Miscellany. 06.24.12.

SMELLS, CASH4. (Image courtesy of SMELLS.)

• “Homes of the violent rich have excellent first-aid cabinets.” Jennifer Egan’s Twitter story is full of gems.
• Interesting piece on Monterrey’s ‘cumbia rebajada’ — cumbia played at slowed down speeds — and the trippy-ass haircuts the style has generated, with pix by Stefan Ruiz. (For an example of what the music sounds like, click here. Ohhhhhh yeaaahhhhhh.)
• Just in time for campaign season: A helpful piece from On the Media on how to spot bullshit political headlines in under 10 seconds.
• “The United States lived seventy-five years with the one party system in Mexico—the PRI—without batting an eyelid, never demanding democracy of Mexico. Democracy came because Mexicans fought for democracy and made a democracy out of our history, our possibilities, our perspectives. Democracy is not something that can be exported like Coca-Cola.” From a recently-surfaced interview with Carlos Fuentes in Guernica.
• Members of L.A.’s MTA crew (the ones behind the super-amazing, super-massive MTA roller in the L.A. River, since buffed) won’t have to pay for clean-up, but may be subject to injunctions generally reserved for gang members.
• Read this now: The James Franco-ification of the art world.
• Critic Jonathan Jones wants a break from Andy Warhol. (Hyperallergic.)
• And because I can’t help myself: Marina Abramovic on her boob job and Glenn Lowry’s sexiness.
• I can’t wait to see the insufferable art-heads that come out of this school. (AFC.)
• In 1979, there were three art fairs. Now there are 189. And I refuse to go to them all. (@KnightLAT.)
• A stunning piece on Radiolab about the origin of the pigment known as Gamboge. You’ll never look at yellow the same way again. (The segment begins at 16:40.)
• Art as protest: Christian Viveros-Fauné on the New Realism, including the drug-violence art of Teresa Margolles and the anti-Putin pieces of Voina.
• Nice essay by Ben Valentine of Hyperallergic on the phenomenon of Tumblr art.
• LACMA’s Franklin Sirmans reviews Bridget Cooks’ book on the history of exhibiting African-American artists in the U.S.
• Was cave art an early form of cinema?
• Art scholars step back from authenticating works due to legal actions. More fun to live with the uncertainty.
• Art + Market = Insanity. An opinion piece on the New York Times website about how the art world thrives on inequality. Thematically, it’s a retread of Andrea Fraser’s essay for the Whitney Biennial — which is more thorough — but worth it nonetheless. (To quote Fraser: “What has been good for the art world has been disastrous for the rest of the world.”
• What I learned about Carolee Schneeman in the current issue of White Fungus: she’s a TOTAL cat lady.