On Four Helping Hands

I have two 20th-21st Century marketing heroes, they're both in this picture. If I were an international pop star with lots of money and an ability to rake in more, I'd definitely figure out how to use my money to make a difference, there's so much one could do here at home and around the globe. You know, I use to believe a person could effect change one person at a time, today, I'm not sure this is true at all. If Oprah phoned, I'd take her call.

Photo: ABC

On Sand Art

Sand Sculptures from the International Fiesa 2006 held in Algarve, Portugal as photographed by Mario Proenca. Click on the photo film strip and wait a moment as the film loop loads, amazing creations!

On Campari

Enjoy this Italian commercial from 1968!

On Other People's Art Collections-Part 2

You probably read earlier this week about gillionaire Steve Wynn's accidental desecration of Picasso's "Le Reve." While showing the painting to pals like Barbara Walters, Nora Ephron, Louise Grunwald and others, Wynn gestured (he has an eye disease which alters peripheral vision) and placed a hole through the canvas. This incident occurred just after he had agreed to sell the painting for $139M to a hedge-fund broker who apparently collects art. What is this trend with hedge-fund brokers paying gillions for art these days? Wynn reportedly will keep the damaged Picasso for now. It appears that he paid $48.4M for it at auction in 1997.

On DreamGirls

Advance buzz on the film version of Dream Girls is positive all around. Who can forget Broadway's Jennifer Holiday? Otherwise, I didn't particularly embrace the music. The cinematography looks rich here on the clips. Definitely a film to see on the big screen.

On the Booker Prize - Gabcast

Congrats to Kiran Desai winner of this year's Man Booker Prize for her second novel The Inheritance of Loss. Desai becomes the youngest woman to win the award since The Booker Prize was founded in 1968. The prize is open to writers of Britain, Ireland, and Commonwealth of the former British Colonies. Desai credits her mother, writer Anita Desai: "the debt I owe to my mother is so profound that I feel the book is hers as much as mine. It was written in her company and in her wisdom and kindness."

Photo Credit: Sara Lee, The Guardian

On Other People's Art Collections - Gabcast

DeKooning's "Police Gazette" an abstract from 1955.

The New York Times reported today on gillionaire entertainment mogul David Geffen's private auction sale of a DeKooning ($63.5M) and a Jasper Johns ($80M) to two hedge-fund gillionaires. I don't even want to begin to think what DeKooning or Jasper John's actually sold these works for the first time around. Maybe it's me, my mind remains boggled about one's attachment to things when I attempt to place this into a global perspective.

Jasper John's "False Start" from 1959 ------------>