Colorado Peace Ride

Steelers president Art Rooney conducted numerous interviews with various media groups last week, many of which you might have read. This is one where you can actually hear what Rooney had to say and some of it is interesting and informative.

Bob Labriola, the editor of Steelers Digest, interviewed Rooney on Steelers.com and it provides a new twist to the firing/retirement/dismissal of offensive coordinator Bruce Arians.

It was first announced, amid some suspicion, that Arians retired. In a story in the York Daily Record, Arians suggested he had no choice but to retire when a new contract was not offered.

Rooneys explanation in this interview sheds new light on Arians departure, but hardly clears the air. This is part of what Rooney had to say:

“Bruce talked about retiring for a number of years now. We are looking to improve on offense and to have somebody in place for a number of years. I think it was time for a change. We are looking forward to moving on.”

This makes it clear that the decision was Rooneys. Whether it had to do with dissatisfaction with Arians or the fact Arians could not give the team a long-term commitment is hard to tell. It could be a combination of both.

Part one of the Rooney interview with Bob Labriola.

Part two of the Rooney interview with Labriola.

Tags: Art

Eiko Ishioka, holding her Oscar for best costume design for Bram Stokers Dracula, joins Catherine Deneuve backstage at the 65th annual Academy Awards in 1993.
(Douglas C. Pizac / Associated Press / March 30, 1993)

Tags: Art

CHICAGO, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) — The Kansas City Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art celebrated Chinese New Year on Friday with the grand opening of two renovated Chinese art galleries.

The new galleries showcase the museums prized collection of jade disks, ancient vessels, bronzes, sculptures, and traditional Chinese paintings.

Museum guests had the opportunity Friday night to be the first to view the special Ancestors, Ritual, and the Tomb: the Ancient Chinese Art Galleries exhibit, which includes artifacts as old as 4,000 years and dating from the Xia to the Zhou dynasties.

Displays include a recreated Han Dynasty tomb featuring a door emblazoned with dragons and interior lined with ceramic tiles, while the launch featured special performances, such as a dance by the Shaolin Lohan Pai Lion Dance Troupe.

The lively gallery opening also featured activities from traditional Chinese music performances, and competitions in Chinese chess and the board game, wei qi.

Children particularly delighted in a 1950s Hong Kong rickshaw that served as a backdrop while parents took photos of them dressed in traditional Chinese robes and costumes.

With about 8,000 different works of Chinese art, the Nelson-Atkins Museum has one of the most extensive and richest Chinese art collections in the world.

Nelson-Atkins Senior Curator of Chinese Art Colin Mackenzie told Xinhua that, since he took up the post in July 2009, he has seen increasing interest in the Chinese galleries.

The residents of Kansas City have always understood that we have a great collection, but definitely more recently its amazing how many Chinese have come to see the collection, Mackenzie said in an interview, adding that both visitors from China and local Chinese bringing their families had frequented the gallery.

The majority of the Nelson-Atkins Chinese purchases were made in the early 1930s, around the time of the Warlord Era in Chinese history. Mackenzie said, in those times of economic duress and relative chaos, many in China were forced to sell artwork for money, and that some pieces were destroyed entirely.

For this reason, Mackenzie said he was especially happy to share the Nelson-Atkins Chinese collection with people of Chinese descent. They could see a rich part of their cultural past that has been professionally preserved at the museum for almost 80 years.

We really believe that this collection is first and foremost for the Chinese community that we have here in Kansas City, Mackenzie told Xinhua.

When a Chinese delegation comes here, people kindly bring them to show those pieces to them, and we make a special effort to be hospitable to them and say that we really honor and respect these objects and want to preserve them for eternity, Mackenzie said.

Among the Nelson-Atkins most prized Chinese artworks are landscape paintings by Li Cheng and Xu Daoning, an intricately carved jade disc from the Jincun site, a wall sculpture from the Longmen grottos and the Guanyin of the Southern Seas bodhisattva sculpture, possibly the most famous and well-preserved Chinese Buddhist sculpture outside China.

The Guanyin sculpture is housed inside the Nelson-Atkins Chinese Temple Gallery, a structure which features the actual ceiling from the Zhihua Temple in Beijing and a 23-foot high by 48-foot wide mural painting, Paradise of Tejraprabha Buddha, from the Yuan Dynasty.

Although the Chinese Temple Gallery was not one of the galleries launched Friday, both it and another permanent Chinese art gallery had also recently been renovated, as the Nelson-Atkins continues to promote the collection and encourage peoples interest in China.

Mackenzie says the collection is a valuable asset not only for Chinese nationals but also for Americans, as the deepening relationship between the United States and China inspires more cultural learning opportunities.

We feel that (the collection is) very much a useful thing for China to have overseas, and that it really promotes understanding of Chinese culture, he said.

We see the Chinese collections here, their role, as presenting Chinese civilization not just as a relic of the past, but as something that explains the modern world, he said.

Tags: Art

AUSTIN (KXAN) – While Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said there is a predator who is no longer among the community, he was reluctant to say early Friday morning that Esme Barreras murder case is solved.

“We have enough information, enough evidence, to make our suspect a prime suspect, but we haven’t taken it all the way home, said Acevedo on KXAN News Today. I’m pretty confident that we’ve got the person with the strong likelihood that will end up being the suspect.

The big break in the case — announced Thursday night — came when police confirmed there was a prime suspect in the New Years Day killing. That man, 25-year-old James Loren Brown, died from an apparent suicide on Jan. 12.

But whether or not he’s alive to face trial, we want to make sure we can positively, undoubtedly, beyond a reasonable doubt demonstrate to the Barrera family and her neighbors that this is the guy that killed her,” said Acevedo.

And while Barreras murder and several assaults have terrified the North Campus neighborhood for weeks, police have not said whether those incidents are connected. They are also tight-lipped about the evidence found at Barreras home following the murder.

“I don’t want to talk specifically about what the evidence is there. I can just tell you that based on the location of the crimes, based on the descriptions, based on a lot of the totality of the evidence in this case and the facts in this case, he is the prime suspect, said Acevedo, referring to the Barrera case.

Police are still processing a lot of other evidence, including DNA and Browns electronics — in addition to investigating the restaurant he worked at in an effort to recreate his activities to get a full picture of what he was up to.

We’re hopeful that when it’s all said and done, that through science and other methods, we’ll be able to close this case, said Acevedo.

Acevedo attributed the time gap between the suicide and naming the suspect to the extensive DNA testing process.

It takes a while to do, but that was a priority, said Acevedo. Im very proud of our scientists at the crime lab.

The DNA evidence gathered at Browns home following his suicide got back to police on Jan. 20, eight days after police found his body.

On Wednesday, DNA scientists positively linked Brown to an attack in the 300 block of East 31st Street — which happened several hours after Barreras murder only blocks away. The DNA found at that attack matched several assaults that happened in South Austin last summer, to which Brown has also been linked.

And though Browns DNA has not been linked to Barreras murder, the other DNA matches have placed the community more at ease.

“I slept a lot better last night knowing that this suspect is no longer amongst us,” said Acevedo. “If for nothing else, we know that we have a man that’s been tied, definitively, without a doubt, on DNA evidence to four assaults with women. And so we know that he’s a predator, and he’s no longer amongst us. And we’re happy for the women of Austin.”

As for the Barrera murder, police will continue their diligence in the investigation.

We don’t want to just assume it’s him, said Acevedo. We want to look at everything because when you start making assumptions, you make mistakes. We want our investigators to continue to look at every angle until we get that final piece of evidence that can prove to us and to Esme’s family and friends that we’ve got the right guy.”

And that would bring an end to what has been an excruciating hunt for answers for the Barrera family.

“Being a parent, I’m sure they’re thankful that they may be getting closure soon,” said Acevedo.

Searches for Browns criminal record so far have turned up nothing.

But you know, the human condition is a very fragile condition. And you never know when people can snap,” said Acevedo, adding that Brown was a very troubled man.

“Bottom line is that we know what he was up to, and he lived very close to Esme [Barrera]. We think we have a good suspect.

Detectives on Jan. 12 responded to the 3000 block of Guadalupe Street after Browns roommate returned home from a holiday break and found him dead.

A preliminary investigation found no apparent reason for the suicide, but detectives did note the home was a short distance from the 3100 block of King Street. Thats where Barrera was murdered and also where the other assault happened in the same block.

A picture of Brown at his home resembled the composite sketch circulated following Barreras death, and authorities also concluded Brown had a similar physical build.

Our homicide detective and our crime scene person, they started looking around, looking at him, looking at the description, his physical description, his physical appearance, his location, proximity to Esme, said Acevedo. They started thinking, ‘Hey, this man might be a suspect.’

Detectives returned to Brown’s home the next day and confiscated several items, and a positive DNA match came 12 days later.

As for the

Tags: Art

Jim Swains latest show will likely be sold out by the end of its run. The Martin Batchelor Gallery is lined with 55 vigorously expressive paintings, identical in size and painted on flattened-out fruit boxes.

This corrugated cardboard comes die-cut with symmetrical holes and scalloped edges, over which Swain paints figures that look a bit like the late works of Picasso. Each is priced at $50.

Of course, it is better to sell all of the paintings at a low price than none at a high price. And there is more to his strategy than sales.

The show is an installation, he told me. It works as one piece of art. At the opening, the room was packed with people of all ages.

Everybody was discussing visual esthetics, he insisted, and they felt free to because of the low prices. Couples who couldnt afford a babysitter were actively discussing which painting they wanted to buy – and why.

Usually, at a gallery, people are creeping around like they were at a frigging funeral, whispering and drinking bad red wine. The prices are so over the top and the elitism is so stifling that everybody cant wait to leave.

Thats why I served beer instead of wine – and not in glasses! Have a bottle and look at this stuff, he continued.

If anybody talks in hushed tones like theyre at a bloody golf match, Im gonna get pissed off.

Swain considered other art openings he has attended.

Im not annoyed at the art – its the culture that has grown around it that annoys me.

He fumed about the trays of canapÃs, waiters wearing tuxedoes, somebody sitting at a grand piano playing mind-bogglingly boring elevator music. You couldnt get near the art for all the offensiveness they have built around it to justify the $5,000 price tag.

Swain feels that painting on cardboard boxes eliminates the idea that one of his paintings should be purchased as an investment.

It might last 50 or 100 years before it absolutely falls apart, he laughs. These are paintings to be enjoyed now, not purchased for the benefit of your grandchildren or the art historians.

Its art imitating death, he adds. These paintings are going to die. But then, every friend youve ever had is going to die. Thats the dilemma of human existence.

And that dilemma is Swains theme in this show. He quotes Leonard Cohen: Its about the inevitable catastrophic defeat we all face. Whenever you discuss the inevitable catastrophic defeat, do it with elegance and beauty.

I asked him how he aims to achieve this, and he reminded me of Picassos dictum: The painter and the viewer do not communicate.

The painter presents the painting and thats it, he stated. He is not responsible for what the viewer brings to it or how the viewer looks at it.

So, for his part, how does Swain the artist approach the project of painting?

I sketch it out, and then I begin the painting process. And, in the process, the painting speaks back to me: back and forth, back and forth, till finally it stops talking.

As he creates his images he avoids the conventional tools, those hackneyed tropes of the language of representation. His characters have club feet and shocked profiles.

Tags: Art

His easy command over words and many philosophies are well known and can be overwhelming. And the fact that he can be with Oprah or Obama one minute, Lady Gaga and Madonna the next, is intimidating too. But sitting with Trishla Jain on a sunny January morning sipping garam chai in Lutyens Delhi after seeing the preview of her Mumbai solo show Tangerine Trees Marmalade Skies, Dr Deepak Chopra was anything but OTT, his snazzy spectacle frames notwithstanding.

Indeed, the articulate doctor and effervescent artist were absolutely on the same plane, discussing art and Advaitya, colour and consciousness, with unalloyed candour. Contemporary mandala, he murmured, looking at her distillation of the Vedantic I am in the midst of the words, I am the highest truth; I am the greatest peace; I am the grandest love. She understood perfectly, straddling as she does two cultures: a spirtually enlightened home in Delhi and an intellectually ignited legacy from Stanford.

Tags: Art