ART SHMART

I went to the Vancouver Art Gallery yesterday.

I went because I had a free pass and I wanted to see what's up.

I went because Kathleen Bartels, the Director of the Vancouver Art Gallery, was my guest on SHAW TV back in February.

The VAG has a six-month commitment to an exhibition by local artist Ken Lum.

I lasted less than 20 minutes.

There is no question that Lum has a good sense of design and might make quite a handsome living in advertising.

His specialty seems to be combining the occasional image with a few words. There are always words.

And videos.

And mirrors.

Let me say this about videos.

All TV, my own work included, is either Lucy or Walter Cronkite. My own work is often both - at the same time.

And mirrors?

My bathroom has mirrors.

This is where I can see everything sagging and getting smaller. Except, of course, my tummy.

In the middle of a very, very large square room, in a stroke of pure genius, Lum has placed several hide-a-beds. The beds are facing each other. The sofa seats are cast aside, and the mattresses and springs are all somehow "interacting." Maybe they are fucking, I can't be sure.

Now, what exactly is Lum's genius here?

Simple.

He has perfected the trifecta known as The Emperor's New Clothes.

Let's shudder to think of the hordes of dollars he has been paid for this Popsicle delusion.

Let's convulse at the thought of where the Road of Art has led us.

Let's stay away in droves.

WEEKEND ROUNDUP

ITEM - The election of NDP dingbat Ruth Ellen Brosseau in Quebec (She didn't campaign; she went to Vegas on a holiday; she doesn't speak French; and she may have fudged her papers - but aside from that she's a wonderful person.) is a hideous travesty.

While Senor Mustache may be gloating about walking backwards into the propeller wash of opposition status, he should take a moment and have this "triumph" somehow annulled.

ITEM - The American government -with millions in poverty and out of work and without adequate health care - provides billions of dollars in military aid to Pakistan each year.

For which they get duplicity, betrayal and hatred.

Nice deal.

We appreciate that international diplomacy is a subtle and dangerous enterprise - Pakistan is nuclear-powered, India is next-door, India is a democracy - but really, kids.

ITEM -

How quickly Christy Clark has forgotten her radio host roots

First rate column from the Globe's Gary Mason.

ITEM - What we need is a system like Cuba ’s neighbourhood Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. “Exposing who on your block or in your office uses most energy might be a good incentive for everyone to reduce their carbon footprint.”

This gem of lunatic reductionist academic non-thinking comes from an extraordinary column by Peter Foster in yesterday's Financial Post.

The author of these so-called thoughts is a Professor of Mathematics and Biology at Harvard University.

Keep in mind that the nine people who decided in a ninety minute meeting at Wansee on January 20, 1942 the fate of millions of Jews had the following attributes in common: They were all male; they were all German; they were all Nazis; and they were all graduates at the highest levels from the best universities in the Fatherland.

An education does not necessarily awaken one's glint of humanity.

ITEM - Money is being stolen (seconded?) from School budgets to help billion dollar energy companies in BC.

A fantasy, you say?

Check out Craig McInnes in the Sun today.