Herb and Dorothy.

Technically, and I guess, aesthetically—although bits of it are incredibly beautiful—I think this is a fairly squirrelly, haphazard documentary.

See the film’s website here. Available through Netflix. (I checked, and it’s available at the NPL, for you Nashvillians)

On the whole however, it’s a rather remarkable document about passion and art...and passion AS art. This fairly innocuous seeming New York couple—the Vogels—he a postal service employee, she a librarian, put together a phenomenal collection of thousands (!?!?) of pieces of modern American art. In New York fashion, most of the pieces are small enough for a person to carry home walking or in a cab. Their rent-controlled apartment grew to be nearly bursting at the seams with it all.

They’ve quietly, almost unwillingly garnered quite a lot of press over the years, and the story of where their collection is to ultimately reside is an interesting (and still unfolding) one.

Some of the art they have collected, I could personally take or leave, but it is undeniably important in the arc of the development of later 20th century American art. If you care about art...or collecting...or people, this is a great little film.

Things we like: Funny baby pictures.

My friend Rob had this as his profile picture on Facebook. Just something he found on the web somewhere. I think this baby is amazing. I’m sure that somebody propped him (or her) up on his arm a lá author dust-jacket photos, but he looks like he’s pontificating “Weeellll... don’t get me started...” If I knew these people I would beg for a wallet-sized copy of this pic and put in on my fridge.

Things we like: The Local Taco

I was just looking on the web for a photo to go with this post (by Emma R., from Yelp) and found some of the usual “mixed reviews”—I’ve chosen however to pay no attention to any voice but my own hungry, happy one on this subject. The Local Taco, on Murphy Road in Nashville has been one of my favorites ever since they first opened back in May of this year. It only seems to be getting better.

Happily ran into my friends Richard and Liz McLaurin and their sweet boys Andy and Sam Henry last time I was in town. It was Halloween and the Andy was Superman and Sam was Max, from Where the Wild Things Are.

Just got back from another foray. Two Korean, two Southern Fried. Lemon-Lime Jarrito. Oh, my goodness. And the smell of freshly squeezed lime on your fingers all the while. Exquisite.

They’ve done a nice job of closing in and heating the patio for the winter. I like sitting out there. Not as loud. Every time I come back to town, Local Taco is a destination. Wish them much success, that location has never worked too well for anybody before, but looks like they’re doing it right.

Did Mo Willems predict the “swine flu”?

Mighty curious.

Dark times in Mayberry

(When the worst they ever had to deal with were the shenanigans of Ernest T. Bass and the mysteries of dating women, I doubt Ang and Barn could ever have imagined a distraught ex-convict Hispanic feller killing four folks right there in the heart of Mayberry. Bet they also never woulda thought the old NRA would make it so easy for said feller to get him a gun that should have only been used for heavy law-enforcement or all-out warfare...hell, Barney never even got to put his one bullet in the gun, unless things were pretty damned serious)

Excerpt from Yahoo news, full story here.

MOUNT AIRY, N.C. – A soured love affair may have led an ex-convict to gun down four men in the town that inspired the idyllic community of Mayberry on the 1960s TV series “The Andy Griffith Show,” police said Monday.

Marcos Chavez Gonzalez, 29, was charged with four counts of murder in the slayings late Sunday outside a television store in Mount Airy, about 100 miles north of Charlotte.

The four were shot with a high-powered assault rifle outside Wood's TV, in the shadow of a water tower that says “Welcome to Mount Airy” and has a picture of Griffith and Opie, his son on the show.

Things we like: The Bats

In case you thought New Zealand popular music began and ended with Split Enz and Crowded House, do yourself a favor and discover The Bats (and while you’re at it another enormously prolific NZ band, The Clean)

Been digging The Bats out again after recently getting a German release on eMusic called “At the National Grid.” They owe a great debt to Brian Eno’s pop records. Who doesn’t? Beautiful, jangly folk-ish pop. Also remember mid-80s enjoying the EP “Daddy’s Highway”—which contained “North by North” one of their “hits.”

Robert Scott is a sometimes member of both The Bats AND The Clean (and a few others—the sum of which has probably always made The Bats’ career suffer a bit).

R.I.P. Milton Supman

A.K.A. Soupy Sales...I don’t really remember the crazy “Soupy Sales Show” he did in New York, where he once got in trouble for asking children to mail him the pieces of green paper in their mother’s purses with the president’s pictures on them, whose wacky antics probably inspired the future Peewee Herman. I remember him mostly from my childhood as a funny regular on “What’s My Line?”—later as the father of Hunt and Tony, who with Reeves Gabrels...oh, and this guy David Bowie, were the band Tin Machine.

(A band I’ve always loved, despite much negative nattering from many a devoted Bowie fan. It was Bowie being a guy fronting a band, not “being Bowie”—I think he relished it...but I digress)

Sales was a funny man. A man who could take a pie in the face and still retain his dignity. Not a lot of pie-in-the-face men today. Not an awful lot of dignity either.

Goodnight Soupy, we’ll miss you more than we know.