Ben Foster

Torres-García

Composición Constructiva 16 (Constructive Composition 16): 1943: Joaquín Torres-García

Photo: Grey Art Gallery

Jonathan Yeo

Bush 2007

Limited edition screenprint
Edition of 150

Published by Steve Lazarides
Printed by Coriander Press London

From The American Prospect:
Portrait of the President as a Skin Mag

Unveiled in August at the Lazarides Gallery in London, Yeo's unofficial presidential portrait is a photomontage of images snipped from pornographic magazines. It's not a painting, but it's definitely a portrait: at a distance, Bush's close-set, beady eyes and pursed frown are plainly visible. Up close, however, the image devolves into a collage of naked flesh, bodily emissions, and human orifices. An act of fellatio comprises most of Bush's right ear; where his left dimple should be is an image of a woman's face, locked in a moan of ecstasy. A detail of Bush's cheek finds Yeo depicting pores through explicit metaphor.

Sheik Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al-Rishawi

Photo: Christoph Bangert for The New York Times

NYTimes:

The leader of a group of local Sunni tribes cooperating with American and Iraqi forces in fighting extremist Sunni militants in Anbar Province was killed by a bomb today, Iraqi police officials said, in a blow to an effort President Bush has held up as a model of progress.

Mark Lynch writes:

There's no reason to assume that al-Qaeda killed him--I'd guess that one of the nationalist insurgency groups, the ones which current American rhetoric pretends don't exist, is a more likely suspect. Other tribes deeply resented him. The major nationalist insurgency groups had recently issued a series of statements denouncing people who would illegitimately seize the fruits of their victorious jihad - of whom he was the prime example. All those photographs which swamped the Arab media showing him shaking hands with President Bush made him even more a marked man than before.

His murder graphically demonstrates that the other groups threatened by the American Anbar strategy were never going to just sit back passively and allow it to succeed--an obvious strategic point which has always seemed to elude surge advocates. The Sunni strategy as presented by surge advocates has always rested not only on a whole series of dubious claims about Iraqi Sunni politics, but also relies on a whole series of best-case scenarios in which nothing could go wrong. In Iraq, something always goes wrong.

It's a major setback for the strategy, particularly at the symbolic level. Even if Abu Risha was a poor choice to "lead" the strategy, he was in fact elevated to that symbolic position by American propaganda and practice (that meeting with the President, for instance). His murder demonstrates that even America's closest friends are not untouchable - not even on the day of a Presidential address expected to rely heavily on progress in Anbar. The political fallout of the murder inside of Iraq may well exceed Abu Risha's actual role in Sunni politics.

Ramadan

Cairo, Egypt—A street scene during Ramadan, 1987.

© Harry Gruyaert / Magnum Photos

Reveal

via NYTimes:
Reveal, a device that creates the illusion of light coming through a window that isn’t actually there, is the brainchild of Adam Frank, a Brooklyn designer. He calls it “a way to use images to alter our perception of space and architecture,” a complicated explanation for a simple idea: a small projector mounted on a wall or ceiling, casting an image that looks like the shadow of a mullioned window and a tree onto a nearby wall. Air blown through the projector ruffles dangling pieces of steel inside, making the tree appear to sway and compounding the trompe l’oeil effect. Produced in a limited run of 1,000, Reveal sells for $380. Information and orders: adamfrank.com.

Helvetica

via NYTimes:

The Life and Times of a Typeface
By MATT ZOLLER SEITZ
Published: September 12, 2007

“Helvetica,” a feature-length documentary about that typeface, promises too much information. Luckily, the filmmaker Gary Hustwit — who also directed the mesmerizing “Moog,” about the analog synthesizer — has a knack for finding a universe within a narrow topic.

Overlong but fascinating, Mr. Hustwit’s documentary posits Helvetica — a sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 at the Haas Foundry in Munchenstein, Switzerland — as an emblem of the machine age, a harbinger of globalization and an ally of modern art’s impulse toward innovation, simplicity and abstraction. Its versatility is showcased in shots of storefronts, street signs, public transportation systems, government forms, advertisements and newspaper vending boxes.

The film’s provocative, lively interviews with graphic designers and theorists — including Massimo Vignelli, who created directional signs for the New York City subway system, and David Carson, author of “The End of Print” — assess Helvetica’s impact on human life and thought. Some praise it as a conceptual breakthrough; others blast it as a lowest-common-denominator typeface whose use both reflects and perpetuates conformity.

Produced and directed by Gary Hustwit; director of photography, Luke Geissbuhler; edited by Shelby Siegel; released by Swiss Dots/Veer.

Baquba

Photo: Sectarian carnage in Baquba: Ali Yussef/AFP/Getty

A reader at Andrew Sullivan's blog writes:

I would like to point out that the statistics on sectarian killings should go down as the number of Iraqi refugees increases and as the country moves ever so closer to de facto partition. No one really seems to be bringing this into the equation.

If, what is it, 50,000 Iraqis are being displaced every month, one would assume that the bulk of this is movement out of mixed Sunni-Shia areas or neighborhoods. Again the bulk of sectarian killings are probably for the purpose of ethnically cleansing a neighborhood. So, over time, these killings will likely decrease. However, as should be obvious to anyone viewing the problem sensibly, this is not an indicator that things have somehow improved.

When someone starts counting the number of refugees returning to Iraq, or the number of Iraqis returning to their former homes, I'll then believe the surge is working. Not as long as people are on the run for their lives. I guess I will need to wait a very long time.

andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/th...sh/

Diorama

Eric Long/NMMC

A scene in an exhibition in the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Va., showing Toktong Pass in Korea.

Ben Foster

As Charlie Prince: 3:10 to Yuma

Foster played Russell, Claire's bisexual boyfriend, on HBO's Six Feet Under. His performance in Yuma is revelatory. The suede jacket and chaps shape him into a sleek, evil razor of a man. Prince's love for Russell Crowe's Ben Wade simmers beneath the character's leather carapace. A great performance; a terrific film.

Reading

Sullivan

Aaron and Andrew
via Daily Dish:

The (wedding photos) came today, and since many of you have asked to see a few, here are a handful. Seeing them again reminds me of the dreamy dusk and night that we chose - a full moon over the water, and family and friends-who-are-family sending the love right back at us. This was not - repeat not - a political event. But it took politics to get past politics, and to see this movement we are a part of as a human endeavor to bring love and civility and family into lives that have sometimes been denied all of the above. We were denied no love that night, and received so much support and kindness and affirmation that we're still a little giddy. It was more than I ever expected, in a place I love, with people who love both Aaron and me.

Release date: 21 September
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/theassassinationofjessejames/

Labor Day

Goodbye to summer.
Topanga Beach, California.