• Met puts up two Chagalls as collateral for loan – Crain’s New York Business
  Two huge murals that hang in opera house’s lobby now will help back long-term credit facility.
  tags: art finance metropolitan-opera loan chagall mural

When I first started ArtCal in 2004, ArtCat web hosting for artists already existed. The latter doesn’t stand for anything, but ArtCal was suggested by a friend as short for “Art Calendar.”

Given the fact that I have trademarked ArtCat, and I own the .com for it, I always meant to consolidate everything — artist and gallery web hosting, the calendar, and the zine, into one brand with interlinked sites, and now I have! As part of a redesign for the new Culture Pundits advertising format, I worked with the brilliant artist and designer Michael Mandiberg to come up with a new look.

We are still tweaking the design, but go check it out. I’m quite happy with it.

[Watch for changes to this blog and James as well in the next 24 hours.]

• Conservative, religious states consume the most porn. Biggest consumer? Utah
  Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11% more porn subscribers than states that don’t explicitly restrict gay marriage…
  tags: politics usa porn religion

I only had my iPhone with me, so these aren’t the greatest photos. This guy was in the West 4th Street subway. The top was removed to give more volume, and it sounded like a honky-tonk piano, but his playing was quite good, ranging from “Hey Jude” to Chopin. No one else was with him so I don’t know if he managed to get the piano down there via the station elevator by himself. Having just been to a great concert of experimental music, this was a nice subway surprise.

Update: Olympia Lambert already posted about him in early February. He is Colin Huggins (aka The Crazy Piano Guy). He is also the music director of the Joffrey Ballet!

• Clinton warns Israel over delays in Gaza aid – Haaretz – Israel News
  [I did not expect this.] Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has relayed messages to Israel in the past week expressing anger at obstacles Israel is placing to the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
  tags: israel palestine hillary-clinton gaza

• Art Fag City – Art Fag City Wins Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant
  tags: art blog criticism grants artfagcity writers creative-capital
• Anastasia Baburova, a Russian journalist | Anastasia Baburova | The Economist
  [I just now heard of this] Anastasia Baburova, a Russian journalist, murdered on January 19th, aged 25
  tags: politics journalism moscow fascism obituary russia
• Last.fm – the Blog – “Techcrunch are full of shit”
  On Friday night a technology blog called Techcrunch posted a vicious and completely false rumour about us: that Last.fm handed data to the RIAA so they could track who’s been listening to the “leaked” U2 album.
  tags: music riaa privacy lastfm techcrunch

• Eyeteeth: A journal of incisive ideas: “On the side of the egg:” Haruki Murakami on Gaza
  “Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg.”
  tags: israel palestine politics literature haruki-murakami gaza jerusalem-prize
• AFP: China offered ‘relics for rights’ in YSL auction row
  Go Pierre Berge! “I am ready to give these Chinese heads to China if they are ready to recognise human rights.”
  tags: art human-rights auction china yves-saint-laurent pierre-berge artifacts
• Human Rights Watch: Clinton Remarks Undermine Rights Reform in China
  said: contentious issues such as human rights “can’t interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crises”
  tags: human-rights hillary-clinton foreign-policy civil-liberties china

Kay Nine installation view at Deitch Proejcts

This is an installation shot from Ben Jones’s current show at Deitch Projects, titled “The New Dark Age.” As someone who has followed Ben’s work (via Paper Rad and solo projects) for years, I had to note that Kay Nine has gone from being fabricated from painted wood to now being made of marble and brass! A good reflection of our current times. Here is a photo of mine (and related post) from his 2005 show at Foxy Production:

Kay Nine’s Lament, 2005
DVD, Commodore 64, and sculpture

I also really love his ladders:

The right-wing U.S. News and World Report graces us with a quiz:

If you had a choice of four daycare centers run separately by Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi, which would you choose for your kids?

via Media Matters

• Mr. Peacock: Derek Jarman—Bohemian Auteur
  A sweet post on Derek Jarman
  tags: art queer film derek-jarman