Anybody who tells you that art can’t be silly is lying.

Some of the greatest works of art are silly as hell. Michaelangelo’s “David” is hanging out in church buck-assed nekkid. The table in DaVinci’s “The Last Super” is so thin that people could only sit on one side of it. And the girl with the pearl earring? That’s not real pearl!

My point here is, sometimes as an artist, it’s your duty…perhaps even your calling…to dare to be silly.

Exactly one week ago today Mel and I took my sister, Debbie, to the Christmas Spirit store just South of Pittsburgh. In it we saw, in all its holiday glory, a massive flaming red rubber chicken. It was over two feet tall, and I grabbed a photo on my phone.

Bu that image haunted me. It taunted me. I couldn’t get it out of my head.

In my mind I heard the chicken clucking in its chicken-y voice (not unlike that of RFK Jr.) “Paint me like one of your French girls.” Even though I don’t have any French girls, and the original line from Titanic was “draw,” not “paint,” I felt compelled to pull out the acrylics and illustration board and grid out the photo so I could do a painting.

Since I’m in the middle of The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide and this was the only piece of art I worked on last week, you sorta get stuck looking at it.

If you want to see this image larger, click HERE.

Later today we continue The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide.

Meanwhile, over in radioland, Monday beginning at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you a new episode of Psychedelic Shack.  You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on the embedded radio player elsewhere on this page.

Nigel has put together a really cool hour-long collection of mind-exanding music. Check out the playlist:

Psychedelic Shack 107

Ancient Grease “Women and Children First”
Circus Maximus “Wind”
Peter Brown & His Battered Ornaments “The Politician”
Goat Generator “Far From Devine/Kingdom Gone”
Astral Magic “Sea of Infinite Possiblities”
White Witch “Auntie Christy”
The Beach Boys “Cabin Essence”
Love Sculpture “Sabre Dance”

Psychedelic Shack can be heard every Monday at 2 PM, with replays Tuesday at 9 AM, Wednesday at 10 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday at 9 AM.

At 3 PM Herman Linte also has a new episode of Prognosis, but it’s tied in to the second pick in today’s PopCult Gift Guide, so you’ll have to check back to see what we’ll have on the show.   That post should be live by Noon.

Tonight at 9 PM we bring you our newish Monday night line-up featuring two hours each of Curtain Call and Beatles Blast, plus six hours overnight with an assortment of our programming from Haversham Recording Institute,