off the leash

E. Jean Stands Tall

Posted on October 28, 2025 by Ken Dowell

When Trump filed a lawsuit against CBS/Paramount over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, a lawsuit that most legal experts felt had no chance of winning, Shari Redstone, then chairperson of Paramount, caved and forked over $16 million. When Trump started making noise about DEI programs, Brian Cornell, the CEO of Target, capitulated and killed all the DEI initiatives Target had launched after the death of George Floyd. Target’s sales and stock price have since tanked, they just announced layoffs and Cornell resigned. Jeff Bezos, despite having all the money in the world, didn’t have to be sued. He just dropped to his knees and started forking over money.

You know who didn’t capitulate? E. Jean Carroll. Carroll sued Trump for sexual abuse and defamation and won a $5 million judgement. When Trump, true to character, responded with vile, defamatory venom, she sued him again and this time got $83 million. At this point Trump hasn’t paid a cent. He has appealed over and over and lost every time. He will likely go to the Supreme Court.

A new documentary, Ask E. Jean, has recently been released. It appeared last week at the Montclair Film Festival. “Ask E. Jean” is the name of the advice column Carroll wrote for Elle Magazine. It also was a TV show she hosted.

From left, E. Jean Carroll, Carol Martin and director Ivy Meeropol, at Q&A following the screening. Martin is a former WCBS-TV news anchor and a friend of Carroll’s. She testified at the Trump trial.

The movie has some detail about Carroll’s career as a writer, including Esquire, Playboy and a biography of Hunter Thompson, the ‘gonzo’ journalist she has been compared to. There are also some fun biographical facts like her appearance on the TV game show “To Tell the Truth” and the fact that she was named Miss Cheerleader USA while at Indiana University.

At one point the camera catches a scene in which Trump is shown a picture of Carroll, himself and a couple others. Someone points to the picture of Carroll and asks Trump who it is. He says “That’s Marla.” (Marla Maples was his second wife.)

A substantial part of the movie is about Trump. She describes in detail how he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman changing room. She also talks about how hard it was to go public with this, the foul taunts and threats that were directed at her and what it was like facing him in court. She said she never had sex again after this experience. She was 52 at the time.

Asked why she brought this to court 25 years after it happened. She said “Because he lied. I wasn’t going to let that go.”

At 81, Carroll is a lively, smart, funny woman. This came across both in the movie and in the auditorium where it was shown. The movie started without sound and it had to be stopped. While the audio crew worked on the problem, Carroll popped up out of the audience, grabbed a mike and engaged the audience in lively banter along with the director Ivy Meeropol.

Meeropol is the granddaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. One of her previous films is ‘Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn.” It is Cohn who prosecuted her grandparents and he was a mentor to Trump.

The message of this movie is women need to stand up and fight for themselves. “Always press charges” is Carroll’s advice. Obviously she followed her own advice. If the film had a subtitle it might be something on the order of “a lot of men suck.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged documentaries, E. Jean Carroll, Montclair Film Festival, movie reviews, Trump | 3 Comments

Where Wooden Walls Have Replaced Wooden Horses

Posted on October 26, 2025 by Ken Dowell

The Asbury Park (N.J.) Carousel House

The Asbury Park Carousel House was originally built in 1904. It was rebuilt in 1928 after it and the adjacent Casino were destroyed by fire. In 1932 a carousel was installed, a Carousel #87 built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. The first half of the 20th century was the heyday of Asbury Park. Along the Jersey Shore, it was second only to Atlantic City as a family vacation and entertainment complex.

I remember as a child in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s being taken to Asbury by my parents to go on the rides. That included the carousel and the nearby indoor amusement park which featured a Ferris wheel that went through the roof.

Hard times hit Asbury in the last couple decades of the 20th century amid deteriorating conditions and some racial tensions. The family amusement attractions were shut down and buildings were abandoned. In 1980, the carousel was sold to Family Kingdom Park in Myrtle Beach. It is still in operation albeit with fiber glass replicas of the original wooden horses.

Asbury Park has undergone a renaissance in this century. Much of the housing stock has been renovated, partly by the LGBTQ+ community that has developed there. It also has become famous for its music scene, courtesy of Bruce Springsteen and venues like the Stone Pony. Not everything has bounced back. The Paramount Theater, where in the late 60s I went to see a Herman’s Hermits concert, closed a few years ago when conditions were deemed unsafe. And the Casino that’s next to the Carousel House was closed down earlier this year due to structural problems. But the family entertainment destination of the last century is now a diverse and inclusive shore community with a beautiful beach, a vibrant boardwalk and a distinctly artsy vibe.

The Carousel House has undergone a couple of renovations while maintaining its beaux-arts style. For a while it was used for flea markets and then later became a skate facility. The most recent iteration of the Carousel House is as a home for Wooden Walls. The Wooden Walls Public Art Project is a 501(c)3 charity started in 2015. Through the work of this project murals grace abandoned buildings and empty walls on the boardwalk and throughout the city. On their Instagram page they describe Wooden Walls as a “ love letter to the place where art, music and history live.”

Here are some of the Wooden Walls murals in the Carousel House.

Mermaid Tattoo Company, Robert Piersanti

Mora and Her Morrow Castle, Lady Sea Wench

The Adventures of Holly and Hilde, Holly Suzanne Rader and Fru Bugge

Posted in Art, History of Amusement Parks | Tagged art, Asbury Park, murals, New Jersey, Wooden Walls | 2 Comments

I Found All These Things in Brussels

Posted on October 19, 2025 by Ken Dowell

Concertband Festival in Brussels’ beautiful Grand Place

Manneken Pis

Manneken Peace

The Atomium — originally built for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair

Untitled sculpture by David Altmejd at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts

Posted in Travel | Tagged architecture, Atomium, Belgium, Brussels, Grand Square, Manneken Pis, travel | 6 Comments

This is Not a Magritte Painting

Posted on October 12, 2025 by Ken Dowell

The Treachery of Images. De ne pas etre une pipe (this is not a pipe). Of course it isn’t, it’s an image of a pipe.

The Belgian painter Rene Magritte is one of my favorite artists. So it’s not surprising that on a recent visit to Brussels the Magritte Museum was my first stop. Magritte is primarily known as a surrealist and is considered one of the founding fathers of that movement in art. His paintings often portray everyday objects in a not-so-everyday context. In this museum you will find a few different styles that Magritte explored. He painted portraits (we all have to make a living right?), some impressionist-like pieces, and during the Nazi occupation of Brussels, adopted a more colorful style without his customary surreal elements. These images of Magritte’s works from the museum are presented in chronological order to show how he evolved as an artist. (ce ne sont pas des peintures de Magritte.)

Posted in Art | Tagged art, Belgium, Brussels, Magritte, museums, surrealist | 4 Comments

Bridges Over Untroubled Water

Posted on October 5, 2025 by Ken Dowell

One of the hopefully lasting legacies of last year’s Paris Olympics is that you can now swim in the Seine. Though I’ve heard it’s pretty cold. On a cool September night I opted for a boat. Not having to worry about keeping myself afloat, I got to take in some of the numerous bridges over the Seine, as well as a few Paris landmarks, as nightfall came over the river.

Top of the hout

Posted in Travel | Tagged bridges, France, Paris, Seine, travel | 3 Comments

It’s Not Art Until It Comes Alive

Posted on September 28, 2025 by Ken Dowell

Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Pontus Hulten at the Grand Palais

With the Centre Pompidou now closed for what is planned to be a five-year long renovation, the museum is embarking on a “Constellation” program, staging exhibits using their collection at other venues throughout France. One of those venues is the Grand Palais, the Parisian event and exhibition space that dates back to 1900. The Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Pontus Hulten exhibit is one of two at the Grand Palais.

Saint Phalle and Tinguely, who were married, were modern art sculptors. Saint Phalle was French and Tinguely was from Switzerland. Tinguely created machine-like contraptions that would come alive, banging, clanging and moving in all directions like the above video of “Hell, a small beginning.” Saint Clare created big colorful sculptures, often with a feminist twist. Hulten was a Swedish art collector, curator and museum director. He actively promoted Saint Clare and Tinguely’s work. Hulten was the first director of the Musée National d’Art Moderne.

Jean Tinguely

Meta no. 3

In 1960, Tinguely created Homage to New York, a self-destructing work that was exhibited at the MOMA sculpture garden, this is one of the last remaining pieces of Homage to New York.

Meta-magic no. 17. Tinguely’s meta-magics were “pointing machines.”

Niki de Saint Phalle

Man in the Choir. This was created by Per Olof Ultvedt, who along with Tinguely, created the attractions that were inside Saint Phalle’s Hon.

Posted in Art | Tagged art, Centre Pompidou, Grand Palais, Jean Tinguely, Niki de Saint Phalle, Paris, sculpure | 2 Comments

They’re Pulling the Curtain at the Pompidou

Posted on September 21, 2025 by Ken Dowell

Tomorrow (Sept. 21) is the last day that the Centre Pompidou, Paris’ reknowed contemporary art museum, will be open before it closes for a renovation. A renovation that is expected to take five years. According to the museum web site, the renovation involves “technical and environmental components, such as the complete asbestos removal from the façade, treatment of corrosion on the main structure, renovation and energy optimization of the building, and improvements to accessibility.”

There is one last exhibition at the Centre Pompidou. “Nothing could have prepared us — Everything could have prepared us” was created by the 58-year old German artist Wolfgang Timmons. He was given free reign to design the exhibit in the center’s 2nd floor library. It includes video, music, various books and papers. The images here are of Timmons’ photography which is what he is best known for.

Intermodal Container in Mongolian Landscape

Posted in Art | Tagged art, Centre Pompidou, musuems, Paris, Photography, Wolfgang Timmons | Leave a comment

I Found All These Things in Mexico City

Posted on September 18, 2025 by Ken Dowell

Full support to our brothers and sisters in the United States and to our president Claudia Sheinbaum. Overlooking Plaza de La Constitution in Cuauhtemoc.

These Aztec ruins are next to the Metropolitan Cathedral in Cuauhtemoc.

Chapultepec park in Michel Hidalgo borough is about 2-1/2 times the size of New York’s Central Park

You need to be able to prove you’re at least 60 years old to enjoy the Jardin de Adultos Mayores in Chapultepec Park

Celebrating 100 years of Mexican baseball (placards in Chapultepec Park)

After starring in the Negro Leagues in the U.S., Josh Gibson came to Mexico in 1941 to play for the Azules de Veracruz

The El Pastor taco I had at Paloma’s in Benito Juarez was the best taco I’ve ever had in my life.

And at Rica’s in Coyoacan I had the best ever quesadilla.

Design for the ages at the Museo Sumaya

Measuring instrument used during the Qing dynasty in China c. 1850-1890

Posted in Travel | Tagged art, food, parks, sculpture, travel | 7 Comments

National Museum of African American History and Culture

Posted on September 7, 2025 by Ken Dowell

With the specter of Trump looming over the Smithsonian museums, it seemed like a good time to take in the African American Museum of History and Culture. I spent most of my time in the history galleries. They cover slavery, the Civil War, reconstruction, discrimination and the civil rights movement. Those are likely exactly the exhibits Trump and his cohorts are apt to try to whitewash.

Esteban de Dorantes was an African enslaved by the Spanish. He became the first non-native explorer in the territory which is now Arizona and New Mexico.

This is a diagram of how slaves were “stowed” on the British slave ship Brookes (1788). 292 Africans were packed into the lower deck while another 130 were confined to shelves on the perimeter, a space with a height of 2’7”.

This is the flag of the Bucks of America, a Massachusetts militia made up of African-Americans who fought in the Revolution.

Like 12 of the first American presidents, Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, 609 of them during his lifetime.

Mother Bethel African Episcopal Church established by free Black men in Philadelphia.

This cartoon from The Chicago Defender points out the connection between lynchings and the northern migration.

One of the themes running through the museum’s exhibits is how African-Americans fought first for their freedom and later for equal rights, starting with the earliest slave rebellions and continuing through the civil rights, Black Power and Black Lives Matter movements. Here are some samples.

The New York Conspiracy of 1741 was a rebellion of enslaved Africans and poor whites. They set fires through the city, including at the Governor’s mansion. As depicted about this led to harsh punishments for the captured participants.

Drums like this one were used in the Lowcountry for communications. After the Stono Rebellion in 1739 in South Carolina, the state adopted the Slave Code of 1840 which banned the use of drums.

Henry Highland Garnet was a slave in Maryland who escaped and became a radical abolitionist calling for uprisings against slave owners.

Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in Maryland in 1849. She would become a leader of the Underground Railroad.

A recruitment poster encouraging Black men to join the Union cause in the Civil War.

Civil rights marchers on the way from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.

Many civil rights advocates were also strong opponents of the Vietnam War

I ran out of time to see all of this giant museum. There are also cultural exhibits, including those devoted to African-Americans’ contributions to the military, sports and entertainment. Here are a couple samples.

LeRoi Jones would later change his name to Amiri Baraka. His son, Ras Baraka, is currently the mayor of Newark, N.J. Ras Baraka was arrested by Homeland Security earlier this year outside an immigrant detention facility. The nonsense charges against him were dropped before they went to court.

Gimme That Old Time Religion, Carolyn Mazloomi

Builders: Stained Glass Window, Jacob Lawrence

Posted in History | Tagged African Americans, american-history, Black history, history, museums, politics, slavery, Washington | 10 Comments

Rodin, Dali, and the History of Art

Posted on August 17, 2025 by Ken Dowell

Museo Soumaya, Mexico City

The Soumaya is a relatively new museum, opened in 2011. It was founded by Carlos Slim, a Mexican businessman and philanthropist who was at one time ranked by Forbes as the richest man on Earth. He named the museum after his wife, Soumaya Domit, who passed away in 1999.

The Soumaya houses more than 66,000 pieces of art ranging from Mesoamerican artifacts to contemporary paintings. It includes the largest collection of Rodin sculptures outside of France. The Soumaya is run as a non-profit and there is no admission charge at the museum.

Auguste Rodin