Art | mchuge - Part 2

Survival of the Crunchiest

SFMOMA catwalk installation by Olafur Eliasson

Judging from other photos I’ve seen of this catwalk with nothing on it, Eliasson accomplished something unexpected in removing all sense of vertigo I usually feel when traipsing around in high places. I’ll have to see his show at P.S. 1.

I had a nice birthday yesterday. I have good friends.

I’ve been looking at Survival Acres and it’s all a bit fantastical. As a business selling survival gear, the fear-mongering is no less shameless than the posturing against Iran that’s in vogue. (See also Iraq WMD.) From the “About Me” page, “I am expecting a collapse of society and particularily [sic], the United States, someday, hopefully soon.” If it really all comes down to roving gangs smashing doors down for the last cans of Campbell’s Soup®, ShopRite Oatmeal, and freeze-dried stroganoff, a lot of us might justifiably off ourselves, thank you very much. Even if you’re out in some rural fenced-in compound with your own farmland and biosphere, will it be worth it? Maybe I’ll become an Eco-Geek.

Update: I heard about this the other night as it was happening. What the hell is going on in Harlem?

The Next Feminist Platform

A fountain in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden
Riding a fish is funner than birthing one.

Feminism isn’t a topic I’ll post about much but I find the idea of Orgasmic Birth fascinating. Any wedge that puts a dent in the conventional Biblican wisdom, here specifically Genesis 3:16 –(“…I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children…”) — now that’s a good kick in the pants. Further irony lies in OB’s strong foundation in new age type spirituality and things like water birth, yoga, meditation, the “spiritual diet,” and ye, even Robert Bly stylee Male Energy. Contrast that with the criticism of Islamic attitudes towards women (not uncalled for) and you can see a clear modern-day evolutionary arc of human spirituality. Any anthropologists out there wanna discuss this?

I’ll almost be surprised if ABC follows through with broadcasting a special about this on 20/20 on May 16. If they do, it’s because of the sexy title and you know they’re going to have a C-section specialist crowing that a C-section is the safest, most pain-free way to have a baby and how could there be anything better than Modern American Medicine? Snort.

On a tangential note, just now, Martha Nussbaum was on Bill Moyers’ show talking about “Freedom of Conscience” and how the right doesn’t get it. This OB thing is going to be heavily ridiculed by the establishment thought police.

(Full disclosure: My upstairs neighbor, who I respect very much, is a doula specializing in water birth and also a talented birth photographer. And I read Feministing once in a while. I suppose that makes me a sensitive new age terrorist.)

Celebrity Endorsements
Obama sports a much vaster and cooler list of celebrity endorsements than Clinton does. Huffpo rightly puts this stuff in their Entertainment section but why not also list McCain’s celeb endorsements? Maybe because he’s only got four although I’d wager conservatives consume more celebrity gossip than others do.

Good Photos at Joe / I am an Elitist

Elitist stairs beat elevators The Joe Coffee Bar on 13th and 5th Ave. is showing great photos after my own heart by Joseph O. Holmes. Nice silos from the American Museum of Natural History, dude.

I also saw some great art at the Jonathan Levine gallery last week. The Date Farmers installation feels like an incredibly hip Mexican taco stand and the surrealistic Alex Gross displays some impressive new stuff that might have been — probably was — ripped out the pages of Juxtapoz.

I definitely have bones to pick with stupid people — my own stupid form of elitism — and this blowup over Obama’s “bitter” “elitist” remark is moronic. Do I really have to listen to Hillary Clinton, George Will, Tim Russert, and Brit Hume tell me what elitism is? An administration that shreds the constitution, tortures people, ignores all polls, steals elections, funnels taxpayer money to cronies in the mercenary military, oil, and healthcare industries while neglecting infrastructure and disaster needs — that’s elitism and “out of touch.” Before I bust a vein over this, I’ll point you to the three best blogs I’ve seen about it: Roy 1 and Roy2, Josh Marshall’s, and Jay Rosen at Huffpo about the breaking of the story. Bring on the class war!