Adios Los Mets, The Weather Sure Is Fair Up There in the Bronx
Pete Hausler04.01.10
Pete Hausler weighs the ultimate question in sports fandom: how much is enough heartbreak? As a fan myself of a team of perennial disappointment, I’ve also asked that question many a time after season after season of underachieving, flashes of brilliance interspersed randomly between stretches of lazy, uninspired, inept, and seemingly uninterested play. When does a sports fan cut his/her losses? Alas, I find myself unable to make a statement-making move. It’s like sticking with a bad, abusive, and indifferent lover year after year—or in my case, 35 years (though I’ve only been around for 32 of them). Hausler on the other hand, invoking wise words from author Nick Hornby and an inspired friend, seems ready to cross that threshold into a new world unknown to most of us stubborn, beleaguered, and otherwise hopeless fans. Art by Danny Jock. -MKL
Self-Erasure: Banksy Hunting in Utah
Rob Tennant02.25.10
As Salinger’s recent death reminded us, a quest for invisibility magnifies a certain type of public fascination. During the lead-up to this year’s Sundance Film Festival –– where Exit through the Gift Shop, a film by/about British graffiti artist Banksy was set to premiere –– there were rumors he would unveil his identity, and then works resembling his began to appear around Salt Lake City and adjacent areas. Rob Tennant tells the story with an eye for the role of new media as an archive of ephemeral street art and with the patience to psychoanalyze his hometown. Photos by the author.
Inspirational Critique: a conversation with Malik Gaines and Alexandro Segade of My Barbarian
Jesi Khadivi02.15.10
I first saw My Barbarian perform as the grand finale of Liz Glynn’s "24-Hour Rome Reconstruction Project (or Building Rome in a Day)" at Machine Project here in Los Angeles. Compressing the 1200 year history of ancient Rome to 24 hours, participants built an impresive scale model of the city, from cardboard and hot glue until at the stroke of midnight My Barbarian arrived in the role of Visigoths to sing and perform while participants destroyed the replica they had spent all day creating. This is just one of the many historio-critical-performative-collaborative projects My Barbarian (Jade Gordon, Malik Gaines, Alexandro Segade) have been a part of. Jesi Khadivi, curator of Berlin’s Golden Parachutes gallery, interviews. -BB
Rupaul’s Drag Race
Bradford Nordeen02.05.10
The growth of positive depictions of gay chracters and themes on television likely has as much to do with advertising demographics as recent shifts in public opinion and, true to form, Rupaul’s Drag Race is packed with as many product placements as the other reality TV shows it mirrors. Bradford Nordeen, author of Fever Pitch, highlights the pleasures and frustrations that the show has to offer as well as how it literalizes Warhol’s maxim about fifteen minutes seconds of fame.
Super Bowl XLIV Preview: Saints & Colts in Miami
Adam Underhill02.03.10
I never thought about the double entendre of awfulness that would have fell on earth had Bret Favre beat New Orleans last week and gone on to (maybe even win?) the Super Bowl. No I’d forgotten about the cheeseheads and the humiliation that would haunt them had THEIR guy won on that damn Vikings team (I like Favre btw – CM). Was just pondering New Orleans, still Katrina repairing, rushing to their first Super Bowl ever by beating a fellow borne and bred gulf coaster… that game was a team vs an individual right? the twilight of a heavyweight? the phoenix-like rise of a city? or did I get confused? Well Adam Underhill, long time Green Bay fan didn’t miss anything. Here’s his preview for Super Sunday, ‘tween the Saints and oh yeah, the Colts. And speaking of drama, keep an eye on Colts receiver Pierre Garçon, the Haitian descent player who played with incredible gusto in the AFC championship. Prediction? Well read on…
Momentum
Adam Underhill01.08.10
It’s been a long time since we talked football (talk about momentum, not that we haven’t been watching). Most of my teams have gotten knocked out by now – the Giants first of all, the Falcons, the Bills …ah well this always happens with them, lately, but it doesn’t have to, I mean welcome back Jets, but that can only last a week, ’cause who knows, what evil, lurks in the head of Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis who may rouse his team from somnambulism for a rematch of last week (it didn’t as I write this, sorry Cincy and Ochocinco – change the name back, get the mojo back, if it helps). It’s wild card week from Adam Underhill (who must of got a Beatles Rock Band for Xmas…see last page). Art by Danny Jock. -CM
The Chase is Always Better Than the Kill
Michael Louie12.19.09
Michael Louie spent five weeks deep in the trenches during the first annual Brooklyn Fishing Derby, which happened to start the first day of mandatory fishing licenses for all New York saltwater anglers. He seeks out the secret and hidden fishing spots amongst the new development and regimented city property and finds that maybe he’s not quite the terrible fisherman he thought he was.
The New Era of Blackface
Louis Chude-Sokei12.17.09
Around Halloween the question was asked is "blackface Hitler" a culturally acceptable costume? Would it be viewed as an example of, as Louis Chude-Sokei says, "meta-anti-racism" or a bad joke in the worst kind of taste? Both? Chude-Sokei is the author of The Last Darky: Bert Williams, Black-on-Black Minstrelsy, and the African Diaspora, a finalist for the 2005 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. With a perspective rooted in African diaspora, here he paints a sharp contrast between recent incidents of blackface in American pop culture, such as this season’s premiere of Madmen and Robert Downery Jr. in Tropic Thunder, and blackface traditions outside the U.S. in Mexico, Turkey and West Africa. As in his recent talk on murdered African reggae star Lucky Dube, Chude-Sokei offers a unique perspective on the communication between cultures.
Paul Chan: Sade for Sade’s Sake at Greene Naftali Gallery, NYC
Thom Donovan12.10.09
There’s long been a mantra of "art for art’s sake," which sometimes unfortunately dumbs down the conversation or waves away dismissively the curious – but maybe less schooled in art theory – viewers or fans of art. For the most part the saying has its place. But now with someone like Paul Chan, an artist who is a flag bearer of this generation’s politicized art, he knows when he makes work for a show to be called Sade for Sade’s Sake that it’s gonna provoke controversy, not only because of its subject matter (which always makes a stink with the right), but also for its title framing, toying with the old mantra, which simultaneously supports the playful bedroom side of the notion, but also prods at the the sadistic cynicism that pervades our culture beyond the art world, that which leaves Katrina victims waiting for Godot, and certain prisoners of the war on terror stacked naked like pyramids, barking like dogs. Thom Donovan reviews Chan’s latest show at Greene Naftali in New York.
Interview with Justin Bartlett
Adam Ganderson11.22.09
Justin Bartlett draws pictures that are both complicated and primitive at the same time. The imagery is detailed but taps into unsettling, basic primeval fears that are embedded in the human psyche. Which is probably why he’s becoming increasingly in demand for metal related album cover art and merchandise. It’s sort of reminiscent of wandering alone in the woods at night and then through the branches witnessing some ancient unspeakable act that can only be communicated visually. Either that or a twisted horror version of Maurice Sendak. After this interview, I sent him an email asking if Sendak was an influence and his response was: "No, not really, I never owned Where the Wild Things Are, but I was really into this page from Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham." —Adam Ganderson
