Archive for the ‘Art’ Category

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Art, damn it, art! watch (#26 in a series)

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012

A 340-ton boulder is expected to begin its difficult trek Tuesday night from a Riverside County quarry, rolling to a stop 11 days later in a new art exhibit at LACMA.

I’m sure folks have all sorts of questions, including: how do you move a 340-ton rock? The LAT story includes a nifty interactive graphic that shows how the transport works.

During the day, the rock — expected to be shrink-wrapped for protection — will have to park in “the middle of the road, the only place big enough,” Rick Albrecht, the project’s logistics supervisor, told The Times last year.

“shrink-wrapped for protection”? Protection from what? It’s a rock!

At LACMA, the granite will be placed on its new home, resting atop a ramp-like slot in the ground through which visitors will pass, making it appear that the rock levitates above them. It will form the center of artist Michael Heizer’s enormous sculpture “Levitated Mass.”

Other questions you may be wondering about: the total cost of the project, including the rock moving, is estimated at “up to $10 million” according to the LAT.

Other questions you may not be wondering about: the rock has a Twitter feed, and is currently following 235 people. That kind of sounds like a bad horror movie, doesn’t it? “I’m being followed by a 340-ton rock that’s moving at 5 MPH.”

Posted in Art, Clippings, Geek | Comments Closed

Burning airlines give you so much more.

Friday, February 17th, 2012

Another topic of conversation at dinner last night: planes. Specifically, airlines.

Posted in Art, Endorsements, Movies, Planes | Comments Closed

This goes out to Mike the Musicologist…

Monday, February 13th, 2012

…aka “My one reader who is a Frank Lloyd Wright fan and doesn’t read Balko’s blog“:

Frank Lloyd Wright’s doghouse design.

I wonder how many architects have done doghouses; I know that a few years back, Frank Gehry offered a doghouse design in a benefit auction, but I can’t find out it if was built, or if his design is online anywhere.

Posted in Art, Clippings, Gehry | Comments Closed

Morning roundup for February 7, 2012.

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

Bunch of stuff from the NYT this morning. Sorry, but that’s how things roll sometimes.

First up: I didn’t know there were plans for an Eisenhower memorial. I like Ike, and the artist’s conception doesn’t strike me as being too awful. However, I’m skeptical of the need for yet another memorial in DC. The big news here is that Eisenhower’s family is now raising “concerns” about the design.

“He was chief of staff of the Army; he was a two-term president of the United States,” said Susan Eisenhower, a granddaughter. “It’s in those roles that America has gratitude for him, not as being a young boy with a great future in front of him.”

Extra bonus points: the memorial designer is WCD’s (and Lawrence’s) favorite architect.

Next up: C.J. Chivers has an neat piece about the Navy’s training program for underwater and overwater egress from downed aircraft.

The pilot — feet near the surface, head near the bottom, sightless — was to disconnect himself from the buckled straps, wiggle free, open the window and pull himself through and out, a series of movements intended to simulate what he might need to do in an aircraft that had struck the sea at night.

And this is why they do it:

Lieutenant Farley followed the only instructions he knew. “I did exactly what the training had taught me,” he said. “I grabbed a reference point, drew my breath right before the water went over my head and unbuckled.”
As he slipped free from his seat, he could see nothing. He pulled himself toward where he thought he might escape, but lost his way. He does not remember finding the exit, but he must have. Just before his lungs gave out he was on the surface, the last man out.
Everyone survived: two pilots up front, three crew members and the two passengers.

Lecture mode on:

“I hate it with a passion,” he said. “But if you are in a bad situation and have trained for it, then you revert to your training and what you know. It is why I am alive.”

And finally:

A New York City police officer whom prosecutors called the leader of a group of officers who accepted thousands of dollars in cash in return for illegally transporting firearms into the state pleaded guilty on Monday in Federal District Court in Manhattan.

I commend to the attention of Mayor Bloomberg and “Mumbles” Menino Matthew 7:5. Better yet, I commend to both gentlemen  and the other members of the criminal organization Mayors Against Illegal Guns the simple strategy of shutting the f–k up.

Edited to add: Oh, drat. I forgot that I wanted to make note of Alberto Contador being stripped of his 2010 Tour de France win. Congrats to Andy Schleck.

Posted in Art, Clippings, Gehry, Guns, Planes, Schadenfreude, Sports | Comments Closed

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? and other random notes for February 2, 2012.

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

Obit watch: Angelo Dundee, Muhammad Ali’s corner man.

Mike Kelley, L.A. based visual artist. There’s also a well-done appreciation of his work at the A/V Club website.

And I’m a little late on this, but wanted to note it anyway: Ian Abercrombie.

In other news, the fun never stops with the Harris County District Attorney’s office. I missed the actual report (I can’t get Houston’s Channel 13 in Austin), but BlogHouston and The Hon. Murray Newman have links. In brief, DA Lykos basically admitted that, yes, she ordered investigators in her office to “research” (as she puts it; other people use the word “investigate”) members of the 185th Grand Jury, as well as the special prosecutors and the judges involved with the grand jury.

I don’t think I am overstating things to suggest that the HCDA’s office is starting to look positively Nixonian.

Posted in Art, Clippings, HCDA, Law, Nixon, Obits | 1 Comment »

Random notes for January 4, 2012.

Wednesday, January 4th, 2012

I’d been sort of vaguely following the LA arson case. I knew that they had arrested some German guy driving a van with Canadian license plates, and apparently he was somehow upset over his mother’s immigration issues or something. I didn’t realize how messed up things were until this morning: not only is Mom an illegal alien, but she’s wanted in Germany on 19 counts of fraud (and apparently Germany has requested extradition). It appears that she ripped off a bunch of renters and landlords (I think the NYT said something about her pocketing security deposits), and failed to pay for her breast augmentation surgery in 2004. And the LAT hints that she may have been in business as a “sensual Tantric masseuse”.

Obit watch: Ronald Searle.

Firing watch: Bears offensive coordinator Mike Martz and quarterbacks coach Shane Day. The Sun-Times seems to be spinning this as “resignations”, but I’ve seen reporting elsewhere that puts it more in the “you can’t fire me, I quit” category.

NYT headline: “Rangers Coach a Conspiracy Theorist“. Awesome. Does he believe the towers were brought down by the burning mind control agents on the airliners? Sadly, no. His conspiracy theory is much more boring: the officials made bad calls in order to make the game go into overtime.

Posted in Art, California Über Alles, Clippings, Firings, Law, NFL, Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

Trolling, trolling, trolling…

Monday, December 12th, 2011

“The reality is that what ‘is’ and ‘isn’t art’ is something we can determine with a slider in our prefrontal cortex.”

Posted in Art, Clippings | Comments Closed

Random notes: November 8, 2011.

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

Obit watch: Smokin’ Joe Frazier, 32-4-1. (And two of those losses were to Ali.) NYT obit.

Christo has obtained Federal approval for his latest project, “Over the River”.

…will include eight suspended panel segments totaling 5.9 miles along a 42-mile stretch of the river, about three hours southwest of Denver.

(Artists conception in the linked article.)

Attorney General Eric Holder says an investigation of arms traffickers called Operation Fast and Furious was flawed in concept as well as in execution, never should have happened and “it must never happen again.”

Yeah. At least, it must never happen again until the next time the NYT and the current administration want to drum up support for a ban on modern sporting rifles.

Posted in Art, Christo, Clippings, Guns | Comments Closed

Art, damn it, art! watch. (#25 in a series)

Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

A performance artist who said giving birth is the “highest form of art” has delivered a baby boy — inside a New York City art gallery.

…

The entire gallery was given over to the installation. The artist even carved out space for a fully-stocked refrigerator and a portable shower with curtain pockets filled with photos from her three baby showers.

Posted in Art, Clippings | Comments Closed

Paging Mike the Musicologist.

Friday, October 21st, 2011

Under questioning from [defense attorney Russ] Horton Thursday, [Bee Cave code compliance officer Michael] Polley said he couldn’t say what the definition of fine art was or how the mural did or did not meet community standards.

This was kind of an odd case, with a bizarre ending. Planet K, a local chain of head shops – excuse me, “adult novelty stores” – has been planning to open a location in Bee Cave, and had local artist Kerry Awn do a mural for them. The city of Bee Cave claimed the mural was an illegal sign, and went to court.

At trial, the judge issued a directed verdict – basically, ordering the jury to return a “not guilty” finding – because the city of Bee Cave failed to prove that “AusPro Enterprises”, the company being prosecuted, actually owned the property or had any connection to the Planet K chain.

In my experience, directed verdicts are rare. I can’t remember the last time I heard of one being issued around here. And it sounds like somebody in the Bee Cave DA’s office failed to do their homework.

Posted in Art, Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Art, damn it, art! watch. (#24 in a series)

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

Alex Schaefer is a painter.

Alex Schaefer likes to paint banks.

Alex Schaefer likes to paint banks on fire.

Alex Schaefer was questioned by the LAPD because, supposedly, someone “felt threatened” by Mr. Schaefer standing in front of a Chase bank branch and painting it on fire.

Schaefer said he explained that the artwork was intended to be a visual metaphor for the havoc that banking practices have caused to the economy.

Alex Schaefer just sold that painting to a guy in Germany for $25,000. Mr. Schaefer sold another painting of a burning Bank of America branch on eBay for $3,600.

The LAT does not mention where Mr. Schaefer has his accounts.

Posted in Art, Clippings | Comments Closed

Then it fell over, burned, and sank into the swamp.

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

Back in November of last year, we made note of the grand opening of the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, Mississippi.

So how’s the museum doing? The NYT tells us: not so great. As in “almost out of cash” not so great. Major problems:

Posted in Art, Clippings, Gehry | Comments Closed

Art, damn it, art! watch. (#23 in a series)

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

Ben Wilson is an artist in England.

His medium is acrylic enamel…and used chewing gum stuck to the sidewalk.

He developed a technique in which he softens the gum with a blowtorch, sprays it with lacquer and then applies three coats of acrylic enamel. He uses tiny brushes, quick-drying his work with a lighter as he goes along, and then seals it with clear lacquer. Each painting takes between a few hours and a few days, and can last several years if the conditions are right.

I’m not mocking Mr. Wilson: the few examples of his work shown with the article are rather pleasing to me, particularly the Millennium Bridge one.

Posted in Art, Clippings | Comments Closed

Art, damn it, art! watch. (#22 in a series)

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

Rachel Owens is looking for money to purchase wrecked Hummers.

Placed in Manhattan’s Dag Hammarskjold Park — Gateway to the UN and designated site for international protests — the piece will be composed of the crashed hummers piled atop one another in a junk-yard heap. Welded together in a monumental pyramid-shaped stack and sprayed with opalescent icy-white auto body paint, the piece will also evoke the form of an iceberg.

But wait, there’s more! She also plans to install a stereo system!

…instead of the hip-hop as heard in the city or the heavy metal soundtrack many soldiers use as a way to “psych” themselves up, the moody songs of whales and crashes of calving glaciers will emanate from the speakers – the haunting sounds acting as a cry for everyone. In accordance with this soundtrack, the headlights of the cars will be set to dim and brighten.

If you’d like to help Ms. Owens out, her Kickstarter project has five days to go. However, she’s raised (as of this writing) $17,111, and only needed $15,000 for the project, so don’t feel obligated.

How can you resist this offer at the $5,000 level, though? Pledge that much money and you’ll get

a large original piece from my series, “Skulls” (retail value $6,000) that are represented in many major collections world-round. The piece is made of a real cow skull encrusted in broken glass.

Posted in Art | Comments Closed

Art, damn it, art! watch. (#21 in a series)

Monday, May 16th, 2011

The LAT has a short, but interesting, article (tied to a book) about “weird and wonderful Soviet architecture“.

I swear, I think I saw something very much like the Druzhba Sanatorium being used as the bad guy’s hideout in a James Bond film. As for the Institute of Robotics and Technical Cybernetics…wow.

Meanwhile, by way of Popehat, I discovered this MSNBC article summarizing a study by some folks at Muhlenberg College (in Pennsylvania) involving…well, let’s just say it involves the paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe. I’ll leave it to the curious reader to click through for more details.

Posted in Art, Books, Geek | Comments Closed

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