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6 Greatest Art Fakers in History Posted: 25 Mar 2009 12:49 AM PDT The following reprinted from Uncle John's Giant 10th Anniversary Bathroom Reader. It's interesting to study the paintings of the great masters ... but sometimes it's even more fun to study the work of the great fakers. Like these folks: Han van Meegeren Han van Meegeren painting his last forgery Jesus among the Doctors Background: At the end of World War II, Dutch authorities began investigating the sale of Dutch national treasures to Nazi officials. They learned that Han van Meegeren, a struggling Dutch artist, had sold a priceless 17th-century Vermeer called Christ and the Adulteress to Nazi leader Hermann Goering for $256,000. Once the painting was repossessed and authenticated as a work painted during Vermeer's "middle period," Van Meegeren was arrested and charged with collaborated with the Nazis - a crime punishable by death. The Truth: Van Meegeren defended himself by saying that there was no Vermeer "middle period," and that the had faked all six of the paintings attributed to those years of the artist's life. Van Meegeren also claimed to have painted two works by Pieter de Hooch, and one by ter Borch. The judge didn't believe him. But to be sure, he sent the artist back to the studio (under guard) and told him to "paint another Vermeer." Van Meegeren quickly created something called Jesus Among the Doctors. It was, by all appearances, painted in the style of Vermeer. What Happened: The judge dropped the treason charges. But as each of the paintings Van Meegeren took credit for were tested and proved to be fakes, he was arrested again - this time for forgery and fraud. He was convicted and sentenced to a year in prison; he died from a heart attack one month after the trial. David Stein Background: In the mid-60s, a 3i-year-old art collector named David Stein walked into the shop of one of New York's top art dealers with three watercolor paintings by Russian painter Marc Chagall. The dealer bought all three for $10,000. The Truth: Stein had painted all three "Chagalls" that morning before lunch. He made the new canvases look old by soaking them in Lipton's tea, and forged letters of authentication at the frame shop while waiting for the paintings to be framed. What Happened: As Stein put it, "I should have stuck to dead men." By pure coincidence, Marc Chagall happened to be in New York that very same day ... and the art dealer who bought the paintings had an appointment to meet with him. The dealer brought the paintings to the meeting, and Chagall immediately denounced them as fakes. Stein was arrested and spent nearly four years in American and French prisons. But the bust was such a boost to his reputation that when he got out of prison, he was able to make a living from his own original paintings. (Photo: Greatest art forgers and fakers in the world - lots more info about art forgery there!) Pavel Jerdanowitch Exaltation by Pavel Jerdanowitch Background: In the spring of 1925, the Russian-born Jerdanowitch submitted a painting called Exaltation to a New York art exhibit. The red and green colors were unusual for the period, and the face of the woman in the painting was distorted, but art critics admired the work, and Jerdanowitch was invited to exhibit at a New York show in 1926. He did - this time displaying a painting called Aspiration and explaining that he was the founder of the "Disumbrationist" school of painting. The following year, he showed two more paintings, Adoration and Illumination. Jerdanowitch's groundbreaking work caused a storm, and he was hailed as a visionary. The Truth: "Pavel Jerdanowitch" was actually Paul Jordan-Smith, a Latin scholar who hated abstract and modernist trend in art. When an art critic criticized his wife's realistic painting as "definitely of the old school" in 1925, he set out to prove that critics would praise any painting they couldn't understand. "I asked my wife for paint and canvas," he recounted after admitting the hoax. "I'd never tried to paint anything in my life." The Disumbrationist School was born. What Happened: Smith admitted the ruse to the Los Angeles Times in 1927, but the confession only fueled interest in his work. A Chicago gallery owner displayed the paintings in 1928, and later called the show "the most widely noticed exhibition I have ever heard of." More on Pavel Jerdanowitch at the Museum of Hoaxes. D. S. Windle Background: In 1936 Windle entered a painting called Abstract Painting of Woman in the International Surrealist Exhibition taking place in London. The work was one of the most talked-about and admired paintings of the show. The Truth: D. S. Windle ("De Swindle") was actually B. Howitt-Lodge, a portrait painter who hated surrealist art. He created his painting out of "a phantasmagoria of paint blobs, variegated beads, a cigarette stub, Christmas tinsel, pieces of hair, and a sponge." Howitt-Lodge chose the materials, he later admitted, because he wanted to create "the worst possible mess" and enter it in "one of the most warped and disgusting shows I've ever seen." What Happened: Modernists were unmoved by his confession - they accepted Howitt-Lodge's work as a genuine surrealist art, even if he didn't. "He may think it's a hoax," one fan told reporters, "but he's an artist and unconsciously he may be a surrealist. Aren't we all?" Alceo Dossena Background: In 1922 the Boston Museum of Fine Arts paid $100,000 for the marble tomb of a wealthy Italian woman named Maria Caterina Savelli, who died in 1430. The tomb was supposedly carved by a famous Florentine sculptor named Mino de Fia-Savelli, and was so impressive that the museum set the exhibit up right at the building's entrance. The Truth: As Kathryn Lindskoog writes in Fakes, Frauds & Other Malarkey, "No one seemed to notice that the Mino Tomb was dated one year after its sculptor was born, and that the brief Latin inscription on the tomb, which was naively copied from a book about the Savelli family, said, "At last the above-mentioned Maria Caterina Savelli died." What Happened: No one realized it was a fake until 1928, when an obscure Italian sculptor named Alceo Dossena sued art dealer Alfredo Fasoli for $66,000, claiming that without his knowledge, Fasoli had been selling copies of his Renaissance art as the genuine article. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts refused to accept that the Mino Tomb was a fake ... until Dossena produced photographs of the work in progress, as well as a toe that had broken off a figure carved in the tomb. Museums all over the world scoured their collections looking for Dossena's fakes - hundreds were found. The Cleveland Museum of Art was particularly hard hit - after finding modern nails deep inside a "13th-century" Madonna and child, it replaced the piece with a marble statue of Athena that cost $120,000. That statue also turned out to be a Dossena fake. For what it's worth, not everyone suffered from the scandal: Alceo Dossena flourished. People became so interested in his work that he was able to launch a career as a legitimate artist. (Photo: A History of Art Forgery) Tom Keating Background: In 1976 thirteen paintings by Samuel Palmer, a famous English artist, inexplicably came on the market at the same time. The Truth: When the London Times challenged their authenticity, an English painter named Tom Keating wrote in to confess that he had forged the paintings - as well as 2,500 other paintings during his illicit 20-year career, including works attributed to Rembrandt, Degas, Goya, Toulouse-Lautrec, Monet, Van Gogh, and others. Keating claimed he left a clue in every painting that proved it wasn't authentic - sometimes he used modern materials; other times he painted "this is a fake" on the canvas using lead-based paint, which would show up on X-rays. But he was never caught. What Happened: Keating was in such poor health when he confessed that he was never put on trial. He became a cult hero in England for fooling art experts for so long, and his own paintings soared in value. One which he called Monet and his Family in their Houseboat, sold at an auction for $32,000. By the time of his death in 1983, his work was so popular that other forgers were cashing in by copying his work. (Photo: Rod Ebdon via Fine Art of the Fake Makers) The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Giant 10th Anniversary Bathroom Reader, which comes packed with 504 pages of great stories. Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!

Cat Loves Fennee Fox Posted: 25 Mar 2009 12:49 AM PDT If you haven’t gotten your daily cute animal fix yet, here it is. This little kitty just can’t get enough of her little fox friend’s ears. Link Via Cute Overload

Octomom Sculpture Posted: 25 Mar 2009 12:03 AM PDT Daniel Edwards {wiki}, the sculptor who brought you Pregnant Britney Spears and Dead Paris Hilton, has a new work out featuring “Octomom” Nadya Suleman. The statue is made of pink rubber and is entitled String of Babies. You can have one of your own for just $199. Link -via YesButNoButYes Also see previous posts on Suleman, who delivered octuplets in January.

Double A-bomb Survivor Posted: 24 Mar 2009 11:42 PM PDT Do you ever think bad luck follows you around? Tsutomu Yamaguchi was on a business trip to Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945 when the US dropped the first atomic bomb on the city. He suffered serious burns and stayed overnight before going home -to Nagasaki. Now 93 years old, Yamaguchi has been certified as the only person to survive both atomic bombs. "As far as we know, he is the first one to be officially recognized as a survivor of atomic bombings in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki," Nagasaki city official Toshiro Miyamoto said. "It’s such an unfortunate case, but it is possible that there are more people like him." Certification qualifies survivors for government compensation — including monthly allowances, free medical checkups and funeral costs — but Mr. Yamaguchi’s compensation will not increase, Mr. Miyamoto said. Link -via Metafilter

‘Spider-Man’ Rescues Autistic Thai boy Posted: 24 Mar 2009 11:39 PM PDT A fireman in Bangkok, Thailand used an interesting approach to reaching out to an autistic boy. Fearful of his first day at school, the boy climbed out on a third-story ledge and refused to come inside. Despite teachers’ efforts to beckon the boy inside, he refused to budge until his mother mentioned her son’s love of superheroes, prompting fireman Sonchai Yoosabai to take a novel approach to the problem. The rescuer dashed back to his fire station and made a quick change into a Spider-Man costume before returning to the boy, he said. “I told him Spider-Man is here to rescue you, no monsters are going to attack you and I told him to walk slowly towards me as running could be dangerous,” Somchai told local television. The young boy immediately stood up and walked into his rescuer’s arms, police said. Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.

Making The Rubens’ Tube Posted: 24 Mar 2009 11:37 PM PDT If you have some music that you want to see instead of hear, and if you have some bbq gas and plumbing supplies too. Well why not build a Rubens’ Tube? If you’re lucky you’ll be treated to an amazing representation of the music in flames. If you’re unlucky something will explode The basic idea is that you have a length of pipe with hole drilled along the top. The ends are sealed, at one end there is a speaker and at the other end there is a gas source. Once the pipe is flooded with gas you light the vapour flowing out of the hole, crank some tunes into the speaker and stand back. The speaker creates waves of sound pressure through the length of the tube, and these variations in pressure cause the flow of gas through each hole to vary… resulting in a visualisation of the sound wave painted in flames. Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by samworm.

Kelpmania: Stunning and Spectacular Kelp Photography Posted: 24 Mar 2009 11:36 PM PDT Kelp forests occur in cold, nutrient-rich water and are among the most beautiful and biologically productive habitats in the marine environment. The coast of California, in particular, is home to one of the most spectacular kelp forests. Within the confines of this massive forest there lies an abundance of fishes, invertebrates and algae, marine birds and marine mammals. Link (image credit: Timothy G. Laman) From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by lannaxe96.

The Beauty of Molten Iron Posted: 24 Mar 2009 06:30 PM PDT [YouTube - Link] In Nuanquan, China there is a unique tradition dating back about 500 years to celebrate the Lantern Festival. Instead of using fireworks like any old place - or that the fact that fireworks were invented in China back in the 12th century - these folks celebrate it by using something a bit more dangerous and beautiful with molten iron which is then flung at a wall creating a cascade of sparks. What do they use for protection? Sheep skins and a hat… **I highly recommend watching this clip by clicking on the High Quality button to really enjoy it! via - Gizmodo

Tough Times are Good for Vasectomies Posted: 24 Mar 2009 02:58 PM PDT When the going gets tough, the tough gets … snipped? It may be economic doom and gloom for you and me, but not for doctors performing vasectomies: they see a little boom in business! They looked at their statistics and realized the uptick started around November as the economic crisis deepened. October went down in the history books as one of Wall Street’s worst months. Since then, the Cleveland Clinic has seen a 50 percent increase in vasectomies, an outpatient surgery that is the cheapest form of permanent birth control. Vasectomies are less invasive and cheaper than tubal ligation, which involves blocking, tieing or cutting a woman’s fallopian tubes to prevent pregnancy. "It’s unlikely that some guy read the Dow Jones numbers that day and said, ‘Why don’t we have a vasectomy?’ " Jones said. "More likely, people have already been considering it and typically a guy and his wife have spoken a year or two about this." Jones was told by patients that they were getting vasectomies because they were losing their jobs and health insurance, or concerned about being out of work soon. "They realize they don’t have the financial security long-term with what’s going on," Jones said. "Several of them have mentioned, ‘We can’t afford to have any more children in this economy.’ My perception is that it’s more of the concept of raising children in an uncertain economic future." Madison Park of CNN has the rest of the story: Link - Thanks Tiff!

Maru Returns Posted: 24 Mar 2009 01:27 PM PDT [YouTube - Link] Remember Maru, the cat who lives in Japan and loves to dive headfirst into cardboard boxes, has become a YouTube international sensation and who has his own blog?  He’s back, this time with a bag stuck on his head. Don’t worry, he knows exactly where he’s going with this. - via arbroath From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.

Apple: All Your Pods Are Belong to Us Posted: 24 Mar 2009 12:24 PM PDT Remember the kerfuffle when Re/Max tried to block the trademark registration of rival real estate company Rehava? Well, they’re not the only company that knows how to play hardball. Consider Apple (yes, that Apple, fellow fanboys), whose lawyers are pursuing the "Pod" trademarks: What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but if its name ended in "pod," it might attract the ire of Apple’s shark-like legal team. Apple’s obsession with the blockbuster success of its iPod has driven the corporation to chase down many companies attempting to use the media player’s three-letter suffix in their product or business names. Names that have come under fire include MyPodder, TightPod, PodShow, and even Podium. On Monday, Sector Labs, a small business whose Video Pod trademark has been blocked by Apple, took legal action to fight back. "It appears that Apple is not only trying to put an iPod in everybody’s hands and white earbuds in everyone’s ears but to control the use of our language and most particularly the word ‘Pod,’" Sector Labs’ lawyers wrote in a 239-page response to Apple’s trademark opposition, which has blocked Video Pod’s development. "If we are not careful, in Apple’s quest for dominance, they will soon attempt to take over the words ‘Phone’ and ‘Tunes’ — let us hope they do not attempt a coup over the exclusive rights to the letter ‘i’." Link

Predator X: The Fiercest Dinosaur Yet Posted: 24 Mar 2009 12:23 PM PDT Image: Atlantic Productions If you think that Tyrannosaurus rex was the fiercest dinosaur ever, think again: a team of paleontologists from the Natural History Museum, University of Oslo and other universities found a 50-foot marine reptile dubbed "Predator X" that made T. rex looked like a puppy: The 147-million-year old monster was 15 metres long, had 30-centimetre-long teeth and had a bite pressure 10 times greater than any animal alive today, said Jørn Hurum, who led the team that uncovered the fossil. A new species of pliosaur, Predator X was probably an apex predator at the top of the food chain, similar to the modern-day great white shark, said Hurum, a palaeontologist at Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo, Norway. Link | University of Oslo Press Release Previously on Neatorama: Strangest Dinosaurus Names

China Calls for a New Global Currency Posted: 24 Mar 2009 12:22 PM PDT Is this the beginning of the end of the dominance of the US dollar as the world’s preferred currency? The global economic crisis and the erosion in the value of the dollar has led China of all countries to call for a new "international reserve currency": [People's Bank of China] Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan’s essay did not mention the dollar by name but said the crisis showed the dangers of relying on one nation’s currency for international payments. In an unusual step, the essay was published in both Chinese and English, making clear it was meant for an international audience. "The crisis called again for creative reform of the existing international monetary system towards an international reserve currency," Zhou wrote. A reserve currency is the unit in which a government holds its reserves. But Zhou said the proposed new currency also should be used for trade, investment, pricing commodities and corporate bookkeeping. Beijing has long been uneasy about relying on the dollar for the bulk of its trade and to store foreign reserves. Premier Wen Jiabao publicly appealed to Washington this month to avoid any steps in response to the crisis that might erode the value of the dollar and Beijing’s estimated $1 trillion holdings in treasuries and other U.S. government debt. Link (Photo: World Economic Forum [Flickr])

March MODOK Madness Posted: 24 Mar 2009 12:21 PM PDT Image: Ray Alma (who went as MODOK himself on Halloween!) I’m fascinated with blogs that focus so narrowly on a single topic as to become a universe of their own. Take, for instance, this one called MARCH MODOK MADNESS - which as you can tell from the title is dedicated to everything MODOK (technically, artists’ renderings of the supervillain. Oh, and for those of you who don’t know, the name stands for Mobile/Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing. And so far I haven’t seen Ms. MODOK in the lineup: Link

Ian Davie’s Feather Art Posted: 24 Mar 2009 12:20 PM PDT English artist Ian Davie has a unique canvas for his artwork: discarded swan quills. His feather drawings are absolutely fantastic: Using feathers collected during the regal birds’ annual moult from a swannery near to his home, Ian has spent the past four years perfecting his craft. After cleaning the often dirty quills and individually straightening them out with tweezers, Mr Davie, 44, who lives in a converted farmhouse in Snowdonia National Park, Wales, then begins the arduous process of painting onto the swans discarded feathers. He said: ‘I already have sketched what I want to achieve before the painting begins. ‘I only have a canvas that is around one foot long and around three inches wide so I have to know exactly the course my painting will take. Link | Ian Davie’s website (Photo: Ian Davie / Barcroft Media)

The Scientific Basis of Teenage Laziness Posted: 24 Mar 2009 12:19 PM PDT Why are teenagers so lousy at chores? Is it laziness … or biology? Monica Luciana of University of Minnesota and colleagues have the scientific answer: Blame it on "cognitive limitations." [Teenagers'] brains can’t multitask as well as those of the taskmasters. [...] The part of the brain responsible for multitasking continues to develop until late adolescence, with cells making connections even after some children are old enough to drive, according to a new study in the May/June issue of the journal Child Development. The frontal cortex, which starts just behind the eyes and goes back almost to the ears, figures out (or doesn’t) what to do when a person is asked to juggle multiple pieces of information. Imagine, then, how "make your bed and bring the laundry down" might befuddle a 13-year-old. Link

Not in Kansas Anymore Posted: 24 Mar 2009 05:57 AM PDT or North Carolina, either–odds and ends– observations at random on Taiwanese daily life Once again, Neatorama welcomes guest blogger Joel Haas, North Carolina sculptor and author, as he posts his adventures in Taiwan. Culture shock happens when you pick up the live wire of daily life in another country, particularly another continent.  It can be the big thing such as finding yourself a racial minority and oddity in the street, or small things such as wondering what all those fires in front of every business and home mean–it’s not the least bit cold.  Why do people stuff their sales receipts in special clear plastic boxes on the sidewalks–and, speaking of sidewalks, why is the sidewalk a different height and design in front of each business or home?  and speaking of home and business, what is it like to have the family living room open out into the street and double as a place of business where every body who wants to, say, have your dad fix their scooter, can bring it right up to the family couch and television?   Does everybody have their family shrine right over the TV and DVD player? Before we get into the genuinely amusing, strange stuff (from an American perspective) about Taiwan, let me get several things off my chest: Don’t they all look alike?  I mean, really how can you tell those people apart? This is the one comment that pushes my button.  Really.  Stand around on any street here for five minutes and you’ll see Taiwanese don’t look any more alike than Caucasians.  Even without the admixture of the American Armed Forces stirring the genetic pot for decades, the advent of modern hair coloring means the average school girl with blond hair here is no more likely to be a real blond than an American one.  There has been a disquieting fad for wearing enormous blue contacts in their eyes. a shot of this promotional poster is as well as I can do since I couldn’t take photos of the elevator operators in Shin Kong Department Store Don’t they eat dogs and other odd stuff like snakes? No.  They don’t eat dogs.  Most dogs I’ve seen here are as pampered as ones in America.  On the way to a concert today, I saw no less than three dogs in, so help me God, knitted sweaters.  In this heat, that may cook them, but not by design. What people eat is always  an interesting question.  Food often is a major definition of culture.  My culture in North Carolina is only a generation or two removed from widespread consumption of chitlin’s, possum, squirrel, and fat back.   Frog legs are considered a delicacy in French restaurants, so let’s not get carried away with what other people think is down home cookin’.  There is a place in Taipei called Snake Alley that sells snake meat.  It’s mostly a tourist attraction now.  The average Taiwanese eats no more snake than the average American eats rattlesnake or alligator meat. Don’t you get tired of eating rice? No.  Mainly because they don’t serve a lot of rice here.  Look back through all my food photos, in my travel letters and my extra photos on Flickr; don’t see any rice do you?  Rice is served like a roll might be served to you in the States.  I have been served rice three times in the more than two weeks I have been here.  Each time it was simply in a small bowl to the side, a bowl no bigger than a coffee cup at home.  The average Taiwanese’s reaction to a serving of Kung Pow chicken from an AMERICAN Chinese restaurant would be about the same as an American’s if served field peas, collards, carrots and fried pork chops glopped together on a bed of twelve slices of bread. WITH THOSE ITEMS OFF MY CHEST, LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT SOME STUFF THAT AIN’T LIKE IT IS AT HOME. 7-11s run this country.  It’s not a democracy nor a dictatorship.  It is “quick-stop-ocracy.” There are competing chains, Circle K, Family Store, Happy Store, etc. but they’re all the same as a 7-11 which remains the dominant brand.  You can do anything at a 7-11; pay your bills, taxes, traffic tickets; buy French wine, pickled duck eggs, Love Milk, and videos. Every receipt comes with a lottery ticket.  Now wouldn’t that just get all the Baptists’ panties in a twist back home in the South! It seems tax evasion was a problem for the government in a country where credit cards are not widely accepted and small business transacts most business.  The government hit upon the idea of a sales lottery rather than a sales tax.  Every sales receipt has a lottery number printed on its back.  Once a month, the government publishes several newspaper pages of winning numbers.  You can win anywhere between $5 and about $200 if you have a lucky sales receipt. The government’s theory was everybody would demand a sales receipt if they had a chance of winning a lottery.  You play anytime you make a purchase; no matter how small a purchase.  The result is, as the island has become more prosperous, most people don’t want to bother with combing through thousands of lucky numbers in a newspaper once a month to maybe win $5.  Charities stepped in.  Along many streets you see clear plastic canisters promoting various charitable causes soliciting your sales receipts.  Retired volunteers go over the numbers on receipts collected.  It gives non profits a source of funding and gives old people a steady way to contribute without hard physical labor.  The Yngge Ceramics Museum I visited last Saturday collected sales receipts instead of charging admission.  If you were without a sales receipt (unlikely in this country) you could run across the street to 7-11 and buy a piece of candy for pennies and come back with a sales receipt. Amazingly, you can never have too many convenience stores.  I have a photo of a place a few blocks from the Taipei Artists’ Village where I am staying of two 7-11 stores separated by only one block.  I have often seen several competing brand stores in one block together. Sales receipts donation box on Zhong Shan North Rd.  Just outside a bridal photography shop. Even Gucci and Louis Vuitton have money to burn on Zhong Shan North Road Walking up Zhong Shan Road, I saw Gucci and Louis Vuitton placate beings with money.  Nothing unusual about that you say, Vuitton and Gucci market to people with money. I do not mean that to sound like it is written.  They were givng away money. Everybody offers money to the gods and ancestors.  Once a month, at least. At the beginning of the lunar month, offerings are made to ghosts, gods, ancestors, and assorted spirits.  Taiwanese give more money to gods than the Baptists.  And they do it direct– with a system of delivery FedEx and Western Union would envy.  They burn it. In the West, when we say “give money to God” we don’t think God actually needs money; we believe God wants us to behave in a moral manner so we give money to what we believe is a good cause God would endorse.  In the East, religion and ethics are less intertwined.  (Confucius, a mortal who devised a system of ethics for which he is honored and revered, but is no more a “God” than we would worship at the Jefferson memorial because Jefferson devised our system of government.) Here, ethical guidance aside, gods need money to build their mansion of many rooms–demons evidently don’t work for free.  To gain favor, mortals burn “spirit money” which goes directly to a god or an ancestor.  In temples, offering are made as well–the price tags often left prominently attached. (You would think a god would know how much you’d paid or even that you’d gotten it on sale but left the original price tag on.) A table covered with flowers, burning sticks of incense, candy, or even elaborate meals are set out in front of a house or building while the spirit money is burned.  I have seen a few people pray at these tables, but the majority of people are just casually throwing stacks of spirit money into the fire while discussing the latest soap opera or who has got the better baseball team, no solemnity or reverence to the practice at all. Actually, you can send quite a bit postage free and guaranteed delivery to gods and spirits. There is a good business in making elaborate Mercedes, sailboats, houses, etc. that are burned at temples to be sent to ancestors or gods one is trying to bribe for favor.  (No word on whether you have to burn gas for the Mercedes as well.) My initial cultural ignorance was so vast that the first time I arrived in Taiwan in 2004 in the city of Kaohsiung, it was 87 degrees F but my wife and I supposed we should expect cold nights as everybody had these large oildrum looking cans outside their homes for burning stuff.  We assumed they would gather around them for warmth like street people in the States. It was the lunar month change. By the way, you don’t have to wait for a new month to send money to heaven.  If your ancestors run a little short before the next new moon, you can go to a temple and use one of the large, elaborate furnaces there. At most stores, you can buy stacks of spirit money to burn.  Buy gold leaf covered money to send to gods and silver leaf covered bills to send to ancestors.  Evidently, the gods and ancestors are easily fooled, since only the top most bills in any stack of spirit money you buy actually have the designs and leaves of metal on them. Below, some spirit money burners for sale.  Others are simply red painted cans with holes cut in them. A shop for all your spiritual needs near Long Shan Temple.  The bales of yellow colored spirit money are stacked to the left behind the scooter. You can buy small offerings, candies, etc. to use at home or next door in the temple.   Small money burning cans are visible at the bottom of the counter in the middle.  I love the “no smoking” sign in a shop selling and burning incense. Lovely Rita, the Meter Maid… As I mentioned earlier, you can pay your parking tickets at the 7-11.  Actually, you can pay them at all sorts of places; government offices, banks, etc.  A parking ticket is not only no big deal here, it’s expected. True story.  Back in April of 2005, a Taiwanese friend took me and another visiting American artist out to the National Palace Museum (the old one) and found a nice parking place just a block or two away.  We spent three hours in the museum before returning to his car with six or seven parking tickets stacked under the windshield wiper.  We were horrified and apologetic that we’d cost our friend so much money, ‘why, we’d have paid for a stay in a parking garage!’ we told him, he’d owe a fortune, we’d help pay, blah, blah, blah….  Relax, he said, it’s just parking tickets.  Exactly, we said and started our rounds of apologetic hysteria again…  Puzzled, he finally tried to quiet us by saying, well, okay, if you insist and it’ll make you happy, I’ll pay the parking tickets right now. He pulled over and went into a 7-11.  “It came to NT$ 60,” he said when he came back out.  (About US$ 2). Parking tickets are really just parking bills, he explained.  Rather than put up meters and run a punitive system as we do in the States, they just post signs saying how much parking costs per half hour or so along a particular stretch of road.  A meter maid comes by every half hour recording your license tag and leaves another computer bar coded ticket (or bill) on your window.  You have thirty days to pay or you do pay a penalty.  But you can take a stack of them into a 7-11 or a government office anytime, have the bills scanned and pay what you owe.  It takes pressure off meter maids, no maintenance for meters, and signs are cheaper to post and can vary the amounts charged by time and day.  The same system works for motor scooters. Meter maid working her route along Tian Jian Street.  Below, a meter guy for scooters on his bicycle in front of the Taipei Artists Village.  Note how well equipped he is with umbrella, satchel, water and so forth. No Tanning lines, please! Tanning beds never made it here.  Darker skin is considered unattractive.  Freckles are thought ugly.  Umbrellas are sold with UV ratings! It is hot most of the year, most people carry an umbrella against the sun, not rain.  You’ll even see some people wearing gloves while riding bicycles or scooters to keep their hands from tanning.   And since people are constantly losing umbrellas, they are a favorite items for street vendors to sell.  You can buy a large one for about $US 3. The Sidewalks of Taiwan If you’re a city planner or inspector for a modern American city, please just skip the next section.  it will only give you heartburn. In Taiwan, each person is responsible for the sidewalk outside their business or home.  You can do it to please yourself.  Anything goes. (Remember the two giant colorful feet painted outside the foot massage business I placed at the top of a previous newsletter?)  A sidewalk can be an area of artistic and/or personal expression for the owner; it can serve a useful purpose such as being designed to integrate with the business.  Since Taiwan receives twice the world wide average yearly rainfall, flooding is a problem; sidewalks are often built steeply sloping away from the front of the building.  It is not at all uncommon to step up or down one, two, or even three steps as one walks along since one owner may have built his section much higher than his neighbor. That’s not your only hazard. Motor scooters and bicycles are allowed on the sidewalks, too.  If you’re hit, it’s probably your fault for not paying attention.  As a practical matter, it probably helps if you’re running an outdoor/sidewalk eatery and there are too many steps for a scooter or bike to go up; it keeps scooters from zipping through and among your customers and tables.  Parking spaces are often clearly marked for scooters on the sidewalks (as you can barely make out in one of the photos above.) To an American sculptor, the use of green marble is amazing–such veneers are VERY expensive at home.   Taiwan is the second largest exporter of marble in the world after Italy.  Marble, especially around the east coast city of Hualian is cheap, so is widely used.  No store at home could afford such a marble sidewalk in front of their shop even it it were allowed.  Note the sloping sides. Taken on my trip to the small town of Yngge. From a marble sidewalk to marbles in the sidewalk.  A photo taken a block down the street from the one above. BELOW, closing up a sidewalk eatery after lunch in Taipei.  Note the steps to the upper right. There is a program in Taipei now to paint all the electrical system switch boxes for beautification.  Artists use oil paints to paint standard landscapes.  Nearly all have bright blue backgrounds. BELOW, a Taipei motorcycle dealer has embedded spark plugs in the sidewalk outside his store Typical view of sidewalk variation HAAS, WHAT WILL YOU WRITE ABOUT NEXT!!?? The truth is I am faaar behind in catching up everything I have notes and photos for.  I spent a day in the ceramics city of Yngge. You can, at least, see some of the photos from that trip on my Flickr album HERE. I want to write about the bridal industry–it’s not just the different customs which are to be expected–wedding photos here would shock Americans; I have not yet written up anything about the wonderful SoHu Paper Museum and the remarkable people behind it; I have not even gotten any good photos yet to go with the story about the dancers/drummers/monks/meditators/physical fitness buffs/acting company living in the mountains–U Theatre, whose performance I attended yesterday at Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Plaza (the plaza is an article in itself); I have not yet written up the visit to Long Shan Temple, even though I used some of the photos in the article about the National Palace Museum.   Not to mention the scantily clad girls in glass booths on the edge of town (they’re not what you think–they’re selling betel nuts to taxi drivers and working men); the lucky money cats and crystals in all the stores–no matter how sophisticated; the Taiwanese obsession with brassieres; and my own misadventures learning and speaking Chinese; my return trip to the 228 Memorial Peace Park; and the unique Grass Mountain Vistas program being developed at one of Chiang Kai Shek’s former mountain villas. At the risk of overwhelming myself even further, I always invite your comments and any suggestions as to what else I could write about. In closing, I leave you with the two unique restroom signs I encountered at the SoHu Paper Museum Friday.   They are made in cut paper. Joel Haas is a sculptor from Raleigh, North Carolina. You can see his works at his website or at Neighborhood Sculpture Walk, and read stories at his blog. More updates from Taiwan will be coming soon! Also see Joel’s previous posts: A Trip to Taipei's Shilin Night Market Red Bean Filled Hockey Pucks and Mind Control Yam Wielding Grannies, Plastic Bugs, and Cilantro Ice Cream

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