First Weblog

The solution for idle flat screens. Only $24.95.

Do you wish to hold a book with your name on the cover? Do you have a blog, and you would like to have see it automatically formated into an elegant design you can then share in Royal format (8x10) or Modern size (7x7)?

The Snow Show explores the issues related to Art and Architectural investigation by creating works from the ephemeral materials of snow and ice. This year, the artists and architects have created interactive experiences inspired by the dramatic natural beauty of Sestriere and the athletic competitions of the Olympics.

Is it just me, or were the Oscars — for a change — typographically handsome last night? That News Gothic on the screen at the top of the stage was quite yummy. And Crash? Seriously?

If you received your March Veer catalog and enjoyed it (or even if you haven't received it and maybe didn't enjoy it) you can spend some time building your very own isometrical surreal world.

A propos this topic from last week: and the winner is…

B propos an earlier post from Marian: Cute Overload.

C propos The Gates: Julia Hall and Chrissy Leggio's Slaves of Christo.

The designers of both the New York City Subway kiosk and the new subway cars, Antenna Design, currently have a show at Frederieke Taylor Gallery in New York. Also on sale is their book, which was beautifully designed by Allen Hori and Sarah Gifford.

If it wasn't for the new-ish (and badly designed) co-op outside our window, we would have a perfect view of Shit-Kicker — one of several pieces by current Whitney Biennial participant Marilyn Minter which are installed throughout Chelsea.

Ben Davis considers the wall text at the Whitney Biennial 2006.

Perhaps you've guessed by now that the Whitney Biennial is open. For the first time it includes non-Americans like Canadian Michael Snow — who has an amazing piece in the show, by the way. The Museum has a specific charter to feature only American artists.

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, the processes of archiving and preserving have been distributed and democratized. So has the ability to remix and mash up sounds and images. With limited investment, people can generate powerful new forms of communication and cultural expression and distribute them globally at no marginal cost. The long-term effects of this power are unclear. There is much boasting and bombast about what might happen, both good and bad. But one thing is undeniable: we have a different sense of possibility now. We can do what was unimaginable just two decades ago. And we must harness this radical democratic power for the best. Before the powerful and anxious capture and kill it. — the last paragraph of New York University professor Siva Vaidhyanathan's essay for the Whitney Biennial: The Technocultural Imagination: Life, Art, and Politics in the Age of Total Connectivity.

John Perrault reflects upon the work of artist (and designer manque) Andrea Zittel from A-Z.

The current exhibition at Apex Art, Neo Sincerity: The Difference Between the Comic and the Cosmic is a Single Letter, features Art Spiegelman's post 9-11 work, as it appeared in the French press; Matt Forderer's Wdeck playing cards, which depict G. W. Bush in drag; and Olav Westphalen's film of a bicycle with swastika-shaped wheels. More information, and a nifty credo, can be found here.

One of my greatest sources of inspiration — and acknowledgment of like-minded souls in the world — listener-supported radio station WFMU (available as a streaming broadcast) is currently holding their annual fundraising Marathon. They deserve your support, they need your support. Consider it your psychic rent.