Last Sunday we went to DUMBO to see Outpost at Smack Mellon and Future Species at DUMBO Arts Center (DAC). The press release for “Outpost” is from a real estate site, since Smack Mellon hasn’t updated their web site in a month. While you’re on that site, feel free to buy me one of the penthouses at 30 Main Street as a present.

The DAC show was a bit disappointing. The best works in the show, and not just because we own one of them, are the Matthew Callinan sculptures. They’re quite magical, hanging in a space with large windows in DUMBO, and everyone walking into the gallery talked about them and smiled. I also liked the twisted toy sculptures of David Krepfle.

The “Outpost” show at Smack Mellon, curated by Ada Chisholm, was excellent. I’m very sorry I missed Cory Arcangel‘s power-point-presentation-with-Van-Halen-guitar-solo at the opening. His work in the show consists of “videos” on DVD created by tricking QuickTime to interpret memory blocks in his computer as video data. They’re quite beautiful. Greg Simsic, who is also the author of some design and computer books, had a great installation of 11 video monitors stacked on several folding tables. They showed various activities in his studio — picking up objects, things getting soaked, hands dipping into paint, etc. Chad Silver had a funny video in which he looks around his apartment for animals and characters hidden in the patterns of the wall textures, clothing piles, and other places.

Non Sequitur on single-party rule

The Washington Post reports that the White House was so unhappy about an ABC News story about bad morale in Iraq that they pointed out to Matt Drudge that the reporter who did the story is gay and Canadian. Unless they’re trying to use jingoism and homophobia to further their fascist aims, what’s the point?

Some folks in the White House were apparently hopping mad when ABC News correspondent Jeffrey Kofman did a story on Tuesday’s “World News Tonight” about the plummeting morale of U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq.

So angry, in fact, that the next day, a White House operative alerted cyber-gossip Matt Drudge to the fact that Kofman is not only openly gay, he’s Canadian.

Yesterday Drudge told us he was unaware of the ABC story until “someone from the White House communications shop tipped me to it” along with a profile of Kofman in the gay-oriented magazine the Advocate.

…

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan “is having a rough first week,” Drudge said. “The White House press office is under new management and has become slightly more aggressive about contacting reporters. This story has certainly become talk radio fodder about the cultural wars-slash-liberal bias in the media.”

A network insider was less sanguine about the White House tactic: “Playing hardball is one thing. But appealing to homophobia and jingoism is simply ugly.”

Mr. Drudge is rather quiet about his own orientation when the subject comes up.

—

I didn’t know Mr. Pokey. I just saw this in the Village and liked it.

James has posted a report from our friend Steve about his activities with the International Solidarity Movement and Jews Against the Occupation in Palestine.

Work stuff, plus German class twice per week is killing my schedule. That’s why I haven’t had time to post about our lovely Bastille Day evening at Florent with Glenn and (as we all refer to him) Chris From Texas.

I left my class early on Monday, making sure everyone realized I was leaving to celebrate Bastille Day (festen Bastille Tag) and hopped in a cab. I had a very cool cabdriver name Khalid, who had one of the longer cabs, good air conditioning, was listening to WBAI, offered me one of his apples, and found Gansevoort without me having to give any directions.

We all sat outside for hours and drank lots of red and sparking wine. It was a bit more low-key than some years, and they didn’t close off Gansevoort as they sometimes do. The burlesque performer below is Dirty Martini, whom I’ve seen a number of times, including at a contemporary music concert on Valentine’s Day. If Chris of Uffish were a stripper, this would be her. She is quite fabulous, and the the first burlesque performer to appear in Sarajevo as soon as the peace accord was signed.

Yes, that is Betsey Johnson in the yellow hat in the back of the Dirty Martini pictures.

Glenn

Chris

Dirty Martini

Dirty Martini

One of the arguments people use to justify our “free market” medical system as opposed to some form of national health insurance is countries with such systems “ration” healthcare. Well, what are we doing with our corporate HMO system? Who elects them?

Via ABC News:

A new study done by the American Medical Association’s Institute of Ethics finds that 31 percent of more than 700 doctors surveyed say they sometimes withhold medical information about treatment options from patients when they believe the patient cannot afford them.

Of these doctors, 35 percent were doing so more often than they had in the five years leading up to the 1998 survey. Doctors whose patients were largely poor and unlikely to get appropriate help from their health plans often fall short on disclosing information. The study is published in the latest issue of Health Affairs.

…

According to the study, doctors are often caught between their obligation to provide information and their fear of being asked to cheat insurance companies so that patients can receive care they are not eligible for — a practice called “gaming the system.”

It is also suggested that doctors whose revenue is significantly tied to managed care companies tend to hold back information about non-covered treatments to some patients.

Many doctors contacted by ABCNEWS cited time constraints as the number one difficulty. Dr. John Messmer of Penn State Hershey Medical Center says doctors are now expected to explain complicated medical information to patients while having less and less time to do so. They are caught between their duties to their patients and their lack of resources.

“The ethical issue is that we no longer work for patients since we are no longer paid by them. Practitioners who want to be compensated must follow the insurance company’s or government’s rules, even if we disagree with them,” says Messmer.

I thought people justified gas-guzzling SUVs because of their safety (ignoring any penis-size insecurity issues). Do you think most cars would flip over after being hit by a smaller vehicle?

The Subaru:

hit the BMW, which flipped over:

Quoting the Newsday article:

Two women walking along Queens Boulevard were crushed yesterday when a sport utility vehicle struck by another car careened, flipped and slammed into them, police said.

…

Witnesses said the 1:20 p.m. accident began when a 63-year-old man in a Subaru Forester stopped, then drove through a red light on 78th Avenue at Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills, police said.

The Subaru smashed into a BMW SUV driven westbound on the boulevard’s service road by a 37-year-old man, police said, causing the BMW to veer out of control and overturn.

Am I the last person to hear about All Too Flat — the geeky humor site? I heard about their Rubik’s Cube stunt via Travelers Diagram.

They transformed the Tony Rosenthal sculpture at Astor Place into a Rubik’s Cube, via safe materials that wouldn’t harm it. Plus, they provide cute pictures of themselves as they do it. I’m reminded a bit of the nephews — the sons of James’s brother.

I think my favorite member is Kenny B — check out the blog. They also provide a page of Geeks Gone Wild at Mardi Gras.

I can’t think of a more important year to attend Florent’s Bastille Day celebration. There is nothing on the website about the event, so I sent an email and Florent Morillet gave me the info:

Monday, July 14
Gansevoort Street
7pm-midnight

Entertainment:

Micheline: Full-throated red head will twist the heartstrings</p>

Ami Goodheart & the Coquettes

New Orleans Burlesque

French Cancan

Dirty Martini embodying the true art & style of burlesque

Bunny Love

Mr. Monsieur the toast of Gai Paree

Mary Birdsong; Judy Garland does Edith Piaf</blockquote>

Remember to bring cash. Florent doesn’t take credit cards, and I can’t imagine them trying it with this event anyway!

I have German Class from 6-8, then I’ll hop in a cab and be there 8ish. Send me an email or leave a comment if you’re going to be there. James might get there earlier if he can assemble a group big enough to get a spot and save me a seat.