Why do so many gallery sites insist on resizing my browser? I know what size my screen is, and this isn’t 1992 with 800px wide screens.

Thomas Eller and Hans Neuendorf, video still from VernissageTV

I just watched a video interview of Artnet founder and CEO Hans Neuendorf and Thomas Eller, the Editor-in-Chief of Artnet Magazine, on VernissageTV. The biggest story I found in the interview was the discussion of Artnet planning to launch an online art auction platform, a kind of eBay for the art world. The reason this would be a big deal for the auction houses, should they pull it off, is that they are talking about commissions in the 5-10% range. Neuendorf suggested that artists might use it, not just collectors and dealers.

Other highlights:

• Hans Neuendorf is very interested in the idea of market transparency, so that artists, dealers, and collectors have a better idea of how certain artists and works are really being priced.
• The importance of online platforms for art, since there are a large number of artists without access to the market. In an age with very high real estate prices, galleries can’t afford to rent more space to show more artists and works even if they wish to.
• Liquidity is a problem for the art market – galleries with big inventories have significantly more financial risk than auction houses.
• At least 40,000 artists graduating from art schools in USA each year.

I also like this point (paraphrasing): “There are easier ways to make money than being an art dealer, despite all the talk of money — they’re idealists.”

having one’s windows rattled by NYPD helicopters. Perhaps they should spend some of those fuel dollars on giving the NYPD better salaries. The starting salary for a new cop? $25K.

Cheney reminds us why we need to impeach Bush before anyone starts indicting members of his administration.

Cheney Hails Ford’s Pardon of Nixon

The nation honored Gerald R. Ford in funeral ceremonies Saturday that recalled the touchstones of his life, from combat in the Pacific to a career he cherished in Congress to a presidency he did not seek. He was remembered as the man called to heal the country from the trauma of Watergate.

Ford’s decision to pardon Richard Nixon, so divisive at the time that it probably cost him the 1976 election, was dealt with squarely in his funeral services by his old chief of staff, Vice President Dick Cheney.

“It was this man, Gerald R. Ford, who led our republic safely though a crisis that could have turned to catastrophe,” said Cheney, speaking in the Capitol Rotunda where Ford’s body rested. “Gerald Ford was almost alone in understanding that there can be no healing without pardon.”

I have to admit that Matt Greene’s show at Deitch was not one of my favorite things I’ve seen lately. Roberta Smith, in the New York Times, seems to agree. Her review begins:

Matt Greene’s résumé includes lots of the right names in terms of galleries, critics and museum shows, but the paintings in his New York gallery debut disappoint. They seem conservative, thin and calculated to appeal to young, straight, male hedge-fund managers with a yen for lap dances and a taste for magazine illustrations from the 1960s.

My local phone store’s holiday window. See here for the happier days before they started falling off the trees.

I would not think that associating the Gucci name with Donald Trump is really a plus.

Gucci inks deal for Trump Tower flagship, Crain’s New York

Luxury retailer Gucci Group has made plans to move its flagship to Trump Tower and create the worldÂ’s largest Gucci store.

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Gucci will relocate to the new site from its current holding at 685 Fifth Ave., at East 54th Street, in 2008.

The image above is from the DVD of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, directed by Peter Sellars. It is set in a luxury apartment in Trump Tower. It’s very 80s. The countess has a Princess Di haircut.

John Hodgman, photo from captain joy’s flickr stream

John “the PC guy” Hodgman’s new book, Areas of My Expertise, is now available as a free audiobook at the iTunes store.

[via MacSlash]