Bits: 03.02.10

A photo from Umida Akhmedova's censored series on women in Uzbekistan

• Last month, an Uzbek court found documentarian/photographer Umida Akhmedova guilty of slander -- er, "offense through mass media" -- against the nation for her photographs and film about the plight of newly married women there. While she could've been sentenced to three years in prison, she was released under an amnesty tied to the 18th anniversary of Uzbekistan's independence. Created through a grant from the Swiss embassy, her film The Burden of Virginity hasn't been shown in her native country, but is viewable online. Here's a selection of the offending photos, from the series "Woman and Man: From Dawn till Night."

• Assignment 3 of ROLU's participatory poster project Scattered Light is out. Send your "photo of a wall" today.

• Bovine bombing by "popagandist" Ron English.

• Avatar is the top-grossing film of all time... only it isn't.

• It's about time: "Crumpled City Maps are soft, yet hard-wearing, waterproof and meant to be creased and crumpled."

• When mascots defy the brand, things get apocalyptic: The logo-laden Oscar-nominated animated short Logorama features a foul-mouthed, AK-47-toting Ronald McDonald, a bird-flippin' Michelin Man cop, a booger-flinging Big Boy and hundreds of other corporate symbols run amok. NSFW: language, implied Jolly Green Giant wiener. (Via A Whole Lotta Nothing; thanks, Ed.)

• Banksy, on why he won't be doing any gallery shows soon: “I’ve come into contact with a lot more villains since I moved from vandalism into selling paintings. The art world is full of shady people peddling bright colours. Anti-graffiti groups like to say tagging intimidates people, but not as much as modern art. That stuff is deliberately designed to make normal people feel stupid. I could try and get more legitimate mural work, but scaling a drainpipe is still probably a lot easier than getting an original idea past a committee.”

• Another animated short: David Lynch recounts meeting with George Lucas, who wanted him to direct Return of the Jedi.

• The Groundswell Collective's new journal is dedicated to crisis folklore. Just ten bucks.

• Alec Soth is on Twitter.

• Telling: The first image in ArtInfo's slideshow preview of the Armory Show isn't art, but a bejeweled woman in a cocktail dress.

• Your moment of barfing Windsor guard.