Bits: 02.11.09

Mikey Burton's Live with Art III, reproduced with permission, via Hustler of Culture.

• Just Seeds, who brought us yesterday's look at political traincar graffiti, points out revolutionary posters from around the world at OSPAAL, the Organization of Solidarity of the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

• A gallery of sorta-cool-mostly-creepy anatomical tattoos from Street Anatomy.

• Psst... There's going to be a flash mob outside the Walker Art Center on Thursday. But don't tell anyone; it's a secret.

• The earliest known daguerrotype of Abraham Lincoln?

• A timeline of smArtHistory. [via]

• Your moment of ginormous Obama sand painting.

• The trailer for My Kid Could Paint That.

• Truly fascinating footage of narwhals -- "arctic unicorns" -- as they pass through cracks in the ice.

Flight of the Conchords coming to Minneapolis

May 3, Northrop Auditorium
Full tour listing here.

Rage on the rails: Political graffiti on freight cars

Just Seeds, the Portland, Ore.–based activist art cooperative posts a series of photos of freight-car graffiti murals that express outrage over current events. Inked by "ALB," the all-caps pieces spell out BAILOUT, IMPEACH, and POVERTY (accompanied by a cartoon image of Scrooge McDuck). The pieces often include smaller type: "Secret Prisons," "Liars, Killas, Cronies," "Consolidating Power." The local angle: The BAILOUT mural is paired with a character created by the Twin Cities' own Deuce 7.

Update: A Flickr search for ALB -- the Abe Lincoln Brigade -- yields a few more.

Bits: 02.10.09

Joseph Beuys performing "Sonne statt Reagan" in 1982, via Art Das Kunstmagazin.

• In '82, Joseph Beuys gave pop stardom a shot, with a song decrying Ronald Reagan's arms policies. Here's the video of "Sonne statt Reagan," plus an English-language version performed by "Little Beuys" in 2006. (Thanks, Jim.)

• Mark your calendar: April 18 is Record Store Day. Support your local indie store, and maybe pick up some special goodies from artists (Wilco is releasing its new DVD "Ashes of American Flags" early, exclusively at indie retailers, to mark the day).

• Live performances by Brian Wilson, Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Ryan Adams, Calexico and others, filmed in the back of a black cab. Similar: In a Van Sessions with Sons & Daughters, The Walkmen and others.

• You sue me? Well, I sue you! Shepard Fairey is suing the AP right back. Meanwhile, at n+1, Brian Thomas Gallagher writes about Fairey's "styles of radical shill."

• Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon is making her new Mirror/Dash fashion line available exclusively at, gasp, Urban Outfitters.

• Video of Radiohead's Grammy performance.

• BagNewsNotes writes that Obama's first slideshow, about flights on Air Force One, "seems to address the need to sketch a larger Obama."

• What TV news anchors do when the cameras are off. [via]

Scary chart of the day

From House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's blog:

This chart compares the job loss so far in this recession to job losses in the 1990-1991 recession and the 2001 recession – showing how dramatic and unprecedented the job loss over the last 13 months has been. Over the last 13 months, our economy has lost a total of 3.6 million jobs – and continuing job losses in the next few months are predicted.

By comparison, we lost a total of 1.6 million jobs in the 1990-1991 recession, before the economy began turning around and jobs began increasing; and we lost a total of 2.7 million jobs in the 2001 recession, before the economy began turning around and jobs began increasing.

"Oh, four tuna!"

When I saw the London Philharmonic perform "Carmina Burana" as a college kid, I had no idea this is what they were singing. (Note: Follow along with the Latin lyrics.) Via BIOTV.

KAWS on "Sunday Morning"

Revealed: How he came up with the tag, KAWS. The answer: It has to do with kerning. [via]

Bits: 02.09.09

Nate Lee's shot from the Art Shanty Projects (closing Feb. 14) on Medicine Lake, via Proximity.

• Part of the Rem Koolhaas–designed CCTV headquarters in Beijing was set ablaze Monday, possibly by Chinese New Year fireworks. Huffington Post has video. As Colin Kloecker writes, "This is basically the opening scene of Blade Runner."

• Jonathan Melber on why the AP has no case in its copyright charge against Shepard Fairey.

• Hosang Park's photos of "bird's-eye views of the small, over-landscaped parks that seem to accompany modern apartment towers all over the world."

• Opening Thursday: Child Soldiers: Forced to be Cruel, an exhibition of global photography at the Powerhouse Arena in Brooklyn.

• The art of Sonic Youth: Since forming in '81, Sonic Youth has inspired, responded to and collaborated with artists. Now Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and KIT (Kunst im Tunnel) are presenting Sonic Youth, etc. Sensational Fix, an exhibition of works by artists including Cameron Jamie, William S. Burroughs, Vito Acconci, Christian Marclay, Tacita Dean, Harmony Korine and Sonic Youth themselves. (Past pimpage: My shot of the band at the Walker in '06, and Thurston and Kim signing my name.)

• A dead deer was apparently left in front of the New Museum over the weekend. Meanwhile, the Bowery institution announces the 50 artists from 25 countries who'll be participating in its first signature triennial, The Generational (subtitle: Younger than Jesus).

2009 Art Sled Rally

Via MNStories, Chuck Tomlinson's footage from yesterday's Art Sled Rally in Minneapolis' Powderhorn Park. Highlights: a sliding 6-pack of Grain Belt Premium, Luke Skywalker's Tatooine landspeeder and a ten-foot Dungeons and Dragons die.

Cylon Panhandler

From WebUrbanist's list of best hobo signs.

Giant arachnid scales Liverpool hotel!

Yesterday's Big Picture ran an amazing set of photos by Pete Carr of La Machine's 2008 project in Liverpool in which the "French theatrical engineers" created a giant mechanical spider that prowled city streets and scaled the sides of buildings. (You may have seen news about company's "Sultan's Elephant" appearances in London in '06 and in '05 as part of a Jules Verne festival in Nantes). The photographer answers questions about the £1.8 million spectacle in comments at the Boston Globe.

One of the many YouTube videos of the arachnid, "La Princesse."

Bits: 02.07.09

Shepard Fairey piece installed in Boston this week, via AMNP.

• On his way to do a guest DJ gig for the opening of his Supply and Demand show at ICA Boston, Shepard Fairey was arrested last night. The artist has told the Boston Globe he's been arrested 14 times; he had two outstanding warrants. See the exhibition by Fairey, who was recently interviewed by Charlie Rose, at ICA through August.

• On Wednesday, the AP accused Fairey of copyright infringement for basing his iconic poster of Barack Obama (now part of the National Portrait Gallery's collection) on an image shot by the AP's Manny Garcia in 2006. While Fairey and his lawyers say it's fair use, the AP insists on getting credit and compensation. [via]

• BAGNewsNotes and Northwestern communications professor Robert Hariman ponder the imagery of The Great Unraveling, a term Paul Krugman used for the downward spiral of the economy and its impact on individual lives.

• Dwell looks at deboulonneurs ("unscrewers"), French culturejammers who are resisting the visual pollution of advertising. Marching under the slogan, "Who pays for advertising? We all do!," their aim is to see ad sizes reduced to 50x70cm and then turn big billboards over to artists and community members.

• Regina Hackett is collecting thought bubbles in "heavy metal," neon pink, etc.

• Heard about that NSFW moment during the Super Bowl when some Tuscon-area Comcast viewers went from a Larry Fitzgerald touchdown to a 30-second blip of balls-out porn? The company behind said skin flick feels bad that viewers who might've been enjoying the movie weren't able to finish it: They're offering a $10 discount for anyone who wants to see the whole, ahem, nine yards.

• Digg commenters perform "Bohemian Rhapsody."

• It's been around awhile, but if you haven't seen it, check out the, uh, awesome, "4 Chords" by The Axis of Awesome.

GOP's Sessions: "I’m not trying to say the Republican Party is the Taliban."

Not feeling the bipartisan love from House Democrats over a stimulus compromise, Texas Republican Pete Sessions is pondering an "insurgency" -- and he's totally clear on the implications of the term:

"Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban," Sessions said during a meeting yesterday with Hotline editors. "And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person's entire processes. And these Taliban -- I'm not trying to say the Republican Party is the Taliban. No, that's not what we're saying. I'm saying an example of how you go about [sic] is to change a person from their messaging to their operations to their frontline message. And we need to understand that insurgency may be required when the other side, the House leadership, does not follow the same commands, which we entered the game with."

That gave AOL News Political Machine's authors a visual: [I]f they do choose to convert to fundamentalist Islam somewhere down the road, we'd certainly welcome it," write Dylan and Ethan Ris. "It would be worth every minute just to see Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) in a burqa."

Oh, if only I was better with Photoshop.

Bits: 02.06.09

Satellite news truck at Obama's inauguration by Christian Tribastone

• The ICI's exhibition Experimental Geography, " featuring CLUI, Raqs Media Collective, Trevor Paglen, Francis Alÿs and others, opens today at the Rochester (Minn.) Art Center. Who knew? Here's an interview with exhibition curator Nato Thompson if you want to brush up. Update: My writeup of CLUI's land-use database for Minnesota and the exhibition.

• In his "Come hell or high water" post, William Shaw links up art projects dealing with climate change and rising sea levels, including Eve Mosher's piece chalking out high-water lines in New York and Chris Bodles' Watermark Project, beginning this week, which does essentially the same thing, but with projections indicating what rising waters would mean for Bristol, England.

• Artist Laylah Ali's fascination with depictions of American flags and Michael Phelps' teeth -- captured on video.

• Ready for re-mixing: Audio of Barack Obama dropping a few F-bombs and such, from the audiobook version of Dreams For My Father, which he narrated. (The verbiage is attributed to Obama's former classmate, Ray, but it'd be nice to hear the president using such color commentary on certain bailout recipients.) Update: Via a C-Monster tweet, the first (?) of the mixes.

• The Disposable Memory Project is "leaving disposable cameras around the world, in the hope they'll be picked up; passed on; and eventually return home full of photographs."

• Akzidenz Grotesk projected all over the city.

• Today at TED: The invite-only forward-thinkers confab, TED, continues today with talks by Studio Museum curator Thelma Golden, jazz great Herbie Hancock, artist Natasha Tsakos and others.

Now in Barcelona: The Influencers

Viva, España! The Influencers, "a festival dedicated to exploring unconventional weapons of mass communication," began yesterday in Barcelona and runs through tomorrow. Featured artists include some of my favorites (and Eyeteeth regulars): 0100101110101101.org, Survival Research Labs, Swoon, and Blu, plus Wu Ming Foundation and others. Here's hoping they put the program up on their YouTube channel.

Bits: 02.05.09

A sustainable raft from the Swimming Cities of Serenissima website by Tod Seelie

C-Monster has Daily Digest. Hrag has Caught My Eye. Off-Center has Centerpoints. But Eyeteeth? Nuthin'. So I'm happy to present the inaugural edition of "Bits." I considered brand-y names related to the title of this blog, but after much teeth-gnashing, I concluded they were too strained. (Thanks for trying, Justin!) With this, I get a name that says what it needs to -- quick morsels of info -- while still coming across as vaguely toothsome. My inner brander, however, would prefer the more "incisive" connotations of a dentist's drillbit than, say, flecks of basil stuck in your teeth hours after lunch. With that mental picture... Enjoy!

• The same anecdote gets different play in reviews of Trevor Paglen's new book (out today): TIME calls it a "stunt" when black-ops chronicler Paglen holes up in a Las Vegas hotel trying to track travel by personnel who work on covert military projects, whereas the Brooklyn Rail sees such tactics as "as radically democratic as his project: aside from a high-powered camera and some Berkeley research funds, Paglen’s most valuable resources are his laptop and critical intelligence."

• This begs for a contemporary art version: Andy Baio, like tech professionals everywhere, used Amazon's Mechanical Turks program to hire unnamed workers of the internet age to do small tasks for him for pennies per job. Only this time the task was to make these unseen workers seen: He asked each one to photograph themselves and write a statement about why they "Turk."

• Echoes of Allora & Calzadilla's radio project at the Walker a few years back, a video tutorial on how to make your own radio station.

• Swoon takes the Miss Rockaway Armada to Europe, sorta. Swimming Cities of Serenissima is a "fleet of three intricately hand crafted vessels that will navigate the Adriatic Sea from the Karst region of Slovenia to Venice, Italy in May of 2009."

• For more on the Rockaway culture, don't miss photos by Tod (Sucka Pants) Seelie, including these portraits (as well as the shot above) or the experimental film shot aboard the rafts of the Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea, the precursor to Swoon's new project.

• Hey do-gooder designers: Osocio lines up socially conscious design poster contest deadlines, including the Good 50x70 contest (Apr. 1) and Australia's Greenpeace Design Awards (Jun. 15).

Is Village Voice Media 'gaming' Digg?

Sure, we all pimp our own blog material on social media sites like Digg and Reddit, but is Village Voice Media going over the top? Its papers -- including City Pages, SF Weekly and the Village Voice -- have a network of paid workers who systematically post and vote up content that's almost exclusively their own. It's legal, although possibly a violation of Digg's terms of use, but how does a pile of web hits from across the globe serve smaller advertisers who are paying top dollar to reach potential local customers? My latest on the topic at MnIndy.

The day in bacon

• "For the entire month of February, 2009, I, Michael J. Nelson will eat nothing but bacon." So reads the first line of a blog post introducing this fantastic, fatty feat by Minnesota's own star of Mystery Science Theater 3000. At Rifftrax, our own version of Morgan Spurlock is chronicling his adventure, which comes with a caveat: He's allowed to consume beer, wine, martinis and water, in addition.

• The World's Best Ever dubs this bacon bra "the perfect Valentine's Day gift." For whom?

• You can't mention bacon without Bacon: News out today is that actor Kevin "Six Degrees of" Bacon was on the list of high-profile individuals who were suckered by Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff.

'Sup?

More of lounging bear here.

Superflex's Flooded McDonalds

Superflex, the Danish art collective that, among many other projects, made biogas bubbles at the Thai sustainability project "the land," has a new film work out that shows a replica McDonald's in a delightful state of submersion. Via Wooster Collective.