~Oh, Pooey! IT’S A HARSH UNIVERSE !!

tell me about it, oops – he did !!
exhibit card/invite signed to NANCY . . . FROM R. CRUMB, Nov., 2000

above: front
below: reverse

R. Crumb Restaurant Placemat Drawings
November 2nd – December 9th, 2000
Opening Thursday, November 2nd, 6-8 P.M.
Paul Morris Gallery, 465 West 23rd Street, New York City 10011.

It’s A Harsh Universe, 10 by 11-5/8 inches, copyright R. Crumb

p.s. and yeah, despite the initial euphoria of the new Saturn cycle, the moment is harsh, if you realize, just like all the countless generations of ancestors before you did . . . that: well, if you’ve lived to see two Saturn 30 year cycles – good luck on seeing your 3rd, because nobody lives to be 120. that’s harsh . . . heading into the inevitability of death, no matter how you cut it. and that’s what gave Saturn his fearsome rep. Father Time . . . you see the endgame coming round, when he shows up.

it’s the old yin yang dance. takes 2 rounds of Saturn to achieve wisdom, but you see your endgame in the process. ha. I guess that is a kind of wisdom – all on it’s own.

ok. thanks for the dark thoughts – nancy !!

ok. here’s a tweak, positive.

anybody else notice a lot of “late bloomers” making the scene, lately ? I mean, besides BILL CUNNINGHAM ?
both at the Sundance Film Festival, usually the hot seat of the young and beginning – and, on the current NYC art scene. you can blame it all on Saturn, but it’s a good thing, no doubt about it – when talent – trumps the odds.
you go, eternal hipsters of the heart.

don’t believe me ? just back flip though all your mainstream arts coverage of the past month !!

while at SUNDANCE 2012, New York Post film critic – LOU LUMENICK reports that: ‘The hottest new writer-director at this years’ Sundance Film Festival is also the oldest person to have a film in the US dramatic competition here” . . . the 65 year-old BEN LEWIN who made his non-stop acclaim feature, ‘The Surrogate’ for around $1 million. The true story of a severely disabled poet/journalist who hires a surrogate so he can taste sex before he departs this world – must have a lot going for it – to topple that dreary storyline, is all I can say.
and yeah, it is a harsh universe, isn’t it. apparently Ben Lewin himself is a polio survivor who wears a leg brace and walks with crutches. (!!)
anyway to make a long story short, his film was a hit at Sundance, “The film was acquired by Fox Searchlight for a reported $6 million, hours after it premiered Monday to a standing ovation and rave reviews”.

and dig this, a little further on in Lou’s post: “A Hollywood Reporter reviewer compared LEWIN to DAVID SEIDLER, the veteran writer of last year’s Oscar winner, ‘The King’s Speech’. “He called himself a late bloomer”, says Lewin of Seidler, stunned by the reception he and ‘The Surrogate’ received on his first trip to Sundance. “Personally I’m really enjoying this late blooming.”

them be fighting words, dude. right on.

read: LOU LUMENICK: To ‘Surrogate’ with love – and laughs !!

p.s. note to JOSH HARRIS, rumored to be holed up in RED HOOK !! remember when you swept SUNDANCE 2009 – with the Ondi Timoner helmed ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ ? talk about Father Time – my, how time flies !! only 3 short years ago, and it was you they were crowing about !! feels like forever.
say what – about a harsh universe ?

p.s.s. $10 + artlovers write-up (!!) . . . for the first confirmed JOSH HARRIS – back in Brooklyn !! pic. yo, and try to get a Brooklyn landmark – in the background and we’ll double the cash award – to $20 !!
for real. go ahead – try me !!

gonna try to hook u up with a ‘Surrogate’ trailer, try back in 5 mins !! sorry no can do, not one up yet. not a wisp of a clip anywhere.