Calder's Circus

I love Alexander Calder. And I love all of his forms…his tools…his media. I just think his work is flat-out brilliant in a whimsically geometric way. And for some reason, I tend to believe that unlike me in my present state, Calder did not use narcotics.

I loved the Calder-Miro show years ago and I stumbled upon, literally by accident, the Calder Portraits show several months ago in Washington. As a collector of caricature, I was flummoxed, delightfully floored by what I saw. The brilliance dealt the first blow but then I was bitch-slapped by the mechanics—the technique of bending wire. Just amazing.

I could posit several examples to support my amazement with the Calder Portraits but for now; I’ll let Babe Ruth stand as exhibit number one.

I love the child in Calder and I’ve loved having LFG as my co-conspirator and giggly cohort in reliving my childhood during these last ten years. I can’t speak for others but for me, living amidst this ever so complex world, I sometimes need a huge ass dose of whimsy. And Calder is a great dealer in such goods. Look at the creative clutter in his studio. I've found a new excuse for my mess. 

 Just realized that the three previous paragraphs begin with “I love(d)”. That ain’t that bad is it? LFG and I got great Christmas presents this year and I’m gonna do a post on our loot. But I wanted to tell a story about what might be the best gift I received. I got a book about Calder’sCircus—a child’s book. And no it wasn’t intended for LFG. It was specifically meant for me. And I love it.

Calder’s genius is manifest in all of his media. But for me, there’s nothing better than seeing it emerge through the absolutely crazy characters in his Circus. 

The mechanics and the art appeal to me in etchings and drypoints. Same goes for my late 19^th century toy soldiers. Technology and art…left and right brain dialectics. Calder pulls every dialectic lever with his Circus. It’s all there man!

I’d pay serious money to hang out with Calder and ask him about his Circus…what motivated him…where the ideas came from…did he ever get frustrated and trash a prototype in disgust…did he chain smoke cigs sometimes while bending wires and swathing these little contrivances…how did he know when he got one “right”?

“Human Salvation Lies in the Hands of the Creatively Maladjusted” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Indeed Dr. King. Indeed.

Onward…with Oxycontin and Mike’s Hard Lemonade. One less tooth and an implant pending.

ADG II and LFG—In South Carolina

Cashmere and Flip Flops

I spend the week in Utah and Colorado where the locals in both areas were glad to get a big hit of snow in the ski resorts while folks back in D.C. are basking in ninety degrees. I get home and I’m thinking cocktails outside…a little bit of sun on my pasty dermis and maybe even a courageous attempt at wearing shorts again. Alas this morning, I’m sitting out on the south veranda of Casa Minimus communing with coffee and I have to grab a sweater. Cashmere and flip flops…shut up.

So how do you spend four days in meetings with one suit? Easy…step one is to pull out the bulletproof cavalry twill Flusser unit and shroud it with a few collateral trappings. Step two is to having meetings in different cities with different constituents so nobody knows that you are wearing same said threads. A few ties and shirts and a four day trek is reconciled.

You also travel with the suit coat doubling-legitimately so with this cavalry twill zoot suit-as a sportcoat. And of course one pair of shoes for the week. Guys...we have it easy.

If you can guess this airport carpet, Allie over at Summer is a Verb will give you a Wiley Brothers belt.

This really is a decent looking contraption when worn as a sportcoat with a pair of 501s. Who is that elegantly gallant man? And why is he taking pictures of himself? Is that a wig?

Five thirty am the next morning. Shut up. What do you look like at the ass crack of dawn? I'm channeling Noel Coward with a hangover here.

Bow tie one day. Traditional neckwear the next. Long as you aren't with the same peeps...it's all good...'specially with a monogram.

I think there are at least two things that make for such a superb 3-2 roll on this baby. The first is the nature of this hard finish cavalry twill material and the second is the tailor who cut it. Oh and I almost forgot....the fine specimen who owns the thang. Shut up.

And then there’s the question of Diagonality. Sock-wise, evvybody knows that Mix Master ADG has Horizontality down to a Fuzzy Dice science. So where does the next envelope pushing Fuzzy Diceyness manifest? … Diagonal tone-on-tone Flusser custom dress shirts. The diagonal weave would be tacky enough but no, one can’t stop there. Pleated pocket adorned with the no consequence talisman…the proverbial monogram. Tintang and Toad are rolling their eyes at this one.

But the fun isn’t over yet. Barrel cuffs-double buttons-flying v cowboy barrel to be eggzack. Shut the ____.

Thomas Mahon of English Cut. Late of Anderson and Sheppard…former Cutter to Prince Charles and now to ADG.  

Check out the dorsal fins on this Anderson and Sheppard mutha.

Jury remains waaaaay out on this D.B. contrivance and I’ll wait till the essential tweaks are completed before doing a post exclusively on Messrs. Mahon et al. Ok, enough about sartorial randomosity for now.

I began looking around the Casa and noticed a delightfully disturbing dichotomy. One shelf adorned with Anglophilishness and Randomanalia germane to caricature, British sports cars, clubland and things sartorial.

There’s a Chipp pamphlet from the days when J. Press, Chipp and the Brethren used to visit campuses. The schedule included in this brochure announces stops at various universities and prep schools including a couple of them close by my neck of the woods…Episcopal here in Alexandria and Woodberry Forrest out in Orange. The brochure isn’t dated but OCBD’s are five bucks.

There’s also a rather comprehensive little catalogue of prints and books for sale on Museum Street in London. The dealer is a young man by the name of Paul Victorious. He decamped Museum Street before the outbreak of WWII and landed back in Charlottesville where he had been a medical student at UVA. Victorious has been dead for about forty years but I think his shop remains in Charlottesville. It was for many years a rite of passage to have your UVA diploma framed at Victorious’.

Then one row above the Anglo-Randomanalia line up is my homage to the Nascar Aero Wars of 1969-1970. Shut up…and I mean it. Yes, LFG and I built these babies and I’m proud of them. More Nascar Apologetics later. Cale, Richard and David are represented here and we’ve even got a few more of them. Daumier on one shelf and Pabst Blue Ribbon on another. 

If you dropped by here for a cocktail, you’d be anything but bored. There's my home town boy Cale in number 21 above.

So here’s a couple more Aero War contenders but please…let’s not forget a formidable motor sports contribution from a bygone era….

 The Ford Pinto.

Onward-Shrouded in Eclecticanalia-ADG

Ps…Anybody seen my tan version of this belt? Allie? Allie? Helllooooooo….

Goodbye W.G. Grace - Hello London

I've loved collecting 19th century British caricature. It appeals to my aesthetic interests but also involves erudition-sleuthing-entrepreneurship...to whatever degree you decide to engage it. I can make any interest an erudite undertaking-it's fun for me. Part of the fun of art collecting for me has been my ability to finance my addiction through buying and selling prints and watercolours.

To that end-I say goodbye to my W.G. Grace caricature as well as a few others. I happily divest these possessions in order to finance my London visit.

I'll be in London from 23-29 January. Sartorial-artistic and historic pursuits will define my stay-as usual. However, I'd love your suggestions regarding what I should do during my six day stay in the U.K.

Onward-to England.

ADG