JOSHUA SMITH, photographed outside the gallery, on 27Th STREET, in CHELSEA, opening night, JOHN CONNELLY PRESENTS ‘A New High In Getting Low’, FEB 23, 2008
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
. . look closely at the photos, on the lower left hand side is a tag - DAM!
I think that street artist just got picked up by the cops. There is a street tagger’s (aka graffiti vandal) arrest written up - in today’s (MONDAY MARCH 10, 2008) - NEW YORK POST - that strangely enough refers to that tag - DAM!
in the section: ‘NYPD DAILY BLOTTER’ on Page 16 - it says:
“Police nabbed an Upper East Side graffiti vandal for spray-painting his tag name on several FDNY/NYPD call boxes, cops said yesterday.
Police spotted TAL KESTERBERG, 16, allegedly spraying his tag, “Dam” on a box at Second Avenue and East 93rd Street at 10:30 p.m. Saturday.
Kestenberg also allegedly sprayed five other boxes. He was charged with making graffiti and criminal mischief.”
wow - gotta stay off the NYPD property - !!
(foreign fans: that’s NYPD - as in - NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT)
P.S. - its ironic that in the context of a show with no “singular theme except for the criteria of living and working in New York post 9/l” - a tag that expresses the situation so succinctly - as in DAM! - its hard, tough and crooked, esp if you are broke - and/or you’re young and you want to be heard - is forever linked to, or has actually become a part of that context - albeit uninvited. a kind of 100% ‘reality’ check-in by the street artists - that just was destined to be - even in the art world truth is stranger than fiction. I mean look at the tag - DAM! - it sure ain’t - AMAZE - or - even TWIST - BARRY McGEE’S street tag - from way back in the day San Francisco.
UP-DATE: TUES MARCH 11, 2008
say what ? DAM! - the governor of New York, ELIOT SPITZER just hit a ‘A New High in Getting Low’ !!! The rabidly feral gov, made his worst enemies light up - and shocked the whole town - when he was outed yesterday with a $1,000/hour high class (illicit) hooker habit !!! and supposedly he liked it down and dirty - or as has been reported in the tabloids, NEW YORK POST (again) …”she had been told (Client-9) would ask you to do things that, like, you might not think were safe, you know, I mean that, very basic things.” ‘Kristen’ responded, “I have a way of dealing wit that. I’d be like.’Listen dude, you really want the sex?”
DAM! no wonder the ‘rainbow’ neo-hippie artists and the black clad super hipster dudes are all going crazy at the same time !!!!
and yeah - the art world is way out of control here - its so shocking !! white box therapy sessions & ELLEN HARVEY portraits at the pathetic Whitney - and - young 16 yr olds wannabes spray painting, oh my god - spray painting NYPD street boxes - !! - what’s the world coming too. they probably threw him, the tagger, into the tombs too, (central booking) and I hear from other taggers that when the cops pick you up - you can get kicked to the head pretty bad - when no one is looking - the guy I heard of - needed stitches - if the other really bad dudes in central booking don’t eat you up alive, later. and don’t be carrying a pocket knife in the subways, esp in Queens - young white males - though god knows if you think you need one - you probably do!! - you get thrown into the holding cells for 2 days and 3 nights - with the very teen wolf packs - you were needing to defend yourself against, except you are locked inside, with no way out !!! and the cops ain’t gonna be on your side - they are laughing all the way to the bank - on overtime double time hi-risk security details, hey Rudy G knows about those too. and guarding street boxes, of course.
UP-DATE: MON APRIL 7, 2008
regarding SPITZER’S successor, the very cheesy new Gov DAVID PATERSON, personally - I think getting blow jobs from the highly paid ($150,000/yr) “aides” in your office, who depend on you - for their job - and greet your wife with a big lying smile when she comes to official functions - is way worse than paying a professional whore - at least SPITZER kept his dick out of the workplace, beyond office politics and, out of his wife’s face. CHRISTIE BRINKLEY set the bar - when she kicked her hubby to the curb - for banging a young slut and installing her in his office, and on payroll. and, for what its worth I’d rather have a smart ass in the governor’s office - than a nitwit. politically its scary - in New York right now - everyone is just keeping their eyes to the ground - no one wants to look up. its too scary. but the taggers are almost eradicated, there is whole elite unit dedicated to chasing them and according to iO, over at OVERSPRAY MAGAZINE - the unit is actually composed of former taggers - no fair !!
NYC 2008 - the politics are WAY dirty - but at least the city utility boxes are clean.
UP-DATE: WED APRIL 9, 2008
how dirty get this: self-proclaimed reformer CHRISTINE QUINN - the so-called “MISS TRANSPARENCY” & NEW SPEAKER OF THE NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL - has been caught with her pants down too - ok, not her pants - just her bullshit. seems like she’s (oh, it’s her aides excuse moi - bottom line: same diff) stuffing millions of tax payer city budget dollars into fake ‘holding’ grants for agencies that don’t even exist, (and with such fancy imaginary names - they actually scored press notice for their inventiveness and poetic ring !!). and guess where the huge lion’s share of this hidden public wealth - earmarked to benefit the community - and usually that means the down and outers !! - ended up - no surprise - I’m sure to many art world downtown denizens worth big bucks - and chic often, HOLLYWOOD - cache - well, on the CHELSEA HIGH LINE PROJECT, duh - which just happens to be in her own jurisdiction. surprise surprise. like they say: money goes to money.
and talk about throwing money away, or at least into a never ending money pit - -ok. its a gorgeous concept, but have you ever walked under it? - its a rotting pile of fragile degraded metal - looking even more fragile, and about to come down any minute, increasing proportionately to the amount of work being done on it - they work here - it sags (seriously) there, and not just sags - nobody local walks under it - even the hard hats working on it - wouldn’t be caught dead walking under it - and if you manage to make eye contact with them - they actually roll their eyes upward - be better to take the whole thing and put a plastic/resin bridge/garden support, get JEFF KOONS, to design it, or OLAFUR ELIASSON !! - but who am I - Wendy Williams ?
as for how GOV PATTERSON is doing - how’s this: you know all those bright dynamic Lower East Side and Harlem and BROOKLYN and BRONX city kids - who get dead ended in our city schools - and at 14, chase Chinese graduate students into traffic, where they get hit & die - as way to show off to their friends and neighbors - well here’s why. ..in “another blow to Mayor BLOOMBERG” and City Schools Chancellor JOEL KLEIN, the Albany legislators PATTERSON now leads, made it easier for teachers to get tenure - ya’ll know what we’re talkin’ bout - 100% paid salaries with benefits - for the rest of your life - no matter how bad and boring you are , or burn -out & become. check out Manhattan’s Laguardia High School - last time I was in there - there were some ripe examples - in the English Dept - anybody wanna guess - or he is already gone? - of tenure gone wrong - this guy was downright demented, and they’re still standing in front of a class of the city’s best and brightest - and collecting full salary.
so back to tenure - get this - the agreed upon revisions - sought by teacher unions - duh - “will prohibit school districts from denying or granting tenure based on criteria like student test scores. and we wonder why people think artists are so whacked-out. any successful artist has to be so together and work so hard - to get (basically) nowhere - that this looks like the biggest joke ever. I mean come on guys. you make the grade - you produce kids with skills - or you get lost - yada yada - read a little further and you find out: surprise surprise - Gov Patterson’s dad !!! Basil, is a lawyer representing the teachers union - !! - and, the teachers union spent nearly $2.5 million, $2.5 million - on lobbying - gave more than $714,000 to political parties and, allegedly threatened political retribution in the form of public criticism and the withholding of public political endorsements - if their tenure bill didn’t pass. spanking clean tag free NY Fuc*ing city!!
(factual stats from today’s article - APRIL 9, 2008 - NEW YORK POST - titled: “Mike loses teacher-tenure fight” by KENNETH LOVETT - the political pages are now - more fun than PAGE SIX.
not so much fun:
I just read about young USA NAVY SEALS of 19 - who should be throwing footballs - throwing themselves to death - on grenades - to save their buddies - on BAGDHAD rooftops - and it makes me want to puke.
RED ROVER, RED ROVER. let Wendy come over. as in - Wendy Williams, who seriously is so much smarter & sharper - than all of those guys in gov’t - put together.
the first time I ever happened on Wendy Williams, at the extreme right of your NYC radio dial - she was saying how dumb the US army guys were - years ago - re: IRAQ - that obviously it was a big death trap - another manipulatively brilliant move - to suck the life out of us. doesn’t the US ever get it - re: KILLING FIELDS - don’t send the boys in - just the electronics.