The Digest. 01.12.09.

Seawall, 1957 by Richard Diebenkorn at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco. (Photo by C-M.)

• The mysteries of American Chinese food. Fascinating.
• A stellar piece — with video — by the L.A. Times on the Felix Gonzalez-Torres go-go box at the Hammer. (Which I saw last week, but without the dancer. Grrr.)
• Jerry Saltz is on Facebook! (Hrag Vartanian.)
• Robert Capa remixed.
• The NYT reports on museums in the age of uncertainty.
• Plus, more on the economic gloom and doom: Denver Art Museum slashes budgets, as does Chicago’s Field Museum. And Christie’s gets ready for layoffs.
• LACMA trying to sell its only piece by Lucas Cranach the Elder.
• Why art needs a recession. (Arts Journal.)
• Should all looted art be returned? No, says a former exhibition secretary from England’s Royal Academy. (Arts Journal.)
• From the Department of WTF? The Washington Post argues that Walt Disney deserves museum space. Because what the art world really needs right now is a Mickey. (Modern Art Notes.)
• The Seattle P-I is in the ICU. Regina Hackett does a visual tribute.
• Updated gun targets.
• Today’s Street Art: Momo1030 and Mascaras in Austria.
• Louis Vuitton + graffiti + skateboard=Gag.
• San Francisco in Jell-O. (Hrag Vartanian.)
• Greg Lynn, talking about architecture’s mathematical roots. (architecture.mnp.)
• Deathwatch for Frank Gehry’s Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn.
• Neat-O Infographic of the Day: Watch Wal-Mart invade the country. (Life Without Buildings.)
• Your moment of Zen.