Hasta La Ideas

Speaking of powerful men with lots of money who want things done their way, there’s an interesting architecture development happening in Baltimore, stirring up some rumors in the process. The Baltimore Sun reports that an owner of a penthouse-level condo at the Ritz-Carlton Residences near the city’s waterfront has hired an architect and is seeking permission from the city to build an indoor gun range. No one is sure who wants a portion of their house torn up and spot to fire guns in put up, not even the architect, but most of the rumors point to novelist/licensing-guru Tom Clancy. A known gun enthusiast, who has built ranges at his other properties, owns and entire floor of the tony Baltimore building. Clancy is sure to be up against some big hurdles, and not just from his neighbors who might put up a fight (we also can’t imagine that the association’s bylaws include “No gun ranges may be installed in any property.”) As the Sun reports, “State law prohibits the firing of guns within 150 yards of any residence. Whether that would prevent a permitted gun owner from shooting indoors in a controlled environment such as a firing range is one of the questions being considered by authorities. ” But when you’ve already spent nearly $17 million on buying a whole floor of a building, that likely implies that you don’t mind spending a few more bucks to help grease some wheels.

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We’ve only been to Detroit once and while there, nearly a decade ago, we were constantly wondering if we’d get to see Robocop cleaning up the streets. No, that isn’t entirely true, but we’re still very big fans of the Paul Verhoeven classic (we even liked the sequels). So too do the actual residents of the city, purely judging from the reaction Sweet Juniper‘s Robocop Kid costume received this past fall. Unfortunately, despite all those positive feelings, it appeared that the efforts to raise a Robocop statue somewhere in the city had been struck down before they even began by Mayor Dave Bing, who said about the idea on Twitter earlier this week, “There are not any plans to erect a statue to Robocop. Thank you for the suggestion.” But not so fast! After hearing the news that the mayor wasn’t into it, Reuters reports that a group of artists have banded together, saying they plan to raise $50,000 to help build the monument to the all cop, half robot, half man. The group has launched DetroitNeedsRobocop.com as well as a Kickstarter page, raising close to $5,000 in just over a day. What’s more, they’ve even found a location for where they’d like the statute to be placed. Turning around quickly with the news of the fundraising, the mayor’s office has now said “that the mayor would consider using public land for a donated RoboCop statue.” So fingers crossed, as there’s a chance Murphy might still be immortalized after all.

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With the heat still on New York’s Board of Regents and the newly-created 16 member committee brought in to investigate how they should/shouldn’t oversee the state’s museums’ deaccessioning of art, humorist and critic Joe Queenan has laid down some of his thoughts on the matter for the Wall Street Journal. While his plans to not only throw out the rules regarding art sales by museums, but to actually encourage it in order to have all those millions go to New York’s beleaguered sports teams probably won’t get very far within the commission currently studying it, we appreciate his thoughts. What’s more, he isn’t at all selfish about New York getting all that art-to-sports loot. He even throws out the idea to other cities with lousy teams, like Washington D.C.:

The Redskins stink, the Nationals stink and the Wizards really stink. Yet the fat-cat National Gallery is sitting there with more Renoirs and John Singer Sargent canvases than you can shake a stick at. So why not, just to boost civic pride, put a couple of Canalettos on the block and get the Redskins a quarterback who is not yet collecting Social Security? Or package a second-rate Bronzino with a third-rate Van Gogh and acquire a defensive end who can stuff the run? Who’s going to be the wiser?

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An official Banksy stunt, just a regular stunt, or someone who genuinely believes he’s found something special? There’s no way to tell at the moment, following the brief period that, among antiques and worthless Beanie Babies, eBay had an auction featuring “The Identity of Banksy.” In a long, long series of attempts to out the reclusive, mysterious street artist (including this big 2008 effort by the Daily Mail), the person behind the auction claimed to have uncovered his identity and was willing to sell it to the highest bidder. No bids had yet come in when eBay swooped in and removed the auction, so you’ll just have to keep your wallet closed and your knowledge of Banksy’s true identity out of your grasp. Fortunately, before it was removed, IFC‘s blog grabbed the copy included in the listing:

“If you win this auction I will reveal to you the true identity of ‘Banksy.’ I have uncovered his identity by matching up the prices of his sold pieces to corresponding tax records. I will reveal no more details.

The winner of this auction is the only person that I will ever share this information with. I will simply tell you his name. I cannot offer anything more. I give you 100% assurance that it is most certainly the full name of the street artist known as ‘Banksy’.

Seems a bit like a Banksy stunt, though we could tell you right now that Banksy is sitting right next to us and you’d be hard pressed to prove that accurate, too.

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