R.B. Kitaj R.I.P.

Easily my favorite contemporary painter, I only read today that he died October 21 in Los Angeles.

Tiny Fine Art

A selection of my reduction linocuts are now represented for sales through Tiny Fine Art.com.

Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007)

Regency South Coast Village, Santa Ana, Calif.

Directed by Julian Temple, who directed the Sex Pistols documentary “The Filth and the Fury,” this is the only documentary that matters about the leader of the only band that mattered—Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros.

Cleverly interspersed throughout are clips from various film adaptations of George Orwell (“Animal Farm,” “1984”), audio from Joe Strummer’s own BBC radio show, and footage of a band called The Clash.

The film doesn’t play by certain tired rules of the genre, such as identifying who’s speaking, but it does provide previously unseen footage, obscure biographical information, and a redemptive narrative arc.

Truly inspiring.

Burmese Days II

Reports are that the Buddhist monasteries are being raided, monks beaten and arrested, and that internet traffic has been silenced in the military state of Myanmar/Burma.

Social harmony is preserved at the cost of freedom and civil liberties.