The Digest. 05.05.10.

Accordion, 2009, by Christian Marclay, at the Austin Museum of Art. (Photo by C-M.)

• Why the U.S. pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai sucks balls — seriously, it looks like an Orange County office park. Not a pretty story. (@hragv.)
• In related news: The UK pavilion, designed by Heatherwick Studio, is FUCKING AWESOME. This video proves it. Plus: Fast Company decodes pavilion architecture. Hilarious.
• How to diss like Shakespeare. Handy.
• What happens to all that unused hotel soap? Here’s one answer.
• The Moment dissects Simone de Beauvoir’s “intellectual frump” look.
• The Turner Prize short list. Let the griping begin! (Arts Journal.)
• The Art Industrial Average is Up: Picasso painting sells for a buttload.
• ¡Art critic smackdown! Regina Hackett takes the NYT‘s Roberta Smith to task for her review of the Guggenheim’s Haunted show.
• Art that was once alive.
• Artists swapping services for health care in Brooklyn. More here. (Thank you, @ComicStripicus.)
• Photo Essay: Bill Owens’ Suburbia. Sorta related: Suburban Slovakia.
• Allen Ginsberg, photographer.
• Art Shred is in the latest issue of ARTnews. Yay!
• Design-conscious sex toys.
• Today’s Street Art: Michael Beerens’ angry swordfish in Paris.
• Seems like New York City wants to tear down this wall…Shepard Fairey’s wall.
• Os Gemeos has a new blog. I think I saw this guy on the subway today. (Coudal.)
• “Why they should let Jean Nouvel build every inch of his arrogant tower.”
• More arguments in architecture: Why the U.S. Supreme Court should keep its front door as an entrance. “That visitors can still leave via the grand front door is of little comfort. This relegates the opening promise of the portal — ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ — to the rearview mirror. It is no longer a promise at all, no longer an expectation of the visitor upon entrance. Now, to read it, the visitor must turn around, like Orpheus, and hope it wasn’t just an illusion.” (Modern Art Notes.)
• Mirror Man.