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I was appalled when I picked up my July 21 edition of The Journal. The front-page story, ``Saucy Aussies," I feel did not belong in a family newspaper, let alone on the front page next to a story about a camp addressing special needs children. This article is what one would expect to see in the Washington Blade, not The Journal. For those who might not recall, the story describes a so-called performing arts presentation at the Rosslyn Spectrum Theater. In their performance, male performers publicly manipulate their genitalia for the audience. This is supposed to be art? I have...

County Board members said Saturday they have neither the power nor the intention to stop a troupe called Puppetry of the Penis from performing at the county-operated Rosslyn Spectrum Theatre, despite complaints that the show’s content makes it inappropriate for a municipal venue. Practicing what troupe members call the “ancient art of genital origami,” Puppetry of the Penis is slated to perform at the Spectrum from July 22 to Aug. 17. Performers manipulate their private parts into everything from a hamburger to their signature effort, the Eiffel Tower. A few Arlingtonians are not amused. “We should not be pandering to...

Plans by a British conceptual artist to kick an empty take-out curry tray down the street have been scrapped after several days of vilification by opponents of conceptualism, reports The Independent newspaper. Andre Stitt, 44, a former bricklayer, had planned to stride down Bedford High Street in silver platform boots, kicking the carton in a performance intended to tackle the issue of "personal-societal dysfunction" of drunken youths on a Saturday night out. However, Bedford Creative Arts, which had earmarked £12,000 ($30,000) for the event, cancelled it, citing crowd-safety fears. "We were not anticipating the huge interest by the media ....

A Korean artist staged a one-man drama in front of Kyobo Building at the Kwang-Hwa-Moon station. He wore the uniform of Chinese police and an armband marked with the word "China" both in Korean and English. He was dragging around a dummy which is supposed to symbolize a N. Korean escapee. He was highlighting cruel treatments of N. Korean escapees by Chinese authorites. Irate Chinese tourists are shown here on the left side of the photo, protesting to him.

<p>OUTRAGED Catholics wanted comic-magicians Penn & Teller removed from ABC’s Super Bowl special over an act they performed featuring Jesus, a midget angel and a sex act. The duo - who are scheduled to perform on ABC’s pre- and post-game show from Times Square - acted out the controversial bit at the World Magic Seminar in Rio last week. When the Catholic League’s William A. Donohue got wind of it, he fired a letter to ABC saying that such "an incredibly anti-Christian statement" should not be "rewarded." A network rep told the Las Vegas Review Journal that Penn & Teller are still in the show.</p>

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Las Vegans Al and Rita Cummins are not turning the other cheek to that risque crucifixion skit by local magicians Penn & Teller. "What they did is blaspheme the Lord," Al Cummins said. "I know there a lot of scenes in the casinos that we would not approve of. That's their business, but it became our business when they criticized our Lord." The Summerlin couple learned of the Jan. 13 routine at a magicians' convention after reading items in Norm Clarke's Review-Journal column. Penn & Teller have been publicly quiet about...

The owner of a toy museum is calling on the public to boycott an art exhibition that features the charred and mutilated bodies of teddy bears. Deady Bears, which forms part of a wider work entitled A Walk on the Darkside at the Artlounge gallery in Lytham St Anne's, Lancs, features cuddly toys that have been variously dismembered, pierced with 6in nails and daubed with red paint intended to resemble blood. Irena Thompson, who runs the nearby Toy and Teddy Bear Museum, is outraged. "This exhibition is simply dreadful, and I do not see what the artist is trying to...

When ART Becomes InhumanKarl ZinsmeisterReprinted from the ART Renewal Center Origionally published in TAEmag. Many of today’s avant-garde artists, I’ve decided, have modeled themselves on that well-known societal fixture, the snot-nosed teenager. Since the 1960s, the hippest modern art has aspired to exactly what every garden-variety 13-year-old brat aims for: maximum opportunities to shock, flout, insult, and otherwise chuck rocks at polite society. And so “artists” spread American flags on the floor and invited gallery and museum patrons to walk on them. “Sculptors” stacked bricks in low heaps and convinced collectors to pay bags of money for something they...

A sacrilegious stunt by Penn & Teller that offended some at a major magicians convention was defended Thursday by fellow local headliners. A group walked out of a roast of Amazing Johnathan on Monday after Teller, dressed as Christ on a full-sized cross, entered the room on a cart. A midget dressed as an angel performed a simulated sex act on the near-naked Teller. Penn Jillette, in a Roman gladiator costume, unveiled the scene by pulling away a "Shroud of Turin" that covered the cross. Rick Neiswonger, a longtime magician and local marketing executive, said "the majority" of the 400...

The magic-comedy team of Penn & Teller has performed a stunt parodying the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, offending some attendees of a major magicians' convention, reports columnist Norm Clarke of the Las Vegas Review. The skit, performed last week in Las Vegas, included Teller, dressed as Christ on a full-size cross, entering the room on a cart. According to the column, a midget dressed as an angel "performed a simulated sex act on the near-naked Teller." Penn, in a Roman gladiator costume, unveiled the scene by pulling away a "Shroud of Turin" that covered the cross. A group of people...

<p>Berkeley, the first city to ban Styrofoam and wood-fired pizza ovens, could become the first to enact Aristotle's ancient law of logic -- that every entity is equal to itself. In a philosophical effort to come up with a city law that no one could ever break, conceptual artist Jonathon Keats wants Berkeley to legally acknowledge Aristotle's law, commonly expressed as A=A.</p>

A stranger, a common guy, who did not at all seem unusual, started breaking windows on the ground floor of the Arkhangelsk department of the Federal Security Bureau, which was situated on one of the central streets of the city. His “weapon” was stones and empty bottles that he was carrying in a plastic bag. That was something to see for passers-by, but the 52-year-old man shocked them all, when he started throwing mayonnaise in broken windows. This “act of terrorism” lasted for about two minutes -- the guy was seized by police. After some 30 minutes of the “investigation,”...