Archive for April, 2007

VIS-A-VIS SOCIETY LIVE! @ NWFF April 6-8/07

Last time these two were in town, I missed their final show due to sickness, theirs, not mine. I’m hoping the tables do not turn.

Visavis2  "Drs. Ink and Owning of the Vis-A-Vis Society (a.k.a. Rachel Kessler and Sierra Nelson of the Typing Explosion) scientifically examine the highs and lows of human life in this interactive, interdisciplinary show. Featuring field data on secret songs, secret dances and the emotional life of coats, as well as research presentations using 16mm educational films, tear-drinking moths and live audience surveys, the doctors will clog, graph and sing each night’s findings to statistically present the hidden life of you to you."

APRIL 6-8 Fri-Sun at 8pm
$10 MEMBERS / $15 GENERAL
VIS-A-VIS SOCIETY LIVE!
WE ARE YOU: A STATISTICAL MUSICAL

link

Meat Cake Recipie for Easter: YUM!

Meatcake Not sure what to serve the relatives for Easter dinner? Why not give this a try:

"Here’s how to make a meat cake made from ground beef, mashed potatoes kechup or A1 steak sauce, and worchester sauce

- Link.

via MAKE Magazine

Real Estate Roller Coaster

If any of you out there are still wondering if we are nearing the top of the housing market, here is a little something to help convince you. This little movie has taken average US home price data, adjusted for inflation, and plotted it to an actual roller coaster graphic.

Of course, you’ll only be swayed by this if you trust things like numbers, statistics, and historical precident: http://one.revver.com/watch/223100/flv/affiliate/79294

Homevalues1

via information aesthetics

Link http://www.speculativebubble.com/videos/real-estate-roller-coaster.php

U.S. to “Take Out” 7 Countries in 5 Years: Gen. Wesley Clark

Don’t waste your time on conspiracy theory sites. The truth is far more frightening. Do you believe Gen. Wesley Clark?

Arabiannights "About ten days after 9/11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me, and one of the generals called me in. He said, “Sir, you’ve got to come in and talk to me a second.” I said, “Well, you’re too busy.” He said, “No, no.” He says, “We’ve made the decision we’re going to war with Iraq.” This was on or about the 20th of September. I said, “We’re going to war with Iraq? Why?” He said, “I don’t know.” He said, “I guess they don’t know what else to do.” So I said, “Well, did they find some information connecting Saddam to al-Qaeda?” He said, “No, no.” He says, “There’s nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq.” He said, “I guess it’s like we don’t know what to do about terrorists, but we’ve got a good military and we can take down governments.” And he said, “I guess if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail.”

"So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?” And he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.” He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” — meaning the Secretary of Defense’s office — “today.” And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” I said, “Is it classified?” He said, “Yes, sir.” I said, “Well, don’t show it to me.” And I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, “You remember that?” He said, “Sir, I didn’t show you that memo! I didn’t show it to you!” "

LINK Democracy Now! HERE

David Lynch on Product Placement

Not sure if this is real, (sounds like a VO to me) but it is funny, nevertheless:

WARNING! Extreme Language (but don’t let that stop you)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4wh_mc8hRE

Gordon Matta-Clark Films screening @ Whitney, 4/5/07

Gordonmattaclark More NYC fun:

From Flavorpill: "When Gordon Matta-Clark wasn’t cutting buildings in half, cooking bone-marrow dinners, or buying up worthless slivers of New York real estate, he pursued his exploration of urban spaces on film. Matta-Clark made New York’s distinctive metropolis his artistic playground at a moment in the city’s history when he could get away with it. Launching a month of daily screenings of the artist’s films, tonight’s program includes a sample of his quixotic ventures. In Day’s End (1975), he documents the large shapes he cut into the roof, doors, and floor of a derelict Pier 52 building. Clockshower (1973) features him primping for the day in front of the large clock hands atop the landmark NY Life Insurance Company Building. (HGM)

Note: The screening is followed by a brief discussion with the artist’s widow, Jane Crawford, cinematographer Bob Fiore, and curator Elisabeth Sussman. Advance tickets are highly recommended.

http://www.whitney.org/www/programs/eventcalendar.jsp?cat=1

Cai Guo-Qiang’s Inopportune: Stage One @ S.A.M., Seattle

Here comes the spectacle:

Inopportune1_car_2

(image: 2004 installation)

New Installation at SAM Downtown
Cai Guo-Qiang’s Inopportune: Stage One (2004) will debut as the first installation in SAM’s new Brotman Forum. Comprised of 9 full-sized cars arcing through space, it bridges the new public entrance at First Avenue and University Street and the former main entrance in the South Building.

Jorge Pardo @ Friedrich Petzel

Pardo2 In NYC this month? Be sure to check out the new show by Jorge Pardo. We missed Jorge’s opening, but we’ll be able to catch the show before it closes on the 21st.

From the Press Release: "This new body of work continues Pardo’s interest in collapsing the boundaries of art, architecture and design through the appropriation of domestic architectural elements, which he transforms into seductive yet practical sculptures. On view will be temperature-controlled wine credenzas that can store over 100 bottles in a delicate honeycomb interior; intricately carved clocks; and groupings of colorful hanging lamps with seaweed-like tendrils. The new paintings, which are silk-screen on unprimed linen, take on a playful, sculptural form with draped garlands and floral appliquÈs."

The exhibition will open on Friday, March 23, with a reception from 6 – 8 p.m., and will remain on view through Saturday, April 21. Friedrich Petzel Gallery is located at 537 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011. For more information, please contact the gallery at 212-680-9467 or info@petzel.com. Please click here for a printer friendly version of this press release.

Ilkka Haslo: Museum of Nature

441504340_7fd7ee2509_o I’m sure I’m not the only one who will have a déjà vu moment when first seeing these pictures by artist Ilkka Halso. They could be a kind of Jungian collective "dream" in which what we know to be already true–but nevertheless deny as a catastrophic "nightmare"–appears out of nowhere, in sharp focus, melding our waking and our dream worlds into a fantasmagorical vision of the inevitable.

441504342_c83015024b_oBLDGBLOG says: "These are "shelters," the artist writes, "massive buildings where big ecosystems could be stored." The more I think about this project, though, the more exciting it gets; someone should write a novel set in this place – a kind of eco- catastrophic sequel to Westworld, perhaps – or, at the very least, someone should put Halso’s images on display in the United States. They’d also make a gorgeous spread in Wired.In any case, be sure to spend time clicking around through Halso’s site. It’s worth it. And check out another of Halso’s projects, featured on Pruned back in 2005

.

441504330_669caf1601_o_2

via BLDGBLOG

A Poet is a Poet: Dylan Thomas

Bonnard "A poet is a poet for such a very tiny bit of his life; for the rest he is a human being, one of whose responsibilities is to know and feel, as much as he can, all that is moving around and within him."

- Dylan Thomas

via Whiskey River