Capsules of Taste: Robert Mapplethorpe Collection at Auction

that there will be, but it is not yet available. You can cotanct them at communications at juilliard dot edu. I read a comment on some random blog ealier today that I wanted to rebut before it even gets mentioned here. A liberal blogger was responding to the ' coverage of the speech, saying how terrible it was that Scalia was saying that government had a first amendment right to censor art (those weren't his exact words; he wasn't so polite). This seemed to me to be not only absurd on its face, but a complete misrepresentation of what Nino actually said. As I understood it, what Scalia was saying that if the government is going to give money to artists, it has no more or less discretion as to which art or artists that it chooses to fund than a private organization or fund which chooses to do the same. And I think he also made the point that government really shouldn't regulate art, and because having government funding permits (and, in fact, requires) it to do exactly that, means that government should get out of that business. I realize no one's brought this up here yet, but I'm being pre-emptive.Of course, it's hard to tell exactly what Scalia was saying in the absence of a full transcript, and given that the NY Times is not exactly going to be a reliable and even-handed coverage of the Justice its editorial page has just spent two months wringing its hands in the hopes that John Roberts will not resemble. "Is the deck loaded? You bet."One last thing, just because a lot of folks have raised it in the comments (including our gracious host, for that matter). It's true that Our Hero is a balding, slightly overweight, Italian-American heading into his 70s; not exactly Adonis, I'll grant you. But then, neither is Michael Moore, neither is Bill Clinton, and I can't think of any of the Democrats current cheerleaders who is. If your pin-up is Howard Dean, either you have a thing for middle-American hockey dads, or you need to ajust your prescription. ;) Granted, I'm in a minority of one insofar as I think that Hillary Clinton has actually become very attractive in middle age, but I doubt that it's her looks that make Democrats willing to forgive her for anything.

Larry and I were just talking about this sale last week! I was inspired by his collection...

Sometimes when I see more Venini glass I just want to break it. There is just so much of it. Then I see some new variation, such as these red and black bottles and the attraction continues.