At Least They’re Not Demanding It Be Torn Down
Group to Rename Iconic Hollywood Sign — For a Day
Conservationist group near deal to buy land, replace sign
The Hollywood sign might look different Thursday — as in, completely covered.
Trust For Public Lands, a nature conservation group, said it has reached a deal that would protect a huge swath of land above the Hollywood sign from being developed into luxury homes. The group’s president, Will Rogers, said Monday that the Trust secured an option to buy the rugged 138-acre parcel for about $12 million from Chicago-based Fox River Financial Resources.
As part of its initiative to save land near the sign from development, Trust for Public Lands wants to cover the sign with a shroud that reads, “Save the Peak.”
The LAPD sent out a community alert to Hollywood residents — possibly because it might alarm people to find one of LA’s most recognized 450-foot-long landmark wrapped in a giant blanket. Tim Ahern, a spokesman for the Trust, said the group is still waiting for permission from the city and the Hollywood Sign Trust.
Vampire Vook
Vampire author Anne Rice set to release video book
By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer
NEW YORK—Anne Rice is giving the video book a try.
The author of “Interview With a Vampire,” “The Vampire Lestat” and many other favorites has agreed to terms with the video book company Vook on a multimedia edition of “The Master of Rampling Gate,” a vampire story published in Redbook magazine in 1984 and set in an England mansion in the 19th century.
“Vook represents a very exciting combination of new technological elements, that I think is long overdo in publishing,” Rice said in a statement released Wednesday by Vook. “I’m excited that ‘The Master of Rampling Gate’ is going to have new life in this form, and cannot wait to see the finished product. I’m not sure that my mind can conceive of all the possibilities of this new form. I’m learning. And it feels good.”
Opinions are still mixed among publishers and authors about video books, or vooks, with some calling them a gimmick and others saying new formats are needed for the Internet age. The product integrates text, video and social networking.
Vook, based in Alameda, Calif., has been producing video books for Simon & Schuster and the HarperCollins imprint HarperStudio and also making works out of public domain texts. Vook founder Bradley Inman says “The Sherlock Holmes Experience,” based on two stories by Conan Doyle, has been downloaded thousands of times.
Point Omega
Watching movies from inside books.
By Vadim Rizov on 02/09/2010
Filed under: Odds
Don DeLillo’s new novel “Point Omega” is narrated by a documentarian and begins and ends with a description of Douglas Gordon’s “24 Hour Psycho,” a 2006 MoMA installation in which Hitchcock’s film was slowed down to stretch over a day and night.
Maybe that’s why everyone writing about the book seems more focused on DeLillo’s obsession with movies than with how it ranks in his canon. At the New York Times, Geoff Dyer, who knows more than most about art criticism (check out his own recent novel “Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi,” set during the 2006 Venice Biennale) sees DeLillo’s take on “24 Hour Psycho” and raises him with Gordon’s “5 Year Drive-by,” which played “The Searchers” in “real time” — one frame every 20 minutes.
At the Boston Globe, Mark Feeney‘s interested in DeLillo’s ongoing relationship with more mainstream movies — he points out that DeLillo’s voracious cinephilia is all over his work, with references to a meat-and-potatoes studio release like “Act of Violence,” fake Eisenstein movies and Robert Frank.
Trying to think up a systematic list of other novels that include interesting invocations of film is surprisingly hard. The movies that characters watch seem to me to mostly get used for banal texture, like in Jhumpa Lahiri’s stupefyingly dull “The Namesake,” where the kind of films being invoked tell us something about class in New York City (they go to see an “Antonioni double-feature” — do they even have those anymore? — and a revival of “Alphaville”).
Generation X Finally Dies – Music Replaced By Me
MTV No Longer About ‘Music’
Published: February 08, 2010
MTV changed its logo for the first time in roughly 30 years on Monday.
It was a minor change with major symbolism. The network — known more for its scripted reality show programming these days than the music videos and industry it revolutionized — dropped the “Music Television” tagline from the Frank Olinsky-designed original.’
With the new look, MTV had those “Jersey Shore”-watching millennials in mind. Via the press release:
From Vandalism To Art To Nostalgia
Graffiti’s Story, From Vandalism to Art to Nostalgia
Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Eric Felisbret is no longer the young man who painted illegal graffiti. Now, in pictures and words, he records the work of his generation and a new one. More Photos >
Eric Felisbret stood by a chain-link fence, watching three men spraying graffiti on a backyard wall in Upper Manhattan. One man smiled and invited him over.
“You can go around the corner and when you see a sign for a seamstress, go in the alley,” the man said. “Or you can jump the fence, like we did.”
Mr. Felisbret, 46, chose the long way. Not that he is unused to fence-jumping. In the 1970s, that was one of his skills as a budding graffiti writer who stole into subway yards. Using the nom de graf DEAL, he was part of the Crazy Inside Artists, a legendary crew from East New York, Brooklyn. This time, though, instead of wielding a spray can, he pulled out a camera and took a quick snapshot of the artwork, done with the landlord’s permission.
“It’s really retro,” he said. “Look inside the 3D letters, how he added all those spots.”
He would know, and not just because the artist was his brother, Luke. Over some 30 years, the two men have amassed a photographic archive of New York City graffiti that is among the most comprehensive collections anywhere. Since 1998 much of it, along with interviews of artists, has been showcased on their Web site, www.at149st.com.
And now Eric Felisbret has published a thick, glossy new book, “Graffiti New York,” a survey of the art that mirrors his own life trajectory — from outlaw origins to mainstream respectability.
William Burroughs’ Stuff
Koons Saloon For BMW
Jeff Koons To Create Next BMW Art Car
Jeff Koons fondles an inflatable in his Manhattan studio last night, where guests including BMW President Jim O’Donnell, architect Richard Meier, and every museum director in a 50-mile radius celebrated the announcement that Koons will create the next BMW Art Car.
Last March, when a selection of BMW Art Cars were exhibited at New York’s Grand Central Station, we tried our best to convince the impeccably dressed BMW execs to spill the beans on who would follow in the footsteps of such artists as Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, and Jenny Holzer. Despite our eyelash-batting pleas (in charmingly bungled German), they would divulge only that “plans were underway” for the next creative customization. Well, now the secret is out: Jeff Koons is creating the seventeenth BMW Art Car as the program celebrates its thirty-fifth year. The announcement was made last night at a event held at Koons’s Manhattan studio (as followers of the UnBeige Twitter feed already know). “The entire BMW Group is looking forward to this celebration of contemporary art by Jeff Koons, one of the greatest artists of our time,” said BMW president Jim O’Donnell in making the announcement.
Walking Man Beats Boy With Pipe in London
At London Sale, a Giacometti Sets a Record
One of Alberto Giacometti’s best-loved bronzes, “Walking Man I,” has broken the world record price for a work of art at auction, selling to an unidentified telephone bidder for $92.5 million, or $104.3 million with fees, at Sotheby’s in London on Wednesday night. The previous record was $104.1 million, paid for a 1905 Picasso, “Boy With a Pipe (The Young Apprentice),” at Sotheby’s in New York in 2004.
Sotheby’s had expected the sculpture to bring $19.2 million to $28.8 million. The $104.3 million was more than three times the record for a Giacometti, which was set at Christie’s New York in May 2008 when “Standing Woman II” from 1959-60 sold for $27.4 million.
Super Bowl Chili
Protégez-vous!
with thanks and love to The Beautiful MC
Leonardo da Vinci: Artificer, armorer, maker of things that go “boom”
Leonardo da Vinci’s Resume
Before he was famous, before he painted the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, before he invented the helicopter, before he drew the most famous image of man, before he was all of these things, Leonardo da Vinci was an artificer, an armorer, a maker of things that go “boom”.
And, like you, he had to put together a resume to get his next gig. So in 1482, at the age of 30, he wrote out a letter and a list of his capabilities and sent it off to Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan.
The translation of this letter is quite remarkable:
“Most Illustrious Lord, Having now sufficiently considered the specimens of all those who proclaim themselves skilled contrivers of instruments of war, and that the invention and operation of the said instruments are nothing different from those in common use: I shall endeavor, without prejudice to any one else, to explain myself to your Excellency, showing your Lordship my secret, and then offering them to your best pleasure and approbation to work with effect at opportune moments on all those things which, in part, shall be briefly noted below.
1. I have a sort of extremely light and strong bridges, adapted to be most easily carried, and with them you may pursue, and at any time flee from the enemy; and others, secure and indestructible by fire and battle, easy and convenient to lift and place. Also methods of burning and destroying those of the enemy.
2. I know how, when a place is besieged, to take the water out of the trenches, and make endless variety of bridges, and covered ways and ladders, and other machines pertaining to such expeditions.
3. If, by reason of the height of the banks, or the strength of the place and its position, it is impossible, when besieging a place, to avail oneself of the plan of bombardment, I have methods for destroying every rock or other fortress, even if it were founded on a rock, etc.
4. Again, I have kinds of mortars; most convenient and easy to carry; and with these I can fling small stones almost resembling a storm; and with the smoke of these cause great terror to the enemy, to his great detriment and confusion.
5. And if the fight should be at sea I have kinds of many machines most efficient for offense and defense; and vessels which will resist the attack of the largest guns and powder and fumes.
6. I have means by secret and tortuous mines and ways, made without noise, to reach a designated spot, even if it were needed to pass under a trench or a river.
7. I will make covered chariots, safe and unattackable, which, entering among the enemy with their artillery, there is no body of men so great but they would break them. And behind these, infantry could follow quite unhurt and without any hindrance.
8. In case of need I will make big guns, mortars, and light ordnance of fine and useful forms, out of the common type.
9. Where the operation of bombardment might fail, I would contrive catapults, mangonels, trabocchi, and other machines of marvellous efficacy and not in common use. And in short, according to the variety of cases, I can contrive various and endless means of offense and defense.
10. In times of peace I believe I can give perfect satisfaction and to the equal of any other in architecture and the composition of buildings public and private; and in guiding water from one place to another.
11. I can carry out sculpture in marble, bronze, or clay, and also I can do in painting whatever may be done, as well as any other, be he who he may.
Again, the bronze horse may be taken in hand, which is to be to the immortal glory and eternal honor of the prince your father of happy memory, and of the illustrious house of Sforza.
And if any of the above-named things seem to anyone to be impossible or not feasible, I am most ready to make the experiment in your park, or in whatever place may please your Excellency – to whom I comment myself with the utmost humility, etc.”
Barnes & Noble Homeless Bathrooms
Bozos In Heat
Damsels in Distress, Bozos in Heat
Chris Gash
THE television landscape is a universe of opposites. The Travel network (get up and go someplace!) is the opposite of HSN (sit on your couch and buy stuff!). Syfy (fantastical things that haven’t happened yet) is the opposite of History (moderately interesting things that have already happened). The Golf Channel (sedentary activity watched by sedentary old duffers) is the opposite of Nick Jr. (frenetic activity watched by frenetic young children).
But one pair is more striking, more revelatory, than all the rest: Spike versus Lifetime. Guys versus Gals. XY versus XX. And with each channel offering new fare this month — Spike introduced the gross-out comedy “Blue Mountain State”; Lifetime fired up a new season of “Project Runway” — it seems a good time to compare and contrast these two cable franchises. What do their programs tell us about the sexes? What deep-seated yearnings drive the male of the species? What hopes and fears motivate the female? Is one smarter than the other, and if so, by how much?
Half-naked Nuns and Ejaculating Penises! at Gawker
Gawker Artists NSFW Party: Definitely Not Safe For Your Office
When we first saw Justine Lai’s “Join or Die” series, we just knew this art should be hanging at Gawker HQ. Thanks in part to Diesel, we made that happen. They dared us to “Be Stupid” and we happily obliged. Slightly-NSFW photo proof inside.
So, recap: A few months ago Lai made internet headlines with her self-portraity presidential pornography series. Gawker Artists—the program that makes our banner ad space look pretty sometimes—reached out to Justine, and the idea of an NSFW gallery was born. Four other sexually themed artists were expertly recruited by our curators, including Steve Ellis, Emiliano Granado, Heather Morgan and Randy Polumbo, the office was sex-ified, and Diesel offered to sponsor the opening party. Not wanting to leave anyone out, we invited some of our stupidest/most fortunate readers (as picked out by former intern/stupid fictional storyteller James Frey) and away we partied into the cold, late, SoHo evening.
While what happens in Gawker HQ typically stays in Gawker HQ, there was plenty of, er, “performance art” from our friends at The Box, as well as enough wine and beer to keep everyone feeling less awkward about the whole shebang. People looked at paintings of half-naked nuns, watched a man catch a bowling ball on his head with a scorpion in his pants, and played with the most delightful little digital kaleidoscope. It showed ejaculating penises!
When we first saw Justine Lai’s “Join or Die” series, we just knew this art should be hanging at Gawker HQ. Thanks in part to Diesel, we made that happen. They dared us to “Be Stupid” and we happily obliged. Slightly-NSFW photo proof inside.White Girl Steppin’
The Lost Man Booker Prize
‘Lost Booker Prize’ to be awarded for 1970 novel
LONDON – More than three decades after Iris Murdoch won Britain’s top literary award, and a decade after her death, she has a chance to win again.
The author is up against 21 other writers who published novels in English in 1970 for the “lost” Booker Prize.
The books were never considered for the prize at the time. The reason? The Booker was originally awarded for any book published in the previous year. But in 1971, it became a prize for the best novel published that year.
That meant that a raft of books published in 1970 were left out in the cold, and the Lost Man Booker Prize is an attempt to remedy the oversight.
“Our longlist demonstrates that 1970 was a remarkable year for fiction written in English,” Ion Trewin, the prizes’ literary director, said Monday. “Recognition for these novels and the eventual winner is long overdue.”
Murdoch’s “A Fairly Honourable Defeat” is up against 21 other works, including “The Fire Dwellers” byMargaret Laurence, Len Deighton‘s “Bomber,” “A Guilty Thing Surprised,” by Ruth Rendell, and “A Clubbable Woman,” by Reginald Hill. All the books on the list are still in print and available today.
Fifth Avenue, 5 AM
Fifth Avenue, 5 AM
The images of Breakfast at Tiffany’s are branded into our collective memory: we can see Audrey Hepburn stepping out of that cab on the corner of 57th and 5th, and we can picture her again with George Peppard, huddled in an alleyway and wrapped in a kiss, as the rain pours down around them. Those moments are as familiar to us as any in whole the history of movies, but few of us know that that ending was not the film’s original ending. In fact, it was only one of two endings the filmmakers shot—and it almost didn’t make it in.
The reasons why have to do with Tiffany’s cutting-edge take on sex in the city, namely, when to show it, and how to do it, without getting caught. If Truman Capote had it his way, his beloved Marilyn Monroe would have been cast as Holly, but crafty executives knew that she’d have the censors on red alert. So they went for Audrey. But would she go for them? Frightened at the prospect of playing a part so far beyond her accepted range—not to mention the part of call girl—Audrey turned inside out worrying if she should take her agent’s advice and accept the role. What would people think? America’s princess playing a New York bad girl? It seemed just too far…
Fifth Avenue, 5 AM is the first ever complete account of the making of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Drawing upon countless interviews with those involved in the film’s production, from actors to producer Richard Shepherd to Gerald Clarke, Capote’s biographer, Wasson brings us inside the world and indeed inside the mind of one of America’s greatest cinematic icons.
With a cast of characters including Truman Capote, Edith Head, director Blake Edwards, and, of course, Hepburn herself, Wasson immerses us in the America of the late fifties, before Woodstock and birth control, when a not-so-virginal girl by the name of Holly Golightly raised eyebrows across the nation, changing fashion, film, and sex, for good. But that was the easy part. Getting Audrey there—and getting the right people behind her—that was the tough part.
Exit Through The Gift Shop
Banksy’s latest move
The underground artist’s film ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’ is a hot ticket at Sundance. It’s part guerrilla art chronicle and part satire of celebrity, consumerism, the art world and filmmaking.
By John Horn and Chris Lee
The movie doesn’t appear anywhere in the Sundance Film Festival’s catalog. Outside a small circle of ultra-secretive confidantes, nobody knows its director’s identity or whereabouts. And the film’s place in the Sundance schedule wasn’t even announced until last week.
That didn’t prevent “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” a film from acclaimed British street artist Banksy, from becoming Park City’s hottest ticket on Sunday night. Outside the 446-seat Library Center Theatre, Banksy fans started queuing up hours before “Gift Shop’s” premiere, in 15-degree weather, even if their chances of getting in were somewhere between slim and none.
A film-within-a-film that begins as a chronicle of guerrilla art and its most prominent creators but morphs into a sly satire of celebrity, consumerism, the art world and filmmaking itself, “Exit Through the Gift Shop” is a work that’s nearly impossible to categorize. The movie that’s both about — and made by — the controversial and hugely popular artist grapples with a separate series of contradictions about the competing themes of fame and privacy.
“Trying to make a movie which truly conveys the raw thrill and expressive power of art is very difficult. So I haven’t bothered,” Banksy said in an e-mailed statement. “Instead, this is a simple everyday tale of life, longing and mindless vandalism.”
Gawker Triumph of Stupidity Contest
Former Gawker Intern James Frey Reveals Winners of the Triumph of Stupidity Contest
“Welcome one and all to the Gawker Triumph of Stupidity Contest, where stupidity is celebrated, reinforced and rewarded. I’m James Frey, former Gawker Intern, former Gawker Special Correspondent, and now, Gawker Special Consultant for the Triumph of Stupidity Contest.
As you may know, I am uniquely qualified for this job, more qualified for it than either of my previous positions at Gawker, because I am famously stupid. One need only look back through the archives of this wonderful website to see a few of my many displays of stupidity, and see how I have triumphed over them. At this point in my life, when people ask me for advice, and God help those who do ask, I say – Go, right now, and do the stupidest, most reckless thing you can possibly think of doing, close your eyes and buckle your seatbelt, and when it’s all over, you’ll be exactly where you want to be.
Salinger Gone
50 Naked Women Dancing Exuberantly
Decent exposure
Women have been taking their clothes off in protest for centuries. But now that nudity is everywhere, is the naked body still an effective campaign tool?
Nic Green (right): using the body as a site of celebration and protest
The success of Nic Green’s play Trilogy, a runaway hit at last year’s Edinburgh festival and now touring Britain until the end of January, is down in no small part to the fact that it opens with an exuberant dance by 50 naked women. The most interesting question it poses, however, is this: has female nudity become so ubiquitous that it is now invisible? Given that we’re bombarded with it daily—on billboards, computer screens and in newspapers—has the naked body lost its potency, particularly as a tool for political protest?
Trilogy sets out to examine why the fire drained from the feminist spirit of the 1970s. Green, a Glaswegian writer/director, and the rest of her young cast spend much of the triptych in the nude: after the 50 dancing women, the second segment is a naked recreation of a seminal moment in feminist history, when Norman Mailer debated women’s liberation with Germaine Greer at the New York Town Hall in 1971—a dialogue documented by DA Pennebaker in his legendary film, Town Bloody Hall. There is so much naked dancing in Trilogy, however, that what at first seems mildly eye-raising, becomes by the end of its three-hour duration, almost domestic.
From Lady Godiva to the bra-burning of the 1970s, naked protest has been deemed rebellious largely because of the “deviant” associations of nudity. Although we now like to consider ourselves too liberal and liberated to find public nudity deviant, clothing still remains the most powerful and immediate signifier of our socialisation. And the re-emergence of nudity as a popular form of political protest in recent years is striking—groups such as Breasts Not Bombs, World Naked Bike Ride and Bare Witness use it as their primary campaign tool. But it perhaps suggests a different story: not that we find nudity scandalising, but that it has become harder to appear truly naked in public.
Caruso 4
‘Eagle Eye’ Director D.J. Caruso Will Helm James Frey Adaptation, ‘I Am Number Four’
Posted 1/20/10 7:30 am ET by Adam Rosenberg in News
Last summer, just as “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” was arriving in theaters, news emerged that director Michael Bay would produce and maybe direct an adaptation of the James Frey/Joby Hughes young adult novel “I Am Number Four,” the first in a series of six planned books about an alien in hiding on Earth — Ohio, to be precise — while forces unknown hunt him.
Two months later, it was revealed that Al Gough and Miles Millar, creators of TV’s “Smallville,” had been hired to adapt the book into a usable script. The latest word is that Bay won’t be directing; if I had to guess, it’s because he’s busy with the next “Transformers” movie. D.J. Caruso will step in to take the reins instead,The Hollywood Reporter reveals.
Caruso is a DreamWorks favorite, for his work on “Disturbia” and “Eagle Eye.” Bay will still produce of course, which ought to help out the newly hired director as this is his first foray into feature-length science fiction.
Number 26
Here’s the Top 20 movies of all time … by number of tickets sold:
1 “Gone With the Wind” (1939) 202,044,600
2 “Star Wars” (1977) 178,119,600
3 “The Sound of Music” (1965) 142,415,400
4 “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982) 141,854,300
5 “The Ten Commandments” (1956) 131,000,000
6 “Titanic” (1997) 128,345,900
7 “Jaws” (1975) 128,078,800
8 “Doctor Zhivago” (1965) 124,135,500
9 “The Exorcist” (1973) 110,568,700
10 “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937) 109,000,000
11 “101 Dalmatians” (1961) 99,917,300
12 “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980) 98,180,600
13 “Ben-Hur” (1959) 98,000,000
14 “Return of the Jedi” (1983) 94,059,400
15 “The Sting” (1973) 89,142,900
16 “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981) 88,141,900
17 “Jurassic Park” (1993) 86,205,800
18 “The Graduate” (1967) 85,571,400
19 “Star Wars: Episode I” (1999) 84,825,800
20 “Fantasia” (1941) 83,043,500
“Avatar,” despite topping the worldwide gross list, by and by, is only No. 26 on the ticket sales list with 76,421,000 sold … at least, so far…
Cruising Van Nuys
Cruise night returns to Van Nuys Boulevard
After a 28-year break, car lovers meet once a month on Wednesday nights to show off their souped-up muscle cars, restored classics and lowriders in a scene familiar a generation ago.
A 1962 Chrysler Newport makes its way down Van Nuys Boulevard during Van Nuys Cruise Night. After 28 long years, cruising has returned to Van Nuys Boulevard. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
As the souped-up muscle cars, restored classics and lowriders cruise through the old Rydell Chevrolet lot on Van Nuys Boulevard, Reid Stolz takes stock of a scene that was familiar to anyone growing up in the San Fernando Valley a generation ago.
“Remember when we were young and the cops were old?” said Stolz, 51, watching an LAPD patrol car glide by. “Now the cops are young and we’re old.”
After a 28-year break, Stolz and other car lovers have brought cruising back to “The Boulevard,” though the drivers are now more likely to be middle-aged guys with graying hair and grandkids, driven by nostalgia rather than teenage vanity.
The cruising scene on Van Nuys Boulevard once was so popular and rowdy that it all but paralyzed the area and was seen as a menace by merchants and local residents. Police shut it down when turf wars and illegal races got out of hand.
“I hate the book. I don’t hate him. I might go to UFC with him next month!”
Overheard at Sundance: 1/21
Many of the things that Sundance has to offer have been well-detailed: the movies, the swag, and the stars. Less celebrated — yet no less interesting — are the overheard quotes. Each day of the Sundance Film Festival, Movieline will bring you some of the best snippets we couldn’t help but hear. They’re ridiculous, sure — but they’re Sundance. Enjoy the first batch!
8:30 pm, on a bus leaving the Eccles
Girl: “How are you guys still friends? Don’t you hate James Frey?”
Boy: “I hate the book. I don’t hate him. I might go to UFC with him next month!”
Solar-powered Cockroach
‘dere ain’t no gunslinger books in Texas…
Big city left with no bookstore
By Ed Lavandera, CNN
Laredo, Texas (CNN) — The bookstore was Zhuara Rivera’s magical “Neverland.” It offered a fairy tale world for 14-year-old Rivera to get lost in stories and words.
But the books are gone. On January 16, Barnes & Noble, which owns B. Dalton, closed the store inside Laredo’s Mall del Norte.
That leaves Laredo, Texas, population of 250,000, one of the largest cities in the United States without a bookstore.
The closest bookstore is now 150 miles away, in San Antonio, Texas.
Two Gentleman of Lebowski
Tower Tech-Nerds
Tower Tech-Nerds? Late, Lamented Record Store Hosts Punk Nostalgists
By Leon Neyfakh
On Friday, Jan. 15, the old Tower Records building on Broadway and Fourth Street was the site of a big, funny party celebrating the opening of a music-themed art show organized by No Longer Empty, a group of curators who mount exhibitions of contemporary art in vacant storefronts around the city.
The centerpiece of the show, on view at 692 Broadway till Feb. 13, is an installation repurposing the space as a cartoonish simulation of a bustling, pre-Internet music store called “Never Records.” Taken together, the sprawling, mixed-media exhibition is meant to function as a monument to the glory days of music retail, complete with racks of vinyl for browsing, band posters on the walls and a stage for in-store appearances.
The line to get into the opening on Friday snaked around the block, even after the organizers ran out of the low-calorie, electrolyte-enhanced vodka drink they were promoting on behalf of their liquor sponsor.