Charley Harper, from the Golden Book of Biology, 1962
Take a look at that vry srs article on Iran again and then read these reviews from the Dallas Morning News. First up, I try to explain to a print audience what a YTMND means, an effort to catch up with a 2001 meme that leaves me entirely out of breath. (I've so been punk'd by And/Or Gallery.)
Further, I wrote up a retrospective of the graphic artist Charley Harper, a show I enjoyed almost in spite of myself. It's tempting to dismiss it as something that it's not. Neither a great painting show nor a stellar print show, it was instead a terribly fun and surprisingly tight little design exhibit.
For the Guardian I wrote a story about efforts by U.S. terrorism victims to seize ancient Persian artifacts to satisfy default judgments for hundreds of millions of dollars against the government of Iran. Read that here.
While the judgments have been discussed in the news at length, they were brought to the fore again by reports in Iranian state media that Iran's Ministry of Culture refused a loan request from the National Gallery of Art for a Gauguin painting. The National Gallery of Art neither confirmed nor denied the story, expressing that the museum could not comment on future exhibition planning.
What is known is that a judgment to seize the Persepolis Fortification Archive—a collection of rote administrative clay tablets that provide an exceedingly rare glimpse into the daily goings-on in Persepolis under Darius, Xerxes, and their successive Achaemenid Empire rulers—can do disastrous harm to U.S.–Iranian relations. Which are, I'll grant you, not all that warm. But they show signs of improving, with President Obama's holiday message and President Ahmadinejad's motions on behalf of Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi being examples of diplomatic overtures that would be unthinkable a year ago. Dividing and auctioning the Achaemenid tablets and other Persian artifacts would be a bad thing for improving relations, but also just a bad thing for world history.
It's tempting to pose that it's the judgments, not the fallout within the sphere of cultural lending, that pose the real block to relations. But the categorization of lending as a commercial transaction between sovereign nations is a new and mighty strained legal reading. Read on here.
I was watching something or other on TV the other day and paused it to do something or other else. I came back to see this image, which I think is fantastic, Ruscha-esque picture.
I'm probably wrong about that, and it's in fact really dumb.
Tonight I'm taking off for a short East Coast tour to play in the backing band for a musician who is new and now dear to me. Sixto Rodriguez is a Detroit psychedelic-folk artist whose second (and last) album was recorded in 1971; he's become something of a legend in recent years, thanks to some wily Australian DJs and the nation of South Africa, where both Cold Fact and Coming to Reality found an enthusiastic audience in the 1990s.
The good people of Harvest Records put together a short East Coast lineup for Rodriguez and formed a backing band to follow him. I'm playing tenor sax, and you might also recognize Jon and Bob of Gestures on brass detail.
Let me tell you, without question, the preferred way to be introduced to a musician's catalog is to learn it and tour it. I'm not a professional musician; this is not something I do. I don't expect this to happen ever again, so I am totally thrilled at the opportunity.
Tonight, D.C. folks can see Rodriguez at the Rock n' Roll Hotel. On Thursday, Rodriguez is playing Johnny Brenda's in Philly, and then on Friday we play the Bowery Ballroom in New York. (Sheepishly thrilled to admit that my first visit to the Bowery Ballroom will be to play onstage. That is just silly.) Tomorrow, Rodriguez is also recording some tunes at WXPN for World Cafe, which is not broadcast live (enshalla)—look for that piece to appear over the next three weeks or so.
Such are the wonders of San Francisco that Rodriguez's instore performance at Amoeba appears online in a great interview/video segment. Here are a couple of Rodriguez's recording that you might also want to know:
If you make it out to any of those shows this week, make sure to stop and say hi—I'll be the one shaking in my boots holding a saxophone.
UPDATE: The Going-Out Gurus mention the Rodriguez show opposite The Thermals tonight. Indeed, I had tickets to The Thermals myself! But priorities, people—those guys will probably play here three times this year.
MORE: Brightest Young Things and the City Paper pick up the show. I have some hope that Rodriguez will pick up some Thermals fans! Playing against the Caps game 7 is a little more daunting.
They're the best they are at what they do, and what they do isn't very nice if your art sucks.
I'm pleased as punch to announce that I was invited to join the Culture Pundits network, an elite group of 25 (now 26) art bloggers. The advertisement you see on the right is one that makes sense for a network of cultural sites that together reaches a broad, niche audience, even if traffic per any individual site is small relative to other sites with ads. Having made it rain, then, we sit back, let the haters hate, and watch the money pile up.
Merely associating myself with these bloggers makes me to put more work into the site. A lot of those blogs are daily reads for me — please take a moment to click through and check out sites by contributors. There's a Twitter feed and all the rest, too.
