- It’s Monday. The holidays are over. Spring is a long way off. The weather’s crappy. Republican voters can’t pick a favorite between an unrepentant adulterer, an outspoken homophobe, and a careerist creep. You need something to lift your spirits. Voila: the Hall and Oates Hotline. [Gizmodo]
- Two people have completed the Damien Hirst spot challenge. Hirst, an occasional painter sent to punish humanity for its hubris, offered a free artwork to anyone checking in at all 11 Gagosian locations worldwide during his current mega-exhibition. One of the two - Jeff Chu, an editor at Fast Company – did it quietly, with a few scattered Twitter reports; the other – Valentine Uhovski, who Kyle Chayka described as a “crypto-socialite” – extensively blogged the entire trip, during which he met Damien Hirst and apparently wore a Damien Hirst t-shirt for like a week straight. We’re suspicious.
- Police investigating the theft of two nerdy works of art stolen from a gallery in Olympia, Washington speculate that the would-be thieves were, themselves, nerds. Gallery owner Jo Gallaugher says the works were admired mostly by men in their 20s, and the rappelling-from-a-skylight technique definitely has a Mission: Impossible vibe. [Olympian]
- Having mostly found themselves on the receiving end of the art repatriation game, Italy is learning to pay it forward. On his first trip to Libya since the fall of Gadhafi, Prime Minister Mario Monti, in a show of goodwill, brought with him a 2,000-year-old statue that had been stolen in the 1960s. What a nice fellow. [Sacramento Bee]
- Raise your hand if you read J Crew catalogues. Now keep your hands up if you raised an eyebrow at that picture of designer Jenna Lyons painting her 5-year-old son’s toenails. Ok. Now keep your hands up if you thought cage fighter Nick “The Ghost” Gonzalez would endorse a line of nail polish for men and speak on the boy’s defense. Anyone left?
