Forest City Ratner hasn’t released any images of their Atlantic Yards project since Frank Gehry left, so the Municipal Art Society rendered the developer’s unsightly plan for Brooklyn: “a vision of urban blight: only the planned arena near Atlantic and Flatbush avenues and two adjacent residential towers remain, surrounded by a series of large ‘temporary’ surface parking and other empty space.” |NYP|
Through intensive photography training courses, the Refocus Project equips marginalized Middle Eastern youth with cameras and the expertise to use them. Partnering with UNICEF, their most recent course for Iraqi and Syrian teenagers this summer focused on “raising awareness of rights, gender respect and integration.” In one lesson on constructing and communicating with images, the photographers used dolls as stand-ins for some revealing shots that couldn’t be easily, or safely, modeled by humans. |JPG|
Good news America! The 44th President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, is not a Kenyan national after all, despite what the lunatic fringes and Lou Dobbs has to say. The House overwhelmingly passed a resolution officially recognizing a bunch of facts about Hawaii, including Obama’s birth there. Apparently a certified birth certificate doesn’t cut it anymore, well, it does, just not if you’re the country’s first non-white president. |CBS|
The people of Detroit have finally been given a glimmer of hope, at least the poor ones relegated to riding the city’s massive network of buses, with the opening of the Rosa Parks Transit Center. More like an airport terminal, the sprawling 25,000-square-foot space provides low income commuters a new, airy, state-of-the-art facility to help keep their minds off just how economically fucked they really are.
Photo by David Sailors
The MTA announced plans to slash its cleaning budget by $32.5 million, getting rid of 360 jobs, including 90 positions from its already short-staffed maintenance team, in the process. Straphangers can look forward to even filthier subway stations and trains. |NYP|
A Glasgow art exhibition has been under attack after inviting visitors to write on the Bible. Part of “Made in God’s Image” at the Gallery of Modern Art, the book of scripture installation includes a container of pens alongside a sign telling visitors, “If you feel you have been excluded from the Bible, please write your way back into it.” Although intended as a way for marginalized communities to reclaim the holy text, adding their names to the margins of the book, “its pages have been scrawled with comments including “‘F*** the Bible’ and ‘I am Bi, Female & Proud. I want no god who is disappointed in this’.” Read more »
In their never ending quest to infuriate freedom-loving straphangers, the MTA will test a new surveillance system on subway trains. The plan is to outfit cars on one of the “letter” lines with digital cameras that can continuously record, but won’t be watched live according to the Post. Basically, they’ll do little to prevent crime, but have the potential to provide excellent snuff footage in the event that a crime does take place. |NYP|
Photo by plemeljr
Oh my fucking God, how embarrassing. Jackie, you best get on board with Rush Hour 4 today. The great stuntman turned bad actor has signed a two-spot advertising contract with Moscow software security firm Kaspersky Lab. This is the first Chinese commercial, co-starring slightly better actor Eugene Kaspersky, the firm’s co-founder. Kaspersky invites Chan to visit a dangerous place called “Cyberworld.” Chan agrees, and…rides into a laptop wearing a Kaspersky-branded helmet while astride a fucking Kaspesky-branded Segway. Once inside, Chan is confronted by cheesy graphics that look about 1995, emerges unharmed, and delivers his forced, wooden endorsement. Hope you got paid better than I think you did, Jackie. Jump for the cyber-shame. Read more »
A North Carolina firefighter allegedly shot a man in the head because he was worried about the victim bicycling “with his child on a busy road,” according to police. The victim, his wife, and 3-year-old son were riding together when a driver, Charles Alexander Diez, confronted them, then “pulled a gun and opened fire, hitting the victim in his bicycle helmet,” which blocked the deadly shot. |WYFF|
A benefit is planned for Nicole Gagne, the artist seriously injured when a staircase collapsed at Five Pointz this spring. From 5:30 to 9:30 on Thursday, Priska C. Juschka gallery in Chelsea will host a sale of affordable artworks to raise money for the jewelry designer’s continued recovery. Meanwhile, artists are permanently evicted from the building’s studios as the owner, G&M Realty, deals with violations, fines and necessary repairs from the building’s failure. |NYDN|
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