Word: kitsched
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There is a place in cinema for commercialism. Big budget movies like "Batman Returns," ridiculous farces like "The Mask," and pure kitsch like "The Brady Bunch" make no pretense of being fine art. They're pure fun, and they know it. But sometimes Hollywood latches on to a story and a cast of quality and breaks their legs with a sledgehammer, one by one, in the name of "accessibility." The simplest verdict is that the screenwriter killed the film...
Keeping the Faith...With Kitsch...
...Images and Identities" also includes some Longfellow-related pieces, including portraits of the poet by other artists, and some eerily fascinating Hiawatha kitsch. One of the stranger pieces is a ceramic plate depicting Hiawatha carrying off his new bride, Minnehaha, who, in a bit of artistic license-taking, has been made into a Nordic goddess. However, unless you have a real interest in the poet, most of the exhibits aren't very compelling. Some of the broader historical points the show makes are relevant but not very interesting...
...someone who always thought of pipe cleaners as plumbing utensils, I clearly don't spend much time at tobacco shops. I was lured into Leavitt and Pierce, a tobacco shop on Mass Ave., by its amazing marbles and tin cars. Upon close inspection the store offers more than kitsch and tobacco. Up a small catwalk and past a culturally-sensitive Native American cigar seller statue are five wooden tables with inlaid chess boards...
...still, there are quibbles. Why a whole ground floor without any place to hang a picture or put a sculpture? Of course, museums think they have to sell tons of souvenirs, T shirts, replicas and cultural-tourist boutique stuff; it's like the religious-kitsch racket in Lourdes or Jerusalem. The entrance foyer duly gives onto the shop and a meeting room and a children's art studio and a conference theater; the architect calls the foyer an internal piazza, but its main use is probably for giving parties-just as, in New York City, the giant glass hangar containing...