The performer-writer Ann Liv Young belongs to the movement in the arts that was labeled Sensation in the 1990s. She performed “Snow White” naked, apart from a Disney mask on her face, while heavily pregnant. Dildos and masturbation have been part of her theatrical fare. At MoMA P.S. 1 in February she insulted a fellow artist’s work (accompanied by urination and masturbation) until management turned the lights off on her. And on Friday and Saturday she performed a one-woman “Cinderella” at the Issue Project Room in Gowanus, Brooklyn. In this, she converses with members of the audience and also urinates and defecates onstage. (…)

Waiting 10 minutes for someone to defecate onstage is boring.

{ NY Times | Continue reading }

unrelated { Upcoming free museum days in NYC }

illustration { Mathias Schweizer’s Malamerde }

I’m not going to gripe about the price of tickets or the price of concessions or the exclusive Heineken sponsorship that forced me to drink, well Heineken, or even the weather, as you had no control over that.
But a few questions:

1. Upon arriving at the stadium bag-free as per your security notes, I was told that e-readers were not allowed in the stadium. E-READERS! iPhones, BlackBerries, video cameras, real cameras, these things are all allowed. On these things one can take pictures, video, talk, blog, surf the web. On an e-reader, one can … read. Why does the USTA hate literacy? By the way, I went to another entrance and snuck mine in, so take THAT!

{ Ken Wheaton | Continue reading }

{ Blue Six, You Play Too Rough, 2010 }

{ The Knife, N.Y. Hotel, 2001 }

{ Over the weekend, 9/11 memorials were held across the nation. In New York, one such memorial was held at City Hall Park. Organized by inventors Steven Brandstetter and James Devlin of J&S Gaming, the event featured the pair’s Lottery Ball Characters which were turned into life sized costumes to represent the likeness of a police officer and a fireman. | adrants via copyranter }

The First 9/11 Movie Musical: Clear Blue Tuesday.

“Ground Zero Mosque” protesters driving around a rented, decommissioned missile.

Top Models Named for Fashion’s Night Out Show: Naomi Campbells…

“Whoever at Curbed decided the actual address and floor plan was necessary to get those page views, I hope they die in a fire.” Rachel Maddow isn’t happy about Curbed publishing the floor plans and address of the West Village apartment she’s moving into.

Lady Gaga Dresses as (Nearly Naked) Statue of Liberty. Plus: Official Lady Gaga Halloween Costumes. Related: Lady Gaga’s Healthy Diet: Tofu, Turkey and Hummus.

Tropical Storm Warnings For Long Island & Jersey Shores. More: Long Island officials are opening shelters and making other emergency plans in case Hurricane Earl hits the Hamptons this week.

Camping in a Brooklyn Wilderness.

Oyster festivals set for September, October in NY.

‘We’re Getting The Hell Out Of This Sewer,’ Entire Populace Reports. 8.4 Million New Yorkers Suddenly Realize New York City A Horrible Place To Live.

Former Lower East Side hipster owes IRS $172 million in back taxes.

A Bronx judge has thrown out a summons issued against a Bronx man for wearing saggy pants, finding that “the Constitution still leaves some opportunity for people to be foolish if they so desire.”

Police in New York say a woman had a sneezing fit that caused her to drive off a road, crash into several trees and plow through a fence.

One couple who left their car parked in a long-term lot near Kennedy Airport during a trip to California is trying to figure out what their car has been doing without them.

The owners of the Empire State Building and their supporters say their tower’s international status and New York City’s skyline are in mortal danger of an assault from a “monstrosity.” Their rival: a proposed tower on Seventh Avenue, two blocks to the west, that, according to its developers, will help the city grow and prosper, provide thousands of jobs and improve the quality of life for tens of thousands of New Yorkers. [Read more]

MTA says the cost of unlimited cards would soar to $130 next month.

NY bicycle news roundup: bike share, Unicycle Fest, new path.

NYC subway, late 70s.

Why is New York called the Big Apple?

[$12 a pack] It’s been six weeks since New York’s state government raised the cigarette tax to $4.35 a pack, and guess what? Cigarette sales have fallen by 35 percent. (…)

The crazy-high price of cigarettes here is sending New Yorkers over the state border to, say, Pennsylvania, where a pack of cigarettes can be obtained for around $5, or Jersey, where they’re $7ish. People are also heading to Indian reservations, where, according to a friend who does exactly this, you can get a carton for $22, and where sales have apparently gone up a whopping 300%.

{ Village Voice | Continue reading }

photo { Petra Collins }

It’s hot outside.

But there is hot and then, to use the scientific term, there is hot. There is also hot as we experience it today, of course, in our super-chilled buildings and ventilated apartments, and hot as it was felt a century ago when an indoor breeze meant your cousin was blowing on your belly.

Take, for example, July 3, 1901, when 200 deaths and 300 cases of heat prostration were caused in New York City as the temperatures reached — and one could be excused for adding “only” here — 99 degrees.

{ NY Times | Continue reading }

related { Fort Tilden State Park feels like the city’s best-kept secret—an unspoiled island oasis, tantalizingly close to Manhattan. Even on a weekend at the height of summer, you’ll get a 50-yard stretch of beach to yourself. }

Until the Mexican-American War, it was not clear whether the dominant power in North America would have its capital in Washington or Mexico City. Mexico was the older society with a substantially larger military. The United States, having been founded east of the Appalachian Mountains, had been a weak and vulnerable country. At its founding, it lacked strategic depth and adequate north-south transportation routes. The ability of one colony to support another in the event of war was limited. More important, the United States had the most vulnerable of economies: It was heavily dependent on maritime exports and lacked a navy able to protect its sea-lanes against more powerful European powers like England and Spain. The War of 1812 showed the deep weakness of the United States. By contrast, Mexico had greater strategic depth and less dependence on exports.

The American solution to this strategic weakness was to expand the United States west of the Appalachians, first into the Northwest Territory ceded to the United States by the United Kingdom and then into the Louisiana Purchase, which Thomas Jefferson ordered bought from France. These two territories gave the United States both strategic depth and a new economic foundation. The regions could support agriculture that produced more than the farmers could consume. Using the Ohio-Missouri-Mississippi river system, products could be shipped south to New Orleans. New Orleans was the farthest point south to which flat-bottomed barges from the north could go, and the farthest inland that oceangoing ships could travel. New Orleans became the single most strategic point in North America. Whoever controlled it controlled the agricultural system developing between the Appalachians and the Rockies. During the War of 1812, the British tried to seize New Orleans, but forces led by Andrew Jackson defeated them in a battle fought after the war itself was completed.

Jackson understood the importance of New Orleans to the United States. He also understood that the main threat to New Orleans came from Mexico. The U.S.-Mexican border then stood on the Sabine River, which divides today’s Texas from Louisiana. It was about 200 miles from that border to New Orleans and, at its narrowest point, a little more than 100 miles from the Sabine to the Mississippi.

Mexico therefore represented a fundamental threat to the United States. In response, Jackson authorized a covert operation under Sam Houston to foment an uprising among American settlers in the Mexican department of Texas with the aim of pushing Mexico farther west. With its larger army, a Mexican thrust to the Mississippi was not impossible — nor something the Mexicans would necessarily avoid, as the rising United States threatened Mexican national security.

Mexico’s strategic problem was the geography south of the Rio Grande (known in Mexico as the Rio Bravo). This territory consisted of desert and mountains. Settling this area with large populations was impossible. Moving through it was difficult. As a result, Texas was very lightly settled with Mexicans, prompting Mexico initially to encourage Americans to settle there. Once a rising was fomented among the Americans, it took time and enormous effort to send a Mexican army into Texas. When it arrived, it was weary from the journey and short of supplies. The insurgents were defeated at the Alamo and Goliad, but as the Mexicans pushed their line east toward the Mississippi, they were defeated at San Jacinto, near present-day Houston.

The creation of an independent Texas served American interests, relieving the threat to New Orleans and weakening Mexico.

{ George Friedman, Arizona, Borderlands and U.S.-Mexican Relations | Continue reading }

photo { Gosia Wieruszewska }

“Yoga is a good thing, so you tend to push further than you would in a sport where you are actually more attuned to injury and afraid of injuries,” said Dr. Michelle Carlson, an orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan who specializes in arms and hands. She said she recently “saw four women in a row in my office with hand injuries from yoga.”

Nobody seems to keep careful track of the numbers. The most recent estimate comes from the United States Product Safety Commission, which tracks sports injuries: it listed 4,450 reported yoga injuries in 2006, up from 3,760 in 2004. But Dr. Carlson and several others said they had seen large increases lately, as yoga became more popular. “I have been doing this for 20 years, and I didn’t see yoga injuries 20 years ago,” Dr. Carlson said. “I can see a couple of injuries a week.”

Training for yoga teachers can vary, and classes are so large in some studios that instructors do not pay enough attention to everybody. In New York, many people approach yoga with a no-pain, no-gain mind-set, with predictable results.

Then there is the age factor: you see a fair share of middle-aged people twisting and bending and lunging, and I know from experience that a 40-something body is temperamental.

Back injuries are quite common. Positions like upward dog and cobra, requiring backbends, can aggravate the spine. Others that call for elongating the back, like seated forward bend, can wreak havoc on discs. Rotator cuffs and wrists can get battered during plank poses and chaturangas, which are like push-ups, while knees are susceptible to the lotus position, hero’s pose and the warrior positions.

The headstand — a more advanced move — is an equal opportunity offender. If done improperly, it can roil your back, neck, shoulders and wrists.

Then there are the freak injuries. A woman in crow pose fell over and broke her nose.

{ NY Times | Continue reading }

photo { Anthony Suau }

{ “Top Secret America” Washington Post Investigation Reveals Massive, Unmanageable, Outsourced US Intelligence System | Full story }

{ How Chinese owners turn their pets into exotic wildlife in new craze | more }

{ A Lamborghini BLEW UP on Rodney Street, which serves as the off-ramp for the BQE’s Metropolitan Avenue exit. | New York Shitty | via Copyranter }

unrelated { unrelated: For the last two years of his life, after an attempted suicide, Schumann was confined to a mental institution at his own request. }

{ The Social Art Collective is proud to present Heroin Stamp Project, an exhibition focusing on the branding of heroin in New York City. At once beautiful and unsettling, the images in the exhibit illustrate a complex narrative around public health and preventable consequences of injection drug use. | White Box, 329 Broome Street, NYC | June 23rd - June 29th, 2010 | Thanks Ser Gee! }

{ NY Times | full story | Related: Who Wants Afghanistan’s Lithium: China’s Electric Vehicle Players }

NY man’s kidney transplant gave him woman’s cancer.

Long Island couple staged their own kidnapping to get money from one of their parents.

Tobacco companies contest NY anti-smoking signs.

Map shows how to avoid tourists in New York.

This electric unicab is one of the submissions for NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission’s search for the next green cab.

The price is about $8,000, but an insider said Leibovitz got a big discount because the chairs were on sale.

The $1 million-a-day heroin empire of a notorious Harlem druglord was brought down by his flashy fur coat, the kingpin says.

Most of New York City’s darker charms have been bought, sold and put “on the grid”, but in the relative desolation of Gowanus lies the Observatory, an offbeat little museum specializing in all things eccentric, occult, and downright morbid.

Inside New York’s Art World: Interview with James Rosenquist and Leo Castelli, 1976.

The Andy Warhol Film Project began in the 1980s when the Whitney Museum and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) agreed to collaborate on the largest archival research project in the history of American avant-garde cinema: to catalogue Warhol’s massive film collection, investigate its history, and preserve and re-release all of the films in conjunction with a program of scholarly research and publication.

video disclosure { Imp Kerr & Associates, NYC is involved in the co-production of Spacer:One. | Related: DJ Cash Money (USA), DMC World DJ Champion 1988 | Calla me a sucka boy you’re pushin a broom starts at 3:15 minute mark. }

bonus:

{ Design by Jeff Baxter adapted from a photograph by David Heald | Guggenheim and YouTube Launch Search for the World’s Most Creative Video }

Last week, while many of us were distracted by the oil belching forth from the gulf floor and the president’s ham-handed attempts to demonstrate that he was sufficiently engaged and enraged, Gallup released a stunning, and little noticed, report on Americans’ evolving views of homosexuality. Allow me to enlighten:

1. For the first time, the percentage of Americans who perceive “gay and lesbian relations” as morally acceptable has crossed the 50 percent mark. (You have to love the fact that they still use the word “relations.” So quaint.)

2. Also for the first time, the percentage of men who hold that view is greater than the percentage of women who do.

3. This new alignment is being led by a dramatic change in attitudes among younger men, but older men’s perceptions also have eclipsed older women’s. While women’s views have stayed about the same over the past four years, the percentage of men ages 18 to 49 who perceived these “relations” as morally acceptable rose by 48 percent, and among men over 50, it rose by 26 percent.

I warned you: stunning. (…)

(I now return you to Day 46 of the oil spill where they finally may be making some progress.)

{ Charles M. Blow/NY Times | Continue reading }

{ Apexart, 291 Church Street, NYC }

President Obama has secretly sanctioned a huge increase in the number of US special forces carrying out search-and-destroy missions against al-Qaeda around the world, with American troops now operating in 75 countries.

The dramatic expansion in the use of special forces, which in their global span go far beyond the covert missions authorised by George W. Bush, reflects how aggressively the President is pursuing al-Qaeda behind his public rhetoric of global engagement and diplomacy.

When Mr Obama took office US special forces were operating in fewer than 60 countries. In the past 18 months he has ordered a big expansion in Yemen and the Horn of Africa — known areas of strong al-Qaeda activity — and elsewhere in the Middle East, central Asia and Africa.

According to The Washington Post, Mr Obama has also approved pre-emptive special forces strikes to disrupt terror plots, and has given the units powers and authority that was not granted by Mr Bush when he occupied the White House. (…)
The aggressive secret war against al-Qaeda and other radical groups has coincided with a surge in the number of US drone attacks in the lawless border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, an al-Qaeda and Taleban haven, since Mr Obama took office.

Just weeks after he entered the White House, the number of missile strikes from the CIA-operated unmanned drones significantly increased, and the pattern has remained. In Iraq, US forces have killed 34 out of the top 42 al-Qaeda operatives in the past 90 days alone. (…)

The order also allowed for US special forces to enter Iran to gather intelligence for a possible future military strike if tensions over its alleged nuclear weapons programme escalate dramatically.

The seven-page document states that the surge is designed to build networks that could “penetrate, disrupt, defeat or destroy” al-Qaeda and other militant groups, and to “prepare the environment” for future military strikes by US and local forces.

{ Times | Continue reading }

Just as the Defense Department and its suppliers worry about dependence on foreign oil, they also must be concerned about growing needs — and potentially declining supplies — of rare earth metals.

Rare earth materials are used in commercial and military systems for their magnetic and other unique properties. They include rare earth ores, oxides, metals and alloys.

According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, worldwide availability of these materials may be limited to a few overseas sources, primarily China. GAO noted that the Defense Department is in the early stages of assessing its dependency on rare earth materials and is planning to complete a study by September 2010.

A potential disruption of supplies of rare earth metals would not only affect the U.S. military’s ability to produce high-end weapons, but would also jeopardize the nation’s adoption of green-energy technologies.

{ National Defense | Continue reading | Thanks Douglas! }