Thursday, July 29, 2010
Art Human Skeleton Is Your New Bicycle
Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 2:23 PM
Oregonian welder and artist Jud Turner makes sculptures from metal casts bones, animal and otherwise, some of which are fully functional pedal-powered vehicles—how exactly he didn't get into either of the Museum of Arts & Design's current shows, Dead or Alive and Bespoke, is a befuddling mystery. At any rate, his 2008 sculpture "Bio-Cycle" (above) begs to become the next major bike nerd trend—forget fixies, fossil bikes are the next must-have hipster transportation accessory. (WKB)
Politics / Sex Kirsten Gillibrand Is the 3rd Most Beautiful Person on Capitol Hill
Posted by Mark Asch on Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 1:48 PM
Alas, though, The Hill did not dig up the facebook for the Dartmouth Class of '88, featuring one "Tina" Rutnik (as was her maiden name)—but as you can see in the photo at right, a onetime classmate turned political reporter did, and we're quite glad for it: The fresh face, the voluminous, heavily conditioned blond hair, the preppy white-collared shirt and argyle sweater combo—she looks like a model in an L.L. Bean ad from Newsweek in September of 1983...
Um.
(It should be clear to you by now that I did not "just happen" to know where to find a glamor shot of teenaged Kirsten Gillibrand. Frankly, this surprises me as much as it surprises you.)
Books Congratulations to The Winner of the 2010 Ernest Hemingway Lookalike Contest
Posted by Mark Asch on Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 1:14 PM
After 11 previous unsuccessful attempts, Charles Bicht, 64, of Vero Beach, won the 2010 Ernest Hemingway Lookalike Contest at Key West's Hemingway Days (other competitions include short story writing and marling fishing), as reported by the AP and reflected upon by the Guardian's Alison Flood. The competition is held at Sloppy Joe's, a favorite bar of Papa's, and is judged by a panel of past winners (pictured, surrounding Bicht this year). You can see their photos going back to the first competition, in 1981, in the "Papas" section of the online home of the Hemingway Lookalike Society.
News Crappy-Ass Williamsburg Tennis Courts Soon to Be Less Crappy
Posted by Jonny Diamond on Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 12:44 PM
- Early jock hipster, Ilie Nastase.
The surfaces are so rough and cracked that our bright new shiny balls were reduced to puckered brown husks after an hour and a half of play, two thirds their original size. (There is one good court, the one closest to Berry, but that was resurfaced by a bunch of old Polish dudes, who are always using it. Kurva!)
So it is with great pleasure that I can tell you the six remaining crappy McCarren courts will be receiving a full resurfacing thanks to a $50,000 grant from the United States Tennis Association, who've rewarded the old Polish men for showing so much initiative and raising the money themselves to resurface court seven (ok, it wasn't just old Polish dudes, credit goes to an organization called McCarren Tennis). Yup, once again in this dangerously socialist nation, private money steps in where public money cannot.
P.S. I'm looking for people to play tennis with (since my pal's back in England). I'm about a 3.8 on the USTA ranking. Anyone interested?
Art Delta Airliner Grooms Salvador Dali 'Stache (and 3 Other Artsy Commercial Jets)
Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 12:11 PM
Yesterday, Delta unveiled the above Boeing 757 emblazoned with Salvador Dali's iconic mustache to promote an exhibition of the surrealist's late works at Atlanta's High Museum of Art. There's a long tradition of adorning airliners with artistic designs, stretching all the way back to, at the very least, British Airways' 1997 World Tails series (kind of like the BMW Art Car of the airline industry). A brief airliner art history, sorta, after the jump.
Film Is Nick Cave the Best Multi-Threat Artist Alive Today?
Posted by Jonny Diamond on Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 11:39 AM
I also read that Cave was named one of Variety's "10 Screenwriters to Watch" in 2006, which I suppose is impressive, and got me thinking about other multiple-threat artists, most of whom are just plain crappy (think "Ethan Hawke, novelist" and go from there). The list includes, but is not limited to:
Music Is Friendster Next? Kanye Performs at Twitter HQ
Posted by Mike Conklin on Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 11:05 AM
Just a day after news broke that Kanye West stopped by Facebook offices earlier this week to perform a cappella versions of three songs from his forthcoming album, we learn, via Nah Right, that he did the same thing at Twitter HQ. There is shitty iPhone video, of course. Enjoy. And don't forget to follow him on Twitter.
Film Charlie Chaplin Against the World
Posted by David Phelps on Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 10:31 AM
The supposedly Victorian sentimentality of a Charlie Chaplin movie—maybe “sentimental” for pointing feeling where it doesn’t necessarily belong—usually turns out to be based on the Promethean idea that somehow not quite everything in the world is worth destroying, even though the comic heroes usually upended most of it by the end of the film. Even then, if a girl’s worth saving—Chaplin usually provides the concise image of the innocent waif like him entrenched in and alienated from capital, labor, ideology, and brimstone seriousness—it’s because she’s not really part of the world, and pathos, estranged from efficacy and institutions, doesn’t really have a motivating reason. The underwriting irony of Chaplin’s films is that if the rest of the world doesn’t deserve any feeling, it’s because it has no sense of it; if Chaplin merits affection, it’s because he doesn’t get any. Chaplin’s wish-fulfillment, the little nobody who asked for nothing and got it anyway, is revealed as a comic mistake.
Art Poster Boy Takes it up a Notch, Sticks it to NYPD
Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 9:58 AM
This image, uploaded to the Post Boy Flickr photostream on Tuesday—and so not necessarily the work of the actual boy who cuts up posters, just the larger amorphous entity made up of multiple billboard remixers, "Poster Boy"—marks a dramatic departure from the clever reorganizing of ad slogans into straight up public accusations. Whoever reorganized the text even took time to cite precedent, making New York's street artists even more responsible than its police officers. (ANIMAL)
Music Watch Cee-Lo Green's Spaghetti Western Video for "What Part of Forever" from the Eclipse Soundtrack
Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 9:31 AM
Goodie Mob and Gnarls Barkley member Cee-Lo Green is an expert musical genre-mixer, so trying to describe "What Part of Forever," his track off the Twilight: Eclipse soundtrack, as anything more descriptive than sublime pop is really difficult. This dreamy new video pushes the twangy Western element pretty hard. (NahRight)
News Bike Activists to Ride Paul Revere-Style to Bloomberg's House in Effort to Save City Gardens
Posted by Jonny Diamond on Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 8:47 AM
- The bulldozers are coming?
You see, the good people at Time's Up (our favorite activist group in the whole darn city), are worried about the future of the city's 600 community gardens, most of which exist thanks to former Mayor Ed Koch's decision to allow locals to cultivate vacant lots. Technically, the gardens are all protected under the provisional 2002 Garden Settlement, which expires in September, and despite claims by both the Department of Housing Preservation and the Parks Department that the status quo shall obtain, Time's Up member Benjamin Shepard wants to make sure people know about this deadline, and that the gardens will be granted permanent status. As he told the Daily News:
We are bringing Bloomberg a gift from the gardens, flowers and cucumbers. He is supposed to make this city green. I hope he will live up to his rhetoric.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Film / Music / Special Events Drop What You're Doing and Come to Dead Man at Summerscreen Right Now
Posted by Mark Asch on Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 5:28 PM
- You don't want to know what Bob Mitchum will do to you if you don't come see his last-ever film appearance.
Summerscreen—our free outdoor film series at McCarren Park, Bedford Ave and North 12th (across from Turkey's Nest)—continues tonight with Jim Jarmusch's dry, far-out vision-quest Western Dead Man, beginning at dusk.
Show up at 6, when the gates open, for music from Hymns—playing a set of Neil Young covers in tribute to the movie's soundtrack—and then ARMS. Drink beer from Sixpoint, and eat food from our vendors (there's lobster rolls, tacos, hot dogs, pizza, coffee, bread, and probably more).
Art Soho Gallery Premieres Hirst, Koons and Murakami Skateboards
Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 4:12 PM
Puppies, monkeys and spin paintings: That's what Takashi Murakami (left), Jeff Koons (right) and Damien Hirst (center), respectively, applied to limited edition skateboard decks commissioned by Supreme and, since yesterday, on view at Soho's Clic Gallery. The pieces were unveiled as part of a very strong exhibition, SURF/SKATE, about things people do on moving boards in summer. One thing's for sure: whoever buys these bright babies won't be riding them ever, no matter the season—big day for commercializing superstar artists, though, huh? (ANIMAL)
News Jelly NYC Offices Burgled (You Know, the Pool Party Guys)
Posted by Jonny Diamond on Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 3:44 PM
The Brooklyn Paper reports that the offices of Jelly NYC (organizers of the popular Pool Party musical funtime concerts) were robbed last week; taken in the break-in of the Union Avenue space was the company's main computer and an employee's laptop.
And despite the fact Jelly inexplicably went out of their way to bash us on their website (see below), we wish them best of luck in the rest of their summer series and hope the loss of the computer isn't too dispiriting.
[From the introductory blog post on the Jelly site]:
...because THE POOL PARTIES are back! We love you! We missed you. Really though we’re so glad we waited to announce and weren’t included in that L Magazine guide to blowing it all summer. Was that not the worst?
I didn't think it was that bad...
(Was it because of this post, perhaps, that Jelly attacked?)
Film / Music / Special Events SummerScreen Band Spotlight: Hymns
Posted by Sarah Shanfield on Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 3:13 PM
Tonight, before the Depp, before the Iggy, and before everyone feels a little weird about their state of sanity and place in the universe, New York-based band Hymns will be treating audiences to a set of Neil Young covers in tribute to the Dead Man soundtrack. Awesome, yes, but they are actually a real band with really cool stop-motion videos about rocking horses. Come see them tonight at 6 pm in McCarren Park (N 12th and Bedford) when they open for ARMS and our free screening of Dead Man. Drink some Sixpoint and snack on a modest plate of tacos, hot dogs, pork sandwiches and lobster rolls while you’re at it. Check out this video for their song “Appaloosa.”
Film / Fashion So Here's an Italian Fashion Ad Directed by Kenneth Anger
Posted by Mark Asch on Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 2:47 PM
This is like that, except it's an ad for the Italian fashion house Missoni, and features the several generations of the eponymous owner-operator family. Watch, and ponder the easily commercialized aesthetic appeal of semi-abstract art; the artistry of commercials; and Anger's always swanky, opportunistic style (I mean that as a compliment). [Via]
Film / Music / Special Events SummerScreen Band Spotlight: ARMS
Posted by Sarah Shanfield on Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 2:15 PM
Since Dead Man is a movie about cowboys and literary allusions, who better than to headline the SummerScreen live music component (thanks to Free Williamsburg, we have a live music component) than the guitar-strummin’, sad-songin’ Brooklyn cowboys of ARMS. Come on down to the McCarren Park Ballfields (N12th and Bedford) at 7 pm (after Hymns) to share a tune with them around our campfire (the fire will be cookin’ wieners from Asia Dog along with San Loco tacos, Red Hook Lobster Pound rolls, and pork sandys from Porchetta . This is a really good campfire) and stay a while for our screening of Dead Man. In the mean time, check out this video of their song “Eyeball” from their Kids Aflame album. Now git! Those wieners aren’t gonna heat themselves!
Art / Food & Drink Pour Out Some Andy Warhol Dom Pérignon for Andy Warhol, Crassly Exploited in Death by Dom Pérignon
Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 1:49 PM
Music Kanye West Joins Twitter, Tweets About Boobs
Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 1:12 PM
Shortly after noon today, Kanye West (@KanyeWest) joined Twitter (his second social media-related feat of the day!). This is what he's tweeted so far:
Can anyone think of a celebrity less fit for a perpetual stream of consciousness-spewing service? (NahRight)
Update: 'Ye tweeted an actual piece of interesting news about his upcoming record: "The album is no longer called "Good Ass Job" I'm bouncing a couple of titles around now"
Politics / News / Media So an Article About Barney Frank Is Most-Read on NYPost.com? This Should Be Fun
Posted by Mark Asch on Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 12:53 PM
Yesterday I noticed that the Post had attempted to make a big item out of a "tipster's" account of openly gay, staunchly liberal Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank's hissy fit when denied a senior citizen discount on the Fire Island ferry. Success! It's currently the most-read story at nypost.com. If you're wondering why such a minor item is gaining such traction, perhaps the comments section will clue you in to the readership's interest in the story.
This isn't even a "random sampling," mind you. These are just the six most recent comments of the 175 left at this writing:
