Members who have left.

[mn dave]

I have stage right.

Okay, Snagglepuss. 

[Cato]

To quote Woody Woodpecker: "Guess Who?  Ha-ha-ha-HAA-ha!"

Because I have Internet access right now and am also unable to do anything much because there are workers in my house supposedly improving the kitchen, and distressing my bank account, I am able to return for a while.   

Of interest was the Case of Saul, Saul, why do you persecute us?  Showing that I really do have nothing better to do right now, I skimmed through all 245 "digital paintings" on his art website, referred to earlier. 

The art shows several things:

Saul has spent way too much time staring at the paintings above the couches at Macy's. 

He has also spent way too much time looking at things Mondrian and De Chirico threw into the trash. 

He likes circles and lines, especially circles.  Big circles, little circles, circles in all kinds of colors: he seems not to discriminate against circles, but I do not know what he would say about circles of Arabs.

Believing that subconsciously "abstract" images of faces are not faces, he calls his subconsciously abstract images of faces "Abstract Images."

Migratory birds appear often, and they are practically always, always "painted" the same, and always, always headed to the right of the painting, the putative East.  Homesickness or an homage to Israel or even (gasp) Mecca?!  Or maybe he has not learned how one can rotate a clip-art image!

He has a highly inflated opinion of the value of his curiously flat art and of his music, both of which match: see especially



http://www.yessy.com/saul/index.html?i=9573

As I have told him earlier, he might possess some talent, and he needs to develop it properly.   Unlike the character of Salieri in Amadeus, Saul cannot recognize that he is most probably NOT a Renaissance Man, unless he moves to Stinking Creek, Tennessee, and I might still be insulting the residents there.

I hear buzz-saws and should probably go outside to check on Willie and Juan!

[karlhenning]

A Cato sighting! O frabjous day!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

A Cato sighting! O frabjous day!

Yes, a welcome return.

[Cato]

Yes, a welcome return.

Well, thank you!  I should be around for a few more days, but then for a few weeks I will again need to be incommunicado, right outside of Anaheim, while we move to a cheaper, but better, apartment, where any cancerous smoke from neighbors will not leach into our dwelling, as now happens!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Well, thank you!  I should be around for a few more days, but then for a few weeks I will again need to be incommunicado, right outside of Anaheim, while we move to a cheaper, but better, apartment, where any cancerous smoke from neighbors will not leach into our dwelling, as now happens!

Good luck with this salubrious migration, then!

[George]

Is having left anything like having back?

[mn dave]

Is having left anything like having back?

My anaconda don't want none unless you got buns, hon.

[(poco) Sforzando]

To quote Woody Woodpecker: "Guess Who?  Ha-ha-ha-HAA-ha!"

Because I have Internet access right now and am also unable to do anything much because there are workers in my house supposedly improving the kitchen, and distressing my bank account, I am able to return for a while.   

Of interest was the Case of Saul, Saul, why do you persecute us?  Showing that I really do have nothing better to do right now, I skimmed through all 245 "digital paintings" on his art website, referred to earlier. 

The art shows several things:

Saul has spent way too much time staring at the paintings above the couches at Macy's. 

He has also spent way too much time looking at things Mondrian and De Chirico threw into the trash. 

He likes circles and lines, especially circles.  Big circles, little circles, circles in all kinds of colors: he seems not to discriminate against circles, but I do not know what he would say about circles of Arabs.

Believing that subconsciously "abstract" images of faces are not faces, he calls his subconsciously abstract images of faces "Abstract Images."

Migratory birds appear often, and they are practically always, always "painted" the same, and always, always headed to the right of the painting, the putative East.  Homesickness or an homage to Israel or even (gasp) Mecca?!  Or maybe he has not learned how one can rotate a clip-art image!

He has a highly inflated opinion of the value of his curiously flat art and of his music, both of which match: see especially



http://www.yessy.com/saul/index.html?i=9573

As I have told him earlier, he might possess some talent, and he needs to develop it properly.   Unlike the character of Salieri in Amadeus, Saul cannot recognize that he is most probably NOT a Renaissance Man, unless he moves to Stinking Creek, Tennessee, and I might still be insulting the residents there.

I hear buzz-saws and should probably go outside to check on Willie and Juan!

I am far from being a member of the Saul Fan Club (most of its members are apparently confined to CMG, where they can enjoy the dulcet tones and gentilesse of Miss Corlyss), but I'll go out on a limb and say that every once in a while he comes up with a piece that has some potential.

Problem is, no one is going to buy work at his prices, and I suspect that all his work is just saved as images on his hard drive, meaning he couldn't come up at a moment's notice with a canvas print on a stretcher as he advertises. Even if his prices were scaled down to be more realistic for a beginning artist, serious collectors are usually not going to buy direct from an artist based on an image on the Internet, as the computer can misrepresent the colors and textures of the finished work. (I learned that the hard way a year ago when I bought a painting direct from an artist based on the image he put up on his website. The price was extremely reasonable, the artist had good credentials and had exhibited at a gallery I respected, the image on the website looked gorgeous; yet when I received the painting I was somewhat disappointed.)

But I digress. It seems to me that Saul is convinced he's a universal genius, and that any criticism or advice, no matter how well meant, is motivated by jealousy, spite, and probably anti-Semitism. It's nonsense, but there's no serious talking to the man. Unfortunately he's got his cheerleaders, and on the other site he told his fans how he had submitted work to a "prestigious" (and conveniently unnamed) gallery that showed "interest" in his digital prints. Poor Saul had to bow out because he could not afford the expense of producing his work. But consider: instead of taking his pieces to a variety of galleries (there are 200+ in Chelsea alone) in hopes of finding a dealer who would take an active interest in him, he submitted to one dealership that sounds like one of these "pay per play" establishments where the artist has to foot the bill for all his own expenses and the gallery lets him sink or swim. A really ethical gallerist wouldn't do that, because the dealer's living and reputation are bound up in developing the careers of artists the dealer believes in. But I guess Saul will learn (or not) from experience; I can't help him.

[Carlos von Kleiber]

Does anyone remember herman?

[Gurn Blanston]

Does anyone remember herman?

Very well. I am probably among the very few who miss Herman, but he was a really good poster until he went berserk.    I suspect that's all that most people remember, and who can blame them, it was pretty spectacular...   



----------------
Listening to:
Beethoven Op 20 Septet in Eb - Shaham / Rouilly / Mork / Dangel / Reid / Jenny / Hefti - Beethoven Op 20 Septet in Eb 4th mvmt - Andante con variazioni

[(poco) Sforzando]

Very well. I am probably among the very few who miss Herman, but he was a really good poster until he went berserk.    I suspect that's all that most people remember, and who can blame them, it was pretty spectacular...   

"People come and go so quickly here."

[Gurn Blanston]

"People come and go so quickly here."

Yup, true enough. Herman didn't arrive quickly, he was actually here before I was, but he sure left quickly.



----------------
Listening to:
Shaham / Rouilly / Mork / dangel / Reid / Jenny / Hefti - Beethoven Op 20 Septet in Eb 6th mvmt - Andante con moto alla marcia - Presto

[karlhenning]

Ah, yes, those pre-berserking-Herman days!

[Bogey]

Is Dana still looking for Kevin's pipe? 

[Cato]

I am far from being a member of the Saul Fan Club (most of its members are apparently confined to CMG, where they can enjoy the dulcet tones and gentilesse of Miss Corlyss), but I'll go out on a limb and say that every once in a while he comes up with a piece that has some potential.

Problem is, no one is going to buy work at his prices, and I suspect that all his work is just saved as images on his hard drive, meaning he couldn't come up at a moment's notice with a canvas print on a stretcher as he advertises. Even if his prices were scaled down to be more realistic for a beginning artist, serious collectors are usually not going to buy direct from an artist based on an image on the Internet, as the computer can misrepresent the colors and textures of the finished work. (I learned that the hard way a year ago when I bought a painting direct from an artist based on the image he put up on his website. The price was extremely reasonable, the artist had good credentials and had exhibited at a gallery I respected, the image on the website looked gorgeous; yet when I received the painting I was somewhat disappointed.)

But I digress. It seems to me that Saul is convinced he's a universal genius, and that any criticism or advice, no matter how well meant, is motivated by jealousy, spite, and probably anti-Semitism. It's nonsense, but there's no serious talking to the man. Unfortunately he's got his cheerleaders, and on the other site he told his fans how he had submitted work to a "prestigious" (and conveniently unnamed) gallery that showed "interest" in his digital prints. Poor Saul had to bow out because he could not afford the expense of producing his work. But consider: instead of taking his pieces to a variety of galleries (there are 200+ in Chelsea alone) in hopes of finding a dealer who would take an active interest in him, he submitted to one dealership that sounds like one of these "pay per play" establishments where the artist has to foot the bill for all his own expenses and the gallery lets him sink or swim. A really ethical gallerist wouldn't do that, because the dealer's living and reputation are bound up in developing the careers of artists the dealer believes in. But I guess Saul will learn (or not) from experience; I can't help him.

Exactly right: one occasionally sees or hears something of interest, but...

Although I recall long ago that Saul was claiming to be proud of being an autodidact, he then revealed that he had attended some sort of music school back in Georgia (of the Caucasus).  In either case, he is a sort of Ed Wood of modern art: utterly convinced of his talent, (apparently) unable to learn from the criticism of others, and satisfied (the prices tell you that, along with the rhetoric) when he sees a genius in the mirror.

[Brian]

Although I recall long ago that Saul was claiming to be proud of being an autodidact, he then revealed that he had attended some sort of music school back in Georgia (of the Caucasus).  In either case, he is a sort of Ed Wood of modern art:

I object to the comparison. Ed Wood's un-greatness was truly great. Saul's un-greatness is un-great.

[(poco) Sforzando]

I object to the comparison. Ed Wood's un-greatness was truly great. Saul's un-greatness is un-great.

Brian has a good point. Ed Wood had a career, and a Golden Turkey Award for Worst Director of All Time. What awards has Saul won?

[lukeottevanger]

Can I copy out something I quoted on my own composer's thread here? It seems appropriate, and deserves a wider audience. From Moliere's Misanthrope, in Richard Wilbur's translation. Hyphenation mine, to underscore the point:

Sir, these are delicate matters: we all desire
To be told that we've the true poetic fire.
But once, to one whose name I shall not mention,
I said, regarding some verse of his invention,
That gentlemen should rigorously control
That itch to write which often afflicts the s-ul;
That one should curb the heady inclination
To publicize one's little avocation;
And that in showing off one's works of art
One often plays a very clownish part.

(and yes, I'm aware of the irony of me posting that on my own composer's thread...)

[Cato]

I object to the comparison. Ed Wood's un-greatness was truly great. Saul's un-greatness is un-great.

You see?  I knew someone would object!

That is why I added the mollifying phrase "sort of" before "Ed Wood."   0:)

Re Moliere:

Someone - Joseph Epstein? - wrote an essay a few years ago in the Wall Street Journal and asked people NOT to follow the adage that "everyone has a book in them."