Lee Harvey Oswald
23 November 1963
A Dallas police mugshot of Lee Harvey Oswald from the 2007 documentary film "Oswald's Ghost," directed by Robert Stone.
30 November 2007
Charles Ray
“Father Figure,” left, and “The New Beetle”
Matthew Marks: 522 West 22nd Street: Chelsea
Through 19 January 2008
Roberta Smith:
Mr. Ray’s first New York gallery exhibition since his 1998 retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art is an obviously costly, deceptively sedate affair in which three very different works are set far apart in a bare, cavernous gallery. They indicate that he is becoming something of a sculptor’s sculptor, parlaying his interests into meditations on sculpture’s presence, above all its stillness and solidity, its ability to mimic yet deny life. Each work is more resonant than the next.
“Chicken” is a life-size porcelain and stainless-steel sculpture of a tiny chick breaking out of an egg. “The New Beetle” is a life-size sculpture, in cast stainless steel painted white that resembles vein-free white marble, of a naked young boy curled on the ground and resting on one hand while he plays with a toy car. The slouchy pose suggests Narcissus, but the boy is just the opposite, oblivious to himself and his nakedness, completely lost in the make-believe of the car, which is more exactly rendered than his face.
Like the fire truck, the third work, “Father Figure,” is a cast plastic toy enlarged to life size, a height of about eight feet. All green except for black tires, it shows a farmer driving a tractor; his head and torso are turned to the right as if to say hello. But the tractor is immensely powerful, and his body is fused with it in a way that seems implicitly monstrous. That the sculpture, which appears to be fairly lightweight unless you touch it, is actually solid stainless steel adds a primal force. This guy is Frankenstein’s monster on wheels, in a good mood for the moment, but don’t push it.
29 November 2007
28 November 2007
Baquba
Photo: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty
A US soldier from Bravo Company, 1st Battallion, 38th Regiment Infantry, descends the stairs as he searches an Iraqi house for weapons and suspects during a morning patrol in the streets of Baquba, 27 November 2007. Seven Iraqis, among them three women and a child, were reported killed today by the US military, a day after Washington and Baghdad agreed to keep American forces in Iraq beyond 2008.
(via Andrew Sullivan)
27 November 2007
Viktor & Rolf
Photo: Jacques Brinon/AP
The designers Viktor Horsting, left, and Rolf Snoeren, will create a Black Label collection for 2009 for Samsonite.
London Underground
London Transport Museum
Diagram of the Registered Design version of the London Underground roundel, designed in c.1925 by Edward Johnston.
24 November 2007
23 November 2007
Jeff Koons
Photo: Librado Romero/The New York Times
Jeff Koons’s “Rabbit” floated over Times Square during Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. The helium “sculpture” was making its debut.
22 November 2007
21 November 2007
The Death of Lily Bart
Photo: Erik Jacobs for the New York Times
Suicide or accident?
NYTimes:
A letter, recently brought to light, written by Wharton herself, seems to point to the suicide theory. It is dated Dec. 26, 1904, just a month before “The House of Mirth” began appearing in monthly installments in Scribner’s Magazine, and is addressed to Dr. Francis Kinnicutt, a well-known society doctor who specialized in the mental ailments of the well-to-do. The letter was found stuck into a first-edition copy of “The House of Mirth,” along with a poem, dated 1906.
The letter begins by resorting to the timeless disguise of the advice-seeker. “A friend of mine has made up her mind to commit suicide,” Wharton writes, “& has asked me to find out ... the most painless & least unpleasant method of effacing herself.”
Only on the second page does Wharton reveal that her “friend” is in fact a fictional character appearing in the pages of Scribner’s, explaining, “I have heroine to get rid of, and want some points on the best way of disposing of her.”
Suicide or accident?
NYTimes:
A letter, recently brought to light, written by Wharton herself, seems to point to the suicide theory. It is dated Dec. 26, 1904, just a month before “The House of Mirth” began appearing in monthly installments in Scribner’s Magazine, and is addressed to Dr. Francis Kinnicutt, a well-known society doctor who specialized in the mental ailments of the well-to-do. The letter was found stuck into a first-edition copy of “The House of Mirth,” along with a poem, dated 1906.
The letter begins by resorting to the timeless disguise of the advice-seeker. “A friend of mine has made up her mind to commit suicide,” Wharton writes, “& has asked me to find out ... the most painless & least unpleasant method of effacing herself.”
Only on the second page does Wharton reveal that her “friend” is in fact a fictional character appearing in the pages of Scribner’s, explaining, “I have heroine to get rid of, and want some points on the best way of disposing of her.”
19 November 2007
New York City
via NYTimes:
Five developers are competing to buy the development rights over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority railyards that straddle 11th Avenue, between 30th and 33rd Streets. They have submitted billion-dollar offers and elaborate development plans for what would be the largest project in Manhattan, on 26 acres stretching across the equivalent of six city blocks overlooking the Hudson River.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/realestate/19yardsintro.html?hp
Mexico
Jairo Miguel, 14, changed outside Merida's bullfighting ring. Jairo, an apprentice bullfighter who is following in the footsteps of his father, began his professional career in Mexico two years ago.
NYTimes/Marc Lacey:
They are not allowed to fight professionally in Spain, but baby-faced bullfighters are the rage throughout Mexico. Even though some of the school-age children appearing at the country’s scores of bullrings are not much taller than the bulls they confront, these mini-matadors have begun getting top billing from promoters, who view them as a new way to bring people to the arena.
“We’re just normal people but we have a profession that puts us in dangerous spots,” he said. “Motorcycles and cars have even more deaths. But the car, you can control. A bull thinks for himself.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/world/americas/19bullfight.html
Sir Norman Foster
Photo: David Y Lee/NYTimes
Washington, DC
Nicolai Ourousoff
The glass-and-steel roof over the Kogod Courtyard appears to undulate as it connects sections of two Smithsonian museums: the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery. The museums reside in the venerable Patent Office Building, one of this country’s finest examples of 19th-century Greek Revival architecture. When the British architect Norman Foster was hired to renovate the museums’ courtyard and enclose it under a glass roof, he essentially was told: Don’t dare disturb the old building.
Such strictures might have handcuffed a less nimble architect. But Mr. Foster seems to have relished the challenge. Rather than lock horns with preservationists, he embraced his task with fetishistic glee. Capped by an undulating glass-and-steel roof, the courtyard is inserted into the existing building with striking delicacy. The project shows how an architect can respect the past without dressing it up in historicist frippery.
18 November 2007
Walton Ford
In his Great Barrington, Massachusetts studio.
http://www.mensvogue.com/arts/finearts/articles/2006/10/16/walton_ford
16 November 2007
Children's Book Week
Photo: Robert Spencer/NYTimes
A bookcase of vintage children's books at Half-Moon Books, Pioneer Valley, Massachusetts.
[I called them: "Story Telling with Scissors": 1929: cover slightly fox-eared: $40.00]
15 November 2007
Upcycling
NYTimes:
One of the latest ideas on the design front is “upcycling,” taking something unwanted and turning it into something desirable. In one example, Christine Misiak, a British designer, is coating secondhand tea services with enamels in startling shades like kelly green and black. The Tea Set Noir, above, is about $230; other colors are available. Ms. Misiak, a recent graduate of Northumbria University in England, where she is now a designer in residence, also applies antique handles and spouts to new metal vessels to create her Old/New and New /Old tea services. Information: 011-44-7878-911-930 or www.christinemisiak.co.uk.
Jim Oliveira
NYTimes:
Over the past 20 years, Jim Oliveira, a Manhattan artist, has developed a technique for creating paintings he calls “color piles.” He mixes clear acrylic with inks and pigments, and pours it onto plastic-lined worktables, as if it were pancake batter, forming circles of varying sizes and thicknesses. Once they have dried, the disks are stacked into clusters and attached to a Belgian linen canvas. Now he is using the same technique to make ottomans, which are covered in a “fabric” of acrylic disks over a reinforced plywood frame that sits on glides. They come in 12- and 18-inch sizes ($8,500 to $12,500), and in multicolored compositions, left, as well as black, metallic gold and a bright blue inspired by the painters Yves Klein and Lucio Fontana. Information: (212) 343-2524 or jimoliveirastudio.com.
Jean Nouvel
A rendering of the Jean Nouvel-designed tower to be built adjacent to the Museum of Modern Art.
14 November 2007
13 November 2007
Magneto
When a UCSF Children's Hospital surgeon suggested an untested treatment to correct Richard Nave's congenital chest defect, his mother was, naturally, concerned for her son's safety. But as soon as Richard, 15, heard he'd be the first person in the world to try out the procedure, he was sold. "First, I like that," said Richard, obviously gloating during a regular checkup at UCSF last month. Richard has earned his bragging rights. The San Francisco teenager suffers from a chest cartilage deformity called pectus excavatum, also known as sunken chest because as children get older, their sternum and ribs fold in, creating a concave effect in their chest wall. In many cases, the deformity is unattractive but doesn't pose a health risk. It can cause heart and lung problems from the added pressure from the sternum, though, especially when children are breathing hard from play or exercise. For decades, the most common treatments for this condition were major surgery, involving either cracking open the chest and rebuilding the bone structure, or inserting a bar under the sternum to force it into a normal shape. But four months ago, Dr. Michael Harrison attached a hockey-puck-size magnet to Richard's sternum, which is now slowly being pulled outward by a second magnet stuck to a brace Richard wears on his chest. The treatment is supposed to work a bit like braces for teeth, slowly correcting the deformity by pulling the bones into the right shape. The internal magnet was screwed to Richard's sternum during a short operation. He said he feels a little sore sometimes from the near-constant pull of the magnets, and it's not fun wearing a chest brace most of the day. But all things considered, it's a lot easier than the usual treatment for pectus. "All my friends, when they see me, they throw their keys at me" to see if they'll stick, Richard said. He rolls his eyes a little, but he admits it's kind of cool. "My nickname on the wrestling team is Magneto."
via SFGate:
08 November 2007
Wall Street
Photo: Gary He/Associated Press
NYTimes:
It isn't over yet. Hopes for a market rebound dimmed today as shares stayed in the red, extending yesterday’s 360-point swoon. Today, however, it was the technology giants and retail chains that disappointed investors as well as a grim fourth-quarter forecast from the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke.
The Dow Jones industrials dipped almost 200 points, or 1.5 percent, led by steep declines from Cisco Systems, I.B.M. and clothing retailers. The benchmark index is now off more than 4 percent from Tuesday’s close. The broader market also fell 1.5 percent, as measured by Standard & Poor’s.
Sinking technology stocks battered the Nasdaq composite index, which fell 3.3 percent to its lowest level since September. Cisco, the networking company, reported a 37 percent increase in earnings but did not surpass analysts’ expectations. The market’s punishment was swift: shares of Cisco dropped 8 percent, with similar losses hitting I.B.M. and Oracle.
Investors are clearly skittish about economic troubles, from a lack of confidence in the credit market to the global ramifications of a weakening dollar and rising oil prices. The concerns have sent stock markets plummeting, with large banks feeling the brunt of the damage.
House Approves Broad Protections for Gay Workers
NYTimes: David M Herszenhorn
The House on Wednesday approved a bill granting broad protections against discrimination in the workplace for gay men, lesbians and bisexuals, a measure that supporters praised as the most important civil rights legislation since the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 but that opponents said would result in unnecessary lawsuits.
“On this proud day of the 110th Congress, we will chart a new direction for civil rights,” said Representative Kathy Castor, a Florida Democrat and a gay rights advocate, in a speech before the vote. “On this proud day, the Congress will act to ensure that all Americans are granted equal rights in the work place.”
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat and a longtime supporter of gay rights legislation, said he would move swiftly to introduce a similar measure in the Senate. Some Senate Republicans said that, if worded carefully, it would have a good chance of passing, perhaps early next year.
Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, has said that she would be the lead co-sponsor of the Senate bill. Ms. Collins, in a statement, said that the House vote “provides important momentum” and that “there is growing support in the Senate for strengthening federal laws to protect American workers from discrimination based on sexual orientation.”
President Bush threatened to veto an earlier version of the bill, but a White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, said the administration would need to review recent changes before making a final decision. Few Democrats expect Mr. Bush to change his mind.
Los Angeles, California
The Murakami store at MOCA
NYTimes:
[The woman] trained a covetous eye on the handbags pristinely arrayed on white-lacquered shelves. She was not quite sure what to make of the display, housed in a 1,000-square-foot island of commerce inside the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. No matter. She was there to shop. She had come from San Francisco nominally to see an exhibition of paintings and sculpture by the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, [and] was delighted. Here was a luxury store — operated by Louis Vuitton, no less — in the midst of a high-tone exhibition space.
...
“If you look at the world of art people interested in contemporary art, they are usually interested in luxury,” said Yves Carcelle, the president of Louis Vuitton. “The bridge between the two worlds is more and more obvious.” Mr. Carcelle underscored the point by noting that 60 of the MOCA Murakami bags were sold in the show’s first week alone.
Referring to the original Murakami leather goods, Mr. Carcelle added, “For us, the payoff has been extraordinary.” He declined to break out sales figures but said that the Murakami profits, which account for only a small percentage of the Vuitton business, add up to more than the total profits of some competing brands.
Such products, a kind of art couture, appeal primarily to a rising class of affluent culture chasers, “people who are very focused on having those hip luxury signifiers,” in the words of Simon Doonan, the creative director of Barneys New York. Owning such products “signifies informed consumption,” Mr. Doonan said. “They say: ‘I’m not just a shopper. I’m a super groovy shopper.’”
07 November 2007
Laika
Photo: Jennifer Bastian
M. A. Peers’s portrait of Laika, a dog used on an early Soviet space flight. The painting is at the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles.
NYTimes:
"Photographs of Laika usually show her in the laboratory, looking nervous and beleaguered in her spacesuit. Yet here she looks intelligent and alert, her ears cocked against a blue, skylike void. On the wall above her are the words “All the universe is full of the lives of perfect creatures,” from Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky, the 19th-century Russian schoolteacher whose visionary drawings and writings foresaw the concept of space travel, with animals as the first pioneers."
United States Congress
Photo: Susan Etheridge for The New York Times
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France after speaking to a joint meeting of Congress.
Caucasus
Photo: David Mdzinarishvili/Reuters
NYTimes:
Riot police in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia, today employed extensive force today in the face of protests against the country’s pro-Western government.
The police sweep, while it cleared the avenue at least temporarily, underlined the intensity of the challenge to the government and reputation of President Mikheil Saakashvili, who rose to power with peaceful protests in 2003 and has cast himself as the most democratic ruler in the Caucasus.
The opposition has accused him of running centralized government intolerant of dissent and undermined by high-level corruption and police and prosecutorial abuse.
Opposition leaders labeled the police action a political crackdown and mass punishment, and called for Georgians to gather in renewed protests. Georgia is a small and tightly networked nation. The possibility of escalation, or further clashes and police action, seemed high.
06 November 2007
05 November 2007
New York City
Photo: Andrew Bordwin
Archivia, the long-lamented art, architecture and design bookstore that shut its doors on the Upper East Side six years ago, has reopened on Lexington Avenue, four blocks from its original location. The store, which was a regular haunt of curators from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frick, as well as a slew of designers, has doubled its size, to 800 square feet, and is done in blond wood with a Verner Panton chandelier.
Archivia Books, 993 Lexington Avenue (72nd Street), (212) 570-9565 or www.archiviabooks.com.
Joe Torre
Photo: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
“You say goodbye to one prestigious organization and you say hello to another prestigious organization."
Boy King
Photo: Cris Bouroncle/AFP/Getty
via Andrew Sullivan:
The face of Pharaoh Tutankhamen is displayed in a climate-controlled case at his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, close to Luxor, 500 kilometres south of Cairo, 04 November 2007. The true face of ancient Egypt's boy king Tutankhamun was revealed today to the public for the first time since he died in mysterious circumstances more than 3,000 years ago. The pharaoh's mummy was moved from its ornate sarcophagus in the tomb where its 1922 discovery caused an international sensation to a nearby climate-controlled case where experts say it will be better preserved.
Afghanistan
Photo: Max Becherer/Polaris, for The New York Times
Following an intense anti-poppy campaign, the province of Balkh was declared poppy-free. Largely ignored was the fact that many farmers simply switched from opium poppy to another illegal crop: cannabis.
Lahore, Pakistan
Photo: Mohsin Raza
via NYTimes
Islamabad, Pakistan, Nov. 5 — Police armed with tear gas and clubs attacked thousands of protesting lawyers in the city of Lahore today, and rounded up lawyers in other cities as the government of the Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, faced the first signs of concerted resistance to the imposition of emergency rule.
...
The Bush administration signaled Sunday that it would probably keep billions of dollars flowing to Pakistan’s military, despite the detention of human rights advocates and leaders of the political opposition by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the country’s president.
Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that while the United States would “have to review the situation with aid,” she said three times that President Bush’s first concern was “to protect America and protect American citizens by continuing to fight against terrorists.”
“That means we have to be very cognizant of the counterterrorism operations that we are involved in,” she said. “We have to be very cognizant of the fact that some of the assistance that has been going to Pakistan is directly related to the counterterrorism mission.”
In Islamabad, aides to General Musharraf — who had dismissed pleas on Friday from Ms. Rice and Adm. William J. Fallon, the senior military commander in the Middle East, to avoid the state-of-emergency declaration — said they had anticipated that there would be few real consequences.
They called the American reaction “muted,” saying General Musharraf had not received phone calls of protest from Mr. Bush or other senior American officials. In unusually candid terms, they said American officials supported stability over democracy.
[Will Cheney/Bush support 'stability' over democracy here at home, refusing, as Musharaff has, to relinquish power so they may continue their "war on terrorism"?]
01 November 2007
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