I see that the Brooklyn Museum of Art is showing the inimitable Judy Chicago in just a few days.
I can hardly wait. I’ve always thought that Ms. Chicago is one of the least talented, self-centered, and directionless artists living today. Her most well-known piece, The Dinner Party, has supposedly been seen by over 1 million hapless souls. It consists of “women’s art” – china, ceramics, etc. – on a huge table set for many people and it’s kind of ugly. It’s without any personality and pays poor tribute to the women it is intended to honor.
As for why I really don’t like Ms. Chicago, take a look at her so-called “Holocaust Project,” which she completed in 1993. This project is about as facile as they come and has absolutely nothing to do with the real issues or studies of the Holocaust. Here is the first line of her Holocaust Project Web site description: “The Holocaust Project is an art exhibit which casts the Holocaust as a reference point for an exploration of profound issues that relate to the human condition – past, present and future.” In the book that I saw by her in the Albany State Museum about ten years ago, there were terrible paintings of wretched people (victims) clutching at blue striped cloth.
Ugh. I hope that there are protests outside the Brooklyn Museum this weekend.

Hi. My titles are not working right now. I’ll try to figure it all out but I’m sorry if for some reason the monologue makes no sense without the title appearing at the top of each entry.
In case you need it, 9/15’s post was titled Monitor, 9/12 Contemporary Art Project, 9/10 Presence, and 9/9 The Good Girl. I’ll leave the rest to the fine technical folks at Blogger.com, who I honestly am beggining to think have gotten too big for their britches. Granted, I only pay $35 per year for using their online software to post this here Web log. But their technical support and customer service is essentially nonexistent and their help pages are terrible, terrible.
So for $35, the system kind of works better and I don’t have to put a button on my page and there’s spellchecking, though I don’t need these tooooo often. I know it’s against the First Commandment of blogging to light a fire under Blogger.com, the first and finest source for Web logging software, but, honestly, they should get their act together.

I spend a lot of time in front of this little 22 inch monitor, which seems to be going the way of all things. Unfortunately so. Lines upon lines.
It’s also almost Yom Kippur, a time that seeing and looking and envisioning comes into play more than at any other time in the religion. I imagine that these two things are remotely connected and in fact they are. I saw Godard’s most recent film last night at BAM and thoroughly enjoyed it, even though it was difficult and arcane. I’ll write more after the holiday.

I found this Web site, Contemporary Art Project, inadvertantly today and, while the site itself could use some re-tooling, it features some very strong work by artists that I know and respect.
The idea behind the Web site is also quite unique. A small group of art collectors in Seattle promote the work of youngish artists and gift their artwork to museums. Where were these people when I needed them (joke)? I hope this group is still extant but the site’s copyright date makes this look doubtful.

In honor of those who passed away in New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Afghanistan, I’m not posting anything tomorrow.
I generally don’t believe in those morally ambivalent commemorations like “Day without Art,” as I don’t know what is provided by giving up something that exists. Why destroy what you love in order to remember? I honestly don’t get it. I also do not understand this craze to re-picture that day in near every media vehicle.
But I’d like my personal reflections to be nonpublic tomorrow, a day that feels like yesterday when I saw those buildings burning and the sky was falling.

I had serious trepidations about The Good Girl, starring Friend Jennifer Aniston and the acting oddballs Tim Blake Nelson and John C. Reilly.
But it was very much worth seeing – a film about convenience, confession, cuckolds, confidence, and confidentiality. I really enjoyed seeing Ms. Aniston stretch every emotional tendon in her brain to make sure that the audience understood the complexity of her character and know the tortuous decisions she is forced to make in the narrative. The film is very well written, and if a bit shrink-wrapped, I highly recommend it.
Final word: it’s a bit of a cross between American Beauty, with its suburban angst and relationship hells, and Magnolia, with its casualness about difficult and real human relationships.

It’s 5763 on the Jewish calendar and my family and I celebrated heartily yesterday at synagogue and at dinner later.
A few prayers stood out and I thought I would highlight one that I liked, for both its austerity and timeliness:
To be just, upright, and faithful:
let this and this alone give joy.
To reach as high as one may dare,
and do no hurt, and kill no hope:
let this and this alone give joy.
O when will arrogance end
and wickedness cease,
and when will tyrants be no more?
On that day, rejoice!
The faithful will rejoice,
and all who breathe be glad.

This is an interesting site, called Kesher Talk, that I have found to be useful in looking for historical and other information about Israel and the Middle East.
Perhaps more importantly, it has one of the best running lists of Jewish-related Web sites and Web logs I’ve seen. In the dawn of an approaching New Year 5763, let’s all pray for peace and some modicum of stability in the Middle East.

Having watched all of 45 minutes of American Idol over the past month, I have two observations about the show (which will decide a winner one little hour from now).
First, Fox spent about $6 on the entire production, using sets that look like they came out of the dumpster and hiring actors and judges that look as washed up as they sound.
Second, and more importantly, this seems to be the first television show in which almost every contestant appears to be of mixed heritage. Either it’s true, or the makeup folks in the trailer are fixing up the kids to look like they come from the perfect Hispanic-Black-Caucasian-Asian human lineage. I take this, by the way, as a good thing; perhaps America’s true demography is coming through and we’re now able to appreciate, even celebrate, the difference of our similarities.
Oh, here’s a third: why being a “singer” of old tunes that you didn’t compose, orchestrate, or develop is considered cool, I don’t know. Can we have an American Drummer show?

Boy, I hated yesterday’s blog – I mean rant.
Well, a few weeks ago, Emigre released this incredibly beautiful font called Fairplex, designed by the inimitable font designer Zuzana Licko. I adore this font, and its narrow bold face is truly, and ridiculously, gorgeous. In fact, I think I’m blushing.
The Fairplex font family is derived from a number of historical fonts, mostly dating from the early part of the last century. It has a very strong armature and I could see it being used throughout in subtly designed annual reports, short books, and signage for new companies. I’m realizing, as I write this, that fonts are the neat intersection for Deckchair’s focus: me, art, technology, history, &c.