"It's Republicans wrapping their arms around Republicans rather than doing the right thing on behalf of the heroes."

July 30, 2010. Rep. Anthony Weiner spoke on the House floor last night in support of H.R. 847, the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which was blocked from passage by House Republicans. Rep. Weiner addresses some of the false arguments Republicans were using in their opposition to the bill. The vote was 255 to 159 in support of the bill, short of the 2/3 needed for passage. 155 Republicans voted against the legislation, which would have provided up to $7.4 billion in medical monitoring and treatment to World Trade Center responders and survivors exposed to toxins at Ground Zero.

Arielle Falk: Lego My Ego
July 29 – August 21, 2010
Reception: July 30, 7 - 9 pm
LZ Project Space
164 Suffolk Street btw Stanton & Houston Sts.
212-627-3276
www.LZprojectspace.com
info@nystudiogallery.com

LZ Project Space is pleased to present Lego My Ego, the first solo exhibition of work by Arielle Falk. In this show, Falk introduces sculptures and photographs that continue her exploration of relationships between human (subject) and object. This relationship has been a recurring theme in her video work.

“I can feel myself under the gaze of someone whose eyes I do not see, not even discern.” - Jacques Lacan, Seminar One

Falk presents a series of handmade sculptural objects, SUNGLASSES FOR THE FACE, which are designed to obscure the features of one’s face, and therefore, the identity and ego (self) of the wearer. They serve to defend against a double gaze; the nonspecific, generalized gaze of the other and the self-conscious, inward directed gaze of the ideal-ego (one’s image of their perfect self) as defined by Freud and Lacan.

from Move On.org:

In a shocking video, Andrew Breitbart admits he "hearts" terrorists while a conservative audience applauds.

Thus far, the news media has been ignoring this video entirely, even though just last week they took at face value Breitbart's selectively-edited video purporting to show USDA official Shirley Sherrod making racist comments. That claim, of course, was quickly exposed as fraudulent.

This video is as truthful as any Breitbart has ever released, and deserves equal coverage from the news media.

You can sign an online petition here demanding that the media cover this shocking new revelation.

Top of the Pops appearance, 1984. Morrissey dancing about wearing a thrift store ladies blouse, a bunch of gladioli hanging out of his back pocket. Johnny Marr throwing off jangling, symphonic riffs on his hollow body Gibson. Andy Rourke with an addictive, funky, slap happy bass line. Mike Joyce laying it down on the bottom and the high hats.

Sunday, July 18, 2010. Having attended Pablo Helguera's performance at Smack Mellon yesterday - The Art World Home Companion - I wanted to include something that encapsulated his humorous, ironic world view. Hence this Artoon. More of them can be found here.

As to the Home Companion, it is, in the words of its creator,

a radio program originally conceived for Condensations of the Social, an exhibition at Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, curated by Sara Reisman in June-July of 2010. The project pays tribute to Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, adapting the concept for the contemporary art community. The “Estheticist” segment of the program invites public participation and offers a counseling and answering of art-related questions from listeners, in the spirit of Randy Cohen’s New York Times column “the Ethicist”.

Monday, July 12, 2010. At a town hall open mic hosted by the Presidential Oil Spill Commission, Drew Landry, an unemployed Cajun crawfisherman, whipped out his guitar and sang to the omnipotent administrators. They shifted uneasily in their seats, knowing they're supposed to appear receptive and appreciative. They are placed in the unlikely situation of having to listen to an extended bit of straight-from-the-heart eloquence, of plainspoken home truths, rather than hogging the limelight with their usual protocols and platitudes.

Landry sings about living close to the land and water, a simple, hardscrabble existence that was already in jeopardy, even before Hurricane Katrina, but has seemingly been administered a death blow by the current spill. He and his neighbors in southwest Louisiana work the crawfish holes or the oil fields, pick floating cypress logs out of the bayou, do the odd construction job, hunt and trap. The recent calamity, coming after years of wetlands deforestation, has been devastating to their way of life. He expresses their hardship in this song.

Harry Stendahl and Jonas Mekas in happier days

from the July 13, 2010 NY Post:

The owner of Chelsea's Stendhal Gallery swindled two famed artists to fund his extravagant lifestyle - including paying off a $90,000 bill at Cipriani Downtown, court papers claim.

The artists, "godfather of avant-garde cinema" Jonas Mekas and designer Paula Scher, charge that Harry Stendhal sold their pieces without giving them their cut and is holding millions of dollars more of their work hostage, according to lawsuits they filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.

The pair say that when they confronted Stendhal, he retaliated by barraging them with profanity-laced e-mails.

An internet meme in its infancy? Or just slapdash emo zingers and retro 90s graphic animation conjoined in an unlikely union?

as per numerous Facebook postings:

A confederation of activists have been organizing what they call Protest BP Day II. This July 10, people will be gathering at locations worldwide to protest the past environmental record of British Petroleum (particularly regarding the ongoing oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon site into the Gulf of Mexico) and to call for an end to offshore oil drilling in the future.

Saturday, July 10, 2010
5:00pm - 7:00pm

Washington Plaza @ S. 4th St. and Roebling St. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn