Rubber Meet Pavement

From the guardian.co.uk:

Artists, musicians and green activists plan to step up protests against BP's sponsorship of Britain's most prestigious galleries and museums in the wake of the Gulf oil catastrophe.

A group calling itself Good Crude Britannia, made up of artists, poets, writers and filmmakers, will picket Tate Britain's summer party next Monday which is billed by the gallery as celebrating 20 years of BP's sponsorship.

Late in the article:

Last month a group called Liberate Tate entered the gallery's main turbine hall and released dozens of black balloons attached to dead fish in protest against the Gulf oil spill. Gallery staff had to shoot the balloons down with air rifles.

Putty Hill

From Roger Ebert's review:

In a way rarely seen, "Putty Hill" says all that can be said about a few days in the lives of its characters without seeming to say very much at all. It looks closely, burrows deep, considers the way in which lives have become pointless and death therefore less meaningful. It uses fairly radical filmmaking techniques to penetrate this truth, and employs them so casually that they seem quite natural.

Oil Painting

Artist? BP.

I Saw the Best Minds of My Generation

What do Abraham Lincoln and Allen Ginsberg have in common?

In Slate, Robert Pinsky discusses Lincoln's poem "My Childhood-Home I See Again" and its references to Lincoln's childhood friend Matthew Gentry.

At 19, Matthew went violently insane and spent the rest of his life locked up. In his confinement, the crazy man sang, and Lincoln describes himself as drawn to the singing: He "stole away" at night to hear it, "all silently and still." The song, says the poem, seemed like "the funeral dirge … of reason dead and gone." Yet it was "sweet" as well as "distant" and "lone": adjectives that re-enforce the idea of fellow-feeling by Lincoln toward Matthew.

Allen Ginsberg was also moved to poetry by a friend who was institutionalized. Ginsberg's masterwork, "Howl" is dedicated to Carl Solomon whom he met during his own stay at the Columbia Presbyterian Psychological Institute, or "Rockland" as it is referred to in the poem.

"I'm with you in Rockland where fifty more shocks will never return your soul to its body again from its pilgrimage to a cross in the void."

A New Villian

Politicians looking to cast a new villian in our current recession show have found one - well, not exactly one - they have found 15 MILLION - and there name is The Unemployed. Or "hobos" as Republican Rep. Dan Heller from Nevada calls them. More from The Rachel Maddow Show:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Indianapolis Got it Right

Enthusiastic reviews for the Indianapolis Museum of Art's "100 Acres" park that opened on Sunday. Here's Judith H. Dobrzynski in the Wall Street Journal:

In search of something new, the museum abandoned its 1996 plan to create a traditional park with monumental sculptures by, say, Alexander Calder, Richard Serra and Louise Bourgeois. Instead, it commissioned works by emerging and underappreciated midcareer artists—Kendall Buster, Alfredo Jaar and Los Carpinteros, among them—and will keep most of them on view for only a few years. It will add at least one new work a year, financed by drawing from the park's $15 million operations and art endowment.

And one more thing: The museum asked the artists to study the parkland and to create "site-responsive" works. Far from being a manicured lawn, the property—officially "100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park"—includes woodlands, meadows, a lake and wetlands, giving the artists plenty of potential inspirations.

From Time Out Chicago:

When Freiman joined the museum eight years ago, she decided 100 Acres should engage the public in two unusual ways: Unlike most sculpture parks, it would commission site-specific works and define those works as “temporary,” lasting a few years to a decade, to tempt visitors back to Indianapolis. “[100 Acres] hinges on the notion of change,” Freiman says. “We wanted to introduce a sense of surprise and wonder into this park.” The park’s free (like the IMA’s permanent galleries) and open from dawn to dusk.

Apparently, the funding, including an operating endowment, for the project was in place before the economic downturn. It's heartening to see a major institution be so forward-thinking and be able to raise money for that vision. It is, of course, depressing to think about all the amazing ideas that will be dead-on-arrival in this current economic climate.

And That's Leadership

BEST fake political ad ever.

How's that Illegally Thing Working Out For You

Sarah Palin's Legal Defense Fund was found to be illegal. From The Huffington Post:

Thousands of donors who contributed to a $390,000 legal defense fund for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will get their money back after an investigator said Thursday the fund was illegal because it was misleadingly described on a website.

State Personnel Board investigator Timothy Petumenos said the Alaska Fund Trust inappropriately used the word "official" on its website, wrongly implying that it was endorsed by Palin in her role as governor.

During the press conference regarding the ethics complaint that prompted an investigation, a mass e-mail was sent out to donors to the illegal fund stating:

"... this ruling is nothing but a political hatchet job designed to embarrass Governor Palin, destroy her financially, and smear her good name. But YOU can help restore her good name!"

and this,

"So today we are starting over. Her legal bills are still there and growing. Will you please help her and give your very best gift to The Sarah Palin Legal Defense Fund today? It is urgent that we help relieve this crushing legal burden."

Great on-the-scene local coverage, as always from Mudflats in Alaska.

UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan has the money quote:

Judge Petumenous pointed out that the way the trust was written there was nothing to stop Palin from using the money for anything she wanted.

Ayn Rand on Stage

A renewed interest in works of the 1930s continues in New York. More examples here and here. A review of Americas Off Broadway's New York premiere of “Ideal,” a 1934 philosophical murder mystery by Ayn Rand.

"...this production reveals that there are reasons this drama hasn’t been mounted that have nothing to do with politics."

And,

"...this lumbering drama remains most interesting as a historical document."

Shakespeare's Inner Girl

Tina Packer, Founder and former Artistic Director of Shakespeare and Company takes on the women of Shakespeare in "Women of Will", a tour of Shakespeare's females characters. From the NY Times:

It is her thesis that as Shakespeare developed as a playwright, his women increasingly became his artistic alter egos, marginalized figures who stood to the side of the power makers, observing and interpreting.