YSaC, Vol 457: Fred Astaire got nothin on this…
Picture of my cat Bo Jangles – $75
My daughter drew a picture of our cat Bo Jangles. She is 6 years old and draws at at least an 8 year old level!
Being a child prodigy myself (Saxophone!), I believe I could sell this for at least $75.
I promise only my daughter drew this!
Wow. I know a lot of saxophonists. Oddly enough, the fact that a saxophonist made this post does not surprise me one little bit.
I’m curious as to how one evaluates drawing at an eight year old vs. a six year old level. Would a six year old have drawn the tail coming out of the cat’s head or something?
Tabbie, who sent this in, also points out that a picture marked “I heart BJ” might acquire a different connotation in some contexts. But I can’t think of ANY context where this is worth $75. Even if a saxophonist told me so.
I have the t-shirt. The words are the same, but the picture is slightly different. It was only $18.95.
I figured out the math involved:
$69 because it mentions BJ.
+ $ 6 becuse it was drawn by a six-year-old
=$75
You paid for that shirt?
I make it every day for a different girl, free… 😉
Just kidding, of course. I still has my virginity.
Yeah, you’re all so proud. I can tell.
I teach first grade. This picture is pretty good, but I have five or six students who can do better. I wouldn’t trade it for a happy face sticker, let alone greenbacks.
Hey, maybe this guy’s onto something. I can start my own little sweat-shop if I make my class draw all day. My kids draw better than this, and I’m in need of cash. Time to post an ad at Craigslist. I’ll set my starting price lower and drive this jackass and his “prodigy” progeny out of business.
I think mom took the wrong angle on this one.
Does your child suck at Second Grade art class? For a mere $75, I will sell you my prodigy progeny’s art work, which you can then hang on your fridge, or sneak into the class room with the little snowflake. At only 6 years old, my child produces 8 year old appearing art. Complete discretion guaranteed.
Headline – “Do you love BJ?”
“My first graders do! They talk about BJ all the time, and even draw pictures! If you love BJ as much as my kids, email me at pixie721 at soon2bejailed4pedophelia dot com.”
“No, you cannot contact this user with any other goods and services.”
Darn! only last week I sent all my kids’ drawings to recycling – and they must be worth a fortune! Back to slopping paint on a canvas, riding a bike over it and … oh! that’s Pollocks isn’t it?
Those don’t look like cats to me. My conclusions are thus:
1. The girl is a big fan of M*A*S*H, particularly the later, post-Trapper seasons.
2. She’s a furry.
Ummmmm….I’ll pass. Describing it to anyone would most surely land me on an FBI watchlist for child predators.
“I got this ‘I love BJ’ picture that a six year old did”
“I got a picture of BJ from a woman who’s six year old made it”
“I got a picture of BJ from a six year old prodigy” Somehow that sounds even WORSE.
Yeah, there’s really no way to win with this.
“Child” + “BJ” =bad things
This ‘parent’ needs their reset button pushed, now.
Oh, and the implications of a mother who would sell her six year old’s fridge art? That’s heartless!
But I KNOW if my mom had E-bay when I was little, she probably would have done the same thing. Hell, she may do it now when she finds a box of our old projects.
Apparently, somehow being good at the saxophone now makes you good at sales too. Whether she was a child prodigy or not, she’d better be a dickens of an adult prodigy if she thinks she could make 75 bucks off of that. Then again, if that was the case she’d be better off pushing used cars than posting on CL.
Maybe I should sell my nephew’s pre-school art project of a horse. He’s 3 but the art is at least at the 5 year old level. And he picked the name “Pistachio” for his horse. I think art from a pre-school polysyllabic prodigy like him should be worth at least $100!
I was a little nutty about the abilities of my children when they were young. I am sure my friends and especially my co-workers got a little sick of hearing about it. Especially the ones who were single and had no interest in kids. If any of them are reading this, sorry about that.
But selling their “artwork”? Even I, in my infinite pride in them, wasn’t so blinded by my pride that I thought the stuff they drew was worth more than the paper it was printed on.
On a side note, my son played Saxophone in high school band. I’m hoping Dan can explain himself.
There’s being ‘nutty’ about your childrens artwork (as most parents are, including myself judging by my fridge full of scribbles drawn my my 18 mo old), and then there’s ‘I can sell my children’s artwork for more than what a print of a professional would cost you at Wal-mart’).
I’m guessing her daughter isn’t cute enough to be in some of those kiddie pagents, because this sounds EXACTLY like the creepy stage moms who live vicariously through their kids. What do you want to bet mom’s a pencil-pusher instead of a professional saxaphone player?
Sure. Saxophonists are loonies.
I’m sorry, JcT, but based on my experience, I’m with Dan on this one.
All the saxophonists I’ve met are a little…
Pompous.
I have played the saxophone since 4th grade; I am not a loony.
Even I know that my eight year old’s drawings, who draws like he’s ten, are only worth anything to those who are close to him.
I personally think this is a joke, at least I truly hope it is a fallacy. Otherwise, I would find this more disturbing that any of the other posts ever listed here.
Sarajean I completely agree, the thought of “BJ” and a child DO NOT mix! It’s not funny. It’s sick.
Reset…Reset…Reset…Reset…Reset…Why is it not working?!
“Even I know that my eight year old’s drawings, who draws like he’s ten, are only worth anything to those who are close to him. ”
Uhm…. I think I’m starting to see a pattern amongst you sax players… 😛
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrVxcc2ZV0I
I was going to agree that there are no circumstances under which this might be worth $75, when it struck me. Yeah, uh, a pedophile might pay that much for this thing. Ugggggh.
Can’t really say anything to add to the commentary that hasn’t already been said; just keep snickering and rolling my eyes.
For some reason, I think this is the mom – a female sax player, but one without the discerning characteristics of Lisa Simpson.
See, there’s a bit of a pass for Bari Sax players like Lisa Simpson. I mean, if it’s good enough for John Linnell, it’s good enough for me. And the theme from Night Court just wouldn’t be the same. Everybody’s all on about the claves solo in that oeuvre, but the attacks were messy and the timbre was all wrong.
And we wonder why kids get such a sense of entitlement.
I have a friend whose artwork of a cat would look like a cat that wouldn’t charge $75 for it.
Plus, that freaky little cat in the lower left corner is missing an ear on one side and whiskers on the other. WTF did they do to that cat?
A kick-ass cartoonist that I know does custom cat portraits for $40. He charges $50 if the cat’s a longhair, because I guess Gabby can’t stand hippies?
But judging from the samples on Gabby’s website, you could be getting a lot more value for your money than this Proud Parent is offering…
Oooh, your friend does nice work! I know what I’m getting myself for my next birthday.
For one thing, they have nearly starved that cat to death! It’s so skinny!
I was thinking that as well. That, and the fact that (not to toot my own horn, because my skills aren’t much better now) when I was 6, never mind 8, I had gotten past drawing stick figures. Sure, they were mainly-unidentifiable quadrupeds (pointy ears and whiskers the only tip-off), but they weren’t stick figures.
there’s a level of idiocy and stupidity in this country that i just dont understand. i’m a terrible artist, so my parents wouldnt have considered hanging any of it up… and we didnt do refrigerator art in teh 50s. artwork done by my niece and godsons, yeh, its on my fridge, and they are all in their upper teens. its cute. would i want to sell it as being artistic? hell no.
lady – keep your BJ cat, and all its connotations, and leave this ‘art’ on your fridge, where it belongs. and folks – stop being gullible!! for those who do not have or didnt have any kids in their families whose art can be fridge-door’d, i hope you’re not buying somebody ELSE’s kid art to hang on your fridge….
i think this could get creepy, too, but i wont go there…
This doesn’t look anything like actual art done by an actual child. So not only is the ad poster a sax prodigy, but she’s a LIAR, too. Not a prodigy at that, nope.
I agree. I’ve got a niece around the same age and most of her drawings are of the blobby-shape-with-random-lines school. Most of the time you can not tell if it’s suppose to be a person or a porcupine. This looks like something an adult would draw while trying to make it look like a kid did it. The writing is much too nice, you can actually tell what the letters are supposed to be. I guess the OP thought if theyclaimed a child did it they might get someone to cough up the $75.
The OP should try listing it on eBay under outsider art. My mom listed a couple of paintings I made back in high school that were really terrible and they actually sold, but I think she only got about $10 each for them.
I’m not even sure this is as terribly wonderful or wonderfully terrible to be outsider art.
Though if anyone is interested in … unusual art, this is one of the funnier pages I’ve read in relation to it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Bad_Art
I’ve been there. It was well named.
I looked at the samples in the link.
I can’t tell the difference between them and some of the paintings I saw in museums and galleries when I was in Italy this summer.
I don’t know if this says more about me or about the state of the arts.
I`’m going to go out `o
I’m going to go out on a limb here.. I think this was done by a person trying to covertly sell BJ’s for $75. She really loves BJ.
(the first post was courtesy of my baby hitting buttons while i tried to type..)
Don’t you love it when they do that? My dwarf lop rabbit LOVES music, and he figures hat i comes ou of he keyboard.
hat’s wha happened o my T key.
He seems o have made i insensiive.
@Madelaine Your baby typed that?! Are you gonna sell it?
I’m with you there, Heather. I don’t think it’s actually drawn by a kid.
Madeline may be right that this is basically a clumsy covert ad for BJ services.
Maybe the saxophone thing is some attempt to get us thinking about her putting things in her mouth and tonguing them.
I’ll bet she played tenor saxaphone and her reeds were REALLY green and gooey. Back in my junior high band days, all the tenor saxes grossed us out with their rotten reeds.
I think the mold spores got to this one.
That was fun,plus those reeds were expensive, specially if they were anything over 5’s.
The euphonium players would empty their spit valves, though.
They stole all the glory.
Big deal. Kid can draw stick figure cats at an 8 year old’s level but can’t write “Bo Jangles.” Hop on the short bus, Picasso.
Hey I love BJ too. 🙂 Now I’ve got to check out Urban Dictionary to find out what the saxophone reference means.
Well, you blow a saxophone, right? Yeah…I got nothing else.
Well her parents will know why she keeps sneaking out once she becomes a teenager. She’ll be pursuing her great love for BJ.
I agree with the above comments, I’m going to call my mother ASAP and give her the good news about her box of old childhood drawings.
as they said on gilmore girls, there’s an unexplained innocence in the world.
My mom should have sold everything I wrote my name on at age 3. “She’s only 3! There are 5-year-olds who struggle with this! Especially with a name that has 8 letters!”
Hmm, I think I can work with this… I have The Boy’s first nude hanging in my bedroom. He may have been only four when he drew it, but his boobs were definitely at high school level. I didn’t realize he was a prodigy, I assumed it had something to do with the breastfeeding.
I’m pretty sure that, even if the claim were true, being TWO YEARS ahead of a learning curve does not define you as a prodigy.
Can we please declare a moratorium on parents ever using the word “prodigy” in reference to their own offspring? Heck, I could read at three, I still wait tables for a living.
Hear hear. I could read at three too, and that hasn’t gotten me much beyond an overly large vocabulary.
I think it is quite clear that the cat on the left does not, in fact, <3 BJ. The cat on the right looks happy enough, though. Conclusion: 50% of cats <3 BJ.
Pfft! My badass artist friend who’s currently in one of the most badass art schools in the country would draw me up a picture that cost less money than that.
I still think it is a dad selling this, not a mom. Am I missing something?
Saxophone?
BJs?
“I promise only my daughter drew this!” (Hmmm..sounds alot like “I never had sexual relations with that woman” doesn’t it?)
I think it’s Bill Clinton!
While I’m sure those are supposed to be whiskers, the cat in the bottom left really looks like it’s throwing up which is a mistake I’m sure no 8 year old would ever make.
i just re-read that. now, i’m not sure if it isnt the cat who is six years old. maybe the kid isnt a prodigy after all….
One of my very first words was, no joke, “Cooperation”. You think my mom should have sold my tutoring services to pre-schoolers who just couldn’t pronounce their R’s???
I also started deep, insightful conversations with strangers.. And when my parents asked why I was crying at 2, I responded, “I just don’t feel like a member of this family right now”.
Perhaps I was a psychology prodigy…now they just say I’m emotional.
sooooo, if his 6 year old can draw like an 8 year old, that make’s her a new picasso or what? if so, he obviously should feed the poor critter better. but i guess he’s just ashamed of the hole “I love BJ”-thing his daughter fabricated – and short of a shredder. and of a good portion of modesty.
the unknowing naivity of his little girl is sort of cute somehow, but leaves just one question – why the heck is the damn cat’s nickname not “Bo”?
Did it occur to any of you this is probably a joke?
Not real. A six year old wouldn’t draw stick figures. Stick figures are something you start drawing once you’ve given up on learning how to draw for real. And the lines are way too clean to be drawn by a child.
Obviously photoshopped.
Awww – I actually think that picture is adorable… so much so that I’m going to download it (for free!) and print it out…
I actually would have considered paying $7.50 for it – perhaps she just got the decimal wrong?
Although the “I love BJ” sentiment is a little disturbing, but my husband might like it…
Wait – do you think this is a secret advertisement for a $75 blow-job? Is it possible that it would be that obscure? Why doesn’t it say “I love Bo Jangles” if that’s his name?
Why am I giving this so much thought??
After reading it a second time (which resulted in the need of a second good mind-scrubbing), I think the saxophone reference means she likes to “blow horns”.
This is a vaguely related and funny story so I’ll tell it. There is a restaurant near where I went to high school, a little hole-in-the-wall dive called BJ’s. It was very popular among students, chiefly because it was close and cheap, but also because the owner would occasionally give out things like keychains or bumper stickers to customers.It was common to slap them on the bumpers or locker doors of people you didn’t like. And what did this marketing genius have printed on them? “I ♥ BJ’s!”