Comet ISON of Oort

Americonic Art is hoping the appearance of Comet ISON -- formerly of the Oort Cloud district of the universe -- will not only make a spectacular appearance over Earth this autumn, but maybe shed some particles in the process.

That kind of stuff would go well in the White Trash Collection, since space junk, debris and stardust are the only materials that haven't been incorporated in this vast and varied body of work.

Comet ISON, so named for the Russian-based astronomers who discovered it in 2012 (the International Scientific Optic Network), is an icy mass from distant Oort scheduled to hurtle by our planet sometime in the fall of 2013, observers say.

The event could produce the light show of the century, experts are already speculating, or it might just as easily turn out to be a complete dud.

Bedazzling or not, something's bound to drop from the celestial object -- 200+ kilograms of matter every day -- as it continues on its haphazard trek across the galaxy,,,

And it'll be finders keepers if any of it lands on or near the studio of Americonic Art in upstate New York.

Happy Birthday Sandra Bullock

LOVE POTION #9 STARLET IS 49!

Sandra Bullock, queen of levity and (now) gravity is having a birthday this month, although she's already announced she'll try her best to ignore this one which brings the award-winning actress to the brink of five full decades of life.

She doesn't look it, but the rip roaring gorgeous American icon of the silver screen officially turns 49 on June 26th, so this blogger wishes the birthday girl a very happy day nonetheless.

While Bullock's latest film project Gravity opposite George Clooney is a scify movie slated for release in October, she's at her personal best when employing that demure comedic approach for which she's now become so famous.

Like leggy beauty Lucille Ball before her, Miss Congeniality has made her own unique contribution to the art of comedy, and whether 50 or 100, she too will always have millions of grateful fans because of it.

In good times and in bad everybody needs a hearty guffaw now and then -- so thanks for the laughs and happy birthday, Sandra Bullock.

THE SKY IS FALLING (This Time For Real) 5 TIPS

For millennium, doomsday predictors have been saying the sky is falling. In fact, just browse the bible and you'll see some have even made End Times a religion.

For whatever reasons -- economic depression, famine, war, egocentricity -- every generation seems to believe that theirs will be the last.

But now global warming experts tell us mass extinction is no longer just a myth or a maybe. 

Humanity is headed for catastrophe, scientists warn: Earth is getting hotter, storm systems bigger, natural disasters more devastating... 

And it's only getting worse with every passing year.

A rising tide of concern

What can we do about the melting poles and rising sea levels at this late date, many ask. 

Can we build elaborate barriers to hold back the oceans, place our major port cities on stilts? Should we flee to higher ground and abandon these cultural icons altogether while we still can? Or should we quietly accept our fate, go out with one big bang?

After all, it's too late to do anything else. Isn't it?

Where there's life there's hope

As evidenced, Americonic Art thinks it's never too late to salvage things, not even a hurting planet.

Of course, this now requires a major paradigm shift on everybody's part.

Enlightenment.

And, naturally, we'll also have to accept that some prized species and ecosystems recently lost to us can never be reclaimed.

But we can put out the fires. We can control ourselves. We can atone for our sins.

5 quick tips to save our ship:

1. Turn out your lights for a couple hours each day and shut down your computer as well:  You already know electric isn't generated cleanly. More often than not it's made from burning fossil fuels, a leading component of greenhouse gases and global warming.

2. Don't chuck that thing in the garbage: If the item is merely *old* give it to someone else who can use it. If it's malfunctioning then fix it. Our ancestors didn't heap up landfills with their throwaways. Whatever was broken or frayed they quilted, repurposed, and mended, mended, mended.

3. Don't buy from corporations that insist on supersizing their packaging: As much trash is generated via big, fat, fancy wrappers as it is from faulty, useless products designed to break or become obsolete in a year so you'll have to purchase them again. Better yet, write these unfriendly companies' CEOs and complain -- filling a 16 ounce cereal box with 8 ounces of corn flakes and asserting that the carton is half empty due to 'contents settling' is deceptive and ridiculous.

4. Assess your needs realistically and show some restraint: Millions of people are signing on with expensive gyms to work off their six meals a day and the adverse effects of a sedentary life, when they could simply eat less, walk more, and save money in the process. Worse, those with less disposable incomes are going into hock to buy stuff they don't need and which has no real or intrinsic value anyway.

5. We're all in this together; let's be compassionate: Prejudices, dislikes, even preferences, are taught to us at a very early age and are usually unfounded. That means, to truly lend the world a helping hand, which is now so desperately needed, we have to make an effort to override these negative lessons. Because less strife, less war, less hunger, and less hate equals a greener planet.

PEACE BE WITH YOU AND HAVE A GREAT DAY

White Trash and a Royal Baby

With word from ye old palace that a royal baby is at last on the way -- another heir to Britain's beleaguered throne and the first grandchild of late great humanist Princess Diana -- all eyes are on England today.

Boy or girl, babies of regal birth and ones of *humble* origin both generate a lot of white trash, new moms and dads can attest. Sometimes pink or blue trash, too, depending on how traditional-minded families are.

None of it gold, however, nor inlaid with rubies.

Across the pond here, Americans keep watch on Kate Middleton as well, waiting with bated breath to rejoice in the new mother-to-be's birthing success. 

Like present day British subjects, we're also enamored of such royal goings on, even though centuries past we-the-people broke with monarchs and aspired to create for ourselves a world where there would be no aristocracy to fawn over and adore. 

No kings or queens to bow to. No lowly babies born. No royal baby to someday wear a crown and rule us.

But with our own would-be kings, corporate cabals, and celebrity gods calling all the shots per usual, it's a socio-politcal experiment that some critics claim has dismally failed. 

America's become a land of haves and have-nots, they warn. A country ruled by thousands of wealthy tyrants, selfishly lording over a disenfranchised 99 Percent.  

Other less cynical analysts nay-say the naysayers, though. They optimistically insist our democracy is still in its infancy, slowly but surely evolving to one day soon include everyone, rich and poor alike, in the American Dream scheme.

This blogger truly hopes they're right about that, and, in the interim, sends well-wishes to Princess Diana's noble son William, and his lovely wife Kate:

May these new, proud parents find peace in their ancient castles, and decades of domestic bliss.

I want my MTV hottest

MTV hottest - still

You can't begin to discuss iconic American art without mentioning our number one art form -- music.

And now, in keeping with its role as our unofficial musical tour guide throughout the years, is the MTV hottest musician awards.

From jazz to hip hop, America definitely rocks, and for the past few decades tracking it all for everyone has been MTV and its nonstop music videos.

Long before Twitter, before Facebook, before there even was an internet to log onto, it was MTV that ruled the universe.  

Now MTV wants to know who YOU think is the best artist this summer.

Is it teen heart-throb Justin Bieber? Demi Lavato? Lady Gaga? Or fabulous fivesome One Direction?

Whichever one is your favorite, tweet your vote on Twitter with the #mtvhottest hash-tag by the middle of August. 

Because this isn't just another silly contest; this isn't simply runaway fandom. It's about iconic art performed by iconic artists, and nothing's more important in the world.

Personally though, this blogger's secretly waiting on an Elvis comeback ... but wherever that dude is at the moment, it doesn't appear he's actually in the running.

Does Confirmed Apollo 11 Space Junk Really Belong to Jeff Bezos?

Confirmed Apollo 11 engines recovered in the Atlantic ocean last year by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos means that these prized pieces of space junk will never be a part of Americonic Art's expansive White Trash Collection.

That's all right though, because there's plenty more debris like that stuff currently circling the planet or sitting at the bottom of the seven seas somewhere, not to mention a countless number of meteorites and moon rocks.

However, considering it was the U.S. taxpayers who funded the pricey Apollo missions in the 1960s and 70s, is the confirmed Apollo flotsam really Jeff Bezos to own, irrespective of the mega-millions he may have spent to recover those items?

And, if so, can we all expect to see them soon listed on his website for sale? Say in the automotive or rocket ship departments?

Or will he just list them for bidding on eBay?

Oskar Schindler's List Up for Grabs on eBay

Through filmmaker Steven Spielberg, we're all familiar with Schindler's List now. And the tale of this Nazi party member's chutzpa in risking his own life to save the lives of over 1200 of his Jewish forced laborers -- destined otherwise for Hitler's death camps -- has become legend.

His list, for auction on eBay this week with a starting price of $3-million, is a prime example of trash to treasure. Not only because most items like it end up shredded these days and in a dump or recycling center, but because, to Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich, those individuals on Schindler's List were also considered garbage.

German Holocaust survivor Halina Silber was one of the prisoners Oskar Schindler specifically marked for rescue. At 13, she'd lied about her age to work in one of his factories and, consequently, made his now-famous list.

Still alive today, Silber says her boss "was exceptionally caring and compassionate about what he was doing," and that he "risked not only his professional standing but his own life to save and support these Jewish workers."

Because of that, three generations and thousands more were ultimately spared extermination and genocide.

A race of people, a slip of paper ... it gives one pause when making similar evaluations today about what to prize and what to throw away, doesn't it?

World Trade Center: 'Beauty out of the ashes'

In ongoing efforts to obtain funds for finishing the World Trade Center memorial, a judge has dismissed the site developer's legal bid for additional monetary awards from the airlines whose planes where used in the terrorist attack of 9/11.

Owner/developer Larry Silverstein has already been compensated billions in insurance payouts so he could erect a single skyscraper and memorial to stand where the twin towers once stood. And while the judge cited statutes barring a plaintiff from collecting twice "from the same loss" the court heaped praise on Silverstein et al for creating "beauty out of the ashes."

Silverstein Properties and World Trade Center Properties were "disappointed with the ruling" and claim the project, which is still not completed yet, has cost them nearly 8-billion dollars. They intend to pursue their lawsuit.

Personally, if Americonic Art was in charge of that reconstruction, there would have been no new highrise defiantly and daringly built on such sacred ground. 

Instead, a massive quilt constructed from the rubble and shaped into a series of touching stars or streaks of lightning would have been installed. This ground-level design reaching as far across Manhattan as the Twin Towers' shadows did before they were leveled.

A durable outdoor quilt created from scraps of stone, brick, glass, metal and even plastic -- there's little doubt that this concept would have made for a more economical and moving tribute, as even new buildings can fall down, or, worse, be once again blown up.

92 quadrillion and the Rolling Stone cover on Etsy

Can you make 92 quadrillion AND the Rolling Stone cover by opening a shop on Etsy?

Well, probably not, but it's worth a try, some veteran sellers there do claim, so Americonic Art has done just that this week. 

Etsy's wisemen also urge newbies to apply succinct SEO tags and descriptions to all our artwork, crafts, and merchandise.

But, speaking as a traditionalist, it was challenging to part with clever titles in lieu of the more bland, longwinded -- and sometimes seriously overused -- keywords and phrases that search bots synthetically thrive on. 

(We're falling out of the 'golden triangle' here, the part in an online article where readers begin scanning, and that means to either click 'publish' or else upload an image as a bridge.)

 < uploaded image

Anyway: New Etsy store owner here, with never before seen artistic creations, some affordable, some high end.

Not expecting the Rolling Stone cover, of course, and nowhere near 92 quadrillion either, but, as it's an ongoing project, it'll be nice to get out of the studio now and then.

What's your opinion?