All Stories | The New York Observer

Sheen, Kruger, Bloomberg: This Week's Signs of the Apocalypse

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:07:28 -0400

The Ides of March are upon us. Actually, that's inaccurate. The ides of March have shaken, slammed and otherwise shamelessly brutalized us over the course of the last week. Acts of god. Horrible accidents. More Charlie Sheen. "Upon us" is a bit of an understatement.

Then again, understatement has been the preferred coping mechanism this week. Just ask accused serial killer Maksim Gelman, who embarked last month on a 28-hour spree of violence. "I've had better...

Would You Really Vote for Matt Damon? How About Bradley Cooper?

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 21:25:22 -0400

As capable a senator as Kristen Gillibrand has proven to be, her route to higher office was unlikely, to say the least. But not nearly as unlikely as the plot contrivances in two new flicks out this month, both of which coincidentally feature heroes running for Senate from New York.

In the The Adjustment Bureau, now in theaters, Matt Damon's campaign is engineered by fedora-wearing angels, who make little tweaks in reality in order to...

Food for Thought! Fat-Friendly 'Feeders' Take a Trip to New York

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 21:23:53 -0400

On a rainy day in March, four D.C.-area acquaintances from the online community FantasyFeeder.com--Kaptn03, ThatReesesGirl, Msprettypanties and Pokeythepenguin--piled into Pokey's Jeep and cruised up I-95 to New York.

The occasion was a performance of Feeder: A Love Story, an Off Off Broadway play at HERE in Soho about the sexual fetish known as feederism, which involves bingeing on fattening food, often with the help of a partner.

The play, by James Carter, tells the story of...

No Dodge for Raj Raj: Straight-Shooter Streeter Uncowed by Dowd

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 20:29:57 -0400

Last Wednesday, inside a wood-paneled courtroom with gold taffeta curtains and wall-to-wall carpet patterned with federal seals, Raj Rajaratnam, billionaire founder of the Galleon hedge fund, stared at a far-off point in space. The man at the center of the government's biggest insider-trading case ever, flanked by five of his attorneys and free on $100 million bail, never once turned his head to study the masses piling onto the benches behind him. They were...

As the Flesh Fad Fades, 'Nude' Painters Band Together

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 20:02:37 -0400

What do you say to a naked lady?

If you're one of this bunch: "For God's sake, hold the pose."

I was at a lunch with members of a midtown sketch club, right after they had spent about three hours drawing a live nude (female, as I found out in my reporting, they almost always are). Artists carrying sketch pads streamed in and 13 people squeezed in around me at a table meant for eight. Taking...

The Auctions No Artist Wants To Be In--Or Do They?

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 20:01:06 -0400

Art auctions are, supposedly, exciting. Nobody told the two dozen or so buyers gathered for the Christie's sale of contemporary art last week. As a photo of a small Sol LeWitt sculpture came on the screen, a man in the back muttered into his cell phone, "I don't know, do you want it?"

He spoke softly, and the people in the pretty empty room turned around in their seats to watch.

"O.K.," he waved finally, "65."

"Sold,"...

Aiming for Art Immortality, John Chamberlain Swaps Galleries

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 19:59:10 -0400

The sculptor John Chamberlain has been around since the early '60s. He had a corrugated-steel piece sitting on the floor of Andy Warhol's original Factory, and he had one prominently on display at Max's Kansas City right through the heyday of the sex, drugs and music.

The artist recently surprised onlookers by leaving Pace, his gallery of 20 years, and moving to Gagosian--though he had done a show for art financier Ernest Mourmans in Switzerland...

Don’t Call David Johansen a Punk!

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 19:57:49 -0400

"It was like falling off a bicycle," said David Johansen. He was talking about restarting the New York Dolls in 2004 at the behest of no less a fan than Morrissey. "We've been doing this longer than the original band. It just feels right. We get together, we do a record. It's kind of an enjoyable way to spend your time. If we reach perfection, we'll know there's nowhere to go."

At dinner last Friday...

John O’Brien: The Man Who Would Ban Happy Endings

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 19:56:22 -0400

Last Thursday morning, the publisher John O'Brien put out a cigarette and walked into the Washington Square Hotel for breakfast, where he greeted William H. Gass. The novelist was reading The New York Times and eating a bagel and fruit with his wife, Mary.

"You never know who you'll run into," Mr. O'Brien said. They were both in town for the National Book Critics Circle Awards that evening. Mr. Gass would be presenting Dalkey Archive...

Picasso’s Post-Breakup Breakthrough

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 19:53:36 -0400

The exhibition "Picasso: Guitars 1912-1914," at the Museum of Modern Art, is not about guitars, violins, bottles or cups, the subjects of the 65 drawings, collages, constructions, paintings and photographs on view. It's about what is possible in a studio when everything clicks. Entering the show, organized by Anne Umland with Blair Hartzell, you find yourself both among these ostensible, quotidian themes, and witnessing the creation of a new universe.

Thirty-two years old in October...