Something I happened to notice while perusing the interweb

Today I was visiting the website of one Diane Bertolo, a woman Claude would like preserved in a shroud of mystery. Diane has an ongoing web-based art project in which she constructs diptychs from one screen capture and one digital photo. I check them out every once and a while and today I randomly spied this:

Well, the crucial part is this:

I must say, I am flattered and a bit shocked.

From The Thrift Store

Another Gawker swipe

Despite Claude's mandate that I stick to photography, Gawker posted this notable quote from Ed Koch. You may remember the formenr NYC mayor from such roles as participating in the spread of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s through a conspiracy of information supression designed to purify the city of drug use and homosinuality or his role backing up the New York City Health Department's decision to shut down the city's gay bathhouses in 1985 instead of supporting needle exchange programs and safer sex initiatives. Here's what he has to say about the new film "Another Gay Movie," which I know nothing about. And I quote (from Gawker):

"Former Mayor Ed Koch, in his current role as movie critic, seems displeased with recent release Another Gay Movie:

Nathan Lee's review of this film in The New York Times was interesting. He wrote: "What follows is a rude, rollicking and exceedingly raunchy attempt to turn 'American Pie' into 'American Quiche.'"
"American Pie" was an extraordinarily funny, albeit raunchy, movie. It was written with intelligence and great humor and was attractive to mainstream audiences. "Another Gay Movie," however, is not good from any point of view. It is simply trash and so gross that it loses any intended humor.

Cheer up, Ed! Clearview Chelsea's showing a revival of My Own Private Idaho. Just be sure to take Bess Myerson along with you so nobody gets the wrong idea."

This last sentence refer to the fact that although his unwillingness to act of information about AIDS disproportionately impacted the queer community, there was speculation that Koch was himself gay. I don't know what all this is getting at, but I thought it was worth mentioning here the way that Koch and Nathan Lee (the NYTimes review Koch is responding to) respond uncomfortably to the queerness of the sexuality in the movie (see 'quiche' and 'trash'.)

Funny link I just found on Gawker

Can we all just get past the fact that I was looking at Gawker and get to the point?!?! You know, I have a very boring job.
ANYWAY:
http://rightwingnytimes.cf.huffingtonpost.com/
It is a parody of what conservatives see when they look at the New York Times.
Enjoy cheap shots at 'the other'

Click here...

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3356457&postID=115492411732623254
to be redirected to a comment on Claude's blog in which someone refers to "Liar, Liar" and "The Ringer" as "high concept."

Bad News...isn't it always bad?

http://ia311537.us.archive.org/0/items/dn2006-0811/dn2006-0811-1_64kb.mp3
It'll make you want to move off the grid

Awesome photo

Not sure if this was taken, to be "Art" as it were, or just a location snap shot for a film as it was somewhat referenced as. But I think it's awesome.

Speaking of politics...

Playwright, screenwriter, director, film theorist David Mamet has apparently entered the wild and wacky world of political cartooning...

Line of the week

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday called on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to resign, hours after excoriating him at a public hearing over what she called "failed policy" in Iraq.

"I just don't understand why we can't get new leadership that would give us a fighting chance to turn the situation around before it's too late," the New York Democrat and potential 2008 presidential contender said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I think the president should choose to accept Secretary Rumsfeld's resignation."

"The secretary has lost credibility with the Congress and with the people," she said. "It's time for him to step down and be replaced by someone who can develop an effective strategy and communicate it effectively to the American people and to the world."

Asked about Clinton's comments, Pentagon spokesman Eric Ruff said,

"We don't discuss politics."

The Students

Well, here they are, the ragamuffins that have taken over my life this past month. The photo was taken by Bami "my black friend" Adedoyin. Anyway, here's the 411:

Dear Family and Friends,

Please join us from 4 PM to 6 PM on Friday, August 4th in the Gulf & Western Gallery at 721 Broadway for the Tisch Schoool of the Arts Department of Photography and Imaging Summer High School Program Exhibition.

This exhibition is the culmination of student's photographic work during the four-week Summer High School Program, which includes images in response to a range of projects and assignments. Please take time to visit the Exhibition Binder to read student's statements in relation to their work, to view artist's books, and the assignments and readings for the course.

The focus of this program is to use photo-based image making for communication, creative expression and personal exploration. Designed for beginning and advanced students, the program is a rigorous combination of cultural, technical and historical lectures, darkroom work, critiques of student work, critical discussions and written responses to lectures, readings and gallery visits. The course introduced students to 35mm manual cameras, B&W film exposure and dark room printing as well as color slide film, scanning, basic Photoshop and digital color printing.

Thank you for your attendance and support.

Participating High School Students: David Allen, Lily Avnet, Charley Damski. Schuyler Duffy, Andrew Gold, Jordan Hodge, Jordana Hoyt, Hadear Kandil, Brittany Keema, Kimberly Muirhead, Beatrice Oshodi, Gabriela Rodriguez, Scout Sanders, Hillary Strack. Michelle Watt, Jonathan Weiner.

Professor: Erika deVries
Teaching Assistants: Ifetayo Abdus-Salam, Lauren Fabrizio, Ben Harrison,Ariel Goldberg, Katie Kline, Jennifer Lehe.

If you can't stand the heat, imagine how bad it will be when the blackout hits

That's right folks, we (people who live in NYC) have devoted so much time to straddling our high-horses making fun of those LA shit-heads and now look where we are: the midst of a heatwave with energy consumption so high we are likely looking at a blackout. Now before you state the obvious (that I am clearly wasting energy by typing a stupid entry on a cosmically meaningless blog) you should know that I am using the computer for my job edifying young people. So there. I digress. Just recently there was a major power outage in Queens and it took a week and a half for Consolidated Edison of New York to fix it. You will notice that I did not call it "Con Ed," because "Con Ed" is a nickname and nicknames are for friends and Consolidated Edison of New York is no friend of mine. Anyway, despite the envy with which Chuck Klosterman (the man Gawker and I believe Sarah Steele love to hate) refers to people who were in NYC when the blackout of 2003 happened (envy based mainly on the highly publicized reports of store owners giving away ice cream and cold beer), let's consider the following:
No A/C, no fans-- that'll be fun in a 105 degree heat index tomorrow
No subway-- yeah, we all complain about the MTA, but do you really want to walk home? We all remember the transit strike.
No entry to electrical gates-- even if you get home, will your building open? Mine won't.
No internet-- this speaks for itself.

Anyway, there would probably be some sweet looting though. Remember, looting isn't nearly as bad as this: