have an abrasive bone in his body.”
Backus lived by a “pass it on” philosophy taught him by his Uncle Reg (who paid for him to attend art school in New York). In order for $1 to do any good, Uncle Reg argued, you have to give away $10. Nine dollars may go to waste, but the tenth will do the trick.
Yet Bean was pretty hopeless with money and, Fredrick is sure, if he’d ever been in charge of the business side of the gallery, they’d have had to shut the doors within a week.
“You can’t put artists in charge,” she says, “they use another whole area of their brains.”
Even though Backus rarely showed the world any ill-will, he did have his pet peeves, Fredrick recalled with laughter.
“He hated all intolerance, cigarettes, the banjo, and John Denver.”
I really wish I’d met him.
I, TOO, HATE JOHN DENVER, but damn it, I love my cigarettes. And I've liked the banjo ever since I saw "Deliverance".
Friday, September 11, 2009
Anniversary
There are places I'll remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all
Lennon and MCartney, from In My Life (Rubber Soul)
At about this time of day in 2001 I took position on the couch and pretty much stayed there for a couple of days, as I had done 40 years earlier when the first Kennedy assassination stained our country.
As gut-wrenching as that murder was, watching the towers, with which I had become intimately familiar, come down with and on top of all those souls, on live TV, brought more tears to my eyes than the loss of a beloved president and hero had brought to a 14 year old boy.
When I was in travelling the country dealing in Rare Coins, I attended several years of bi-annual shows held in the Vista Hotel and booked my room there, nestled between the towers.
I would go up to Windows of the World at the cocktail hour but I'd get a little dizzy if I got real close to the windows themselves.
Today, gentle readers, I give you a gift of the late Jack Buck. He wrote this poem.
I'll give the link at the end if you'd like to see him read it on youtube.
Since this nation was founded under God,
more than 200 years ago,
We've been the bastion of Freedom...
The light which keeps the free world Aglow.
We do not covet the possessions of Others,
we are blessed with the Bounty we share.
We have rushed to help other Nations...
anything...anytime...Anywhere.
War is just not our nature...we
Won't start, but we will end the fight.
If we are involved we shall be
Resolved to protect what we know is Right.
We've been challenged by a Cowardly foe,
who strikes and then Hides from our view.
With one voice we say there's no Choice today,
there is only one Thing to do.
Everyone is saying the same thing
And praying that we end these Senseless moments we are living.
As our fathers did before, we shall Win this unwanted war.
And our children will enjoy the Future we'll be giving.
http://huggingharoldreynolds.blogspot.com/2009/09/jack-bucks-911-poem.html
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all
Lennon and MCartney, from In My Life (Rubber Soul)
At about this time of day in 2001 I took position on the couch and pretty much stayed there for a couple of days, as I had done 40 years earlier when the first Kennedy assassination stained our country.
As gut-wrenching as that murder was, watching the towers, with which I had become intimately familiar, come down with and on top of all those souls, on live TV, brought more tears to my eyes than the loss of a beloved president and hero had brought to a 14 year old boy.
When I was in travelling the country dealing in Rare Coins, I attended several years of bi-annual shows held in the Vista Hotel and booked my room there, nestled between the towers.
I would go up to Windows of the World at the cocktail hour but I'd get a little dizzy if I got real close to the windows themselves.
Today, gentle readers, I give you a gift of the late Jack Buck. He wrote this poem.
I'll give the link at the end if you'd like to see him read it on youtube.
Since this nation was founded under God,
more than 200 years ago,
We've been the bastion of Freedom...
The light which keeps the free world Aglow.
We do not covet the possessions of Others,
we are blessed with the Bounty we share.
We have rushed to help other Nations...
anything...anytime...Anywhere.
War is just not our nature...we
Won't start, but we will end the fight.
If we are involved we shall be
Resolved to protect what we know is Right.
We've been challenged by a Cowardly foe,
who strikes and then Hides from our view.
With one voice we say there's no Choice today,
there is only one Thing to do.
Everyone is saying the same thing
And praying that we end these Senseless moments we are living.
As our fathers did before, we shall Win this unwanted war.
And our children will enjoy the Future we'll be giving.
http://huggingharoldreynolds.blogspot.com/2009/09/jack-bucks-911-poem.html
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