gilbert bouchard on the ford show. mary christa o keefe on the ford show (the gilbert is medicore, but the o keefe is the best (and frankly most generous) of the reviews this show has gotten)
10 years of labour government in the uk, and there is even less social mobility.
the jungles of yucatan in mexico, is the after effect of aztec gardens, according to the archelogist/bontanist christine hastorf
small video of a basquit show at the french embassy in new york, with an interview w. the collector--basquit works really well in highly refined architechtual spaces. (i would argue b/c his artifice is placed in stark relief with things we find more suitably or properly artificial)
on the racial politics of font choices, an extended, copiously illustrated essay.
european brochures for citroen, from the 60s. The german one for the CV 2 looks like Blair Kelly's ford.
151 SF cover illustrations by Ron Turner, a british pulp master.
though the ammagaltion of kitsch, the seperation of colour, the juxtoposition of slick plastic and decaying "organic" materials that categorize wendy walgates work can be found thruout the 80s, but her use of vertical space is kind of unique. wonderful work regardless.
big article on robert irwin;s new work--its big (huge!) and really kind of iconic.
simon scherer's pencil drawings of murder victims on Law and Order, have an eroticism that would make artuad proud.
Zachary Gilford, why won't you love me?
four cd set of early canadian garage rock--like a Toronto nuggets. Volume 3 has some work with Mynah Byrd, the band that had both Rick James and Neil Young.
blackwater dropped out of its consumer group, which is called international peace operations.
everything that bart prince ever designed reminds me of when the future was supposed to be about jetpacks, meals in pill form, encounter groups, and nubile hotties in skin tight silver jumpsuits. most of the work was done in the 80s and 90s, when he was in his early 30s, so he is fully (and maybe ironically) aware of the sources he is both qouting and deconstructing--the work is incredibly complex in how it signifies not only leisure, but the history of our expectations of lesiure, and how it also qoutes the geographic history of place, and of architechture itself--some of his curves seem to be a specific refutation of both gehry and hadid. gorgeous work.
Gradow Residence, Interior, Aspen, 1989-1993
and for comparison-- Unknown Architect, Kaldiscope Pavillion, Montreal, 1967
two cassette demos from liz phair before exile in guyville--as you would expect from digital copies of 20 yr old analog tapes, the sound quality is awful.
Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.
They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by the nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.
In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.
In ancient days, men looked at the stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.
For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.
PRIOR TO THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT:
The President should telephone each of the widows-to-be.
AFTER THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT, AT THE POINT WHEN NASA ENDS COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE MEN:
A clergyman should adopt the same procedure as a burial at sea, commending their souls to "the deepest of the deep," concluding with the Lords Prayer.
RM Vaughn mudHoney (contacted) library/postoffice/popluxe/brent/concordia/u of a/broadvalley/strathconabooks/listen/alhambra (possible)
Andrew ArtWorks (contacted) henry/gravity pope/chemistry clothing/blackbyrd/megatunes/cherry/bang on (possible)
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Cruising was the first film the gay community censored, and one of the last movies about sexual practices that were lost to AIDS, and the instability of sexual practice and personae that marked the 70s, and the power of conversion, and the aesthetics--the dark rooms, the tableaux settings, the creak of the leather and the omnipresent fluorescent/neon lighting. The censorious effect of cruising lead to a mainstreaming of queer voices, and accuracy was sacrificed to a kind of platonic ideal of gay male culture. Treating Cruising as presciently about AIDS and the fear of the gay male body, I want to write about how mainstream, popularized films ignored, castrated, reworked or censored that kind of sexual culture, and were rewarded as “progressive” or liberal as Cruising was ignored of vilified.
I imagine the piece to be divided into five parts, not including an introduction and a conclusion. Part one would be a discussion of leather culture in New York in the 70s, its popularity, and the creation of a highly codified, highly ritualized, subculture who’s highly visual signifiers created a simulacra of masculine portrayals. Part two would be how Friedkin, a straight male filmmaker from Los Angeles insinuated himself into that world, and how his portrayal of it worked as a documentary work as much as a work of fiction. Part two would be a discussion of Pacino’s method acting in the film, how he used his body to work towards and against assimilation, how his sexuality becomes an act of great ambiguity, purely from his own corporeal choices. Part four would be a discussion of how the film became loathed among certain queers, and how this loathing was a explicit and political move towards mainstreaming. Also, how this mainstreaming or lack of, was the flashpoint that lead to fights in gay culture about AIDS, bath houses, marriage, and media depictions. I want to talk especially in this section about Victor Russo’s dismissal of the film The Celluloid Closet and Russo’s later biography. Lastly, I want to talk about how leather in 1980 was taboo, but it itself became mainstreamed as an aesthetic fashion, and so the images of sexuality depicted in cruising become less then shocking. Here I want to talk about Mapplethorpe and the culture wars, Foucault’s tours through the bathhouses in the late 80s and Zizek’s essay on fisting. In conclusion, I want to discuss what was lost when both Cruising and cruising (the text and the act) became taboo.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Christies, Photo Auction, American CAsh
At Least Two Avedon bought in, other work sold for low end of estimate (market correction downwards?)
Adams Sierra club pritned photos Yosemite vs Watkins (a century earlier, albumen vs silver nitrate, Albumen outsells by 5 figures)
A century of female nudes: brandt, manray, mapplethorpe, newton, others
iconic winnogrand, (7 wks), 15k (other iconic work, WeeGee opera, went over; Lange went in the middle, reprints from 73 of Walker Evans photos from Now I Praise Famous Men went market, Arbus grenade, printed a decade after it was shot 229, Eggelston Memphis Secertary for 109K, Manray of Kiki and African Mask, 241k, Karsh and Churchill 10k, Penn Frozen Food, 109)
Frank, Cafteria, bought in
Dan Graham bought in (one of those accidents of commerce, the Dan Graham, a Shore featuring cares, and an evans featuring a bus, the graham is the only one that wen unsold)
I really hate Watkins
that 78 seires from Penn, wehre he took ethnic people in exotic costume, and shot them in a new york studio, three or four images from that series, for low 6 figures. (the sepia tone, the costume, etc its colonial, isnt it,updates of Curtis and all those victorians?) (three new guinea works from the same seires went unsold though)
Atget sold really well, but you can still get some of his best images for a tenth of medicore Penn shots
Wojanowicz. the buffalo shot--more conceptual then photo, but i always get a catch in my throat looking at them. (46,4)
I know that no one has any moeny, but the dundas collection was bought for the canadian government for more then 11m, but something like Mayfair, Winnipeg, from Shore, went unsold for 5k, that piece should be in Canada
I have o idea why one would by a singular Becher
Three Lux for much less then they were going for in the last auction
most of the mapplethorpes are teh flowers, the 6 or so male ndues were sold for 5/6k if sold at all
some old queen sold his collection: erotic male work by mapplethorpe, weber, plat-lynnes, ritts, horst, no big break thrus, 4-5 figures
the valley wonders how to deal with porn when so much of it is done for free and given away on the interweb--on conde nast's buisness magazine.
roberta smith on The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, now at th met. (they hung John Singleton Copley's Watson and the Shark beside it, which might be best curtaorial strategy ive heard in years---the violent and the placid, sharks conquering humans and humans conquering sharks)
Here is the Copley:
Speaking of Smith,this is one of the better encapsulations of the Christoph Buchel/Mass:Mocca situation.
wsj provides a comprhensive infographic about the subprime morgatge disaster state by state.
chigo is a japanese childrens emporuiium, with the most elegant and lovely clothing and toys. make me want to be 5 again.
Two videos of Stringbean, both on the opry from the mid 60s, watching him with porter wagoner is cognitivly dissonant.
30 hours of podcasts from the delta blues musuems, called the uncensored history of blues. Each is thematic, with anecdotes, cultural history, examples of the music, and texts written out afterwards. A fantastic resource.
Miyake, Breast Plate, Moulded Plastic, 1993
york u censors a window display after a parent complains.
FATALE: A DANGEROUS NIGHT OF FEMME PERFORMANCE Nov. 25 / Doors 7 p.m. / Show 7:30 p.m. Latitude 53 Free
BIRCH HEART PRESENTS: WET SECRETS, SPREEPARK, KNOTS Nov. 26 / Doors 7 p.m. / Show 8:00 p.m. McDougall United Church Tickets: $11, Pride Centre, Blackbyrd Myoozik, Megatunes; $More at the door
GET BENT: QUEER YOUTH ART (VISUAL ARTS) Nov. 26 – Dec. 1 Reception Dec. 1 at 2:30 p.m. Art Gallery of Alberta Free
DESERT HEARTS (FILM) / WARS WE DRESS UP FOR (SHORT FILMS) Nov. 27 / 7 p.m. / 9 p.m. Metro Cinema Tickets: $10 / $8 (students with ID/seniors) at the door
QUEER STORY SLAM Nov. 28 / 7 p.m. Blue Chair Café Entry fee: $5 for storytellers, $pass-the-hat for audience
ANN CVETKOVICH: DEPRESSION: A PUBLIC FEELINGS PROJECT Nov. 29 / 1 p.m. UofA Humanities Centre, L-3 Free
533 STATEMENTS / BUBBLE (FILMS) Nov. 29 / 7 p.m. / 9 p.m. Metro Cinema Tickets: $10 / $8 (students with ID/seniors) at the door
TOAST AT THE ROOST (ARTIST/AUDIENCE MIXER) Nov. 29 / 18+ The Roost
ALBERTA BEEF OVEREXPOSED (DRAG KING CABARET) Nov. 30 / Doors 4 p.m. / Show 10 p.m. / 18+ Prism Bar & Grill No cover
MAKING QUEER ART WITH YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS Dec. 1 / Noon – 4 p.m. Art Gallery of Alberta Free
ROUGE: MASQUEERADE Dec. 1 / Doors 8 p.m. / 18+ Masonic Hall Tickets: $25, Tix on the Square, Pride Centre, Blackbyrd Myoozik
THE WORKS PRESENTS: TELLING TAILS AND OTHER STORIES BY DAVID FOLK Nov. 5 - Dec. 1 The Works Gallery Free
A Grindhouse is not a home: An evening of trashy local homemade films Nov. 28 / 7 p.m. / Free Edmonton Public Library
Ivan E. Coyote: Chest Air (Inside/OUT Keynote Lecture) Nov. 30 / 3:30 p.m. UofA Education North Building Room 7-152
Friday, October 19, 2007
Washington 1-800-544-1800
Oregon 1 800-547-7842
California (800) 862-2543.
(208) 334-2470 Idaho
I 800 Utah Fun
I 800 Visit MT
Arizona has liev chat
Wyoming
The Colorado Educational Map is not only a detailed roadmap, it is also a functional learning tool to keep your kids amused all day with fun facts, photos and drawings.
1-800-545-2070 new mexico (the email is enchantment@newmexico.gov)
North Dakota 800-435-5663
! 800 S Dakota
877)NEBRASKA.
I 800 2 Kansas
1-800-652-6552 Oklahoma
1 800 888 8Tex
Minnesota 1-888-TOURISM (1-888-868-7476)
Iowa has a film office
Missouri (573) 751-4133 phone
1-800-NATURAL or (501) 682-7777 (V/TT) Arkansas
1 800 99 Gumbo (LA)
1-800-432-8747 Wisconsin
Illinois has travel guides for hispanic and African American tourists
(615) 741-2159 Tennesse
601.359.3297 Mississpi
1-800-225-8747 Kentucky
phone: 1-800-677-9800 (indiana)
(800) 644-2489, Michigan
1 800 Buckeye (Ohio)
I 800 Visit PA
I 800 Call NYS
I 1800 Vermont
T: (603) 271-2665 New Hampshire
1-888-624-6345 Maine
800) 227-MASS
Toll FREE: 800-556-2484 (24 hours) Rhode Island
Main Office (860) 256-2800 CT
1 800 Visit NJ
1-866-284-7483 Delaware
1-866-639-3526 Maryland
all of that said, his 2006 album, had one of the more jaw dropping racist moments:
...Fiddle and a steel guitar in some little redneck bar Parkin' lot full of four wheel drives You won't hear no hip hop jive Cowgirls lookin' for cowboys Two-step to that ol' white noise
I'm talkin' 'bout white noise comin' from the white boys I can't keep my cowboy boots from stompin' To that white noise comin' from the white boys Take me where those honky's are a-tonkin'...
Josh Turner Firecracker Its not as a good as Yr Man, or to put it more bluntly, Yr Man turns me on, and Firecracker doesn’t.
Maybe its because Yr Man works better formally, the tone of the music literally matches the tone of the music---when he sings put some music soft and low—the music is soft and slow, its seductive in a soulful kind of swagger, but one so smooth that the first impression is one of fidelity, of married couples making love, when it is a song of explicit eroticism with out being ribald, each proposal comes with its own safety catch —“where alone now, you don’t know how long ive wanted to, lock the door and turn the lights down low”, or “lets go over what I had in mind” or “I’ve been thinking of this all day long/never felt a feeling quite this strong” or “aint no body loves me the way I love you” The conversational negotiation of what is desired and what will occur, of the desires of a lover and the commitment of a spouse.
The privacy, the intimacy, the tenderness of the delivery, all suggest that a song made for radio is almost too intimate to be played there. I think it is a song that seduces the audience, a text that manages in a singular fashion to be a song to marry too and a song to fuck too.
This dual working thru of a singular purpose is absent on Firecracker, though its as well written, and it’s extended metaphors work well with in the blues/rockabilly tradition of dirty double entendres, I just don’t believe him---I might believe him if someone else sang it (well its almost too tame now, it might be believable if someone ca 1950 sang it—it would have been perfect for Carl Perkins or Wanda Jackson or Little Richard or Jerry Lee, people who might have done some damage with their voices) Also, Turner is too tame, he of the slow voice, the croon, the basso profundo, who has a certain moral core, cannot bring the fire necessary, yr man requires a smoulder, this requires a flame.
It starts with a yea—it goes fast but not fast enough that the lack of control that the song requires, it doesn’t have the dominance or the fight for dominance that lines like “son of a gun she’s fun to handle, she packs a punch like a roman candle or we might not oughta to roll in the hay because we might burn down the barn one of these days. Plus, by calling her both a firecracker and the light of his life, means he lacks commitment to the impermanence and the sheer destruction of the women in question. (Also if she’s so hot, isn’t burning the barn down a good thing, and isn’t going out in smoke what fire crackers do?) The sheer anxiety of losing control makes a song safe, and a song about arson, and coded references to female orgasm should be anything but safe.
50 years ago, this year Wanda Jackson sang “I’m a fujiyama mama/about to lose my top” and you believed her—that when she finally got what she wanted, cataclysmic destruction would occur. Turner should keep with the ambiguous odes to marital hotel room sex or take lessons from Jackson.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
i keep hoping that white chalk will break open for me, but it hasnt yet.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Sothebys, Photos, New York (American)
Really conserative, marketable work, Weston Nudes, early Frank roadtrips, Imogen Cunnigham flowers, all selling for mid 5 to low 6 figures
Breakfast Room by Evans, for 192, might be the best deal. (though Wessel's portfolio of Suburban Real Estate, 25k for 20, would also count--the only conceptual work in the auction)
One work broke 1m, Nautulius, gelatin silver print, original printing, not a great photo but iconic (another nautlius, 6 years later, for 250)
One of the better Avedons, from the Western seires , went unsold
The one Mapplethorpe, literally classical, unerotic
Sternfeild also went unsold (the pumpkin one)
Nancy Richardson, Sothebys
A shitload of Siskind, all for decent or good prices, might make him the American Atget Afterall (10 or 15, b/w 40-70k)
Well curated, some nice work from Chicago or from Harry Callahan match wel with urban new york work, the black and white fucntion as a unifier w/o being samey
Adam Fuss, from 1997, looks remarkably liek the expirmental abstractions that were made in the 40s and 50s
The two Weston's she owned both featured dead bodies
Two warhol's look out of place with this collection, which explains why they went for so little, a fright wig study for 20k, a polarid of a hadn for 8.
intense blog from the insides of planned parenthood, talking about providing services under hostile conditions, including video. speaking of abortion at least 82 women have died in the year since Nicaragua outlawed terminating pregrancies.
local news attempts to understand the flying spaghetti monster, apparently the second largest religious group at Missouri STate.
travellers bible from 1592, consisting of 153 wood cut prints, from the life of christ, comissoned by loyla himself, made by one of the first ten jesuits, used until the 18th century, and as far off as china. beautiful object
home decor story featuring blackwater--money qoute:
In his hangar, he looked on as technicians took meticulous care of $4.5 million helicopters, the gray painted floor gleaming beneath them. Prince noted that Blackwater has lost $10 million in aviation equipment in action in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said Blackwater helicopters have repeatedly helped save the lives of U.S. soldiers.
At the center's original lodge, he proudly pointed out a stuffed bobcat, a wild turkey and a beaver that he recalled killing. The lobby of the Blackwater headquarters resembles a ski lodge with a twist: The front doors feature barrels from .50-caliber machine guns. Inside, a glass showcase displays replicas of guns used to assassinate presidents.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Sothebys London Contemporary Day Auction, Oct 14: (all prices in pounds)
Two Banksy Rat Peices, one at 4 times the estimate, one at more then 3 times. an ape peice at a little more then 3. plus two kid peices for 100+ hes clever, but not that clever. (Faile, who i like a little better then Banksy is also pulling those prices, so graff revival)
Peyton's drawings are better then her watercolours, but the prices dont reflect that
YBA's are in the middle of their estimates, but they arent going for nothing, at least in london prices seem to be settling. (cf a decent Opie portait and one of Perry's pots)
with buying a wolfgang laib marblemilk peice, do you get a life time supply of milk?
dan graham is way under rated as both a conceptualist and as a photog
nice big polke went unsold
all the big chinese names continue to go above estimate, including what i think is a new record for yue minjuin, at 538k
Great set of acculimation pieces by Arman from the late 60s and early 70s that are finally getting their due.
Best deal of the auction, a Twombly Roma drawing from 1964, for a little over 150, above an estimate of 120
the run on CoBRA work, including but not limited to Appel, that i thot would happen in the last few auctions seems to have dried up
who the hell is sidney janis, and why did warhol paint a (actually quite excellent, well worth 46k) portrait of him
decent but not extravagant wesselman prices
condo is like the worst painter to come out the lower east side 80s art boom, isnt he?
Basquit for 792, Haring for 367?!
is 31 for a Kiefer artist book a suggestion that his critical star is rising again (cf the big ny musuem show)
Dumas drawings either bought in or sold below estimate
Two gursky's bought in, but the usual german photo work (including dijkstra and ruff) sold well with in estimate
one work over a million american, three works over 500k
Christie's post war and contempary (day) (prices in pounds)
Hirst's prices are still crazy, an editioned bronze for 216, a late butterfly (cloying, and almost kitsch) for 636, dot painting for 602, spin painting (called:Gorgeous concentric 60 watt painting, Hirst continues to be one of the great titlers)
Bacon wins the record with a little over 8m
Doig's prices continue to confuse me, often going for more then a million, one here for 916, another for 180
Two Big Basquits bought in,
nice late 60s Auberbach head unsold
Two Kippenbergers bought in
one of Koons most art historically aware works, Small Vase of Flowers, went for 1.588m
Judd and Riley works from the mid 80s are now getting what their works from the early 60s used to get
some mid 80s warhols bought in, including a creepy, misprinted double fright wig
two princes, one brekas 500, one breaks 1m
Banksy for 172
two struths, both 6 figures
Same 10 Chinese painters, same prices
Sotheby's Evening Sale (London, Prices in Pounds)
Banksy for 322
Banksy for 204
Hirst Butterfly for 804, Hirst Dots bought in
The only great Hirst this season, sold for the actually fairly reasonable 840
I still have yet to figure out how you decide which Karawa to buy, and how a basically conceptual project continues to sell for mid to high 6 figures. and i love karawa.
Warhol Jackie 1.7m
Two Hockneys, a tarzan and a really nice swimming pool, for 860, and 1.19m respectivley, excellent work.
Auberbachs heads from the late 1990s, look closer to Freud then almost anything, has anyone written about how their realtionship treilsed thru their work? (this one went unsold)
two early (ie 74) portraits by Warhol sold for the same price
Atypical Rymans dont sell well at auctions,
Rothko for 2.26 (about as much as a Basquit)
The only Yuskavage in this auction went unsold
met with peter last night, i drank too much, he paid, which was nice of him (talk about johanna russ, phillip jose farmer, dhalgren, camp concetration as a queer novel, queer vs gay, our fucked up families, daddy issues, wasphood, mental illness, cory doctorow, who we liked as writers, etc) we also played a deer hunting game. with deer and hunting
Thursday, October 11, 2007
once again japan does american culture better then we do
the patterns and colours of latvian mittens indicate the ethnic group and geographic region of the knitter.
darrell issa (r, california) defends blackwater, says he does not defend blackwater, condemns move-on.org, and moves the whole thing onto the democrats--dense with rhetoric, its a masterpeice of shuck and jive.
paul gravett writes on the strange tale of al columbia, an underground comics legend, msotly for what he waled away from rather then what he did. (eddie campbell wrote about him in life of the artist)
little/brown is stopping publishing tin tin in the congo and taking it out of a collected works. i think that this is a wrong choice, though tin tin is as cannonical as it can be while still being a paratext, i think its vital to keep contextualizing, keep producing, as a way of processing history and memory. the texts that commented and came from uncle toms cabin for example, from mark twain to kara walker, become a way to talk about the issue in whole.
karl benjamin a la hard edge abstractionist/sort of conceptualist, has been revived by dave hickey (the great thing about him, is how inelegant he is, the forms are awkard, the colours are garish and often clash, the patterns don't quite repeat like they should, but it manages to function as a formal object at teh same time)
Interlocking Frames, Big Magenta and Green, 1959, oil and canvas.
this 12 peice portfolio by Jason Polan for 600 bucks, is the best art deal you can make this year. they are not prints, but unique works that follow closely to the images above. his techincal skill and his bright conceptual mind, his sense of humour, and his historicism, all make him one to watch. (im writing ad copy here, just go and look)
no dieas but things is an image blog featuring dozens of control panels and the like.
Ron Howard, Grand theft Auto, Promo Trailer, 1977
robert huber does some photo journo work, and some other stuff, mostly its been done to death, sort of expolitive, and kind of dull, but his seires dinasour usa is a complete keeper. (i also kind of liked the photos of 9/11 commerative kitsch, but it would work better as an installation)
Found on he image blog RiotClitshave, no context
a qotuer of americans think the government should tortue prisoners.
marinespressing the pentagon to get the fuck out of iraq
Anne Kejuco, Chandelier Made from Found Chiquita Banana Boxes, 2007
grace cossington smith landscapes, flowers, people---an australian vanessa bell then, and almost as good.
women knitting socks, 1939 (the women is her sister madge,what i love is the gestural, large block of blue above the right shoulder)
