Among many, the fear of COVID-19 is great and the solution – universal vaccinations to achieve herd immunity – is incontestable. Some are calling for vaccination IDs, and even mandatory vaccinations.

Would that be constitutional?
In 1901, a smallpox epidemic prompted the Boston and Cambridge boards of health to order vaccinations of all its residents.

One of them, a Swedish-born pastor named Henning Jacobson, refused and was fined. He then took his case all the way to the US Supreme Court.

I wondered: How did the nation’s top justices rule? This is what I found.

Ram Jam, Thank You Ma’am: The Story of “Black Betty” 

I’m thinking of producing a documentary about “Black Betty,” a song that is often attributed to Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter.

Lead Belly’s 1939 version is short – just one stanza – and simple. He sang it adagio and a capella – almost mournfully. Earlier versions, also sung a capella by chain gangs, suggest that it might have been a song from slavery days that he had adapted.

In 1977, the rock band Ram Jam recorded their own version, with two additional stanzas. It was fast-paced, with a strong bass and amazing guitar licks. It was, really, an entirely different song.

Ram Jam’s version was an instant hit, reaching number 18 on the singles charts in the US, and in the top 10 in the UK and Australia.

Then all kinds of hell broke out. Ram Jam was sued by the NAACP for copyright violation, and there was some objection to it in the media. (Expropriation and all that.) The net result was that the band was denied any royalties for their rendition. (Highly unusual.)

And then… what may be the most interesting part of the story. Ram Jam’s lead singer sort of disappeared, ala Searching for Sugar Man.

There is a YouTube rabbit hole you can go down that roughly documents some of this story. I’ve provided some of the videos below. (If you don’t have time to watch them all, just check out the 1939 Lead Belly performance and Ram Jam’s take on it 38 years later.)

Okay, here are the videos…

Lead Belly’s 1939 performance:

An earlier (1933) version:

The 1977 Ram Jam version:

For some of the story behind the song:

And here are people reacting to the Ram Jam version:

 “It’s not as though you feel satisfied after collecting a certain amount of stuff. Instead, you keep thinking about what you’re missing.” – Fumio Sasaki

 A Good Day at the Races 

One of the great pleasures of collecting art is bidding for it at auction. If you’ve ever participated in a competitive auction, you know how thrilling it can be. It’s exciting enough just to be in the action, but to come away with something you’ve wanted – and at the right price – that’s a feeling you won’t forget easily. I can compare it to being at the racetrack and seeing your horse come in.

If I were a mentally healthy person, I’d be spending most of my retirement buying and selling art. But since I have ADD, my art business/hobby is just one of a dozen activities I am involved in. I don’t have the time to bid at auction. When I see a piece I like in an auction catalog (I get them every day), I notify Suzanne, my partner in the art business and curator of one of my collections, and she gets the fun of doing the auction.

Because I’m a conservative investor, and because the art market is generally on fire, it’s rare for us to win anything these days. But sometimes we do. Yesterday, she told me we had won two pieces.

The first one is by Ignacio Iturria, a Uruguayan, one of my favorite Latin American artists.

Iturria was in commercial art and graphic design before turning to painting full time. Since then, it’s been pretty much all uphill for him.

He is not only a prolific artist, he has the talent to produce quality in volume. He is, as one critic put it, “generous with oil paint, building up lush textures on surfaces ranging from traditional (canvas) to unconventional (corrugated cardboard). His palette is dominated by muddy browns and earth tones that reflect the colors of the Platte River.

His work – quirky interpretations of dreams and memories – is considered Surrealist by some. I think that’s a fair categorization. To me, his landscapes look like Hieronymus Bosch meets iSpy.

After I bought this piece, Number Three Son (who is also a collector) wrote to ask me if I intended to keep it for my own collection.

I have no idea how he knew I won it. And now he’s put me in a difficult position. It is a really good piece at a very good price. Will I give it/sell it to him?

Stay tuned.

Oddly, the same auction had two Howard Finster oils up for sale – and I got one of them!

I’ve been a fan of Reverend Finster since I first saw one of his imaginary illustrations on the cover of Little Creatures by Talking Heads.

Finster believed that he was spreading God’s word through his work (he published religious songs and poetry and even hosted a radio prayer show in the 30s and 40s) and his art. His most famous work of art is Paradise Garden, a massive outdoor “museum” consisting of multiple walkways and buildings that he constructed out of… well, junk – broken glass, concrete, discarded objects, etc.  After his death in 2001, Paradise Garden, which is located in swampy Chattooga County, GA, began to decay.  It was acquired by the county, and ultimately turned over to the Paradise Garden Foundation with a 50-year lease for $1. The Foundation has not only maintained the property, it’s turned it into a profitable tourist attraction, providing tours and accommodations (a bed & breakfast) for visitors.

I have several pieces by Reverend Finster, part of a small collection of naïve and outsider art. This one will be a nice addition.

I’m actually shocked that I was able to get these two pieces for what I paid for them. Everything I’ve been bidding on for the last several years has gotten more expensive month by month. Why these two artists, whose work is superb in so many ways, are trading at these prices… I just can’t explain. But I’m not complaining.