Onion Newsbreak: Attractive Girls Union

Man I love the Onion. The Attractive Girls Union has entered into negotiations with "regular guy", Mike Greenman. More proof that goatees get you nowhere.


Attractive Girls Union Refuses To Enter Into Talks With Mike Greenman

Media Mania

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Barbara Kasten

I've been developing an art crush on the photographs of Barbara Kasten lately. Though most of these photos were done in the 80s, and in many ways reflect that era, there is also a similarity to a lot of photography happening today, namely the works of Eileen Quinlan. Contemporary Art Daily had a post a while back of a show that explored the work of these two artists and a bunch of other artists influenced by the constructivist and suprematist movements.








These two below were done at the famous Jackson Pollock studio in Springs, NY they include his famous drips and play with the reflections and window metaphorically to evoke his violent death and stormy relationship with wife and painter Lee Krasner who used the studio after his death.




The three below are from a series called Metaphase and were done after a collaboration with the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company.







This Architectural series were made with studio mirrors, a professional cinematic lighting crew, and large scale fabrications and shot using a single exposure and no digital intervention. The explore and deconstruct the postmodern 80s architecture of the time.

Tig Notaro

From Crackle: Tig Notaro - Comics and Mics

THANXSGIVING!

Happy Thanksgiving all! I'm currently in Norman Rockwell's hometown so this pic seemed especially appropriate. Of course its also home too good ole' Arlo Guthrie who wrote one of the most famous Thanksgiving songs, which also happens to be one of the most famous anti-war songs. In high school I was a big fan of Arlo and so it was really cool to see the church otherwise known as his famous Alice's Restaurant.


Here's a fairly up to date rendition with an older Arlo singing Alice's Restaurant...


and a couple oldies but goodies of his...

Show Some Emotion

Double Take

Below is an assortment of things off the internet that made me do a double take. I've been using the grab tool to document them every time I find myself going "What the hell????"

Keep Ya Head Up

Just a nice little pick me up from hottie central.

Someone Is Always Lurking/Breaking In

Sarah Haskins breaks down those terrible Broadview ads,,, otherwise known as rape fables.

Martha Rosler Reads Vogue (1983)

This is the best thing I've seen in ages. This was a live performance by Martha Rosler on the local access Paper Tiger Television back in 1983. She peruses Vogue and speaks/reads about the content of Vogue and its advertisements touching on the issues of the beauty propagaded by the fashion and magazine industry as tied to money and class and aspiration.

Carrie Mae Weems

Carrie Mae Weems was born in 1953 in Portland, Oregon to two former Mississippi sharecroppers. After high school she studied modern dance in San Francisco and in her early twenties became active in the labor movement as a union organizer. Her interest in photography was sparked by the political photographs she began taking which is interesting because while she learned to see the camera more as a tool of artistic practice than documentation she still retained a political eye in all of her work. She received her BA from the California Institute of The Arts at 28 and then her MFA from the University of California -San Diego at 31. She eventually found her way to New York and the Studio Museum of Harlem. While her work was originally inspired by the work of earlier African American photographers such as Roy DeCarava and the work she first saw in The Black Photography Annual, her photography was able to not only explore the Black American identity but also gender identity, parenting, politics, and the individual.
I thought it was interesting to read about her work in relation to much of the feminist work being made at the time and even still today. She made a direct effort to move beyond the contemporary discourse about art (and life) always being about the "male gaze", she was focused on creating a new way of women using their own eyes to see themselves or others.
"These [works] were made at a moment when--as a result of theory--a woman didn't know how to construct an image of herself. The image-making was starting to follow the theory of Laura Mulvey, etc. rather than the other way around! There was a fear on the part of visual artists to take control of our bodies, our sexuality. I was trying to respond to a number of issues: woman's subjectivity, woman's capacity to revel in her body, and woman's construction of herself, and her own image."
I've been thinking about this lately in relation to how its important to be more about action than about reaction. While it can be good to be able to break down the status quo its also important to work to create your own ideal scenarios and environments. Carrie Mae Weems lives in New York these days and is in the most recent Art 21 series, which I have actively added to my netflix queue.
































































Some of these were actually from installations she did. And some were recreations/reimaginings of historical events. Some were both.


The photo above was based on the photo below of the Robert Kennedy shooting.


This one is titled The First Major Blow. I could be wrong but I'm gonna guess its of the day JFK was shot.


This one titled "The Capture of Angela" is based on Angela Davis' capture.

Is This Really The Best They Have? A Bow.

Good ole' Rachel Maddow keeping us updated on what crazy shit is going down. Usually I just listen to her podcast instead of watching it cause I'm at work, but the quote she reads from The Washington Times had me staring with my mouth open at my ipod. Its amazing to me that such racist stuff can make it into print. The event in question is that Obama bowed to the President of China and apparently "real" men/presidents/Americans don't bow to anyone. So of course he has no "natural instinct or blood impulse" for what this country is about. As if that isn't racist enough it goes on to explain that his Kenyan father and mother who is attracted "to men of the third world" clearly couldn't have raised him with an understanding of true American protocol. Rachel Maddow does a great job ripping that one apart but then next up is a clip of Glen Beck's take on the bow and this is so offensive it leaves even Maddow without words. To top it off are the new t-shirts with Psalm 109:8 on them. Watch the clip to find out what that "assassination baiting" call to literal arms is all about.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The High Priestess

This old video of feedback and poetry performed by Patti Smith is one of the most beautiful things I've seen in a long time. Maybe its cause I keep watching it when I'm really tired, but its hard to hear her message and not get choked up.

Beth Anderson

I Wish I Was Single Again

Ocean Motion Mildew Mind

Torero Piece

Yes Sir Ree


Beth Anderson is a composer of neo-romantic, avante garde music, text sound works and musical theater. Born in Kentucky she went on to study with John Cage, Terry Riley, Robert Ashley, and Larry Austin at Mills College and U.C. Davis. She has composed and produced an opera, an oratorio, three off-off Broadway musicals, several downtown music theater collaborations, music for orchestra, voice, chorus, tape, instrumental solos with and without electronic modulation, and a large amount of chamber music. The extent of her accomplishments is incredibly extensive - to learn more about them or hear more of her work you can go to ubuweb or her website. I found out about Beth Anderson from the ubuweb podcast that has is always awesome but has a particularly great audio show on Women Of The Avant Garde.