Saturday, July 24, 2004

I went to LACMA today. Looked over the Beyond Geometry exhibition. Bought the catalog, along with two other art books for my own research. The show aims to take a more reflexive look at art since around the 1940s to the 1970s. Artists from Europe, the U.S. and Latin America are juxtaposed interchangeably, trying to show the complexity of the international dialogue around conceptual and minimal art practices that developed thanks to printed media and other modes of communication and travel. Still a bit U.S. centric, but quite interesting.

One of the pieces that caught my attention is by Hans Haacke. This one consisted of large and heavy engraved metal plaques that contained quotes by presidents and owners of major corporations, explaining that they supported the arts because it helped the public outlook of their business. In the past, Haacke's also quoted politicians as well. Haacke, being a conceptual artist, constantly critiques how easily minimal work could be coopted by corporations. Andy's account of the Lender's party reminded me of this time period again. Now it's said that no avant-garde exists, but in Andy's account one can sense the mingling of corporate money with the elite artists. This period, I guess, would be before the term "crossing-over" would be used as a normal process in an artist's career. Actually, Laurie Anderson has been historized as being one of the first artists to crossover to the corporate world and the mainstream by working with Warner Bros in the 80s. At the time though, she was considered to have sold out.

The Beasties are on the front-cover of Interview. Their new single takes a sample, or would it be a re-sample at this point? of Chic's "Good Times" tune, but with the extra cowbells that Sugar Hill Gang added at the intro of Rapper's Delight. The magazine still has nude shots from time to time if I remember correctly. Tasty ones, that is.

Andy feels sorry for Polanski. The man knew the girl's age. She could look "older" as Warhol said, but Polanski knew the girl's age. He knew the girl's mother. And he fled the states. The man gets an Oscar for his last film and when they announced that he was the winner at the Oscars, they simply said that he was not able to be in Los Angeles to accept the Oscar for "long standing reasons" or something to that effect (don't paraphrase me, but his situation was cordially acknowledged). And then I remembered "This is the man who directed Rosemary's Baby, and raped a little girl!" Those were the first two thoughts in my head, and it did not feel right. He got the Oscar.

Rauschenberg going to Jail for peeing on the side of the bus is hilarious. This is the stuff people love to talk about at art parties. I definitely have something for my favorite posers while they smoke their cigarrettes with their carefully messed up hair and tiny jeans. U huh... I wonder if going to jail for peeing puts you in an awckward position. Like becoming somebody's bitch immediately. I mean, how tough can you sound when someone asks you why you are in the can with them, even when waiting for bail? If you say for robbing a car, that may sound tough to the jail crowd and nobody will mess with you unless you look like a wimp, of course. I am sure Rauschenberg was not there for too long.

Steve Rubell loved Andy. This must be him giving my main man some good lovin'.

I'm never quite sure what it means when you call two girls to hang out with you and your secretary. Let's not assume, shall we? What I got when I web-searched for the best girls to call cleared things up for me a bit. This was at the top of the page, this one a bit down, then political articles kicked in, and shortly after I got a slew of porn sites.

Richard Weisman is the bomb, or da'bomb. No he be da'bomb. He be cooo.

The myth of Andy changed for me today. I thought he always kept his tape player on, no matter what. For him to turn it off--especially during an interview for his magazine--must have meant that it was unbearable. Especially if the interviewee was Cocky and did not want to be. But Andy was thinking of another word that was shorter. How about sure, bold, flip, fresh, rude, or pert?

Suntanning is a bit odd. I can only think of George Hamilton (guess who he is in this picture). I keep hoping not to hear about him developing skin cancer. He recently did a TV commercial for some chip company, saying that he knows "toasty."

Maybe Andy hated Barbara Rose because, according to an article, she called him the "idiot savant of commercial banality." Not really a complement, even for someone who embraces pop as his main cultural dish. I wonder if Andy's $7 cab fare included the three dollars that were already marked by the meter when he joined Rose for the ride. Most of Andy's fares are between $3 and $5 so maybe he did. A mistery to solve for the tax man.

The "landscapes," yep, the lanscapes are mentioned again. Cocks and Assholes are Andy's exact words I believe?

About that hound dog. The lyrics are extremely simple, hence why the stick in one's mind:

(words & music by jerry leiber - mike stoller)
You ain't nothin' but a hound dog
Cryin' all the time.
You ain't nothin' but a hound dog
Cryin' all the time.
Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit
And you ain't no friend of mine.
When they said you was high classed,
Well, that was just a lie.
When they said you was high classed,
Well, that was just a lie.
You ain't never caught a rabbit
And you ain't no friend of mine.

Songs were short back in the day, that for sure. Most of them lasted between 2 and three minutes.

How did it feel to be colored?

Like this?

Maybe like this, or this.

Perhaps this one would have been a more entertaining answer. Hmmm... no specific answers, too many answers? Aha! looking for an entertaining answer, then try this as well as this. Not to mention this...

When a cockroach is crawling up our arm, Emily Post may recommend to stand up and say "let's get going!" Actually, I don't know. I looked for information on cockroaches, but her website does not have a section for etiquette with insects and pests. I found some interesting guidelines on netiquette, however. My favorite reads: "If you're sending out e-mail that is religious, political or pornographic, be sure to know that your intended recipient wants to receive it."

The book by Evelyn Keyes sounds very appealing. The only erotic book I have read is Delta of Venus by Anais Nin. According to the introduction, the short stories in the book were originally written for a private patron, who was not interested in literature and only wanted to get his rocks off. This placed Nin in a bind as she wanted to write literature, which meant that some stories would not deal with sexually explicit situations right away, while the patron wanted to have the action pretty much starting on the first page. The result is an interesting tension in her language, her struggle to make each line count is obvious, while providing sexually explicit scenarios almost immediately that were quite plausible in real life (unlike most bad porn movies these days). Some of my friends told me that Little Birds is much better. I read her book in my late teens and I never thought I could get turned on by literary descriptions of sexual acts, but Nin is exceptional. Worth more than one reading that's for sure. There's a movie by the same name of Nin's pulp book, I wonder if it's any good. I saw Henry and June, which portrays Nin's erotic relationship to Henry Miller and his wife June. I didn't care for it too much, although Uma Thurman looks amazing playing June. Watching it in French makes it a bit more bearable.

Pelé is to the world what Michael Jordan is to the U.S. He took Brazil to the World Cup championship at the age of 17 scoring six goals in 1958; two more world cups would follow in 62 and 70. The fact that soccer world championships happen every four years is mind boggling at times because it makes one realize that four years is a long time in an individual's life, but a short time in international sports. Soccer unites the world. Soccer is the sport of the world. Each World Cup is a window to the cultural and political shifts of the world. The players carry their countries' politics whether they like it or not. Some fans take it so seriously that they are willing to kill the players when they commit an error.

New York had a blackout not too long ago. This one was immediately related to the 1977 Blackout. Information on the web about NY blackouts is mostly about the 2003 blackout. If there is a mention of the 1977 blackout is mostly through commentaries on the most recent event. Don't get me wrong, there is information, only it does not come at the top of the search, one has to look deeper into the pages and recombine some of the terms to get to them. Here are some more pictures and comments on the 2003 blackout. Apparently there was another blackout in 65. Knowing that Andy had hung out with the king of Soccer a few hours before the blackout makes me wonder where pelé may have been when Andy was greeted by a fan in the dark: "This is the most thrilling tthing that's happened to me, passing Andy Warhol in the dark."