Is this the surprise Karl's been hinting at? Major assault on Fallujah commenced on the eve of the election? The Guardian seems to think it's begun. Put American troops in harm's way, get everyone rah-rahing for the leadership in a time of crisis, etc.? The timing stinks.

THE ARCHITECTURAL LEAGUE PRESENTS

Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Two Works in Progress
The Gates, Project for Central Park, New York City
Over the River, Project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado

Thursday, November 4
6:30 p.m.
The Great Hall, Cooper Union

Oftentimes only by disrupting space are we able to see it in a new light. Since the late 1950s, the large-scale art installations of Christo and Jeanne-Claude have forced onlookers to constantly reevaluate the surrounding environment. Past projects include the wrapping of the Pont Neuf in Paris (1985) and the Reichstag in Berlin (1995) as well as a host of other projects in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Australia. One of their current projects, The Gates, Project for Central Park, New York City, is slated to open in February 2005 when 7500 saffron fabric panels will be unfurled from vinyl poles 16 feet in height throughout 23 miles of the park. Christo and Jeanne-Claude pay for the expense of all their projects through the sale of original work; they accept no sponsors. For more information about the artist please visit their website www.christojeanneclaude.net.

(If you haven't heard them speak in public... it is a pretty interesting 'process'...)

Florida update: mrs. fingers and I will be travelling to Fort Lauderdale tomorrow with (at last count) 95 other confirmed volunteers to get out the vote in Broward County. Some reports project our group's final number at over 120 (various stragglers and plus-one's).

Related note: if Florida stays disputed... have a nice November in NYC, I'll see you at Xmas!

cheers!

one finger victory salute (to america.)

mosh

the path to florida

A secret document obtained from inside Bush campaign headquarters in Florida suggests a plan - possibly in violation of US law - to disrupt voting in the state's African-American voting districts, a BBC Newsnight investigation reveals.

Horus Archives is a collection of more than 200.000 amateur snapshots, collected and selected in Budapest by camera-man and film-maker Sándor Kardos.

family fortune

solipsism is on the menu at jon favreaus ifc show Dinner for Five but i cant help but stop in for a nibble from time to time.

g4techtv is a station i get with directv. looks to be gamers and gadgets oriented. im just now watching cinematech which looks to be a collection of short form "video game" movies. i guess they could be classified as demos but im not sure if they werent created specifically for this format. obviously they are commercials for new games but the line between animated features and games becomes ever more hazy as a result.

Please join us at Abaton Garage as we wind up our 2004 season with My First 1000 Wrenches, an installation by Bill Schwarz. The opening reception takes place Saturday, October 30th, 4-8pm. Refreshments will be served, as well as live music by avant-garde jazz/blues singer Devorah Day and psychedelic band Pothole Skinny.

 

For directions to the gallery, please visit our site: www.abatongarage.com. For more information, contact Mark Dagley or Lauri Bortz at Abaton Book Company, abatonbook company, 201-369-1591.


 

Abaton Garage is open by appointment through December 6th. After that, we'll close down for the winter and re-open in May '05 with an exhibition by Amy Wilson.  

the new yorker chooses

the comics reporter

I saw two (air quote) bad movies this weekend -- Shaun of the Dead and Dirty Shame. Shaun had some laughs and was enjoyable junk food. Dirty Shame had some laughs too, but ultimately wasn't as satisfying ... until the theater let out. The best fun was watching suburbanites apologize to their friends for bringing them to such an awful movie. After recent outings (including a guest spot on the Simpsons a few years back), I think they were expecting "campy" Waters. But they got "raunchy" Waters.

"Oh my god. The review said it would be like this, but, you know, I really didn't expect it to be like this."

CREATIVE TIME PRESENTS
JENNY HOLZER: FOR NEW YORK CITY
(don't forget to look up)

kidney stone photos!

"Bush has behaved like a caricature of what a right-wing president is supposed to be, and his continuation in office will discredit any sort of conservatism for generations. The launching of an invasion against a country that posed no threat to the U.S., the doling out of war profits and concessions to politically favored corporations, the financing of the war by ballooning the deficit to be passed on to the nation’s children, the ceaseless drive to cut taxes for those outside the middle class and working poor: it is as if Bush sought to resurrect every false 1960s-era left-wing cliché about predatory imperialism and turn it into administration policy. Add to this his nation-breaking immigration proposal—Bush has laid out a mad scheme to import immigrants to fill any job where the wage is so low that an American can’t be found to do it—and you have a presidency that combines imperialist Right and open-borders Left in a uniquely noxious cocktail."

-- scott mcconnell / american conservative magazine

changes in military law

Alex, maybe you are working for the wrong arm of the government...

Bird traffic controller

The Israeli ornithologist Yossi Leshem is no ordinary twitcher. An expert in bird migration patterns across the Middle East, he has turned his passion into a small industry responsible for saving the Israeli air force more than half a billion dollars in hardware - and, no doubt, the lives of several pilots. Fred Pearce hears how he has even turned migrating birds into unlikely emissaries for peace.

Addendum to a post on my page (see indented text):
Atrios thinks William Gibson is a "techno-conservatarian," or their patron saint, and that it's somehow weirdly out of character that he'd contribute to Media Matters for America. Guess he hasn't read much Gibson--maybe he's confusing him with Jerry Pournelle?

UPDATE: Gibson replied:

The puzzling thing about this for me being: Do I have a hundred thousand politically conservative fans, and if so, *can't they read*? Most likely Atrios is referring to that sub-species of tragic mouthbreather so mesmerized by my effortless proliferation of imaginary Starck-slick gizmos that he never even notices the characterization, let alone the socio-political implications. I have always found those guys, like the ones who ask if I've read Ayn Rand, to be a distinct minority.

glass hoo ha

A fuel mix of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, known as E85, is available in at least 22 states of the United States, mainly Minnesota and Midwestern states, but it is still hard to find at the pump in most other parts of the country. By contrast, in Brazil, a country nearly the size of the continental United States, ethanol is available at almost every service station.

skinnys skin last nite loved the hen of the woods mushrooms (sauted in butter oil onion chicken stock and beef/veal demi-glaze), the response was "yum" in his native garbled tongue as he went back and forth from mommy to daddy for bites.........he loves middle eastern food (lots of "yum yum's" , and a sirlion burger / 99 conterno barolo combo got the highly coverted "yum yum yum" response (for the wine), hearby know as the 3 yum award..........lets hope he stays on this path, (skinny)

the office bbc tonight