Archive for the ‘ART AND LIT’ Category

The El Portal Theatre in Burbank, California, adjacent North Hollywood is at it again. Their latest musical extravaganza is called “Boomermania” and it’s a high spirited musical romp through the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s that claims to star “50 wigs, 100 costumes and 1000 memories!”

The show about Baby Boomers features original lyrics set to the decades’ most memorable musical genres. Fans will thrill to Rock ‘n’ Roll, Pop, R&B, Motown, Surf, Disco and Doo Wop.

You can visit the show’s website to get a taste of the songs. You’ll find a “We Are the World” send up “We Are the Boomers.” The number “Burn Your Bra” to the tune of “Barbara Ann.” And the tasty British Invasion tribute “Mrs. Pauls You Make a Lovely Fishstick.” You can guess the tunes of “Lame,” “Let’s Go Smoke Some Pot,” “Sugar Pops Cap ’n Crunch,” “P-R-O-T-E-S-T” and “They’ll Phone Ya.”

The site also dolls out fun Boomer trivia including “the most popular names during the first couple years of the boom were Mary, John, Susan and Michael.” And then there’s “on an average, there were 10,000 babies born per day between 1946-1964.”

Real-life boomers must be coming in droves. The El Portal Theatre has extended “Boomermania” through May 15 at 5269 Lankershim Blvd. North Hollywood. For more information call 818-508-4200 or visit the El Portal website.

For more entertainment news visit www.popculturepassionistas.com.

Written By:

Amy and Nancy Harrington, Pop Culture Examiner

Photos by:

Pop Culture Passionistas

Summary

Two quick reads regarding two books

Article

As a group, professional writers tend to be more critical than the average reader.  This is not because writers think their own work is better than what they read; it is simply because, as writers, we’ve already suffered through (and hopefully learned from) our mistakes in plotting, pacing, dialogue, and characterization.  And, having survived those mistakes, we tend to recognize them when we see them.  It is, therefore, a great joy to discover well-written books.

Published by DLSIJ Press, WomanScapes is a delight from the first page to the last.  A collection of short stories written by women, each contribution features a unique author footprint.  The prose is witty, ironic, and serves as a positive example of why authors should strive to hone their talent to the highest possible level.

If you are looking for pure reading enjoyment pick up your copy. You won’t be disappointed.

Sisters Odd, Curious Bedtime Tales

Writing great short stories is difficult at best.  The prose has to be precise, plotting and characterization must be beyond fault, and above all, the writer needs to be talented.  In Sisters Odd, Curious Bedtime Tales, author EJ McFall accomplishes all of the above.

Sisters Odd is a collection of unusual short stories that both interests and delights the reader. The prose is witty and insightful; each tale draws you in, holds you captive, and when you’ve read the last word, leaves you wanting more.

From an in-depth, “tell-all” interview with an aging Lizzie Borden to a battle of wits between Faith and Mephistopheles in Purgatory’s Ephemeral Cafe, McFall’s talent is sure to delight.

Summary

The Woodstock of literature

Article

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is one of L.A.’s top yearly cultural events, drawing 150,000 people to UCLA’s campus to experience authors reading, speaking and signing (euphemism for “selling”) tomes. At the free (if you ignore that parking fee) April 26-27 literary happening there were also booths galore for bookstores, publishers, scribblers and sundry groups and causes. This is the 13th annual bookfest, which is ballyhooed as America’s largest, belying the notion that La-La-Land is a vast wasteland of illiterate moviegoers.

I’ve attended half of these festivals, and kicked off this year’s coverage with a Saturday morning Ackerman Ballroom panel on “Comics Superheroes of the Page & Screen” featuring Jeph Loeb (co-executive producer of NBC’s Heroes, writer of comics such as Spider-Man), Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and Steve Niles of DC and Marvel. The good humored panelists described how authors and their fans are viewed by the hoity-toity literati: “You’re not a comic book writer – you’re a ‘graphic novelist.’ Good fun!

The same venue featured a more serious discussion moderated by KPFK’s Jon Wiener on “Defining American Character,” with Pacifica Radio’s Amy Goodman, activist/author Tom Hayden, conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt (author of Blog) and way overexposed Howard Fineman of NBC, Newsweek, etc. Goodman, host of Democracy Now, wowed the crowd with an excoriating critique of mainstream media’s biased, fictional coverage of Iraq, which “reached an all time low.”  It was interesting to observe Fineman during Goodman’s tongue lashing; he seemed lost in thought at how he and his colleagues were un-indicted co-conspirators who’d neo-conned America into war. Fineman actually confessed his pro-war role as an “analyst” (i.e., “pitchman”), but if you’re truly sorry, hey Howie, why not resign your lucrative and influential media posts and give them to a truth teller like, say, Amy?

Next was a Moore Hall “Reinventing Hollywood: The 1960s and Beyond” panel moderated by uber-reviewer Leonard Maltin with Peter Biskind (Easy Riders, Raging Bulls), Mark Harris (Pictures at a Revolution about 1967’s Oscar nominees) and the Times’ Kenneth Turan. I experienced déjà vu during this discussion; Biskind – an annual book fest fixture — wrote one of the best film histories ever, but how many times does one want to hear him re-chew the New Hollywood of the 1960s/1970s? Realizing this really wasn’t the festival’s fault, I resolved to seek out some different authors Sunday, and closed Saturday at a reading by Sherman Alexie, who has made a career writing about Native Americans, but doesn’t seem to want to be reminded he is one.

The following morning I arrived looking forward to hearing Joe Conason at a “Current Interest” panel, but when the New York Observer/Salon columnist’s nameplate was removed from the speakers’ table, I removed myself from Ackerman, happily relocating to a historians’ panel at Haines where I had the pleasure of hearing Michael Eric Dyson discuss Dr. King, whom Dyson noted, “whites wanted clawless and blacks wanted flawless.” Bruce Watson brought the 1920s’ executed anarchists alive, discussing Sacco and Vanzetti: The Men, the Murders and the Judgment of Mankind. Monkey Girl author Edward Hume resurrected the same decade’s Scopes Monkey Trial vis-à-vis a recent evolution court case. Douglas Brinkley, who wrote The Great Deluge, condemned Bush’s post-Katrina flyover of Louisiana as “a low moment in presidential history.”

Fee-fi-fo-Frum, I smelled the blood of a neo-con at the second of two panels featuring that laughable buffoon, David Frum, who coined the idiotic ”axis of evil” phrase. I wanted to ask Bush’s ex-speechwriter if he even knew which side North Korea’s Kim Il Sung fought on during WWII (answer: with the Allies, against the Axis power of Japan). Thankfully, our man Bob Scheer (editor of TruthDig, author of Playing President) made mincemeat of Frum, as moderator/Times editor Scott Kraft didn’t take a single question, cutting off public interaction — even though an hour remained before Her Royal Highness Julie Andrews’ ascension to Royce Hall’s stage.

Ten minutes late, the singer/actress’ conversation with mad hatter Patt Morrison was preceded by an announcement that Andrews would only sign her new autobiography for the first 100 buyers, restricted to two books each. Well, la-dee-fucking-dah! All authors should have such problems. Be that as it may, when Andrews finally appeared she was disarmingly charming, funny and down to earth. Discussing appearing topless in her husband Blake Edwards’ 1981 S.O.B., Andrews actually fondled her breasts onstage, illustrating the problems of shooting her famous nude scene.

I ended the book fest at a practical panel moderated by literary publicist Kim Dower with literary agents such as Betsy Amster, which dispensed how-to advice to aspiring authors seeking representation and publication. Between events, I strolled around UCLA with my cousin, Michele, enjoying the booths of Nation Books (where Gore Vidal signed tomes), Santa Monica Press, Akaschic Books, University of Hawaii Press (whose motto could be: “Book ’em, Dan-o!”), etc.

A good time was had at the festival where many serious writers and readers gathered for the Woodstock of books.

Summary

Writing about the unthinkable

Article

Brenda Youngerman.  OutskirtsPress, Inc. 2007.  $15.95 (278p) ISBN 978-1-4327-1296-9 (Paperback)

Open any newspaper today and you will find informational articles about bitter custody battles for children, pets, and alimony.  Public Lies tells the story of one woman who, when told by her abusive, drug-using husband that he’ll take away her kids, makes a fateful decision to leave town and takes her children with her.

With the help of family, Nancy Cooper tries to make a new life, one based on new names, new surroundings.  However, she soon grows tired of looking over her shoulder for her husband, and her children’s questions regarding their father lead her to the decision to return to her former home, divorce her husband and sue for custody of their two children.

The unthinkable happens, and Nancy loses custody to her husband.  Somehow, amid all the anguish, she finds the courage to fight for her children’s future.

Public Lies is an unusual read, and gives readers a taste of the horrors parents go through while trying to secure a future for their children — especially one that doesn’t include an abusive spouse.

Summary

A guide to Internet marketing

Article

Are you looking to expand your business opportunities via Internet sales?  Or, alternatively, are you interesting in marketing a particular product or service through search engines?  If you answered yes to either of these questions, then Bruce Brown’s latest book, The Complete Guide To Google Advertising Including Tips, Tricks, & Strategies to Create a Winning Advertising Plan, is a necessity for your reference library.

Brown’s book is extremely informative, logically devised and, most important, easily understood.  It is very “user friendly” and anyone, from novice to marketing expert, will find a myriad of new marketing ideas easily adapted for a particular product or service.  Another bonus for both business owners and consumers is the list of search engines and web directories listed on pg. 277-279.  This section provides the name of multiple search engines used when searching for information, goods, and services.

The Complete Guide To Google Advertising Including Tips, Tricks, & Strategies to Create a Winning Advertising Plan takes readers through a logical thought process that describes the who, what, when, where, and why of Internet advertising.  In addition to text definitions and easily understood concepts it also utilizes copies of screen shots to help readers grasp a particular idea or principle under discussion.  Brown does a great job of taking Internet terminology and explaining it in language anyone can understand while she provides links to additional websites for associated references.

If you are a consumer looking for a particular product or service on the Internet, this book is a must.  It gives consumers and business owners alike a better understanding of how Internet marketing works, and the glossary at the end provides easily understood definitions of Internet terminology users frequently encounter but do not often understand.

If you surf the Internet, you need to buy this book!

Summary

Required reading for the taskmaster

Article

One key to successful management is creating effective employee teams.  Building trust among employees, however, is not an easy task.  It takes patience and determination on the manager’s part, but the payoff is more than worth the effort.

How does a manger build effective teams? John N. Peragine’s latest book, 365 Low or No Cost Workplace Teambuilding Activities: Games and Exercises Designed To Build Trust and Encourage Teamwork Among Employees, answers this question through chapter upon chapter that defines good leadership qualities, effective team building exercises and provides insights into ways managers can motivate team members to utilize the skills they learned.

Each chapter follows a logical thought pattern with subsequent examples built upon principles illustrated in previous sections. Team building exercises fit a specific purpose, participation size, and skill level.  Peragine does an excellent job of providing enough choices so that managers of small, medium or large companies can find specific team building exercises to fit their particular goal.

The section called “We Have Learned, Now How Do We Use What We Have Learned?” effectively uses quotes to illustrate ways managers can encourage teams to follow through on assignments and develop an awareness of “the big picture” regarding their particular part of a task.  Peragine’s last chapter, “Contacts,” provides readers with a brief synopsis of each individual quoted and lists how that particular individual effectively uses team-building exercises in their own lives.

365 Low or No Cost Workplace Teambuilding Activities: Games and Exercises Designed To Build Trust and Encourage Teamwork Among Employees is a required reference guide for any manger who wants cohesive teams that work not only effectively, but efficiently to accomplish a given task.

Summary

Thinking it is too late to invest in your future?

Article

Reviewed by:  Carla Ledbetter

If you are like most “baby boomers,” you’re probably starting to look for a post-retirement business opportunity that allows you the freedom to pick and choose the hours you want to work and the amount of effort expended to successfully operate that business.

Even if you already own a business, Heather L. Shepherd’s latest book, 01 Businesses You Can Start with Less than One Thousand Dollars: for Retirees is still a necessity for your reference library. Written in a logical format, this book not only lists a wide variety of business types, it also allows gives the reader a “true” picture of what to expect when starting a business (including pitfalls), realistic expectations for business growth while providing insights from individuals who already made the successful transformation from worker to entrepreneur.

Shepherd does an excellent job of covering topics, both pro and con, for each step in developing a business. Helpful links provided throughout the book allow the reader multiple opportunities for additional references emphasizing and further explain ideas presented in the book.

Readers may be surprised at the variety of business offered and the depth in which Shepherd explains that particular business. The addition of “success stories” for each section provides a way for readers to understand how a particular individual achieved success and what a reasonable expectation for her or his own business might involve.

Starting a business is a serious undertaking and Shepherd’s book does a great job of highlighting specific details one must understand prior making that decision.  Questions listed in each section provide a vehicle for readers to asses their own success potential and the links to websites, agencies and periodicals provide an added resource for knowledge.

Shepherd’s 101 Businesses You Can Start with Less than One Thousand Dollars: for Retirees is an excellent reference tool for business owners or for anyone who might want to start his or her own business.

Summary

Laura Flanders, Dean Kuipers weign in Democratic hopefuls

Article

If you are looking for an interesting read that goes beyond the hype, television ads, media blitzes to provide an in-depth look at the Democratic hopefuls for the upcoming Presidential Election, then The Contenders is a good choice.  This informative look at the five major candidates (and a few lesser known ones) provides a dissection on their personalities and platforms that is not only palatable, but also interesting.

Regarding New York Senator Hillary Clinton bid, Laura Flanders writes, “…Hillary’s task is to dress her establishment-self up in just enough rebel’s clothing to pacify the critics before the primary, and then win over enough alienated voters in November — probably by persuading them that she’ll change some things, but not too many.”

Will women voters help elect Clinton to the Presidency? Flanders assessment of Clinton’s campaign to appeal to women voters is that this seemingly easy job is a lot more difficult than one would imagine. Although many women voters want a woman in the White House, before they can vote for Clinton, they must first learn to trust her as a politician who can not only bring a change to the White House, but one who can bring a change in policy. One thing for sure is that Clinton is counting on women to help put her into the White House.  Perhaps Flanders got it right when she writes, “Ironically, for a campaign playing to women, Clinton wins because she’s seen as the most macho.  As person after person interviewed for the chapter seemed to feel, “She knows how to play hardball, and that’s what you need in Washington.”

I found the Richard Goldstein’s section on the Senator Barack Obama interesting, especially Goldstein’s quote on Obama, “It must be a source of painful irony to the Clintonistas that he (Obama) is the only candidate to successfully apply Bill’s playbook.” In this section, Goldstein paints a picture of Obama as an excellent speaker, negotiator and, more importantly, a candidate who has the ability to appeal to alienated voters, and cross racial lines.  Additionally, Obama, like Bill Clinton before him, possesses something the other candidates do not appear to have: a charismatic appeal to the young voters as instanced by his popularity on MySpace and YouTube Internet sites frequented by young and hip voters.

As with the dissection on Hillary, Goldstein lists Obama’s triumphs, failures, faults, and voting record with a frank clarity that hedges no bets, nor grants any pardons.  Perhaps Goldstein’s most revealing and telling assessment about Obama appears on pg. 82? In describing Obama’s effect on a group of voters in New Hampshire, Goldstein writes, “Then something occurred to me.  I had stopped noticing the thing that is always on my mind when I think about Obama.  I forgot about his race.  And it was a very pleasant feeling, this interlude when I could look at a black man and not see, before anything else, his skin.  From the happy faces around me, I deduced that other white people were enjoying the same suspension of awareness.”

Obama’s victory in the first primary might be a reminder to other candidates, that he is a tough, politically savvy individual who just might win the Democratic bid for President.

In the section on non-running Al Gore, Dean Kuipers writes about the positive and negative press that constantly surrounds Al Gore.  I loved Kuipers’ observation that, “They were ready to make him king, but only if he rolled in pig shit first, like everybody else.”  Kuipers goes on to say, “When I looked down at my feet, I noticed I had my pig-barn boots on, too.  Who could blame him (Gore) for skipping the campaign’s withering diminution?  Or even for believing he can be more effective by staying out of Washington altogether?”

During Bill Clinton’s tenure, Gore spent eight years trying to change Washington’s view of global warming, but only achieved his goal after leaving Washington. Perhaps this is why Gore now sees himself as effectively promoting and changing global warming views by remaining an outsider.  As an outsider, he remains free to bring reality to the American people.  He has, as Kuipers puts it, “[B]een to the mountaintop and now enjoys direct communication with the American people without compromise.  Don’t expect him to abandon it soon.”

James Ridgeway does a good job of clearly describing the “double edged sword” former North Carolina senator and Democratic runner for U.S. Vice President John Edwards uses to fight his way through the tough job of becoming the Democratic nominee for President.  Although Edwards sees himself as a man representing the innocent and downtrodden, the fact that he is now an extremely wealthy man (one of the “others”) may alienate him from those people he seeks to represent.

Ridgeway’s explanation of Edwards’ character, voting history, victories, and failures were interesting, including information provided about Edwards’ job with the Fortress Investment Group, and his association with the Center for Promise and Opportunity nonprofit organization.  Edwards’ rhetoric concerning treatment of the poor rings true, but it will be interesting to see how the voter’s assessment of this candidate’s ties to corporations, wealth, and past voting history supports or destroys his bid for the Presidency. There is one additional item in the mix —the fact that Edwards’ wife, Elizabeth, now fights against an incurable form of breast cancer.  Many voters know of, and like Elizabeth Edwards, and Ridgeway did a good job of noting, but not placing undue emphasis, on her tragic illness. Although lightly touched upon during this chapter, one cannot help but wonder how the candidate plans to handle his wife’s illness during his quest for President, and how Elizabeth’s struggle against this illness will affect the voting public.

Eli Sanders and Dan Savage do an excellent job of highlighting Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s political ups and down with wry humor. Kucinich’s political history, triumphs, failures, failure reversals, and candidacy platform play out in a way that sheds some light on why Kucinich keeps running for president, and his belief that “I’m right, and the other guys got it wrong.”  Kucinich’s recent marriage to Elizabeth, a 29-year-old British citizen, however, leaves the reader with two possible questions.  First, are we really ready for a vegan President?  And, provided Americans would consider electing a vegan President, what are the odds they would go for a 29-year-old, tongue-studded First Lady?

James Ridgeway’s look at The “Second Tier” of Presidential hopefuls provides an interesting insight into why these candidates, who realize they have little or no hope to become President, threw their bid into the run for the White House.  While each has something to offer, the nature of their personalities makes them less likely to win.  Ridgeway does a good job of highlighting their contributions and faults, and why some, if not all, will probably find a job with the candidate who wins not only the Democratic Nomination, but the Presidency as well.

In all, The Contenders is an insightful, well written look at what makes each of the Democratic Presidential hopefuls tick, how they got where they are, and why each feels they should win their party’s nomination.  I would recommend it to anyone looking for information on the Democratic candidates vying to become America’s next President.

Laura Flanders (Hillary Clinton), Richard Goldstein (Barack Obama), Dean Kuipers (Al Gore), James Ridgeway (John Edwards), Eli Sanders & Dan Savage (Dennis Kucinich), James Ridgeway (Dodd, Biden, Richardson, Gravel).  Seven Stone Press, 11/07.  Current Affairs, $22.95 (202 pgs.) ISBN 978-1-58322-789-3 (Hardcover)

Summary

Two exotic presents for film and art lovers

Article

What is the sound of one hand clapping? Well, you may not be able to answer that Zen question, but once you check out these last minute holiday gift suggestions, you may be able, Grasshopper, to answer this eternal question:

“What do you get the man/woman who has everything?”

The reason why you should be able to answer this is because the two books I am recommending as eleventh-hour presents have both just been published. They both feature exotic subject matter and art, and are off the proverbial beaten path. I’m lucky enough to know about and possess these two tomes because I happen to know their authors.

Anime Classics ZETTAI! 100 Must-See Japanese Animation Masterpieces is by Brian Camp with Julie Davis, and published by Berkeley-based Stone Bridge Press, which specializes in books about East Asia, publishing writers such as Donald Richie, “the best-known Western observer of Japanese life” and an extremely perceptive film critic. Camp, too, is a brilliant movie historian, who hearkens from the mysterious East – the Bronx, that is. Brian and I attended Hunter College’s film school in Manhattan many moons ago. Even then, he had an encyclopedic knowledge of cinema, especially horror movies. Camp is currently a film programmer for the City University of New York’s TV channel and has taught an Anime class at N.Y.’s School of Visual Arts. Now, in his first book, Camp trains his sights on his latest love, the genre of Anime, and proves that he has one of the finest filmic minds currently writing about motion pictures.

And what motion these Japanese pictures have! In Zettai! (which means “Absolutely!”), Camp and his co-author provide both a primer for newcomers to Anime (like your humble scribe) and an invaluable resource on this Asian art form for dyed-in-the-wool buffs, historians, cineastes and the like. From Akira and Astro Boy to Ghost in the Shell and Gigantor to Yu Yu Hakusho, this book gives the lowdown on what the co-writers submit are the Anime essentials, listing the top 100 in alphabetical order. (And who am I to disagree?) The book is illustrated with black and white pix from the films that show the diversity of style used in these cartoons.

Camp also writes four introductory essays that give the 411 on Anime and its creators, including a chapter on “Great Anime Directors.” Thematically, Anime — which sprang up in the ruins of postwar Japan, in a budget conscious film industry — runs the gamut, from sci-fi to sexuality, horror to teenage angst. Japanese terms, such as “Manga” and “Hentai,” are explained for the newbie, and the book points out the artistic origins and influences of Anime movies, such as the American animators Max Fleischer and Walt Disney. Evidently, we Yankee-doodle dandies were not the only ones who watched Popeye eat his spinach, Betty Boop boop boop be boop and Bambi sprint through the forest! (Camp notes that Osamu Tezuka, the “manga no kamisama” — God of Manga – saw Bambi 80 times!) Each entry in this easy to read and use guidebook includes icons that denote style, pre/sequels, highlights, viewer discretion (especially helpful for parents with young children) and the like.

Zettai! offers a who-what-where-when on this art form for the uninitiated, but also perceptive insights into the why of the genre Camp has been intensively studying and writing about in various publications such as Animerica since the early 1990s. He makes a strong case for the following observation: “The end result of all this effort is something that animation doesn’t often achieve outside of Japan: capturing the experience of the characters in a manner usually accomplished only by the best live-action filmmakers.”

Well, after reading Zettai! this Anime agnostic was not only convinced, but converted, turning me on to a whole new art form. I immediately set out to catch up on what I had been missing – Princess Monoke, Kimba the White Lion, Cowboy Bebop and Tobor, the 8^th Man, et al. Absolutely!

See: www.StoneBridge.com.

***

Martin Charlot’s parents were introduced by the Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein while he was filming Que Viva Mexico! south of the border in the 1930s. Jean Charlot rediscovered the lost renaissance art of fresco murals, and taught Mexican muralists such as Diego Rivera how to paint on freshly laid plaster. Jean and Zomah Charlot moved to Hawaii in the late 1940s, where Martin grew up and became Jean’s apprentice.

Martin continued the family tradition of public art, and in the 1970s was commissioned by McDonald’s to paint one of its fast food eateries in Kaneohe.  Long before Morgan Spurlock, Charlot “Super Sized” McDonald’s, decorating its Windward Oahu restaurant’s walls with what at first merely looks like a gigantic depiction and slice of then-contemporary rural Hawaiian life set in nearby Waiahole Valley, where Martin then lived amongst farmers, fishermen and taro patches. But upon closer inspection, the mural portrays a multitude of proverbs, derived from Native Hawaiian, Samoan, biblical, Greek and other sources.

Some thirty years later, Honolulu’s Watermark Publishing, which specializes in Hawaiiana books, has published the mural in a keepsake book for both children and grownups called Local Traffic Only, Proverbs Hawaiian-Style. The hardcover coffee table tome includes a fold out of the entire mural, and is profusely illustrated with details from the mural along with each particular saying Charlot is creatively depicting.

For example, a Polynesian man clad in an Aloha shirt and lavalava in front of a chicken coop illustrates Aesop’s famous expression: “Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched.” Another image shows a Hawaiian man at the seashore with humongous sea life, which depicts Christ’s saying “I shall make of you fishers of men” from the “Gospel According to Mark.” Charlot visualizes the Hawaiian proverb “Pau ka puna, ‘ua ko’ele ka papa” (“We’ve eaten to the bottom of the calabash”) with a little Polynesian girl eating from a wooden calabash bowl that is almost empty, beside a Hawaiian man, who appears to be pounding poi in his large bowl. Arnold Schwarzenegger posed for the mural, the future governor’s biceps bulging while he’s reading a book, to show that “wisdom is mightier than strength.”

Charlot opens Local Traffic Only with an essay that explains how he came to render this public art at a McDonald’s. He also sheds insightful light on his creative process, in terms of both form and content. The book has a “good fun” aspect to it, as one guesses what proverb the imaginative artist is expressing. Watermark’s photographic reproductions of Charlot’s beautiful artwork are generally crisp and colorful as it faithfully presents the mural’s optical opulence in book-form. For children of all ages who love art, Proverbs Hawaiian-Style will make their calabashes runneth over.

As they say in Hawaii: “Mele Kalikimaka!”

See: www.BooksHawaii.net.

Summary

An interview with Neil Simon Poyuzina

Article