The Digest. 01.04.10.

Bergdorf Goodman Window by Kurt Strahm. (Image courtesy of Restless.)

• The art of floating plastic knives.
• #class: William Powhida and Jen Dalton challenge the New Museum’s Dakis Joannou exhibit with one of their own.
• Speaking of which, the New Museum isn’t the only place that will show an artist-curated exhibit of the  Jouannou collection.
• Man, Urs Fischer’s work sure looks a whole lot better laden with scoops of vanilla ice cream.
• Vegas museum forced to use pasties on a mural after nipple uproar. (Arts Journal.)
• Celebrity artists.
• Getting buggy: My ArtNews story on the use of insects in art. Fabián Peña’s kicker is priceless. (I agree: humans resemble roaches in more ways than we’d like to believe.)
• Here’s one out of left field: My Twitter feed made the NYT. What will I do with all this newfound credibility? Squander it senselessly, of course. (Seriously, thanks for the kind e-mails, Twitters and to those who have relentlessly pimped this on my behalf. Y’all rock.)
• And because it’s all about me: my review of the Guggenheim’s new resto, The Wright, is up at WNYC — with pictures of everything we ate!!
• More year-enders: Joanne Mattera does a comprehensive Miami fairs round-up, which includes a shot of the stunning Picasso sandwich at Aqua. Plus: AFC’s Best of the Web 2009 list, chock full of special guest hosts, the Saltz-Master’s New York Mag year-in-art, and 16 Miles has a list of year-end-review lists. Handy.
• Monterrey gothic: The photographs of Aristeo Jiménez. Pure awesomeness. Click here for more on the photographer. (Gracias, Big Papi G.)
• Homies phone cards.
• The Face of Jesus.
• ¡Graffiti World Smackdown! Banksy vs. Robbo vs. Banksy.
• Today’s Graff: Scheme in Moscow.
• L.A., then and now. Very cool. (@KnightLAT.)
• Burj Dubai set to open today: “Here is the Burj Dubai’s real symbolic importance: It is mostly empty, and is likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future.”
• A nurse’s opinion of the proposed demolition of Walter Gropius-designed Michael Reese hospital in Chicago.
• Tokyo’s capsule hotels become residences in worst Japanese recession since World War II. (@stevesilberman.)
• The joy of pipe.
• Chicken techno. (Thank you, Fred Muram.)