Check out this LA Times article:

Thousands of Americans whose vacations and business trips to Lebanon have degenerated with sickening speed into stints in a battle zone remained stranded here under Israeli bombardment Monday, their frustration and anger mounting because the U.S. government hasn’t gotten them out faster.

…

The frustration has been intensified by news that other countries have already pulled many of their citizens out of Lebanon, efficiently and free of cost. A ferry chartered by the French government carried about 800 of its citizens and several dozen Americans to Cyprus on Monday. The U.S. military evacuated about 60 Americans by helicopter Sunday and Monday.

Other nations have packed people into rented tour buses and driven them over the mountains to Syria. The U.S. State Department has warned Americans against traveling to Syria.

The main U.S. evacuation plan involves a Pentagon-contracted cruise ship, the Orient Queen, due to arrive in Lebanon today to ferry people to Cyprus. The ship can carry about 750 passengers for the five-hour trip. Defense Department officials said other private ships were likely to be hired as well.

Americans have been told to wait for a telephone call that could come in hours — or days. They’ve also been told they can’t board a ship unless they’ve signed a contract agreeing to repay the U.S. government for the price of their evacuation.</blockquote>

Israel is effectively a client state of the U.S. in the area, and receives more of its foreign aid budget than any other country. Couldn’t Bush tell them not to bomb the capital city while the U.S. is trying to evacuate Americans?

Related: this brilliant blog post from Huffington Post on the focus on pretty long distance shots of explosions rather than dead bodies, plus a letter from Beirut by Walid Raad.

Over the weekend I updated the code for ArtCal so that you can now see things by neighborhood, or just look for exhibitions at museums or non-profits.

Via Crain’s NY I learn:

The Metropolitan Opera has received a $1 million gift from Marie Schwartz, an advisory director on the Met’s board, to fund a new contemporary visual arts gallery being planned for its lobby.

The gallery, which will open Sept. 22, will be called “The Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met,” after Ms. Schwartz and her late husband. Dodie Kazanjian, the art writer for Vogue, has been hired to curate the gallery.

The space will display original works of art with opera themes. Six artists, including Cecily Brown and Barnaby Furnas, have already produced works for the first exhibition.

The Met’s press release is here.

It says that the works in the inaugural exhibiton are “inspired by the heroines of the season’s six new productions.” They are:

• Cecily Brown (Suor Angelica in Il Trittico)
• John Currin (Helena in Die Ägyptische Helena)
• Barnaby Furnas (Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice)
• Makiko Kudo (Princess Yue-yang in The First Emperor)
• Richard Prince (Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly)
• Sophie von Hellermann (Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia).

Other artists planned for future exhibitions include David Salle, Verne Dawson, George Condo, and Wangechi Mutu.

Let’s hope the visual arts programming isn’t as conservative and dull as the musical (Tan Dun?) and design decisions have been as long as I’ve lived in New York. This list doesn’t make me jump up and down with excitement, but I would hardly expect the Met to display artists that haven’t been endorsed by the market. We wouldn’t want the Met patrons exposed to unfamiliar “brands.” (I must admit I’m not familiar with Makiko Kudo though.)

Via the BBC, here is a photo of Mozart’s widow Constanze in 1840 in the Bavarian town of Altoetting when she was 78. She is the first person on the left.

Jonathan Podwil, Huey, 2006
film loop still

James and I are big fans of the work of Jonathan Podwil.

I’m happy to announce that he has a new website, hosted by ArtCat. Check out the video works, as he did a great job of getting those to a nice web-ready size.

If you want to see a work by him in person, he is in a group show at Plane Space in the Village through July 30.

Michael Salter, Styrobots, 2006
Styrofoam packing materials, glue

This comes from a show at Jeff Bailey Gallery titled Men and Materials, described as

combining everyday objects, vintage and new, coveted and discarded, craft and fine art materials

Here are my picks for tonight’s openings in Chelsea:

• Jessia Ciocci at Foxy Production
• Celebrity at Sixtyseven

In addition, other 27th Street galleries like ATM and Wallspace have shows that look worth a visit, plus we may drop by Jeff Bailey and Buia. Check out ArtCal for all you need to know.

No, I’m not dead. Just slowed down by the weather (except today) and a huge number of projects.

As a follow-up to my post on Galapagos planning to lobby for aid for emerging artists, here is a good article on the Galagos site on why this is important, titled Canaries in the goldmine: The emerging arts in New York City.

Assuming the weather doesn’t totally suck, this looks like a fun event tonight.

Wednesday, June 28th
9:00 pm
Pier 63 Maritime
23rd Street and the Hudson River (directions below)
New York City
Admission free

Please join EAI for an outdoor program of alternative music videos and music-based video by artists. The screening will include works by Cory Arcangel, Charles Atlas, Michael Bell-Smith, Johanna Billing, Dara Birnbaum, Meredith Danluck, Devin Flynn, Shana Moulton, Tony Oursler with Sonic Youth, Ara Peterson, Seth Price, and William Wegman.

The videos will be screened on the tented stage at Pier 63 Maritime, the public access pier on the Hudson River. Food and drinks will be available for purchase at the pier.

The artist-made music videos in the program include Charles Atlas’ new music video for Antony and the Johnsons, Ara Peterson’s pulsing abstract video for Black Dice, Devin Fynn’s animated epic for Erase Errata, William Wegman and Robert Breer’s classic video for New Order’s Blue Monday, and Tony Oursler and Sonic Youth’s 1990 tribute to ’70s pop star Karen Carpenter.

Other artists manipulate or re-conceive footage from appropriated music videos or live music performances. Cory Arcangel tries to take Simon out of Simon and Garfunkel’s 1984 Central Park performance, while Michael Bell-Smith makes an entire R. Kelly DVD happen all at once. Dara Birnbaum integrates the audience and even the weather in her rendition of performances by Radio Fire Fight at the legendary Mudd Club and Glenn Branca.

Other works playfully subvert the music video format, reworking and reinterpreting its rules and strategies. Seth Price uses analogue video graphics to map out a pop history of the music genre New Jack Swing. Meredith Danluck experiments with James Brown and the power of context, Johanna Billing blurs the lines between documentary, performance and music video, and Shana Moulton uses an electronic rave as a hallucinogenic escape route from the everyday.

Directions to Pier 63 Maritime

Take the C or E train to 23rd Street. Transfer to the westbound M-23 crosstown bus and take it to the end of the line. Walk west to the end of West 23rd street and cross the West Side Highway. Walk through the parking lot in front of Basketball City, bearing right. The ramp leading to Pier 63 Maritime is directly to the right of Basketball City. The screening will take place under the tented area at the rear of the pier.

[Image above from EAI. I think it’s a still from Charles Atlas’ snew music video for Antony and the Johnsons.]