May 31, 2004
the most warlike nation
Mars, God of War Velázquez Over the last 200 years the United States has "used its armed forces abroad in situations of conflict or potential conflict or for other than normal peacetime purposes" 241 times, according to research done...
no more avoidable memorials, please
I heard part of a broadcast on public radio yesterday, reporting that a small American town was memorializing, for the first time since the Viet Nam War, a combat death of one of its young citizens. As earlier wars fade...
May 30, 2004
will a tissue make it better?
This is one of a group of works by Brian Belott [who shows at Canada] lining the gallery's entrance ramp of the White Box show, "Majority Whip," which closed yesterday. Closed, but not to be forgotten, since we can...
May 29, 2004
Washington Square Marbles
not a pigeon in sight this past Thursday Stanford White's elegant Washington Square Arch has been restored, but virtually every square inch of its carved surfaces is now covered in an almost invisible high-tech screening material designed to keep...
May 26, 2004
thinking outside the White Box
Matt Leines Ambassador of the Men with Lightning Fists (2004) White Box is not a just an art gallery. It's become much more. It's something of a complete arts center, and it has a conscience. I'd say it's an...
May 25, 2004
Times about to admit it was very wrong about the war thing
Is the NYTimes about to admit it's largely responsible for sending the country into an immoral and disastrous war? See this story which arrived via Cursor tonight.Sources inside and close to the New York Times say that the newspaper is...
aux armes, mes enfants!
UNCLE SAM NEEDS YOU! [Barry spotted this image of Jake Gyllenhaal, which is courtesy of the ACLU and arrives via uffish and black sheep]...
May 24, 2004
can they imprison us for political protest?
UPDATE: See below for the announcement that the sentencing has been stayed. "Can they imprison us for political protest?" We're about to find out, right here in Gotham. Yesterday New York City closed down 5th Avenue for the benefit of...
May 23, 2004
high crimes and misdemeanors
The Nation has just published an editorial [unfortunately available on their website only to subscribers] which would be devastating in its implications if we were part of a healthy democracy. In this excerpt the editors write that the evidence...
May 22, 2004
the"War of Chalabi's Chutzpah"
Some day this entire wretched adventure may be known as the "War of Chalabi's Chutzpah," rivalling the stupidity of another disastrous imperial obscenity which began with a fake casus belli, the "War of Jenkin's Ear." Newsday seems to have...
May 21, 2004
Bush steps into "Reagan's Bind"
(not that he's going to notice) SLACKTAVIST was there first, months ago."Reagan's Bind" describes the conundrum in which one is unable to explain or defend one's actions except by ascribing them to either: A) malicious intent; or B) glaring...
bearded iris
I don't know why, but I'm always pleasantly shocked at how early the Iris show up each year, and so it was when I spotted this one in our gardens this week....
Rudy as fake - and camera hog
A woman holds a sign in protest as she listens to testimony by former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani at a public hearing of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States in New York City,...
everybody into the sandbox!
New York, Abingdon Square, May 10th, 4 pm I love kids, not just because they're beautiful, and not just because they're guileless, but mostly because in talking to them or watching them even for a few moments you can...
May 19, 2004
Susan Wanklyn moves off the grid
Susan Wanklyn Atlay (2004) 24 x 26 inches, Casein on Wood The art is very smart, very beautiful, but that only begins to describe the artist, for whom we have to add warm and nice. Ok, we know Susan...
May 11, 2004
"Keep Off The Grass" appears nowhere in the First Amendment
holy turf: 250,000 attend a papal mass in Central Park in 1995 The title above the image is a direct quote from the editors of the New York Post, supporting the application of United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ)...
lynch parties in Iraq revive American tradition
"race" trumps all once again Luc Sante writes in the NYTimes today that he had trouble recalling any American precedent for the prison photos we have seen come out of Iraq this month, until he remembered similar triumphal faces...
May 10, 2004
warning signs
as in "dead as a ____" In a real parliamentary democracy the fact that at this moment the first five headlines* of the normally comfortably-establishment news service, Reuters, are about the "abuse" scandal and the plumeting public support for...
Milton Babbitt
Babbitt, at system Happy Birthday Milton! Just found out while streaming David Garland during dinner that today [for another half hour at least] is Milton Babbitt's 88th birthday. Hope you're still up and maybe Googling, guy! What a treasure,...
May 6, 2004
Bush knows he didn't apologize, even if the press doesn't
Of course he's not accepting personal responsibility, but he's also not even apologizing for his occupying army, the country (or anything or anyone else); he's merely saying vaguely, he's sorry about it. But wait, read the full context of the...
May 5, 2004
"Where Do We Live"
Lower East Side relativity Half the theatre had emptied out when we returned after intermission last night. I did recall hearing, as the lights went up, one matron in the row in front of us repeating to her partner...
May 4, 2004
we must all be Arna's Children
Ashraf Abu-elhaje, shown here in the childrens' theatre of the Jenin refugee camp in 1996, was its most impressive student. At the time he dreamed of a future as the “Palestinian Romeo.” Six years later Ashraf led a large...
