As a performing artist I tour the country constantly, often finding myself in a new city every day. Not having the time that leisure travel affords, I’ve been perfecting the art of Hit and Run Tourism, learning how to take in a new city as quickly as possible. While I like to see the normal sights, I have a particular love of good coffee, good food, good art and anything exceptionally strange and unusual. This is what I’ve found in cities across America.

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When I gave a call to my northeast liberal elite friend to complain about the lack of culture in Palm Beach, Florida, his apt response informed me that “going to Palm Beach and expecting to find culture is like going to Beverly Hills expecting to find culture.” Popular culture perhaps (and said friend would have you believe that pop culture is the only culture, which is why I was surprised at his statement), but nothing in the way of genuinely intelligent, interesting or stimulating culture.

Not only is the tasty and delicious Brazil Nut one of the most nutritious nuts around, it also happens to be the world’s most radioactive food – at least until Uranium Crisps hit the shelves.

A result of the extensive root system of this largest of Amazon Rainforest trees, the Bertholletia excelsa collects and concentrates an unusually high amount of radium from the soil – much of this being stored, as many toxins are, in the fatty meat of the nut. It has been estimated that the Brazil nuts contains up to 1,000 times more radium than the next highest radioactive food.

Temporarily cut-off from the media while traveling from show to show, I didn’t learn until today that French thinker Jean Baudrillard passed away in Paris yesterday at age 77.

Not prone to re-blogging, time nonetheless forces my hand today. I give you the Associated Press article about his death.

From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

French theorist Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) was one of the foremost intellectual figures of the present age whose work combines philosophy, social theory, and an idiosyncratic cultural metaphysics that reflects on key events of phenomena of the epoch. A sharp critic of contemporary society, culture, and thought, Baudrillard is often seen as a major guru of French postmodern theory, although he can also be read as a thinker who combines social theory and philosophy in original and provocative ways and a writer who has developed his own style and forms of writing.

On the evening of March 4, 2007 I, undoubtedly along with millions of others, watched a program aired on the Discovery Channel directed by documentary filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici entitled The Lost Tomb of Jesus.

The program explores the question of whether a tomb, known as the Tomb of the Ten Ossuaries, uncovered by construction workers in Jerusalem in 1980 while erecting a new apartment complex, could possibly be the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth and his family.

A truly engaging and compelling production, this film presented a wide range of evidence to support the claim, though it drew no conclusions. Instead, it was very clear to point out that no agreement has been reached – not only through its content but also by disclaimers both before and after the program aired – amongst scholars, scientists and archeologists and encouraged the viewer to apply their own critical faculty while watching and considering the evidence put forth.

The photographic work of my dearest friend Chehalis Hegner is featured on the cover of the February/March 2007 edition of the Art New England journal.

Part of the Photographic Resource Center’s PRC: P.O.V. Photography Now and in the Next 30 Years show, the featured cover image is entitled Trophy from her series John.

Of the image, Art New England says:

His eyes closed, he submits to the touch, his face emerging out of dark shadows to provide a non-verbal sensory experience to himself and his explorer.

I choose this selection to quote because, in my humble opinion, it characterizes and conveys the artist’s profound strength as an explorer. Not only is Chehalis able to capture a subject in frank honesty, she has a remarkable and perhaps connatural ability to create a safe haven in which the subject can, as Art New England so astutely points out, completely submit. Submission, insight and honest humanity - be it beautiful or grotesque - is, from my vantage, a centerpiece of her work - and I speak here as a subject as well as consumer of her work.