• Williamsburg Friday / Carlos de Villasante

    villesante-saint-sebastian-carhood.jpg

    Saint Sebastian Carhood, 2004
    Enamel on Carhood, 55 x 63 inches

    We’re big fans of Carlos de Villasante’s work, as you can see from my various blog posts.

    He has a solo show at Heriard-Cimino Gallery in New Orleans at the moment. When we visited New Orleans a few years ago, the gallery was one of our first stops because the fabulous director, Jeanne Cimino, is a friend of Margaret Evangeline.

    Closer to home, we’ll be headed out to Williamsburg on Friday for the Williamsburg Gallery Association‘s Third Friday event. All galleries will be open until 9pm. It will give you a chance to see a few things I recommend. Several of these are opening that night:

    Suzanne Wright at Monya Rowe – extended through March 21

    Reed Anderson at Pierogi 2000

    Christopher Johnson at Plus Ultra

    Josh Stern at Parker’s Box

    The always fun Brooklyn Fire Proof should be the place to end up, with their Fashion Social.

    Of course, this whole schedule may change drastically when we find out more details on Cory Arcangel‘s performance at the Whitney on Friday night.

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  • Spam poetry

    I received spam today with this subject:

    Imagine Super Viagrá! A norwich atheist gremlin.

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  • Are we devoting all possible resources to fighting terrorism?

    A quote from a Time article, via Pandagon:

    Administration sources tell TIME that employees at the Department of Homeland Security have been asked to keep their eyes open for opportunities to pose the President in settings that might highlight the Administration’s efforts to make the nation safer. The goal, they are being told, is to provide Bush with one homeland-security photo-op a month.

    The Center for American Progress has a report on the things we are NOT doing to make us safer.

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  • Spain’s response to terrorism

    After 9/11, we attended demonstrations to say that we wanted justice for the awful attacks of that day, but we did not want innocent people killed as the USA lashed out in anger. There is a difference between combating terrorism and killing innocent people to make (some of) us feel better. I remember “patriotic” New Yorkers screaming awful things at us during these demonstrations.

    Those who argue that dealing with terrorism as a crime is somehow appeasement are arguing that American lives are worth more than the civilians we kill when we drop bombs from 30,000 feet in revenge. We still haven’t caught the people responsible for 9/11, but we have killed tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan. It is as if Italy chose to deal with the mafia by carpet-bombing Palermo with cluster bombs.

    We diverted resources to attacking Iraq rather than chase after Al Qaeda, even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. We have now killed at least 10,000 civilians in Iraq.

    I’m saying all of these things because I was just looking at photos of the anti-terrorism demonstrations in Spain. Our country is ready to descend into barbarism over the War on Terrorism. Spain is saying they want justice for the attacks, but they do not want innocents killed in the vain hope of making them safer from attack. At least 11 million people demonstrated around the country on Friday.

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    Spanish people holding posters saying ‘Peace’ protest over lack of information on Thursday’s bombings on trains outside the ruling Popular Party’s headquarters in the center of Madrid, Saturday March 13, 2004. Some 3,000 people chanted accusations that Spain’s government is hiding the truth about bombings that killed 200 people. (AP Photo/Denis Doyle)

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    Barcelona’s Brazilian player Ronaldinho, second right, and Luis Garcia, second left, wear shirts with, No to Terrorism, Yes to Peace, on them before a first division soccer match against Murica in Murcia, Spain, Sunday March 14, 2004. The shirts are a protest against the Madrid bomb attacks on trains last Thursday that killed 200 and injured another 1,500. The other two Murcia players are unidentified. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

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    Barcelona’s Dutch player Edgar Davids, second right, protects a fan from a security policeman after the fan ran on to the pitch with the words No to Terrorism, and Peace written on his chest during a first division soccer match between Murcia and Barcelona in Murcia, Spain, Sunday March 14, 2004. The fan was refering to the bomb attacks on Madrid trains last Thursday that killed 200 people and injured another 1, 500. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

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    A girl gets out of her car to applaude as she sits in a traffic jam waiting for several thousand demonstrators to pass by as they march through the center of Madrid, Spain, early Sunday morning March 14, 2004. Later Sunday the Spanish population will vote for general elections, but demonstrators took to the streets protesting the government’s failure to link the Thursday March 12th bombings which claimed the lives of 200 people in coordinated attacks on commuter trains, to al-Qaida. Sign at rightreads ‘Peace’. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

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    A hand written sign in Spanish saying ‘peace’ is seen on one of the windows at Madrid’s railway station Atocha, Saturday, March 13, 2004. Powerful explosions rocked three Madrid train stations, including Atocha on Thursday, March 11, 2004, killing 200 rush-hour commuters and wounding more than 1, 240 in Spain’s worst terrorist attack ever. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

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    We put up a cross at the WTC after 9/11 (and it’s still there). Can you imagine someone painting a peace sign there?

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  • Art burn-out

    Yes, I have been to both Scope and The Armory Show, this weekend (one day for Scope, two for Armory).

    At the moment I’m too exhausted for a blog post, other than saying that I was really impressed by the quality of the San Francisco and Los Angeles galleries I encountered at both fairs. The SF galleries were also much braver about showing political art dealing with the War on Terror and 9/11 than most NYC galleries (except for a few like Barbara Gladstone, the only blue chip NYC gallery to do such a thing with its Thomas Hirschhorn installation).

    What was with the food at The Armory Show? It wasn’t so bad last year, and this year it was horrible, expensive, and accompanied by enough tables to seat about 5% of the people getting food at any one time. Also, BUY SOME DAMN BENCHES FOR THE ATTENDEES.

    One more thought: No one came up to me to tell me how much they loved my weblog, which cannot be said about James.

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  • Rarely is the question asked: Is our children going hungry?

    I was reading an article about Jocelyn Elders, and she pointed out that about half of the children in America qualify for free or reduced lunches. I just went searching for the government numbers on this. As far as I can tell from the chart, the number for FY2003 is 58.5%.

    We are #1 in GDP, in wealth, in military technology, in military spending, in health technology, but we haven’t figured out how to be better than last in rankings of child poverty among the 18 wealthy industrialized nations.

    Wondering about the title of my post?

    “Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”
    — George W. Bush, Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000

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  • On obscene parrots and British tabloids

    I have written before about Charlie before, the swearing, anti-Nazi parrot alleged to have belonged to Winston Churchill.

    Yesterday the NY Times had a follow-up to this story, including these remarks showing the level of journalistic professionalism at the tabloids.

    According to The Mirror, using a detail that was widely repeated in other British newspapers and indeed by the news media around the world, Churchill taught Charlie to curse — “particularly in company” — to the point that “many an admiral or peer of the realm was shocked by the tirade from the bird’s cage during crisis meetings with the prime minister.”

    The Mirror account was written by Bill Borrows, an editor at large for Maxim U.K., who said in an interview that he could not recall, exactly, where he got the information that Charlie used to swear about Hitler, but that he might have read it on the Internet. He said he had not met Charlie in person, but had tried, unsuccessfully, to conduct a telephone interview.

    “The bird didn’t say anything, but I’ve had worse,” Mr. Borrows said.

    Appearing several weeks ago on BBC Radio 4, Mr. Oram said that although the bird did indeed have a history of swearing, she always sounded “parroty” rather than Churchillian. As for the content of Charlie’s remarks, Ms. Martin said she had never heard her curse about Hitler, or even about any of the lesser Nazis.

    “She lived for a time in Mr. Oram’s father-in-law’s shop, and all the market traders were teaching her all sorts of swear words,” Ms. Martin said. In disgrace, she added, Charlie was exiled to the nursery in Surrey so that her cursing would not scandalize the shoppers.

    But whatever Charlie said or did not say, she is not saying it now. Ms. Martin said that as the bird has grown older and more fragile, she has uttered less and less. From time to time, she might suddenly come out with a stray operatic high note, but nothing more. Nor does she fly, except for the occasional swoop.

    I love birds. If I ever become a shut-in, I’m getting a smart parrot to play with.

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  • The Civilians – April 16 benefit

    Of course we’ll be there, and I welcome any of my readers to join us. The Civilians are one of my three favorite theatre companies in NYC. The other two are Target Margin and The Wooster Group.

    It’s $60 for the whole thing, or $20 for just the after party.

    Details:

    GRAND HARMONIOUS VAUDEVILLE
    Friday, April 16th, 8pm
    Ticket price includes a buffet of Chinese appetizers.
    Complimentary vodka and tequila cocktails courtesy of Grey Goose and Corazón.
    Cash bar for other drinks.

    Grand Harmony Restaurant
    98 Mott Street (Chinatown, between Canal and Hester)

    Featuring
    Performances of never-before-seen texts by Civilians Advisors John Guare and Charles L. Mee, Jr.

    New renditions of Civilians songs including selections from our upcoming show NobodyÂ’s Lunch.

    Tony-Winner Karen Ziemba (Never Gonna Dance, Contact)
    Bayne Gibby (HBO’s Out on the Edge)
    Mo Rocca (Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show”)
    and more to be announced soon.

    GRAND HARMONIOUS AFTERPARTY
    10pm – Midnight
    with dancing and music by DJ Kozmik

    Here is the link to the benefit page, including how to get tickets.

    I have written about The Civilians quite a bit. If you want to hear what some of their songs sound like, I have some MP3s here.

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  • Queer news = style section

    While I’m glad the New York Times is choosing to write about the issues facing transgender people, I am baffled by the placement of the article.

    What is an article about transgender college students doing in the Sunday Styles section? No wonder Choire at Gawker refers to his “ritual cleansing” after reading the Sunday Times.

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  • More on our subway adventure

    Ray Sanchez has a column in today’s Newsday on our little subway adventure. I think it’s quite good. I never had an experience with the media before where the point I wanted to make actually made it into the article.

    If you run out and buy the print version, you get a photo of us.

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