My people are so enterprising. Or they just have an incredibly morbid sense of humor. There’s already a slew of influenza-related Latin songs out there, and they are all delightfully low-brow. The above video, for example, has a reggaeton vibe, lots of amateur booty shaking and an inexplicable shot of a rapping guy dressed as Osama bin Laden. (WTF???)
Music blog Sound Taste, run by an esteemed colleague mine, has the scoopy scoop on all the latest Latin music tributes to the swine flu, including a trombone-laced Duranguense bit (video #4), an acoustic ballad set to the tune of the Cure’s Monday, I’m in Love (video #5) and a punk corrido that channels Iggy Pop, with accordions (video #6). Sublime!
If humanity is left standing after this little pandemic, I’m hoping that Time-Life will be thoughtful enough to issue these as a compilation.
LACMA picks up a gigantor painting by Roberto Matta. Cool!
The art industrial average is plunging. Layoffs hit Aperture and the Getty. More here. Plus: Isabella Stewart Gardner museum lays off staff as it pursues a Renzo Piano-designed expansion. (AFC.)
I recently spent a week in Italy with San Suzie, pillaging the local gelaterias and skulking around the American Academy in Rome. (More on that later.) But if there was one thing I was absolutely determined to do while I was there, it was pick up a pair of the above shorts, which feature the full monty belonging to none other than Michelangelo’s David. (San Suzie did a story on ‘em back in September.)
Now, lucky readers, these sausagerrific 100% polyester shorts could be hugging your privates. Leave a comment below, and before you know it, you’ll be impressing the world with your perfectly chiseled dong and rock-hard derriere.
Winner takes the shorts, but not the man inside. He’s mine — all mine.
Hilarious!! Damien Hirst, the man who brought the world the diamond-encrusted skull, says that the recession will be good for artists: “The reason why you make art is not financial… It’s not about how much something is worth or how much it costs, it’s about whether it’s good or not.” Plus: Win a painting by Hirst. For reals. (@theartmarket, AO.)
More on the Brandeis/Rose Museum smackdown: the museum’s trustees ain’t happy.
A Texas legislator wants to treat graffiti as organized crime. Um, don’t you clowns need to be doing stuff like fixing the economy and getting people health care? (Gracias, Johnny.)
Speaking of things Prince Charles would hate: Photos from the Rem Koolhaas/Prada Transformer launch in Seoul. The building kinda looks like a satellite that crash landed into Earth. Life Without Buildings tries to figure the thing out.
I’ve made some sorely needed improvements – aka, scrawled my name — across Rhizome’s 50,000 Dollar Web Page, a “collaborative” fundraiser for the New Museum’s digital arm. Last month, the organization set up a permanent web page on their site where anyone can buy a space and a link (10 x 10 pixels go for $5) — and put up pretty much whatever they like. With your donations, I was able to roller tag the mutha — something far bigger and better than if I’d try to go at this alone.
Needless to say, I’m pretty darn grateful that there are folks out there who saw fit to help me finance this silliness. As promised, my “project” is neither socially nor politically redeeming. And as promised, everyone is thanked on the site. In the process, Rhizome, a non-profit, made a tidy $620 in donations. I’ve raised $447 of that total, surpassing my goal of $400 — and I didn’t even have to get all Sally Struthers. If you still want to contribute a couple of bucks to the cause, however, I’m not gonna say no. (You can do that here.)
In the meantime, thankyouthankthanyouthankyou to everyone who gave $$$ (in the middle of a recession, no less!). I love knowing that there are people out there who not only encourage ridiculosity, they sponsor it! You guys rock HARD.
Detail from Ubu Roi (The War March), 2009. (Photos by C-M.)
Is it the end of the world? Or the beginning? In Hernan Bas’s latest canvases, now on show at Lehmann Maupin, it is difficult to tell. Survivors of flamboyant costume parties emerge from fantastical cities that seem to rise and crumble in roiling landscapes that make you think, ‘The party’s over.’ Or is it? Think German-style surrealism meets Futurist sculpture meets the sweaty oppression of the Everglades — all on very large canvases. (My photos don’t do it justice.) There’s a lot to look at, and the more you stare, the less you know what the hell is going on. Overall, a damn interesting show.
