Spreading the aloha of Macintosh, Hawaiian music and island culture from the sunset side of Haleakala volcano on the wonderful island of Maui

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Saturday, March 26, 2005

Protecting Floridiots and Stealth Art A Wierd News Day Two of my favorite topics - besides Macs & Maui - have arrived in the news today with these exciting stories about Floridiots and Guerrilla Artists. "Court: Fla. Must Warn of Dangers at Beach" "(AP) - TALLAHASSEE, Fla.- Cities that make their public beaches attractive to swimmers have an obligation to warn the public of dangers such as rip tides, the Florida Supreme Court has ruled. The 4-3 ruling Thursday came in a 1997 case in which two people drowned off a beach in the city of Miami Beach that had food concessions and a place to shower and change, but no life guards nearby. Justice R. Fred Lewis said not all beaches would have to be marked - only those where swimming seemed to be encouraged." Are they doing this because no one who visits Florida realizes that the Atlantic Ocean is not Disneyland? Or that there are big bad fishes and things out there looking for lunch? This sort of idiocy seems to happen here in the islands far too often when tourists leap off high cliffs to their injury or go paddling out in a rented a kayak only to be blown halfway to Tahiti. Their survivors then proceed to sue someone because there were no signs to warn the witless that gravity or the ocean can be dangerous. "Artist Hangs Own Humorous Work in Museums "  NEW YORK (AP) -- A British prankster has surreptitiously hung his own humorous artwork, some of them carrying an anti-war message, in four major New York museums over the last two weeks. The man, who calls himself "Banksy" on a Web site that displays his artwork, has pulled similar stunts at the Louvre in Paris and the Tate museum in London, The New York Times reported Thursday. Photographs taken by an accomplice showing Banksy carrying a painting into a museum and sticking it to the wall near other pieces of art are also on displayed on a Web site. Over the last two weeks, his artwork has been found and removed from the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum and the American Museum of Natural History. He has been captured on museum security cameras wearing a hat and a beard. Banksy said he entered all the museums during visitors' hours. Asked how he was able to avoid detection, he replied in an e-mail exchange with the Times arranged by an intermediary: "You just have to glue on a fake beard and move with the times." "I've wandered round a lot of art galleries thinking, 'I could have done that,' so it seemed only right that I should try," Banksy was quoted as saying. "These galleries are just trophy cabinets for a handful of millionaires. The public never has any real say in what art they see." There should be more of this activity - both at public and commercial galleries. The work of far too many really bad artists hangs in so-called galleries here where taste-deprived tourists are convinced that owning something like one of Red Skelton's clown paintings is a good investment. It had better be because it sure isn't very good art. Someone could sneak into one of the venues on Front Street and replace all the pictures of whales with pictures of Wales then see if anyone notices. 8:59:46 AM    comment []