Chexy's Saturday Matinee

How about a little gorgeousness to ease you into your Saturday? Here's the work of Claude Monet.



The Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra with Erik Satie's Gymnopedies #1.



From 1962's "Gypsy," You Gotta Have a Gimmick, music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Natalie Wood as Gypsy, Faith Dane as Mazeppa, Roxanne Arlen as Electra, Betty Bruce as Tessie Tura. Costumes by Orry-Kelly. (for Gail W.)



Billie Holiday toward the end, with "Strange Fruit," which began as a poem written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish high-school teacher from the Bronx, about the lynching of two black men.

Goodbye, Dustin Shuler

Los Angeles artist Dustin Shuler has died at age 61 of pancreatic cancer.

Shuler was commissioned in 1989 to create a sculpture for this Berwyn, Illinois shopping plaza. He built this 50-foot "Spindle," known by locals as the "Car Kabob."

After efforts to save the work failed, it was taken down 20 years later so they could build a Walgreens on the spot.

Slicing

There's no pussyfooting around this... those are vagina cupcakes. I will not call them cuntcakes because that would be vulgar, and you know how I loathe vulgarity. Wouldn't you like to snatch up one of these and give it a lick? Well, not you, but someone. Vulvalicious!

ty Gunny

Please Don't Write on Christ

Taggers managed to climb the scaffolding on the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio, and left their mark on the face of Jesus.

Landslides following heavy rains closed the road to the statue, which has been undergoing restoration.

It took nine years to build the 130-ft. sculpture, designed by local engineer Heitor da Silva Costa and sculpted by Paul Landowski. It opened in 1931. The statue was struck by lightning in 2008, damaging the fingers, head, and eyebrows.

Genilson Araujo/Globo via Getty Images

How Can I Best Couch This?

Hyper-peroxided fashion vixen Donatella Versace, as she appeared standing before a tragic sofa Wednesday at Milan's International Furniture Fair.

How many things in this photo make you queasy?

Jacopo Raule/Getty Images

Happy Birthday, Winslow Homer

American artist Winslow Homer was born on this day in 1836. Here's his "Dressing for the Carnival" painted in 1877. (click for a larger view)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Happy Birthday, Norman Rockwell

Beloved American painter and illustrator Norman Rockwell was born on this day in 1894. This illustration, called "The Gossip," is one of my favorites. Among his over 300 Saturday Evening Post covers, was this creation of Rosie the Riveter.


Rockwell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor of the USA, for his "affectionate portraits of our country."

for Daniele

Won't Melt in His Hands

Stigmata can be so inconvenient.

This artwork by the brilliant Rev. Josh is the first part of his Tasteless Jokes series.

Visit Josh's blog at LifeWithoutTaffy.

Thanks, Josh!