The Last Stop: Vanishing Rest Stops of the American Roadside by Ryann Ford My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is a clever concept, with great photos and beautiful landscapes for a wonderful book. Highway rest areas are, for the later part of the 20th Century, what diners and motels were for the middle of it. They are (and were) easy to take for granted until they start disappearing — which is what Ryann Ford noticed and led her to this project. Getting nostalgic about rest areas takes some getting used to, but the ways she frames them in the
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Bizarre Bazaars: More Crazy Store Names
A second installment from my backlog of interestingly named businesses. More bizarre bazaars to come soon. And 500 other greats names at the main Bizarre Bazaars hall of fame. Go to Bizarre Bazaars main page for 500-plus great names.
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Living the Skeptical Life
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. — Bertrand Russell That uncertainty is an unyielding fact of existence is hardly controversial. It’s in the wisdom of the ages, after all — we’re here today, gone the next, who knows what tomorrow might bring – and it’s enshrined in a renowned scientific principle via Prof. Heisenberg.
Continue readingBizarre Bazaars: New Crazy Store Names
Here’s the first installment from my backlog of interestingly named businesses. More to come soon. Go to Bizarre Bazaars main page.
Continue readingReviews: Unpacking Dubuffet’s Legacy
From Art Brut to Art without Boundaries: A Century of Fascination through the Eyes of Hans Prinzhorn, Jean Dubuffet and Harald Szeemann, by Carine Fol. Skira, Milan, 192 pages, 80 color illustrations, 2015. ISBN: 978-8-8572-2748-1. Paperback, $45 Art Brut in America: The Incursion of Jean Dubuffet, by Valérie Rousseau with a foreword by Anne-Imelda Radice and contributions from Jean Dubuffet, Sarah Lombardi, Kent Minturn and Jill Shaw. American Folk Art Museum, New York, 248 pages, 142 illustrations, 2016. ISBN: 978-0-9121-6126-6. Paperback, $45 Jean Dubuffet – inventor of art brut, important painter, master collector and connoisseur, exploiter, radical, crank. For obvious reasons
Continue readingLakeside Carvings Uncovered
Ten years of lakeshore projects in Chicago have destroyed scores of vernacular stone carvings, but the most recent project has uncovered some fantastic examples. These are installed on the stretch of new lakeshore at Fullerton Avenue. (See my collection of more than a hundred other lakeshore carvings here.) For those who follow such things, a closer look at this “Easter Island” carving revealed a signature and date: RS -05- (see the bottom of the photo). It is very cool that someone was making carvings of this complexity in 2005 — certainly the most recent I’ve seen. Where this rock originally
Continue readingSome Milwaukee Signs
A brief swing through Milwaukee is enough to turn up some fine examples of roadside art.
Continue readingFrom the corporate slogan department
“Providing solutions for your specialty needs” It’s a medical equipment rental company, by the way.
Continue readingSpam of the week
From “Linda”: Your cranium must be prtecoting some very valuable brains.
Continue readingReview: Ray Yoshida’s Museum Of Extraordinary Values
Ray Yoshida’s Museum Of Extraordinary Values by Karen Patterson My rating: 5 of 5 stars I’ve had the privilege of seeing Ray Yoshida’s art collection only twice, the first time in 1994 when I was co-curating a show of bottle-cap art for Chicago’s Intuit. Ray was gracious and loaned some pieces. His collection was spectacular, but tellingly, it did not seem out of the ordinary. If it was finer than many I had seen (my own included), it was not fundamentally different in style and approach. The mix of Maxwell Street flea-market finds with masterpieces is a hallmark of the
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