Links – a distant death rattle

The great Elliott Bay Book Company got the obit it deserved not from any Seattle source, but from Kim Murphy in the LA Times, here. Murphy’s story suffers under a stupid headline – The plot thickens for a legendary bookstore – which, of course, Murphy didn’t write. The plot’s not thickening. It’s losing its narrative runway.

The usual Seattle sources covered it, but not well.

Paul
Constant at the Stranger was more interested in griping that he didn’t
get full credit from the Seattle Times for being first as the news
breaker. (Constant was much better on the demise of Bailey/Coy Books, which like the Stranger is on Capitol Hill. Bailey/Coy is a lovely little store, but compared to Elliott Bay, its significance is tiny.)

The
online Seattle Post-Intelligencer, a ghost of its former self, has no
interest in culture. Is the Seattle Times being written from Seattle? Its story
on Elliott Bay’s economic impact to Pioneer Square’s arts presence missed the
Square’s essential cultural identity. Besides being a haven for readers
thanks to Elliott Bay, that’s where nearly all of the city’s major art
galleries are located.

On Crosscut, Knute Berger was better than the ST on the economic impact, but again, does he live here?

Berger:

If
the blend of street life in Pioneer Square is largely the homeless, bar
patrons, and seasonal tourists, add to that mix sports fans, not
necessarily a book-buying crowd.

Galleries, big guy, galleries. The visual art crowd hits those streets, Tuesdays through Saturdays.

What
difference does it make? Anyone who’s interested has heard the news:
Elliott Bay is either going down or moving to Capitol Hill . That’s
where the LA Times’ story comes in. What is the character of this
particular store? Breath and depth, ladies and gentlemen. Breath and
depth.

OTHER NEWS….

Put on a happy face: The best graphic for Art/Basel/Miami Beach, opening Wednesday, comes from C-Monster, here.
(“Miami, Where Art Sweats. From the Department of Public Relations and
Extra Marital Affairs.”) Enough with the sobbing. Make it work.

Shudder: The Art World Edition of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People here. I remember when everyone at the Seattle Times was required to read 7 Habits,
and I (once again) gave thanks that I worked at the PI. The PI’s unruly
newsroom would have dropped kicked that order into a dumpster.

Richard Lacayo is pulling the plug on his excellent blog, Looking Around.
Why? Maintaining a one-person blog of that quality is a lot of work.
Missing from Lacayo’s sign-off is any acknowledgment that his blog made
him. He had worked for Time for decades and was largely ignored, except
in architectural criticism circles, laboring as he was under the large
shadow of Robert Hughes. With Looking Around, he became a
national figure. Here’s hoping his reasonable and intelligent voice
continues to be prominent once dropped back into the Time pool. (Who
reads Time? Ever? Anybody?)

From Kenneth Baker, why what art critics see at major exhibitions is different than anyone else, here.

Congratulations! Seattle’s Jen Graves wins a Warhol grant, here. (Other winners here.)

Stuart Sherman is back, here.
When an artist such as Sherman dies neglected and remains neglected, it
is a sign that the art world being driven by the market. His
reemergence means the opposite. Maybe the recession is not all bad.

Houston’s Douglas Britt loves Dario Robleto, here.
Britt goes the extra mile for his home town hero, traveling on his own
dime to see Robleto shows beyond Texas, including one in Seattle.

Private property is (art) theft, here.
Buying the land on which a key Richard Serra rests shouldn’t mean you
get to wreck it through neglect and deny access to the public. Tyler Green reports that at least the owners won’t be able to demolish it, here.

Kyle MacMillan does a fine job of saying goodbye to the retiring director of the Denver Art Museum, here.

Alexandra Silverthorne has a fresh approach to litter left in a park, here. (Love the white plastic spoon in the bushes.)