CBS Outdoor decides billboards such as this one by Suzanne Opton as part of her billboard project cannot be run during the Republican National Convention.

[Click here if you don't see the video]

Minneapolis police confiscate equipment, notes, and computers from the Glass Bead Collective without their consent. The collective are the people who released the video of an NYPD officer assaulting a bicyclist. The Minneapolis police officer told them they were confiscating their belongings for "Homeland Security" reasons.

Check out the photo from Newsday of a weapon recovered in a drug bust on Long Island.

Suffolk County District Attorney, Thomas Spota, shows one of weapons that was confiscated during a cocaine drug bust in Riverhead, at his office at Riverhead Criminal Court (Photo by James Carbone, Newsday / July 29, 2008)

"He loves you, and he needs money!"

"Results like this do not belong on the resumé of a supreme being."

[click here if you don't see the video above]

I was reading this otherwise pretty good article on a young activist in today's City Section of the New York Times today when one thing leapt out at me.

To the Ramparts (Gently)
By BEN GIBBERD
Published: March 23, 2008

...

“I actually think violent action isn’t radical at all,” he said firmly. “Radicals go to the root of the problem, and they want to change society. Violence doesn’t change society, and if it doesn’t go to the root of the problem, it’s not radical.” Mr. Kelly paused. “I don’t know what it is,” he added, “but it has nothing to do with what I want to do.”

Drama, Yes. Violence, No.

Despite his attitude toward violent protest, Mr. Kelly has not shied away from dramatic tactics. He has been arrested twice, once two years ago during a protest on Pace’s Manhattan campus, and once a year ago when he and about 20 other S.D.S. members were detained for occupying an Army-Navy recruiting center in Lower Manhattan. Neither arrest led to any charges.

...

Is this writer implying that getting arrested in non-violent protests is somehow a moral equivalent of using a bomb or other violence to make the same point? I find that a rather dangerous position.

Related: James's post titled Times Square bomblet outperforms march of a million

[screengrab from my profile]

Via C-Monster, I learned that the Brooklyn Museum is sharing images of works in their collection via a Facebook application called Artshare. They set it up so that other institutions can join in too, and so far the list includes

• Metropolitan Museum
• Victoria & Albert
• Indianapolis Museum of Art
• Picture Australia (which combines images from multiple collections)
• Powerhouse Museum
• Walters Art Museum

I particularly liked this, from the Museum's blog announcement:

For the past week, we’ve been uploading (OK, well, Francesca Ford has been uploading…thanks, Francesca) our collection highlights into the application, but then we hit a snag when we got to our Contemporary collection. Since artists often retain the copyright on contemporary works, we stopped uploading and started making phone calls and sending emails to artists and galleries seeking permission to include their work in the first phase of this project. I have to extend my thanks to the artists (Jules de Balincourt, Barron Claiborne, Anthony Goicolea, Rashid Johnson, Lady Pink, Kambui Olujimi, Suzanne Opton, Andres Serrano, Swoon, Yoram Wolberger) who saw the worth in this kind of endeavor and said go for it. We will continue to contact more of the contemporary artists in our collection and add to these initial works, but we wanted to pause now and launch ArtShare for beta testing.

If you're already on Facebook, go here to add it.

Related:

• The Brooklyn Museum group on Flickr
• the ArtCal Facebook page
• the Culture Pundits Facebook page

James and I, along with the critic Brian Sholis, will be conversing at CUE Art Foundation on Tuesday as part of their career development program for artists called "Meeting Artists' Needs."

The details:

In the Public Eye: The Role of Today’s Critic: Brian Sholis, writer and Editor of Artforum.com in conversation with bloggers Barry Hoggard (bloggy.com) and James Wagner (jameswagner.com). This event is free for CUE members and $5 for non-members.

Go here to reserve a ticket.

We're still working on a few features and tweaking the design, but the new ArtCal, with design by Michael Mandiberg, went live today. Check it out.

Horn & Hardart building at Broadway and 104th Street
(amNewYork Photo/Lane Johnson)

Several people I know are in the paper today. Susan Dessel is in an article in AM New York about the attempts to save the Horn & Hardart building at Broadway and 104th Street.

Ed and Debbie Hamilton, whom we met at our place finally last week, have a piece on the editorial page of the New York Times (!) about their Hotel Chelsea Blog.

[photo from AM New York]

Ryan and me on 24th Street, photo by James Wagner

A lot of artists I know are really into reality TV / competition shows. Ryan Humphrey is the first one I know personally who is actually on one: Bravo's Top Design.

More info on Ryan from:

• me
• James

[via Dennis]

Since I stared having gallery ads on ArtCal, I've tried to be rather picky about what other ads are on the site. Given that my ads cost a fraction of those on Artnet, I was surprised, when looking at the magazine page today, to see an animated Acura ad at the top. Here is a (non-animated) screen grab.