Quay Brothers: On Deciphering the Pharmacist's Prescription for Lip-Reading Puppets. The Museum Of Modern Art. From now until Jan. 2013.

Went up to the Moma on Wednesday to view the Quay Brothers retrospective and I found it pretty charming if not always compelling. I suppose the attention must be paid factor would depend on ones interest in animation and Eastern European animation at that. Although the twin brothers are American having been born in Penn. in 1947 they have lived mainly in Europe. The boys were influenced by Polish surrealism and animation and those bold and strange Polish film posters of the 1960's and 70's that I also love. The tightly installed exhibition is in a small space and is filled with many screens showing their charming and very odd animated films along with examples of the work that influenced them. There are lots of examples of their graphic work including book covers which sort of fade into the air and memory, but the intricate dioramas that they use in their films are beautiful if somewhat precious and coying. I once again took advantage of my artist pass which allowed me to see the show during the members preview and I urge artists to take advantage of this pass which is $50.00 a year, and a better bargain is not to be found in all of Manhattan. I've already gotten my money's worth many times over since I'm there all the time. I practically had the show to myself and could leisurely look at the exhibit without those annoying hoards of tourists with their busy little cameras, snapping away at the art, instead of looking at the art. Me I like taking pictures of them taking pictures and I sometimes go out of my way to walk in front of them as they click click on their smart (who says) phones and cameras all the while tweeting away like annoying flies circling around my head. True I do take snaps of the hubba hubba men when I can, sometimes its difficult to catch them unaware and sometimes the hubba hubba guys know that I'm snapping them and pose for me, without posing if you know what I mean. I can only take this place for short periods of time, because it sometimes feels like I'm in a large mental hospital with the inmates running wild or a large airline terminal where all the flights have been delayed or canceled permanently. This place is sterile and vapid but the collection when you can actually see it is great, except of course for the trendy up to the moment Chelsea looking Contemporary Galleries: 1980–Now which is full of some really dreadful shit.