- Tired of gazing upon your cat’s unsightly anus? Get Twinkle Tush, the sparkling gemstone that transforms your cat’s butt from an eyesore to a glittering spectacle. It costs $5.99. But its value is beyond measure. [Mashable]
- It seems absurd to criticize The Onion for a lack of journalistic integrity, but their brand of fake news has always seemed harmless—maybe even well-intentioned, as opposed to the fake news of FOX, for example. But this sponsored post (which reads like The Onion’s normal content) is really troubling. It’s written from the perspective of an almond that threatens to consume all the world’s water, seemingly in reference to the controversy over the crop in drought-stricken California. The problem? It’s sponsored by Outback Steakhouse. The issue of almonds farmers’ water usage has been used as a smokescreen by the state’s beef industry, who are using the nut as a scapegoat during the drought. In reality, the vast majority of California’s water has been going to raising feed for livestock, a fact even relatively conservative Bloomberg and Business Insider acknowledge. Outback Steakhouse, not so much. If we can’t trust fiction, what can we trust? [The Onion]
- The Smithsonian is posting a disclaimer outside its exhibition of the collection of Billy Cosby and his wife Camille, explaining that the show is “fundamentally about the artworks and the artists who created them, not Mr. Cosby.” The exhibition has been generating controversy as a museum show (funded by the Cosbys) will presumably increase the value of the alleged rapist’s art holdings.[NPR]
- A painter in a small town in Iowa got a phone call from the police (at the request of the mayor) asking him to cover up a painting featuring breasts. Of course, the gun in the painting wasn’t controversial. [artnet News]
- Looking back on 60 years of Documenta, and ahead to its new programming in Athens, a context that’s politically loaded as German-Greek relations have grown more complicated during the debt crisis. [Deutsche Welle]
- The Council of Concerned Citizens, the right-wing group Charleston shooter Dylann Roof was associated with, launched an insane attack against queer painter Robert Sherer at the height of “the culture wars.” Almost twenty years later, Sherer discusses how the ordeal affected his career and practice. [ArtsATL]
- After a brief stint at Genius.com the L.A. Times picks up Sasha Frere-Jones as its new culture critic. Prior to working at Genius, Frere-Jones was the music critic for the New Yorker. [L. A. Times]
- The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs has selected Tania Bruguera as the MOIA’s first artist-in-residence. Appropriately, her work deals with the immigrant experience and is intended to advocate for identification for the undocumented. [Art Fix Daily]
- Uh, what? In response to bad reviews for his new play, Neck of the Woods in Manchester artist Douglas Gordon picked up an axe and attacked the new walls of the £25m home venue where the show is being staged. [Manchester Evening News via Artnews]
- I’m Making a Boy Band (IMMABB), the k-pop band and art project with no Korean members gets some attention over at Hyperallergic. The band’s founder, Bora Kim, a Columbia MFA Student, sits down with Hannah Stamler to talk about the project. [Hyperallergic]
- Disapproval of weed smoking is on the rise amongst teenagers. [Jezebel]
- Does Texas rot some peoples brains? Jade Helm 15 is an eight week military exercise and it’s coming to Texas. This has made some conservatives paranoid that Obama and martial law are imminent, so they are stocking up on ammunition and burying their fire arms. [The New York Times]
- It’s Amazon Prime Day. The online retailer is promising more deals than black friday. [Amazon]
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