Daily Archives: April 21, 2006


Andy Goldsworthy

A couple years ago we first saw a documentary called Rivers and Tides about Andy Goldsworthy a British artist. He is primarily a sculptor and photographer. All of his work is created with natural materials from the area where the pieces are created. Many of his pieces are temporary by their nature, although some are permanent. Right now there is an exhibit of some his work at the Frederik Meijer Garden and Sculpture park in Grand Rapids. The show was put on in conjunction with a new permanent installation of an archgrand rapids arch created by Goldsworthy. The show runs through May 7, 2006 and if you have time to drive to Grand Rapids it is definitely worth going to see the Goldsworthy show. If you can’t get to Meijer Gardens definitely rent the movie and see it. Even if you can’t to Meijer Gardens before this show ends it is still worth visiting any time. Among other things they have the 24 foot highDaVinci horse. davinci horseThe sculpture is one of two castings made from molds based on the original design by Leonardo DaVinci 500 years ago.

Jules, Max and I went to Grand Rapids for a couple of days earlier this week while Sofia was on her trip to England. the Meijer Garden also has a tropical butterfly exhibit in one of the tropical conservatory. They have thousands of butterflies during the months of March and April. While we were there we also went to the VanAndel Museum downtown to see the Treasures of Ancient Egypt:The Quest of Immortality which also runs through May 7. This exhibit has artifacts dating back to the Old Kingdom in 2300 BCE. Among other things their is an eight foot high red granite head of Ramses II and full reproduction of a burial chamber from Thutmose III’s tomb.


Munk Interview

Last week on Accident Hash, C.C Chapman did a very interesting interview with Munk. Munk had some very interesting things to say about the music industry. Basically, he is making a good living as a full time musician, with no big label record deal, and no real physical distribution. He said that he may well never release another physical CD. He records all his music at home with a laptop computer, simple mixer, his guitars, bass and keyboards. He also has someone play drums sometimes. Take a listen to Munk’s music, you can hear it at emusic. It sounds as good as anything ever recorded in a big studio. The big music companies sign bands then take them into an expensive studio to record. Once the CD is released the costs of recording, promotion and distribution get deducted from the band’s royalties. The dirty secret of the music industry is that the vast majority of bands with recording contracts with labels never actually make a dime from record sales and often end up owing the label money. If they make any money at all it is from ticket and merchandise sales. Today with digital recording and downloads of music, a musician or band can record their own stuff and then distribute it on-line for a tiny fraction of the cost of actually pressing cds and getting them into stores, where many of them may sit unsold. There is also the issue of payola (money that record labels pay to radio stations for airplay). Munk

Munk has bypassed this system completely. He sells his music directly through sites like emusic, itunes, and cdbaby. He has also had his music played on commercials and TV shows like The Sopranos. His songs have gotten lots of play on podcasts, and he doesn’t have to pay podcasters to play them. Go listen to the interview and you can hear what he has to say and also hear some of his music.