If you are a fantasy fan…wait…scratch that. If were ever a boy child, you probably love the art of Frank Frazetta whose iconic renderings of Conan the Barbarian, Tarzan and countless scantily clad damsels, priestesses and Amazons are the stuff that being a 13-year-old male is made of.

The Nerdist website just dropped a bomb when it announced Robert Rodriguez’ opening of a Frank Frazetta museum during the South by Southwest festival in Austin, TX. I’ve been scouring the evidence and if you are familiar with the the recent Frazetta story — which involves attempted robbery of the artist’s paintings by his own son and other family infighting — you might be as confused as I am.

Here’s my take: Rodriguez will be showing his own collection of the master fantasy painter’s original art along with original art from other projects like Sin City. Admission and print sales will go to support the re-opening of the Frazetta Art Museum in Pennsylvania. It seems the Rodriguez display is just a pop-up that will only be open from March 8 — 16.

Here is a bit from the Nerdist post:

Heading to SXSW? Well, good for you, you lucky so-and-so! As if filling your belly with BBQ, beer, and all manner of uber-hip nerdiness wasn’t enough, we’re proud to exclusively announce that for a limited time only director Robert Rodriguez is opening a museum to display his impressive collection of Frank Frazetta artwork at SXSW. Go ahead and start scouring Craigslist for passes now — we’ll wait.
One of the most iconic fantasy artists in history, the Eisner Hall of Famer contributed art to classic works of fiction for Conan the Barbarian, Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, and countless others. With rare Frazetta works like “Death Dealer”, “Egyptian Queen”, “At the Earth’s Core”, “Conan”, and “Dark Kingdom” on display, you can bet your bottom dollar that it’ll be well worth your while. The gallery, which will be open to the public daily from March 8-16 from noon-8pm, is located at 920 Congress Ave. in Austin, TX, and will charge a $20 entrance fee which goes to benefit the Frazetta Estate’s preservation of art for a new Frank Frazetta museum.

And here is an interview from late last year with Frazetta’s son and grandson discussing the future of the museum which originally opened in 2001 but was closed after Frazetta’s death in 2010. Be sure to watch through to the end to see a flip-through of one of Frazetta’s earliest notebooks…

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In the wake of the NSA/Snowden revelations, and the general sense of paranoia that has taken grip of the news cycle and the internet, a few pundits have assumed the roles of cultural watchdogs, taking the pulse of public taste to measure the effect of the spooky news on the hearts and minds of the people.

A number of journalists and commentators have noted that one possible side-effect of the recently-revealed government snooping on personal communications has been a spike in the sales of the George Orwell classic 1984 on the mega-book-selling-site Amazon.

But how big is the sales spike and how much of it can be attributed to Snowden’s bravery in the face of the NSA’s dubious doings? This article at Slate offers a measured interpretation:

Sales of one particular edition of George Orwell’s dystopian classic are up some 5,000 percent on Amazon.com in the past 24 hours, according to the site’s list of “movers and shakers.” The figure was as high as 7,000 earlier today.

But before you conclude that this sales spike represents some sort of national intellectual awakening, keep in mind that we’re talking percentages here.

Check out the full article at the link above and consider (re)reading the 64-year-old novel to catch up on today’s headlines.

While I’m a big fan of reading and re-reading, I’m offering the following for those of you who’d prefer to watch the movie version that was released in 1984: John Hurt plays Winston Smith – an everyman living in the totalitarian state of Oceana. Working for the Ministry of Truth, Winston literally rewrites history in accordance with the dictates of the Party lead by Big Brother. Winston falls in love with a beautiful revolutionary who offers him a glimpse of true freedom until the Thought Police intervene. 1984 is a spy story and a bitter satire, but it’s also a romance which suggests that the most subversive act of all may be loving another person.

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