I don’t go to pawn shops or yard sales. The reason is; I’ve never found anything worth a damn at one of them!

It always bugs me when I hear stories like this about a guy who stumbles in to a garage sale…in Fresno and finds 65 Ansel Adams glass negatives. Guess what he paid for ‘em. Go ahead, guess.

$45!!!

Arghhh! From KTLA…

Prints that a California man purchased at a garage sale for $45 are the real thing!

Experts say after three years of research, they have determined the glass negatives are authentic works by Ansel Adams and are worth an estimated $200 million dollars.

Richard Norsigian bought the 60 glass negatives nearly ten years ago from a man in Fresno. He says he talked the man down from $60.

Here’s what I don’t want to see; I don’t want to see the guy who made a $200 million score all happy happy joy joy. I want to see Geraldo Rivera hunt down the guy in Fresno that sold them for less than a buck a piece. Hell, his asking price wasn’t even a buck a piece!

What’s worse is the guy that bought ‘em didn’t have a clue either!

Norsigian had the negatives scanned and developed into prints, which friends and family said resembled the work of famed photographer Ansel Adams.

Have any of you guys ever found something decent at a garage sale?

Mark builds interesting and aesthetic guitars. I have previously pimped him here and here.

Today, he sent me an Email about a new axe called “Seduction”.

“Seduction”. A hand-carved English walnut body with a walnut neck and a quilted maple fretboard. The strings start at ivroid and gold Waverly tuners, cross over single-coil pickups (one reverse wired to create a humbucker), crossover a Schaller roller bridge and end at a gold Bigsby vibrato. The switch, volume control, and tone control are on the reverse at the top of the rear bout and easily accessible by your playing hand’s thumb when the piece is strapped on. See other photo of the reverse entitle, “Abduction”.

OK Mark…this is the third feature, Brother. Don’t you know who I am? You know I’m diggin’ your chili! Let’s talk man. Let’s put a Pribek model together…c’mon man…let’s use our powers for good, not evil.

As promised, here’s a clip of “Seduction” in action. Baby’s got bite!

As always, click pause on the music player located in the side bar before playing the YouTube.

Ted Williams’ swing.

This, my friends, is art.

As always, cock your bat and click pause on the music player located in the side bar before playing the YouTube.

BTW…just one of the great band names I poot forth through the years that was universally rejected (a sure sign that I was on the right track) was Ted’s Frozen Head.

“The Old Guitarist”
Pablo Picasso
1903, during his blue period.

“Man with Guitar”
Pablo Picasso
1911, when he was in to cubism.

I am fascinated by the music of nature. When I meditate, I like to open all the windows and dig on the poly-rhythms of the bugs, melodies of the birds and how it all shifts with the wind.

So, I had to take a look when I saw this piece at we make money not art about a designer who is incorporating the acoustics of nature…

Acoustic Botany, by David Benqué, extracts Synthetic Biology and Genetic Engineering from the usual context of health care, food and environment and examines instead the role they could play in the sphere of culture and entertainment.

“Acoustic Botany”, I like the sound of that. Here’s an example of what Benqué is doing.

Popping Pod Fruit

The Popping Pod Fruit is made from little capsules which fill with air and bacteria as they mature. When ready, the seed is dispersed by the explosion of the capsule. The popping season could be a carefully orchestrated over 2 months with periods of activity more intense than others.

Benqué is currently working on some larger scale exhibitions that will delve in to some pretty interesting turf musically.

The designer imagines that the soundtrack would be more composed and harmonic than the nature sounds we know, but it wouldn’t be as controlled as ‘music’ either because of the unknown factors that plant growth almost inevitably brings.

In Muskogee, Oklahoma. From the Muskogee Phoenix…

Muskogee is home to a number of 8-foot fiberglass guitars painted in widely varying styles.

The only theme is each in some way reflects life in the community. The pieces were created as part of a public art undertaking, the Muskogee Guitar Project…

…The guitars pop up in odd places around town, from front lawns of homes, to churches, schools, banks and public parks. The Greater Muskogee Area Chamber of Commerce even offers a scavenger hunt “guitar map” available at the Muskogee Tourist Information Center.

Click on the link to see a cool slide show of the various pieces.

“Extreme complication is contrary to art.”

It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academicism. There is no such thing as good painting about nothing.

I’ve never seen a press release like this before…

Dick Zimmerman, famed portrait artist and creator of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” cover and Painter of his Homage to Michael Jackson titled HOMAGEKOP8/15, which was recently unveiled Friday, September 18th nationally on Entertainment Tonight, has turned down an offer from an undisclosed art memorabilia collector from the United Kingdom offering to purchase the original tribute painting to Jackson for $1.8 Million…

…Zimmerman stated, “It might seem crazy to pass on this offer, but I was very passionate and emotional about creating my tribute to Michael. I kept saying no to the offer and it kept going higher. I’m not interested in selling at this time but I’m confident that when I’m ready to part with the original painting, there will be a buyer out there!”

A guy issues a press release to notify the media that he didn’t sell a painting. And, the prospective buyer was the dreaded “undisclosed art memorabilia collector”. But…he might just be persuaded to sell it later.

I’m assuming the painting comes complete with digitally generated, faux frame template. No word about whether or not it’s painted on black velvet.

Every work of art is an uncommitted crime.