James Frey Pulling On a Crack Pipe…
…curtain. from EXHIBITION a
JAMES FREY PULLING BACK A CRACK PIPE CURTAIN AT NATE LOWMAN/DAN COLEN “LOVE ROSES” BOOK SIGNING
POSTED ON NOVEMBER 2, 2011 BY BILL
[ click to view at EXHIBITION a ]
Books: A Living History
The Graph of Life
“Best $2K I Ever Spent!”
“Best $2K I Ever Spent!” Terry Richardson Premieres ‘Mom & Dad’ Exhibition At Half Gallery
On Friday evening, Terry Richardson littered the floor and the walls with photos of his mother and father as an ode to their relationship and to his family with his exhibition “Mom & Dad,” while Richardson fans mobbed the tiny Half Gallery to just get a peek of the photos (and more likely, the photographer). After about 2 hours of a line that looked like people were waiting outside of the most exclusive club in New York, Richardson and friends headed to Acme for rowdy dinner, followed by an after-party at the Westway, complete with male strippers. Oh, Terry. WARNING: Last couple of slides are NSFW.
Guests included Terry Richardson, Bill Powers, Cynthia Rowley, Lake Bell, Scott Campbell, Abbey Lee Kershaw,David Swanson, Harry Bee, Richard Prince, James Frey, Gibby Haynes….
3lb. Behemoth of a Swiss Army Knife
The Mixtape Lives
The Mixtape Is Back!
By JOHN BIGGS
They say that fashion is cyclical. The same goes for technology. Sure, most cellphones are the epitome of trendiness, but just think how cool you’ll be if you hark back to the 1980s with AirCassette, an app that turns your iPhone into a cassette player.
The $1.99 app, available in the iTunes App Store, displays your music in handwritten script on a background designed to resemble a cassette tape. The reels actually spin and you can create and share mixtapes with your friends via e-mail or Facebook, just as we used to do back in 1986. Finnish programming house Majasalmi, known for its Russian Roulette iPhone game, designed and built this decidedly more low-key app.
Watching a cassette tape spin on the iPhone’s high-resolution display is oddly calming and, thanks to digital compression, the audio is far superior in AirCassette than it ever was on my Sony Walkman.
Prince Richardson Frey
The da Vinci Trove
Are there more lost Leonardo paintings out there?
By Laura Allsop, CNN
London (CNN) — A newly discovered painting by Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci has sent shock waves through the art world, prompting speculation that more of his paintings could be as yet undiscovered.
The “Salvator Mundi” was, for years, thought to be a painting by one of da Vinci’s pupils or associates. But after a lengthy period of study and conservation, it has been authenticated as a da Vinci.
The painting was sold in 1958 for £45 — about $125 in today’s currency — by descendants of British collector Sir Frederick Cook, who bought the painting in 1900. Today, the painting is estimated to be worth $200 million, according to some scholars.
Though the conservator who helped to reveal the painting’s true identity called it “the rarest thing imaginable,” speculation is rife that there are other Leonardo da Vinci paintings still at large, possibly lying unknown in private collections.
There are currently some 15 authenticated Leonardo da Vinci paintings in the world. But they are difficult to attribute, because da Vinci often left his works unfinished and some are thought to have been worked on by other artists in his workshops.
100 Best Shops in London
Yeah, right.
White House: No sign of E.T. or UFO cover-up
Science policy official responds to petitions calling for full disclosure
By Nancy Atkinson / Universe Today
The White House has responded to two petitions asking the U.S. government to acknowledge formally that aliens have visited Earth and to disclose any intentional withholding of government interactions with extraterrestrial beings.
“The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race,” Phil Larson from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy reported on the WhiteHouse.gov website.“In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public’s eye.”
The Paradigm Research Group, one of the organizations promoting the petitions, said that the response by a “low-level staffer” was unacceptable and that it would begin a new petition campaign.
Laemmle Sunset 5 Gone
Laemmle Theatres to vacate Sunset 5; Sundance to take over lease
It’s the end of an era for a West Hollywood movie house that has been a mainstay of the independent cinema scene for the last 20 years.
Laemmle Theatres will stop operating the Sunset 5 at the end of the month after being unable to come to terms with the landlord on a new lease.
Robert Redford’s Sundance Cinemas will take over the five-screen complex Dec. 1 and will temporarily close it for renovations, with plans to reopen in late spring. This marks the entry of Westlake Village-based exhibitor into the Los Angeles area. Sundance Cinemas operates theaters in Madison, Wis., San Francisco and Houston.
Although the Sunset 5 will remain operational, the loss of Laemmle as its programmer marks a significant shift for the independent film business in the Los Angeles area. Filmmakers such as Catherine Hardwicke (“Thirteen”), Bryan Singer (“The Usual Suspects”) and Bill Condon (“Gods and Monsters”) had their films premiere at the movie house on Sunset Boulevard near Crescent Heights.
Christo Cool In Colorado
U.S. Clears Art Project by Christo in Colorado
Kevin Moloney for The New York Times
By KIRK JOHNSON
DENVER — Federal regulators on Monday approved a $50 million installation of anchored fabric over the Arkansas River in southern Colorado by the artist Christo, whose larger-than-life vision has divided environmentalists, residents and politicians for years over questions of aesthetics, nature and economic impact.
The project, “Over the River,” will include eight suspended panel segments totaling 5.9 miles along a 42-mile stretch of the river, about three hours southwest of Denver. Construction could begin next year, pending final local approvals, with the goal being a two-week display of the work as early as August 2014.
Christo, 76, said in an interview that the project had already made history for its interconnection of art and public participation, with a federal environmental impact statement that drew thousands of comments.
Christo’s projects — from the wrapping of the Reichstag Parliament building in Berlin in 1995 to “The Gates,” a meandering path of orange awnings through Central Park in New York in 2005 — have often generated heated debate in advance of their creation.
Smokin’ Joe Gone
from The Silicon Valley Mercury News
Joe Frazier, former heavyweight champion, dies at 67
By Dan Gelston and Tim Dahlberg
Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — He beat Muhammad Ali in the Fight of the Century, battled him nearly to the death in the Thrilla in Manila. Then Joe Frazier spent the rest of his life trying to fight his way out of Ali’s shadow.
That was one fight Frazier could never win.
He was once a heavyweight champion, and a great one at that. Ali would say as much after Frazier knocked him down in the 15th round en route to becoming the first man to beat Ali at Madison Square Garden in March 1971.
But he bore the burden of being Ali’s foil, and he paid the price. Bitter for years about the taunts his former nemesis once threw his way, Frazier only in recent times came to terms with what happened in the past and said he had forgiven Ali for everything he said.
Frazier, who died Monday night after a brief battle with liver cancer at the age of 67, will forever be linked to Ali. But no one in boxing would ever dream of anointing Ali as The Greatest unless he, too, was linked to Smokin’ Joe.
“You can’t mention Ali without mentioning Joe Frazier,” said former AP boxing writer Ed Schuyler Jr. “He beat Ali, don’t forget that.”
Ai Weiwei’s FOREVER BICYCLES
Forever Bicycles Installation – Ai Weiwei
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We continue our curiosity with bicycle art. Here is the latest installation by the activist Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. This piece is one of 21 works by Ai from 1983 to present that form the “Ai Weiwei Absent” exhibition, opened at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum at the end of October.
“Forever Bicycles” is made of 1,000 bicycles installed in a 10-meter high space in a moving, abstract shape to symbolize the way in which the social environment in China is changing.
Ai is prohibited from leaving Beijing and cannot attend the exhibition. In a Reuters article, Ai was quoted as saying: “This is the first time I’m having an exhibition of my art works in the wider Chinese world. I’m really happy that it can be exhibited in Taiwan, because recently it has not possible to have an exhibition in my own place of residence. I have been notified that I won’t be allowed to go — that was the outcome of my application — so right now I cannot attend. But my family members will attend.” – Bill Tikos
Yoga Breakdancing
Flattus Maximus Gone (at 34)
GWAR guitarist Cory Smoot dead on tour bus
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MINNEAPOLIS — The lead guitarist for the heavy metal band GWAR was found dead Thursday on its tour bus following a concert in Minneapolis, the band’s manager and record label said.
Manager Jack Flanagan and record label Metal Blade said Cory Smoot’s body was discovered Thursday before the bus crossed into Canada on the Richmond, Va.-based band’s tour.
It’s unclear what caused Smoot’s death or how old he was.
Glu Announces Full Fathom Five’s THE NIGHTWORLD
Glu announces new games including Frontline Commando, Infected, Nightworld and Stardom
As a publicly traded company, Glu Mobile has to provide a lot of information every three months to keep its investors happy.
The good news for us, gamers is this means we learn about new games.
Of course, Glu is well known for its hardcore freemium games such as Gun Bros and Contract Killer.
That’s an area it’s looking to – in the parlance of the industry – double-down on with new games.
For example, Glu’s recently launched Contract Killer: Zombies, a zombie version of Contract Killer, which it says is its most successful launch for iOS and Android to-date.
Gimme new stuff
New freemium games for iOS and Android just announced for release before the end of 2011 are…
Frontline Commando: a contemporary, third-person desert-based shooter.
Infected: Infect the World: this is a strategy top-down version of Planet Moon’s original PSP zombie shooter, remade for mobile.
The Nightworld: this is the first game based on Glu’s deal with James Frey’s Full Fathom Five transmedia company. It will be backed with ebook and physical books from Harper Collins. It’s a thirdperson action shooter in an atmospheric, apocalyptic world and Glu’s first game using the Unreal engine.
Blood & Glory: it’s described as head-to-head, highend 3D combat game.
We Don’t Eat – James Vincent McMorrow
31 Days of Authors: Pittacus Lore
from The Hub @ American Library Association
31 Days of Authors: an interview with Pittacus Lore, author of I Am Number Four (a 2011 Teens’ Top Ten winner)
by Gretchen Kolderup
Teen Read Week was October 16th through the 22nd, but here at The Hub, we’re celebrating all month long with 31 Days of Authors. On each day in October, we’ll bring you exclusive author interviews and profiles plus reflections on what YALSA-recognized books have meant to us. Today we feature an interview with Pittacus Lore, whose book I Am Number Four is #4 (of course!) on this year’s Teens’ Top Ten list.
Can you tell us about your own life on Lorien before its destruction? Were you a writer then, as well?
I was the ruling Elder of the planet, its political and military leader. We led a very peaceful existence. Our planet was healthy and flourished environmentally. Our people lived simple, beautiful lives, absent of hunger and war. I never expected the Mogadorian War, and I never expected to be fighting that war on earth, and documenting it in a series of books.
Is it hard to write and work with a publisher when you’re constantly on the run from the Mogadorians?
Ours is a covert war. Almost a cat and mouse game. The Mogadorians are trying to find us and kill us. We hide from them, and strike when we feel the time is right. Writing the books is a way of recording the history of the conflict. I also enjoy it, and it relieves some of the stress of fighting.
Have you seen the movie based on the story you wrote? What did you think about it?
I watched with all of the Loriens who are currently together. We went to a theater and nobody knew who we were. We had a great time. It was fun seeing #4 and #6 portrayed on a large screen in a big Hollywood movie. And it was great working with Mr. Bay and Mr. Spielberg. One thing, though, the Mogadorian are far uglier in real life.
“No, you can’t be Charlie Sheen for Halloween!”
PARADISE RULES by Jimmy Gleacher – “Wickedly funny.”
Between the Lines: Finding time for great reads
By Mark Pendleton / For the Sun-News
LAS CRUCES — “Life is short! Read fast!” Every day I despair a little more of reading even a mere fraction of the books that interest me, let alone getting completely caught up on my “to-read” list. That’s one of the reasons I’m glad you’re here. Today I share a few books I think would be great reads, but just don’t have time to find out for myself. I hope that you’ll read them and tell me what you think.
Jimmy Gleacher’s “Paradise Rules” (also in the newly arrived fiction section) was a bit harder to bypass. James Frey, who has written some devastatingly hilarious stuff himself, calls it “wickedly funny,” so you know it’s got to be almost convulsion inducing! Seventeen year old Gates works the local golf club and his girlfriend wants him to lose his virginity to her, but he’s afraid to tell her he already has — to his 40-year-old godmother. Then there’s the high stakes scam at the golf club he’s gotten drawn into and the man he almost killed that are further complicating his life! I’ll not say any more, except to ask for someone to read it and let me know how it was.
The third book I need your help with is another coming-of-age story….
Mark Abrahams (Eponymous)
Mark Abrahams: Candid Camera
The Photographer’s Revealing Portraiture Captures an Unseen Side of Iconic Celebrities
Celebrated photographer Mark Abrahams draws out understated honesty from A-list subjects such as Michael Pitt, James Franco, Lindsay Lohan and Michelle Obama. A former truck driver, Abrahams is entirely self-taught, but his textured and compelling style is often seen in the pages of L’Uomo Vogue, Vogue Deutsch and GQ.
His new eponymous monograph from Damiani Editore contains a potent introductory text from writer James Frey, author of A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning, poetically relating a story of a young man falling in love with his camera and mastering the photographic arts. “I wanted to write my intuitive version of what I thought his process was. I looked at the pictures and I just wrote the essay, thinking: that must be what he tries to do, because that’s what I see,” explains Frey of Abrahams’ work. “I respect him a lot, I think his photographs are beautiful and haunting, intense and pure.” Here, the California-born Abrahams recounts his earliest images and his love of Ed Ruscha.
Both you and James Frey are self-taught. Is that how you connected?
My story in photography is similar to his story in writing, and also similar to some of the characters in his books. I actually owned a truck in California, and would haul sand and gravel from plants. One I would go to was called Sully Miller; there was a hut in it with all the old time truckers, 70-year-old guys who have been doing it since the 30s. I literally bought a camera to take pictures of these guys to show my friends. I didn’t even know there was a job [as] a professional photographer. It literally had never occurred to me that people do this for a living. My only association with photography really was family pictures. I wasn’t picking up Vogue.
More Acoustic Than Electric
Richard Prince On Bob Dylan’s Paintings: ‘They’re More Acoustic Than Electric’
Whether or not you had the opportunity to see the recent exhibition of paintings by Bob Dylan at Gagosian Gallery in New York and regardless of your opinions of the famed singer-songwriter’s way with acrylics or choice of source material, treat yourself to Richard Prince’s wonderfully Joycean take on the matter. The artist penned an essay for the exhibition catalogue, and it has been published on the New York Review of Books’ blog for all to enjoy. Prince proves that he can wield a simile as deftly as he does an appropriated cowboy: He compares one of Dylan’s canvases to Cézanne’s Bathers, works he admires in part because “The paint is nice and thin, like it’s been applied directly on the wall of a Roman emperor’s home,” and likens getting to Dylan’s Los Angeles studio to “that scene in Goodfellas when Ray Liotta parks his car outside a nightclub… I think it’s Copacabana…and goes in a side entrance, down a hall past a lazy-ass watchman, into the kitchen, through another hallway, and out into the main room and ends up right next to the maître d’, who then ignores the people in line waiting to get in and hugs and kisses Ray and his girlfriend and shows them right down in front of the stage, where a small table, two chairs, and a plug-in lamp suddenly, miraculously, appear.”
And that’s just the opening paragraph.
“It changes you, the best art.” – James Frey
Sotheby’s Launches ‘Your Art World’
It changes you, the best art.
~ Collector James Frey
Ever wonder what it takes to make, buy, and sell art? Sotheby’s, international art cataloguer and auction house, has created an online series Your Art World that currently comprises four short films intended to demystify or at least offer some insights into the creative process and collecting, buying, and selling art. While undoubtedly serving Sotheby’s own promotional and marketing needs, the series is worth a look (it’s received its fair share of press, too, most recently a write-up in The Washington Post):
✦ The Artist ~ The creative process is discussed by the internationally known artists Jeff Koons, Ronald Ventura, Cai Guo-Qiang, and Amy Granat.
✦ The Collector ~ Art collectors Guiseppe and Daniel Eskenazi ofEskenazi Limited, a Chinese art dealer based in London, Kip Forbes of Forbes Publishing, writer James Frey, Adam Lindemann, and Budiardjo Tek, president/director of Sierad, a poultry-based food company in Indonesia, speak about their passion for art, what motivates them to collect, and what they’ve learned in competing with others for the art treasures they want.
You fargin’ sneaky book titles. I’m gonna take your dwork – I’m gonna nail it to the wall. I’m gonna crush your boils in a meat grinder. I’m gonna cut off your arms – I’m gonna shove ’em up your icehole. Dirty sonanumbatches.
Profanity is making a splash in book titles
By Deirdre Donahue
Publishing used to be a gentleman’s profession. But the trend of using profanity in titles — already common in pop songs and even on Broadway — has now spread to books.
•A——- Finish First by Tucker Max. Peaked at No. 14.
•Go the —- to Sleep by Adam Mansbach, illustrated by Ricardo Cortes, a parody of a children’s book directed at adults. Peaked at No. 6.
•Out this week: If You Give a Kid a Cookie, Will He Shut the —- Up? ($14.99) by Marcy Roznick, a parody, aimed at adults, of the 1985 children’s book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie…
My Friend Farina
A Chat With the Star of ‘The Last Rites of Joe May’
Artist Profile: Dennis Farina
By Masha Savtiz
LOS ANGELES—“Joe May is more like me than I’d like to admit,” says the seasoned actor Dennis Farina of his starring role in his new film The Last Rites of Joe May.
In a late September interview, I spoke with the down-to-earth Farina about his recent work, the roles that interest him, and the parts he would still like to play.
“I’m interested in people who are a fish out of water… they’re always on the outside looking in,” muses Farina.
Perhaps best known for movie characters Jimmy Serrano, the mob boss fromMidnight Run, Ray Bones Barboni in Get Shorty, or detective Joe Fontana from NBC’s Law and Order, Farina’s career broke through with Michael Mann’s famed 1980s drug-enforcement drama, Miami Vice.
Since that time, Farina has built up quite a résumé working with performers like Bette Midler, Brad Pitt, and Sir Ben Kingsley, as well as directors such as Steven Spielberg, Ed Burns, and Guy Ritchie.
Are there still roles that Farina wants to explore?
“I’d like to play a priest,” he says. There’s also the title from the book by James Frey, My Friend Leonard, who he notes is similar to Joe May in some respects.”
China Purchasing Moon
China could own the Moon by 2026, U.S. space entrepreneur warns
OCT 20, 2011 by JohnThomas Didymus
Las Cruces – A U.S. space entrepreneur, Robert Bigelow, has sounded alarm that China could own large portions of the moon by 2026, edging out the United States in the race for ownership of the Moon.
Mr. Bigelow made this warning at the 2011 International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight on Wednesday.Robert Bigelow, according to Space.com, said China’s growing technological capability, economic buoyancy, motivation and will to win the space race to “own the moon” places it at advantage to the U.S. which he said is still “basking in the lunar glory from 40 years ago.” Bigelow said that in spite of the U.S. still looking back to its glorious past as the first nation to land a man on the Moon,
“…we don’t own one square foot of the damn place. NASA is a shadow of the space agency it once was in the 1960s and 1970s.”
The American space entrepreneur, whose company Bigelow Aerospace, is building human colony labs and private inflatable space modules for both government and commercial ventures, said under present international laws, any nation could claim ownership of lunar territory it occupies through continuous human presence.
Shakespeare Insult Kit
I Am Gossip Nine
Synopsis for Gossip Girl Season 5, Episode 6: “I Am Number Nine”
by
Photo Credit: Giovanni Rufino/The CW 2011 The CW Network
While we were excited to discover what happens in the episode after “The Fasting and the Furious,” we were disappointed that “I Am Number Nine” won’t air until November 7. You know what that means: No new episode on Halloween! That’s fine by us, though. We’ll be busy — dressing up like Black Swans and painting the town red.
Why God Loves Bearded Men Over Bald-faced Men
Why Does God Love Beards?
A discussion of facial hair in world religions.
An Amish splinter group has gone on a crime spree, forcibly cutting the beards off of their rivals. Many religions, including Sikhism, Islam, and sects of Judaism, encourage or require their men to keep beards. Jesus Christ is often depicted with a beard. Why does God like facial hair so much?
Because it’s manly. Although beards appear repeatedly in religious texts, God never explicitly tells us why they’re so holy. In the absence of any divine exposition, many theologians have posited that a hairy face is a symbol of masculinity bestowed upon men by God. St. Clement of Alexandria, who was among the most emphatic proponents of this view, argued: “But for one who is a man to comb himself and shave himself with a razor, for the sake of fine effect, to arrange his hair at the looking-glass, to shave his cheeks, pluck hairs out of them, and smooth them, how womanly! And, in truth, unless you saw them naked, you would suppose them to be women.” St. Augustine seconded Clement’s characterization, noting, “The beard signifies the courageous; the beard distinguishes the grown men, the earnest, the active, the vigorous. So that when we describe such, we say, he is a bearded man.”