Snowbound

For a long time it looked like it wasn't going to stick, but it kept falling and falling and last night it looked like this:

And this morning is pretty deep out there; this is the view from my second floor window and looking out towards the front of the house:


And now a couple of things for sure:

- Althought the Soviet Socialist Republic of Montgomery County is the highest taxed county in the United States of America, and property taxes went up 69% last year, and Kommissar Duncan's appetite for more taxes continues to be legendary, my street will probably never be cleaned. I can only recall one time that it was actually cleaned, and then it was by the third or fourth day.

- One reason for that may be because at some point today, one of my neighbors will attempt to leave the cul-de-sac where we all live, and get his or her car stuck in the slight uphill, forever blocking any exodus for the rest of us, or any entry to any snow-cleaning truck that may actually get lost and wander into our street to clean it. This has happened every single year that I have lived here. I haven't been outside yet, but I bet that there's a stalled, stuck car out there already.

Buy What You Love

Art Addict has a great tip on what art to buy; and I agree with her.

Read it here.

Reviews

Kriston Capps on Fusebox's last show.

Jeffry Cudlin on Ian Whitmore at Fusebox.

Jeffry Cudlin on Heike Baranowsky at G Fine Art.

Louis Jacobson on Vesna Pavlovic at Fusebox.

Mark Jenkins on Remembering Marc and Komei at the Katzen.

Louis Jacobson on Madame Yevonde at Kathleen Ewing Gallery.

Louis Jacobson on Jason Zimmerman at Irvine Contemporary.

Rachel Beckman on Jason Zimmerman at Irvine Contemporary.

Joe Dempsey on Maria Leontovitsch Manley at Alla Rogers Gallery.

Jessica Dawson on "What Sound Does a Color Make?" at UMBC.

Michael O'Sullivan on Appropriately: Five Artists Exploring Humor at the University of Maryland's Union Gallery.

Michael O'Sullivan on Assimilation/Dissolution at Gallery at Flashpoint.

JT Kirkland's Northern Virginia Gallery Round-Up.

JT Kirkland's 14th Street Galleries Round-Up.

Alexandra Silverthorne on Whippersnappers at Connor Contemporary.

Robin Tierney on Cupidity at Neptune Gallery.

Nigerian Art Scam

In the past I have discussed a little bit about the very convincing Internet scam that seems to address a lot of art from artists and art galleries. A few years ago (when this scam was very new) we came really close to losing a lot of money, but luckily (and only after we really pressed our bank for assistance) did we avoid it.

We still get 2-3 emails a week from the scammers.

Can You Picture That (which is a new DC Blog and has been added to the Blogroll) has a good tutorial of how the scam works.

All gallerists and artists should definately review this posting.

Visit Can You Picture That often!

WWIII

I think that the Right Reverend Bailey is trying to start World War III. Read it all here and start stashing up water and toilet paper.

He also seems to have his own wiretapping surveillance program going, as his Top Ten List of Art Bloggers indicates!

Borf in the hoosegow

DCist first and then the WaPo report that Borf will be doing 30 days in a DC jail.

The teenage graffiti vandal known as Borf got tagged yesterday -- with 30 days in the D.C. jail and a dressing-down that no one in the courtroom will soon forget.

Borf, aka John Tsombikos, chose not to address the judge who was deciding his fate. But D.C. Superior Court Judge Lynn Leibovitz had a lot to say to the young anarchist from Northern Virginia. She didn't paint a pretty picture.

"You profess to despise rich people," she said. "You profess to despise the faceless, nameless forms of government that oppress. That's what you've become. That's what you are. You're a rich kid who comes into Washington and defaces property because you feel like it. It's not fair. It's not right."

And the judge keeps on...

The 30-day jail term is just the start. If Tsombikos breaks the law again within the next three years, he could be jailed for the 17 suspended months of his sentence. Regardless, he has to complete 200 hours of community service, including 80 hours of cleaning up graffiti. And he must pay $12,000 in restitution, money that better not come out of his parents' bank accounts, the judge said.

"In other words," she said, "not the bogus jobs that your father gives you in New York . . . a real job, going to work like the people you demean, earning it with paychecks and the sweat of your own brow."

But it was the prospect of a month at the jail that most worried Madden, who had asked for probation and pleaded with the judge to at least send Tsombikos to a halfway house.

She wouldn't budge, and she made it clear why.

"I want him to see what the inside of the D.C. jail looks like," she said, "because unlike every other person you've seen in my courtroom this morning, who have a ninth-grade education, who are drug-addicted, who have had childhoods the likes of which you could not conceive, you come from privilege and opportunity and seem to think that the whole world is just like McLean and just like East 68th Street."

"Well," she said, "it's not."

The prospect of seeing what the inside of a DC jail looks like is a terrible visual to me; it will be eye-opening to see what this month will do to Mr. Tsombikos' future.

There's also a firestorm of comments going on at DCist; read them and add your comment here.

Irvine to move to Fusebox's space

According to Jonathan Padget in the WaPo, Irvine Contemporary will be moving into the space being vacated by Fusebox Gallery.

Because they were first in the area, and rightfully so, Fusebox had a sweetheart of a deal on the rent of that space. I suspect that the landlord will now want a lot more samolians for the space, and thus making Irvine's position a tougher one to negotiate.

If they can close a deal, it will be a terrific move for Irvine; fingers crossed!