Where did all the counterfeit Gucci sellers go? Where ever the panoticon can’t see, that’s where. Down the alleys and back behind the main streets. Passing by Chinatown NYC a couple of months back I saw this mobile observance tower, it’s hard to tell if anyone is really in there with the dark windows. It works magic in the area but doesn’t really stop the counterfeit dealers and buyers. I still see them doing business all the time to either Europeans on a tight American vacation or Americans  from outside of New York looking to look good on the cheap. It’s the cult of vision that has common folks like us breaking the law. What’s wrong with a little corporate image blood letting anyhow? The only thing they are losing is the control over who wears their brand.

In the last days of my trip to Berkeley California I realized that I hadn’t planned some sort of pilgrimage through Silicon Valley. Honestly, my geographic knowledge of the West Coast is close to nil. Assuming the Bay area was too expansive to cover in a 6 day trip, I didn’t think about the possibility to drive in search of the monoliths of the computer industry in the area. It was only after a day trip to San Jose, after a 2 hour tour of the Winchester Mansion, that we made the wrong turn off of the main highway and had to do a U-Turn at the entrance of eBay that I realized how snugly fit all the cities of the Bay Area really were. But by then it was too late. At that point, The only thing I could do was look through the area map and only imagine where in Cupertino Apple Computers might be, or Google’s Mountain View camp. I could almost imagine how the majority of headquarters of these famous sites might look with their low-rise expansion of buildings scattered across lush green grounds, maybe a small knoll with the companies logo modestly displayed. I’d be back someday, and maybe it was too soon to start making these type of recent-history pilgrimages, I thought to console myself.

Perhaps the least conventional of them all might have been the headquarters of Craigslist, which I had seen on television before. Craigslist is housed in a modest 4 story San Francisco style house in the Sunset District. What attracted me to Craigslist was what I had been hearing about Craig Newmark, the listings’ founder. It was known that unlike the other pirates of the Silicon Valley, Craig was not out to conquer the world, but more simply to put the idea of neighborhood into the internet-where people help one another for the benefit of all – contrary to current money making schemes. Furthermore, I read in wikipeadia that unlike most companies out there Craigslist had no plans to maximize profits – making it a very peculiar for-profit company and perhaps one of the more humble of all vestiges on the web today.

There is more trivia on the wikipedia entry for Craigslist if you care to learn more. The section “Significant events for Craiglist” highlight some interesting facts such as their eBay auction bid that won them the rights to beam 2 million classified ads into outer space. Craig’s comment was, “We believe there could be an infinite market opportunity”.

Another interesting thing I discovered on Craigslist.org was their “Best of” list compiled by readers… These are a few from Craigslist’s Best of …New York City. Reading them now is starting to make me home sick

…

20 Apr 2008 – who put the dead bird in my mailbox? – w4m

19 Apr 2008 – KERMIT SEEKS PIGGY

17 Apr 2008 – Ibanker seeking romance

12 Mar 2008 – Silda Spitzer, I will totally do you. – m4w

27 Feb 2008 – OK . . . I give up . . . just fuck me like a whore

07 Feb 2008 – Fingered on the RED line – Columbia University – w4m

25 Jan 2008 – Dear Star Wars ex-boyfriend, my vag is sore

10 Jan 2008 – Replying to w4m casual encounters ads? A little feedback ..

26 Dec 2007 – No, really – someone come get this horrible Chili Beer

18 Dec 2007 – fancy being lavished during the holidays?

02 Dec 2007 – To the person who broke into my car last night

26 Nov 2007 – Wanted: Heart Surgeon for 1/2 Day Gig – No Pay

21 Nov 2007 – Help me keep the shell people alive.

11 Nov 2007 – Why Must You Bother the Nice Women?

23 Oct 2007 – We met for a drink and you caught me making out with a man – m4w

11 Oct 2007 – To the gentleman who called me a depreciating asset

14 Aug 2007 – Diola lle, lovers of Middle Earth – w4m

…

Maybe I’m late to report this craze, but a recent spam post tipped me off to “reborn dolls” listings on ebay – baby dolls made to look like hyper realistic babies. I Googled and found this site MBB Creative Doll that has the tag-line of: Art that Captures Life. I don’t really know how to categorize this post? Is it art? games & toys? science & tech? pop culture? All of the above it is!

Bills piling up? Short on studio rent? Stop by E-Flux’s Pawn Shop if you said yes to either question. E-Flux, the international art email list has opened up shop, a *Pawn* Shop to be exact. It began in November and is running until the end of December, the store front at 53 Ludlow Street has been transformed into an art pawn shop. A unique experiment for those who are interested in a new perspective on venues for art or for those who are really hard up for cash. Anyone can pawn their art work at the Pawn Shop, just bring your work in an have it evaluated. A hint on how to successfully pawn your work is by making sure whatever you bring in can be sold for at least $99.99. Because if they accept your work they’ll give you a flat $99.99 loan. The loan is  good for a month, at that point you can either repay the $99.99 with interest and reclaim you work, or if you default within this time period you work will be sold for a minimum of $99.99. The profits go to Doctors without Borders.

Events at the Pawn Shop:

FRI Nov. 23rd All Day – *BUY NOTHING DAY*
(as opposed to Black Friday??)

MON Nov. 26th 7PM – *LADIES NIGHT AT PAWNSHOP*
a discussion with Julieta Aranda and Liz Linden on ethical consumerism and strategies of reverse-gentrification, with surprise special guest.

More information at:
PAWNSHOP at e-flux
53 Ludlow Street
New York, NY 10002

pawnshop@e-flux.com or call 212 619 3356.

Target, the department store, has been teaming up with artist to produce various consumer items for sale in their store. A friend of mine forwarded me the link to their over-sized beach towels on sale now. Looking through the beach towels of Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, et al., I immediately recognized the iconic image of Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols as painted by Elizabeth Peyton. I had a laugh but was a bit shocked that Target would use this image since Elizabeth’s interpretation still retains the essence of Sid Vicious’ torn t-shirt: two cowboys with their pants down having a sword-fight (Is that what it’s called?)

(P.S. It’s hard to write a perfect headline, this is the best I could do)

Elizabeth Peyton Oversized Beach Towel – 60×70″
at Target.com – new $50.00 (offline)

- – - – -

Appended: 11/26/07
Looks like the towels already sold out? I read that they are yester years item?!? Here is the company that makes them:

Works on Whatever

Jules de Balincourt
Parsons Fine Arts Lecture Series

Swayduck Auditorium
65 Fifth Ave.

Wed, Apr 11 – 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Tickets: Free

Continuing Parsons Fine Arts Lecture series, this month’s guest artist is Jules De Balincourt.

Jules de Balincourt has been described as a painter of new American landscapes. Comparing old Europe with America, Balincourt notes: “America has a particular type of schizophrenic dysfunction that I love. My work lives from the collision of all these cultures in one place.” Born in France, Balincourt now lives and works in Brooklyn and was recently selected by curator Joao Ribas as one of the seven New York-based artists for the HangART-7 exhibition in Salzburg, Austria, entitled “New York Contemporary: Art Times Squared.” He is represented in New York by Zach Feuer Gallery.

Ticket Info: Free and open to the public
from: http://www.parsons.edu/events/event_detail.aspx?eID=756

– - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Lilly Allen Afterparty at Love
w/Mark Ronson & Yo Yo
sponsored by Dazed and Confused

Wednesday, April 11th: 9pm-late

Location: Love
40 West 8th Street
(MacDougal & 6th Avenue)

Tickets: $10 before midnight (open bar til 11pm)

I know we’re gonna catch heck for posting this event but I couldn’t resist. This is quoted as the official after party for her sold out show at Irving Plaza, which reopens today as The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza. This is the inaugural show at new Irving Plaza after having been renamed and redesigned by it’s owners Fillmore in San Francisco. Anyhow, I have been tipped off that Love, the After Party venue has an excellent sounds system, so if Lilly’s lil’ hollers don’t keep you up, the beats provided by Mark Ronson, Aaron Lacrate, and Yo-Yo of Notting Hill Arts Club fame surely will.

For the early birds, Dazed & Confused Digital is having a film screening, of what I’m not sure, at 9pm + open bar til 11PM

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
Friday April 13th:
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

To Build A Fire
Group show curated by Yuri Masnyj

Rivington Arms
4 East 2nd Street, 1st Floor
New York, NY 10003

Opening: Friday Arpil 13th, 7-9 PM
Show continues April 13 – May 12

Gavin Anderson
Olaf Breuning
David Brooks
Eric Fertman
Matthew Day Jackson
Anya Kielar
Justin Valdes
Sara Vanderbeek

Yuri Masnyj assembles a moody mix of young artist perfectly fitting for this Friday the 13th. @ Rivington Arms.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
Saturday April 14th:
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

Sea of People
A public rally and installation for climate change action, NYC

With Earth Day officially Sunday April 22nd, the people at Sea of People are rallying early this month by urging everyone to come out, support, and ask Congress to cut carbon emissions by 80% by the year 2050:

“The SEA OF PEOPLE project combines the dynamics of a mass rally with the expressive power of an interactive artistic installation. A noon rally at Battery Park (main lawn) will kick off the event. Then, thousands of participants, ideally dressed in blue, will stretch north in two columns along the projected eastern and western 10-foot waterlines that may one day redefine lower Manhattan under the ten-foot sea level rise scenario. Creating, in essence, a Sea of People! ” Sea of People Website

– - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Laurie Anderson and Wim Wenders in Conversation
At The Rubin Museum

April 14, 2007 – 6:00 PM

Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street
New York, NY 10011
Tickets: $18 includes Museum admission.

The performance artist and filmmaker in conversation. Laurie Anderson has an installation in the Rubin’s current exhibition The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama called From the Air. She and Wings of Desire director Wim Wenders exchange views on their work and world perspective. Wenders’ Paris, Texas is being screened at RMA on Friday, May 25.

more info: Rubin Museum of Art

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

The Magic Flute
William Kentridge @ BAM

APR 9 & 11 AT 7:30PM
Tickects: $30, 55, 85, 110

APR 13 & 14 AT 7:30PM
Tickets: $40, 65, 100, 125
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
In German with English subtitles

In order to thin out this weeks event we slotted the Saturday performance as the one to attend. Besides, I’m sure this event has more publicity to champion even Lilly Allen meets the new Fillmore NY. William Kentridge is magical, Mozart’s opera suits him well. “Der Holle Rache kocht in meinen Herzen”, one of the most famous arias will be performed by Milagros Poblador (Queen of Night). p.s. milagros translates to miracles from Spanish, which is what it takes to get through that challenging piece.

Short YouTube interview with William Kentridge in Naples with The Magic Flute.

Also if you miss this event, you can catch a discussion with William Kentridge and Laurie Anderson at the Artist Set the Stage MoMa on April 17th. (see below for more info)

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
Sunday April 15th:
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

Bard Graduate Thesis Exhibitions
Sunday April 15, 2007 – Sunday April 29, 2007.

Opening reception: Sunday, April 15, 1:00 – 4:00 pm

Location:
Center for Curatorial Studies
Bard College, PO Box 5000
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000
845-758-7598 | ccs@bard.edu | http://www.bard.edu/ccs

Regular Museum Hours
Wednesday – Sunday, 1:00 – 5:00 pm

Tickets: All CCS Bard exhibitions are free and open to the public. Limited free seating is available on a chartered bus that leaves from New York City for the exhibition opening. The bus returns to New York City after the reception. Reservations must be made in advance by calling the Center at 845-758-7598.

in someone else’s skin
Artists disclose how social and political violence manipulates and transforms individuals, often in unexpected ways. (Allora & Calzadilla, Leon Golub, Miguel Luciano, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Carlos Motta, Oscar Muñoz, Rosana Paulino)
Curated by Rebeca Noriega-Costas

Facts on the Ground
Projects that retool social, political, and historical information systems of the city. (Bernard Khoury, Sarah Oppenheimer, Sean Snyder, Spatial Information Design Lab) Curated by Amy Owen

Stutter and Twitch
Video and photographic artworks reveling in suspended time. (David Claerbout, Yael Bartana, Johanna Billing, Nancy Davenport, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Kristan Horton, Adad Hannah) Curated by Chen Tamir

more info: Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture at Bard

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
Tuesday April 17th:
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

Spotlight: Artists Set the Stage
Laurie Anderson and William Kentridge
Artist Speak with Glenn D. Lowry

April 17, 2007 – 6:30 PM

The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street,
between Fifth and Sixth avenues
New York, NY 10019-5497

Tickets: $10; members $8; students, seniors, and staff of other museums $5 also on ticketweb.

Artists break boundaries, working in a variety of mediums and blurring the lines between them. Since the early twentieth century, painters, sculptors, and filmmakers have gone beyond traditional visual art forms and taken their artistic process to the stage, collaborating as theater and opera directors and set designers. Through presentations and a conversation moderated by MoMA director Glenn D. Lowry, performance artist Laurie Anderson and William Kentridge—director and scene designer for BAM’s spring production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute—discuss how they bring their creative process to performance.

MoMa Event “Spotlight: Artists Set the Stage” info page

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
Wednesdays thru Saturdays until March 31st:
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

Meme: Romanticism
5 Artist’s Films at EFA Gallery
Organized by Michele Thursz

Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Gallery (EFA Gallery)
323 W 39th Street, 2nd FL
New York, New York, US

FREE!!
DAILY SCREENINGS
WED THUR FRI SAT:

12:00 pm Winchester Trilogy by Jeremy Blake
01:00 pm Mantis City by Tobias Bernstrup
01:30 pm This Delicate Monster by Michelle Handelman
01:40 pm Folly & Error by Michelle Handelman
01:50 pm The Possible Ties Between Illness and Success, Carlo Zanni

(repeat + Sugar*)
02:00 pm Winchester Trilogy by Jeremy Blake
03:00 pm Mantis City by Tobias Bernstrup
03:00 pm This Delicate Monster by Michelle Handelman
03:30 pm Folly & Error by Michelle Handelman
03:45 pm The Possible Ties Between Illness and Success, Carlo Zanni

*04:00 pm – 06:00 pm Sugar by Reynold Reynolds, Patrick Jolley, Samara Golden

I’ll be surprised if I see a better exhibition this year. Though not all the work in this show is Web-based – some works are purely video, others are photographic stills – the pieces share technological aesthetics that together represent a new school of contemporary filmmakers and artists whose art parallels the age of Romanticism. Similarly defined by a reaction to the trumpeting of reason — often by simply working against the objective and disinterested biases of technology — Meme: Romanticism not only stresses emotion as the source of aesthetic experience, but defines this experience as paradoxically continuous, contagious and fleeting. – Meme of The Crop (excerpt), Paddy Johnson Art Fag City for The Reeler, March 12, 2007.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
Tuesday -Thursday, March 20, 21, 22:
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

UNCLASSIFIABLE
Curators: Jenny Yurshansky and Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen

March 20 – 22, 2007 | 7PM < -- STARTS TONIGHT!!!

LMCC Project Space
15 Nassau St. (Google Maps Locator)
New York, NY

FREE!!

Three nights of the “Unclassifiable” videos. Each night has a different theme, crossing over the boundaries that define art, cinema, documentary, and pop culture… Pick a night or attend all three, all are free.

More info on LMCC

March 20 | 7PM
SHIFTING THE FULCRUM:
Indie flick or art flick? If the Hollywood machine is out of the equation and they both follow the short film format, then what is the distinction? Videos by Candice Breitz [ZAF], Jesper Just [DK], Anu Pennanen [FIN], Eric Schmidt [DEU], Jorunn Mykelbust Syversen [NO], Salla Tykkä [FIN], Florian Wüst [DEU].

March 21 | 7PM
TANGENTIAL DOCUMENTARIES:
They slide, they veer, and they are more than a mocumentary. This twist on the documentary will give you the how and what but will leave you pondering the why. Videos by Erik Bünger [SWE], Miriam Bäckström [SWE], Johan Grimonprez [BEL], Henrik Lund Jørgensen [SWE/DK], Jenny Perlin [USA], Khaled Ramadan [DK], Jeffrey Vallance [USA].

March 22 | 7PM
POP GOES THE VIDEO:
Rehashing, remixing, redefining…an anti-commodification of pop-culture. Desaturate and become more than just a boob in front of the tube. Videos by Johanna Billing [SWE], Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta Kalleinen [FIN], Liisa Lounila [FIN], Rä di Martino [ITA], Tova Mozard [SWE], Adrian Piper [USA], Eddo Stern [ISR], Stina Wirfelt [SWE].

Brighter days ahead for Chan Marshal of Cat Power! She is now clean and sober, and can deliver a whole concert without breaking-down and getting emotional on th audience. I know, many of you are gonna miss that side of her. Maybe some of you might have felt a oneness with that type of moddy alcoholism for the certain level of Bukowskian cool it might have given off. Well, alls I can say is that it’s for the better, who would ever really want to lose a gifted musician to the bottle? So much talent.

Chan Marshall came clean on the New York Times interview that you can watch, until it’s archived (then you’ll have to pay). Let me see if i bookmarked it.. Here it is…

Another day, another fifth of Scotch. And that wasn’t all. Chan Marshall said her mornings began with a minibar’s worth of Jack Daniel’s, Glenlivet and Crown Royal. Mini bottles depleted, this indie singer-songwriter, known as Cat Power, would nurse a bottle of Scotch over the course of the day…
“9 Lives and Counting, Cat Power Sobers Up” by Winter Miller. New York Times, September 20, 2006

There is also a video interview after the show conducted at the Mercer Hotel in SoHo: “Taking with Cat Power“, Produced by Erik Olsen; photography and interview by Winter Miller.

More recently NPR’s Live Concert Series has upload a recent concert she did with Memphis Rhythm Band at D.C.’s 9:30 Club in Washington, further proof that she has been reborn. There is also a short little audio interview with Chan Marshall and Mabon Teenie Hodges conducted by All Songs Considered‘s Bob Boilen. At the end of the interview Cat Power seems very energy and conversation as she tries to keep the interview going with Bob Boilen. Bob responds by saying something like… I’d love to keep talking but if I don’t go out their we’ll miss recording our postcast. She’s definitely in good moods, heaven knows we all just want her to be a good woman, as her song goes. Now I wonder if in that song she was singing to Johnny Walker?

NRP’s Live Concert Series with Cat Power and Memphis Rhythm Band, Nov 20, 2006

…

From Tape to Celluloid…

The New York Times article also talks about Chan Marshall’s curiosity with acting. Stating that the famous Cantonese indie filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai (ChungKing Express, In The Mood For Love) has asked her to be in the current film he is re-shooting called My Blueberry Nights. Fans who can’t wait till she decides whether or not she’ll take the part, or whenever Wong Kar-Wai will actually finish the film, can make a pilgrimage to New York’s Museum of Modern Art from January 16 through February 12, 2007, as video artist Doug Aitken projects his new piece Sleep on to the walls of the new-ish MoMa. This work will be the first to use the majority of the outer walls of the MoMa post-renovation. And yes, there will be clips of Cat Power, a.k.a Chan Marshall in the mix. Other actors include Tilda Swinton, Seu Jorge, Ryan Donowho, and Donald Sutherland. More information about this project can be found in Creative Time’s website.

What do Madonna and Chan Marshall aka Cat Power have in common? They both have performed with cross, I’m not sure how much flack Chan Marshall’s catching but Madonna has caused a stir in the European leg of her tour. Recently reported no changes were press, since her performance does not constitute as being blasphemous but rather as (drum roll) artistic expression.

& Wondering what Harmony Korine of Gummo fame is directing these days? Well now you know: Cat Power’s “Living Proof” Video directed by Harmony Corine