Fun and/or Interesting

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The Two Effects of Inflationary Psychology 

Inflationary psychology describes the behavior of consumers when they get accustomed to prices rising month after month. In such economic times, two subconscious behaviors become common.

  1. People buy more consumable goods than they need. They do so because they realize that those same products will be more expensive the following month. This increases demand and lowers supply. And that causes inflation to rise.
  2. People put off paying bills because they understand that delaying payments means they will be paying them later with less valuable dollars. This is true even when there are late-payment penalties, so long as those penalties are less than the increase in inflation.
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Notes From My Journal

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What I Believe: About Honesty and Dishonesty

I’ve done no research to back this up. But I’d bet that the tendency for humankind to lie developed on the same timeline as our ability to speak.

An essential component of civility – if not civilization itself – is the prudent employment of dishonesty. I would further argue that most of the best attributes of culture – art, literature, dance, and sport – are rooted in the willingness to lie about what is possible in the actual world.

I also believe the idea that honesty is not a virtue, but a privilege. A privilege granted by nature to the young and beautiful, and by society to the powerful and protected.

Life without dishonesty would be unbearable.

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Recommended Places

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The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice

K and I have spent several memorable afternoons in Venice at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Less well known than MOMA in New York, the Tate in London, and Centre Pompidou in Paris, it is arguably one of the most important museums of 20th century European and American art.

It is located in Peggy Guggenheim’s former home, the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, on the Grand Canal.

When you are in the museum, inundated with so many fantastic pieces by the world’s greatest modern artists, it is hard to imagine that this was Peggy Guggenheim’s personal collection. And besides her fabulous collection, the museum offers masterpieces from other collections. And a sculpture garden. And regular temporary exhibitions.

Some highlights of the core collection: 

* “The Red Tower” (De Chirico)

* “The Clarinet” (Braque)

* “Study of a Nude” and “Men in the City” (Leger)

* “Very Rare Picture on the Earth” (Picabia)

* “Birth of Liquid Desires” (Dali)

* “Bird in Space” (Brancusi)

* “The Kiss” (Ernst)

* “Woman Walking” (Giacometti)

* “Landscape with Red Spots” (Kandinsky)

* “Magic Garden” (Klee)

* “Empire of Light” (Magritte)

* “Composition No. 1” (Mondrian)

* “Arc of Petals” (Calder)

* “The Moon Woman” (Pollock)

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Arts & Letters

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Right Now, at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection –

“Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity”

Salvador Dali, “Uranium and Atomica Melancholica Idyll” (1945)

I mentioned in a previous post that Surrealism is making a comeback. The current exhibition at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection is not an exception.

“Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity” includes many of the biggest names and well-known pieces, along with many works that, according to Sarah Douglas, editor and chief of ArtNews, have rarely been on public view.

From Douglas: “Occasionally an exhibition comes along to remind us that we don’t in fact know it as well as we think we do, and, serendipitously, such an exhibition happens to be on view right now at Venice’s Peggy Guggenheim Collection, less than a mile down the Grand Canal from the Biennale.”

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A Word to the Wise

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Biennale (bee-uh-NAA-lay) is Italian for “every other year.” The Venice Biennale, for example – the original on which other large-scale international contemporary art exhibitions have been modeled – is held every two years.

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Readers Write

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Re my interest in visiting Cape May, NJ: 

“Hey, Mark, I can’t say I’ve spent much time in Cape May… but I can tell you that Cape May Brewing Co. makes some very good beers. Their Belgian Ale, Devil’s Reach, stands out. At 8.6% ABV, I’d say it qualifies as a ‘vacation beer.’ Enjoy!” – JZ

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Postscript

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I’ve mentioned several times that I was supporting a stay of execution in Texas for Melissa Lucio, a woman who was scheduled to be executed on April 27. I’m happy to report that her stay was approved.

“It would have shocked the public’s conscience for Melissa to be put to death based on false and incomplete medical evidence for a crime that never even happened,” said Vanessa Potkin, one of Melissa’s attorneys. “The new evidence of her innocence has never before been considered by any court. The court’s stay allows us to continue fighting alongside Melissa to overturn her wrongful conviction.”

To send a note of support to Melissa, click here.

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