Get on over to the Maya/Stendhal Gallery (if Manhattan is within range) before the end of April and check out the curent show entitled: Notes On Utopia.

Although the concept and the art are cool enough (David Byrne is participating), I also want to give a shout-out and a shameless plug to Duane Stapp. He will have art on display and is family, to boot. Buy everything he makes now while prices are still low! I wish we could get up there for the show, but I don’t think we can squeeze a road-trip to NYC in just now.

Noteworthy is that the show will have participation from some Fluxus artists. A little personal refresher course turned up a number of interesting nuggets, including the fact that right here in Buckeye Country Fluxus is alive and well! They hit a soft spot when I learned of The Year of the Hot Dog. Astute denizens of the ‘Planet will make the connection to my lost dream of a career as a barnstorming weiner pilot.

More, Plato, Skinner – entire posts could be filled with the names of those who riffed on the concept of an ideal society. Perhaps the whole thing is better explored in cyberspace? I read a lot these days about places like Second Life … and “going virtual” is perpetually on my to-do list. Then again, I read Snow Crash, so maybe I should take a pass.

Postmodern cynics much prefer the dystopian vision, especially in Hollywood. I always say you learn something new every day. Who knew that John Stuart Mill coined the term during a speech before Parliament? Do you suppose he’d had half-a-pint of shandy that day?

I’ve temporarily lost my urge to ponder the ideal, short of saying that this side of heaven I don’t expect we’ll see it. But, as Clive Staples said, that’s no reason to allow the ship to “remain a floating hell.”

Further up and further in, I say!