83. NY Times Sunday Book Review presents Story Coaster, a cute cartoon drawing of a standard fiction—”climax, falling action”—analysis depicted by a roller coaster. har har
84. artspace writes on Twitter as Art, quoting a few artist’s tweets. How is that “art?” ah, but when did contemporary art make any sense? Ed Ruscha is mentioned, and he seems to be everywhere, all of a sudden; and a Yoko Ono tweet is quoted, “Walk until you feel like dancing, then dance, and you’ll sleep better,” to paraphrase the tweet.
85. BBC’s Tech page tells us how Xerox mistakes can cause legal issues when a text is altered: the number ’8′ may turn to a ’6.’ Who is liable?
86. NY Times asks a few authors to come up with hypothetical pen names.
87. The guardian publishes more speculative folly on the biographical Shakespeare, this time by Saul Frampton. Interesting glimpse into the ‘John-Florio-was-Shakespeare‘ camp, though.
88. Legal rumblings around J.K. Rowling’s exposed pseudonym by the BBC.
89. Another slightly boring “best of” list: Martin Amis (looking haggard in his photo) tops the “10 best writers-in-novels” in the guardian.
90. A story published in the 1980s by John Updike on the Library of America site. Breathless, clotted descriptions of pretty women in the pretty suburbs.
91. In the Chicago Tribune, Michael Robbins tackles that endless subject, Song Lyrics v. Poetry, and like everyone who else who tackles the subject, says in a rather sweet manner, nothing. We come away from it merely thinking, “Oh, you like that song?” It’s not you, Michael, it’s the topic.
92. Times Times 3 features Harry Northrup’s poems. Mediocre beatnik poetry.
93. Gossip about the English-Irish boy band, The Wanted in the Sun.
94. Paul Butterfield Blues Band, who played behind Dylan when he first went electric, get some ink on the NPR website.
95. Opening chord of Hard Day’s Night is discussed by Randy Bachman on the Open Culture website video. This is cool.
96. Audiovisual Salvage: a conversation with Phil Niblock, who films working people doing their work.
97. NY Times reports that Bob Dylan’s paintings (portraits) will open August 24 at the London National Portrait Gallery. He paints like he sings, a little roughly.
98. artspace features a husband-and-wife team who do interior designs of apartments in Paris which include their own abstract paintings.
99. According to artspace, contemporary art is doing fine. Higher ed art education still attracts students. The royal family of Qatar still spends a billion dollars a year on modern art.
100. hyperallergic reports on Andy Warhol’s birthday celebration: a livestream video of visitors to his grave.
101. The NY Times tells you how to buy stock in local artists.
102-104. NY Times, New Yorker, and Deadline Detroit on the Detroit Museum’s idea to sell off art to help bankrupt Detroit.
105. Debtfair asks readers to tell how their economic realities impact their artistic practices.
106. Scientific American explains how artworks naturally decay. It must be the Conceptualist debate that has Silliman linking all this art news.
107. Philly.com on Nelson Shanks, a figurative artist who does portraits of famous people.
108. Auction at Christies will include Francis Bacon’s old brushes, according to hyperallergic.
109. Now this BBC story we like. Voted by the people, an “Art Everywhere” exhibit on billboards in the UK features pre-Raphaelite and mostly figurative art!
110. Glasgow School of Art threatens to expel artist for his graffiti, as reported in hyperallergic.
111. artspace does a story on a couple of old gents who have come up with a modern art collection in their apartment without spending too much.
112. “FBI-Seized Forgeries Get A Gallery Retrospective” at Fordham University, according to hyperallergic.
113. hyperallergic looks at the artist Basil King. We’d rather not.
114. BBC looks at a Dutch artist and his Calligraffiti. Cute. The artist is Niels Meulman.
115. A performance artist sits at a school desk outside a government building. Some people assume he’s been punished for something. Philly.com.
116. NYT Books looks at new book on Ballanchine.
117. In the NY Times: Paul Szilard, dancer, 100, has died.
118. “Vienna principal flute speaks out about her ‘racist, sexist’ dismissal” in arts journal.
119. Hi Fructose looks at Scott Scheidly’s Pink Frames. Artist portrays famous criminals, tyrants and thugs in pink.
120. Artspace: Jeffrey Deitch retires from LA Museum of Art. And a whirl of gossip in the art world…
121. continent interviews performance artist Daniel Peltz who is working on businessmen in drum circles.
122. Artspace on Doug Wheeler: “page no longer exists.”
123. “Lone Ranger’s” failure at the boxoffice: star and director blame critics. In the guardian.
124. New film, “Museum Hours” directed by Jem Cohen and reviewed by A.O. Scott in NY Times. Shot in a Vienna art museum. Rave review.
125. hyperallergic reports a study in which test subjects like good art over kitschy art the more they are exposed to the two kinds of art. Only two paintings (landscapes) are used: John Everett Millais’ “Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind” (1892) and Thomas Kinkade’s “A Peaceful Retreat” (2002).
126. British playwright Mark Ravenhill says artists who do not feed at the government trough will make better art. From the BBC. We’re not going to touch this one. But we see Ravenhill’s point.
127. trinketization provides some Adorno/Marcuse correspondence.
128. one more time for the blog continent: “The Media Have Become Superfluous” is worth reading for its cultural historic sweep in a brief space. Otherwise not worth reading. But it’s pretty impressive for that first reason.
129. A send-up of Slovene philosopher Slavoj Zizek on you tube to the tune of “The Great Pretender.”
130. Chicago Tribune: Poet Michael Robbins reviews a book on Karl Marx, saying Marx still matters.
131. Story in the guardian defends Edward Snowden, shouting out, wake up, people!
132. first monday blog features a very dull essay on “micro-targeting” of voters in elections in the U.S. and elsewhere. It put us to sleep.
133. The NY Times magazine does a heartwarming story on author George Saunders’ commencement speech on “kindness.”
134. Oakland Unseen has a story on hipsters leaving Oakland: “Jack White flight.” It seems to be a joke. ”Where are they moving? Some say Detroit.” Yes, it must be a joke.
134 links??? Ron Silliman, are you kidding me?? Well, thanks, Ron… until the next one…
