Monday, March 19, 2007

Feeling Slightly Guilty

I think that it's interesting that just a couple of weeks after I posted the entry about Steven Spielberg and Norman Rockwell it comes out in the news that Steven Spielberg has been housing a stolen Norman Rockwell painting! (Sorry, I've been meaning to post this for a while. It's sort of old news.)

First, I feel badly that it means that Spielberg purchased a stolen painting. Now, it's been a few years since I took a class on contract law, but if I recall correctly, he just gets to give the painting back, which means that the money he spent on the painting in the first place is gone. And now he has nothing.

Second, I technically posted some of his art (both of their art) on my blog, even though I found it elsewhere on the internet. Is that bad? Should I take them down? Should I follow his good example of turning in stolen artwork and delete it off of my blog? Kudos to Spielberg for turning it in. You have my respect, sir.

Third, I hope that the fact that Steven Spielberg previously owned this stolen piece of art increases the value of the painting.

Fourth, I also hope that he creates a homage to the "Russian Schoolroom" in an upcoming film. Perhaps Indiana Jones IV? Could they be in Russia for that one? Are you listening, Steven Spielberg?

Just to update from the last post, I did purchase my Norman Rockwell book. I decided to get this one because it was compiled by Tom Rockwell (son of Norman), who you may remember from such delightful books as "How to Eat Fried Worms" and "How to Fight a Girl."

Also, I neglected to link from the comments on the last blog. You may have noticed some comments regarding a dog chewing on someone's foot. That was all about a storytelling contest that was hosted by Compulsive Writer, who entertains me from time to time with her writing. I was browsing her blog one night at about quarter to midnight, when I came upon the contest. We were challenged 1. to write prose about how young lovers ended up as you will see on her blog and 2. to come up with a better parting than the "Romeo and Juliet", Thus with a kiss I die. I thought to myself, I can hurry and enter! I didn't win, but you can read my submission here. I wrote it in a few minutes, and I severely borrowed from Shakespeare's Sonnet 116. If you're familiar with the sonnet, it might be funnier. You can either read all of the entries or skip down to mine. It's called "Writing Sonnet 116 Over Again."

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Indiana Jones in Russia... interesting thinking. That could be fun. I think your interweb Rockwell pics are different from Spielberg's painting. But technically, to be completely appropriate... you should credit the source for supplying you with a Rockwell image. Sometimes you can get served with cease and desist orders for things like that, but I doubt a personal blog would incur that wrath! ;-)

Cardine said...

What if the source is wikipedia? Do I source wikipedia or do I source the person THEY got it from?

Eh, if they wanted me to cease and desist, I would do it.

Cardine said...

And... "I think your interweb Rockwell pics are different from Spielberg's painting."

I don't know what you meant by that. If my pics were different than the one recently found to be in Spielberg's collection, that's correct. He had "Russian Schoolroom." I posted "Freedom from Fear."

B said...

I don't think it's correct to say Steven Spielberg is left with nothing because he gave his painting back. He probably has more than whomever he returned the painting to. I doubt Spielberg will ever have nothing. How about saying Spielberg is unable to recover the value of the painting or the amount of money he paid for the painting?
I'm not trying to criticize, the statement just bothered me and you know why.

Cardine said...

I stand by the way that it's written. I concluded the paragraph with the statement that referred to the paragraph and didn't create a separate paragraph for a separate topic.

Did anyone else think that I was saying that Spielberg actually had nothing?

Insert smiley here.

tearese said...

I actually never heard that news story, that I recall. How interesting.

tearese said...

oh, I did like your writing submission; very clever of you. Did she say where she got that picture from?

Anonymous said...

Yes, my thoughts exactly... Cardine, you are very clever!!

Cardine said...

Tearese, yes, she did say where the photo was from in a previous post. Here is the link she provided.

Anonymous said...

Cardine, I remember liking "How to Eat Fried Worms." Because of that memory, I checked out the 2006 movie. I couldn't finish it. Terrible. I don't remember the book being so bad, but maybe this was just a mishandled movie. Have you seen it?

Cardine said...

I haven't seen it yet. Unfortunately the plight of children's books being made into movies is that people think that children are dumb and so they can get away with dumbness. Ugh.