Works of Art

When he finishes his day's work at the easel, Lenard Kester, like many other artists, smears the surplus paint on unworked
canvases. Otherwise, it would harden overnight and be wasted. It is not
only relaxing to make these bold, free brushstrokes after the tension
of serious work, but, as artists know, the undercoat thus created is
easier to work on than raw canvas.

The paint has dried on several dozen such canvases with eerie effects, and Kester's friends keep urging him to exhibit these underpaintings
as abstractions, perhaps under another name in another city, with such
titles as "Soul in Torment," "Fog Over Bayou" Or "Eye of the Hurricane."

Kester adamantly refuses. He has a reason.

TWELVE YEARS AGO, prodded by fun-loving Jim Moran and Ben Hecht, Kester, a representationist in style, perpetrated one such meaningless daub and Georg Antheil,
who died recently, submitted it to an L.A. Art Assn. exhibit. Although
the painting, titled "Three in One," was a complete nothing, it was
accepted, shown, critically pondered and purchased by Mad ManMuntz — before being exposed as a hoax.

As a result, Kester was in the doghouse with serious artists, of which he is one, for a long time.

Incidentally, Kester is reluctantly giving up his beloved studio at 1117 N. Genessee,
formerly County Engine Co. No. 8, where he has worked and lived for
eight years, because of the penetrating mechanical hum from a nearby
manufacturing plant. The noise bores through his moods. He and the
neighbors have complained officially, but nothing can be done.

A HIGH SCHOOL
teacher, trying to introduce a little geography into the consciousness
of her students, pointed out and named several present and former
British and Dutch possessions in the East Indies, then said, "And there
are many, many others."

Afterward, she came upon a boy scrutinizing the map and asked what he was looking for.

"I'm hunting for Many Many Others," he said.

BEGINNING TO PALL, PAL

A WRITER WITH a
mad, irreverent approach to life went to his doctor recently and
learned he had a white count of 17,500. The doc gave him some pills and
on his next visit his count was down to 15,400.

"If it goes any lower, doc," he said feverishly, "sell!"

ONLY IN HOLLYWOOD —
Well there was this innocent bloke waiting while a lady in a market
parking lot got into her car, adjusted her face, fished for her keys,
got the wrong one, got the right one, inserted it in the ignition slot,
started the car and finally backed out.

As she did, another lady driver darted into the space. The bloke said that wasn't nice. She glared icily at him.

It
happens all the time. What does a bloke do? This one followed her
around the market and when her back was turned slipped small items into
her shopping cart — anchovies, baby food, shoe polish, yeast, patede fois gras, buffalo meat.

The last he saw of her she was virtually apoplectic at the check stand. Made him very happy.

MISCELLANY — Nice line by Tom Ferril
in the Rocky Mountain Herald: "They had that buoyant furtiveness of
old-time bootleggers" … Hal Morris sleepily pressed the push button
of what he thought was shaving cream on his face the other a.m. It was
toothpaste –the containers are similar — and now his whiskers have an
"invisible shield" … Bartender Jose Sanchez thinks he reached bottom
in boring ear-bending. A customer moaned at length at a radio
announcer's lack of enthusiasm in giving the weather reports.

TV Cliches Shocking

About
a year ago a registered nurse inquired here what the frontier doctors
on TV wanted with all the hot water they were forever demanding when
about to deliver a baby. Her inquiry raised quite a storm. The gist of
most of it was that the doctors' peremptory command, "Boil all the
water you can!" was merely a diversion to get the men folks out of the
room.

She refused to accept this corny explanation and resolved never to bring up any more TV medical cliches.

SHE HAS BROKEN her
resolve. She finds herself curdling every time she hears a TV doctor
say, "She (or he) is in shock." Usually the patient has had an
unpleasant experience.

But witnessing something shocking,
screams I.R.N. (Irate Registered Nurse) is not being in shock. Shock is
brought on by severe pain, loss of blood or other body fluids. It is a
dangerous state and death will result if immediate anti-shock treatment
is not started.

And if the teleplay boys don't cut it out I.R.N. will go into shock.

WHILE IN Birmingham recently to appear at a benefit for retarded children, Pat Buttram of CBS visited his father, Rev. W.M. Buttram, 85, of Anniston, Ala. When he showed his dad pictures of his new Northridge home with swimming pool, the old gentleman commented, "Well!" Pat's got a washin' hole in his back yard."

CONVERSATIONS

–MARTIN HATFIELD

STU GALBRAITH has built up quite a guilt complex over what happened last Sunday in San Fernando Valley and wishes expiation here.

He was driving on Canoga
Park Avenue toward the hills when he caught up with half a dozen
slow-moving cars and trailers. As he passed, he gaily sounded his horn
— "shave and a haircut — two bits." After all, it was a nice day and
he was on his way to a party.

To his surprise, they fell in behind him and when he turned off onto a narrow road snaking off into the hills the trailercade followed him — around hairpin turns and barely squeezing by parked cars.

Stu
didn't know what to do and as he rounded a turn and came to his
destination he gunned up the driveway and sat still as the trailer
group streamed by.

He slunk into the house and after a while
peeked out the window. The trailers were apparently wandering aimlessly
up another hill. He hopes they got where they were going.

LOOK FOR controversy over Dr. Franklin Loehr's
book, "The Power of Prayer on Plants," to be published this month. It
presents evidence that prayer can be scientifically proved. Two trays
of seeds were planted under precise laboratory conditions. One was
ignored, the other received the attention of Dr. Loehr's prayer group. Analysis of 900 experiments showed that plants which had the benefit of prayer were superior. 

FOOTNOTES — Not
all the streets and sidewalk hieroglyphics are put there to indicate
projected sewer, storm drain, utility or street work. Some are for the
guidance of bill peddlers and house-to-house distributors of samples —
so they won't cover the same ground twice … A four-page press release
headed "The Recession in the Congo" states there is uneasiness about
the economy there. To put it another way, the natives are restless …
Shame on somebody, attributing to Frank E. Marlowe the gag about people
who jaywalk repeatedly having their shoes taken away. It's in Mort Sahl's record, "Look Forward in Anger" … Mac Tuesley, taking a quick course in photography from Otto Rothchild, says he keeps forgetting to pull the slide. "I can't teach you anything about that," Otto said sadly.