February 2009 Archives

I only had my iPhone with me, so these aren't the greatest photos. This guy was in the West 4th Street subway. The top was removed to give more volume, and it sounded like a honky-tonk piano, but his playing was quite good, ranging from "Hey Jude" to Chopin. No one else was with him so I don't know if he managed to get the piano down there via the station elevator by himself. Having just been to a great concert of experimental music, this was a nice subway surprise.

Update: Olympia Lambert already posted about him in early February. He is Colin Huggins (aka The Crazy Piano Guy). He is also the music director of the Joffrey Ballet!

• Clinton warns Israel over delays in Gaza aid - Haaretz - Israel News
  [I did not expect this.] Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has relayed messages to Israel in the past week expressing anger at obstacles Israel is placing to the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
  tags: israel palestine hillary-clinton gaza

• Art Fag City - Art Fag City Wins Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant
  tags: art blog criticism grants artfagcity writers creative-capital
• Anastasia Baburova, a Russian journalist | Anastasia Baburova | The Economist
  [I just now heard of this] Anastasia Baburova, a Russian journalist, murdered on January 19th, aged 25
  tags: politics journalism moscow fascism obituary russia
• Last.fm - the Blog - "Techcrunch are full of shit"
  On Friday night a technology blog called Techcrunch posted a vicious and completely false rumour about us: that Last.fm handed data to the RIAA so they could track who's been listening to the "leaked" U2 album.
  tags: music riaa privacy lastfm techcrunch

• Eyeteeth: A journal of incisive ideas: "On the side of the egg:" Haruki Murakami on Gaza
  "Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg."
  tags: israel palestine politics literature haruki-murakami gaza jerusalem-prize
• AFP: China offered 'relics for rights' in YSL auction row
  Go Pierre Berge! "I am ready to give these Chinese heads to China if they are ready to recognise human rights."
  tags: art human-rights auction china yves-saint-laurent pierre-berge artifacts
• Human Rights Watch: Clinton Remarks Undermine Rights Reform in China
  said: contentious issues such as human rights "can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crises"
  tags: human-rights hillary-clinton foreign-policy civil-liberties china

Kay Nine installation view at Deitch Proejcts

This is an installation shot from Ben Jones's current show at Deitch Projects, titled "The New Dark Age." As someone who has followed Ben's work (via Paper Rad and solo projects) for years, I had to note that Kay Nine has gone from being fabricated from painted wood to now being made of marble and brass! A good reflection of our current times. Here is a photo of mine (and related post) from his 2005 show at Foxy Production:

Kay Nine's Lament, 2005
DVD, Commodore 64, and sculpture

I also really love his ladders:

The right-wing U.S. News and World Report graces us with a quiz:

If you had a choice of four daycare centers run separately by Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi, which would you choose for your kids?

via Media Matters

• Mr. Peacock: Derek Jarman--Bohemian Auteur
  A sweet post on Derek Jarman
  tags: art queer film derek-jarman

• Amanda L. French, Ph.D. - Facebook terms of service compared with MySpace, Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter
  "Conclusion? Go ahead and be outraged. Facebook?s claims to your content are extraordinarily grabby and arrogant."
  tags: twitter socialnetworking facebook privacy

• Agnes Gund, David Lang and Nell Breyer: Put Art Works Back in Stimulus Plan
  I want to be Agnes Gund when I grow up.
  tags: art culture economics funding nea
• Hrag Vartanian: Visiting the Caroll Taveras Photo Studio on Atlantic Ave
  Beautiful post on photography and a photo studio in Brooklyn. Too bad the Disfarmer theater piece wasn't as good as this.
  tags: art photography brooklyn photostudio personal-history
• Editions | CRG Gallery
  some great works by Butt Johnson, Lisa Sanditz, and others
  tags: art editions

We just listened to this amazing 2 CD set titled Hallelujah, Anyway: Remembering Tom Cora. It's an album created as a tribute to the musician Tom Cora after his death in 1998, on John Zorn's Tzadik label.

• Senator Charles Schumer in Hot Water With Local Arts Organizations -- Vulture -- Entertainment & Culture Blog -- New York Magazine
  voted for amendment saying no stimulus money for "any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool, stadium, community park, museum, theater, arts center, or highway-beautification project."
  tags: art politics culture newyork nea charlesschumer senate
• Gandhi's glasses, shoes headed for NY auction - Crain's New York Business
  Ick.
  tags: history auction india gandhi
• 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know
  good list, via http://twitter.com/justinph
  tags: facebook privacy

I can't get a bigger image thanks to the flickr settings on this photo, but click on it to see a larger version. The drawings in the style of Keith Haring at the bottom are a nice touch. Via the lovely and talented Jeff Simmermon.

• Binyam Mohamed torture evidence 'hidden from Obama' | World news | guardian.co.uk
  US defence officials are preventing Barack Obama from seeing evidence that a former British resident held in Guant?namo Bay has been tortured, the prisoner's lawyer said last night.
  tags: war obama torture guantanamo
• humble postcard project | home
  POSTCARD EDITION NO. 1: Postcards by Bradley Peters, Tina Tyrell, Gustav Gustafsson, Alejandra Laviada, and John Mann, only $19.95!
  tags: art photography postcards editions

My apologies for holding my camera a bit crookedly. I'm no James Kalm.

Vlatka Horvat, Birds Shelf, 2009
Modified wood table top, 13 photo-sensitive bird figurines

You can see her show, along with Sarah Greenberg Rafferty's at The Kitchen through March 7.

• Rhizome: Max Neuhaus (1939-2009)
  Don't miss the mp3s of his 1977 work "Radio Net"
  tags: contemporary music maxneuhaus mp3

Currently running at Jack the Pelican Presents through February 9. From the press release:

Have a cup of tea, sit back on the couch and escape into the spectacular musings of the quaintly naughty Mr. Benn. The timely anachronism of Richard Wilson's mechanistic renderings of super-tech ideas points to Britain in an era when unassuming people lived in modest circumstances. ...It's a remarkably different world than our own. ...Or is it?

Visit Wikipedia for more on Mr. Benn.