Carol ReMarks
Carol reMarks on glamour, pop culture, and front-page news. Join me. I'm not a traditional podcast. Most of the time I am recording on-the-go with my iPhone voice memo app. Come along with me.
Carol ReMarks
Holiday Cheer and the Price of Creativity
Ever find yourself pondering the true value of art or navigating the shifting sands of family traditions? This episode kicks off with a personal story of how our family Thanksgiving tradition took a modern twist this year. Our daughter took charge of hosting in her new home, and we delighted in being guests for once, savoring her delicious turkey and the company of family and friends. As we savor the nostalgia and anticipation of the holiday season, we couldn't resist a lively discussion about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the joys of decorating for Christmas.
From heartwarming family moments, we switch to the intriguing tale of a 74-year-old New York City fruit vendor whose simple banana morphed into a viral art piece, sparking conversations about fairness and value in the art world. The banana, though sold for a staggering $6.2 million, left the vendor, Shah Alam, without a penny. It's a story that questions the absurdity of art valuation and the complexities of compensation. To round out the episode, we tackle a listener's challenge with an overbearing friend, offering practical advice on setting boundaries inspired by classic advice columns. Join us for this engaging mix of personal stories, quirky art tales, and relatable life advice.
Exit bumper Not A Democracy Podcast Network made by @FuryanEnergy
Tip Jar for coffee $ - Thanks
Blog - Carol ReMarks
X - Carol ReMarks
Instagram - Carol.ReMarks
Facebook Page - Carol ReMarks Blog
Hello, good morning. Happy Black Friday, I suppose. Do you guys participate in Black Friday? I do not, nope, no, thank you. Um, I'm at work, actually just pulled up in the parking lot, uh, where I work. You don't automatically get the day after Thanksgiving off, like we used to get back in the days. You have to take PTO and I'm saving my PTO for next month when we go to the Tina Turner review. Anyway, happy Thanksgiving. Day after Thanksgiving. I hope you had a wonderful time with your family, good eats and everything I know we did. It was so funny because our daughter volunteered. My husband actually suggested that the kids start taking over the Thanksgiving. I don't know if he was serious or half joking when he said it.
Speaker 1:We were all out to dinner one day and together and gracie, my daughter, volunteered, she said I'll do it. She hasn't. She's moved into a new home. So she wanted. She lived apartment life her whole, her whole life and she finally moved into an actual home with a yard and everything, a house. So she wanted to host it. So we said okay, and it was really nice. She it was her, her husband, the gent, and I, my son and his wife and Cameron, of course, and then my daughter had a couple of her friends come over too Single girls that came over. Uh, very good friends they. They've been friends since high school. So it was nice.
Speaker 1:It was very interesting, dynamic, because we were not in charge anymore. It was not our house, it was not our oven, it was not our turkey, it was not our hosting, so so it was nice to just kind of sit back and enjoy and be present and focused. We were, we were the elders in the room and I'm. That was wow, that was pretty amazing. Anyway, it was good it was. The turkey was delicious. My daughter did a fantastic job with the turkey. Proud of her. The turkey was delicious. My daughter did a fantastic job with the turkey. Proud of her.
Speaker 1:Alright, so let's move on to the topics. Thanksgiving is over. We watched the Thanksgiving Day Parade. We saw Santa come in at the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The holiday season for Christmas is upon us. Now we can put up the tree, okay, and that's what we're going to do, hopefully, this weekend. All right, I have two podcast topics and then we're going to go to a deer abbey. I've kind of dropped my yo carol thing, um, just not happening because, also, we're ending this podcast, so there's no sense in doing yo carol, yo carols anymore. I have two podcast topics, all right.
Speaker 1:The first one new york city fruit vendor who is 74 years old who sold the banana, devastated after it became viral 6.2 million artwork. He says I am a poor man. Oh wow, poor guy. You remember this banana artwork? Well, somebody you know had to sell him the banana. The New York City fruit vendor who sold an ordinary banana that was duct taped to a gallery wall inside Sotheby's and sold for a whopping 6.2 million, was devastated to learn that he was made the butt of the joke. But New Yorkers and the art buyer are now lining up to support him. Oh good, shaw Alam, a 74-year-old fruit seller who works a sidewalk stand outside Sotheby's on the Upper East Side for $12 an hour, sold the piece of fruit that would become part of Italian artist Marzia Catalin's absurdist work titled Comedian.
Speaker 1:The New York Times reported Thursday I didn't know about this artwork. I kind of saw headlines about it, but I didn't know the specifics and details. This is a shame. Sotheby's needs to be put out of business. This is ridiculous. It's like the guy walked by the fruit and said, oh, on his way to work to Sotheby's and the fruit guy was outside oh, let me get a banana. Oh, let me just duct tape to the wall and that'll be our artwork today. Shame, shame.
Speaker 1:The conceptual piece, which first debuted at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019, offers a commentary on the ridiculousness of the art world. Well, yeah, but you profited off of it, didn't you? I guess that made me kind of smart then. With its meaning tied to the money and fans it attracts, it was sold by Sotheby's last week on behalf of an anonymous collector. In that way, the work becomes self-reflexive. Okay, the higher the price, the more it reinforces its original concept. Last week, that meaning swelled to the millions at auction. All right, we know all of this.
Speaker 1:So Alam, a nearly blind Bangladeshi immigrant who doesn't speak much English, had no idea his 35-cent banana was resold for the eyeball popping price until a times reporter found him and told him last week how does he know that this is the guy that sold him banana? I am a poor man. Alum told the reporter, his voice breaking. I have never had this kind of money. I have never seen this kind of money. Uh, wow, the fruit seller moved. Okay, well, we don't need to know all of that. We don't need to know his background, let's just get to what happened. Did you guys help him out? He didn't get the concept behind the community but felt like the joke came at his expense. Those who bought it. What kind of people are they? He asked the Times reporter. Do they not know what a banana is? Do they not know what a banana is? Catalan, who was not compensated for the Sotheby's sale, said he felt the vendor but didn't offer to help him.
Speaker 1:The reaction of the banana vendor moves me deeply, underscoring how art can resonate in unexpected and profound ways, he told the Times via email. However, art by its nature does not solve problems. If it did, it would be politics. Justin's son, the new owner of the Comedian, whose net worth is estimated to be at least $1.4 billion, meanwhile offered to pay Alam for more of the yellow fruit.
Speaker 1:To thank Mr Shah Alam, I've decided to buy 100,000 bananas from his stand in New York's Upper East Side. These bananas will be distributed free worldwide. Why don't you just give him the damn money? I mean, so what? So we're like 35 cents, a banana of 35 cents times 100,000. I guess that's a pretty decent. I don't know. Somebody do the math on that. I'm going to do the math here in a minute. Let's see. Let's see what the math is. Okay, so if I did my math correctly, it's $35,000, which is more than he makes in a year Slightly more than he makes in a year. I guess that's pretty good. Better than over and finish this, finish this story. It's also unclear if, if alam's tiny neighborhood fruit stand has the supply for such a large purchase. That was my next question. That's going to be more trouble for him to try to get all these bananas. I think I would think that's what I'm saying. Just give him the damn money.
Speaker 1:Mr alam's contribution to this extraordinary artwork is the indispensable, highlighting the boundless possibilities and value hidden in everyday life. I hope this initiative will bring the story to a broader audience and one day I look forward to visiting the fruit stand in person to express my gratitude again. An anonymous New Yorker launched a GoFundMe for the fruit seller and promised to match the first $5,000 raised. Wow, do we really want to live in a city where we can shrug off a street vendor who's moved to tears by the fact that he's been made the butt of a joke involving the amount of wealth obscene to him while celebrating some smart ass for figuring out how to make $6 million from that joke. If this utter and gross indifference isn't what ails us, what is? The fundraiser, who only listed their initial JS, wrote in the GoFundMe Alright. So there you go, he's going to be alright.
Speaker 1:We're moving on to the next topic. Do you guys shop at costco, especially during the holidays? I don't think I. Uh, nope, I'm not doing it. First of all, be prepared with your holiday shopping. Okay, as far as like your food and you're going out to buy stuff for Thanksgiving. Don't go at the last minute, because it is crazy out there.
Speaker 1:Footage of a heated confrontation between customers, apparently taken inside a Costco, emerged the day before Thanksgiving. If you're shopping the day before Thanksgiving, you're doing it. Oh so wrong. Thanksgiving, you're doing it. Oh so wrong.
Speaker 1:Sparking online debate about naughty shopper behavior as gift buying season gets underway. An aggravated man rammed a woman's shopping cart with his own as he impatiently tried to push through a sea of shoppers in an aisle. According to a video a fellow customer posted on a Reddit Costco thread. Boy, reddit has everything, doesn't it? If you want to go find something, I guess go look at Reddit. I have got to get more into Reddit? I guess I don't know. Do I need to get more into Reddit? Do you guys use Reddit a lot? Let me know that will be the question of the day. Do you guys use Reddit and, if so, do you find it useful? Should I start using Reddit? All right, sharing down the? Okay, I'm not even. I'm not going to read the rest of this.
Speaker 1:The gist of it is and they have pictures in this article. It's from the New York Times, I mean New York Post. They have pictures of it and it does look so damn crowded I would have lost my mind. What I would have probably done is left my cart right there in the middle and walked out and said, nope, not doing it. That is, there is just car carts after carts after carts. There is no way I could do that. I don't have the patience for it. I don't think I would ram somebody's cart, but I'm not doing that, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:And I have one word for you for your holiday shopping Amazon. Now, you may not want to do your food shopping on Amazon, but I think they don't. They have groceries. I'm sure they do. Just order your groceries online and have them delivered, pay the little extra cost for it. It's to keep your sanity, okay, do that. All right? Oh, dear Abby, we need to do it.
Speaker 1:Dear Abby, I think I had a good one here. Let me go look it up. Sorry I'm taking. I thought I had it pulled up here. Bear with me. We only have a few more days of the podcast, because what today is the? Because what today is the 30th, 29, 30, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I think Sunday is the first of December, so that means Friday. We got two more days of November. December's the Sunday the first, and then after that only okay, eight, nine, ten more days. All right, we're moving on. Dear alice, um, oh, here we go.
Speaker 1:Dear abby, how do I tell my elderly gambling addicted aunt she can't move in? Uh, you just tell her no. I suppose I don't know how do I handle an elderly aunt who has a gambling problem. I live in a town with casinos. She lives in another state, four hours away. She calls me often to ask to stay with me and if I am traveling she asks to use my house, etc. A year ago she called me to help her get excluded from what. A year ago she called me to help her get excluded from gambling in the state where she lives because she was out of control. She could no longer gamble where she lives, cannot afford a hotel to go to towns with a casino and sees me as her gambling getaway.
Speaker 1:I have explained that I have a roommate and my place is small. I have no interest in someone who spends hours at a craps table coming into my home. I'm health conscious and I flat out cannot accommodate her as a guest. She won't give up. Is my only option to end communication with her, not betting on her? Well, I mean, you apparently seem to be telling her no, but she keeps calling. So what is she doing is just, I don't take her phone calls anymore. I don't know, just keep telling her no.
Speaker 1:I don't know what to do with this one. Let's see what dear. Let's see what dear abby says. Dear, not betting. Screening her calls isn't one option, and that's what I said. The other is to keep repeating your mantra that you cannot accommodate her because you have a roommate and your place is too small. Then encourage her to find another hobby. If you do, she may stop asking you and look for another enabler. Uh, okay, I think that's just totally made up whatever. All right, we gotta go. You already have the question of the day and I appreciate y'all listening and the gents and I will be back tomorrow because it's the weekend. Saturday and Sunday we will be back with an episode. So, yeah, you guys have a good one. Thanks for listening.
