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the MTAA-RR

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MTAA-RR:

Aug 28, 2003

Talking Points Memo

posted at 14:25 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

I’m feeling very political this week. Perhaps its my rage at seeing the Chimp swagger around in his little cowboy outfit while he and his buddies FUCK UP the US more than any other administration in a long, long time.

So, I wanted to point out a great political and foreign policy analysis blog by Joshua Micah Marshall called Talking Points Memo.

If you oppose the current disaster of an administration in The White House this blog is definitely a daily must-read. He is especially adept at skewering the neo-con’s lies, distortions, untruths, and waffling. And he provides great logical anaylsis of the spin coming out of the chimp’s admin and certain segments of our ‘free’ press.

Check it out! permanent link to this post

Aug 26, 2003

Dean in NYC tonight!

posted at 16:28 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/politics

Howard Dean, front-runner in the democratic presidential primary race, is coming to NYC tonight!

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP TO ATTEND

It’s in Bryant Park at 8:30PM. Bryant Park is behind the New York Public Library, one block west from Grand Central Station, and one block east of Times Square, on 42nd Street.

I’m really excited about Dean and my company (me) has been doing a lot of work for his campaign in the form of HowardDean.tv and I encourage you to check that site out as well. But, my real baby at HowardDean.tv is our little Darwin Streaming Server that I set up on an old G4 450. Here are direct links to some of the streams (they should open in your quicktime player, download quicktime here):

Dean in Falls Church, VA on August 23

Dean’s Join Us ad. (Dean bought lots of television time in Texas while Bush was vacationing at this ranch. har har) permanent link to this post

Big News!

posted at 10:11 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Today, August 26th, 2003, if you go to Google and type in: Williamsburg hipster What is the NUMBER 1 returned hit? Could it be this? Indeed it could be.

Why do I care? Because if someone is looking to reify their mistaken beliefs regarding Williamsburg and the hipsters therein, then my post, being at the numero uno spot on Google will serve it’s purpose of smashing that meme all the better. permanent link to this post

Aug 25, 2003

Very Bad Painting

posted at 16:40 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

I’ve been bitchin’ about this over on thingist so I figured I might as well bitch about it here too.

I’m lazy, so I’m going to cut-n-paste the original post from thingist:

First, Read this NYTime’s article. When this inspiration struck Mr. Forbes in 1989, he turned to a painter named James Childs, whose work Mr. Forbes’s father, Malcolm Forbes, had collected with interest. Up until then Mr. Childs had been painting mainly landscapes or classical motifs with models—that is, models he had to pay, instead of the kind who pay him. this would be disgusting as is, but look at the paintings! they’re not even good! they suck! the colors get muddy in the shadows, the drawing is wobbly, there is no dimension, everything seems flat, and the motifs are ridiculous and contrived!

what a bunch of assholes! they pay 10s of thousands of dollars for a VERY, VERY BAD painting of themselves, what a joke! the fucking rich people don’t even have taste anymore! or they’ve forgotten that they’re supposed to pay someone to tell them what is good and what isn’t. it’s a sad state, a sorry state, i tell ya.

check here for reproductions of this bad art.

a particularly tasty atrocity.
what sort of dumbass would paint this? seriously? is this a joke? this is satire, right? i mean—you gotta be kiddin’ me!

if anyone replies to this with a “these aren’t so bad” I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND KILL YOU! permanent link to this post

Aug 22, 2003

Mumford in Baghdad

posted at 10:36 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Artist Steve Mumford has returned to Baghdad. You can read his Baghdad Journal and check out some JPEGs of his sketches at artnet.com.

Steve is a very good painter who shows at Postmasters (you can see some of his work by clicking here). His work is generally oriented towards nature or natural imagery, sometimes with hints of nature harming humans or humans harming nature.

Steve and his wife, the painter Inka Essenhigh, are old friends of mine (I met Inka as a freshman in college) and I have enormous respect for Steve’s nerve in going to Iraq at this dangerous time.

In the the current Baghdad Jounal, Steve’s sketches show a Baghdad which seems peaceful and calm. The sketches look like they could have been done in any arab city. It was confusing to me that Steve wouldn’t include any hint of the American occupation in the sketches. In the current batch of sketches there are no signs of the military, war damage, demonstrations or any other sign of the war or occupation.

I understand that Steve may be wanting to show the people of Iraq or to show us something which is an alternative to what the media shows us. But, it seems strange to me that there aren’t any images which reflect the reality of the occupation and war.

Regardless, it’s great to see and read an artist’s POV. I wish Steve good luck and a safe trip. permanent link to this post

Aug 19, 2003

More on IALA

posted at 16:24 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

as mentioned a few post back, we are in a show at THE premier gallery for new media in baton rouge. And now, the website is up. Check it. permanent link to this post

Aug 17, 2003

The Incredibly Tardy Blackout Story

posted at 14:34 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Right? I mean—damn! It’s Sunday for cryin’-out-loud!

I’m sure you may have read some heart-warming or hair-raising stories already so I would like to bore you with a story of pettiness.

Friday, late morning, I’m standing in line at a pay phone on the corner of Grand St. and Bedford Ave. in Brooklyn attempting to contact my mother in Cleveland. There is a guy in line who claims to be conducting audio interviews for the BBC’s website and he interviews another guy in front of me in the pay phone line.

The guy being interviewed was the biggest idiot I’d ever heard. First, he’s going on about how he’s “trapped” in Brooklyn! WTF? Man, have you ever heard of these cool new things called BRIDGES? There are a bunch of them which span the East River. In fact, there is one of these amazing structures only FIVE BLOCKS south of here! Walk your lazy-ass OVER the bridge and back to Manhattan because we don’t need you in Brooklyn.

THEN, this dolt goes on about how the power is back on in Manhattan and spouting off about how everyone needs to be patient. At this point, I wanted to grab the mic and tell the BBC that not all New Yorkers have such a generous attitude towards the energy companies which allowed this bullshit to happen. I wanted to scream how we demand accountability, we demand punishment for those responsible, we demand our electric service RETURNED!

Obviously, I didn’t do anything like that, I simply waited patiently in line and still couldn’t get through to my mother and grandmother in Cleveland. permanent link to this post

Aug 15, 2003

Flashlight

posted at 18:33 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

Well, I try to stay away from the day in the life blog posts but I have had an odd week. So here, dear blog, is my run down. First off, beach camping. Take the Long Island Rail Road about one hour East, get off the train, walk across a parking lot past the bowling alley, get on a ferry, travel South for about a half hour, get off the ferry, check in with the ranger station for wilderness camping, hike East on the beach for about a mile and a quarter and there you are. My camp in the dunes. Not a person in site. Not a thing to do except watch the ocean. After two days out, the sky started to look a bit black. I broke camp and headed back to NYC. Went straight to bed when I got home. Got up early the next day and drove to Long Beach in NYC. Goal - just watching suffers and reading. Came home from the beach around 3, turned on my computer and…Blackout 03. Believe it or not, I had a good time in the blackout. No AC, dark, nothing to do but watch the stars. It was just like camping. So now, it is off to Texas for a few days. Goal - look at the back of large paintings. Yee-haw permanent link to this post

Aug 13, 2003

New Yorkers are rude!

posted at 12:21 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Well, no they’re not and I hate this meme more than the Williamsburg hipster thing.

Some folks are attempting to put this meme to rest as well.

While others are propagating it.

This is my attempt to dispel the stereotype.

Riding the L train to work the other day an unfortunate young woman became unconscience. I was reading and minding my own business as we pulled into the Union Square stop when a woman at the back of the car started pushing the emergency call button and frantically telling the conductor to call EMS. A young woman had fainted and fallen to the floor but I couldn’t see what was happening through the packed rush-hour train.

At Union Square, the majority of the riders left the train except for a core of 4 or 5 people gathered around the young woman. They laid her down using someone’s shoulder bag as a pillow, someone donated their bottled water for her, an older lady was holding her hand and telling her everything would be OK. Everyone seemed genuinely concerned. And it was a mix of black and white folks too.

So, that’s rude New Yorkers for you. One would think that after 9/11 the meme would have disappeared when the nation saw the incredible outpouring of volunteerism on the part of everyday New Yorkers, but it seems to still linger. permanent link to this post

Aug 11, 2003

vacation

posted at 10:34 GMT by M.River in /news/mriver

everyone now, sing-a-long - vaction , all i ever wanted…

going on tues be back on thurs or fri
beach camping permanent link to this post

Aug 10, 2003

I like to watch TV

posted at 21:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Many artists and intellectuals either don’t like or don’t like to admit they like TV.

I’m coming out of the closet: I like to watch TV. TV is entertaining. TV gives me something to do when I’m bored. TV can be informative. And there can even be some things that approach very good art on TV. The HBO series Six Feet Under is one example of great TV.

Unfortunately, for Americans, to get good TV you need to pay for it. You absolutely must have cable or satellite TV to get good TV. It’s a good thing that it’s very easy to steal cable TV. Me? I pay for it. And it ain’t cheap. But I like it and I think it’s worth it. permanent link to this post

Aug 07, 2003

The Pirated Movie

posted at 09:52 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid

Looks like our plan to screen a pirated version of The Pirates of The Caribbean is going to become a reality.

Postmasters Gallery has been kind enough to allow us to use their back gallery to screen it and we’re busily confirming musicians and DJs who will provide the audio for the silent screening. We’re also going to screen it in black and white. We’re going to video tape the entire thing and burn it onto a DVD as well (which could present problems as consumer grade DVD-burning solutions top out at an hour don’t they?). Well, whatever, we’re doing it.

We’re calling it simply “The Pirated Movie” and we’re thinking of it as a protest piece. permanent link to this post

Aug 04, 2003

The “SUMMEr oF HTML” Tour

posted at 12:41 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid/photos

MTAA’s M.River provided the 8 foot tall HTML letters hand-crafted from plywood that adorned the front entrance to TEAM Gallery for the kick-off of the “SUMMEr oF HTML” tour. The tour includes performances and stuff by EXTREME ANIMALS/8-BIT CONSTRUCTION SET/BEIGE PROGRAMMING ENSEMBLE and PAPERRAD.

T.Whid was tired and sweaty and left early so these photos aren’t of the whole show unfortunately. It was highly entertaining, informative and fun and If I wasn’t so lazy I could have enjoyed the entire thing. I’ll be regretting it for some time I’m sure.

Click here for the photos permanent link to this post

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