A Mad, Mad World

Legendary accordionist Clyde Forsman has passed. I was lucky enough to see him perform with TDA (Those Darn Accordions) several times and have chatted with him backstage. He was kind, funny, spunky and a super accordionist and entertainer.

He enjoyed fame late in life which included national touring, MTV and screaming female fans throwing underwear. To the delight of his adoring audiences he’d often remove his shirt to reveal his physique and flamboyant tattoos as he sang such hits as “Do You Think I’m Sexy” and “Fire”.

Tonight we’ll sing the Lament for you, Clyde. May your new adventures be as wild and crazy.

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Have a wonderful holiday!

Albert Bierstadt, 1868, “Among the Sierra Nevada, California” is one of my favorite paintings. It is on view at The Smithsonian American Art Museum. Bierstadt often painted very large canvases. This one is 72 x 120 1/8 inches that’s 6 feet by 10 feet!

I found this bit of trivia on the SAAM Eye Level blog:

“Peer closely at Albert Bierstadt’s Among the Sierra Nevada, California—you need to be standing up close and personal, because you won’t find it even in a large image—and you will see, in the lower left-hand corner of the painting, hovering in a stream under the shadow of a rock outcrop, a trout. Only one trout, but he took the time to paint it. Many early American paintings feature livestock (symbols of hearth and abundance): Bierstadt’s little fish completes a scene of feeding ducks and elk.”

That makes me smile.

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