The Greatful Crane

Cranes are common symbols and themes in the folklore of East Asia, including Japan. The Grateful Crane or the Crane Wife is a particularly well-known tale in Japan, see the resources below:
“The Grateful Crane” (Japanese fairy tale)

Thomas Berg, circa 1910 (Detail)

Cranes are an important motif in Chinese mythology. There are various myths involving cranes, and in Chinese mythology cranes are generally symbolically connected with the idea of immortality (Eberhard, 1983: 75-76). Chinese mythology refers to those myths found in the historical geographic area of China. The geographic area of "China" is of course a concept which has evolved of changed through history. Cranes in Chinese mythology include myths in Chinese and other languages, as transmitted by Han Chinese as well as other ethnic groups (of which fifty-six are officially recognized by the current administration of China). (Yang 2005:4) The motifs of cranes may vary in a range from reference to real cranes (such as the Red-crowned Crane) to referring to transformed Taoist immortals (xian), who sometimes were said to have magical abilities to transform into cranes in order to fly on various journeys.

Samuel F. O'Reilly, circa 1880s (detail)

Whitney Museum Awards

Dispatch from the Annual Awards for Design Excellence at the Whitney Museum.

Invited as holdovers from the Giuliani Administration, there is a whole new crowd here; goateed hipsters, women with green hair and folks who wear shirts with buttons on the back of the shirt (?.)  Free Brooklyn Lager and the cutest little ice cream cones made the event special.

Your intrepid Lift Trucks staff writers hard at work.

The awards were given out for things like public bathrooms, community gardens and junk like that.

Our personal target was Tom Finkelpearl,  the Commissioner of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs. We tracked him down and introduced ourselves handing over a crisp new Lift Trucks Project card. He looked confused. 

A little later, hoping for better results, we presented another card. He said thanks but already has one.  This was a little awkward.

Unfortunately we presented yet another card at the end of the evening as he walked down the sidewalk.  Ooops.  A loud disagreement ensued between the Lift Trucks reporters about party etiquette. The words 'blockhead' and 'moron' were liberally thrown around. 

Mr. Tom Finkelpearl ran down the street waving his hands above his head in a fluttering motion.

About the Commissioner 

Tom Finkelpearl is the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. In this role he oversees city funding for nonprofit arts organizations across the five boroughs and directs the cultural policy for the City of New York. Prior to his appointment by Mayor Bill de Blasio, Commissioner Finkelpearl served as Executive Director of the Queens Museum for twelve years starting in 2002, overseeing an expansion that doubled the museum’s size and positioning the organization as a vibrant center for social engagement in nearby communities. He also held positions at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, working on the organization’s merger with the Museum of Modern Art, and served as Director of the Department of Cultural Affairs Percent for Art program. Based on his public art experience and additional research, he published a book, Dialogues in Public Art (MIT Press), in 2000. His second book, What We Made: Conversations on Art and Social Cooperation (Duke University Press, 2013) examines the activist, participatory, coauthored aesthetic experiences being created in contemporary art. He received a BA from Princeton University (1979) and an MFA from Hunter College (1983). 

And then there was Ms Shibata, head of the Percent for Art Program, person. What does "NoH eight"  mean anyway? Maybe referencing the golf term meaning no score over a "snowman" per hole.

Just in from the Commissioner's Office.

During a brief meeting with staff members today, Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl announced that members, associates and any others in any way affiliated with "Lift Truck Projects”
will be summarily banned from any and all future cultural events in Manhattan’s five boroughs. This ban was initiated following an incident at last night’s Annual Awards for Design Excellence at the Whitney Museum. Mr. Finkelpearl also announced that a study is underway to determine the ingredients inside “those fucking ice cream cones” as they may have allegedly caused some participants at the event to behave in a manner not befitting such an high-powered societal event. In an added effort, Commissioner Finkelpearl’s staff admitted that he is also considering banning alcoholic beverages from being served at such events. Two unidentified buffoons were allegedly spotted accosting Commissioner Finkelpearl several times during last night’s event, according to a member of Commissioner Finkelpearl’s staff, who asked not to be identified. Organizers at the Whitney Museum stated that they are investigating the case and offered their apologies to Commissioner Finkelpearl for any inconvenience. The Whitney will be tightening security for all future events.

 

Dainty Dotty and Owen Jensen

Owen Jensen and Dainty Dotty: Owen Jensen was born in 1891 in Pleasant Grove, Utah. As a young man he worked in the railroad shop in Ogden, Utah. Jensen has said that in 1911 he walked 12 miles to Provo to see the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show and that was where he saw his first tattooed man. Owen Jensen got his first tattoo in 1913 from Bob Hodge on the Lucky Bill Show. Because he had skills as a machinist, Jensen was offered a part time job working in a machine shop making tattooing machines. He was interested in how the tattoo machines worked, and soon he became a tattooist. Jensen enlisted in World War 1 serving overseas. Jensen tattooed while in the service, but he learned how to draw flash later. When he returned to Pleasant Grove, Jensen built himself a trunk tattoo outfit and hit the road. In the following years, Jensen tattooed at several shows and in cities in Colorado and Wyoming. In 1923 Jensen headed for Los Angeles and when he first arrived the fleet was out so he took a foundry job. Owen Jensen married Dainty Dotty, a famous circus fat lady. It is said he also tattooed her. Weighing in at 600 pounds, Dotty was not considered the largest woman on record, but she was perhaps the largest female tattooist. Dotty died from a heart ailment in December 1952.

On July 5, 1976, some young punks attacked Jensen, sticking a knife in his back and badly beating then robbing him. Owen Jensen never recovered from that beating. He died shortly afterward.

Albert Oehlen at New Museum

"One evening I pulled Beauty down on my knees. I found her embittered and I cursed her." Arthur Rimbaud

Come and see Albert Oehlen paintings curse beauty this summer at the New Museum.

Massive Inkjet posters are pasted on canvas to initiate a complex painting process. The prints form a digital collage of photos, drawings and brushwork and act as a backdrop for a fluid painterly overlay. An argument breaks out between brushwork and inkjet. Angry lines parry with vomity color patches. These paintings don’t breathe. They weeze.

What delicious, vulgar abstractions they are.

Come and see, before they become pretty with time.

Tom McManus

Thomas McManus is a writer, artist and professor at Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC.

Dear John

The split tailed swallow symbolizes a sailors good luck. Usually before the ships watch shouted land ahoy, the sight of this bird was the first indication of land.

But wait, what's this, a note she carries? A classic Dear John letter is gripped by bird claws. This 1910 tattoo image by Thomas Berg has great sweeping tail feathers and an upward pose.  Before swinging back to shore she bears the news, quashing a seaman's hope of his loved one faithfully awaiting. Oh well, didn't like her that much anyway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dear_John_letter

Appropriate Literature for Your Man Cave

These three publications came in the mail. Which do you open first?

Great literature all. Especially Modern Drunkard with it's amazing writing and great subjects. It comes along about twice a year now.  Frontgate is a dumb catalog of junk made in China. Including that awful Jimmy Buffet's  line of 'Margaritaville'  forced-good-times party stuff. All banned in your Man Cave except when found for free, broken on the curb and then as gag material. Fun to stomp to pieces in a booze fueled frenzy. The Old West auction catalog making a case for a Colt Single Action as The Actual Gun That Shot a Famous Guy is a test of anyones marketing prowess. 


Flipping through the pages of Frontgate things get worse, a fake antiqued tiki bar is pretty stupid. After about 3 grand for a flimsy bar, stools and a whopping $100 for each cushon, chances are you'll be having your Mai-Tais alone.


By the way this guy is never, ever invited anywhere. The girl, maybe. Although she seems way too excited about a beach ball.

This stuff is more like it and carries The Good Housekeeping Man Cave Seal of Approval.

First Lieutenant Lives as a Tiger

Sam Garvey is an artist living in Charlestown, SC. She has always drawn constantly, graduated RISD a couple of years ago and is now painting and creating cut paper designs. Her twin brother James was a First Lieutenant and a platoon leader as well as a AH-64 Apache pilot and combat veteran of the war in Afghanistan. He died recently.

Sam created this beautiful and moving piece called "Tiger for James." 

From her father: She was invited to  participate in a large annual arts and crafts fair in Charleston South Carolina.We went up to her piece and realized hanging next to it was a light blue ribbon with the words “Honorable Mention” printed on it. While we smiled and hugged each other a judge came up and hung another ribbon on it which said something like, “Selected for the traveling display.” It will be appearing in art shows around South Carolina and neighboring states for the next year.

James life adventure and celebration continue, thanks to his twin sister’s imagination, skill and love. 

Her work can be found at: samgarvey.carbonmade.com

Here's more about the family and their story.

While Jamie and Samantha were twins, their personalities were completely different. He was outgoing, social, adventurous, politically astute and fascinated by history. She is reserved, quiet, introverted, careful and most comfortable in familiar surroundings. He went skydiving and owned a Russian military rifle. She attended Comic-con and drew pictures of unicorns.

James studied politics and history at UConn, which he attended on an Army ROTC scholarship. Without question, his experience as a ROTC cadet was what he valued most during his four years at Storrs. He thrilled to the challenges, friendships and adventures ROTC provided. He graduated with honors and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant shortly thereafter.

Samantha studied art at RISD and was so immersed in that activity that she barely experienced anything the city of Providence offered. She was either in the classroom or studio, save for the time she was in her dormitory, drawing. She was a member of a small, tight group of RISD friends. She graduated with honors and then found work as a salesperson at the Paper Source, an art and notions store and lived with her friends at a dreary apartment in New York, and then with us.

When we told Samantha we were moving to Charleston and urged her to do the same, she balked. Her familiar world was exploding. She quietly weighed the risks and possibilities and one day Jamie called after his return from Afghanistan, just to check in. Samantha took the phone and said she wanted his advice. Should she quit her job, move to Charleston and try to make art a fulltime career -- that was scary and fraught with peril. His advice was immediate and unwavering: Go for it, Samantha! It's what you were born to do. She thanked him, called him her "big brother" -- an ongoing joke. To which he laughed heartily. It was the last sound she heard from him. Laughter.

After our world exploded and we had moved to Charleston, Tamara wanted to find a symbol to represent James. My sister, Patty, had lost a daughter, my niece Mary Ellen, 20 years ago, and settled on a butterfly to represent her. We laughed at the idea of a butterfly representing Jamie, knowing he'd howl in protest. Then Tamara remembered that when she was pregnant the first time, we called the unborn child "Tiger." When we later discovered she was pregnant with twins, they became the "Twin Tigers," whom at birth we named James and Samantha.

Jazz Giant

Wide shouldered, muscular jawed Houston Person blew into town like a freight train. The great tenor man played like the jazz giants we thought were all gone. Coaxing new energy into standards like "At Last "  he brought the melody line down soft as a pillow. At 80 years old, sixty years of experience also tells you when not to play.  When it's time to sit down and let the well oiled trio stretch out and run down some hard worn tracks. The piano player never stopped smiling, the drummer clickety-clacked and hammered solos as well as whisking cymbols with a dexterity you never thought possible. Glorious. Don't miss it next year.

http://www.schoolhousetheater.org/

Lion on the Floor

Walking into work today, after doing the random crap I always do on the computer I see this. Just like the scene in the movies where the lightning flashes and so appears the beast. Pretty cool way to start the day.

Boss said it came from an old building from the Bowery. Pulled from a salvage lot 40 years ago.

- The kid who works here

What's in Your Man Cave?

There are certain transmission repair shops, bait stores and old time bars where you immediately feel right at home. For want of another term, this comfort area is called a Man Cave. In your house, sometimes it's the only place where you feel at home.

A true man cave will slowly fill with junk banished from the house by the wife and family. Like that stuffed big toothed boar missing an ear. The plastic Spuds McKenzie dog statue. Or the fish plaque that sings Take Me to the River.

In building a Man Cave, stuff should be thrown in without any regard to appearance. Comfort and usability is paramont.  The most important rule is to never decorate.

Do not buy anything advertised at Target for a Man Cave. They will surely be made in China and will label you as a sap. Your friends will shun you.

A work bench is good to have with trout flies, a grinding wheel, carb rebuild kit and boxes of tools. However a pegboard with outlined tools shapes is only ok if the board is over 50 years old. A recently made one just shows you are an anal retentive. This would not put people at ease. Like a new carpet, plastic over the couch or too many coasters.  Coasters are ok as we are not clods and the tables in our Man Cave might have great vintage or collectible interest.  White water rings left by glasses destroy the value.

Coasters should be chosen with great care. Two rules apply here: They should never be new, made to look old. They should never have "funny" life slogans on them.   For a Man Cave, coasters should be stolen from hotel bars across the world.  Think of what the Dos Equis "The Most Interesting Man in the World"  would have in his room.

Herewith the six recognized and approved Man Cave themes:  1. Tiki  2. Automotive/Hot Rod 3. Classic Tattoo  4. Cowboy, horse tack, saddles etc... 5. Any industrial artifacts. 6. Piles of Golf or tennis or other sports items. Like a medicine ball.

It is important to note: Do not ever get anything relating to polo. You are not fooling anyone. You are not a polo player.  Ralph Lauren has this area locked up. You will surely look with a dufus with polo stuff around your Man Cave.

 

Required items.

One beer sign either neon or backlit.

Industrial stuff like old signs warning of dangerous occupational and safety hazards.

Hot Rod memorabilia,  photos of a Plum Crazy '71 Dodge Challenger.

Golf or Tiki stuff. Picture the golf starters shed or Trader Vic's as appropriate guides for how your room should look.


One dead animal stuffed on wall or flat out carpet style on floor.

One gun rack.

A motorcycle or some motorcycle front end parts, a helmet.  Also some old surplus military stuff like compasses or old ammo boxes.


One big leather couch preferably ripped and repaired with duct tape.

An aquarium.  Does not have to actually have fish in it. A miniature diver guy in a little diver bell suit and some other aquarium stuff in the tank is good. A friend of ours had a nine iron in his tank for years. Empty of water. Which is actually better as you get the idea without any maintenance.

Heavy cigar ashtrays preferably with advertising from a foreign country like Barcelona or a cigar bar in Paris.  We are worldly dudes. Think James Bond.


The only cleaning products would be Mr. Clean, that orange stuff mechanics use to clean grease off hands and a leaf blower to clean up the place occasionally (ie: Bill Murray in Caddyshack.) A few pine tree shaped car air fresheners are always welcome.



A well stocked beer fridge with at least one 6 pack of Average Joe beer like Schaeffer's or Pabst Blue Ribbon. The only opener in the room should be screwed to the wall next to the fridge.

Calendars with pictures must be decades old. Should have a picture like from a Mexican restaurant with an Aztec guy rescuing a Mayan princess.  A tasteful but provocative western gal, dude ranch photo is ok. As is a cheesy Tahitian babe under a palm tree.  But, this is really important. A beautiful contemporary pin up girl poster may not work in this atmosphere. It screams out horn-dog and ruins the dudes hang out pavilion. We don't know why but it just does.  Somehow takes the atmosphere in a different direction than the respite, the don't worry about the women for a little while, vibe.

A better choice is calendar with a day time photo of a drive up motel in Ohio.

Surfboard stuff is probably ok also, as are flippers and those big nets on the wall with the glass floater balls the Japanese used to use.

Lighting is critical and must imbue the surroundings with the most comforting soft light as possible. It should offer pleasing entertainment like animated beer signs, signs advertising tools or sports equipment. Pay special attention to ambient light. Anything overhead or glaring should be eliminated.

Some fine art is ok. We are sophisticates. However, the choices are tricky. Like the dogs playing poker or old car race posters. But do not put John Wayne posters up, it's a shame, but nobody relates to him anymore.  Steve McQueen, James Bond or Lee Marvin are ok.

The major exception to all these above rule is anything given to you for Father's Day. These items, no matter how horrid they may be, will be given a place of honor in the Man Cave.

Bad ties hung from gun racks, stupid fishing novelty items, as long as given by a son or daughter are very cool and should be cherished as such.  

The house may be burning down but we will grab the large piece of fungus with "I Love You Dad" carved into it by your son from a camping trip.

Anyone varying from these approved themes or trying to "design the look" will be immediately deemed a phony and their Man Cave be labelled as bogus.

Treasure Hunt

Are antique shows dead? Not if Frank Gaglio has anything to say about them. A respected dealer and promoter for over 30 years he created BarnStar Productions. He has his work cut out for him.

If you haven't been out to an antique show lately, you might be in for a shock. Long lines are long gone. Times where 200 people would wait for the gates to open like the Great Oklahoma Land Rush are a thing of the past.  The NY Triple Pier Antique Expo is down to one sad pier filled with clothes that look like somebody emptied a Salvation Army. At the last Wilton show in the high school auditorium there were 5 people in line, three thought there was a basketball game.

But wait, in all fairness the booths inside had lots of great merchandise, fairly priced. Like this excellent United Cigar sign from Michael Friedman and Donna Vita. 

Times have changed.  Collector tastes have changed. The pewter, quilt, clock and glassware market is over.

"Let's go to Jason’s and hang out, he just got an antique colonial blunderbuss to die for." Said nobody, ever. 

What do collectors want these days? The interest is certainly there. The most popular shows on TV are American Pickers and Pawn Stars. 

It might help to remember the 40 year rule. You want stuff you grew up seeing, had at one time, or was just out of reach 40 years ago.  Popular culture helps. Early Sony TPSL-2 Walkmans took off as the main character used one in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. They shot up from roughly $6 to $400 overnight.

Crazy looking, great folk art and colorful fun signs. Think a Tilt-a-Whirl carnival sign as opposed to a Prudential Insurance plaque.

Road Runners, GTO's and muscle cars just keep rising in value. Until the day they don't.  We have all seen the estimates on items from Antiques Roadshow in 1999 compared to 2015. Everything cratered by 50% in valuation.

So here is what Mr. Gaglio has in mind at Rhinebeck . No early buying, just get a ticket and get in. He has completely filled the three huge agricultural buildings with dealers. He is advertising the event in newspapers and buying billboard space. 

New energy. And It sounds really promising.   The treasure hunt is back!

Rhinebeck Antique Show at the Duchess County Fairgrounds, May 23 and 24th.

http://www.barnstar.com/    

 

 

Saving Thomas Berg

Tom Berg sheets previously laminated sometime in the recent decades but dating back to the earliest times of the 20th century find new life in harsh solvents and patient restoration.

Learn how to remove glue based laminate from water color and inked paper while removing glue or rubber cement without damage in the process.

Fourth Graders get an Art Lesson

We were checking out the Philadelphia Museum of Art and we saw something that really made our day. There was an entire class of fourth graders sitting down in front of Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain”. A teacher/docent was going on about the significance of the urinal and it stature in Modern Art. It was all so serious. The note taking! The hushed tones! The reverence! The “hollowed” art object! Duchamp smiles back inscrutably.

 

Thomas McManus is a writer, artist and professor at Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC.

Elaine Sturtevant - Connoisseurship takes a beating

“What is this doing here?” asked my friend.

It was Jasper John’s “Target With Plaster Casts” and it was located at the end of a long hallway bordered with Andy Warhol Cow wallpaper.

We spent some time admiring it. But something was wrong here.

The painting was terribly lit and seemed to be haphazardly thrown into a group show on the first floor at MoMA. Upon examination, the painting’s side and the boxes on top with plaster casts were well constructed. But the painting itself looked in bad condition. The newspaper with wax on it was brittle and flaking off. The yellow was acidic. The surface was patchy.


Elaine Sturtevant’s “Target With Plaster Casts”



Jasper John’s “Target With Plaster Casts”

“Hey, wasn't that painter who fakes artist's work supposed to have a show around now?” he asked.

That's what you get for wandering into an exhibition without realizing whose it is. In our hurry we ignored the big sign out front. It read, “Elaine Sturtevant: Double Trouble”.

But in retrospect, we were lucky we didn’t realize it was her show. That way the magic of her work could cast its spell on us. We were perplexed, we questioned our judgement and more importantly, we were temporarily fooled.

Elaine Sturtevant isn’t a forger. She is more of a philosopher obsessed with epistemology and ethics. How can we really know something with our  senses only? Is it immoral to copy someone else’s work? I could see Immanuel Kant standing in front of these paintings with his head ready to explode.

Another sly twist to her work is that it challenges the pretentions of connoisseurship.

It reminds me of when Han van Meegeren fooled Hermann Goring. Goring purchased Meegeren's forgery, Christ with the Adulteress, thinking it was an original Vermeer. I could see Hermann fawning over the painting waxing poetic about the Sublime. Sturtevant fooled us too and make us feel a little sheepish. Don't get me wrong, feeling sheepish in this context was a good thing.

The show looks down at connoisseurship and mocks the authentic. How embarrassing is that?

Thomas McManus is a writer, artist and professor at Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC.

What's Behind Door Number Two?!

A very good tattoo artist friend of ours knows one of the big shots on Storage Wars (or some other TV show that people bid on to get contents of abandoned storage units.)

His story.

"He told him about my collection.

The guy from the show called me and asked to borrow some of my prime sheets for the show so they could put them in a locker and have the “Lucky High Bidder” FIND them there. What a crock of shit. Of course I told him they were not available to loan out or to rent.

What looks out of place here?

They carefully load the units with items to make the show look cool.

I’m not sure of the show’s name as there’s a few different ones.

It was one of the better known ones though.

I had heard of it and I don’t watch hardly any television programs."

Many thanks our our friend for letting us share his letter!

 

Dragon Breath

Born Yoshihito Nakano, Horiyoshi III (b. 1946) received his current title from the late tebori master Yoshitsugu Muramatsu, also known as Shodai Horiyoshi of Yokohama. Sailor Jerry visited and studied Horiyoshi II's work in Japan as did Don Hardy. Horiyoshi III started at age 16 and served as Shodai Horiyoshi’s apprentice for ten years. By age twenty-eight Horiyoshi III’s bodysuit was complete, hand-tattooed by Shodai Horiyoshi.

He is considered the foremost tattoo master in Japan. These two tattoo flash samples are just in to Lift Trucks: a dragon descending through the waves and a dragon ascending through waves.

 

 

Girls We Like

In this sheet, Coleman's pin ups evolved from the traumatic shock of seeing your aunt coming out of the shower to dreams about the club swim teacher you had a crush on in Fifth Grade. This tattoo flash came through Paul Rogers, the Albert Morse Collection and was shown at the Oakland Museum in California.

Juxtapoz Opening Party

By Richard Osaka, Lift Trucks Special Report
Barnsdall Park,Los Angeles

I hunted for celebs, Molly, etc.  I was there for over an hour and walked throughout but only spotted Roger Daltrey from The Who.  Didn't want to take his pic.  Ed Ruscha was there but the only reason I know this is that I saw his picture with Robt. Williams. From the image's outdoor lighting I could tell that it was taken very early and maybe there was a preview before the opening.  I also saw a picture of Molly Barnes.  I definitely know what she looks like but I completely missed her.  Maybe I got there too late.