Feliz Navidad!

"Family Tree," oil on linen, 24x36 inches by David FeBland

Nervous fish?

We often get together with my wife's family at Hinode Sushi in Rockville, a hidden gem of a Japanese restaurant in Rockville.

One of my nephews is very much into aquariums and pet fish, etc. and next to Hinode is a pet shop with a lot of fish to choose from... anyway, my nephew usually wonders into the pet shop, buys a fish, they put it in a plastic bag filled with water, and then my nephew walks back to Hinode, and eventually we all go our respective ways.

I've often wondered if the fish, elated to be "rescued" from the boredom of the tank in the pet shop, is all excited that someone has finally bought it, and is looking forward to a new place to swim... and then is walked into a sushi shop.

Does the fish think: "oh, oh... crap!"

Campello men

That's three generations of Campello men... Left to right: one blue-eyed, one very light grey-eyed, and one brown-eyed - how's that for throwing genetics to the wind?

World will not end without a fight!

Just in case you were wondering... I'm in the middle of a gigantic struggle fighting the dark side in an epic fight to save the world today!

Battle is still going on, but so far nothing is looking shimmery, like Marty McFly does every time that he's about to be eliminated from the future when he's in the past.

Struggle on!

Score one for the Mayans

Since tomorrow is the end of the world, I'm gonna be saving big bucks, because the day after tomorrow is my wife's birthday, and since tomorrow is the end of the world... do you see my logic?

Of course, no one wants the world to end, except maybe those mutant Ayatollahs in Iran, but there's that whole "present-buying" angle to work...

Hirst leaving his dealer...

But “these superstar artists are self-propelled machines,” said Tobias Meyer, director of Sotheby’s contemporary art department worldwide and its principal auctioneer. “Just as actors left their studios in the 1950s, artists have become bigger stars than their galleries. The world is their oyster, and they know it.”

Read the NYT story here.

When modern art baffles

"If you've ever stared at a piece of modern art and felt you just didn't "get it," you're probably among the majority.

The Smithsonian is trying to change that. The American Art Museum has begun hosting discussions aimed at helping museum-goers grasp the meaning behind some of the museum's more enigmatic works."

Read the whole story by WTOP's Madeline Tallman here.