Primrose Path Travelogue: 2007

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Clubs my father remembers.

The Empress in the Grand Circus Park area.

The Gayety at Cadillac Square.

The Columbia on Grand River.

The Avenue on Woodward south of the Fox theatre.

The Stone on Woodward north of the Fox theatre.

Performers:

Scurvy Miller

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Fremont Solstice Parade - 2007: Nude Bikers

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Grinderman - No Pussy Blues (Live On Later)

Avett Brothers 'Paranoia in b Flat Major' (3-24-07) 3 cams

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Alice Neel (January 28, 1900 – October 13, 1984) was an American portrait painter. Her paintings are notable for their expressionistic use of line and color, psychological acumen, and emotional intensity.

Early life

Alice Neel was born in the rural town of Colwyn, Pennsylvania. She took the Civil Service exam and got a high-paying clerical position after high school in order to help support her parents. After three years of work, taking art classes by night in Philadelphia, Neel finally enrolled full-time in the Philadelphia School of Design for Women. Neel often said that she chose to attend an all-girls school so as not to be distracted from her art by the temptations of the opposite sex.

Cuba

Shortly after finishing her studies Neel married a Cuban painter named Carlos Enríquez, the son of wealthy and aristocratic parents. They were wed in 1925 and moved to Havana the following year to live with Enríquez’s family. In Havana, Neel was embraced by the burgeoning Cuban Avant-garde, a set of young writers, artists and musicians. In this environment Neel developed the foundations of her lifelong political consciousness and commitment to equality.

Personal difficulties, themes for art

In 1926 she became pregnant with her first child. Following the birth of her daughter, Santillana, Alice returned to her parents’ home in Colwyn. Carlos followed soon after, and the family moved to New York City. Just before Santillana’s first birthday, she died of diphtheria. The trauma caused by Santillana’s death infused the content of Neel’s paintings, setting a precedent for the themes of motherhood, loss, and anxiety that permeated her work for the duration of her career.

Immediately following Santillana’s untimely death, Neel became pregnant with her second child, Isabetta. Isabetta’s birth in 1928 inspired the creation of "Well Baby Clinic", a bleak portrait of mothers and babies in a maternity clinic more reminiscent of an insane asylum than a nursery.

In the spring of 1930, Carlos returned to Cuba, taking Isabetta with him. Mourning the loss of her husband and daughter, she suffered a massive nervous breakdown. After a brief period of hospitalization, Neel attempted suicide. She was placed in the suicidal ward of the Philadelphia General Hospital. Deemed stable almost a year later, Neel was released from the sanitorium in 1931 and returned to her parents’ home. Following an extended visit with her close friend and frequent subject, Nadya Olyanova, Neel returned to New York.

Depression era

There Neel painted the local characters, including Joe Gould, whom she famously depicted with multiple penises in 1933. Her world was composed of artists, intellectuals, and political leaders of the Communist Party, all of whom became subjects for her paintings. Her work glorified subversion and sexuality, depicting whimsical scenes of lovers and nudes.

At the end of 1933, Neel was hired by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which afforded her a modest weekly salary. In the 1930s Neel gained a degree of notoriety as an artist, and established a good standing within her circle of downtown intellectuals and Communist Party leaders. While Neel was never an official Communist Party member, her affiliation and sympathy with the ideals of Communism remained constant.

In 1939 Neel gave birth to her first son, Richard, the child of Jose Santiago, a Puerto Rican night-club singer whom Neel met in 1935. Neel moved to Spanish Harlem. She began painting her neighbors, particularly women and children. José left Neel in 1940.

Post-war years

Neel’s second son, Hartley, was born in 1941 to Neel and her lover, Communist intellectual Sam Brody. In this decade, Neel made illustrations for the Communist publication, Masses & Mainstream, and continued to paint portraits from her uptown home. Between 1940 and 1950, Neel’s art virtually disappeared from galleries, save for one solo show in 1944. In the 1950s, Neel’s friendship with Mike Gold and his admiration for her social realist work garnered her a show at the Communist-inspired New Playwrights Theatre.

Neel even made a film appearance in 1959, after director Robert Frank asked her to appear alongside a young Allen Ginsberg in his classic Beatnik film, Pull My Daisy. The following year, her work was first reproduced in ARTnews Magazine.

Increasing fame

Toward the end of the 1960s, interest in Neel’s work intensified. The momentum of the Women’s Movement led to increased attention, and Neel became an icon for Feminists. In 1970 Neel was commissioned to paint Feminist activist Kate Millett for the cover of Time magazine. In 1974, Neel had a retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

By the mid-1970s, Neel had gained celebrity and stature as an important American artist. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter presented her with a National Women’s Caucus for Art award for outstanding achievement. Neel’s reputation was at its height at the time of her death in 1984.

Neel's life and works are featured in the documentary "Alice Neel," which premiered at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival and was directed by her grandson, Andrew Neel. The film was given a New York theatrical release in April of that year.

Reference

Hills, Patricia (1995). "Alice Neel", New York. ISBN 0-8109-1358-5

External links

Alice Neel Site
Cheim & Reid: Alice Neel
Victoria Miro: Alice Neel
Heroes and wretches - The Guardian, May 29, 2004.
OFFICIAL MOVIE WEBSITE
Alice Neel from SeeThink Productions
- In-depth interview and profile.

Documentary website: www.aliceneelfilm.com

This or That! Burlesque

This or That! Website
This or That! @ Blogger
This or That! @ Flickr
This or That! group @ YouTube

Burning Man 2006

Camp Burlesque

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Arsenic Lullaby

I went to the local comic/ scifi convention and got talked into buying the comic "Arsenic Lullaby" by the author of the comic, Douglas Paskiewicz. He made me read the first page, it was about genetically modified chickens that had been so modified so as to completely resemble chicken nuggets, a geneticists life's work.

I didn't laugh.
Doug seemed disappointed. I bought the comic anyway.

The whole ordeal was a bit of a dark humor skit and I played right into it. The pornstar Seka did nothing for me at the convention. Proves my hunch that porn is fake.

If you want dark humor then check out Doug. He's got great material; genetically modified meat, NAZI's, KKK and great delivery, pathetic sales pitch. Looking forward to an homage to Courtney Love in his comic.

Doug's website- Arsenic Lullaby

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Monique Dupree

Monique Dupree, originally uploaded by Regi Primrose.

@ MySpace www.myspace.com/actualbast

American Gangster (2007) (completed) [Actress .... Club goer]
One Night (2007) (completed) [Actress .... Club goer]
Life Support (2007) [Actress .... Family Member] (uncredited)
The Ten (2007) [Actress .... Student]
Pot Zombies (2005) (V) [Actress .... Hemophilia]
The Replacements (2000) [Actress .... Football fan]

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Jenny - Double Catholic

Jenny - Double Catholic, originally uploaded by merkley???.

Jessie - 2 Blondes by a Blaze

Jessie - 2 Blondes by a Blaze w/ 2 Types of Boners for 2 Types of Bonos & 2 Tiny Stoners, 2 Don Rickles, 4 Bottles of Pickles, 2 Squirts, 2 Squids, 1 Fox, 2 Fish, a Velvet Elvis in a Pelvis, 1 Castle on a Cake and a Bunch of Skulls (2 Real, 4 Fake), originally uploaded by merkley???.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

The Flickr police

Lots of worrying about the Flickr police well here they are: avoid them as best you can

	Stewart Flickr Staff		heather Flickr Staff
	striatic Remove block?		George Remove block?
	flipster Remove block?		sbpoet Remove block?
	Marjorie Lipan Remove block?		_mpd_ Remove block?
	dathan Remove block?		řëệмõōиâ [All I need is a Little Space!] Remove block?
	Brenda Anderson Remove block?		honestdave Remove block?
	Planet Pixel Remove block?		seibu1 Remove block?
	Marco Wessel Remove block?		MichaelSmith Remove block?
	YuuuuyeH Remove block?		The Searcher Remove block?
	.eti Remove block?		Lú_ Remove block?
	πρώρα (Prora) Remove block?		`` Rippie: Amor es el Camino" Remove block?
	Stevekin Remove block?		ejp1082 Remove block?
	Walwyn Remove block?		iansand Remove block?
	workroom Remove block?		aleeshka Remove block?
	jimporett Remove block?		Dr. Keats Remove block?
	WillCalder Remove block?		ladyphoenixx_1999 Remove block?
	elementalPaul Remove block?		The Spouter Inn Remove block?
	noluck Remove block?		ToP P Remove block?