Living artist Jim Dine is best known for his Pop Art work and involvement with Happenings back in the 1960s. The National Gallery of Art exhibited his drawings five years ago, but that doesn't mean many people consider him a great draughtsman. But the Morgan Library has the (dubious?) honor of receiving 40 of his drawings known as The Glyptotek Drawings that were created between 1987-88. The series was inspired by Greek and Roman sculpture, primarily from the Glyptotek Museum in Munich and doesn't resemble much of the work for which Dine is famous.
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Reporter Dan Rivoli spoke to GOP-stalwart David Casavis, who is determined to unseat Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer so he can then dissolve the position entirely. From the West Side Spirit:
“The only person who can do this is me; the only one willing to say, “That’s it. Enough,’” said Casavis.Casavis, who ran for an East Side Assembly seat last year, said eliminating all five Borough President offices will be his sole goal. “If I can get elected, it is one step in getting rid of this job,” Casavis explained.
Casavis will follow in the footsteps of 2005 Republican Borough President candidate Barry Popik, who received nearly 41,000 votes against Stringer’s 200,152. Popik also ran on a platform of eliminating the Manhattan Borough President position.
Each borough president receives a salary of $160,000 a year plus millions of dollars in discretionary funds that are given to local organizations and nonprofits. The offices have been criticized as a ceremonial position since the U.S. Supreme Court dissolved the Board of Estimate, which gave the borough presidents a say in land use and budget issues, in 1989.
“There’s no purpose,” Casavis said. “It’s having a captain of the ship with no ship.”
Here's the second Newmore Switchblades Tour Diary featuring The Death Set, Ninjasonik, Cerebral Ballzy, Totally Michael and Team Robespierre as they journey to Austin.
NMSB Tour Diary, Part II
Days 3 thru 6, Virginia to Florida
- Grabbing dinner at Rosetta's Kitchen in Asheville, NC where they had pay-what-you-wish soup and corn bread.
- Zipco bringing a lazer-sighted pellet gun to the show and shooting people when they least expected it. Feels not dissimilar to a bee sting and leaves a nice welt many days later.
- Meeting some interesting characters outside of the venue in Asheville, including a guy trying to sell us a bag of "Soapium" which was a small bar of soap in a plastic bag.
- Immediately after crossing the border in to Alabama, stopping to buy fireworks.
- "Sometimes you talk so much shit that I have to get unsick to talk shit to you before I can go back to being sick." -Ty of Team Robespierre
- Team Robespierre gets some smoke-bomb-treatment in their van in Birmingham.
Also, check out the NMSB Tour Trailer:
Last week kicked off the Newmore Switchblades Tour featuring the Death Set, Ninjasonik, Cerebral Ballzy, Totally Michael and Team Robespierre trekking down and back to Austin for South by Southwear. To try to make sense of it all and stir up some SXSW jealousy in Williamsburg, the Press has a diary of the tour coming straight from the bands on the road, beginning today with the first entry from Johnny Siera of the Death Set.
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The New School's Bob Kerrey still wants to build a new building (which may actually be a great idea for the cramped confines of the Village institution), but looks like the all-glass SOM design (pictured, like a Rem Koolhaas knock-off) is scrapped. Turns out bricks and mortar may indeed be cheaper than going the all-glass route. Let's just hope that it doesn't turn into an A.M. Stern-designed monstrosity and they at least give us something a little edgy and original. What with all the envelope-pushing architecture going up in the Meatpacking District, it would be nice to see something elevate the humdrum Fifth Avenue. According to Curbed: "The Village Residents Alliance, which has nervous about the scale of the new building, informs the Central Village about what happened at a recent meeting with embattled New School boss Bob Kerrey":
"Very good news is that their originally proposed 350′ tall building is off the table. According to Kerrey, given current economic conditions, it was “way too big, too expensive” and they are now designing an “as-of-right” building which will be “considerably smaller.”
This could mean a tall, thin tower on the smaller eastern lot, next to Amalgamated Bank, with a lower building on the larger western lot. They will not ask for variances which would have produced a far larger, bulkier building without setbacks. This new plan would allow greater light into the Fifth Avenue/14th Street area than the former design and was the preference of community members who have been weighing in on the issue."
Don't believe in the power and manipulation of editing? If the new Oscars format didn't help explain how much of the art is in the edit cut, then check out this incredible recut of the Watchmen trailer with Pixar's Incredibles to see how it can all change with a bit of finesse.
Cafe Wha? may not have much going for it these days, but it's one of the few legendary clubs that has survived the West Village's upscale progress. Having launched the careers of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, Kool and the Gang and others, you'd think the MacDougal Street Beat Generation hangout would get a reprieve from corporate music greed. But BMI and ASCAP are after the club, which is named in a "pair of copyright-infringement suits charging unlicensed performances of Billy Roberts' 'Hey Joe' and more than a dozen other hits," according to a Post story, for playing songs written by James Brown, Prince, Lenny Kravitz and Tom Petty.
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Just in time for a bit of pre-Watchmen tomfoolery, here's a clip that takes the piss out of all the Watchmen "fanatics" we've been hearing so much about for about two years in preparation of the movie's release (which is March 6, so hope you're read for "a truly unique, one-of-a-kind, movie going experience.") If you don't know the story already, maybe you can get a short version of the plot from one of the many kids "re-reading" the graphic novel on the L train. Or maybe not. Since, if you try, no one can really tell you much other than: "I love that cool scene on Mars. Oh, and the Palace of the Moon is AMAAAAAAZING." Oh, and get ready for more destruction of New York City—which never goes out of style.
Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau may look like he's been on a course to live forever (he was born 1919, so yes, he's one of those few who remembr the Great Depression), but turns out he's finally decided to not run for re-election. City Hall news reports that he's opted against his promised “90 in ’09” run and was "sighted introducing Cyrus Vance to key players in the Chinatown community at a recent Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association dinner." By law he's not allowed to endorse candidates, but it appears he prefers Vance, a former assistant district attorney and son of the former secretary of state.
According to City Hall: "Morgenthau will not be supporting Dan Castelman, the office’s longtime chief of investigations, who lobbied hard to get the support of his boss to succeed him."
The official announcement of Morgenthau's decision not to run isn't expected until next week. But seems he'll no longer have to take whatever measures he's been needing to resuscitate every morning.
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