The Digest. 10.08.08.

Meadow, a 12′ x 3′ aerosol-on-wood cut-out by Miami artist Blackbooks. (Image courtesy of Blackbooks.)

• Sausage art.
• Afterthought of the Day: McCain’s arts policy.
• Michelangelo’s David may be threatened by tourists’ footsteps.
• On the verge of extinction: The International Union for Conservation has released its list of the world’s most endangered animals.
• Photos from the Hubble. Lovin’ that cat’s eye nebula. (Via Coudal.)
• Also nearing extinction: Sotheby’s. Related: Phillips de Pury bought by the Russians.
• There’s all kinds of craziness afoot with that Pollock that Sotheby’s was trying to get the University of Iowa to pawn. Sotheby’s is saying they didn’t try to induce the sale. Though they’re not saying much about the allegation that they tried to get the university to sell other pieces from the collection.
• Sort of related: The day in poo.
• Jen Graves at The Stranger has an interesting piece about hospital art.
• Go to galleries, get free stuff.
• Just in time for the end of the world: Paris funeral parlor turned into gallery.
• Rothko on making all those paintings for the Four Seasons restaurant (now on display at the Tate): “I hope to paint something that will ruin the appetite of every son of a bitch who ever eats in that room.“
• Updated and corrected: The red vinyl installations of several Phoenix art students under the direction of art teacher Sue Chenoweth: Fritz Abrahamson (senior), Morgan Zwicky (Junior) Landon Lopez (Junior) and Anthony Taylor (Junior).
• Tip for artists who want to sell: Don’t use brown.
• Graff of the Day: Amsah in France. More here.
• Alvaro Siza wins a gold medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects. More here.
• All those gleaming towers in Dubai? Built by an army of immigrant workers who live in squalor. And now for the architectural irony: One of the worker camps lies just a few hundred metres from a bridge called the Zaha Hadid.
• A great way for the rich to spend their hard-stolen money: For $60,000, Neiman Marcus will make a life-size statue of you in Legos. (Page 74-75 of the catalogue in a section called “Wow Gifts.”)
• Your moment of L.A. Times song dedication: girl you know it’s true.