Personism

Links: FiveThirtyEight.com

• FiveThirtyEight.com: Electoral Projections Done Right: Today's Polls, 9/28
  Here's the long and short of it for John McCain: Barack Obama has as large a lead in the election as he's held all year. But there is much less time left on the clock than there was during other Obama periods of strength, such as in February, mid-June or immediately following the Democratic convention. This is a very difficult combination of circumstances for him.
  (tags: politics obama)

Links: Preservation by Demolition

• Architecture - Tear Down These Walls - One Architecture Critic’s Candidates for Demolition in New York City - NYTimes.com
  So here’s what I propose. True, the city is close to broke. But even with Wall Street types contemplating the end and construction of new luxury towers grinding to a halt, why give in to despair? Instead of crying over what can’t be built, why not refocus our energies on knocking down the structures that not only fail to bring us joy, but actually bring us down?
  (tags: architecture nyc)

Links: Newsflash! Palin is Dispicable

• Editorial Observer - Wasilla Watch - Sarah Palin and the Rape Kits - Editorial - NYTimes.com
  In the absence of answers, speculation is bubbling in the blogosphere that Wasilla’s policy of billing rape victims may have something to do with Ms. Palin’s extreme opposition to abortion, even in cases of rape. Sexual-assault victims are typically offered an emergency contraception pill, which some people in the anti-choice camp wrongly equate with abortion.
  (tags: nyt women politics insanity)

Links: 250k Prize for Good Writing (Seriously!)

• Who knew it would be hard to give away a $250,000 prize for good writing?
  FieldReport would offer a $250,000 prize for whichever short nonfiction piece received the highest ranking from the site's users by Jan. 1, 2009. "We thought we'd come out with the world's biggest prize for a single piece of writing and suddenly everyone would say, 'Wow this is really cool!'" Instead, almost nobody believed them. (via Maud Newton)
  (tags: writing publishing)

Links: Noodles in NY

• Eight Great Noodle Dishes in New York City
  Many of these spots are near 20x200 HQ and the gallery.
  (tags: food restaurants nyc)

Links: Bullish on Hirst, Bearish on Books

• Does Hirst Auction Point to Bull Market for Art? - WSJ.com
  "British artist Damien Hirst's bold strategy to bypass his galleries and take his art to auction paid off Monday night when Sotheby's in London sold £70.5 million ($127 million) of his pickled animals and polka-dotted canvases."
  (tags: art business auctions)
• Have We Reached the End of Book Publishing As We Know It? -- New York Magazine
  The book business as we know it will not be living happily ever after. With sales stagnating, CEO heads rolling, big-name authors playing musical chairs, and Amazon looming as the new boogeyman, publishing might have to look for its future outside the corporate world.
  (tags: books publishing media business)

Links: Omeka for Exhibitions, Unethical Interior

• Omeka
  Omeka is a web platform for publishing collections and exhibitions online. Designed for cultural institutions, enthusiasts, and educators, Omeka is easy to install and modify and facilitates community-building around collections and exhibits. Omeka is free and open source. (via MeFi)
  (tags: web museums education publishing)
• Wide-Ranging Ethics Scandal Emerges at Interior Dept. - NYTimes.com
  "The report accuses Mr. Smith of improperly accepting gifts from the oil and gas industry, of engaging in sex with two subordinates, and of using cocaine that he purchased from his secretary or her boyfriend several times a year between 2002 and 2005. He sometimes asked for the drugs and received them in his office during work hours, the report alleges." Stay classy, Bush adminstration. Holy smokes.
  (tags: government ethics business)

Links: Scouting Design Hollywood Style

• Target's Design Scout
  Michele Caniato, a consultant on high-performance materials for companies such as Nokia (NOK) and Whirlpool (WHR), founded Culture & Commerce with entrepreneur George M. Beylerian in 2000. They applied the concept of Hollywood talent management to product design. "We're a matchmaker and guardian angel," says Caniato, adding that the firm has negotiated $65 million in designer contracts to date. (via Murketing)
  (tags: design marketing branding business)

Ka-Ching!

Untitled Film Still #13 by Cindy Sherman

Lot 97 / Sale 2022 from Christie's First Open Post War & Contemporary Art auction.

Untitled, Film Still #13
signed and dated 'Cindy Sherman 1978' (on the reverse)
gelatin silver print
20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm.)
Executed in 1978. This work is number one from an edition of one.

Estimate: $300,000 - $500,000.
Price realized: $902,500.

My first thought upon hearing this was that it's unfortunate that the artist herself doesn't benefit from the sale. (Not directly, at least.)

Links: Free Books, Music Biz Kills Self, New Museum Expands

• Maud Newton: Blog
  Below John Warner, editor of McSweeney’s online, author of So You Want to Be President? and Fondling Your Muse, and creative director of the struggling TOW Books, explains why he’s rejecting the age-old strategy of sending review copies to newspapers, and offering them to you instead.
  (tags: publishing books marketing)
• How the Music Business Spent the Summer Killing Itself - Advertising Age - The Media Guy
  All in all, it's been a depressing summer for the delusional record industry. We're seeing a total disconnect between labels' unrealistic, old-school revenue expectations and what the market can bear.
  (tags: music business copyright)
• New Museum Buys an Adjacent Building on the Bowery - NYTimes.com
  Not even a year after it opened a new $50 million home on the Bowery, the New Museum of Contemporary Art has acquired an adjacent building for $16.6 million, museum executives said Monday. Just south of the museum at 231 Bowery, the building is a 47,000-square-foot, five-story structure now used by a restaurant-supply company. (via AFC)
  (tags: realestate nyc news art museums gallery bowery)