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Huffington on Kennedy: Stop the circus
Sat Jan 24
A few minutes ago we spoke to blog overlord Arianna Huffington about politics and stuff, and she seemed quite happy that we're done with the Kennedy and Blago sideshows. Now we can tangle with "serious" issues, just like our fearless, somber, awesome new leader commanded us to.
The Kennedy name doesn't seem to carry as much weight as it used to.Well, first of all, I'm very relieved that it's over. Because I think that the media tend to love soap operas, and we've spent an inordinate amount of time on the Blagojevich soap opera, and the New York Senate seat soap opera. The senate seat is now resolved, and I hope Blagojevich will soon be impeached and out of the way. These are incredibly serious times that we're living through, and I would love for that energy to go into looking what is happening with the bailout and how we are allowing it to proceed with so little accountability.
Some other Huffington commentary after the break.
Oh yeah! What is going on with that old...
Artists Space: "Paper Exhibition" (let's keep it simple)
Fri Jan 23
Last Thursday, tucked snugly in the "Black Room" of Soho's Artists Space--and barely audible over the din of immaculately dressed Scandinavians and schmoozing hipsters that emanated from the galleries—Will Holder delivered a somewhat mumbled manifesto on the coconstruction of poem as object, along the way grazing themes of psycholinguistics and segueing into the occasional Dadaist gibberish poem before pausing to slink from one podium to the next, Grolsch in hand.
This was one of two performances put on as part of the opening of "Paper Exhibition," a group show designed to tease its viewers with fictional fictions and references to nonexistent narratives. Curator Raimundas Malasauskas has centered his show on the notion that withholding information will leave a public used to oversaturation yearning for more. In some cases he's definitely right, but clearly he didn't contend with a faction already content to have less be more. A Dutch minimalist architect told me, while...
Next stop, fame and fortune: Riding the 6 with world-record breakers
Fri Jan 23
Roger "of Zoolander fame," Liz Ferrisi and Chris Solarz
Thought your commute was bad this morning? Imagine being stuck in the subways for more than 20 hours. Chris Solarz and Matt Ferrisi, two investment-analyst dudes who were attempting to break the Guinness World Records' time for riding the entire New York City subway system, began their 468-stop trek yesterday at the Far Rockaway stop at 1:30pm. We met up with the dynamic duo at midnight last night at the 6 train's final stop, Pelham Bay Park. Our reporter Elizabeth Pauker had this to say:
"Excited and out of breath, the two seemed barely tired halfway through the event; however, they shared all New Yorkers' fear and frustration of nighttime delays and construction. But so far, they've encountered few glitches in their plan, and have received warm welcomes from MTA workers and riders, who have been cheering them on. Also meeting the two at Pelham Bay Park were members of their makeshift entourage, Matt's wife,...
Book of the day: Grgoire Bouillier's Report on Myself
Fri Jan 23
Few authors combine blunt despair and hyperkinetic glee as well as the Parisian memoirist Grgoire Bouillier. His latest book to be translated into English, the laconically titled Report on Myself, is a sleek account of the author's life from his birth in Algeria through his twenties in Paris.
The story comes charged with tragedy (Grgoire's only brother dies of AIDS), humiliation (as a youth, he's caught staring at a friend's naked mother) and romantic mishaps (one of his girlfriends leaves him at a caf and doesn't call again for years). He even swaps spit with his sometimes-suicidal mom (Dad's response: "These things happen"). But after pouring this neurotic foundation, and even suffering from a bout of madness, Bouillier manages to build something authentically joyful on top of all the sadness. Full of word games, literary allusions and energetic prose, Report on Myself bristles with a fidgety intelligence that's as infectious as it is coolly eccentric.
A review of...
Last chance for "NeoHooDoo"
Fri Jan 23
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If you need a little mojo-voodoo-hoodoo with your art, look no further than your own LIC backyard; but get thee to the river fast, cuz you'll miss the boat. In our humble opinion, this exhibition is one of the big sleeper hits of the season. Last Saturday, in conjunction with "NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith" (read the TONY review here), P.S.1 presented a mash-up of poetry and performance in another installment of its popular Saturday afternoon series. Bringing the exhibition's core theme of art as a ritual and spiritual process into the realm of spoken word and performance, the event featured readings by Melanie Goodreaux, Steve Cannon and LaTasha Diggs. Diggs began with imagery of mud, chickens, catfish and snakes. Her fluid, warbling tone rose into a ringing yodel in a sequence combining Japanese, Malay and Spanish language to spectacular aural effect. Mr. Cannon's delightfully flip poem, a play on the double meaning of matter, reflected on themes of purpose,...
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