The New York Civil Liberties Union! Be advised that the New York City Transit Rules of Conduct allows anyone to photograph their facilities, but it does require a valid press pass for lights, reflectors or tripods. Since it’s happened again, a NYCLU rep clarifies that if you’re on a public sidewalk, “You’re entitled to take pictures of anything you can see — period.” That includes police activity. So next time you’re pushed around, take down the uniformed perpetrator’s info and drop NYCLU a line.

As predicted, yesterday’s Giants parade through Lower Manhattan was a lot like the one in 2008 and football fans in general: loud and obnoxious. Behold the video evidence.

Like he’s done in the past, he has been funding pro-pot causes and in this latest case, donated over a half a million dollars to help get the referendum on the ballot and we could sure use his help here in New York. So, if you got a few minutes, give him a call at 440-930-7020 and thank him for his contributions thus far and ask if he’d consider helping the Empire State out, since there’s no way the governor is going to.

Mexican photographer Alejandro Cartagena works in the haphazardly built, poorly planned suburban communities near Monterrey, Mexico where sullen teens roam cramped housing clusters and the drought-ridden landscape. This latest series — Car Poolers — is a bird’s eye view of men in trucks, just riding prostrate, looking skyward, some spotting the photographer, some of them asleep. There’s something decidedly eerie about them being slumped alongside barrels and buckets of bolts, like so much work equipment. One of these photos is currently shortlisted for Sony World Photo Awards.

The “Soldier” series by Suzanne Opton was previously featured and gigantic billboards in nine US cities and set off enough people to spark a debate about the image of America’s military.

Presumably, such portraiture doesn’t bode well for recruitment — heads plastered sideways, eyes heavy or pressed shut, weathered, unguarded faces letting slip that 355 days in Iraq of 295 days in Afghanistan have been hell and it’s less “be all you can be” and more “what am I still doing here?” Blow up to 40″ x 50″ archival prints, pair them with portraits of blanket-wrapped veterans undergoing war trauma treatments, and it gets grisly.

It really grinds. There’s still time to see them at: “Soldier/Many Wars,” Suzanne Opton, Jan 5 – Feb 11, Platform Gallery, Seattle

I’ll say it again, Kris Kuksi’s sculptures need to be seen in person. See all the obsessive sculptural nuances by the modern Rococo master up close. Don’t just squint at the .jpgs but come and walk up to these floating islands, dripping in details, blooming with guns barrels, anachronistic soldiers, machines in decay. What is it about growing up lonely in rural Kansas in a broken home that makes one make stuff like this? Beats us. See the freshest, like the mythical-themed first three above at: Kris Kuksi, “Triumph,” Mar 8 – Apr 7, Joshua Liner Gallery, NYC