Removal of Maurizio Cattelan's Comedian on Sunday, December 8th 2019

For those who got to indulge at Art Basel 2019 the talk of the town was Maurizio Cattelan's Comedy piece which edition 1 sold for $120,000 followed by Edition 2 selling for $150,000. The other bananas will be on display at a museum in early 2020 (perhaps a good way to start off the decade)...

A letter to Perrotin's patrons who I have been fortunate with to work with in the past sent out the following email as to why the six figure banana would no longer be on display for the final day after another artist walked up and ate the banana in front of a large crowd. The email ensues below:

The artist Maurizio Cattelan and Perrotin gallery regret to inform you that Comedian will be removed from our Art Basel Miami Beach booth for the last day of the fair, Sunday, December 8th.

This morning, following recommendations, we removed the installation at 9am. We want to thank the organizers of the fair for their help and continued support. Art Basel collaboratively worked with us to station guards and create uniform lines. However, the installation caused several uncontrollable crowd movements and the placement of the work on our booth compromised the safety of the artwork around us, including that of our neighbors. 

 

Comedian, with its simple composition, ultimately offered a complex reflection of ourselves. We would like to warmly thank all those who participated in this memorable adventure, as well as to our colleagues. We sincerely apologize to all the visitors of the fair who today will not be able to participate in Comedian.

3D Printed Meat Will One Day Be a Common Thing

I have a decently strong background and some recognition in the 3D printing industry from my time with the 3D Printed Eyewear company Protos. It's important to stay in tune to trends and see what's developing and changing the world and one such invention that has been worked on and discussed since my startup days in the industry is 3D printing food.

A recent Guardian piece discusses how meat is being 3D printed and will soon create a nice alternative to cattle and live stock agriculture. For more information on the article check out: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/10/3d-printed-meat-european-restaurant-menus-environment

Kids Sports Movies in the 1990's - Do they still make Films Like this?

The 1990's saw a series of films about kids, animals, and aliens playing sports that were geared towards children like myself at the time. I'm pretty sure these type of films are no longer coming out in droves like they were in the 90's and perhaps my theory is that todays kids are more in tune and drawn to their computers, cell phones, televisions, and just technology and they're not outside playing baseball or kick ball like they were when I was growing up so there's just not as much of a draw?

I don't know for sure but here are some of the 90's kids sports flicks that came out:

The Sandlot 
Little Giants
The Big Green
The Air up There
The Mighty Ducks
Space Jam
Angels in the Outfield
Rookie of the year
Little big league (I often get this one confused with Rookie of the year)
Air Bud
Cool Runnings
Ladybugs

Glacier National Park Montana - Richart Ruddie 2019

After having the pleasure of visiting BANFF in Alberta last summer I was told that the next best nature park in the area is Glacier National Park in Montana. I had the pleasure of visiting and driving on the famous "Going to the Sun Road" and visiting the Many Glacier Hotel that is a striking similarity to Switzerland. My favorite was the hike up to the Grinell Glacier which is 6.5 miles each way and ends with what was my first view of a Glacier in real life. It is very cloudy so good luck catching it on a clear day.

-Richart Ruddie 2019 Travel

Steve Aoki is a Top Art Collector

Outside of being one of the most popular DJ's in the World Steve Aoki apparently has an amazing art collection at his Las Vegas home as recently covered by Artsy. He has a ton of Kaws figures, Damien Hirst Pieces, Takashi Murakami, and some great street art pieces.

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-inside-steve-aokis-art-filled-playhouse-vegas

Similarities Between The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley vs Fyre Film

HBO recently released a film about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos which was once valued at 9 Billion dollars and employed 800 people. The film has many similarities to the previously released Fyre Film on Netflix and Fyre Fraud on Hulu. Where as a breakdown between the characteristics and traits of Elizabeth Holmes vs Billy Mcfarland may be well suited.

Similarities Between Elizabeth Holmes & Billy Mcfarland: 

Billy & Elizabeth both gained excessive publicity & tried to use legal tactics to suppress and stop bloggers, journalists, and employees from disparaging them.

Both are sociopaths who believed in their mission despite seeing it was becoming a sinking ship.

Both used excessive lies and deception to extract more money from investors. ,

They believed even after the sinking of their ships that they still had a viable product and chance to redeem themselves.

Neither had any issues bold face lying about what they had done and felt no remorse.

The Theranos Story vs. Fyre Festival 

Both stories are built on charisma and entrepreneurship which I initially felt both characters had the fake it till you make it mentality but by the end of both films you tend to think "Okay they are just out to scam people and don't really care." It is possible the Holmes expected her Edison machine to be able to run all the tests and just had a lack of scientific knowledge. She wasn't going to be humbled by her staff and apply the law of physics that some tests couldn't currently be run in that capacity at the time. While it is a Silicon Valley way of thinking to do the impossible in this case it just wasn't viable.

Fyre Festival used social media to build up their image and gain exposure for their event. Theranos gained VC and then once it was rolling garnered glitz and glamour as a self made female entrepreneur. Both seemed like they were on the way up but it was all smoke and mirrors. The Theranos Edison machine wasn't able to accurately run tests and they only booked a few hundred thousand dollars of revenue but claimed it had made a billion dollars (dont quote me on the exact figure). Billy Mcfarland did the same bringing in <$100,000 in revenue and claiming to have brought in millions for their platform.

The amount of similarities between the two films are great and I suggest watching both stories (all 3 films if you can).

 
 

What Bill Gates Learned in 2018

Always an interesting read to help discover what the future holds and how one of the most successful people of our time thinks.

Nuclear Energy

Some spotlight points from his latest year in review includes the fact that Nuclear power is something that we should expect to see grow and for reasons having to do with it's low impact on the environment if we can properly use technology to avoid catastraophic damage that comes as the main headline risk of using Nuclear energy. A deal in China that would have greatly reduced global warming was scrapped due to global trade tensions.

Gene Editing

With Artificial Intelligence gaining the majority of headlines we should look at the risks associated with Gene Editing and the problems that may come as a result of this. While there are many positives.

Stopping Epidemics 

Were close to eradicating the polio virus with 29 cases last year vs 22 the year before. The two cases happened in war torn areas of Afgahnistan and Pakistan but once we eradicate this we will have a resounding celebration knowing that one of many killer epidemics is gone. The Spanish flu killed over 50 million people and the next flu could do the same so that's where our worries should be focused not on terrorist attacks, climate change, and an asteroid hitting us. 

Reference: https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Year-in-Review-2018