father's day

we did chores around the house in the morning.  in the afternoon nick and i headed to the crocker museum to see an opening of the field: jess, robert duncan, and their circle exhibit.  if i might sound like a beatnik for a moment, like wow man go! 

i knew nick would be bored standing around while his crazy poet dad is looking at static pictures on the wall.  he was a good sport.  the crocker recently modernized, updated and expanded their galleries and from the strength of this particular show have become bolder in their tastes. 

the show was a cool glass of water on a hot day.  jess is a very funny, energizing artist.  i didn't take notes as i wasn't thinking of writing a review.  however, the show runs until the end of august and i'll be back to see it at least one more time before it closes.  i want to get the catalog.

ah, art books.  why the hell do they have to be so expensive?  i saw this really cool tome on bruce connor in the '70s.  i took it to the cashier and she told me that it was a rarer book brought in by a local bookseller.  she looked up the price.  $60.00.  okay i said.  we have what is called a roving membership with many local museums and that entitles the members to a 20 percent discount.  60 smackers is still a lot of scratch for a book.  but what the hell.  YOLO, right. 

i was also hoping the store stocked lisa jarnot's robert duncan biography [i've been jonesing for a good bio to read lately], but no, they didn't have it.  anyway, back to the connor.  the lady said, oh no!  this is a $90.00 dollar book!  [she said this after she rang it up.]  did i still want it?  no, i said.  a bit too steep.

instead i purchased jess: o! tricky cad & other jessoterica [siglio; 2012] which is a collection of jess' collages and paste-ups.  pretty cool.  still the bruce connor book was awesome . . .hmmmm. . .

nick got a light up ball.  he smacks the ball against something and the ball lights up.  nick was pretty cool with that. 

we had a half hour before the museum closed.  we went back up stairs to the jess and robert duncan exhibit.  the gallery was devoid of people but for me and nick.  it was wonderful.  i took my time and sat with a few of the pictures.  i got up close, took off my glasses to see better the small print and details.  a few video monitors played a short film by james broughton, a short documentary on robert duncan, another video showed images of the interior of jess' and duncan's home, and another monitor displayed a collaboration piece by jess and an artist whose name i can't recall.  that piece had a long title but i remember the last part i thought fantastic, jess' didactic nickelodeon. 

when the museum closed nick and i headed home with our loot for a belated birthday dinner with anna, her mother and sister [my birthday was sunday before last.  i am for certain moving faster toward geerzerville.]  a perfect end to a good day.