Smokin'

Howdy!

After wrestling, in a playful sort of way, with Blogger for way too long yesterday, I think everything could be considered back to normal. Which means that I have way too many things to opinionate about.

First off, 'cuz it is not going to be available for free much longer - last week the New York Times reported about some malfeasance (nasty stuff, but I couldn't help myself, sorry) going on as a secondary thing to all the corporate scandals in the world. It seems that some people who I think who have more dollars than brains have been trying to avoid paying the taxman when they buy art. The people named in the article are: Joe L. Allbritton, (Riggs National Corporation); Robert J. Hurst, (ex-Goldman Sachs) & president of the board of the Whitney; and L. Dennis Kozlowski, (es-Tyco) among others. As Tyler Green pointed out here and Mickey Kaus wrote here it should be a sticky situation when a Museum Board member gets investigated for this sort of thing. But it seems that it ain't getting the press it deserves. I can only wonder who and what Revenue Canada is investigating.

Then while we're on the NYTimes, they have a very nice piece about Matt Haimovitz playing CBGB's Saturday night. I've emailed his agent asking if he would play the gallery. But haven't heard anything so far.

And then finally, on Sunday they published an article by Guy Trebay, about how Los Angeles is trying to (and perhaps succeeding) in beating New York in the contemporary art world. Mr. Trebay talks to or mentions the following people:

Eugenio Lopez
Jumex
19.5 Ant.Carretera a Pachuca,
55340 Xalostoc, Ecatepec,
Mexico City

Or
Chac Mool
8920 Melrose Ave.,
West Hollywood 90069

Jane Nathanson
10900 Wilshire Blvd., 15th Floor
Los Angeles CA 90024

Brian Glazer
Imagine Entertainment
9465 Wilshire Bl. #700
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

Eli Broad
75 Oakmont Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90049

Peter Morton
510 North Robertson Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90048

Marcia Weisman
275 North Carolwood Drive,
Los Angeles, California 90077-3535
(I'm not entirely certain about this one, it might be better to address it to Billie Milam Weisman)

David Geffen
3801 Barham Boulevard, 2nd Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90068

Bill & Maria Bell
(no luck they have a way too common name)

Beth Swofford
2091 Outpost Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90068

Rosette Delug
(No luck either, although with a name like Delug you'd think otherwise)

Cliff & Mandy Einstein
11940 Brentwood Grove
West Hollywood, CA 90049

I figured it would help to give their addresses, so y'all could invite them to your next exhibition. I can't stand fluff pieces that serve no reason other than to boost the egos of the people written about. All the addresses were and are available on the internet, either from the fec.gov web site, or phone books.

Now that we're finished with the New York Times, we can stay on the idea of money, money, money, as Business Week gives a starry eyed and sorta sweet explanation as to the hows and the why Boy with a Pipe sold for $104 million (actually $93 million before the buyer's premium).

But we can stay on the left-coast, 'cuz on Tuesday the 27th of April (yes, I'm always late to the party) on abLA (or Art.Blogging.LA for those on the more "cultured" coast) had a particularly good set of running comments.

Then continuing on the blogging front, I'm not certain which blog turned me onto Blog The Boards by On the Boards/Behnke Center for Contemporary Performance in Seattle. I particularly like the idea and wish I could pull one off here in Montreal. Unlike the comments section of Voir/Hour my guess is that it is driven by a need rather than greed. But either way, the artists involved are probably getting all excited by the opportunity to read audience members reaction instead of the standard issue critics.

Then for something completely different, again apologies for not noting where I came across it, but Superflex is doing Guarana Power and the legal and political implications are mentioned here.

Then stepping back onto this side of the border the Jeff Holubitsky of the Edmonton Journal writes a feel good piece about some homeless kids in Edmonton doing art. As they would say there, good on ya! Apparently ihuman society has been doing this for a while, there was a CBC article about them back in 2002.

And then to wrap things up, Simon Houpt wrote in last Saturday's Globe & Mail a very interesting article about what he calls FrankenArt, but in actual fact is a very nicely done piece that ties together the work of artist, Cory Arcangel, and the DJ, Danger Mouse. Or basically pointing out that every good artist borrows liberally from other artists. The only problem I have with it is that he could (or perhaps should) have mentioned Marc Couroux instead of Jennifer and Kevin McCoy. While their "Every Shot, Every Episode" piece sounds cool, been there, done that with Mr. Couroux's Rockford.