The Streets of Europe @ Jonathan Levine Gallery

Finally got around (on the last day, no less) to seeing the Streets of Europe exhibit at the Jonathan Levine Gallery in Chelsea. The exhibit was a survey of some of the most talented street artists in the world: Blu, Blek le Rat, Microbo, D*Face, BO 130 and Space Invader. The exhibit, unlike the overdone Banksy show that also drew to a close today at the Vanina Holasek Gallery, let the pieces speak for themselves. The rather traditional (albeit spacious) gallery space had its walls expertly covered with not only framed prints, but three-dimensional pieces by Microbo and and Bo 130 and stenciled rats scurrying along the bottom of Blek le Rat’s area. The work from the elusive Blu may was unsurprisingly strong–the Italian artist had a room to himself, in which he squeezed a dizzying but entrancing, multi-wall-plus-the-floor mural, a brief but thought-provoking video projection and a collection of wonderful ink drawings. Paris’ Space Invader may have stolen the show, though, with his irreverent pieces made almost entirely from Rubik’s cubes. One captured Sid Vicious’ mug shot in a slightly more colorful (and much more tiled) light, while the other humorously placed three Pac-Man ghosts against a scenic forest pond. Overall, one of the most consistently enjoyable group exhibits I’ve seen, and certainly a great way to close out the year.

For more photos, continue…

Benazir Bhutto Assassinated at 54

Photo Courtesy ABC

Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister of Pakistan and leader of the Pakistan People’s Party was assassinated near Islamabad on Thursday. At least a dozen others were killed in a suicide attack at a political rally when Bhutto was fired upon at close range, The New York Times reported.

According to Time, Bhutto’s death will plunge the upcoming elections into uncertainty and the country further into instability. Musharraf has called for three days of mourning, and has warned about the riots that will take place in the streets of Pakistan in the wake of her death.

According to an aide to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, he blames Islamic militants for the assassination of Bhutto.

President Bush released a statement about those responsible for the killing of the former opposition leader. “The United States strongly condemns this cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan’s democracy,” he said. “Those who committed this crime must be brought to justice.”

be merry

photo courtesy krisdecurtis

Merry Christmas, everybody! Hope Santa was good to you.

‘Twas the Night

Happy Christmas Eve, everybody. Hope the above video gets you in the spirit.

Here are some other things to keep in mind this evening:

NORAD Tracks Santa
NASA reminds us tonight is the highest-riding full moon until 2023
The Matzo Ball will have Jewish singles dancing until the morning

The Huckabee/Media Lovefest Rolls On (We Heart Huckabee?)

photo courtesy politisite

As Christmas approaches, one presidential candidate sure seems to be getting the wondrous gift of rabid media attention: Republican Mike Huckabee. In Friday’s New York Times, Paul Vitello wrote an almost-embarrassingly full-of-awe article on the Christian conservative’s Iowa campaign trip. A few of the article’s gems:

“On the campaign trail, Mr. Huckabee is a polished performer who can be funny, endearingly self-deprecating and acute enough to move his audience to tears when he wants.”

“But he does not light up a room the way some charismatic politicians, like a Barack Obama, might. He warms it up.”

“[His stock message] is pretty much Reagan-era stuff, only funnier.”

At times, Vitello seems to be employing a tongue-in-cheek sense of sarcasm, but by the end of the piece, you can feel that he, like so many others in the media, has developed a bit of a slack-jawed obsession.

The article comes at a time when Huckabee’s name is on the tip of the national tongue, whether it’s because of his possibly-subliminal-message-filled Christmas video (see below), his call to bring the Ten Commandments into the White House, or bizarre celebrity endorsements ranging from Chuck Norris (again, see below) to former pro wrestler Ric “The Nature Boy” Flair. For better or for worse, Huckabee is starting to look like Red America’s Sweetheart.

Merry Christmas!

Tiger is not a very happy camper. His family has forced him to wear a Santa hat to get him into the Christmas spirit.

Putin is TIME’s Person of the Year

photo courtesy etchasketchist

TIME Magazine has named Russian president Vladimir Putin as its 2007 Person of the Year, beating out a crop of runners-up that includes Al Gore and J.K. Rowling. Although the magazine identified Putin as a “dangerous” man (a view shared by many Americans), it highlighted the increased stability of the formerly chaotic nation as the major reason behind the decision:

“He stands, above all, for stability—stability before freedom, stability before choice, stability in a country that has hardly seen it for a hundred years…At significant cost to the principles and ideas that free nations prize, he has performed an extraordinary feat of leadership in imposing stability on a nation that has rarely known it and brought Russia back to the table of world power.”

For those of us in college, it may be somewhat difficult to get used to the idea of Russia as an international superpower. Boris Yeltsin’s 1991 “shock therapy” economic reform, which sent the country into a deep economic and social crisis, has meant that, in the majority of our lifetimes, Russia has been forced to take a somewhat reduced role in international affairs. Under Putin, though, this is no longer the case. His presidency has overseen eight straight years of economic growth, and he is both immensely popular within his country and increasingly powerful on the world stage.

At the same time, charges of Putin running a “sovereign democracy” often seem valid. Do you agree with TIME? Or are you as appalled as Mitt Romney is?

Clemens Denies Steroid Use

photo courtesy Jory’z Shotz

Yesterday, in the wake of Senator George Mitchell’s steroid report, the accused Roger Clemens released a statement through his agent, Randy Hendricks, denying any current or past steroid use. The statement reads as follows:

“I want to state clearly and without qualification: I did not take steroids, human growth hormone or any other banned substances at any time in my baseball career or, in fact, my entire life. Those substances represent a dangerous and destructive shortcut that no athlete should ever take.”

Do you buy Clemens’ innocence? Perhaps more importantly, do you think the MLB will be able to recover from this latest blow in the ongoing steroids saga?

M.I.A. Video Controversy

photo courtesy melissa_sucks

M.I.A., everyone’s favorite Sri Lankan-by-way-of-London retro-hip-hop superstar, recently lashed out at both MTV and The David Letterman Show on her MySpace blog. Her anger was over the censoring of her “Paper Planes” video and talk show performance. The song, which, in this writer’s opinion, is one of 2007’s best, features a chorus filled with gunshots (as in, “All I wanna do is [gunshot, gunshot, gunshot, gunshot] and a [cash register sound] and take your money”). Apparently, Letterman and MTV found this unique instrumentation a bit abrasive, causing them to play her performance and video, respectively, as a version with a gunshot-free chorus. Here’s what M.I.A. had to say:

“SO THEY TRIED TO SHUT ME DOWN AGAIN. I MADE THE PAPER PLANES VIDEO. I MADE IT HOW THEY WANTED. NO VIOLENCE. AMBIGUOUS. MTV – FRIENDLY. NOW TODAY, I CHECK YOUTUBE AND SEE THE LEAKED MTV PAPER PLANES VIDEO UP FOR THE FIRST TIME. I CLICKED ON IT AND OUT COMES THIS F—ED UP MESS WITH DOUBLE-TRACKED BULLS–T MESS”

With that anger brewing, M.I.A. decided to release this unedited version of the video:

As you might be able to tell from the video or from other exposure you may have had to M.I.A., she is an artist with a keen sense of irony. It’s a shame that network censors have had a hard time figuring out when someone is or is not actually advocating violence. Maybe it’s the fact that her dad was a Tamil Tiger?

Most Inspiring Person of 2007

Photo Courtesy: johnmcnab

Liviu Librescu, a 76-year-old Holocaust survivor and engineering science professor who was shot and killed in the Virginia Tech Massacre, has been named the most inspiring person of 2007 by Beliefnet.com, a large multi-faith spiritual Web site. When gunman Seung-Hui Cho attempted to enter Librescu’s classroom on April 16, Librescu held the door shut so his students could escape through the windows. All but one of his students survived.

Beliefnet honors the most inspiring person of the year based on readers’ votes and a final decision by the site’s editors. The site stated that Librescu was nominated for “showing supreme unselfishness in the face of great personal danger.” The runners-up were Angelina Jolie for her humanitarian work in helping child victims of war, and Wesley Autrey, the NYC “subway hero” who dove in front of an oncoming train to help a man who fell onto the tracks while having a seizure.

 View all nominees here.