MAKE LOVE, TAKE A BATH, MAKE LOVE AGAIN.”

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) went into her marriage (1929) with her eyes wide open. She knew that her husband, famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, spread his affections around. Diego engaged in numerous short-lived and casual relationships with the fawning women – actresses, models, artists, photographers – who flocked around him. He was Mexico‘s most celebrated artist of his time. Diego’s many extramarital affairs had destroyed his previous marriage to Lupe Marín, Once, in front of a group of guests, a jealous Lupe made quite a scene, tearing a rival’s hair, ripping up some of Diego’s drawings, and beating Diego with her fists. Another time she smashed some of his archaeological artifacts and served the broken shards to Diego in a soup bowl. At the beginning of their marriage, whenever Frida learned of yet another of Diego’s affairs, she managed to put on a good face. She pretended it did not hurt her, excusing Diego by saying flippantly, “How would I be able to love someone who wasn’t attractive to other women?” She retaliated by having love affairs of her own, with men and with women, once telling acquaintance Jean van Heijenoort that her view of life was MAKE LOVE, TAKE A BATH, MAKE LOVE AGAIN.”She held up until the year 1934. That was the year Frida and Diego returned from living three years in the United States. Their funds were low. Diego’s Rockefeller Center mural had caused a terrible controversy. Diego had painted a heroic portrait of the Russian Communist leader Vladimir Lenin in the mural and had refused to paint him out. Diego was fired and the mural was then destroyed. Homesick for Mexico, Frida made Diego return home, against his wishes. Diego sulked. Demoralized and broke, both of them were also in poor health. Diego had maintained a grueling painting schedule on the scaffold, turning out murals in San Francisco, Detroit, and New York, and was “weak, thin, yellow, and morally exhausted,” Frida wrote to her friend Ella Wolfe that July. Frida had been in the hospital three times that year – for an appendectomy, a therapeutic abortion, and foot surgery.
No one knows exactly when Diego began his affair with Frida’s sister Cristina; it was probably in the summer of 1934. Frida was devastated. Cristina was not just her sister but her confidante. Cristina’s husband had left her in 1930 and, since then, she and her children had spent a great deal of time at Frida and Diego’s house. Cristina had served as a model many times for Diego’s murals and they had grown very close, too close, to Frida’s chagrin. Diego had, no doubt, seduced Cristina with his clever words, and convinced her that he needed her, reminding Cristina that Frida was too sick for lovemaking and that he, Diego, was sad and needy. In her great anguish, Frida cut off her long hair and stopped wearing the native Mexican costumes that were her signature look and that made Diego so happy. She painted a self-portrait of her new look. This little painting, 7-1/4 x 5-3/4 inches, was called “Self-Portrait with Curly Hair.” Her smallest canvas ever, Frida gave the little painting to Ella Wolfe, Frida’s longtime friend and the wife of Diego Rivera’s biographer, Bertram Wolfe. Ella kept the painting until 2000. In 2003, ”Self-Portrait with Curly Hair” was auctioned off by Artemundi & Co. and sold for $1,351,500.00. Today, Frida Kahlo remains the most expensive-selling female artist in the history of art.
During that period of terrible pain from the betrayal by both husband and sister, Frida painted another painting quite different from “Self-Portrait with Curly Hair.” This one was morbid, bloody, disquieting. Shown below, ”A Few Small Nips” features a woman being literally “murdered by life,” as Frida herself felt, murdered both physically by her chronic pain and suffering and emotionally by Diego and Cristina. The painting’s theme is based on a newspaper account of a real murder. A drunken guy threw his girlfriend on a cot and stabbed her 20 times. When interviewed, the brutal murderer protested his innocence, saying, “But I only gave her a few small nips.”

The Completo

Ingredients:
Hot dogs
Hot dog buns
Diced fresh tomatoes
Mild sauerkraut
Chilled mayo (homemade if possible, or the best you can find)
Avocado (mashed and chilled)

Preparation:
Cook up your hot dogs and toast your hot dog buns as you normally would. If you're lucky enough to have a neighborhood Chilean bakery, get your buns from there. They're slightly sweet and substantial enough to hold all these toppings.

Assemble your hot dogs and buns so they stay standing, while you top them with sauerkraut and diced tomatoes. Add a schmear of avocado and a really generous helping of mayo.

It was cool early on

"I've done seen a lot, It's been crazy, overwhelming. I think it helped me, from being with women that are so beautiful that you look at them and be like, 'D*mn, how the f*ck did I get this b*tch?' It kinda preps you [to think] that everything isn't always about the looks."

3D-Video iPhone Binoculars

Although I’m not much of a fan, 3D movies are really popular these days. Watching a 3D flick outside of the movie theaters is a bit of a hassle which is why these designers have been working on practical device that will allow you to watch your movies in 3D on the go.

Produced by online shop Donya, these 3D binoculars allow you to view YouTube videos right on your iPhone. The device works with the iPhone 4 and 5, so everyone can join in on the fun.

XXL

Was Vincent van Gogh murdered?

The authors of a new biography say the troubled painter's death might not have been a suicide, after all.

For years, historians have believed Vincent Van Gogh shot himself in the chest. But a new theory suggests that the troubled painter's death wasn't suicide, but murder.
For more than a century, art historians have agreed that a depressed Vincent van Gogh killed himself. But in a new biography, Van Gogh: The Life, Pulitzer-Prize winning authors Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith argue that the Dutch impressionist painter might have been murdered. Here's what you need to know about their theory:
Why do people believe Van Gogh killed himself?
He said so. The accepted story of the troubled artist's death is that he walked into a wheat field to paint, but ended up shooting himself in the chest with a pistol. He then dragged himself more than a mile back to the room he was renting in a boarding house in the French town of Auvers-sur-Oise, northwest of Paris. He told his brother Theo, his doctors, and the police that he had shot himself. "Do not accuse anyone," he said. "It is I who wanted to kill myself".

What made these authors suspect murder?
The accepted version of events just "didn't make sense," co-author Smith said Sunday on 60 Minutes. Yeah, "how did he climb through these vast wheat fields and down the escarpment into the town?" Naifeh asked. "It's extremely difficult to imagine that in that physical condition he could have made that trip." Plus, the gun was never found, nor were Van Gogh's painting materials. The bullet also hit Van Gogh at "a crazy angle," the authors say, and appeared to have been fired from too far from the body for Van Gogh to have fired it himself. Naifeh and White also argue that Van Gogh's suicide confession seemed oddly hedged, as if he were trying to protect someone.

So who dunnit?
The authors think Van Gogh was shot by a friend's 16-year-old brother. The boy, Rene Secretan, liked wearing cowboy outfits, complete with a revolver on the hip. Decades after Van Gogh's death, Secretan, by then a wealthy businessman, gave an interview confessing that he and his friend had teased the lonely artist mercilessly. The authors, citing an art historian who heard rumors in the 1930s that Van Gogh had been shot accidentally by two boys, theorize that Secretan and a friend shot Van Gogh — perhaps the hot-tempered artist lunged at him while being taunted, or maybe it was just a cowboy game gone awry. Then, the theory goes, Van Gogh, who had complained he was tired of living, protected the boys because he figured they had done him a favor.

Is everyone buying this?
Nope. The curator of the Van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands complimented the book, but said historians "cannot yet agree" with the murder theory.

The seven wonders of the ancient world

The seven wonders are the architectural and artistic monuments considered as perfect by the Greeks and the Romans.

Six of the seven wonders of the ancient world were described by Philon of Byzance, a II century before Jesus Christ ingeneer, in a manuscript entitled "Péri tôn hépta théamatôn" (About the seven wonders of the world). This manuscript including six layers only described six constructions. The seventh, the mosoleum of Halicarnassus, is only described in the introduction of the manuscript because the last layer disappeared.
However, the final list, also called canonical list, describing the seven wonders of the ancient world has been adopted after the reign of Alexandre the Great according to fourteen lists from differents authors. The selected monuments have to meet standard of beauty, size and technical prowess.

The canonical list refers to the seven following wonders : :
The Great Pyramid of Giza
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
The Colossus of Rhodes
The Lighthouse of Alexandria

Babylon

Babylon was the capital of a small city state of Mesopotamia, named Babylonia, located in what is now Iraq, near the modern town of Hilla and on the eastern bank of the Euphrates river. Babylon was founded at the end of the 3rd millennium BC, and lasted through the 2nd century AD.

Babylon reached its heyday under the Babylonian king Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC), who ruled all of southern Mesopotamia. The city again was at the height of its powers in the 7th century BC during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, just before the Persian conquest. Nebuchadnezzar built the famous Hanging Gardens, considered by some authorities one of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Important buildings still standing at Baghdad include the Ishtar temple, the ancient theatre and the 'Babylon Tower'.

27 Club

27 Club of all clubs for a rock star to be a member of, this is not one you would want to end up in. The age 27 seems to be jinxed for rock stars. A series of deaths among prominent rock stars have occurred at the age of 27. The cause of death varies from person to person, however drug use seems to be a factor affecting the majority of those involved. The 6 most famous members are Brain Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse. The series of deaths made some rock stars rethink their destructive lifestyles, but obviously not all of them.
Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones was only 27 when he died on July 3, 1969. He was found at the bottom of his swimming pool, and the cause of death was stated as “Death by Misadventure”. His liver and heart were severely enlarged and damaged by heavy drug and alcohol abuse.
Jimi Hendrix was another tragic loss for rock, who died on September 18, 1970. His destructive lifestyle during the 1960s also lead to his death at the young age of 27. The circumstances of his death are not completely understood. However, the popular theory states that after consuming 9 sleeping pills, he passed out and asphyxiated on his own vomit.
Janis Joplin was one of the most influential female rockstars in history, and her influence is still felt today. She was the lead singer of the band Big Brother and the Holding Company, and she also had a solo career. She was found dead in a hotel room in Hollywood on October 4, 1970. The cause of death was a heroin overdose mixed with whiskey.
Jim Morrison is known all over the world for the sensational and monumental work he did with The Doors. It was no secret that Jim had used and abused illegal substances before. What makes his death especially sad is that during his stay in Paris he was attempting to become clean, and get rid of his addictions. However, his plan wasn’t working out and he was dealing with depression. All of these factors contributed to his death on July 3, 1971. The official cause of death was heart failure. Drug use is often speculated as a factor by fans.
One of the more recent additions to the 27 Club is Kurt Cobain. Kurt was more than famous for his work with Nirvana, which is one reason for his death. Those close to Cobain speculate he never enjoyed all of the fame that the mainstream success Nirvana created. Prior to his death, he had been confronted about his hardcore drug abuse, and had agreed to attend a rehab program. However, he left the rehab facility and went missing. He was found April 8, 1994. The autopsy report cites the cause of death as a self inflicted shotgun wound to the head. The estimated date of death is April 5, 1994.

if I knew then what I knew now

I wish that I could go back
‘Cause that money don’t mean a thing when
Everybody changing

ROLLING OUT

"You are the next thing and you've got something that people should see, It's important that you go all the way with it so you get it out there for people to see. The whole world is waiting for it. Don't wait on the world. Get started, get busy, go. Never stop, never settle."

"Dreams Money Can't Buy"

Hi Gonzalo,
This may seem a bit out of the blue, but my name is X and I am on the board at Seventh Gallery. I am contacting you because we have just had an artist pull out of the Project Space for our upcomming show (opening NEXT Weds 13th!!) and I was wondering if you would be interested in showing some work? We spoke when you dropped off your sketches for the Super Sell Out Show and I really like them. I know it is very short notice (other artists will be installing from this Sunday) but if you are at all interested please contact me on 555-5555 ASAP and we can discuss further!