away message

I'm over at Bostonist now. Will be back in:

pretty much sums it up

tweet, tweet, (cough, hack, grawwwk), tweet

i'm too tie tie to blog here super punctiliously, but you can follow me on twitter! And you should; you really, really should. (hit me up on the right yo)

nepotism

Hi, my name is Guggenheim McGuggenheim. I have a famous last name and I think it would be fun to be called an "art consultant." Do you think I'm smart. (ed. question mark redacted at writer's request.) Well just check out the first few lines of prose that I managed to get on The Daily Beast because my name is Guggenheim, Guggenheim. Guggenheim.

Because I’m an art consultant, I’m constantly asked what’s happening in the art world these days. Like most business, it’s been affected by the plunging economy. More than one client has called, decrying, “I wish I would have bought that painting you offered me six months ago. I wouldn’t have had that money in the market. I would have had SOMETHING I could look at and enjoy.”

But what to do now. That’s the rub. Even seasoned collectors are asking, “Should I buy? Sell? Hold? Or what?” History may be helpful; analyzing the art world over the past ten years may be helpful in understanding how to maximize your spending power while giving your own collection a boost.

Hmmm, I choose "or what." And please tell anyone that's "decrying" to come talk to me, I want to see it in person.

Ahoy

Not a bad article from Smee today about some gaps in Boston's art collection. It would be a more straightforward if it was about contemporary, but it was gutsy to go a little further to the real issue about modern and not the easy one. (Plus maybe he doesn't want to piss off the ICA?)

http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2008/12/07/whats_wrong_with_this_picture/?page=1

It's very true that every time I go to the MFA I want to see some stuff that I don't and a lot of that is modern. The renovation has just recently taken over even the small amount they had in that gallery by the weird roundish room.

Hi-lo

Bettie Page was everything low, but obviously she was a just a person too.

“I want to be remembered as I was when I was young and in my golden times,”

William Harvey Pierson was everything high, but obviously he was a just a person too.

William H. Pierson Jr., who as a member of the “art mafia” at Williams College

They're both dead now.

Merry Christmas Indeed

This movie is playing at the Harvard Film Archive. Even without seeing it I must officially declare it to be The best Christmas Movie Ever Made, knocking out the current frontrunner, Bad Santa.

Yes, that's David Bowie. Yes, he is so awesome that it will make your wang poke out a hundred miles. No I don’t know if it's better than Labyrinth. He seems to be speaking some kind of a foreign language though. I think it was Asiannn.

Compare and Contrast

Coldplay yesterday after a suit that alleged theft of material was ruled in their favor:

“Joe Satriani is a great musician, but he did not write the song ‘Viva la Vida.’ We respectfully ask him to accept our assurances of this and wish him well with all future endeavors.”

Tyler Perry today after suit that alleged theft of material was ruled in his favor:

“We are very pleased that the jurors understood that Tyler Perry is an incredibly talented person who has no need to copy the work of others.”

Stay classy San Diego!

When Bernie met Judith

Bernie got a banquet and Judith got the lawyers to say she didn’t really hate jews. Hooray!! I love that they fucked in a donated love nest built in the smoke of ground zero. Can’t really blame em tho, I remember the smell in NY those days and it immediately made me feel like banging too.

From the IHT:

Regan had an affair with Kerik, who is married, beginning in the spring of 2001, when her imprint, ReganBooks, began work on his memoir, "The Lost Son." In December 2004, after the relationship had ended and shortly after Kerik's homeland security nomination fell apart, newspapers reported that the two had carried on the affair at an apartment near ground zero that had been donated as a haven for rescue and recovery workers.

The real winner here though is Rudy. His dirtbag henchman and his evil propagandist both got honored near the same day. Never Forget.

thanks for invading iraq, here's a bracelet

Part of working at a famous university is that you might be given the email address that some oligarchical twerp once had. After she abandoned it, her friends kept using it. That's why I get emails like this occasionally:

Hello All

As a thank you to Barbara and Jenna for letting us misbehave in the

White House over the years, we are organizing a thank you gift. I have

gotten them matching monogramed bracelets that are really pretty (from

ginette-ny.com if youre interested) to give them at the party.

I know pennies are being pinched by all, but if you would like be

involved I will include you on the card. They were $1,000 total, so it

wouldnt be much each like $25- I mean I'm studying for the gre and I

cant remember shiz about triangles but i think thats about right.

SO - If you are down to give about $25, then reply to me and I will

email you a paypal invoice which you can pay with a credit card, or

you can always give me cash in dc.

Hope you all are less hungover than I am this fine sunday and I will

see you on the dance floor on dec 20!!!

XO
[redacted]

Hirst

Rather than laying them off he should pay them to remove their skulls and cover them with diamonds.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/nov/22/damien-hirst-studios-job-losses

toilet

There’s a website dedicated to toilets in art museums.

http://www.artmuseumtoilet.org/

HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA. Toilet. HAHAHAHAHAH.In an ART MUSEUM. HAHAHAHAHHAHAHHA.

OK, it's a pretty museumy project. But it would be a lot cooler if it was, you know, about something, and not just another way to goof on the randomness of the internet. LOL cats has that ground covered. (And covered well I might add.)

cellar hole

Did you know:

Eli Broad, now known primarily (by me) as the Rupert Murdoch of art museums (make em rich, make em dumb, and make em reflect my godliness) in fact got wealthy by developing tracts of cheap housing?

His innovation was to find a way to build houses without basements, thereby eliminating the need to dig a cellar hole, and it follows, a giant expense.

This is a great article in today's Times about how Mario Cuomo refuses to sit for his official portrait but the image seems kind of oddly irresponsible, especially splashed above the fold on Page 1. I'm not sure why, but it bothers me for the Times to "interpret" these artists’ work, especially a living one like Crumb.