Art
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The Seven Deadly Sins
Eli Levin’s etchings for The Seven Deadly Sins, featuring lyrics from R & B songs (University of Wisconsin Press, 1966):
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Sometimes Still
In three different rooms on two coasts, artist Darren Almond is practicing visual alchemy. One thing he does is take long exposures on full moons in ridiculously remote locations. Another thing he does is capture time itself. The still above…
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Men with Balls
“This show is an act of complete personal indulgence. When the good people at apexart approached me about curating something in their space, they made a huge mistake. After some polite back and forth, Steven Rand said to me directly,…
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The Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
Good things happen when people who grow up listening to Thriller become poets. There’s going to be a new Bukowski exhibit down Southern California way, including his “annotated racing forms” that will teach you his system for playing the horses.…
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In the Art Rags
Rollo Press is continuing the slowest book swap in the world. The often-thrilling little outfit has been playing around lately with Linus Bill, a photographer who has taken to silkscreening because, he tells Interview, “Until I made those silkscreens, I…
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The Heroic Return of the Baffler
After a hiatus of a few years, the intellectually-engaging, always interesting, often confrontational and downright maverick literary/cultural magazine The Baffler has returned! I just picked up my copy at the bookstore where I work. Most bookstores with a decent magazine…
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Totalitarian Kitsch
“It is the official art of authoritarian governments, aimed at extending state control through propaganda. Totalitarian kitsch exists to glorify the state, foster a personality cult surrounding the dictator and celebrate ceaseless and irrevocable social and economic progress through images…
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GENERATION GAP #2: Artistic Research in Contemporary Beirut
Marwa Arsanios and Vartan Avakian are still young. They belong to a generation of artists who grew up during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), and their unique experience with artistic research in Lebanon is revealing new narratives for a catastrophic…
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What Happened During The Blackout
Just when I thought I was unique, just as I’ve been spending the last six-odd months editing a short story about the misadventures of retail workers during a city-wide blackout (Santa Cruz, circa 2002) I read today that actually everyone…
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The Joys Of Artists’ Television Access
I’ve been regularly attending events and film screenings at Artists’ Television Access on Valencia Street in San Francisco for almost a year now. I’ve gone as both volunteer and audience member, in the company of wily friends or in my own, often…
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GENERATION GAP #1: Tomokazu Matsuyama’s Quiet Compass for a Noisy Revolution
One unintended consequence of David Ross’s appearance on the Colbert Report last year has been the misunderstanding of intention.
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Morning Coffee
Tomorrow, we’ve been told, will be another day as well. Richard Nixon as art critic. Christophe Gilbert’s photo-manipulations are pretty rad indeed. Can doctors use your eyes to determine if you have Alzheimer’s? (spoiler alert: maybe!) GerryCanavan takes this moment…