C-MONSTER.net.

New Orleans lights. Photo by Trois Têtes.

Posted by C-Monster.

Photo by cyberliesl.

• Kevin Dubrow, 52. Lead singer, Quiet Riot.
• Brad Delp, 55. Lead singer, Boston.
• Molly Ivins, 62. Writer.
• Denny Doherty, 66. Singer, the Mamas the Papas.
• Update (missed this one earlier, thanks Timothy Buckwalter): Elizabeth Murray, 66. Artist.
• Evel Knievel, 69. Biker.
• Robert Goulet, 73. Singer.
• David Halberstam, 73. Journalist.
• R.B. Kitaj, 74. Artist.
• Laszlo Kovacs, 74. Cinematographer, Easy Rider.
• Hilly Krystal, 75. Founder, CBGB’s.
• Don Ho, 76. Singer, actor.
• Charles Nelson Reilly, 76. Tony Award-winning actor, game show fixture.
• Sol Lewitt, 78. Artist.
• Iwao Takamoto, 81. Creator, Scooby Doo.
• Max Roach, 83. Drummer.
• Kurt Vonnegut, 84. Author.
• Ernest Withers, 85. Photographer.
• Madeleine L’Engle, 88. Author.
• Robert Adler, 93. Co-inventor of the remote control.
• Hy Zaret, 99. Lyricist, Unchained melody.

Starting with this clown. Photo by jasonmontague.

1. The Celebrity Industrial Complex.
2. Any art that utilizes images of Mickey Mouse or Marilyn Monroe. It’s been done. To death. Please stop.
3. Douchebags.
4. The use of the term “eco” as a ploy to sell people more shit.
5. Starchitects.
6. Visual art that requires an essay-length text on methodology to make the piece on display seem interesting.
7. The phrase “design-conscious,” especially when referring to children. (They shit their pants. Does anyone think they really care about mid-century Modern?)
8. Classist museum policies that allow women with Samsonite-sized handbags to breeze in, but force me to stand in Soviet-era lines to check in a backpack.
9. The notion that Rudy Giuliani is a viable presidential candidate.
10. The Art Bubble.

Posted by C-Monster.

Photo of the WPIX Yule Log by Michael Golrick.

I’m taking some time off so that I may engage in some unrepentant consumerism in honor of the Birth of the Saviour. The daily Digest will return next year (though there may be miscellaneous sporadic posts before then). See y’all in ‘08!

xox, C-Monster.

At the Pulse Art Fair. Photo by celso_nyc.

• Paintings by Picasso and Candido Portinari stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art. (Via ArtForum.)
• From the Department of It’s-off-It’s-on: Exhibition of Russian-held art will make it to England after all.
• Detroit is an open canvas.
• Hong Kong: The Jan Brady of contemporary Asian art.
• Art Criticism of the Week: “Like P.T. Barnum, Salvador Dalí, Muhammad Ali and Cirque du Soleil, Matthew Barney is not known for understatement.”
• Frank Gehry: Not-so-hot, according to Fortune.
• The Day in Planned Makeovers: The Public Library and Governor’s Island in New York, and the Gardner Museum in Boston.
• Where authoritarianism and architecture intersect: Fidel Castro says he wants to live as long as Oscar Niemeyer.
• Afghan treasures to go on tour in the U.S., starting at D.C.’s National Gallery in May.
• Pakistani artist Gulgee found murdered in his Karachi home. (Via ArtForum.)
• Fake is the new real: All about the fakers in Dafen, China, in one and two parts (the latter one via Off Center).
• Newsflash: Beauty in art is dead. Also dead: high culture. Even deader: Photography.
• A public service message: Don’t dump your paint. (Via Ekosystem)
• On the Internets: Lowbrow pioneer Robert Williams.
• And speaking of lowbrow: Is Princess Di art? Who the hell knows. But she sure sells tickets.
• New book: Dave Ellis and Doze Green’s Shaft.
• Just in time for Xmas: Skullphone merch.
• Because Manhattan really could use more retail: Is the closing of the Oliver Kamm gallery an indicator of a coming art bust?
• Visual Nuggets: The work of Ala Ebtekar.
• I ♥ The Holidays: “With a Rebel Noel.”
• Separated at Birth: Architect Charles Renfro and comedian Charles Nelson Reilly.
• A visual tour of the Cloisters.
• “It doesn’t say Cox, unless I say it tastes like Cox.”
• Urinal of the Day.
• In Sydney: Emily Kame Kngwarreye at the Mary Place Gallery.
• In S.F.: All Star Hustlaz at White Walls Gallery.
• In Queens: New York States of Mind at the Queens Museum of Art.
• In Chile: Art takes the bus.
• Your moment of Christmas cheer: ‘80s Dallas edition.

No digest today. I’m busy. Photo by Brian Wallace.

Posted by C-Monster.