Little Thinkers Quotes (4 of 16): Salvador Dali

Greetings to our blog-readers in Croatia, Mexico and Singapore.

Today, we quote the great Spanish painter Salvador Dali, who was photographed while jumping with three cats by Phillipe Halsman, who also photographed several glamorous actresses who were jumping while barefoot, including Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Jean Seberg. Halsman also photographed Richard Nixon while jumping. There is an amazing article about the photographer on the web site for "Mental Floss" magazine: http://www.mentalfloss.com

At the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla., near Tampa, will feature some paintings from Andy Warhol from Jan. 18-Apr. 27th. Warhol has his own museum in Pittsburgh.

Here is our quote from Dali:

"Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings."

http://www.thedali.org

http://www.salvadordali.com

http://www.warhol.org

Quote of the Day- Andy Warhol

Greetings to our blog-readers in Azerbaijan, Bulgaria and Tunisia.

Today, we feature a quote from the late American artist Andy Warhol, who would have turned 85 today:

"I'm afraid that if you look at a thing long enough, it loses all of its meaning."

http://www.warhol.org

Quote of the Day/Week_ Pablo Picasso

Today's quote of the day comes from the great Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) who would be celebrating the fact that his country will play against Italy in the Euro Cup 2012 Championships, but if he were alive today, Picasso would be 110 years old (he was born in October, yeah, we double-checked on Google).

We are quoting Picasso because he is one of the subjects of the Unemployed Philosophers Guild plush toy doll series; these items usually retail for circa $17.95.

Since we spent way too much time quoting Andy Warhol on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire," which gets more traffic than this blog, except in Slovenia and Ukraine, we will go ahead and just quote Picasso here:

"Every positive value has its price in negative terms....the genius of Einstein lead to Hiroshima."

SIDEBAR ONE: We learned today from the Urban Dictionary that one of the new words of the moment is 'dorkus malorkus,' which is Latin for dork. The term originated in an episode of "The Simpsons," where Bart, who would now be 31 if he aged in real time, uses this term to express disdain towards his sister.

SIDEBAR TWO: Among the topics trending on Twitter as of 8:00 p.m., Belfast, Maine*, time, are: Obamacare, John Roberts, a trio of NBA draft basketball players: Andre Drummond, Austin Rivers and Harrison Barnes as well as Bill Bell, the mayor of Durham, NC, where "The Herald-Sun" is the local newspaper. Ok, the last one is a joke, Mayor Bell, who is a real person with his own Wikipedia page, is not trending on Twitter, but his hometown minor league baseball team the Durham Bulls host the Norfolk Tides for the Fourth of July. The city is also home to Duke University where Austin Rivers played college basketball.

*- We are not actually in Belfast, Maine, as of this posting, but it is a lovely town, and we see that the Colonial Theatre (a historic cinema there) is screening "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel."


http://www.colonialtheatre.com

http://www.cinematreasures.org

http://www.pablopicasso.org

http://www.philosophersguild.com

http://www.durhamnc.gov

http://www.heraldsun.com

Quote of the Day/Week- Jean-Michel Basquiat

As we continue to quote famous artists this month, we turn our attention to someone who died all too young from AIDS at the age of 27. But, Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) left behind an amazing legacy. He made this painting "Untitled" (Head) in 1981.

He was a protege of Andy Warhol who died just a year earlier in 1987, also from AIDS complications.

Basquiat was the subject of the film "Basquiat" (1996), which was interestingly enough directed by someone who knew him in real life, fellow artist Julian Schnabel. A very young Jeffrey Wright, who would end up portraying Secretary of State Colin Powell in Oliver Stone's film "W" many years later, plays the artist in the film which also features David Bowie playing Warhol.

Here is the quote from Basquiat:

"I don't think about art when I'm working, I try to think about life."

Quote of the Day/Week- Andy Warhol

Since the late artist Andy Warhol (1927-1987) was known for his famous Velvet Underground (you know, the band with Lou Reed) cover art featuring a banana, we thought we'd use an image of Chiquita bananas here with our quote from Warhol:

"An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have."

Speaking of another fruit (well fruit product), NPR is reporting that the price of orange juice is going up. We think this goes for both orange juice produced in Florida as well as California, but don't quote us on that!

SIDEBAR: When we posted this an hour ago, we were completely oblivious to the fact that the Velvet Underground is actually suing the Andy Warhol Foundation over the banana that Warhol made for the band. We learned of this from a tweet from "Rolling Stone."

Things We Learned from Twitter Today- Wrestler's True Cause of Death

In a tweet from Slate.com this evening, we learned that former pro wrestler Randy "Macho Man" Savage, 58, who was a rival of Hulk Hogan's in the 1980s, actually died from a heart attack as opposed to a car accident.

It was widely reported and logically assumed that a car accident claimed Savage's life in May as the car he was driving hit a tree in Seminole, Fla. (near Tampa). But, an autopsy report released today has proven that a heart attack actually claimed the former wrestling superstar's life.

In other tweets, though I do politically differ with my libertarian friend Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC, since I am a centrist to liberal Democrat who only wishes Barack Obama could have as many terms as FDR, I did love this biting proclamation by him which everyone can assuredly sympathize with:

"Said it before and will say it again: American politics is two identical cages of howler monkeys throwing handfuls of dung at each other."

Since the Turkish newspaper "Hurriyet" reported this week that that there were similar bickerings between conservatives and liberal parliament members in Ankara, Turkey, (I am a Turkish-American), it appears that Knight's viewpoint is one usually felt around the globe.

SIDEBAR: For those who like to stay up even later than me on Friday nights, TCM will air the 1958 Boris Karloff film "Frankenstein 1970," which should not be confused with Andy Warhol's version (or the Mel Brooks film "Young Frankenstein" for that matter) at 2:45 a.m., immediately following a marathon on B-westerns starring Roy Rogers and his beloved horse Trigger. The screening is part of the late-night series TCM Underground, which was once hosted by Rob Zombie- of all people!

Quote of the Week- Andy Warhol

Today we feature a quote from Andy Warhol (1927-1987) who was known for soup cans and for funky painting of folks ranging from Elvis Presley to Che Guevara.

There is currently a special exhibit dedicated to one of Warhol's other favorite subjects, Marilyn Monroe at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Similarly, The Baltimore Museum of Art is featuring Warhol's later works in an exhbit that is named: Andy Warhol, the Last Decade. It runs through Jan. 9, 2011.

Here is the quip, which I can relate to since having a girlfriend these days seems harder than planning a trip to Tashkent, Uzbekistan:

"When I got my first television set, I stopped caring so much about personal relationships."

One has to wonder what Warhol would have made of Facebook!

We also want to wish another renegade and legend, French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard a belated happy 80th birthday (it was on Friday).

Quote of the Week-Mike Tyson

This is our last quote of the year for 2009.

Of course, if you're like me, you spend the first month of every year rebounding from the insanity and chaos that you suffered through during the Christmas holidays, and consider the possibility of defecting to Turkmenistan (since it's a Muslim country, it's probably a great place to get away from it all in December even if the hotel in Ashgabat* doesn't have a flushing toilet!)

We are quipping Mike Tyson, a controversial figure (to put it mildly) in honor of Boxer's Day. Tyson was actually in two films that made my best films of the year list:
"Tyson" (a doc about him) and "The Hangover." But, this was a tragic year for the former boxer as his young daughter died due to injuries sustained in a fall.
There were actually many Tyson quotes to choose, so we went with the most outlandish (hey we need the ratings!):

"All praise is to Allah_I'll fight any many, any animal, if Jesus we're here I'd fight him too."

There was a second quote from Tyson that we found on shavemagazine.com, but you would have to know that Zoloft is an anti-depressant to get the joke:

"I'm on Zoloft to keep from killing you all."

There is also an engaging piece on Tyson in the 40th anniversary of "Interview" magazine, which was founded by the late artist Andy Warhol. I wonder if those two had met what the conversation would have been like?!

The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pa., is actually open tomorrow but right now I am some seven and a half hours south of there in Roanoke, Va. We have a good relatively new art museum here in town called the Taubman Art Museum, which has an exhibit of Rembrandt sketches, but since this is my hometown and I'm visiting my mom for the holidays, I will probably end up spending the afternoon in a Starbucks or a Target!

*-I did actually have to look the capital of Turkmenistan up, but I do know that the capital of Uzbekistan is Tashkent. Unfortunately, such information does not get one a Starbucks date with the girl you had a crush on in high school (especially, if she's married!)

Exhibit of the Moment- Andy Warhol

For those who live within driving distance of Charlotte, NC, there is an Andy Warhol exhibit at the Mint Museum in the Queen City.

Somebody asked me if there were any soup cans in this exhibit, which runs through Feb. 15.

That is something I honestly don't know!

The main Warhol museum is in Pittsburgh, the late artist's hometown.

http://www.mintmuseum.org