Miscellany. 01.19.12.

Billboard by French street artist Ox, in San Bernardino. Part of a billboard project on I-15 last month. Image courtesy of the artist.)

• The New York Times has a story on Mexican narchitecture. And I’m supremely jealous I didn’t write it. Be sure to check out the splendiferous slideshow, complete with bullet hole façades and zebra-stripe furnishings.
• Speaking of which: The house where Pablo Escobar was gunned down is for sale.
• Bacteria as conservation tool.
• KCET Departures has just launched a highly intriguing online series about the laws (starting with the Laws of the Indies) that have shaped L.A.’s landscape. The second essay is on how helicopter landing pad laws have resulted in the city’s boxy architecture.
• It’s a bummer that Robert Smithson never got to build the land art pieces at DFW airport described in this essay. Would make landing in Dallas infinitely cooler. (See a design schematic here.)
• Late on this, but still important: Jeff Weinstein reminds us that Helen Frankenthaler helped gut the NEA.
• UNAM is putting the materials from their libraries and collections online. This is very cool.
• Set aside 11 minutes for this: An animation of a talk by psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist about the divided brain (with Andy Warhol/Banksy reference towards the end). Wow.
• It all rests on transformation: Some discussions about the Patrick Cariou versus Richard Prince copyright case (in which Prince was sued by another artist for copyright infringement). The NYT has an overview. Hyperallergic also has an explainer. Anyone else think that both sets of works are not at all interesting?
• Sort of related: Copying stuff is now a religion in Sweden.
• SPIN Magazine now reviewing albums on Twitter.
• Plus: Why authors Tweet.
• Maria Bustillos, on what makes a great critic.
• Which led me to this interesting Financial Times essay on literary criticism gone soft.
• Tumblrs to Follow: Preservationist Ryan Gosling and Museum Ryan Gosling. (San Suzie.)
• Today’s Graff: Would love to have Djalouz redo my bathroom.
• 10 pieces of trash-talking ancient graffiti.
• The story of Chinese food take-out containers.
• Ugly Renaissance Babies. (@rcembalest.)