My favorite Publix commercials

These are two of my favorite Publix commercials. My all time favorite is the Last Train Home commercial which they showed for many years in the 1980s and 190s. While it reminds me of that time in my life now, I remember loving it when it was new.

The music in Last Train Home is from Still Life (Talking) an album by Pat Metheny Group, released in 1987. This Publix commercial ran from 1987 to 1996.

To this day, when Pat Metheny is performing, he’ll refer to the song as, “The Publix song.”

And this year, I love this one below, which I think is from 2015, but they’ve been showing it a lot this year. Sorry about the Lovely Legs commercial on top of it, guess they feel they can steal the Publix commercials and make them theirs.

Andy Warhol sculpture

15369050_1283554348386343_8990520168532082350_oThis cool Andy Warhol sculpture is in a remote area northeastern Slovakia at the Warhol Family Museum of Modern Art, founded in 1991. Love the hair.

More here.

Art Miami

It’s Art Basel week in Miami, or Miami Art Week – the difference is that the “real” Basel is in the convention center in South Beach and the satellite shows, dubbed Art Miami, are all over downtown and midtown, and the Wynwood area in huge tents. I prefer the satellite shows, but as Wynwood and midtown Miami get more and more gentrified, many of the tented shows have moved around and they aren’t all in a row on one street anymore. That hopefully will change next year, when a big part of the shows move to one location – the former Miami Herald site on Biscayne Bay in downtown Miami.

Anyway, here are some things I saw at Miami Art Week, I always love Chinese artist Li Hongbo‘s paper sculptures you see in the video above. Amazing work. The hidden element of surprise of course, is the best part.

And here is a collage of just a few things I noticed while wandering around.

Holiday time in Union Square

It’s not the holidays without a visit to Union Square in NYC. It’s one of my favorite places in the city – during any season. My favorite thing in the summer is a Mr. Softee truck on almost every corner surrounding the square. I’ve counted as many as seven trucks at one time.

But during October and November, Union Square comes alive. It starts in October with pumpkins and fall colors popping up all over. And in November, it turns red with all the Christmas stuff.

There is always a green market and in November, that is joined by a holiday craft bazaar, with the best hot chocolate. Mix that with chess players, Hare Krishnas, a fortune teller or two, art on the sidewalks and some odd protest or two and it’s all a perfect mix.

Christmas trees right on the spot.
Love the Christmas colors.
Winter flowers.
Hot pepper wreath.
Cranberries
More cranberries.
He likes it.
Holiday Bazaar.
Holiday bazaar

Music in the parks

Enjoyed ice skating in Brant Park in NYC recently. There’s a holiday bazaar, an indoor restaurant to get food and hot drinks and lots of music and ice skating in the center of the city.

Also came upon this piano player in Washington Square Park one Saturday. The piano was just there and he was just playing. Such a beautiful moment.

The wall of color

It’s jarring. And colorful. As you enter the subway at Union Square in NYC, you are confronted with this awe-inspiring wall created out of post it notes. It’s called a therapy wall or a sticky note confession wall, created after Trump won the election. Most post its are a protest, some are cheering Trump on.

The post its go on and on at Union Square, maybe thousands of feet. Governor Andrew Cuomo visited the wall and left his own message:

“New York State holds the torch high! – Andrew C.

‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free … I lift my lamp beside the golden door’ Emma Lazarus

STATUE OF LIBERTY”

Check out the video above, the subway performer’s music is perfect for the setting.

Budding artists update

Well, lo and behold,, I received an email from the teacher in the previous story about the students at MOMA, he wanted to thank me for the story. I had wondered how he found it since his name wasn’t published in the story and he told me that someone at MOMA saw the story and sent it to him.

His name is Sebastian Alappat and he told me this is a special program called SPARK. “My goal as the founder of SPARK is to cultivate and foster that creative fire in kids, if they are artists or not. By introducing the elements to them, you never know what they might be inspired to do. The Museum of Art immersion was two days, two museums and the results were amazing,” he said.

You can learn more about SPARK at www.thespark.nyc .

Budding artists

The teacher discussing the painting with two students.

I went to MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) again, it seems like I visit every time I’m in New York. I stopped by in October and in July and again now, in November. It’s like a home away from home for me. Maybe because so many of my favorite paintings are there, but maybe my favorite paintings are there because I’m there so often and I recognize them and they are familiar and that’s what makes it home for me. I guess it’s my favorite that I like to visit, Van Gogh’s Starry Night. Maybe that’s why I go.

Anyway, today it was pretty cool because there were a handful of young school kids there with their teacher and they were drawing the paintings. The kids may have been about 8 or 9 years old. And it caught my attention because I sort of did the same thing in college, but I had to recreate an image from a photo, not the actual painting like these school kids. New York school kids have this great advantage of growing up surrounded by art and culture.

I was going to ask the teacher about it, but I didn’t want to dilute their adventure by getting myself involved. I watched them go from room to room, some held back, as I guess they aren’t born artists, but some got so into it. It was such a pleasure to see.

Drawing Tomversation

I am getting comics done for the January 1 launch of Tomversation, which will be published daily on Facebook at Facebook.com/tomversation. Hope to see you there.

Hope you “like” the page and enjoy the daily comics when they pop up on your feed.

My Christmas tree is up already!

15027409_10206308201537552_7656264727295669275_nI put the Christmas tree up yesterday. I know it’s mid-November, but I’m leaving town for a bit and wanted it to be up and ready when I return in December. It’s sort of like early voting, takes the pressure off!

I love the Spidey ornament. I think I won this in this dumb game we play every year. People buy an ornament, wrap it and place it on the table, then after drawing straws or something, people choose the wrapped ornament that they would like. People can then steal from them when it’s there turn and therein lies the rub. I think the ornaments should stay wrapped, so you are gambling when you choose the ornament from someone, it’s like door number 1, 2 or 3. But we unwrap the ornament when we choose it and everyone then knows what it is, so there is a lot of stealing going on. It sort of makes it best to be the last one chosen since you then have access to any ornament you would like simply by stealing it.

I usually get something good. One year I got an Elvis ornament, another year a nice Snoopy ornament and I think last year it was a small record player.