I Can't Define Porn Or Grosz, But I Know A Grosz When I See One.

Chronicle of a journey from youthful
know-it-all to old-fart astonishment.

Malady of Love [right] wasn't the George Grosz I saw today at the LA County Museum of Art's new and expanded Eli Broad-funded and Renzo Piano designed wing. But it was a Grosz and it stopped my new SpazMobile on a dime and gave change. Grosz might not have been the Berliner who inspired Reichmarshal Hermann Georring's "When I hear the word 'Culture' I reach for my gun." but he definitely was on the Short-List. On the other hand, GOP Veep hopeful Rudy Giuliani went, please excuse the French, Ape-Shit over a photo called Piss Christ [below] and took half the nation with him. I went outta my way to see Andres Serrano's award winning photos in person. I briefly wondered WTFITS?* [*What The Fuck Is This Shit?].They were subdued, respectable, a tad churchy. Including the "scandalous desecration." I wondered if Serrano's work woulda got any enzymes in an uproar if he'd called it Lemon Kool-Ade Christ which could just as well substituted for "Piss" and may well have. In post-WWI Germany Grosz knew that you can't please the Georrings any more than Serrano could please the Giulianis or Dubya's base. Grosz just never bothered.

This began as LACMA rather than a Grosz-Giuliani nitpicking. Its contents are over-whelming. IMO the Armand Hammer near UCLA remains LA's best and best-kept secret for the sheer quality of its permanent collection and imagination of whoever is Curator there. Everybody's already jumped Eli Broad's [Funder] and Renzo Piano's [Architect] bones. LA Culture Grrl [sic] Lee Rosenbaum's good if you like reading how the way, way rich throw their dough around. That hasn't been me for a long time. Here's her link:
http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2008/02/renzo_pianos_architecture_for.html Back in Watts Clinic days, a Nam vet named Mike K. was in my "office" every available moment with intricate Flow-Charts showing how 10-years from then we would form a Syndicate to buy the then-LA Rams from then-owner Carroll Rosenbloom. This is a public service to demonstrate how some Mental Health Professionals spent their between-clients time. For obvious reasons the example no longer happens in LA.

My point is LACMA's exhibits are beyond the sensoria of all but dedicated art connosieurs who've done their research ahead of time. Watching dazed out-of-towners slouch out and then into a free Latin Jazz Concert held at the next-door park........ Hey: Park in my driveway; take a key; Walk the 15-minutes there-and-back; Take some in; Eat; Go to sleep in the livingroom; DON'T disturb Kitty-Kitty-Bang-Bang; Repeat until sated.