5.21.2009

Bits: 05.21.09

• Having just seen Zack Bent's scouting-inspired mixed-media exhibition in Seattle, I'm floored that Regina Hackett can't move past her fixation with the evils of the Boy Scouts to actually examine Bent's art; while her critiques of the Boy Scouts are fair (if over-emphasized), she ignores some of the most poetic pieces (I'll be interviewing Bent next week). A counterpoint: "How different is teaching children to learn the positive lessons embedded in the loaded framework of scouting from teaching them to function in American society (which is, well, fundamentally war-mongering, greedy, and all the rest)?" 

• San Francisco's Asian Art Museum has a new blog

• The Walker's been on a "photo-acquiring mini-spree," reports Tyler Green, picking up works by Andreas Gursky, Tetsumi Kudo, Ana Mendieta and others. 

• Oddly, a credit reform bill that passed the House and Senate includes a provision to allow concealed handguns in national parks, but it also includes a requirement for setting the fine print in credit communiques in 12 point or larger type

• EMI won't release Danger Mouse's new CD for fear of copyright litigation, so the artist is releasing 5,000 disks independently: each edition of Dark Night of the Soul is hand-numbered and includes a book featuring David Lynch's photos. "The kicker: The enclosed CD is blank. DM fans are encouraged to populate it with the missing tracks 'by whatever means.'" The album is streaming here

• Call for entries: Minneapolis' Soap Factory is looking for submissions for the annual 10-Second Film Festival. (I always wanted to do a 10-second film of me trying on a wallet: "Does this make my ass look big?") Check out past entries

Alphabeth, an animation of Dia's press releases, by Dorit Magreiter. Via FAD

• A birthday mashup of Malcolm X speeches, by Davey D

How the soldier in the pink boxers got on the front page of the New York Times

• "Heavy Metal Satan Fingers."

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