Some wonderfully worn shoes I had to good sense to toss before moving:

Some wonderful chairs I shipped across the country at great expense for some inconceivably stupid reason:

48 Hour Magazine is awesome project, which I didn’t participate in. I should have and will next time. So should you. It’s available for purchase now.

Got the latest from Ribbons… It’s a newsletter. Got this email a few weeks ago:

dear friends,

the first ever ribbons newsletter is about to hit the streets and it’d be a great pleasure to keep you informed of what dreams are brewing…

be a stop on the delivery route,
pass on your address,

it
is
so
simple.

Also, check out the latest RIbbons publication, Shells Vol. 1 and the new dance mix “for the get pumped for 2010 campaign.”

A few months ago, I went to interview/ photograph Owen Pallett (the artist formerly known as Final Fantasy) at Different Ear Studios in San Francisco. Photos didn’t get used, but I think they’re pretty cool.

More After the Jump…

So I didn’t get a San Francisco Panorama. They were sold out everywhere and generally inaccessible. This means I’ll have to fork over sixteen bucks for it instead of five because the fine folks over at Mcsweeny’s either 1) didn’t want to sell that many for only five bones, or 2) because they radically underestimated demand.

Either way, it looks fantastic. There’s tons of photos of the interior over at Flickr, so check it out. Or buy it online, and keep print media in business.

Last week I joined the scores of enthusiasts crowded into the basement of the Park Branch Library in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury to listen to Rock and Roll obscurist Richie Unterberger drop some knowledge. Unterberger curates screenings of rare concert footage and lectures every other month, and if you haven’t been, you’re missing out.

This particular lecture was particularly enthusiastic because it’s about the Velvet Underground, the subject  of Unterberger’s latest book, White Light/ White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day by Day. Unterberger lectured over rare photos from his book and showed some moving footage of a 1972 performance by Lou Reed, John Cale and Nico. This performance happened, of course, a few years after Reed, Cale, and Nico left the VU, but it’s high-quality– more than can be said about anything recorded during the VU’s prime. Click here for some of it bastardized by YouTube.

Besides plugging his book, Unterberger made a plea on behalf of local booksellers: Buy Local.

Check it out…

I have to say I’m a little peeved at Current. For a news organization that is supposedly a groundbreaking alternative to the MSM, Current has been remarkably silent on the detainment, trial, conviction and sentencing of journalists Euna Lee, Laura Ling.  Although Current chief Al Gore is reportedly in the running to head up the negotiations. The two Current journalists were reporting in North Korea at the time of their detainment and are essentially being held as bargaining chips by the North Korean government. I mean, even the flaccid San Francisco Chronicle weighed in on this one. Where’s Current with its sensitive, passionate reporting?

It wasn’t a big surprise to anyone that the California Supreme Court ruled today that Proposition 8 was indeed a legal amendment to the California Constitution. The Court ruled that Prop 8  does not alter the constitution’s fundamental framework as the challengers contended. In fact, the voter-approved amendment establishes the denomination of marriage as exclusively for heterosexual couples and doesn’t do much else. Gays still have domestic partnerships which are similar to marriage in everything but name.

See the Court’s opinion here.

So why so much fuss about the denomination? It’s the simple argument that the exclusion of gay couples from marriage under the California Constituion institutionalizes inequality. The Court ruled that because all of the rights remain the same, there is no inequality at all.

So what’s next? ROUND FOUR! I got a major education on this from KQED today.

Gay marriage proponents have vowed to bring the gay rights initiative back to the voters. Statistically, this will eventually work. Young voters tend to support equal marriage rights for gay couples while  older voters tend to oppose these rights. To paraphrase a commentator’s euphemism, there’s reason to believe that in a few years, many older voters may not be able to get to the ballot box.

The only question is when to put the initiative on the ballot: 2010, or 2012. Strategists suggest that waiting a few more years for the next presidential election in 2012 would be the best strategy because California’s overwhelmingly democratic turnout in Presidential elections would likely benefit the proposition. On the other hand, all of the democratic front runners for California Governor in 2010 are outspoken supporters of Prop 8 so the issue would be directly tied to other highly funded campaigns. The downside, of course,  is that if the new pro-marriage prop fails in 2010, then the movement for marriage equality loses a lot of steam.

Why not take this to the Federal Supreme Court? Because it doesn’t have a chance. Federal equal protection jurisprudence hasn’t progressed to the point where marriage proponents think they have a good case.

A final note: Have you ever checked out Class A homophobe Peter LaBarbera’s group, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality? It’s a riot.

Oakland-based illustrator and outdoor expiriential art master Dave Wilson (aka Ribbons) has a stunning new show “Open Endless” up at Tartine.  So now you have some pretty pictures to look at while you wait in the line that goes out the door and around the block.

The show features amazing big/small (?) drawings that might be out of a sketchbook… or at least an imagined one. In conjunction with “Open Endless”, Dave is also curating a “Day to Explore” in the Marin Headlands on Sunday May 10th. Certain to include: performances, experiences, heady-times, and probably just a little more standing outside than you are used to. Probably for the best. I’d go, but I’m outta town!  Just follow the map below… or click her for more info.

In other fun art goings-on. Portland’s Lasercave has put out a call for it’s upcoming show “In the Light Cone.“

Ahem…

The concept for this exhibition draws from the basic pairs and associations of light/dark, day/night, laser/cave, source/shadow. The foundations of visual phenomena and visual culture resultingly are based upon the existence of light; its presence and absence dictate circadian rhythms and our innate notions of temporality; light is food, we love the sun. It is impossible to overstate light’s import. We hope to give the light/dark//laser/cave idea revitalized potency by showing artists who understand that this isn’t merely a dichotomy: it is an experiment in the movements of the sun and the shade of the trees as well as the human abilities of fire, flashlight, lcd, and laser.

Video by Jesse “I want to make your head hurt with my art” Malmed of Deep//Leap “fame”

Certain to be a good time.  Rumor has it that 1000voices might actually show up.

The relevant info:

As part of the festivities surrounding the exhibition, there will be a film/video screening and live performances, including dance and lecture. Makers of all disciplines and scale are encouraged to contribute. Please submit art and proposals by June 8th (sooner is better, but better is best) either to:

inthelightcone@gmail.com

Lasercave
229 N Shaver
Portland, OR 97212