I turn 40 today. If you run into me tonight at the openings, wish me a happy entry into middle age!
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Forty!
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Categories: General -
The Human Rights Campaign: dangerous to homos
I have never cared for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). On a superficial level, I really dislike their equal sign logo (modified above for me by Art Fag City) which is designed to be as un-gay as possible. I remember a queer American friend, who lives in Europe, visiting around the time of the NYC GOP convention in 2004. He had no idea what the little blue = stickers were that some protesters where wearing.
Allegedly a gay rights lobbying organization, it has become so entrenched in the DC lobbying mindset that it is not merely ineffectual, it is actually harmful to gay rights in America. I am no fan of Charles Schumer, given his vote for the Defense of Marriage Act. A Jewish New Yorker representing Park Slope making an anti-gay vote? Yeah, that’ll get you the Christian Right vote. However, when the HRC endorsed Al D’Amato over Schumer in 1998, I was shocked.
Their newest outrage? They have endorsed Joseph Lieberman for the Senate, even before the primary. Thanks to his snuggling up to the GOP and Bush on matters ranging from the Iraq War to the PATRIOT Act, he actually stands a chance of losing the primary to Ned Lamont. Guess which of the two is more pro-gay? Lamont. Of course, the HRC always argues this about realpolitik, or about preserving access, but ultimately they are working against the interests of the people they supposedly represent.
Why is endorsing Lieberman so bad? Here is an excerpt of a blog post by Firedoglake:
He told the New Haven Advocate that “homosexuality is wrong,†joined with notorious homo-hater Jesse Helms in voting to take away federal funding from schools that counsel suicidal gay teens that it’s okay to be gay. On gays in the military, Lieberman has enunciated the now-discredited canard that “homosexual conduct can harm unit cohesion and effectiveness.†(Tell that to the dozens of countries, from England to Israel, that permit openly gay troops in their armed forces.)
In fact, Lieberman worked with Georgia’s Sam Nunn to fashion the destructive “don’t ask, don’t tell†policy, which resulted in escalating expulsions of gays from the military every year after it took effect. Its Catch-22 provisions have directly stimulated a rising wave of violent gay bashing and harassment in the military because victims can’t complain without “telling.â€Â
He also explains why Ned Lamont is a good candidate for the gay community, so go take a look. One more post worth reading on the subject is Howie Klein at Huffington Post.
Note: I use gay above, but I mean it more in a general sense of queer. I don’t feel like listing a number of groups that follow under that umbrella, and I’m not offended by the word queer, but it seems to make some people (including my fellow homos) squeamish.
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Tom Stoppard’s The Coast of Utopia
Portrait of Alexander Herzen (1867), Painted by Nikolai Gay [source]
Ooh! Ooh! I want to see this!
Lincoln Center Theater has set dates for its production of Tom Stoppard’s award-winning trilogy of plays, The Coast of Utopia, to take place at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. The first part of the trilogy, entilted Voyage, will start performances on October 17, and the last part of the trilogy, Salvage, will conclude on March 11.
During the final three and one-half weeks of the production’s run, audiences will have the opportunity to see all three parts of the trilogy in successive performances. In addition, on three Saturdays — February 24, March 3 and March 10 — theatergoers will be able to see all three parts in one-day marathons beginning at 11am.
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Beginning in mid-19th century Russia during the repressive reign of Tsar Nicholas I, the play spans a period of 30 years. It tells the panoramic story of a group of Russian intellectuals, headed by the radical theorist and editor Alexander Herzen, the novelist Ivan Turgenev, the literary critic Vissarion Belinsky, and the aristocrat-turned-anarchist Michael Bakunin, who lead a band of like-minded countrymen in a revolutionary movement in which they strive to change and fix a political system by using their minds as their only weapon.
Voyage, which is set in the Russian countryside as well as in Moscow and St. Petersburg, will open officially on November 5. Part two, entilted Shipwreck, begins 13 years later outside Moscow and follows the characters’ exile to Paris, Dresden, and Nice. It begins previews on December 5 and opens officially on December 21. Salvage, which takes place over a period of 12 years in London and Geneva, begins previews on January 30 and opens officially on February 15.
I’ve been wanting to see this since I first read about it four years ago on The Observer’s web site. My favorite paragraph of the article:
Marx distrusted Herzen, and was despised by him in return. Herzen had no time for the kind of mono-theory that bound history, progress and individual autonomy to some overarching abstraction like Marx’s material dialecticism. What he did have time for – and what bound Isaiah Berlin to him – was the individual over the collective, the actual over the theoretical. What he detested above all was the conceit that future bliss justified present sacrifice and bloodshed. The future, said Herzen, was the offspring of accident and wilfulness. There was no libretto or destination, and there was always as much in front as behind.
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Categories: Theater -
J.T. Kirkland drawings on archival scrapbook paper
J.T. Kirkland
Bulb I
Ink on archival scrapbook paper
12” × 12”I spotted this on his blog, Thinking About Art. Visit this post to see more.
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Categories: Postcard -
Roebling Hall is closing its Williamsburg location
Gustavo Artigas, Rules of the Game, 2000-2001, video still
I think this has already been mentioned on Artnet, but I just now realized that Roebling Hall is closing its Williamsburg location after the next show. From the press release for the show:
Celebrate the Final Gallery Opening at Roebling Hall, Williamsburg!
This Saturday June 3, 6-8pm preview party…
This portion of the show is the last exhibition at Roebling Hall’s Brooklyn gallery.
This makes me almost as sad as when Schroeder Romero left. It’s the end of an era. I fear Williamsburg is turning into a yuppie playground, but without anything like the public transit of much of Manhattan. I’m sorry my schedule and the crappy weather discouraged me from attending William Powhida’s eulogy tonight.
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What now for bored rich people? More art / bohemia
Flush with cash from all of their tax cuts and asset appreciation, the rich need new ways to entertain themselves. Pretending to be more connected to bohemia and artists appears to be the new black.
James Truman, formerly of Condé Nast, is starting up a magazine for LTB Media called Culture and Travel. Here is an excerpt from a Anthony Haden-Guest column in the Financial Times.
So to Culture and Travel. Truman was editorial director of Conde Nast for 11 years. How will the new title differ?
“We’re going to select the audience, 60,000 people, from proprietary lists that we’re compiling of art lovers, people who are very involved in culture, people who travel, rich people.†Another explosive laugh.
And the critical content? “It won’t be an art magazine in the sense of having reviews. It will work off the cultural calendar somewhat. But really it’s a travel guide for creative people. And those people who want to live a creative life for a few weeks.â€Â
This reminds me of an article I saw in Business Week about Ian Schrager declaring that “design hotels” are over, and “art hotels” are the new thing. Read the Chelsea Hotel Blog for more on that story.
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Update on slashed terror funding
I didn’t get around to adding these two things yesterday to my previous post. First, the excellent New York Post cover from yesterday:
Second, the ABC news blog reports that part of the funding cut was justified by explaining that New York has no national monuments or icons.
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Dead City by Sheila Callaghan
While Mom was visiting, we took her to see a wonderful new play by Sheila Callaghan, titled Dead City. We saw the first preview, but the cast and production were so good I wouldn’t have guessed that we weren’t well into the run. The title is a reference to a song by Patti Smith, and the form of the play is inspired by James Joyce’s Ulysses. It’s presented by the New Georges, a theater group dedicated to producing works by female playwrights. Our friend the director Anne Kauffman is a member.
From their website:
DEAD CITY is a contemporary riff on Joyce’s Ulysses, set 100 years after the novel, in New York City, with a woman protagonist. Just as Ulysses is a story of Dublin, DEAD CITY is consumed with the feel of our city, in our time.
A play which riffs on Ulysses, Patti Smith, and Rimbaud is worth a visit to downtown Manhattan, and the wondefully space-age 3 Legged Dog Art and Technology Center is a great place to see a work that uses quite a bit of video projections and other multimedia. The video and production design is by William Cusick. I wrote about another project of his, The Big Art Group’s House of No More. The Village Voice has an interview with the playwright if you want to learn more.
It opens tonight at 7, and runs through June
24th30th. Tickets are only $19, but if you use the code “NGWEB” on the Smarttix site, it’s only $12. How can you go wrong at that price?
Hallway of 3LD center
[photo at top is from the New Georges]
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Categories: Theater -
Working with Republicans is suicidal for New York
I often see arguments that New York needs to work with the GOP, since they control all three branches of government, and it’s the only way to get anything done for New York. Bullshit. The only sane thing to do is work to defeat every Republican we can. There is no reason why New York State should have any Republicans representing us in Congress. And once we’ve done that, we can launch challenges from the left for politicians like Hilary Clinton and Chuck Schumer who are pro-Iraq War and pro-PATRIOT Act.
NY1 reports:
Local politicians are slamming the Department of Homeland Security Wednesday for its decision to slash New York City’s counter-terrorism funding by $83 million this year, a nearly 40 percent cut from the previous year.
The Department of Homeland Security today announced its new national distribution plan, which divides a total of $740 million between 46 cities. DHS say the cuts will help spread funding to other communities facing threats.
The new funding formula shows the Big Apple will have to make do with $124 million in federal homeland security grants for the 2006 fiscal year, down from $207 million last year.
New York State is also taking a cut of just under $115 million this year, despite promises from Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff earlier this year that his department would be distributing money based on risk.
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While New York is facing cuts in funding, the DHS has decided to increase funding for cities including Omaha, Nebraska; Louisville, Kentucky; and Jacksonville, Florida.
Funding was also cut for Washington, DC. Let’s be realistic here. If a terrorist wants to set off a dirty bomb, it’s going to happen in a dense city like New York or DC, not some place like Omaha with less than 500,000 people.
Who is the head of the House of Representatives’ Homeland Security Committee? Peter King, a Republican congressman from Long Island. If this is what “working with Republicans” get us, I can’t imagine a better reason to work on throwing them all out.
There is a post on this subject at Daily Gotham, with a link to the Act Blue page for New York congressional races if you would like to donate some money.
Also from Daily Gotham, Liza Sabater points out that the state Democratic party fears bloggers and finds them a bit harsh. Good luck with that, coming from a party that couldn’t prevent charisma-free George Pataki from being governor for eight years. As she says,
If things stay the course, they’re going to lose the 2008 elections to a pet rock.
On a somewhat related note, Mayor Michael Bloomberg gets in the press for railing about the NRA and illegal guns, but that doesn’t stop him from donating money (up to the maximum amount) to pro-gun politicians. Steve Gilliard has the text of a New York Times article on the subject.
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Seeking a web designer for ArtCat
I need help finding a designer for ArtCat. I’m planning to bring everything under one roof — web hosting, calendar (ArtCal), and possibly an artist-driven zine. I need help with branding, information architecture and design.
You can tell from what exists now, including bloggy, that I’m a minimalist. I don’t expect it to be free. I’m willing to pay for something I really like, but I’ve had trouble finding someone whose aesthetic matches mine, and has awesome CSS skills.
I would prefer someone in NYC, but if I found someone good that could do this all via phone and internet, that’s a possibility.
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Categories: Technology