art

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

December 17, 2021 by Robert J. Avrech 9 Comments

“Although no one believes me, I have always been a country girl and still have a country girl’s values”
— Ava Gardner

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

July 30, 2021 by Robert J. Avrech 4 Comments

“Every time I start thinking the world is all bad, then I start seeing people out there having a good time on motorcycles. It makes me take another look.”
—Steve McQueen

Book Watch On My Night Table

July 28, 2021 by Robert J. Avrech Leave a Comment

The Bride Stripped Bare: The Artist and the Female Nude in the Twentieth Century by Janet Hobhouse

Dust jacket notes: “The Bride Stripped Bare is a study of thirteen twentieth-century artists, and of the erotic and affective sensibilities expressed in their work. Matisse’s odalisques and Picasso’s demoiselles, Bonnard’s bathers, Balthus’s Lolitas and de Kooning’s harpies all appear in this provocative and original book, as do the nudes of Maillol, Schiele, Modigliani, Pascin, Lachaise, Stanley Spencer, Lucian Freud, and Philip Pearlstein.

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

February 26, 2021 by Robert J. Avrech 8 Comments

“It is possible to follow your dreams with integrity, courtesy, equity, and humanity.”
—Donna Reed (born Donna Belle Mullenger; 1921 – 1986)

Portrait of the Artist as Jew With Gun

June 15, 2020 by Robert J. Avrech 4 Comments

During times of, ahem, civil unrest, I rely on the beauty of art and the sanity of self-defense for my well-being and safety. My mood-board includes a Ruger .32 H&R Magnum Bird’s Head grip pistol.

I am republishing my three-part series, Jew Without A Gun, about the riots of 1992 in which Karen and I and the children were trapped for several frightening hours. We were unarmed, helpless save for our wits. The police were conspicuously absent and the bad guys—frequently armed with heavy weapons—owned the streets.

It was a defining moment in my life.

I’m reposting this series as a cautionary tale because when criminals go on murderous rampages the left invariably blames the actions of evil men on hunks of steel, piously calling for ever more gun laws. The ultimate aim, of course, is to disarm law-abiding American citizens through mass gun confiscations.

If the Democrat party’s vision is fulfilled all of America will become defenseless, as were we, during the Rodney King riots.

Part One

Hollywood is Burning

Hollywood is on fire.

Karen and I lock every door in the house, shut tight the windows. We move through the house switching off all the lights.

Gazing from our bedroom window we watch orange flames lick at the darkness, pillars of black smoke climb into the sky. We can actually smell the acrid odor of burning rubber.

“Look how close they are,” says Karen.

“Just past La Cienega. Maybe eight blocks away.”

Karen gives me a long penetrating gaze:

“What do we do if they come here?”

My mind is racing away. The truth is we are defenseless. Unless I get crazy inventive like Dustin Hoffman in Straw Dogs.

“After this is all over,” I vow, “I’m going to buy a pistol.”

Karen says: “How about a shotgun?”

Dissolve to—

Two Hours Earlier: