However, not everyone is impressed with Williamsburg’s economic potential. Some, like Bellwether Gallery‘s director, Rebecca Smith, see more limitations than possibilities. “A lot of people think Williamsburg is cutting edge,” Smith says. "It’s not, it’s just low risk, without being particularly experimental."

Frustrated with her inability to get Manhattan collectors to travel across the bridge, Smith is relocating to Chelsea, even though she runs one of the better-known galleries in the neighborhood.

Not surprisingly, many disagree with both her claims of poor foot traffic and her opinion of Williamsburg.

“She’s going where the money is, and the power,” artist Powhida says. “I don’t blame her for wanting to sell her artists, but how good they are is up for debate. She’s not all that cutting edge either.”

Newsday/AP – Williamsburg comes of age

Joe Ovelman has a solo show at Oliver Kamm/5BE Gallery.

James has a post up about the show.

It’s now listed as a pick on the Village Voice web site, plus Paige West (Art Addict) and the art weblog have mentioned him.

Go see it! We have already decided to buy a few works in the show.

[photo from James’s write-up]

Last September, James and I spent much of a week hanging out with two charming young French men, Nicolas Camiade and François Charpentier. They went to art school together, and are in a band called Les Brutes Épaisses, which means something like “brutish louts.” The name is a joke, as it sounds like a punk band but their music is more of a smart contemporary take on the Piazzolla / Weill strand of music, which isn’t quite jazz or classical or pop. It’s a little like the area that artists such as Blue Flower and Cynthia Hopkins are exploring. They sent us their beautifully designed CD, titled en public, after returning to France. We were thrilled to find out how great it is, since meeting an artist and liking them personally before seeing or hearing the work is often scary.

I have uploaded some MP3s for you to check out. François is the lead singer for all of the songs except Les bonbons à la menthe, which features the voice of Nicolas. François is rather shy in person, so it’s fun to hear him turn into this outgoing sexy French singer on disc.

• Le coffre à jouets (2.8MB) – to illustrate the Piazzolla/Weill thing
• Ma peine (2.4MB) – probably the song that uses the “edgiest” instrumental work
• Les bonbons à la menthe (1.3MB)
• Les moches (10.8MB) – This a big file, but worth it. The first part is a lovely duet between François and Laetitia Marty, but it has a secret bonus at the end. After a really long pause, they return to sing a parody of a Brazilian song in the style of Antonio Carlos Jobim or Joao Gilberto. It’s very funny, with them improvising in French with Brazilian accents.

After two days of firefights, a marine packed the personal effects of 12 fallen comrades at the combat outpost in Ramadi on Thursday. [Maurizio Gambarini/European Pressphoto Agency]

The President of the United States is on vacation again, but it’s OK — he’s not skiing. Emphasis mine in the quote below:

Democrats criticized Bush for taking the Easter-week vacation while U.S. forces are struggling to put down an uprising in Iraq. Campaigning in Milwaukee, Sen. John F. Kerry, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, said: “I notice President Bush is taking some days off down at Crawford, Texas, and I’m told that when he takes days off, you know, he totally relaxes: He doesn’t watch television, he doesn’t read the newspapers, he doesn’t make long-term plans, doesn’t worry about the economy. I thought about that for a moment. I said, sounds to me like it’s just like life in Washington, doesn’t it?”

White House communications director Dan Bartlett retorted that Bush is “not skiing” in Texas, as Kerry did on a recent vacation in Idaho. He said Bush remains in contact with his military advisers and is spending Easter weekend with his family. “Most Americans will understand that,” Bartlett said.

This is Bush’s 33rd visit to his ranch since becoming president. He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his 78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency.

233 days since January 2001, or almost 80 days per year? Yeah, he’s just a “regular guy.” U.S. workers take an average of 10.2 vacation days a year after three years on the job, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

If I were President, I would probably not have continued with my month-long vacation after receiving a briefing titled “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.”

[I found the image above on the NY Times web site, but there was no link to make it larger. If someone finds a better version of the image I will replace it.]

—

UPDATED: I realize now that the briefing discussed was given to Bush after he was already in Crawford, Texas for his month-long vacation.

… he might have done something like this. Actually, that’s not fair to Speer. He was a pretty good architect.

A look at the World War II Memorial from atop the Washington Monument as it nears the end of construction. (Ricky Carioti – The Washington Post)

From CNN/AP:

HATTIESBURG, Mississippi (AP) — Two reporters were ordered Wednesday to erase their tape recordings of a speech by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia at a Mississippi high school.

Scalia has long barred television cameras from his speeches, but does not always forbid newspaper photographers and tape recorders. On Wednesday, he did not warn the audience at the high school that recording devices would be forbidden.

During the speech, a woman identifying herself as a deputy federal marshal demanded that a reporter for The Associated Press erase a tape recording of the justice’s comments. She said the justice had asked that his appearance not be recorded.

The reporter initially resisted, but later showed the deputy how to erase the digital recording after the officer took the device from her hands. The exchange occurred in the front row of the auditorium while Scalia delivered his speech about the Constitution.

The deputy, who identified herself as Melanie Rube, also made a reporter for The Hattiesburg American erase her tape.

…

Last year, Scalia was criticized for refusing to allow television and radio coverage of an event in Ohio in which he received an award for supporting free speech.

Scalia, who was appointed to the bench by President Reagan in 1986, told students that the Constitution’s true meaning must always be protected.

“The Constitution of the United States is extraordinary and amazing. People just don’t revere it like they used to,” Scalia told a full auditorium of high school students, officials, religious leaders.

He said he spends most of his time thinking about the Constitution, calling it “a brilliant piece of work.”

Keith Cylar, co-founder of Housing Works, has died. I have never known of an organization that started out as a grass-roots activist organization and grew into something serving so many people while keeping its activist credentials. They have always helped the people — drug users, people with AIDS — that the other service and homeless organizations didn’t want to deal with.

James has a post about him.

Spotted on Eighth Avenue today. Happy Tartan Day!

Adam Cvijanovic’s mural of Osage Avenue in “Ideal City” at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts

We have seen every almost every show in New York of Adam Cvijanovic’s work since Richard Anderson first showed him in the early 90s. I think he is a very smart artist and great painter, and, like so many artists we know, is a sweet person who has managed to not be chewed up by the Art World. He has a show at the Academy of Find Arts in Philadelphia titled “Ideal City.”

Roberta Fallon, of artblog fame, has a great interview with him on Artnet.com.

His choice of thematic material for the show is interesting, playing off two aspects of Utopian thinking in Phildelphia history: the Quakers and MOVE.

[photo from Artnet.com]

Tim Hailand, Untitled (SLUT) 1996

¡Mira, mira! I didn’t know Tim Hailand had a website!