On the heels of Robert Lederman’s complaints that the new Citibank-branded New York City bike-share will take valuable real estate from legal street vendors, Bloomberg’s office unveiled this map of where the bike-share stations are expected to be installed. It looks like the stations will not only take real estate from street vendors, but from, uh, everyone. Seriously, these fuckers are going to be everywhere—and this is only 420 of the planned 600 vending locations. It’s probably good for the health of the city that people see bicycles everywhere; it could help bitter attitudes toward bike-riders warm up a bit. But it’s definitely good for the wallets of those at Citibank, who are pretty much blanketing Manhattan and North Brooklyn with their logo.

How, oh how did this happen? Pop culture-inspired artist Will Cotton painted his signature maidens in pink clouds and mountains of candy, cutting out images of Katy Perry from magazines because her image itself was so “confectionary,” he explains.

And then, she found him. He agreed. He painted her faux-pin-up nakedness into the Teenage Dream cover and art directed her whipped cream ejaculating udders into the California Gurls video, thusly feeding his pop culture-inspired art back to pop culture. The imagery was so potent and so on-point bubblegum, but the intended sinister undercurrent — that which makes Cotton’s work interesting — was lost.

And then, it was the new hot thing — Cotton saw an “epidemic” of rip-offs/hommages in ads, fashion editorials gorging piles of cakes, hair color commercials buried in pink mist. So much of that was saturating commercial culture — it was like pop culture was vomiting his art back at him.

“When I paint Katy now, I feel like I’m stealing from myself,” he says. It should. It’s pre-chewed.

And so, the loop continues. Swallow that, spit that, swallow that sugarcoated poison!

The untimely death of Adam Yauch, aka MCA of the Beastie Boys, has been hard on us. The guys over at Entree Lifestyle unveiled this, the “MCA Gratitude Tribute Mural,” for the hero in his hometown of Midwood, in Brooklyn. Said the artists, “The Beastie Boys were like older brothers to us. Inspiring us as rappers, stereotype crushers, instrumentalists, culture kings, videographers, editors, business men, show men and as exceptional and special human beings.” (Word to the wise: a particularly great view of the mural can be seen on the Manhattan-bound F platform of the Avenue P stop.)

Flash to 2000, when surprised critics ooh’ed at Basquiat breaking half a million, urging collectors to hold on to the Basquiats: ”Once a blue-chip artist’s paintings begin to command more than $500,000, you may have more options than you think.” Oh, really.

Custom openFrameworks software makes this virtual mask work. The response to expressions is uncanny. Welcome to the new age of portraiture.

More to see at: “Wired Frames,” Arturo Castro, James George, Kyle McDonald, Jonathan Minard, and Alexander Porter, May 11 – May 17, Eyebeam Gallery, New York

Even before she was yanked out of the ground in Egypt, loaded into the bow of a specially modified ship, sailed across the Atlantic to New York City, barged from Staten Island, rolled through the streets of Manhattan for over three months and finally re-erected in Central Park on February 22, 1881, the millennia-old obelisk commonly referred to as Cleopatra’s Needle was slightly battered and bruised.

Standing at little over 68 feet tall and weighing 220 tons, the obelisk, one of a pair that were carved from red granite more than 3,000 years ago and festooned with hieroglyphics were originally commissioned by Thothmes III in 1475 BC and only later took on Queen Cleopatra’s namesake. The monoliths stood in Heliopolis until a bunch of Persian jerks knocked them down over a thousand years later. Then, Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus came along and decided to have them installed at Alexandria. In 1301, an earthquake knocked one of the obelisks down where it remained until the Brits snatched it up and brought it to England centuries later. The other stood firm and that’s the one New York City eventually finagled despite it not being in the best condition. Lieutenant Commander Henry Honeychurch Gorringe gave the following assessment of it after inspecting it in Alexandria:

“The constant washing of the surf had begun to affect the foundation and for the last 15 years, the Obelisk had been inclining more and more toward the sea. In a few years it must have fallen and almost certainly been broken by the fall.’ Worse, foreign residents of Alexandria were planning to build an apartment house around the obelisk ‘which was then to adorn the courtyard.’”

It was in the late 1870s that diplomatic officials pressured the Khedive of Egypt to give the monolith to the Unites States. After all, England and France had their own respective obelisks along with other antiquities and believed it was now America’s turn. After years of political maneuvering, the Khedive agreed and specifically gifted the obelisk to the City Of New York.

A ceremony for the laying of the corner-stone took place on October 10th, 1880 and was quite the Freemason-studded affair. The New York Times reports, 132 years ago:

Yesterday’s ceremonies were entirely Masonic, and several thousand members of the order took part. The escort of Knights Templar was composed to the commanderies in New York, Brooklyn, and neighboring cities, under command of the Acting Eminent Grand Captain-General.

According to author Robert Lomas, “over 9,000 Masons in full Masonic regalia, paraded up Fifth Avenue from 14th Street to 82nd Street, and over 50,000 spectators lined the parade route.”

The obelisk has stood faithful ever since, but has been subjected to chemical weathering. Ignoring its scarred past, Egypt’s then Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, stirred some controversy when he said that NYC isn’t properly taking taking care of the structure and demanded it be given back unless something has done. Central Park officials said that was bullshit and the damage cited by the prickly archaeologist happened long before it even made its voyage to the United States. However, they do admit that natural processes have taken its toll on the phallic slab and wouldn’t mind getting some money to ensure its survival and to keep people like Zahi Hawass’ mouth shut.

New York City has dozens of historical sites that are competing for a $3 million grant to aid in their restoration and upkeep courtesy of American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. People can vote online; the location with the most votes gets the glory (and the money). To read more about the Partners in Preservation program, go here. We were chosen as contributors and are getting paid to write about these historic sites which we probably would’ve been covering anyway. Win-win.

(Photo: Ed Gaillard/flickr)