SHOWING OFF FOR 15 MINUTES OF FAME

EDMUND WHITE

There is a great deal of sex and gossip in “City Boy,” but it is also a minor-key account of Mr. White’s coming of age as a writer. He worked for years in book publishing and other stray jobs before his first novel, “Forgetting Elena,” was published in 1973. To pay the rent he was a co-author of “The Joy of Gay Sex,” published in 1977, a book that shoved him completely out of the closet. Glancing around at his arty friends, he sometimes wonders if that was a smart decision. “I thought a bit resentfully that all these ‘blue-chip’ artists — Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly, John Ashbery, Elizabeth Bishop, Susan Sontag, Robert Wilson — never came out,” he writes. “We openly gay artists had to deal with the dismissive or condescending judgments all around us — ‘Of course since I’m not gay myself your work seems so exotic to me’ — while the Blue Chips sailed serenely on, universal and eternal.” The closet began to look like a cozy place to be

New York Times
Sept 29 2009

«ART IS WHAT YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH»

From recreating part of Damien Hirst's 2008 Sotheby's auction, to reassembling Jeff Koons's explicit works featuring the artist in porn-inspired clinches with his former wife, La Cicciolina, the show takes as its starting point Warhol's adage that "good business is the best art". If Hirst's auction is described by Pop Life's co-curator, Jack Bankowsky, as "a work of total theatre", others may see it as having been nakedly commercial. After all, it broke records for a single-artist auction, raising £111m. But Koons denied the work in the exhibition, which also includes toys mass-produced by the Japanese artist Takahashi Murakami and a piece by Keith Haring, right, was simply about making money."I don't think that's what artists think about," he said. "Making a living is part of life, but you become involved in art because of the power of art. Artists have always acquired economic and political power. At one time it came from the church, and then from monarchs. For the precursors to the kind of work you see [in the exhibition] you have to go back to [the 19th-century artist] Courbet, one of the first who struggled for art to survive on its own terms and break free of those old hierarchies."

The Guardian
Sept 29 2009

«ATHLETES ARE GOING TO BE THE NEW MEDIA STARS»

«I THINK THAT'S THE BEST THING IN LIFE: KEEPING BUSY»

« I wake up 4:30, make radio calls. ... I check my e-mails. Then, 5:45 a.m. onward, I start posting, writing, answering e-mails and looking for more stories. I do that all through the day. ... I go to the gym at 4:30 p.m., come back at 6:30 p.m. for meetings in my apartment. Meetings end at 7:30, 8 p.m., then I sleep at 10, 10:30».

-Perez Hilton

«I LIKE EVERYBODY'S ART»

Peter Anton and some of his food sculptures

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: OBAMA

Obama was elected because the banks gave more money to the Democrats than to the Republicans. Bush and the Christian right were too ideological, therefore not good for the «America inc» brand worldwide.

«I LIKE TO WORK WHEN I'M NOT WORKING»

«Inspiration comes from working»

-Karl Lagerfeld

MODELING FOR 15 MINUTES OF FAME

LEGACY

When Warhol dubbed his studio a factory it was a provocation, it implied mass production, a pragmatic approach, contempt for preciousness — which is great if you’re making a point against snobbery, but depressing if higher values really are the target. The problem with the Warhol legacy is that no one can tell the difference. What about this idea of Warhol being “real”, true to our times? Realism of this kind is value-neutral. It’s neither good nor bad. It’s not an achievement. According to my sense of reality Warhol’s influence is not bad so much as overdone. He shows us how to express a sort of anarchic despair, and he does it with such a concentrated flair and cleverness that you have to applaud. But I don’t think you have to believe that’s all there is to either art or life.

The Times
Sept 26 2009

«I NEVER READ I JUST LOOK AT PICTURES«

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: FAITHFUL

Men will always cheat on their partner. It's hard to say to the same person «Suck my d*%@ you f!#&* B#@# » during the night and «Honey thanks for ironing my shirt the morning after.

TIME

«I had a long philosophy talk with Brigid and we both decided that maybe time had passed us by».

The Andy Warhol Diaries
May 30 1981

«EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL»

«THERE IS NO COUNTRY IN THE WORLD THAT LOVES «RIGHT NOW» LIKE AMERICA DOES»

Britney Spears has a Sin City weekend.

Next!

«BEAUTY IS A SIGN OF INTELLIGENCE»

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: WHY THE LEFT IS IN TROUBLE

Years ago people were demonstrating against the war in Iraq while there was still no evidence there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. Meanwhile now there are evidence everywhere than the latest economic crisis happened because of the growing disconnection between Wall Street and Main Street and nothing is happening...

“ONE THING I MISS IS THE TIME AMERICA HAD BIG DREAMS ABOUT THE FUTURE"

We weren't always like this. Inert. In 1965, Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law and 11 months later seniors were receiving benefits. During World War II, virtually overnight FDR had auto companies making tanks and planes only. In one eight year period, America went from JFK's ridiculous dream of landing a man on the moon, to actually landing a man on the moon.This generation has had eight years to build something at Ground Zero. An office building, a museum, an outlet mall, I don't care anymore. I'm tempted to say that, symbolically, all America can do lately is keep digging a hole, but Ground Zero doesn't represent a hole. It is a hole. America: Home of the Freedom Pit. Ironically, it's spitting distance from Wall Street, where they knock down buildings a different way - through foreclosure.That's the ultimate sign of our lethargy: millions thrown out of their homes, tossed out of work, lost their life savings, retirements postponed - and they just take it. 30% interest on credit cards? It's a good thing the Supreme Court legalized sodomy a few years ago.Why can't we get off our back? Is it something in the food? Actually, yes. I found out something interesting researching last week's editorial on how we should be taxing the unhealthy things Americans put into their bodies, like sodas and junk foods and gerbils. Did you know that we eat the same high-fat, high-carb, sugar-laden shit that's served in prisons and in religious cults to keep the subjects in a zombie-like state of lethargic compliance? Why haven't Americans arisen en masse to demand a strong public option? Because "The Bachelor" is on.

Bill Maher

“MUSCLES ARE GREAT:EVERYBODY SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST ONE THAT THEY CAN SHOW OFF"

«I JUST READ EVERYTHING»

That's another perfect example of how it's both nature and nurture. In the first year of life, you don't really see a strong difference. Both boy and girl infants like dolls, but at the first birthday you start to see boys gravitate away from the dolls and toward the trucks and balls. Three-year-old girls show a strong preference for dolls over toy trucks. By 5, they have an equal interest in trucks and dolls. What you see is that, at least in our modern society where girls see a broader range of role models or behaviors that are considered feminine, they open up and allow themselves to play with the trains, trucks and Legos.

When it comes to toy preference, you see some of the biggest differences in the ways parents respond when their kid picks up the "wrong" toy -- especially when a boy picks up a girl toy. Children internalize that. They know darn well what mom and dad think about the toy they're playing with. There is an initial biological bias toward these different toys, but then it's very strongly reinforced socially. Studies show peers have a shaping influence. Certainly by age 3, children will pick the socially appropriate toy.

Salon
Sept 26 2009

YOUTH WITHOUT COCKINESS IS NO YOUTH AT ALL

«IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE»

Apparently, Lindsay Lohan attempted to attend the party for the opening of the "Boom Boom Boom" nightclub at the Standard Hotel in New York City (Manhattan of course). Madonna advised security not to let the actress into the VIP booth she was "partying" in with the ridiculously younger Jesus Luz, Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Bon Jovi and and Josh Hartnett.  Madonna was not chosen to represent the fashion line Emanuel Ungaro, and Lohan was chosen instead.  Madonna, not one to be left behind for anyone, did not take kindly to the fact that the younger Lohan was chosen instead of her.  She for some reason, is still not satisfied with the fact that she is the Queen of Pop and continues to let these insignificant things bother her. 

-The Examiner

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: CLONING

I don't understand why people are afraid of cloning. We have it already. Young chinese women with glasses and ponytail.

«I NEVER READ I JUST LOOK AT PICTURES«

«THERE SHOULD BE COURSE IN FIRST GRADE ON LOVE»

When it comes to choosing between a rugged, conventionally handsome man and an ordinary, less attractive partner, women have a difficult choice to make.In a series of scientific studies, women found square-jawed, masculine faces to be the sexiest and the most attractive for a casual sexual encounter.But they judged somewhat less masculine faces to be more attractive for a long-term relationship.Women's sexual desires for testosterone-fuelled facial cues of masculinity were especially strong during the fertile window of their cycle.The most plausible interpretation of these results is that women are attracted to men who are likely to be 'good dads' when choosing long-term mates, but are attracted to the signals of robust health that more masculine faces provide when they are most likely to become impregnated.Why do more masculine faces signify health? High testosterone production actually compromises the body's immune functioning, leaving men less able to fight off diseases and parasites in adolescence.Only men who are above average in healthiness during adolescence can 'afford' to produce the high levels of testosterone that masculinise the face. Less healthy adolescents can't afford to compromise their already precarious immune systems, and so produce lower levels of testosterone at precisely the time when facial bones take their adult form.
So, a masculine-looking face signals a man's health, his ability to succeed in competing with other men and his ability to protect.This interpretation, however, raises a puzzle: Why wouldn't women be attracted to highly masculine males for all mating relationships, from dangerous liaisons through to life-long love? The answer lies in the fact that the more masculine men, with more testosterone, tend to be less sexually faithful. They are more likely to be the risk-taking, womanising bad boys among the male population. Consequently, most women face a trade- off: if they choose the less masculine-looking man, they are likely to get a better father and sexually loyal mate, but they lose out in the currency of genes for good health.

The Daily Mail

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: HAVE IT ALL

You can't have it all. But you can have nothing at all.

«I LIKE EVERYBODY'S ART»

Artwork by Frank Stella

POST WARHOL PREDICTION: IN THE FUTURE THE PACE OF CHANGE IN US STYLE CAPITALISM WILL BE DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL TO THE PACE OF CHINA ECONOMIC RISE

«IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE»

On Still Not Being a Huge Star in the U.S. “I don’t get played on radio. Radio stations are saying I’m too weird and too English. I’m like ‘What the f***?’ It’s bizarre. But it doesn’t matter because I still do the tours and it still makes me happy, so who cares. I’m not obsessed with this concept, that kind of Robbie Williams disease. It’s so unappealing to me. Like ‘I have to be big in America.’ I have my place here.”


Mika
-Entertainement Weekly
Sept 22 2009

“MUSCLES ARE GREAT:EVERYBODY SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST ONE THAT THEY CAN SHOW OFF"

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: WALL STREET DEFINITION OF TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS NOW

«If you pay a $100 admission price you can take a look at my $100 million Picasso painting in my private museum.

«I KEEP WAITING - LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE IS - FOR A REALLY GREAT PERSON IN POLITICAL LIFE»

We are hardly a nation of wimps. Sadly, we have a government that is barely functioning. We have a government class too readily looking after its own interests and those of their campaign paymasters, rather than the nation as a whole. This has not always been the case. The American people are and have shown themselves to be capable of extraordinary accomplishments throughout their history. But today, in this world, given the leadership of other societies, much needs be done to change the way we govern ourselves and the way our government functions.

Huffington Post
Sept 23 2009

SHOWING OFF FOR 15 MINUTES OF FAME

WARHOLIAN QUOTE OF THE DAY

«Plain women know more about men than beautiful women do.»

-Katherine Hepburn

WOMEN IN REVOLT

The legislation's chief proponent is Valerie Boyer, author of a report on eating disorders and a member of the same party as President Nicolas Sarkozy, who himself has seen his love handles airbrushed by Paris Match. His ex-model wife, Carla Bruni, is also likely no stranger to a retouching. While magazine publishers will surely balk at such a rule, the language being proposed appears to be quite mild, nothing like the graphic warnings put on, say, cigarette packages in many countries. Ms. Boyer, according to The Telegraph, said the wording should read: "Retouched photograph aimed at changing a person's physical appearance." Mrs Boyer said she wanted a fine of more than $16,000, or as much as 50% of the ad campaign's cost.
Mrs. Boyer, who penned a government report on anorexia and obesity, added: "We want to combat the stereotypical image that all women are young and slim."

AdAge
Sept 22 2009

YOUTH WITHOUT COCKINESS IS NO YOUTH AT ALL

«AND I THINK I SEE MORE HOMELESS PEOPLE ON THE STREET EVERY MONTH.HOW CAN WE LET THIS KEEP HAPPENING»

In the film, Michael describes capitalism as evil. I disagree. I don't think capitalism is evil. I think what we have right now is not capitalism.In capitalism as envisioned by its leading lights, including Adam Smith and Alfred Marshall, you need a moral foundation in order for free markets to work. And when a company fails, it fails. It doesn't get bailed out using trillions of dollars of taxpayer money. What we have right now is Corporatism. It's welfare for the rich. It's the government picking winners and losers. It's Wall Street having their taxpayer-funded cake and eating it too. It's socialized losses and privatized gains.Which is why -- although you can bet many will try -- Capitalism: A Love Story can't be dismissed as a left-wing tirade. Its condemnation of the status quo is too grounded in real stories and real suffering, its targets too evenly spread across the political spectrum. Indeed, Jay Leno, America's designated Everyman, was so moved by the film he insisted that Moore appear on the second night of his new show, and told his audience that the film was "completely nonpartisan... I was stunned by it, and I think it is the most fair film" Moore has done.

-Arianna Huffington
Sept 21 2009

«POP ART IS FOR EVERYONE»

After James Rosenquist
Photo: The New Yorker

«I JUST READ EVERYTHING»

There are two sides to this. Computer socialization -- is this putting an end to face-to-face human interaction? Or does it let us expand our social networks when face-to-face communication is not possible, either because of geographic distance or some other barrier? Obviously, there are people who will reject these kinds of things out of hand and say the only meaningful communication is the one that I can have face-to-face with someone, who say calling Facebook "friends" friends is the end of the meaning of friendship.

On the other hand, I survey my students all the time about this, and there's confirming data from the Pew Internet and American Life Project that, in fact, what people are using programs like Facebook and e-mail and chats for is to reinforce friendships and to maintain friendships across distance. My students say I did this semester abroad and the only way I could keep in contact with my friends was through Facebook, and stuff like that. I don't think for most people it replaces anything. I think it extends it. But certainly, there are people who want to say, look I have 15,000 Facebook friends and look how popular I am.

Salon
Sept 19 2009

«THEY ALWAYS HAD GREAT GIRL MODELS BUT NOW THE BOY MODELS ARE JUST AS GOOD“

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: WOMEN

Now everybody is talking how most women are not happy despite their economic progress. That's good news. People are buying more when unhappy than the opposite. Unhappy women keeps an economy healthy.

GOOD CATHOLIC BOY

Traditionally, icons evoke a reaction on a spiritual level. As a devout Byzantine Catholic, Warhol had grown up transfixed by glittering images of Christ and the Madonna. He knew the sacred power invested in an image. His prints of Marilyn Monroe, Mao Zedong and Liz Taylor share the same composition, the same back-lighting and reduced outlines as the saints of the Catholic Church. Theirs were the original fetishised bodies: objectified and worshipped; dismembered and preserved; elevated to divine status and immortalised as icon.When Warhol created his Marilyn prints in the months following her death in 1962, he chose an image that exuded her sex-goddess persona, not the suicidal, desperate woman she really was. He reduced her to a few defining features, the essence of the Marilyn brand, to be mass-produced. We prefer the object, the copy. The image distances us from the reality. Marilyn's suicide and the suffering of martyrs alike are subsumed by the glamour of the image.

-Telegraph
Sept 20 2009

“MUSCLES ARE GREAT:EVERYBODY SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST ONE THAT THEY CAN SHOW OFF"

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: GAY CULTURE

Gay culture : white trash culture mixed with brand names for grown up men with the intellectual maturity of a 15 year old girl.

POST WARHOL PREDICTION: THE FUTURE OF TWITTER AND FACEBOOK

«Nobody paid me to say I like Coca-Cola, Adidas, Nike, Puma, Pepsi, BMW, Jaguar, Chanel, Gucci, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana,
Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Diesel. I swear».

STRAIGHT GUYS IS THE NEW GAY

«THERE IS NO COUNTRY IN THE WORLD THAT LOVES «RIGHT NOW» LIKE AMERICA DOES»

«Does anybody else think about death daily? I do. More than daily. And I just don't want it to happen. I don't want to grow old and sickly. But I will. So I'm just enjoying my NOW and I don't give a fuck what anyone thinks. I'm just livin' my life! My life!»

-Perez Hilton.

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: WHY THE CONSERVATIVE SIDE IS MAKING GAINS

Everytime I read somewhere «welcomes applications from minorities, women and persons with disabilities», I wonder: Should a gay white guy put on his chaps to increase his chance and qualify as «visible minority?» How many more previously liberal «white» jewish guys joined the conservative side to become influent voices of the movement after reading this? No wonder conservatives are making gains among moderates year after year.

«I BELIEVE MEDIA IS ART»

«I JUST READ EVERYTHING»

President Arugula is not gonna tell Americans they're fat and lazy. No sin tax on food on Obama's watch. And at a time when it's important to set new standards for personal responsibility, he appointed a surgeon general, who is, I'm sorry, kind of fat. Certainly too heavy to be a surgeon general, it's a role model thing. It would be like appointing a Secretary of the Treasury who didn't pay his taxes. He did? And get this: Surgeon General Benjamin had previously been a nutritional advisor to Burger King. The only advice a "health expert" should give Burger King is to stop selling food. The "nutritional advisor" job was described as, "promoting balanced diets and active lifestyle choices" -- and who better to do that than the folks who hand you meat and corn syrup through a car window? When you have a surgeon general who comes from Burger King, it's a message to lobbyists, and that message is, "Have it your way."

Bill Maher

«IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE»

Stephanie Pratt and Perez Hilton exchanged some scathing Tweets this week. The subject of this feud? Steph's butchered face and Perez's lack of a life.
At the MTV VMAs Sunday night, Perez observed via Twitter that "Stephanie Pratt is so wasted! She's probably seconds away from barfing on her lap."
But when he added this line, in reference to Stephanie Pratt's plastic surgery, he really set off Spencer's sis: "She also had too much work done!"
Stephanie replied with a Tweet about Perez Hilton being a "piece of dog $h!t" who needs to get a life and "get off ur computer u F*%KING LOSER!"
She also says she'd rather die than be him. Rough.

Perez, never failing to get the last word or milk it for all it's worth once he has been acknowledged by a celebrity - or even Stephanie Pratt, for that matter - responded "Please b!tch, you wish you were me! At least I'm D-list."
Funny, true and not one he could use on Demi Moore.
He says she's "Z-list and always will be," which is possibly the worst thing you could possibly tell an aspiring fame whore. Point Perez once again.
Of course, had he stopped there, this would be a funnier story, but Perez had to keep needling at her, writing "you can get all the plastic surgery you want, you'll still be an ugly, formerly meth-addicted bitch." Ouch, that burns.

Fashion.ie
Sept 18 2009

«I LIKE EVERYBODY'S ART»

Sculpture by David Smith

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: OBJECT

There's nothing wrong in being treated like an object. Just make sure it's like a luxury one.

WARHOLIAN QUOTE OF THE DAY

«In America, sex is an obsession, in other parts of the world it's a fact.»

-Marlene Dietrich

YOUTH WITHOUT COCKINESS IS NO YOUTH AT ALL

«IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE»

Madonna's brother decided to express himself, all right.Her Madgesty's estranged sibling came out swinging to E! News recently, slamming his sister's appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards last Sunday."She looked like Rachel Zoe gone horribly wrong," snapped Christopher Ciccone after Madonna stepped out in a tight black satin ensemble for her tribute to Michael Jackson last weekend.Granted, there's no love lost between the sibs since Ciccone aired their dirty laundry in his 2008 memoir, "Life With My Sister."Madonna then pursued legal options in an attempt to stop the tell-all's publication, which besides dishing on her sex life also alleged that she treated her brother like a doormat.

-Daily News
Sept 17 2009

«GOOD BUSINESS IS THE BEST ART»

Looking back through the annals of art-world power, you say that collectors called the shots in the 1950s, artists ruled the 1960s, and dealers owned the 1980s. The auction houses took over during the past few years, but who’s on top now?

-Collectors. When there’s a real shake-up, we always go back to connoisseurship, to the ones who decide which art will stand the test of time. Most art that I see is a one-liner -– you see it, you nod, you get it, you move on and forget it. The good stuff that will be worth money makes you go back a second time. Collectors are going after art that’s well-executed and seems to have a soul. The rest? Forget it. It’s not getting sold now.

-Richard Polsky
Wall Street Journal
Sept 18 2009

«CHURCH IS A FUN PLACE TO GO»

«AND I THINK I SEE MORE HOMELESS PEOPLE ON THE STREET EVERY MONTH.HOW CAN WE LET THIS KEEP HAPPENING»

"We, the American people allowed this to happen. We bought into this thing of, `Jesus, we could all be rich.' And it was just a big ruse. It was part of the Ponzi scheme. What is the difference between what Bernie Madoff did and what Reaganomics was about, which was to guarantee that the very few at the top of the pyramid were going to make off like bandits, and everybody else was going to work their asses off thinking they were going to get to the top of the pyramid?"

-Michael Moore

«I NEVER READ I JUST LOOK AT PICTURES«

WARHOLIAN QUOTE OF THE DAY

«Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.»

-Bill Gates

«I NEVER READ I JUST LOOK AT PICTURES«

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: WALL STREET

Wall Street can't be reformed. A stock exchange trading floor is all about young males at their testosterone peak. Therefore at the peak of their risk taking behaviour while acting like peacocks flaunting money to attract high maintenance trophy wifes.

«WASTING MONEY PUTS YOU IN A REAL PARTY MOOD»

What all this means – and it's tough to disagree here with the informed doomsayers – is that the next crisis will be worse than the one just passed. By bailing out all but Lehman, world authorities have created the worst "moral hazard" problem in the history of finance. Knowing that Uncle Sam or Whitehall or the Diet will bail them out, financiers will continue to have every greed-driven incentive to grab for the effortless upfront fees from their reckless behaviour, knowing any cataclysmic losses will be "socialized."On Wall Street, The New York Times tells us in a Saturday report on how little that city's mainstay industry has changed, the term for moral hazard is "I.B.G." Or, "I'll be gone," bonus in hand, long before avarice run rampant puts my bank and the world economy into the tank

Toronto Star
Sept 15 2009

YOUTH WITHOUT COCKINESS IS NO YOUTH AT ALL

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: CAPITALISM

We don't live in a traditional capitalism system anymore. We live in a casino capitalism system. The House (big banks) always win...

«I LIKE NEW BUILDINGS GOING UP»

WARHOLIAN QUOTE OF THE DAY

«There are more people who wish to be loved than there are who are willing to love.»

-Nicolas de Chamfort

«AND I THINK I SEE MORE HOMELESS PEOPLE ON THE STREET EVERY MONTH.HOW CAN WE LET THIS KEEP HAPPENING»

As a result, Obama's rhetoric has not been matched by reality. In his speech today, the president claimed that the actions of his administration have "spurred lending" and "helped responsible homeowners refinance to stem the tide of lost homes and lost home values."But, in truth, credit for Main Street is still very hard to come by, and only 12 percent of eligible homeowners have had their mortgages modified by the president's home ownership plan. Meanwhile cramdown legislation remains lobbyist roadkill (though Barney Frank is vowing to revive it this fall) and mandatory mediation between homeowners and lenders prior to foreclosure is going nowhere on a national level.That's why I could picture all the heads of the big banks sitting there today, listening to Obama and smiling -- knowing that, in the end, his claim that his administration is "proposing the most ambitious overhaul of the financial system since the Great Depression" won't mean anything as long as Wall Street's relentless lobbying and contributing continue to hold sway in the control room of the S.S. America.


-Arianna Huffington
Sept 14 2009

“I ALWAYS THOUGHT COWBOYS LOOKED LIKE HUSTLERS. THAT'S NICE”

«I JUST READ EVERYTHING»

A century from now, historians will probably write (assuming we can still read by then) about the factors that led to the decline of our civilization. There will be numerous indicators of major problems: a third of their children didn't graduate from high school! They watched television for 4.5 hours a day! They quibbled over whether their president could safely address schoolchildren!On the list of signals of imminent decline, there will be a special place on the list for OMGICU, TMZ, and their ilk. What could be more vapid than browsing and tweeting each other about the daily lives of the Tila Tequilas (I don't really know who she is either) of the world? What better bespeaks societal breakdown than our apparently endless fascination with the rich and famous? It's bad for the celebrities and bad for the rest of us.There is hope, however. The New York Times reports that celebrity magazines are declining dramatically in circulation. Let's hope that their readers aren't simply migrating online.

-Harvard Business
Sept 10 2009

«BEAUTY IS A SIGN OF INTELLIGENCE»

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: GAY MEN

90% of gay men over 30 year old should be slapped in the face to wake them up. Hey stupid fag! Didn't waste enough time already? Attitude is for a 20 year old Armani model. Not a 48 y.o, graying, fat, dumb looking fag wasting his time in bars night after night while nobody gives a fuck about him.

«POP ART IS FOR EVERYONE»

Artwork by Takashi Murakami

YOUNG STUPID IGNORANT FAG VS OLD BORING ANGRY FAG!

If you want to know where you stand in gay history, ask yourself where you were in 1982, when the disease took hold in public consciousness. If you were already sexually active by then and you’re still here to read this, you are someone who surely knows that fury has its uses. If you were in your teens, wondering how to take even your first steps into life as a gay man in a world in which a single encounter could become a death sentence, you understand fear, and its warping effects down through the decades. And if you were a kid, you grew up seeing AIDS as an unhappy fact of life.But what about the ever-growing cohort of gay men who weren’t even born in 1982? For most of them, AIDS is not their past but the past. No wonder some of us feel frustrated; when we complain that young gay men don’t know their history, what we’re really saying is that they don’t know our history—that once again, we feel invisible, this time within our own ranks.

New York Magazine
June 21 2009

WARHOLIAN QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Young men want to be faithful, and are not; old men want to be faithless, and cannot.”

-Oscar Wilde

YOUTH WITHOUT COCKINESS IS NO YOUTH AT ALL

«ART IS WHAT YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH»

IN an often quoted remark the Abstract Expressionist Barnett Newman once said, “Aesthetics is for artists what ornithology is for birds.” I wonder what Newman would make of the overflow of M.F.A.-bearing would-be artists pouring out of art schools and universities these days. Maybe he’d say, “An artist without a graduate degree is like a fish without a bicycle.”The professionalization and academicization of the art world has been lamented for some years, but lately they have become epidemic. The recent inflated art market has created the illusion that being an artist is a financially viable calling. Meanwhile art schools and universities — which often provide tenure (safe haven) for artists who may be taken seriously nowhere else.

New York Times
Sept 9 2009

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: MEN:

Stroking the ego of men will get you anything you want....anything.

«THEY ALWAYS HAD GREAT GIRL MODELS BUT NOW THE BOY MODELS ARE JUST AS GOOD“

«IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE»

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Words of wisdom from Paris Hilton are to be immortalized alongside remarks by some of the greatest thinkers of all time in the latest edition of the Oxford Book of Quotations -- and she reckons it's "so cool."Hilton, the socialite turned reality TV star and retailing phenomenon, is listed in the latest version of the 65-year-old dictionary, released this week, alongside the likes of Confucius, Oscar Wilde and Stephen Hawking. Her contribution? "Dress cute wherever you go, life is too short to blend in."Hilton, 28, was delighted to be featured in the book, which is a renowned list of memorable sayings.
"So cool that I have a quote in the dictionary," she wrote on her Twitter page.

«MY FAVORITE PLACE IS L.A.»

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: ART HISTORY GIANTS

Picasso was the most important artist of the first half of the 20th century. Warhol was the most important one of the second half. But it was Miro who created the most beautiful artistic vocabulary.

ARE YOU A REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT? «NEITHER» - ANDY WARHOL

The Democrats just never learn: Americans don't really care which side of an issue you're on as long as you don't act like pussies. When Van Jones called the Republicans assholes, he was paying them a compliment. He was talking about how they can get things done even when they're in the minority, as opposed to the Democrats, who can't seem to get anything done even when they control both houses of Congress, the presidency, and Bruce Springsteen.

-Bill Maher

«MY FAVORITE THING TO BUY IS UNDERWEAR»

«IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE»

Lady Gaga has been the talk of the pop world this past year, from her spectacular outfits to her impossibly catchy tunes. Now, as she leads the pack at this year's 2009 MTV Video Music Awards with nine nominations, the "Poker Face" singer is a safe bet to be the breakout star of the show on Sunday.New jack rapper Wale, who collaborated with Gaga on his hit "Chillin'," thinks his label mate has the same "It" factor as another ambitious blonde who has quite the VMA track record, Madonna.
"I think she's the Madonna of today," Wale told MTV News. "That's what I think, because of what she represents. Because I think what she's doing is the same thing Madonna did in the '80s: pushing the envelope on sex appeal, making aggressive music and making it popular."Wale and his group UCB will serve as the official VMA house band this year, and they'll have a front-row seat when Gaga hits the stage — to perform, and possibly to start her Moonman collection.

-MTV

«THERE IS NO COUNTRY IN THE WORLD THAT LOVES «RIGHT NOW» LIKE AMERICA DOES»

Britney Spears splits with boyfriend manager.

Next!

“MUSCLES ARE GREAT:EVERYBODY SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST ONE THAT THEY CAN SHOW OFF"

ANNA WINTOUR & VOGUE MAGAZINE

Look at the fashionistas listening to her, seeking surety in their subjective, perception-is-reality world. Wintour’s attractively peeved authority is truth enough for them. The sheer banality -- and mediocrity -- the abstraction -- of everything she’s saying becomes weighted and freighted with wisdom.Now think hard. Where have you seen this act before? Who has also used sunglasses, distinctive hair and a combination of inscrutability and banality-as-wisdom speak to affect a whole industry?
I’ll give you a clue. He even shares Wintour’s initials. A free tomato soup can to anyone who guessed Andy Warhol.The key ingredient for both A.W.’s is the aforementioned inscrutability. Why? Because it creates mystique. And mystique can move mountains where reality can’t. With his fright-wig mien, Warhol built an entire ersatz world view. He knew it. And most smart people knew it.

The Wrap
Sept 10 2009

WARHOLIAN QUOTE OF THE DAY

«In Hollywood, an equitable divorce settlement means each party getting fifty percent of publicity.»

-Lauren Bacall

SHOWING YOU HOW TO SING LIKE EARTHA KITT

«It's the movies that have really been running things in America ever since they were invented. They show you what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and how to look how you feel about it. When they show you how to kiss like James Dean or hook like jane Fonda or win like Rocky that's great".

-Andy Warhol

NAKED BODY

«Andy was fascinated by the naked body. He had an extensive collection of photographs of naked people. He delighted in the fact that every organ of the body varies in shape, form or color from one individual to the next. Just as one torso or one face tells a different story from another, so to Andy one penis or one ass told a different story from another».

-Ulta Violet

Warhol
Victor Bockris.

THE BEAUTY OBSESSION

«Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time.»

-Albert Camus

MODELING FOR 15 MINUTES OF FAME

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: ARTISTS: À LA LENNY BRUCE

Jasper Johns: goyim
Robert Rauscheberg: jewish
Andy Warhol's Campbell Soup cans: jewish
Andy Warhol's Del Monte Boxes : goyim
Damien Hirst art: goyim
Damien Hirst talking about art: jewish
Jeff Koons art: jewish
Jeff Koons talking about art: goyim

«I NEVER READ I JUST LOOK AT PICTURES«

«IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE»

There is something symbolic about Annie Leibovitz’s financial downfall. Her stylised celebrity portraits will forever be associated with the excesses of the boom years. And just as Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, RBS and many other erstwhile titans of the global capitalist world have been cast low through their culture of excess, it seems that Leibovitz succumbed to a culture of breathtaking debts that spiralled out of control. Now, on the brink of 60, she has won the ignominious distinction of becoming the art world’s first high-profile victim of the recession.

The Times
Sept 9 2009

THEY JUST NEED TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE REAL WARHOL...

Elite education in the U.S. has become a frenetic assembly line of competitive college application to schools where ideological brainwashing is so pandemic that it's invisible. The top schools, from the Ivy League on down, promote "critical thinking," which sounds good but is in fact just a style of rote regurgitation of hackneyed approved terms ("racism, sexism, homophobia") when confronted with any social issue. The Democratic brain has been marinating so long in those clichés that it's positively pickled. 

-Camille Paglia

«THEY ALWAYS HAD GREAT GIRL MODELS BUT NOW THE BOY MODELS ARE JUST AS GOOD“

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: POLITICS

Left vs right is now irrelevant in term of political strategy. The candidate with the best looking wife always win.

«GOOD BUSINESS IS THE BEST ART»

Twenty-two years after his death, and over 40 years after his ascendancy as America's most famous Pop artist, Warhol remains an influential figure on the making and selling of art. As his most obvious heir, Damien Hirst, puts it, "Warhol really brought money into the equation. He made it acceptable for artists to think about money. In the world we live in today, money is a big issue. It's as big as love, maybe even bigger."

The Observer
Sept 6 2009

«MORE THAN ANYTHING PEOPLE JUST WANT STARS»

«I JUST READ EVERYTHING»

"It's not picking up socks that's the issue. Who is the 'we' that we are talking about [in feminism]? Are we talking about the children who are involved in sex trafficking, or the women in Bangladesh? Are we talking about the Eastern European women who are promised a place in the West and end up as sex slaves? Feminism is a big term. If we are asking 'Are women human beings?' we don't need to vote on that. But where do we go from there? Are women better than men? No. Are they different? Yes. How are they different? We're still trying to figure that out."

-Margaret Atwood
The Independent
Sept 4 2009

«I LIKE EVERYBODY'S ART»

Artwork by Jeong Hwa Choi

POST WARHOL PREDICTION:CELEB MAG: FRUSTRATED ANGIE TELLS BRAD: FUCK ME BETTER OR I'LL DUMB YOU FOR A BLACK GUY!

«IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE»

PARIS — Celebrity Hollywood designer Christian Audigier is all over Paris this week, talk-of-the-town in the media, splashed on buses and looking out from giant billboards placed at strategic fashion hot-spots.The self-made multi-millionaire with the Midas touch is out to tackle his last frontier -- conquering his native France."France is the world's toughest market to crack, they're experts, connoisseurs," he told AFP. "I had to make it in America before I could return home."Audigier could well be dubbed the "Cinderella" of fashion.A poor boy from southern France who dropped out of school and became a shop assistant, the 51-year-old friend to Michael Jackson and a host of other VIPs, currently estimates his worth at a cool 250 million dollars."I am proud of my history," admits a smiling Audigier as a driver dusts down his luxury Maybach limousine. In Paris this week, he opened a four-storey showroom, bought a flat on one of the city's posher streets, rolled out his lines at a key fashion event -- and confirmed his purchase of Michael Jackson's last LA home for more than 30 million dollars.

Bloomberg
Sept 6 2009

YOUTH WITHOUT COCKINESS IS NO YOUTH AT ALL

«THERE IS NO COUNTRY IN THE WORLD THAT LOVES «RIGHT NOW» LIKE AMERICA DOES»

Paris Hilton now flying to L.A.

Next!

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: YOUNG PEOPLE

Dumb young people think cockiness is unsexy and attitude attractive. Smart young people know it's the exact opposite.

«FOOTBALL GAMES ARE REALLY THE BEST PLACES TO MEET MACHO GUYS»

WARHOLIAN QUOTE OF THE DAY

«Two type of artists exist. Those who know all is fucked up but got over it cuz they earn $ & those who cant get over it cuz they don't earn $.»

-Damien Hirst

«EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL»

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: STRAIGHT

After 30 y.o every married straight guy at the mall with his wife look like a dog on a leash.

TRUMAN CAPOTE

"I hate pop-art to death. I have nine Warhols in my closet which Andy gave me. I've told this to his face."
 
Quoted par Alice Albright Hoge, Chicago Daily News, 24 juin 1967

LANDSCAPE

“I′m having boys come and model for the new paintings I′m doing. But I shouldn′t call them nude. It should be something more artistic. Like Lanscapes...Landscapes″.

-Andy Warhol

«I LOVE ALLEN'S THINGS...HE'S SUCH A GREAT POET»

«The only thing that can save the world is the reclaiming of the awareness of the world. That's what poetry does.”

-Allen Ginsberg

«I JUST READ EVERYTHING»

One of the big problems is how we converse. Typing still leaves something to be desired as a communication tool; it lacks the nuances that can be expressed by body language and voice inflection. "Online, people can't see the yawn," says Patricia Wallace, a psychologist at Johns Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth and author of "The Psychology of the Internet."But let's face it, the problem is much greater than which tools we use to communicate. It's what we are actually saying that's really mucking up our relationships. "Oh my God, a college friend just updated her Facebook status to say that her 'teeth are itching for a flossing!'" shrieked a friend of mine recently. "That's gross. I don't want to hear about what's going on inside her mouth."That prompted me to check my own Facebook page, only to find that three of my pals—none of whom know each other—had the exact same status update: "Zzzzzzz." They promptly put me to "zzzzzzz."This brings us to our first dilemma: Amidst all this heightened chatter, we're not saying much that's interesting, folks. Rather, we're breaking a cardinal rule of companionship: Thou Shalt Not Bore Thy Friends.

-Wall Street Journal
August 25 2009

“MUSCLES ARE GREAT:EVERYBODY SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST ONE THAT THEY CAN SHOW OFF"

«IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE»

No one likes a critic, especially one who has no background in the subject he's talking about, so it's no wonder art critics lashed out against conservative television pundit Glenn Beck when he tried his hand this week at analysing the art in Rockefeller Plaza. Claiming the Art Deco wall reliefs carved on the buildings actually contain hidden communist and fascist symbolism—how does one become both communist and fascist anyway? Aren’t the two mutually exclusive?—Beck went on a tirade about Obama’s own use of art as propaganda and his plans to indoctrinate the Youth of America, comparing the President to Mussolini. Coming to the defense of art, New York magazine critic, Jerry Saltz, has issued a challenge to Beck to step up and curate two exhibitions himself: “The first, images (or actual artworks) that exist in New York City that he would like to see demolished. He could call it Degenerative Art. The second, a show of contemporary art that he approves of.”

The Art Newspaper
Sept 4 2009

«THEY ALWAYS HAD GREAT GIRL MODELS BUT NOW THE BOY MODELS ARE JUST AS GOOD“

«POP ART IS FOR EVERYONE»

Mass culture is doing better than fine. In fact, all those sites like Amazon that supposedly cater to niche interests? They may do just the opposite. According to researchers at the Wharton School of Business, “If you liked X you may also like Y” programs like Amazon’s actually decrease the diversity of sales and harm the niche market. We’re buying the same downloads and books more than ever before.In other words, when Amazon or YouTube or iTunes or Pandora tells us “You may like …,” they mean all of us, and they’re usually right. And what’s wrong with that? We should revel in our common ground. Pop culture is poppier and better than ever. Drake’s “Best I Ever Had,” the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling,” and Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA” are great. They could certainly go toe-to-toe with the Everly Brothers’ “Wake Up Little Susie.” There’s a reason it’s called “pop”—it’s chronically likable, and we could actually be getting better at making it.Big music companies may be in trouble, but big music is thriving. This fall, the dream-team concert with Kanye West and Lady Gaga stands to sell a gazillion tickets and to be both a great spectacle and real art. In its first week, 636,000 people downloaded “Right Round” by Flo Rida.

New York magazine
Sept 3 2009

WARHOLIAN QUOTE OF THE DAY

«If a woman tells you she's twenty and looks sixteen, she's twelve. If she tells you she's twenty-six and looks twenty-six, she's damn near fourty. »

-Chris Rock

«CHURCH IS A FUN PLACE TO GO»

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: LOVE

They say you need to love yourself to love others. Wrong. You need to love others to love yourself.

«EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL»

You’re on  HBO – again – with Russell Simmons Presents Brave New Voices.  You not only brought poets to most television screens in America, you did it twice.   What made you say to yourself let’s get some poets on major cable?
Simmons:  I just said let’s get some poets on tv.  And when they said that sounded unlikely, I made it worse.  I said, no man, I want to put a bunch of black poets on stage, too.  Some Latino poets who barely speak English and Asian poets who can’t believe how discriminated against they are.  It was luck and being in the right place.  I wasn’t saying nothing somebody else wasn’t saying but they wouldn’t hear it from them.

And you took Def Jam to Broadway in the ’90s?  Live poetry on Broadway?

Simmons:  We got a Tony.  Look at it this way, black actors on the road, flying around the country working as poets.  Those people are inspirations for millions of kids who write.  We have great ratings.  It was an interesting art form you couldn’t see anywhere else on television.  Imagine that!  Poetry!

True Slant
Sept 3 2009

«ATHLETES ARE GOING TO BE THE NEW MEDIA STARS»

STUD VS SLUT

If you ever wondered about the difference between boys and girls, Bristol Palin and her ex-boyfriend and forever baby daddy, Levi Johnston, are currently staging a very convincing reenactment of that old high school drama: the slut vs. the stud. Bristol, as we all know, has spent the months since their son was born speaking out for abstinence, essentially agreeing with her harshest critics that she should have kept her legs closed. Meanwhile, Levi has an offer to pose for Playgirl.

-Salon
Sept 3 2009

«MY FAVORITE THING TO BUY IS UNDERWEAR»

POST WARHOL PREDICTION: IN THE FUTURE REQUIRED SEX ACTS FOR PROMOTION WILL BE ACCEPTED BY 99% OF THE POPULATION

«AND I THINK I SEE MORE HOMELESS PEOPLE ON THE STREET EVERY MONTH.HOW CAN WE LET THIS KEEP HAPPENING»

In the face of this educational apartheid, we should have no illusions about what is at stake. As writer Mikel Holt puts it: "The old civil rights movement got us to the lunch counter. The new civil rights agenda is: can our kids read the menu?" It's time to acknowledge that over 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education we are witnessing a de facto resegregation of our schools, with blacks and Hispanics more separate from white students than at any time since the civil rights movement. In contrast, the last 30 years have been a boom time for America's jails, with new prisons popping up at a rate even McDonald's would envy, while the number of people living behind bars has quadrupled: "Over 2 million dissatisfied customers served.Particularly troubling is the fact that close to 150,000 children are in custody and that high school dropout rates are in lockstep with the rate of juvenile incarceration. As a result, many of America's schools have become preparatory facilities not for college but for jail.Time after time, when the choice has come down to books versus bars, our political leaders have chosen to build bigger prisons rather than figuring out how to have fewer kids in them.How is it that we are willing to spend so much on kids once they are found guilty of crimes but so little when they are still innocent? What kind of society spends more than 10 times as much to incarcerate a child as it does to educate him?

Huffington Post
August 3 2009

“MUSCLES ARE GREAT:EVERYBODY SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST ONE THAT THEY CAN SHOW OFF"

«IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE»

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A billionaire Canadian circus entrepreneur who will visit space this month said on Wednesday he will host a live event from orbit on October 9 to promote the importance of access to clean water globally.
Guy Laliberte, founder of the Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil, said environmental activist and former U.S. vice president Al Gore, Irish band U2, veteran rock musician Peter Gabriel and other celebrities will take part in the show from 14 cities around the world.Laliberte, 50, is due to fly into space on September 30 aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule to travel to the orbiting International Space Station. He will pay $35 million for the 11-day trip, becoming the seventh private citizen to be a "space tourist." Cirque du Soleil operates innovative circus shows."I just hope that as a citizen of Earth, this will inspire people in a new way," said the former street performer, who became a billionaire after turning his traveling circus act into an entertainment powerhouse.


Sept 2 2009

THE BEAUTY OBSESSION

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.

-Albert Einstein

YOUTH WITHOUT COCKINESS IS NO YOUTH AT ALL

STREET ARTISTS

Fab 5 Freddy Credited with spreading the influence of graffiti and rap beyond the Bronx, Fred Braithwaite is a well known hip hop pioneer. Got his name by targeting the No 5 subway train.

Lee Quinones Another key innovator in the early days of New York's street art. Moved from trains to canvas and his work is now in several permanent collections.

Keith Haring Began chalk drawing on New York's subways and progressed to painting the body of singer Grace Jones for a music video. Opened Pop Shop in 1980s to make his work accessible.

And one to look out for: Solveig A 10-year-old from Brighton. Acclaimed as "the young Picasso of street art".


-The Guardian
Augut 31 2009

«I LIKE EVERYBODY'S ART»

Artwork by Louise Bourgeois.

WARHOLIAN QUOTE OF THE DAY

«Forget breast implants. It's never about big or little, or short or tall, or blonde or brunette. It's only about "old" and "new." Hugh Grant had Elizabeth Hurley at home, and he wanted Marvin Hagler in a wig.»

-Bill Maher