Fifty-seven years ago today, the Museum of Non-Objective Art opened in New York City. Before it was renamed the Guggenheim and shunted to the Frank Lloyd Wright souvenir boutique pavilion in which it is now located, M'NOA featured portfolioed artisans and culinary academy drop-outs presenting works of art in the nominative and possessive cases only -- the transcendental School of Pluperfect had yet to be discovered. Walt Whitman first displayed his "Samplers" at MuNon-ObArt, as did his mentor, Clint Eastwood. Alfred Deller and Thomas Hardy, who never actually set foot in the joint, nonetheless sent out hundreds of invitations to a performance of the early Irish settler, O'Banky the Coot who, you'll recall from Episode 39, was the founder of the distasteful school of mimimery. To her credit, Marilyn Monroe -- who is 70 years old today and living a low-key life in the Tennessee suburbs -- never cared for mimes, though she did employ one as an au pair for her father, Brigham Young, who serendipitously also first tasted success at a wine and cheese reception at the Museum of NOA. From such queer roots hath the Guggenheim sprouted modern art, often mistaken, through no fault of its own, for le flambeau oriange.

Well, while full moon preparations continue, let me take this opportunity to wish a happy 256th birthday to the Marquis de Sade, and hope he's recovering from that painful hamstring pull he sustained while setting fire to the ever-squabbling Elgar family. Let me also wish a happy episode #54 to us, Kalvos & Damian, formerly, currently and pluperfectly of the New Music Sesquihour, this portion of which is being brought to you in the non-objectively, which differs substantially from a non-objectionably, which to this day continues to escape us.

And let us now escape into the nether world of ... oh, never mind. Let's just get this full moon on the road. Ready, Kalvos?