I'm totally obsessed with this Magnetic Movie from Semiconductor. I've been learning quite a bit about magnetism and string theory and all sorts of fun physics for the screenplay I am working on and came across Semiconductor's work in the process. Really interesting stuff that speaks for itself.
Taking the AP Headline "Artist Robert Rauschenberg Dead at 82" and prefacing it with the word "Gay", Advocate* paid tribute to the influential pre-pop visionary by unceremoniously -- and inaccurately-- outing him.
The problem? Throughout his life Rauschenberg actively avoided being called "gay" or "homosexual", preferring, when pressed to describe himself as "pansexual". When Rauschenberg's "Combines" show came to L.A. in 2007, I ran a story by art historian Bill Picture called "Why Won't Robert Rauschenberg Come Out?" that covered the issue.
In the article, Picture wrote "according to [Harvey Milk Institute founder Jonathan] Katz, Rauschenberg doesn't identify as a gay man. "He considers himself pansexual," Katz explains. "You have to remember, though, that while we think of the term 'gay' today as a political identity as well as a sexual one, during the 1950s [when the Combines series was created] homosexuality was a pathology." Regarding the standing decision of curators and art historians to skirt the gay issue, Katz believes it has to do with more than just appeasing conservative museum-goers. "I think they're [also] opposed to the idea that there can be any kind of code that will unlock these works".
None of this was in the Advocate piece, which was printed verbatim from the wires except for the addition of the word "Gay" to the headline. What's the big deal, right? Even if Rauschenberg isn't totally gay, he's pretty gay. Obviously, I think a story about Rauschenberg in a gay publication is appropriate, but to tack on the label "gay" to someone on their death, when in life that person had a much more nuanced view of their sexuality is shoddy journalism.
That Advocate makes the claim without bothering to elaborate is just frustrating in its mindless reductionism. Would they print "Eleanor Roosevelt, Gay First Lady, Dead" or "Leonard Bernstein, Gay Composer, Dead"? It would seem so. While both figures are certainly worth talking about in a gay historical context, calling them gay and leaving it at that would be irresponsible. Same goes for Rauschenberg. If you're going to eulogize someone who's sexuality is not cut and dry, you at least owe it to your readers to report on it. The utter laziness in throwing "Gay" onto an AP headline and leaving it at that is infuriating. That it's coming from a gay publication is mind-boggling.
*Full disclosure: I write for Advocate from time to time.
Imagine for the moment that instead of being a bloviating, gossip and porn-filled time sink, the Internet were a giant game with teams creating and re-appropriating content and services to find new and novel ways with connecting with strangers and you'll get an idea of what ZeFrank's latest venture, Colorwars 2008 is all about.
I've been trying to figure out how to explain Colorwars for a week or so now. Users sign up by following "teams" on Twitter and then engage in various contests. Games so far have included a virtual game of rock, paper, scissors, bingo and a nerd rap. Upcoming challenges include a Gogle Earth scavneger hunt and smack talk haikus. And there are prizes; Jet Blue gave out free tickets in a recent contest. But the point of the game, already a darling of Web 2.0 types is to get people to play with each other and instead of developing elaborate new tech to do it, use exisiting tools like Twitter and GarageBand.
That's the wonky explanation I've been trying to avoid. So let me just walk you through it.
Then I started playing games. For instance, there's a game called YoungMeNowMe where you take a picture of yourself when you were young and restage it. Here's my entry.
Another game invites you to design your own merit badge, which as an Eagle Scout, I couldn't pass up. Presenting the Irony Merit Badge:
And finally, one of the contests going on right now is to create remixes of the Nerd Raps. I was aiming for a Gnarls Barkley-sound (that's me doing an embarrassing falsetto), but sort of wound up with Moby. Someday I'll graduate to Cee-Lo. Click on the photo below to listen:
Not all of the contests are this involved, but while I love that my work requires me to use my creativity, it's a lot of fun just play around and goof off now and then. At the same time, I'm connecting to other like-minded people and seeing how they respond to the challenges. The YoungMeNowMe photos, for instance, are amazing.
Colorwars is ongoing and you can join with no commitment. If this sounds super-rad (it is!) I would love for you to join Team IKB, but you can join any team here. All you need is a Twitter account (which you should have anyway--it's this month's Facebook).
Here's some of what I've been working on this week:
An interview with Arthur Dong, director of Hollywood Chinese, a fantastic documentary about the Chinese-American experience in Tinseltown. I could have talked to Arthur for hours-- a really funny, fascinating and thoughtful guy. (The Advocate)
A QnA with photographer Paul Mpagi Sepuya. Sort of got me thinking about how the media's job is to define and label things (this is a trend, it is about these kinds of people, it fits into this category) and fine artists are all about introducing ambiguity and challenging the nature of the boxes we stuff things into. Not that any of that shows up in the piece. (Popnography)
The 400 pound gorilla this week is my big feature story on "The Boys of Buzznet", Jeffree Star, Clint Catalyst and Matthew Lush. I'll probably write another blog soley about the backstory to this piece. For the moment, I'll just say I'm pretty proud of it and really thankful for my editor, Shana. (Out.com)
Hey New Yorkers, here's something for you. Up and comer Paul Mpagi Sepuya takes photos of his friends and associates. They're lovely, intimate and a refreshing shift from the usual way my generation likes to portray itself. Someday we'll learn the difference between expression and posturing, I swear. That said, a lot of his friends (some, like the dashing John Movius, seen above, are my friends too) are hot hipster gay boys, so the release party for his photo monograph Beloved Object & Amorous Subject, Revisted is at The Cock, naturally: This Wed night.
The New York Times hates hates hates the new Broad Contemporaty Art Museum (BCAM) that's opening at LACMA this weekend. It hates not only the building, but the art inside as well. Architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussouf sniffs the building "Will no doubt thrill those whose main focus is how a museum's design makes the art look. But architecture is about more than the quality of light" while art critic Roberta Smith looks around at the Broad's collection of contemporary lights like Cy Twombly, Jeff Koons and John Baldesari and huffs "the goal should be to do something that no one else is doing, not the thing that everyone has already done." The only thing the two of them both like is Chris Burden's lampost sculpture "Urban Light".
Both writers use the opening of BCAM as an opportunity to diss L.A.'s recent civic efforts to make Southern California a more cosmopolitan place, rightly pointing out that Richard Meir's Getty Center turns its back on the city both literally and spiritually. But that was more than a decade ago, an eternity in a city so young. Since then we've had Morphosis' CalTrans, Disney Concert Hall and more than half a dozen exciting new building in the works, from a Century City vertical oasis by Jean Nouvel to three seperate development projects for downtown.
The New York critics complain that Renzo Piano's LACMA addition isn't "L.A. enough" and they do it in a tone so strident, you can't help but think that anything short of Piano building a freeway through the LaBrea Tar Pits would be deemed inauthentic. In fact, Ouroussouf makes the freeway comparison to an earlier proposal for LACMA by Rem Koolhaas, which planned on demolioshing all but one of the current structures and covering it with an enormous glass tent. "Mr. Koolhaas's design reflected a shrewd awareness of what made Los Angeles one of the most original urban creations of the 20th century. The elevated concrete slab eerily evoked a displaced fragment of elevated freeway", he writes, before damning Piano for keeping the original buildings in his design. One of the main reasons Koolhaas addition was scrapped was that they couldn't figure out a way to clean pigeon droppings off the glass tent roof. With BCAM, LACMA now gets to contend with a similar problem--only the incoming is from critics instead of birds.
Britney's Self-Service Salon, my contribution to the JUST BRITNEY show, gets the TMZ treatment today with snarky commentary and a video of Perez Hilton and Jeffree Star playing with the piece-- ie: shaving people's heads. Link here.
It's not all blogging, folks. I also do art-- like John Ruskin for the 21st Century (he's more talented, I'm less sexually repressed -- it's a trade-off) I can't help sticking my fingers in all the pots.
Tomorrow is the opening night of the JUST BRITNEY group art show at the World of Wonder Art Gallery, 6650 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood California. I've got three pieces in the show. Collectively, they're called "Britney's Self-Service Salon".
8pm - Midnight, open bar sponsored by Svedka Vodka.
"Just Britney", a show all about Ms. Spears is going up September 28th at the World of Wonder (WOW) gallery in Hollywood. I'm doing the main window display piece, entitled "Britney's Self-Service Salon". I'm looking for a few brave souls willing to shave their heads for the opening night reception. If you went to the "Golden Girls Gone Wild" show, you know that these thing draw huge crowds and you'll be right up front and center. Come help blur the lines of celebrity by briefly being one yourself! If you're interested, or know someone who would be, email me athairtoday@themodernromantic.com
Hey New Yorkers, here's something for you. Up and comer Paul Mpagi Sepuya takes photos of his friends and associates. They're lovely, intimate and a refreshing shift from the usual way my generation likes to portray itself. Someday we'll learn the difference between expression and posturing, I swear. That said, a lot of his friends (some, like the dashing John Movius, seen above, are my friends too) are hot hipster gay boys, so the release party for his photo monograph Beloved Object & Amorous Subject, Revisted is at The Cock, naturally: This Wed night.
The Feds raid four L.A. area museums as seen on the NYTimes website.
It's not all blogging, folks. I also do art-- like John Ruskin for the 21st Century (he's more talented, I'm less sexually repressed -- it's a trade-off) I can't help sticking my fingers in all the pots.
"Just Britney", a show all about Ms. Spears is going up September 28th at the World of Wonder (WOW) gallery in Hollywood. I'm doing the main window display piece, entitled "Britney's Self-Service Salon". I'm looking for a few brave souls willing to shave their heads for the opening night reception. If you went to the "Golden Girls Gone Wild" show, you know that these thing draw huge crowds and you'll be right up front and center. Come help blur the lines of celebrity by briefly being one yourself! If you're interested, or know someone who would be, email me at hairtoday@themodernromantic.com