August 31, 2004
fortress on 8th Avenue
It was disturbingly quiet early this afternoon on 8th Avenue. It's Republican week in New York, and while the broad northbound artery is usually one of the busiest in the city, at least 11 blocks of it are totally closed...
the media, whom do you trust?
"Surfin' U.S.A." For those of you who are newly-energized politically, and, impatient, frustrated and disgusted with the starvation rations of the commercial U.S. media, looking around for some really healthy fare, here are a very few online, radio and...
August 30, 2004
who does the War Against Terror protect?
AS I WENT WALKING TODAY I was hoping for a leisurely stroll to the Greenmarket in Union Square this afternoon, but seconds after I left the front door of the building I realized this wasn't going to be the...
yesterday was not about Kerry or the Democrats
Whatever it was, Sunday's massive protest (and even less so those which preceded it and those which are still to follow this week) was not a rally for John kerry or the Democratic Party Sure, come November 2nd these angry...
August 29, 2004
August 29, 2004, marching for national sanity
escorting one of the coffins included in the "1000 Coffins Project" Barry and I were out on the streets for over six hours today, and I don't have the energy right now to do justice to a proper report....
August 28, 2004
March for Women's Lives
the Church Ladies for Choice out in the noonday sun today "March for Women's Lives" It was both a summons and an appellation today. Thousands of activists ended up with a rally at the edge of New York's elegant...
"Watch What We Say"
little red convertible, dusk, Williamsburg Bridge Barry and I had the delightful experience of being whisked to Williamsburg for an opening at Schroeder Romero Gallery on Wednesday evening in our friends' bright red open car, but the unfamiliar luxury...
August 27, 2004
what it feels like to be in New York right now
This is the image which accompanies the lead story on the CNN site at this moment. The headline on the front page? "New York stands guard." I see it as, "Republican Guards hold up New York." We are an...
I'm Gonna Kill the President"
One scene in the play we saw last night accounted for what I'll say was the scariest evening I've ever spent in a theatre. While I think it's generally billed as comedy (well maybe political satire) don't underestimate its seriousness....
August 26, 2004
ACT UP, still beautiful after all these years
protesting in the altogether It's AIDS, stupid! ACT UP pulled off a classic action this afternoon across from Madison Square Garden, the site of the Republican National Convention, scheduled to open formally on Monday. In the spirit and the...
Bill Dobbs
"life could be beautiful" I really like him. Those who know William K. Dobbs know that's not so easy to say, but now that he's become the subject a modest but delightful profile in the NYTimes, written by Michael...
the police occupation of Chelsea
Area frozen! We arrived back at the apartment tonight at midnight after an evening in Williamsburg and the first thing we spotted as we exited our friend's car was this sign. How much of New York are the Republicans...
August 25, 2004
the enemy is here, not in Iraq
The judge has just said no to the coalition, United for Peace and Justice, but no judge can tell individual free Americans and their friends to stay out of Central Park on a Sunday afternoon. It's still our park, not...
talking back to the little man in the White House
Even when I try to just do a "culture" post these days I often find I have to add it to the "political" category as well. But it's a sign of our dangerous times, and if I have a complaint,...
August 24, 2004
our own "Dolchstoßlegende"
but we won't let go of our own myth Thirty years on, the Viet Nam War still has the power to enrage both those who survived its battles and those who stayed at home, and it now seems that...
August 23, 2004
but can we survive even a Kerry victory?
Tweedledumdee That's it! I'm not voting for Kerry. The man wants to be remembered as a hero, and with good reason, but he wants to hide the one part of his history which finally distinguished him as a truly...
August 18, 2004
Getty Gardens, collages
I really liked both the luxurious commingling and the tight boundaries in the various flower beds. This will be the last of the Getty Garden images, and the last, sigh, of any of Los Angeles, at least until next...
August 17, 2004
It's about RIGHTS, Mr. Bloomberg, not your privilege
"A REPUBLIC, IF YOU CAN KEEP IT" - Benjamin Franklin The Mayor is playing with fire. Michael Bloomberg has dug in his heels, insisting that hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and their guests will not be given a safe...
August 16, 2004
Getty Gardens, rebar trellis
Robert Irwin's Central Garden at the Getty Center includes three magnificent Bougainvillea trellises assembled from concrete rebar alone. Their shapes suggest small fanciful Baobab trees, and offer just about the same amount of shade to the benches arranged at...
August 15, 2004
Getty Gardens, groundcover
Luxurious miniature landscape: For a sense of scale, see a very small bee just to the left and above the center of the picture....
August 14, 2004
August 13, 2004
Santiago Cucullu's Hammer
Santiago Cucullu Barricades from All D&D, Haiti, Prague that Fall, Fermin Salvochea (2003) Contact paper on wall. Even a week after returning from the West Coast I'm still finding pieces of paper reminding me of things I wanted to...
have mass demonstrations become irrelevant?
CRIE DE COEUR the future of political demonstration? I won't represent or recommend anything other than non-violence on August 29, but I can't help wondering how we could expect a peaceful (if we're very lucky) demonstration involving 250,000 people, or...
now it's Goss's sexuality hitting the papers
HEADLINE OF THE DAY: Unfit for Bottom?Then Try the Top Of course it's Porter J. Goss the NYTimes is talking about, don't you know....
August 12, 2004
McGreevey can't be governor if he's gay?
N.J. Gov. James E. McGreevey I dunno, the news just broke and we don't know the whole story, but you gotta wonder, as Barry asked just now, "He resigned? Is being gay more shameful than being corrupt?" [image from...
Leon Golub
Leon Golub Disappear You acrylic on linen 77" x 165.9" An artist who created "heroic-scale figures," but also a man of heroic-scale human commitment, Leon Golub died on Sunday. Holland Cotter memorializes him in today's NYTimes.Leon Golub, an American...
we already have a unity government: it's called FEAR
"They should just have a unity government and be honest about it," said Barry when I mentioned the news report this morning that Senate Democrats are saying that they won't oppose the Goss nomination. Read the NYTimes story and weep....
August 11, 2004
Gemini, Gehry, good works
Ed Ruscha Other color lithograph 11 1/4” x 14 3/4” While in Los Angeles last week we stopped at the West Hollywood workshop and galleries of Gemini G.E.L. (Graphic Editions Limited). Ok, to be honest, the draw had been...
Bush and his homeboys
These guys deserve some serious exposure - now! Check out the video link, fucknewyork. [link thanks to Dennis Kane]...
August 10, 2004
Central Park IS the rally site
peace and goodness in the park before 9/11 - and after 8/29 I'm not going to any rally on the West Side Highway. I am not a car. After marching past Madison Square Garden I'll be in our great...
Porter Goss would be disastrous
To head the most imprtant part of an intelligence community already disastrously overly-politicized, the President whose party already contols the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, has proposed, yes, a Republican politician. And Porter Goss is not just...
Getty Gardens, Hibiscus
Just down the ramp at the Getty Musem where I found the Bougainvillea were these magnificent white Hibiscus, and I had barely entered the larger Central Garden area itself....
Kerry says he'd vote for the war again
not thinking The man so many people hope will lead us back to sanity and save the Republic told us yesterday that he would have voted for the (current) war in Iraq even if he had known what he...
August 9, 2004
Getty Gardens, Bougainvillea
More than 25 years ago a friend in Boston brought me a present she had carried all the way back from a visit to El Paso, where she had grown up. It was a peach-colored ">Bougainvillea plant, and it...
Schindler's Studio-Residence
"AS IF THERE HAD NEVER BEEN HOUSES BEFORE" Schindler House, view at the driveway entrance of part of a very tall and dense copse of bamboo which runs along the front sidewalk (the pleasant sounds of a large, creaking wooden...
August 8, 2004
Los Angeles precision landscaping
Schindler House, high, tight-foliage "hedge" bordering the entrance drive Getty Center, corner of zigzag pedestrian path through Central Garden Los Angeles doesn't disappoint a visitor from the North, and for this pilgrim its charms always begin with the flora,...
August 7, 2004
Green Hummer Project
political art, cruising Savannah streets Crazy about bikes, but just can't get those Hummers out of your mind? Check out these guys and their wonderful full-size Green Hummer.This bicycle is an attempt to make large numbers of people reconsider...
Richard Meier and Robert Irwin, in detail
Meier's ramp Irwin's ramp The overall design of the Getty Center is that of Richard Meier, but Robert Irwin was commissioned to create its Central Garden. Both jobs cried out for gently-sloping walking ramps, but each man arrived at...
Terence Koh at Peres Projects
Terence Koh detail of Do not doubt the dangerousness of my butterfly song (Silver) (2004) Custom metal vitrine, speakers, ipod with unique song sung by artist, paint, male argyrophorus argenteus butterfly, broken mirror, star dust, 45 " long, 18"...
"Sam Shepard ghost town"
We're home! Since we only had a dial-up connection in the hotel room, I didn't try to post everything I wanted to while we were in Los Angeles. This item, and perhaps a few others to follow, will make up...
August 5, 2004
Robert Irwin plants the Getty Museum
The collection is spotty in its quality, but it shows beautifully. The architecture is a great pleasure, yet not revolutionary or breathtaking. Ah, but the gardens are an absolute, unqualified delight, all thanks to Robert Irwin and the uncredited...
August 4, 2004
Moon furnished N. Korea missile with subs a threat to U.S.
Yowza! That's showing some really faith-based initiative!It would seem that, a few years ago, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon purchased a small fleet of Russian ballistic missile submarines with the missile-launching hardware intact, then handed the subs over to North...
I'm a tree hugger
untitled (palms in the blue) These wonderful creatures could easily turn me into an animist. These palms were waving above the high terrace of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art this afternoon. But, at least on the surface,...
August 3, 2004
off with the trucker hats
The poster was spotted on West Third Street in Hollywood this evening. Thanks, guys....
August 2, 2004
flowers for Charles and Ray Eames
In a combination which this northerner found unlikely (and accordingly so very spectacular), these bougainvillea and morning glories were entwined on the side of the drive to the Charles Eames house in Pacific Palisades this afternoon. [thanks to Mary...
August 1, 2004
the old Chung King Road
untitled (Chung King Road) 2004 The very pedestrian Chung King Road is the site of six or eight of the most exciting galleries in Los Angeles, but it's also still part of Chinatown....
