from the Daily Mail UK:
Every child has written their names on the beach at some point.
But whereas most people's 'sandwriting' is washed away, one super-rich Arab sheikh has ensured that his doodles will last a little longer.
Hamad Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan, 63, has scrawled his name in sand on an island he owns with letters so big they can be seen from space.
Kal Spelletich
WHERE'S MY JETPACK?
July 9th - August 12th, 2011
Opening Saturday, July 9th 6-8 PM. Beer + BBQ.
Jack Hanley.
136 watts street. new york 10013.
646 918 6824.
www.jackhanley.com
Where’s My Jetpack!? is a new art exhibit by San Francisco artist Kal Spelletich featuring machines, robots, jetpacks, video and photographs that takes place July 9 through August 12th at Jack Hanley Gallery in New York City. There’s an opening party on July 9 with beer and BBQ from 6-8pm, followed by a closing party on August 12th.
July 5, 2011. Cy Twombly passed away today in Rome, after a long bout with cancer. He was 83.
July 4, 2011. Peter Schjeldahl is not only a published poet and art critic for the New Yorker, he is also an avowed pyrotechnician, and hosts a yearly July 4 party on his country property in the Catskills which culminates in a fireworks display and bonfire.
from the New England Journal of Aesthetic Research:
Brandeis University is pledging not to sell art from its Rose Museum’s extraordinary collection of 20th century art in a settlement with four overseers of the museum.
June 30, 2011. Tonight Glenn Beck will host his last show on FoxNoise - don't let the door hit you on the way out - so here is a compilation, from Media Matters, of what we have come to expect from the right wing's buffoon-in-chief.
They also list the 50 worst things Glenn Beck said on Fox News, divided into categories such as violent rhetoric, breaches of common decency, paranoid conspiracy theories, apocalyptic predictions and attacks on Obama and other progressives. Beck repeatedly labeled his opponents Communists, often compared himself to famous historical figures, smeared any and everyone, and offered laughably false predictions about world events.
Hard to know whether to laugh or cry.
from the Daily Chart of The Economist online:
An alternative timeline for the past two millennia
SOME people recite history from above, recording the grand deeds of great men. Others tell history from below, arguing that one person's life is just as much a part of mankind's story as another's. If people do make history, as this democratic view suggests, then two people make twice as much history as one. Since there are almost 7 billion people alive today, it follows that they are making seven times as much history as the 1 billion alive in 1811. The chart shows a population-weighted history of the past two millennia. By this reckoning, over 28% of all the history made since the birth of Christ was made in the 20th century. Measured in years lived, the present century, which is only ten years old, is already "longer" than the whole of the 17th century. This century has made an even bigger contribution to economic history. Over 23% of all the goods and services made since 1AD were produced from 2001 to 2010...
From the New York Times:
June 28, 2011 BEIJING — Ai Weiwei, the artist and government critic who was released last week from nearly three months in police custody, is facing almost $2 million in fines and unpaid taxes, his mother and an associate said Tuesday.
from Reuters:
BEIJING | Fri Jun 24, 2011 6:34am EDT
(Reuters) - No talking, no tweeting and no travel for a year -- these are some of the conditions of Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei's release from more than two months in detention, underscoring Beijing's efforts to muzzle dissent.
The comprehensive gag on Ai, who is not allowed to post anything on Twitter or accept interviews for a year, raises questions about the Chinese government's repeated claims that his detention was based on economic crimes.
