Among the first paintings I did as an adult, Probably late 1994. Oil on Canvas.

alright, points for art fags *

Revising earlier thoughts, Art Fag City slams stupid Barney (hard) twice in one week. Good for them. Among the most pathetic things to impress know-nothing curators in all of our lifetimes. I am going to end up making my blog a real smear sight, but anyone who knows me knows I only get mad sometimes. Good for AFC !!
_________
UpDate
Even better this essay from February 23, that slays michael kimmelman, too. I am going to have to read Paddy Johnson more often.

so I missed one

Would be very pleased if folks would send me other artblogs I should be looking at. New York Art Scene seems a hell of a lot better than what I remember of the NYC art scene, but then it is probably all just a matter of attitude. Her post on Mira Schor at SVA is insightful. Remember everyone was dragging that book around 10 (well 9) years ago ? The analysis is good, thoughtful, patient. I just hear the words "Myra Schor at SVA" and have to go look for my eyes that rolled up the hallway.

knockout

Via Atrios, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez's open letter to US media is over the top good good good. Why does media (here and there, hello ad agencies !) need to pander to a tiny racist minority of the public ?

Amazing to me how many people up there think that those guys working behind the deli counter or putting up your sheet-rock want to stay there and become citizens.

Outside Jalpan, northwestern Queratero state.

what will happen ?

Via Wolcott and Tom Dispatch, here's a pretty good over-view on what's going to happen. Sam Huntingdon be damned.

Word has it the Crits in New York City went off well, following the more extensive undertakings in San Francisco earlier this month !! Congrats and good work to all the participants !! All i get is gossip down here, but it all sounds good.

Hopefully you'll see more of these kinds of pics as soon as I get my bearings in Mexico City's fantastic north-eastern suburbs.

alright loons

Alright loons, who've asked for it, I am relatively new to Sage so these entries aren't all shook out yet, but essentially the feeds I read are pictured here. I will probably delete Al Franken, though I love the radio show, not sure the point of the blog or of any blog connected with Air America. You see it completes with the list below and the point of this post is just to satisfy those who asked by email (why no one ever comments I don't know) what the stuff I read actually is. So what's the essential difference between all these politcal blogs and the boring art blogs at bottom ? Really, I think gusky is just the one who makes it compelling and personal. I really don't care to read business advice... uck.

what to do ?

That's a screen capture of my Sage window, where the RSS feeds from the art blogs I bother to glance at are. You'll notice that Gusky's still fabulous Art Blog Comments is still at the top.

The other art ones are as follows (the non-art stuff you'll have to search for yourself):

Edward Winkleman, who I gave kudo's to once, but now i am not so sure, I basically think he is neck deep in New York City's corrupt anything goes establishment and I just don't care.

ArtCal, which I sometimes read, and the tenders of which have above average taste, whatever that means.

James Wagner, who sometimes mixes it up with real-life stuff so his blog is not such a snore.

Art Fag City, sometimes I think this one is ok, sometimes I think it is just a response to otherwise unimportant art-world crap that I could not care less about.

Anonymous Female Artist (a.k.a. Militant Art Bitch), I mean, she's got an angle, not like Winkleman. So you sort of know what to expect. She loves Amy Sillman, so she's not all that well educated I guess, but I mean, she's got something to flog so flog away.

But the point is, the internet is great for blogging and terrible for looking at art, right ? unfortunately it seems that art is terrible to blog about because who gives a shit to read about it all the time. I sooooo long for some news (that little Sage section is just the art section, most of it is politics), for some news that something is happening... a full blown impeachment, massive prosecutions and extraditions to Holland.

It's only Gusky's artblog comments really has a view of itself and what it is doing, I can't help but think his is the only blog that doesn't just suck up to power, and what pathetic power it is, dealers and critics, please. Here is Gusky writing about Edna at Anonymous Female Artist:

Even when art writing is informative and expresses an opinion, it often lacks passion. I often find myself forming a mental image of the writer wearing a lab coat, shower-cap, surgical face-mask and rubber gloves, carefully jotting notes onto a clipboard in a sterile lab environment.

Really couldn't have had more pleasure thinking that up myself.

This was on the drive out of Pachuca toward Tulancingo yesterday. Raining and raining. There's an entirely different relationship with elements here. Rain is almost always fierce and heavy. Even a light rain is heavier, more intentional here.

thanks

to Emil Lindahl Persson at Pollack's Bollocks, for the notice. For the record, I'm ex-patriot gringo, happily relocated to Mexico City. Y estoy apriendo mas español todas las dias !!

Here is the view from a friend's back balcony, the Toltec Cement yard in Narvarte.

Delivering the water. Narvarte. March 2006. So I am back and the holiday weekend is over. Happy Birthday to Benito Juarez !! 200 years !! Oh and happy spring to everyone from everywhere else !!

Funny, I didn't notice that 2 liter bottle at the time. Outside Pinal de Amoles, northern Queretaro state.

The Coffee Company, Narvarte. March, 2006.

Sweeping up, I think in Jalpan.

and here is where I went swimming.

Here is the gas station outside of Jalpan.

Xilitla. Again. I will post the link to the Wikipedia article in a little while.

Now that i think about it, both of these look pretty good.

Another from Xilitla.

Xilitla, San Luis Potosi. March 2006.

Still, no one has guessed. So here is another clue. Should make it obvious enough. Do I need to start offering a free T-shirt or something ? Travel mug ?

I've been out a few days. Now I am back. I you want to know where, you'll just need to ask.

I am probably going to be out for a few days. Working, maybe relaxing a little bit. i just might blog something else later tonight as today's Insurgentes Sur trip (see foto) was muy profitable, but I hope everyone has a terrific weekend !!

Bee Gees Craze in progress

This site is worth a long look, many fondnesses will emerge. Now if they could only link straight to the mp3s

Here is another one from walking today. It is really something to watch these guys everyday putting up this temple to train travel, maybe it's a temple to the suburbs beyond.

Again, outside the trainstation. Article should be published end of this month, more news on that to follow soon.

types of art to avoid:

The New York School main category,
Anything at all is art and these smears and flurescent drips look like crap but I have a really open-mind about art - art.

Science based or related art, treats science as a legitimizing religion, any proximity to science is basis enough, makes it seem legitimate.

Subcategory of science is the Sub-Categorization, incessant organizational art, art about accounting or OCD.

overtly-personal art.

When I see things like this it makes me wonder if it is possible to understand Mexico. I used to think i hated Surrealism. I am starting to understand that better. I used to think that Symbolism had just degenerated into the rampant commercialism of Arte Nouveau. I bet that is what a lot of people who don't live with Arte Nouveau think. We think that all the mechanized, sinister Art Deco that we are so proud of came out of simple ad campaigns, Coca-Cola trays with ladies on swings. Art Nouveau inherited the threatening undercurrents of Symbolism and I think it is still feeding the Surreal as we speak.

I started my classes again today. In my class are 2 girls from London, 3 Japanese, 1 Chinese, an Austrian and a Korean. I took this picture today on my way back from buying a book that I need for my class.

Someone keeps forgetting to tell these trees about Mexico City's reputation for horrible polluted gray air. Just north of Revolucion.

and a rather excellent building on Insurgentes Norte.

Church near the Jardine de Arte.

was out all morning taking pictures. Plagued, PLAGUED by wires and "street furniture" that is everywhere. Anyway, this is the new huge train station being built a few blocks away.