Llama Drama With Polka Spot The Narcissistic Llama

Can't wait for March 22nd when the Beekman Boys (and Polka Spot) are back.

Buffalo On Down To Bonnaroo

This classic picture of Buffalo Springfield pretty much describes the group. Close together, but each member looking in a different direction...





When organizers for the Bonnaroo Music Festival announced the 2011 lineup of performers it seemed exceptionally good this year. There was also one announced exclusive festival performance by a band that some youngsters may think "who in the world?" but to an old timer like myself, the idea of it can almost bring me to my knees....the reunited Buffalo Springfield featuring Richie Furray, Steven Stills, and Neil Young and with the addition of Rick Rossas and Joe Vitale to fill in for deceased and missing members. This band originally formed in 1966 and after only two years of great music, numerous member shakeups, and high band dysfunction, they disbanded, but not without its members springboarding into mega musical fame on their own. In a recent interview with Stills and Young, Stills says " it was one of those marvelous accidents of fate. What it did for us as artists we can never repay. It was just glorious." They were never a big commercial success but were one of the most influential bands of the 60's and the music is still more than good. They were inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Their biggest commercial success was Steven Still's For What It's Worth which was an anthem of sorts for the Man versus the People. Their "one of the best rock and roll songs ever" was Young's Mr. Soul, and their "magic" was Bluebird.

I saw Buffalo Springfield in 1968 right before they broke up. They were touring with The Beach Boys and Strawberry Alarm Clock. I was 14 years old and I still remember what I wore...a fetching white corduroy mini skirt and matching vest that that my mother made for me by request. My sister and I, along with a few friends ventured outside after their performance where we met and talked to band members for over an hour. Neil Young was rather rude and snippy (but we totally understand and love you anyway, Neil), Steven Stills sat alone, detached, playing with his camera, and Jim Messina was friendly and ultra sweet, winning our teenage hearts by telling us that he didn't like girls in makeup. Less destracted by fame, Dewey Martin payed attention to us, entertaining us with humorous antics. When he died a few years ago, I said a silent thank-you for the attention he gave so unselfishly. We missed the Beach Boys, lounging outside with Buffalo Springfield instead, and to borrow Still's words, "it was just glorious."

So youngsters, if you are going to Bonnaroo, listen to Buffalo Springfield's 45 year old music before you go and I suspect you may just listen to it afterwards as well.



This was the lineup when we met in 1968. They disbanded only a month or so later. Jim Messina (Loggins and Messina) is second from left. Dewey Martin is to his right and Young, Furray and Stills to his left.


It never would have happened had it not been for Mort. Mort (Mortimer Hearseberg) was Neil Young's 1953 Pontiac Hearse. Steven Stills had moved to the west coast working as a studio musician. He was stranded in traffic on Sunset Blvd. with Richie Furray when Neil Young (who they had met previously, but lost touch) whizzes by going the opposite direction. Furray and Stills recognize him because he is driving Mort and they make an illegal U-turn, giving chase and flagging him down. And it all began.

Naughty February For The Rich Duke Of Berry

The title of Duke of Berry was created for junior members of the French royal family. The first such Duke was John and he was an art lover and an extravagant one. He was rich even by rich standards, owning a large part of France including the Loire Valley with all its castles and chateaux. One of his other extravagant possessions was his own illuminated Book of Hours, or book of hourly prayers, illustrated especially for him by the then famous painters, the Limbourg Brothers. Les Tres riches Heures du Duc de Berry (The very rich hours of the Duke of Berry) was the most expensive book owned at the time and is also probably the most important illuminated manuscript of the 15th century. His book contained a calendar for each month with an attached illustration done just for the Duke. Above we have February...the month of the naughty servants. The February page was very unusual because it shows an outdoor winter scene and is actually one of the earliest snow scenes ever painted in history. The Limbourg Brothers were probably going out on a limb in choosing a snow scene and it is noteworthy that the Duke is not included in this scene...just in case a picture of snow ends up being a flop. Instead, happy peasants are shown carrying out the cold February chores. Using peasants gave the artists more room for play and also gave the Duke a way to show off his many possessions, people being one of them. Of special interest and "illuminating" of the times is the scene at the bottom left where two women and a lucky gentleman are warming themselves by the fireside and the gentleman seems to have forgotten his underwear on this chilly day. "Why?" you ask. Would people such as the Duke engage in such behavior? Certainly not, but the peasants in this illustration happily do, reinforcing the Duke's idea that the poor were depraved as well as deprived. If they were more decent, they would have been born into good families with money, like ole Duke. No need for the people to worry about these common folk and their hard lot in life, and thank goodness there are people like Duke John around to own them.
Duke John probably had nothing directly to do with this portrayal and the Limbourg brothers probably did not feel this way about the peasants themselves. More likely, the brothers were getting to know what twirled their employer's skirts by the time they began painting February and they knew this scene would reinforce Duke's high and mighty attitudes, thereby increasing his pleasure...and their pocketbooks. In other words..there were good admen even in the 15th century.

Dr. Cool And The Magic Question

When Thomas Gainsborough painted his famous Blue Boy in 1770, he also did a model in pink. The color blue was not chosen because he was a boy. When Dr. Hal Cooledge told us the magic question in his Art History class at Clemson in 1975, the first thing out of his mouth was a shout..."and the answer does not involve Blue Boy or Pinky."






On January 27th, 2011, Dr. Hal Cooledge passed away at the age of 88. He wasn't here long enough. He was one of the most intelligent, entertaining, talented, and wonderfully quirky individuals I have ever known. He was a Harvard graduate in Chemistry and worked in oil research, but took a different path after the Texas City explosion in 1947, returning to school in architectural history and art. He was hired in the Architecture Department at Clemson University in 1956 and I grew up with the visual of this remarkable professor....snow white crew cut (which he told us turned white almost overnight after the Texas explosion), black and metal (think Malcolm X) eyeglasses, and bow tie. When he opened his mouth, no matter what words came forth, they sounded like a well presented Shakespearean performance. He could teach, he could write, he could act, he could play the piano beautifully, and he was an excellent fencer, becoming Clemson's first fencing coach. I watched him perform in many local Little Theatre plays, encountered him in libraries and restaurants, and watched him perform in a Burt Lancaster movie filmed in Clemson in 1971, winning the only speaking role chosen from locals. Then around 1974, I really lucked up and ended up with him as my professor for Art History in summer school at Clemson. For two hours every day for about 6 weeks, I sat mesmerized as this man reared back in a chair in short sleeve shirt and bow tie, chain smoking bummed cigarettes from students while he shared a very small part of his mind with us. During the mid morning breaks, we began to refer to him as Dr. Cool. I still credit him with stirring up the love of art within me. But it was actually more than a love of art he inspired, it was the magic of knowledge from a man who seemed to know something about most everything.

On the first morning of class, Dr. Cooledge casually informed a sleepy auditorium of students, that he would give any student who could come up with the answer to the following question at any time during the course an immediate "A" and they would not have to attend any further classes. The question was "why is blue the color for boys and pink the color for girls?" This was way before the Internet and even though I did give a small amount of time trying to research this question, neither I, or any other student, ever came close to locating an answer. He never gave us the answer and I thought about it numerous times over the 35 + years, even researching it some on the Internet, without success. It seemed that only he had the secret answer and I even planned to ask him about it if I ran into him again. Immediately after reading Dr. Cooledge's obituary last week I did a search on the Internet again, and there it was...

According to the website "Gender Specific Colors" assigning color to gender is mostly a 20th century tradition. Early in the 20th century, pink, as a watered down red, was considered more of a boy's color while blue was considered more delicate and dainty, and was therefore for girls. It did not really change until after WWII, and the website suggests that Nazi Germany had something to do with it. The German concentration camps had a complicated system of colored symbols with the best known being the yellow star of David for Jews. As many people also know, they used a downward pointing pink triangle patch to identify male homosexuals. This site suggests that the pink triangles began to be associated with the feminine, so only after the 1930's and 40's, was pink associated with girls. Blue became the masculine color, partly by default and partly due to many military uniforms for men being blue. Dr. Cooledge spent a year in Heidelberg, Germany as part of an exchange program during the early years of Adolph Hitler's regime. When I read this theory, I knew that this was the answer he wanted. Finally, the week of his death, the answer is revealed to me. This information was his and it was important to him and he wanted to pass it on to us. But more importantly, he wanted us to want to know "the why" behind our small worlds. And it worked--for over 35 years for me. Thank-you, Dr. Cool.