Liberal Serving

Burger Christ and Friend

I meant to blog this... in September. Ted's Burger Christ (hard to see the crown of thorns from this angle) and Friend from the Deitch Art Parade. The hand holding added a really endearing tenderness... but also helped guide the burger, who was blinded by shifting toppings (and generally quite uncomfortable from what I heard). Suffering for art is a cliche worth repeating, especially when it brought so much joy.

I also enjoyed the whore cops and the half-assed ghosts (really, more of an aural performance).

"How to Spot A Baby Conservative"

Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are [she/] he grew up to be a conservative.

huh? oooh - dish. Jack & Jeanne Block's study of Berkeley nursery school kids (tracked down as adults) presents a counter argument to the "whiny liberal" bullshit we're all too aware of. Turns out we are the cool kids after all:

The whiny kids tended to grow up conservative, and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity.The confident kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose, turning into bright, non-conforming adults with wide interests. The girls were still outgoing, but the young men tended to turn a little introspective.

Like Manna From A Heaven Run By A Heartless, Wrathful God

My prayers have been answered. Here I thought Steve Jobs wouldn't listen to me muttering at engadget that he needed to put the Daily Show -  My Only Regret About Life Without Cable - on itunes. This way I could just buy the one show i want out of cable, and avoid paying $17,067 a month for television I shouldn't be watching. Seems perfect, no? The wrath of Steve Jobs is the merciless lack of mac backwards compatibility. I don't want to pay to upgrade my old, entirely functional version of OSX, he doesn't want me to be able to use video itunes without paying him.

So life continues without Jon Stewart. It's sad... so sad it might make baby jesus cry.

FCC Down On the Brown (word)

I would like to say this day is shit - after all the bad news - but Pam Spaulding brings it to our collective attention that the FCC intends to reclassify "shit" as a profanity. Quotes from Reuters via Ms. Spaulding:

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is considering a proposal to rule that the word “s***” is profane and violates decency limits in certain contexts, the source said, declining further identification. The agency has already declared the word “f***” off-limits in most cases...

Federal regulations bar television and radio broadcast stations from airing obscene material and limit them from airing indecent material, such as profanity and sexually explicit content, except in late-night hours when children are less likely to be in the audience...

The FCC also did not take action against broadcast television stations that aired the World War Two movie “Saving Private Ryan” even though many profane words were used in the dialogue.

Because we can't hamper the glorification of war - oh no. Related:

Climb My Mountain Bunny

This pink bunny is going to sit on an Italian mountainside until 2025. 

the bunny is not just for walking around - they are expecting hikers to climb its 20 foot sides and relax on its belly.

Awesome... but just imagine how much more awesome it would be if you were a furry.  via towleroad.

Human Zoo: Coulda Said Something More than Huh Huh

All this fuss for a one-liner about how humans are destroying biodiversity?  More squandered opportunity... someone's getting paid too much over there.  What the London Zoo has to say about their "extra special exhibit" this past weekend:

Presented to the public with only fig leaves to protect their modesty, the humans will become an important feature of zoo life as they are cared for by our experienced keepers and kept entertained through various forms of enrichment.

The four day event aims to demonstrate the basic nature of man as an animal and examine the impact that Homo sapiens have on the rest of the animal kingdom.

Gay Merit Badges... No Merit, But Great Design

Am I going to post about another irritatingly vapid  (though beautifully executed) art project?  Ugh, I guess so, but it's not like I search them out...  So much art seems like wasted potential to me, and this is a great example.  Larry Jens Anderson has created a collection of gay "merit" badges like "drama queen," "size queen," and "No Girls Club."   Aesthetically beautiful, a hooky idea, but is there a bigger idea than just describing the same old BS gay stereotypes that have been kicking around for decades?  No.  Anderson calls the project a response to the Supreme Court Ruling Supporting the Gay Ban in the Boy Scouts, but the badges have nothing to do with boy scouts or a real gay experience.  They say nothing - no big picture, no concept higher than huh, huh, huh.  Disappointing, if fun to look at.  Kind of the state of art in general, no?

via towleroad

The Culture War Continues to Be Good Art Career Stimulus

Mark Chamberlain must be loving all his free "controversy" press right about now.  He's all over the news, though his name is getting buried in the body of news articles, where Mapplethorpe is a household name.  If you've been dying to see the lawsuit-generating water colors yourself, head over to artnet, which has a nice gallery of the not-safe-for-work-but-cuter-than-I-expected work.  Bat-Nap is particularly sweet (and safe for work).  Shocking that DC comics is making such a fuss after the porn-overload superhuman nipples they slapped on Chris O'Donnell in Batman & Robin.  We all knew understand the subtext just fine...

Pop Shop Set to Close

Keith Haring is unfashionable.  So much so I generally keep my fandom to myself, but I have to  own up to it after hearing news that his famous downtown Pop Shop is closing.  Artists deride Haring for being "crassly commercial" for opening his pop shop (although they don't complain about obscene prices at upscale galleries), but for me it's all personal.  I was a little gay boy dense in the mines of suburban dystopia, yet Keith Haring managed to project his wildly queer and optimistic art so far that it reached even me.  So many artists today are too cynical to even acknowledge real sentiment in their art, let alone a strong political sentiment.

Head down to to Lafayette St. while you still can - until August 28th - to see the space's famous black and white mural:

The Pop Shop’s most unique characteristic is its black-and-white “all-over” mural, originally painted by Haring, which covers the store’s walls and ceiling. The floor used to be painted as well, but it became so filthy, it was replaced around 10 years ago. Over the years, most of the mural has been repainted. Now, only the ceiling is original. It will be removed in pieces and stored when the shop closes, he said

You can see an even better, super-homo mural in the former men's room on the second floor of the Gay Center on 13th st.  It's absolutely worth a trip if you've never seen Haring's erection-filled homoerotic work.

Bansky Art Attack

First, wow, that is one huge "fence" they've built over there.  Shocking to see how large it is after all my media brainwashing was about how modest and inconspicuous it is.  Shame on me for not digging deeper.  Somehow, the PR spin that this wall is much less of a barrier than Berlin leaked into my skull, and it's a great demonstration of doublespeak.  Bansky is to thank for some really impressive graffiti.  More after the jump.

via pandagon via lying media bastards