We made this video in 2010 after Kander and Ebb's "Scottsboro Boys" closed." Now that Harvey Fierstein's "CASA VALENTINA" has closed, and John just finished taping a pilot for a new CBS TV show called "Members Only," he's a very busy unemployed actor again. What does an actor do when he doesn't have a job?
Emily nags John Cullum, calling him "Beethoven," gets him to describe the musical he's writing--lyrics and music. It's a full time fascinating job.
Emily manages to inveigle John into singing a verse from "Jack Tale," then a song from "Bible Ballads," another musical John is working on.
This is artist Jeff Koons' "Balloon Dog." (Note the people in the background, you'll get a sense of the huge size of this dog.)
The art of Jeff Koons is at the Whitney Museum till November. It is the first exhibit to fill all the museum's exhibition spaces, the biggest show, devoted to a single artist, that the Whitney has ever done.
Koons' art works are everywhere nowadays. Name drop the major most prestigious museums in the world -- they have displayed Koons' "Balloon Dog," as well as reproductions of his gigantic "Popeye," and the "Hulk."'
Many galleries have also displayed Koons' amazing porcelain and gold "Michael Jackson" sculpture, and the anatomically unambiguous sculpture of Koons having sex with his first wife. (When this sculpture was first shown back in 1990, Koons declared, "I'm not interested in pornography, I'm interested in the spiritual, to be able to show people that they can have impact, to achieve their desires.")
Two years ago Koons' Tulips" (stainless steel with mirror finish surfaces) was sold for a record-breaking $33.7 million at Christie's. It was recently sold again for $58. 4 million, the highest amount ever paid to a living artist.
After the opening at the Whitney, at the high society party at the elegant Frick Collection Museum, the always friendly, polite Koons pointed out breasts, testicles, and phalluses on the Frick's fabulous bronzes as well as his own work, and shocked everyone. (The media said, "he busted taboos in snootsville.")
The 59-year-old artist, from York, Pennsylvania, is heralded by some critics as a pioneer. Others dismiss his work as crass kitsch. A New York Times article on Koons quoted a famous art critic, who called Koons' art, "cat excrement."
Koons' approach to art is evident at his huge studio in NYC, where he employee 90 assistants, who -- using paint-by-the-numbers techniques -- create the reproductions that are being exhibited and praised by major critics everywhere. Here's what Koons says about his work.
No doubt about it, this artist's creative process and success says a lot about today's world and culture.
Igg -- that's my instinctive reaction to the balloon dogs, steel tulips, as well as the sex sculpture. Maybe his art is just not my cup of tea, or I'm reacting to what I feel, and don't like about Koons' York, PA mentality. It's prejudice based on my growing up years in Harrisburg, PA, with kids like Jeff, noting from class reunion letters what they aren't and ARE -- for many of them, money is God, is status, the true measure of success -- the most important thing in life.
Despite my Igg, I think Jeff Koons' art may be where art is heading.
Artist Jeff Koons has created stunning, astounding works -- more than 150 objects over the years. If you haven't made up your mind about liking or disliking his art, click the link -- you'll enjoy the commentary from Britain's Daily Mail and their video of Koons at the Whitney.
NEW! ... Emily Frankel and John Cullum offer lively, provocative video commentary on YouTube once a week. Click image above to go.
HOW I GOT HERE
I'm a writer, writing things that haven't brought me fame, but continue to involve me, inspire me to find an audience.
I started out as a modern dancer, contemporary, but balletic. I didn't want to be a swan, or a barefoot dancer. I wanted to dance to the music that thrilled me as a child, and made me want to be a dancer.
I began writing in the truck my first husband, Mark Ryder and I bought, in order to carry our set, props, and costumes for a long one-night-stands tour -- eighty-eighty performances in eighty-eight cities.
We were performing "Romeo and Juliet" nightly, but our marriage was breaking up. Every day while our stage manager drove us two-hundred miles or so to the next booking, I'd type a detailed description of last night -- what we did well, what we argued about, and a travelogue about the town, and comments from the people at the nightly party.
Recovering from the trip and the divorce, I sent my "car book" to a friend who said -- "Em, it's great, but ..." And that became rewrites, and another book. Then, my marriage to actor John Cullum, and then a play that got produced, and another book, big hopes because a famous agent loved it. The title and concept changed five times -- now it's been published, finally, as "Somebody, Woman of the Century." You can buy it, or read about it and my other five novels on Emily Frankel.com