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Random notes: November 19, 2009.

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

The artist Jeanne-Claude, wife of Christo and his collaborator on “The Gates“, has died.  (NYT obit here.)

In other news, the Oakland Raiders have benched JaMarcus Russell, their number one draft pick in 2007. Per NFL.com, the Honorable Mr. Russell has a quarterback rating of 47.7 (at the time of this writing) which places him 30th. The only player he outranks at the moment is Derek Anderson of Cleveland, with a 36.2. To quote Gregg Easterbrook, “If every attempt by a quarterback falls to the ground incomplete, his rating is 39.6.”

“On Wednesday, the LPGA released its 2010 schedule, and despite the loss of 13 tournaments from two years ago, 17 open weeks in the season and a few TBDs (to be determineds), there is optimism among tour officials and players.”

Fine. Just as long as it stays off my television. (Since I don’t have cable, the Golf Channel is perfectly okay.) The only televised sport I hate more than golf is women’s golf. (I have nothing against playing golf; though I’ve never done it myself, I’m sure it is a fine sport. But watching golf – men’s or women’s – is about as exciting as reading transcripts of Roman Hruska speeches.)

Posted in Art, Christo, Clippings, Loser, NFL, Obits | Comments Closed

Random notes: October 22, 2009.

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

Today’s NYT continues covering the Sedona sweat lodge incident:

Dr. Bunn, who had signed up for the $9,695 “spiritual warrior” experience

It must be nice to have more money than sense.

A psychic in Waynesville, N.C., Page Bryant, who was among the first to claim in the 1980s that Sedona had several “vortexes” of high energy — the initial lure for the legions of seekers — said that she became fed up and left nearly two decades ago “because of the craziness I saw going on in the New Age community.”

Wow. When the crazy people think you’re too crazy, maybe that’s a sign.

…the comments of a self-described “channeler” who visited Angel Valley after the retreat. Claiming to have communicated with the dead, the channeler said they had left their bodies in the sweat lodge and chosen not to come back because “they were having so much fun.”

Also in the NYT, the latest “trend” story: the return of the restaurant matchbook.

On the “Art, damn it, art!” front, here’s the LAT on the art in front of the new LAPD headquarters building. I’m thinking #4 in the slide show looks a lot like someone with their head buried in the sand.

In local news, some folks in the neighborhood are trying to get TABC to pull the liquor and operating licenses for the Nutty Brown Cafe. I drive past the Nut on a fairly regular basis; it isn’t like there’s a whole lot out there. Additionally, my great and good friends Andrew and the actor we’ve hired to play Karl play live music at the Nut from time to time, and I do kind of like the food there (we had a dining conspiracy there recently, and I have to say my opinion was a minority one) so I’m not exactly sympathetic to these complaints.

Posted in Art, Clippings, Food, Media, Stupid | 1 Comment »

Art, damn it, art! watch. (#2 in a series)

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Our great and good friend Mike points us to this artnet article about Damien Hirst’s “No Love Lost: Blue Paintings” exhibition.

As everyone must know by now, he has made these paintings himself, at an easel with paints and brushes, a fact that is remarkable for being remarkable.

Mr. Hirst is, as many of you know, the artist responsible for “The golden calf”  (“calf, 18 carat gold, glass, gold-plated steel, silicone and formaldehyde solution with Carrara marble plinth”) and “The kingdom” (“tiger shark, glass, steel, silicone and formaldehyde solution with steel plinth”).

Posted in Art, Clippings | Comments Closed

Art, damn it, art! watch (#1 in a series)

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

I was doing these back in the pre-blog email days, and a couple of people have griped that I haven’t done one in a while. Well, that’s because until now there hasn’t been much art news to report. Now, though, I have a chance to see how many buttons I can push with one blog entry.

First up, the LAT reports on a Frank Lloyd Wright drawing which is currently featured in a local exhibition. The drawing? A “cottage studio” designed for…Ayn Rand.  (A pretty nifty design, I think.)

By way of Balko, we learn of a couple on a quest: to photograph every Sizzler in America.  And they’re planning to publish a book of the photos, too.

(The comments at Balko’s site are amusing, too, especially #24: “No. This is not art. End of discussion.”  Since art is  “any human activity that doesn’t grow out of either of our species two basic instincts: survival and reproduction“, (or then again, maybe it isn’t) the commenter is clearly wrong.)

(Hi, Mike!)

Posted in Art, Clippings | 1 Comment »

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