The Digest. 06.18.08.

Jersey Street. Photo by Joe Holmes.

• Soap Pope on a Rope.
• The Day in Decadent Art Merch: Murakami unveils new Louis Vuitton line in Vegas (via Marshall Astor) and very expensive T-shirts from Dash Snow (via AFC).
• A NY Times Twitter feed from the Whitney’s Art Party. Spotted: Sean Lennon taking a tinkle.
• The text of Richard Serra’s commencement speech at Williams: “I have no problem with the virtual reality on your screens as long as you are aware that it is virtual. My concern is that experience by proxy is a poor substitute for the reality of the interactive space we inhabit…Don’t let the rhetoric of simulation steal away the immediacy of your experience. Keep it real, keep it in the moment.” (Via Hrag.)
• Is Jeff Koons from Mars? The Washington Post seems to think so.
• Ed Winkleman reviews the new HBO documentary The Art of Failure.
• Folkestown, England is having a triennial, and it features Tracey Emin, Nathan Coley and Mark Wallinger, among others.
• Totally trippy: Photos from the Viktor & Rolf doll show at the Barbican in London.
• Now that’s what I call innovation: Flip flops that come equipped with a bottle opener.
• The street art industrial average is high: Banksy chimp exceeds expectation at London auction.
• More graffiti as video: 310 Squad in Moscow. (Via Ekosystem.)
• Video: Astillas, El Tono’s D.I.Y. sculptural installation in Lima, Peru. (The chicha music accompanying the video is totally sweet.)
• New book of graffiti photos, spanning three decades: They Call it Graffiti.
• When street artists imitate studio artists: Gaia meets Matthew Day Jackson Edition.
• Eames stamps are now for sale. (Via Kottke.)
• Norman Foster’s Hearst Tower makes it into Grand Theft Auto IV. (Via Eyebeam.)
• Tadao Ando’s new building for the Clark Art Institute, in Mass., to open this weekend.
• The Month in Total Douche-y-ness: The Associated Effing Press wants to charge bloggers to quote their articles. !!!??? More here.
• Slack Power.
• Your moment of Quizás, psychedelic edition.