Wealth and Rudeness

Wealth and Rudeness

I’ll just start with how much I truly despise rich people.  For over 50 years I studied and practiced making Art.  I was a paid Artist.  Probably sold over half a million in Art Work over that fifty years.  A lot of it was small things, like coffee cups at $20 or less (mostly less) and I sold thousands and thousands of those.  All handmade.  For nearly twenty years, I made a dozen or more coffee mugs a day, every single day.  And sold them all.  Along with maybe a thousand or more teapots and other table items.

But, I also made hundreds of paintings and pieces of sculpture – high dollar stuff, sold most all of that too.  For those first twenty years out of Art School, that’s all I did; i.e. make Art and sell it.  I raised six children with those wages.

The only problems I ever had were with rich clients and big galleries and businesses.  The Smithsonian Institute was the worst.  They took so long to pay, I almost went to court over that one. 

These super-well off, or famous, entities apparently have so much money (cash) laying around that they tend to believe those of us living really close to the line are kind of irrelevant.  When they put off paying for goods or services and we have to remind them, then we’re irritations, even maybe being rude. 

Then if they decide we’re just being too rude about it, we get stiffed.  If it’s Art work, it can often be returned – and often broken in that process.  I’ve had ceramics pieces just put in a box, without packing to protect it, and when I got it back it was reduced to ruble.  Individual wealthy clients just put it out by the curb, like it’s “recycling” or “garbage”. 

Galleries will put it in back rooms and pile so much other stuff on top that it either breaks or they “can’t find it”. 

I have always been a bit naïve and my work has tended towards the positive and fantasy and the parade, ignoring the road-apples.  Never had much reason or inclination to do Goth, or horror or bloody kind of stuff.  If my stuff was controversial, I went more towards the intellectual controversialist.   At a result, my lack of shock value was minimal and as such I never really received the big rage accolades. 

It doesn’t matter.  I, at age 72, have decided that it is just not worth it anymore.  The heartbreak, the bottom level social appreciation, the enforced poverty.  I’m just done.

Russians, Man-Buns and Shit-Houses

Russians, Man-Buns and Shit-Houses

I seem to have a wide ranging audience, nationality-wise.  Which I think is cool as “Ice Cube” (who is definitely cool.)

Now,  I watched a documentary the other day about a black British guy, who went to Russia to speak with the Russian version of the Alt-Right.  Or, as we a.k.a. them in the U.S.A. – Nazis (White Supremacists).  Of course, these Russian dudes tried to put on a good show for this black British dude.  A lot of the video footage, however, got photo-bombed by a number of passers-by (also known as a.k.a. – goons).  Lots of guns, which I believe ARE illegal for private citizens in Russia, but they had them anyway.  Mostly though it was knives.

These Russian Nazis (lots of swastikas there too) seemed to have a real thing about knives and knife-fighting.  It was amazing and a bit frightening how rabid these guys were AND the number of women who were in it with the guys.  Not an insignificant number of women.  ** And, all of them were white.  Weird in that the actual country of Russia does have a number of, a very large contingent, of people of the Asian denomination.  Apparently not in Moscow, however.  Moscow seemed to be kind of the Montgomery, Alabama of Russia. 

Then, I watched a news channel where a journalist visited some little city IN Alabama, where trump was like the KING.  Those people, men and women, weren’t that much different in their outlook.  This new strange devolution of human-kind are everywhere.  Now that’s the scary part.  Stupidity, ignorance and cult-inclined lower life forms are really replacing the evolutionary ranks of human vermin.  Sliding right in there where rats and roaches used to be.  Everywhere – not limited to any National Borders, nationality or cultural/religious.  They seem to just want to violently take out everybody who isn’t them.

Solution:  Vote them off the boat? 

I don’t understand man-buns.  If you are a man and you have hair that you can grow in a longish manner, well, good for you.  But that little bun thing ?  Really?  Mostly it’s the older guys, with very thinnish hair, that seem to be going for this look.  Like skinny jeans.  Skinny jeans on women?  No issue with that.  BUT, from a design viewpoint, it just doesn’t work on hipless, buttless men.  It reminds me of the Ford Edsel, a car design that was simply ugly from the start.  It looked like it had a torpedo tube in the grill.  There are some things, I believe, are just stupid from conception.  Unless you shave your legs, skinny jeans have GOT to be uncomfortable.  And the man-bun thing has got to be a hassle to take care of, groom, wash??? 

I don’t get the thing where women always have hair falling in their faces and they have to continuously brush it back behind their ears.  Geezuz, get a scrunchy, or something.  At least when you’re on TV.  That gets so annoying – talk, talk, brush hair behind ear, talk talk, brush hair behind ear, and on and on.  Gawd!!

I would like to be more outraged at the political bullshit that is going on globally, but somehow at my age (which is old), I find the absurdity of it all is too much stress.  At best I only have 20 to 25 years more, in this world (such as it were).  Nobody listens to old people, anyway; unless they are rich and/or powerful.  And then, it’s only fake attention.  Soon as these guys fall asleep, it’s the ole-pillow-over-the-face.  Most likely, since I ride a motorcycle, I won’t see that much of that 20 years or so also, anyway.

Shitholes- Shithouses:  Someone on the news commented that there are american towns and cities that a lot of americans have called shitholes for years.  AND, this is totally true.  I have been in, around, through and even lived in some of these places.  I won’t name them, (well, maybe I will), but they are truly shitholes.  To me, Cleveland was one of those places.  Flat, dirty, the roads are a nightmare of potholes and construction zones that never go away.  Just hated it, BUT there are Clevenites who love their city and are proud as heck of it.  Wouldn’t live anywhere else.

So who’s in charge?  Who’s to say what is a shithole.  To me the whole state of Texas is a shithole.  Fayetteville, Utah, now there is a shithole.  East Los Angeles.  Braintree, Massachusetts.  Orange, New Jersey.  Tacoma, Washington.  Anywhere in the cornbelt. 

I think the only answer to this shithole question is to “bring it on home”.  Lots of parts, along with their peoples, in the U.S. are shitholes and we should just own up to it.  Work on fixing those, before we start casting stones.  If the majority of High Schools in your state are Unaccredited, maybe you should seek out some immigrants, who are literate, and recruit them.