Stefan Banz

From his project, The Muhammad Ali’s

Stefan Banz travelled for three years throughout Europe asking subjects to portray their favorite Muhammad Ali pose

Catherine Opie

“The Surfers are large-scale colour photographs of seascapes taken along the Malibu coastline and portraits of surfers standing on the shore just after emerging from the water.

The Surfers were created after Opie returned from a one year residency at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, where she created the Icehouse series. Both the Icehouses and the Surfers are part of Opie’s ongoing series focusing on American cities and landscapes. The Surfers were photographed in the morning when the light fog in the air faintly obscures the horizon line, causing the water’s edge to seamlessly fade into the sky. Like the Icehouses, the Surfers document a community defined by a landscape.”

Wardell Milan

“…His series of collages titled “Battle Royale” consists of cuts and rearrangements made to black-and-white photographs of boxers like Jimmy Slade, Floyd Patterson, Ike Williams and Sugar Ray Robinson. The family and sports photos and his explorations of black male sexuality echo the work of artists like Lyle Ashton Harris and Glenn Ligon — who wrote the essay introducing Mr. Milan’s work in the show’s catalog — as well as Paul Pfeiffer’s videos in which sports figures are isolated from their surroundings.

Mr. Milan’s photographed collages include a wealth of images and a pile-up of references, everything from the Kennedys and Martin Luther King Jr. to Rogier van der Weyden’s “Deposition.” But his graphite and charcoal drawings, which recall classical nude battle scenes and are titled after the Tennessee Williams short story “Desire and the Black Masseur,” are comparably one-dimensional.”

From the New York Times

Sweet Blogspot

Ralph Nader’s League of Fans

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From The Nation:

Ralph Nader is best known as a legendary consumer advocate, a person who has touched virtually every aspect of our lives from car safety to the quality of our food. He’s also a notable thorn in the side of Democratic Party activists desperate to win a presidential election and flummoxed by his quadrennial candidacy. However, few people know that Nader is also an avid sports fan. He was responsible for the launching of the League of Fans, a sports reform project, and he has also passionately pushed for a “Bill of Rights” for the American sports fan. In addition, he has recently made the sports pages by raising serious criticisms of NBA referees–assertions he has made for years that are finally being taken seriously in the wake of statements made by disgraced former referee Tim Donaghy.

When did you become a sports fan?

I was really taken by Lou Gehrig when I was a little boy because of his demeanor and his stamina. Remember, he played in over 2,000 consecutive games at that time, which was since eclipsed by Cal Ripken. But you know how everyone has a sports hero when they’re a boy? This one really stayed with me. The concept of stamina and persistence. And it turned me into a Yankees fan.

Persistence is a word that a lot of people associate with you in your public life. Is Gehrig an inspiration in this regard?

Oh, most definitely. There’s only one picture in my office on the wall, only one: Lou Gehrig.

When did you realize that League of Fans was a project you wanted to be involved in?

Well, actually there’s a precursor. We had a fans’ group in the 1970s that put out a very probing newsletter. The idea then was how fans are being ripped off; they had no voice; they had no organized role. They were being overcharged. They were being subjected to blackouts in their hometown for example, if the stadium didn’t sell out. This was also the beginning of a move for tax-funded stadiums and ballparks. There were really quite a lot of issues. We had 1,000 dues-paying members, but we couldn’t get it beyond that. But my desire was to have fans organize–because after all, they’re consumers. They’re consumers at the service of mammoth sports enterprises that have antitrust exemptions, that have all sorts of tax-depreciating rights for their players.

I mean, it’s almost a mint to produce money. They gouged the fans as consumers; parking, food, tickets, and they gouged them as taxpayers too. So it was really a composite situation that is replayed throughout the economy between large corporations and consumers. Since, as sports fans, we’re very, very clever and understanding of the rules of the game, the strategies and the players, and…know the history of the players and teams and [are] loyal to the teams, I said, “Imagine if voters did their homework, and imagine if voters had that kind of tactical and strategic sense. Imagine voters who rooted for rookies–if voters wanted to give new candidates a chance to play on the field. So we started leagueoffans.org, and once again we came up with all kinds of needs to organize fans–especially to oppose tax-funded stadiums while clinics, libraries and schools were crumbling the the same cities for lack of public investment.

Yeah, there was over $600 million dollars spent to build the new Washington Nationals’ baseball stadium, but if you look around Washington, DC, you see schools crumbling, clinics–the usual urban deterioration. And not enough recreational facilities for youngsters so they can engage in participatory sports, not just spectator sports.

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Glasgow Diamonds and Super Bowl Shuffle

Tom Russotti of the Institute for Aesthletics suggested we post these two gems. Enjoy.