When I was a kid my mom would ask "Are you ready for the best feeling in the world?" Right before dumping a warm basket of clothes over my head fresh out of the dryer.

"No one volunteers to fight in a war who is happy at home."

It is from my mom that I get my love of books and since she arrived here on March 9th she has crushed five books here at the Rhodes library:

Joan of Arc by Mark Twain

Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin

Picasso by Gertrude Stein

The Success And Failure Of Picasso by John Berger

Paris At The End Of The World by John Baxter

In this episode my mom and I talk about the books she just read and the one she just started, Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes. We also talk about our time together in this global lockdown and relive happy memories like when I was a kid my mom would ask "Are you ready for the best feeling in the world?" Right before dumping a warm basket of clothes over my head fresh out of the dryer. We also talk about the art documentaries we have watched so far in our pandemic university courses. The documentaries that we have watched so far are:

BBC 1969 Civilisation

BBC Modern Masters (Matisse,Picasso, Dali, Andy Warhol).

BBC The Private Life Of A Masterpiece

BBC The High Art Of The Low Countries

New York & Paris Abbott & Atget (Photography)

Finding Vivian Maier (Photography)

PBS The Life & Times Of Frida Kahlo

Biography: Vincent Van Gogh - A Stroke Of Genius

The Hermitage Museum Of St. Petersburg

The Great Artists with Tim Marlow

The best way to relieve your mind from stress is to focus on art, beauty, books, cinema, comedy, music, appreciating the people who mean the most to you in life. We who are coronavirus free have a lot to be grateful for. After we recorded this my mom felt a little bad that she said at the end that: "we were rich" without clarifying that she didn't mean money in the bank rich but heart, mind and soul rich. So just to clarify for my mom before this goes public that when my mom says that her and I are rich she meant because of the people in our life and the love in our hearts. I hope your mom makes you feel as rich as mine does for me. Every day we still go out and watch the sunset and appreciate the moment. Spending time with the people you love is the key to happiness now and always. Please enjoy the knowledge that my mom lays out for you in this episode on art, life and books.

Hooray for humanity!