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As many of you know, ThirdStone's primary business over the past thirteen years, has been the selling of art. Um, well, I mean that's still my primary biz? Isn't it? Huh? What's that you say - ThirdStone is now merely an "entertainment" business? Bullshit!
Oh, but wait; yes, I do have to agree that under the pummeling of our current economic trauma, art sales have, for most of the general public, and throughout much of the country, been rendered more-or-less irrelevant in their daily scheme of things.
Nor can I loftily proclaim their "importance" just because that happens to be my main business and source of income. Certainly not when nearly everyone I talk to has at least something to say about the astronomic costs of, not just fuel, but basic truly essential things like feeding their families and a variety of other crucial needs. And no surprise of course that buying art is rarely, if ever, on most people's needs of "basics"...
So while there are surely a few 'high horses' I could yet saddle up and mount, what's the point? Besides, truth be told, feeding those particular 'horses' is a budget strain I can't currently afford. (Hey, I mean, I like groceries too, y'know!)
I know it's been difficult for the wonderfully talented artists I represent to stand by and see plenty of excited visitors pass thru the portals of ThirdStone (in fact, seemingly more than ever) to be amazed and amused and thrilled by what they see and then realize that those same folks are so often leaving emptyhanded. Since I know most of the artists well, I know they're as economically challenged as the rest of us and often, even more so.
So what's my point here then with alla this whinyprattle?
Okay, here it is... Artmaking is fine. The art that's being made is finer than ever. The "market" is not. And won't be fine for some time to come. So will artists then cease making art? The good ones won't.
And then what does that mean for purveyors of art? The good ones, the ones who actually believe in the intrinsic value of what they show, will struggle to keep on keepin' on. and then do it some more.
And the rest of 'em? Do we actually care much?
Okay, I admit to having become pretty jaded about web-design over the last decade. I've (in my secret identity - shhhh!) designed a couple hundred websites for various clients over the last 11 years. I'm frequently been accused of being a purist or minimalist (and occasionally even a design nazi of sorts) for my insistence on sticking to straight, clean HTML, and avoiding such "niceties" as Flash, scripts and clever mouseover "winkie-blinkies" even as I explain to those clients that the search engine rankings they so desperately covet tend to improve when things are kept simple.
From a different, user-oriented viewpoint though, I'm also somewhat bored with most sites that've invest copious amounts of design-time/money in creating pointless 'Bling' (ie: Flash doohickeys) that don't really have anything to say. They generally strike me as the mutant offspring of designers who've managed to sell their clients on how "essential" and "compelling" those sites would be if only the site owner would fork over the extra design time $$ to have them thoroughly "enhanced" (encrappinated) with majick fairy-dust blingification.
Okay, I admit, I'm in a crankier than usual mood today. Or at least I was until a few moments ago when my bro' Brian forwarded me a link to a site (>http://producten.hema.nl/) that made me both take notice with regard to my rant points above and, more importantly, laugh my fool ass off.
I'm not gonna spoil the surprise so, if you'd like to know why, you'll have to visit the site. Not only is it a wackily brilliant Flash hack; it's clever and noisy and silly-as-heck and even a bit anarchistic all at the same time. (in that you can't click any links to go anywhere on the site until it's completed its little meta bombast; you just have to wait 'til it's had it's way with you).
I should point out that I cannot read a word of Dutch but I'd still like to give these folks some kinda prize, whatever the heck the rest of their site might accomplish...I think Rube Goldberg would be proud of these folks!
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howdy hey, friends and neighbors... an' welcome to ThirdStone-land!!
There's a whole heapabunchalotta info, rantin', ravin, beepin', squawkin', an' screedscreech a'comin' at all y'all right here right soon! Yup; jes' y'all wait n'see!
I'll be screechin' n'rantin' right here on this page 'bout art, creative spirit, sea-monkeys, religion, politics, music, books, the human condition, consciousness, integral theory, toaster strudel an' jes' 'bout any an' ev'ry other gatdam thang a fukkedup mind like mine could possibly conceivify.
So, be sure'n visitate this here bloggie-dawg now n'ag'in fer alla the latest arfin', okay?
ver hassestak orta, n'ciao-bow-wow
yerpal,
Admiral Pluto Krozabeeep
Prime Minister of eternal combustion & Executroid Director pro-tem, Ecclesiastical Absurdities Foundation, Dogma Division
As many of you know, ThirdStone's primary business over the past thirteen years, has been the selling of art. Um, well, I mean that's still my primary biz? Isn't it? Huh? What's that you say - ThirdStone is now merely an "entertainment" business? Bullshit!
