been vaguely eying the wimbledon brackets for the last few days but havent tuned in until today. nadal down 2 sets to 1 to american! taylor fritz currently seeded #11. never heard of him but its not i follow the sport closely. says he is 24. im not listening to the announcers so i dont know if nadal is nursing an injury but seems like something is bothering him a little. nadal has won the first two slams this year. djokovic still lurking among others. this is a quarter final match.

womens draw seems in tatters but simona halep who won wimbledon in 2019 has made her way to the semis. not sure i recognize the others.

just stumbled on this british nsa-type cyber thriller starring simon pegg. mark rylance is in the cast but didnt make an appearance in ep 1. so far keeping my attention. 

whoa! ball!! 

Simon's Drive-In Café, Wilshire and Fairfax, 1939

MICHELLE SEGRE 

DAWN OF THE LOONEY TUNE 

NOVEMBER 16 - DECEMBER 23, 2017 

OPENING RECEPTION: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2017, 6-8PM

Derek Eller Gallery is pleased to announce Dawn of the Looney Tune, an exhibition of recent sculpture by Michelle Segre.

 

Continuing her absurdist juxtapositions of materials, Segre's new body of work accumulates unexpected objects (rocks, organ pipe, bread, mirror, etc.) to form sculptural compositions. These sculptures are imbued with a carnivalesque energy that reflects the unpredictability of our times. The largest works in this exhibition are held together by yarn, thread, string and wire. For Segre, the linear quality as well as immediacy of these materials function like drawing, allowing her to render frenetic gestures on a large scale. These lines form complex structural webs which ensnare and hold the amalgamations together, cumulatively forming monumental masses.

 

In the titular work of the exhibition, bright orange yarn fills out a spiraled armature containing green and purple dish sponges; the framework is adorned with carrots in various stages of decay. These carrots will be replaced throughout the exhibition in a process Segre calls "feeding the sculpture". The idea of a work cannibalizing itself has persisted throughout her career. Imagery, subject matter, and older works by the artist are consistently reconfigured and then emerge as new mutations within her sculptures. These cycles mirror her continued interest and exploration of decomposition and renewal.

 

As well as manipulating and shaping materials in a traditional sense, Segre often creates scenarios for objects to transform themselves through processes of degeneration. In a group of sculptures here, cubed glass vessels serve as terrariums for the viewer to witness the lifespan of mold growing on loaves of bread. These loaves are perched atop neon aquarium gravel, which underscores their pet-like quality. Sealed and deprived of oxygen, mold will eventually die and come to rest in stasis as the final composition. Segre anthropomorphizes impermanent objects to highlight cycles of nature as they relate to our anxieties about the vulnerability of the human body. Here and throughout the exhibition, the seductive morbidity of organic decay is rendered in acid-colors and off-balanced gestures.

 

Michelle Segre lives and works in New York City. She has had recent solo exhibitions at the Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia PA and The University of Tennessee, Chattanooga TN. In 2017, her work was included in exhibitions at The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS, Ceysson and Benetiere, Luxembourg as well as others. She is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York and The Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs, New York. Segre is a past recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship and the Civitella Ranieri Fellowship. Dawn of the Looney Tunewill be Segre's seventh exhibition at Derek Eller Gallery.

 

Derek Eller Gallery is located at 300 Broome Street between Eldridge Street and Forsyth Street. Hours are Wednesday-Sunday from 11am to 6pm and Tuesday by appointment. For further information please contact the gallery at 212.206.6411or visit www.derekeller.com. 

lot of positive reviews for hbos The Deuce. premieres tonight.

Summary: The drama created by George Pelecanos and David Simon see the rise of the porn industry in New York City during the 1970s-80s through the eyes of twin nightclub owners Vincent and Frankie Martino (both played by James Franco), college student Abigail “Abby” Parker (Margarita Levieva), Times Square prostitute Eileen Merrell (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a pimp named Larry Brown (Gbenga Akinna), Vincent and Frankie Martino’s brother-in-law Chris Bauer (Bobby Dwyer) and a bartender named Paul Hendrickson (Chris Coy).

they werent kidding when they say a print for the heartbreak kid was hard to come by. this one is pretty crappy. first time ive seen this. part of neil simon month on tcm.

super sporty month except for me on my couch.

watching some of the french open semifinals. women today, men tommorow. sharapova got through to the finals. dont know either of the women playing now but im rooting for the feisty little romanian who is currently #4 in the world, simona halep, against her tall teutonic foe. slugging it out in the second set at the moment on nbc. nadal v. murray at 11am est tomorrow. djokovic v. gulbis at 7am est.

later tonight the nba finals gets underway. its a rematch between last years finalists miami and san antonio.

the world cup and us open golf at pinehurst both start next thursday.

and wimbledon begins on the 23rd.

just watched the sam simon ep of the write enviornment

this is pretty cool. and, yes, i follow roger ebert on twitter.

Kseniya Simonova's Amazing Sand Drawing
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=vOhf3OvRXKg
....skinny

simon peggs spaced is now on hulu. highly recommended. watch it from the beginning.

nicolas posted this to facebook, fascinating:
Francis Hwang's Notes
English language twitterers in Iran
As an experiment, I made a quick Yahoo! Pipe that collects the Twitter accounts listed here. The pipe is here, and it has an RSS feed too. Not sure about how quickly Yahoo! is aggregating these feeds, most likely not any faster than you’d get if you signed up with Twitter and followed all those accounts, but maybe this’ll come in handy if, like me, you’re not much of a Twitter user.

IN a climate where almost every restaurant in town is offering deals and concessions once unimaginable - bring your own wine to Alto, leave the tie home for '21' - one place is offering the ultimate bargain this Friday night:

Free meals.

Eighty one, chef/owner Ed Brown's pricey modern-American place in the Excelsior Hotel on West 81st Street, is launching a two-course menu option six nights a week that's cheaper than some of the regular entrees alone.

And to get the ball rolling, it's giving 150 customers a chance - for one night only - to sample the new, "eco(nomy)-friendly" menu on the house. (See box.)

"We're changing with the times," Brown acknowledged. "We need to do much more business. I've got to have more people in the restaurant and make it more accessible."

The bargain deal goes into effect on Friday and will be available indefinitely after that every night but Saturday. It offers a choice of any two courses chosen from among appetizers, mains and dessert on a special menu for $30.81 per head, not including tax and tip. A third course can be had for just $8.10. This, in a place where entrees alone run from $28 to $38.

There are four choices in each category. Among them: pumpkin risotto with toasted pumpkin seeds to start; seared tuna with black beluga lentils for an entrée; and bourbon vanilla ice cream float with ginger snaps for dessert.

Friday happens to mark eighty one's first anniversary. It has not been an easy first year for the plush, red velvet-accented restaurant which, for my money, serves the Upper West Side's best food ever.

It opened with a menu even more expensive than it is now. Rave reviews - including my own - were mixed with write-ups that found it either pretentious or, contrarily, not sufficiently cutting-edge (for some, beautifully composed dishes made from marvelous raw materials and merely tasting wonderful will never be enough).

The blessing of a Michelin star last fall was blunted by the financial meltdown. And since day one, eighty one's entire façade has been buried under a low-slung sidewalk bridge that hides the entrance and negates a welcoming glow from behind mullioned windows.

If you think that's no big deal, recall that Simon Oren, owner of popular spots including Nice Matin nearby, sold his lease at Charolais in TriBeCa last year when a scaffold showed no sign of being taken down - "I think no one knew we even opened," Oren said. "If you open with a scaffold, it's a huge handicap, and the low-hung ones that kill visibility are the worst."

Like many newer restaurants, eighty one has been busy on Fridays and Saturdays, but slower on other nights. To remedy that, Brown recently augmented the dinner menu with a mid-priced entree category called "Simply," featuring such favorites as whole daurade ($26) and hanger steak ($27), each served with a choice of a side dish.

But how can a restaurant that spends as much on ingredients as eighty one does make money on a $30.81, two-course dinner menu?

"Two ways," Brown said. "We're not using filet mignon or foie gras.

"And we're hoping that if you come as a party of four, at least one or more of you will order off the regular menu."

So, does that mean the waiter won't mind if we split up our orders between the standard menu and the cheap one?

"Be clear," Brown chuckled. "If you come to eighty one, the answer to almost anything is 'yes.' This is a time for extreme hospitality."

scuozzo@nypost.com

How to eat for free

This Friday only, the first 150 customers whose seats are reserved by e-mail for eighty one's eco(nomy)-menu will be served the two-course, $30.81 option for free. (Diners must pay for all drinks, tax and tip.) The complimentary offer does not apply to the regular menu.

There are two seatings, at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., and a four-person maximum per table.

Those vying for the complimentary menu must contact the restaurant by e-mail only at free@81nyc.com.

EIGHTY ONE
45 W. 81st St.
212-873-8181

Mark Simonson's blog: typography, fonts, vintage signs, etc. (moved due to you know what)

In an interview with UPI about his new best seller "The Blank Slate," Professor of Psychology Steven Pinker was asked about his voluminous curly hair. The interviewer thought Pinker looked like musicians Peter Frampton, Roger Daltrey and Robert Plant, and philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Pinker saw more similarity to Mark Bolan from the band T. Rex, conductor Simon Rattle, jazz guitarist Pat Metheny and "Bruno," the pianist on the television series "Fame."

Bush, Blair nominated for Nobel prize for Iraq war

OSLO, May 8 (Reuters) A Norwegian parliamentarian nominated U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the Nobel Peace Prize today, praising them for winning the war in Iraq.

''Sometimes it's necessary to use a small and effective war to prevent a much more dangerous war in the future,'' Jan Simonsen, a right-wing independent in Norway's parliament, told Reuters.

You can send a letter of support for the nomination of George W. Bush and Tony Blair for the Nobel Peace Prize to the Norwegian Nobel Institute at postmaster@nobel.no

or by international post at:

The Norwegian Nobel Institute
Drammensveien 19,
NO-0255 OSLO
Norway

my letter was not exactly one of support.

had to clip this one from gawker stalker --

Sunday afternoon, Paul Simon and Lorne Michaels walking together in Central Park, listening to the annoying 'Guitar Man from Central Park' peform Simon's own 'Homeward Bound.'

"With inconsolable sadness we let you know that Dr. NINA SIMONE has passed away."

puff-n-stuff

Here's an interview with digital artist John Simon. Pretty interesting, but I don't know what to think about his art. He taught "computer art" at SVA, and I like his approach (from the little I can make out of it.)

When I was teaching in the Computer Art MFA program at the School of Visual Arts [in New York] I taught both programming and systems. The systems class was meant to explain how the computer worked, layer by layer, from "why the user interface looks like a desktop" to "how electricity and transistors can be made to store and manipulate information." I don't think we should allow creative innovators to use application software without showing them how it is all put together.

He had a piece in bitstreams, so maybe Tom could comment on his work?

The LA Times and NY Times recently published articles on synthespians (all-digital actors); although both would be described as "think pieces," their main purpose seems to be hyping two upcoming movies: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and Simone. (By posting and mentioning those titles, I'm playing my part in the spin-cycle. Where do I pick up my check?) The LA Times piece is better, because it's more of a straight trade-mag account of the new processes and film industry responses to them. (I love that the article mentions Tron, even though I disagree that it "set back computer animation by a decade": its retro-futurist approach looks better than a lot of what's being produced now!) The NY Times piece, "Perfect Model: Gorgeous, No Complaints, Made of Pixels" by Ruth La Ferla, is more annoying, because it's hype disguised as criticism: lots of mock-profound gushing from people in the synthetic human biz, with the obligatory quote from a culture-studies prof. One concept mentioned in the LAT article is "the uncanny valley," a principle of robotics that says the more an android resembles a human, the more we focus on the minute differences between us and it. This makes sense, and would seem neatly to demolish the NYT's pitch about virtual models and actresses.

just back from Virot's bar--two excellent wines (99 Boxler Riesling Harth @ $50 and 96 Ch. Simone Blanc @ $65) and 4 Bar Menu offerings (best were--Oysters au Gratin with mushrooms and Baked Clams!!!)--looooking forward to dinner