Category Archives: politics

Banksy: No Art “Due To Police Activity”

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For day #23 of Banksy’s “Better Out Than In,” there is no new artwork, according to Banksy’s website.

The “police activity” that Banksy refers to took place Monday when, according to Gothamist! police forced Banksy to take his Ronald McDonald shoe shine piece off the street.

Below this line of text is what appears today on Banksy’s website.

Read the Gothamist! story here.

Photo via Gothamist!.

If you missed my previous Banksy posts, here’s an easy way to check them out: Day one, day two, day three, day four, day five, day six, day seven, day eight, day nine, day ten, day 11, day 12, day 13, day 14, day 15, day 16, day 17, day 18, day 19, day 20, day 21, day 22. Plus: “A Consideration Of The Politics Of Banksy’s Syria Video,” “Source For Banksy’s ‘Concrete Confessional’ Revealed,” and “Banksy Update: NYC Mayor Attacks Street Artist.”

Banksy NYC Art Day #22: Look At The Sphinx, But Don’t Drink The Water

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Today we are more than two-thirds of the way through Banksy’s month-long “Better Out Than In” exhibit of art on the streets of New York.

So far, Banksy has generated more press and pushed more buttons during the first 22 days than any other artist in recent history. Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but you get the idea. This artwork in located in Queens.

Today (October 22, 2013, Banksy writes on his website under this photo of his latest artwork: “Everything but the kitchen Sphinx. A 1/36 scale replica of the great Sphinx of Giza made from smashed cinderblocks.You’re advised not to drink the replica Arab spring water.”

If you missed my previous Banksy posts, here’s an easy way to check them out: Day one, day two, day three, day four, day five, day six, day seven, day eight, day nine, day ten, day 11, day 12, day 13, day 14, day 15, day 16, day 17, day 18, day 19, day 20, day 21. Plus: “A Consideration Of The Politics Of Banksy’s Syria Video,” “Source For Banksy’s ‘Concrete Confessional’ Revealed,” and “Banksy Update: NYC Mayor Attacks Street Artist.”

Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova Moved To Different Prison

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Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has been moved from Penal Colony No. 14 to another prison, and her defense has no info on which prison she is now incarcerated in, her lawyer Irina Khrunova told RAPSI legal news agency Monday (October 21, 2013).

“Nadya is no longer in the prison colony,” Khrunova told RAPSI. “Investigative procedures were planned for today. I arrived, and the investigator told me that Tolokonnikova was not there; I was in shock. He was told that she has been transferred, but where to, we don’t know.”

In a letter dated Friday, October 18, 2013, before she was moved to her current location, Tolokonnikova said she feared for her life in Penal Colony No. 14, Agence France-Presse reported.

“I confess — yes, I am afraid for my life,” Tolokonnikova wrote in a letter she gave to her former defence lawyer Violetta Volkova. “Because I don’t know what will happen to me tonight. What the butchers of the Mordovia prison service will decide to do to me.”

Scans of the letter were published by the New Times opposition magazine, according to Agence France-Presse.

Volkova visited the Pussy Riot member this past Friday morning (Oct. 18, 2013) when she was on a new hunger strike, and Volkova described her as seriously ill.

“It’s not just that she is not in a condition to hunger strike; she is killing herself with it,” Volkova said. “If you met Nadya on the street now, you would probably never recognise her.”

Banksy NYC Art Day #21: Boy, Butler, Paint Cans

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Located in the South Bronx.

If you missed my previous Banksy posts, here’s an easy way to check them out: Day one, day two, day three, day four, day five, day six, day seven, day eight, day nine, day ten, day 11, day 12, day 13, day 14, day 15, day 16, day 17, day 18, day 19, day 20. Plus: “A Consideration Of The Politics Of Banksy’s Syria Video,” “Source For Banksy’s ‘Concrete Confessional’ Revealed,” and “Banksy Update: NYC Mayor Attacks Street Artist.”

Listen: New U2 Song In “Mandela” Trailer

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Mandela_-_Long_Walk_to_Freedom_poster

U2’s first new song in three years, “Ordinary Love,” is heard in the Nelson Mandela film, “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.” The film is set for release in late November. You can listen to the song right now. Just use this link to launch a Facebook page with a video player and listen.

The group is working on a new album which they hope to release in 2014.

“It’s a bit of a return to U2 of old,” Adam Clayton said in a recent Irish radio interview, “but with the maturity, if you like, of the U2 of the last 10 years.”

From what I can hear, this soundtrack contribution is a classic U2 ballad that builds and builds, turning into an anthem by the end. Maybe. Check it out yourself in the “Mandela” trailer below.

Banksy NYC Art Day #20: Boy, Sledge Hammer, Fire Alarm

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Day #20 of Banksy’s “Better Out Than In” brings us this new piece, located in New York’s Upper West Side, done in the now classic Banksy silhouette style. No audio guide. Enjoy, if you can.

 

If you missed my previous Banksy posts, here’s an easy way to check them out: Day one, day two, day three, day four, day five, day six, day seven, day eight, day nine, day ten, day 11, day 12, day 13, day 14, day 15, day 16, day 17, day 18, day 19. Plus: “A Consideration Of The Politics Of Banksy’s Syria Video,” “Source For Banksy’s ‘Concrete Confessional’ Revealed,” and “Banksy Update: NYC Mayor Attacks Street Artist.”

Return Of The Throwing Muses: “We wanted no further part [of] the recording industry”

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Later this week the Throwing Muses return with a new album, Purgatory/Paradise, their first in ten years. The 32-track album comes with a 64-page book of essays and stories by Kirstin Hersh, plus photos and artwork by Muses’ drummer  Dave Narcizo and Hersh.

“We’ve always lived in our own private world,” Muses leader Kirstin Hersh told The Independent, “and we might  well have made this record and never released it, but we felt it was worthy of release.”

The group has spent the past decade “divorcing ourselves from the recording industry, which is collapsing. We wanted no further part in it,” Hersh said.

The new book/album is being published by HarperCollins’ The Friday Project Limited imprint.

For the entire story, head to The Independent.

Here’s are some old videos for your enjoyment.

Banksy NYC ART Day #18: Two Collaborations With Os Gemeos

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For Day #18 of Banksy’s “Better Out Than In” New York street exhibit the artist is showing two collaborations he made with Brazilian artists Os Gemeos, on West 24th Street, between 10th and 11th avenues.

banksy day 18-1

Today (Oct. 18, 2013) on his website Banksy writes:

“Are you the sort of person who enjoys going to art galleries, but wished they had more gravel in them? Then this temporary exhibition space is for you. Housing just two paintings but also featuring a bench, some carpet and complimentary refreshments. Opens today through Sunday 11am til midnight.”

banksy day 18-2

Banksy has also included audio about today’s art:

banksy day 18 -3

If you missed my previous Banksy posts, here’s an easy way to check them out: Day one, day two, day three, day four, day five, day six, day seven, day eight, day nine, day ten, day 11, day 12, day 13, day 14, day 15, day 16, day 17. Plus: “A Consideration Of The Politics Of Banksy’s Syria Video,” “Source For Banksy’s ‘Concrete Confessional’ Revealed,” and “Banksy Update: NYC Mayor Attacks Street Artist.”

At the bottom of Banksy’s Oct. 18 post on his website he writes:

People ask why I want to have an exhibition in the streets, but have you been to an art gallery recently? They’re full.

And finally, the owner of the building that Banksy stenciled yesterday (Oct. 17, 2013) has an article, “I’m the Accidental Owner of a Banksy,” that you can read here.

Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova To Be Transferred To A Different Prison

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Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova  will be transferred to another Russian penal colony in the wake of her nine-day hunger strike and the ensuing media attention, the Associated Press report today (October 18, 2013).

“The Federal Penitentiary Service said in a statement Friday it will meet Tolokonnikova’s demand and move her to another prison ‘for her personal safety,'” the AP report.

The Pussy Riot member has been suriving a two-year sentence in Penal Colony No. 14 in the Mordovia region of Russia.

For more of this story.

Banksy Update: NYC Mayor Attacks Street Artist

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day 17 -3

With a front page headline screaming “Get Banksy!” the New York Post reports that police are on the lookout for the world famous graffiti artist.

“Law enforcement sources have told The Post Banksy will be charged with vandalism if he’s found scribbling his stencils on city walls,” The Post reports.

But the Daily News in New York reports that police are not actively looking for Banksy.

“It is graffiti, so if someone complained about it, members of the Vandals Unit would investigate,” a police source told the Daily New. “I haven’t heard of anyone complaining.”

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg calls Banksy a vandal, not an artist.

“Graffiti does ruin people’s property and is a sign of decay and a loss of control,” Bloomberg said yesterday (Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2013).

“Art is art, and nobody’s a bigger supporter of the arts than I am,” he continued. “I just think there are some places for art, and there are some places [for] no art. You running up to someone’s property or public property and defacing it is not my definition of art.”

Now if I was Banksy, I’d be quite happy to have the Mayor of New York talking about me. How cool is that. Banksy as Batman?