Fairey-gate: In the latest twist in this street artist’s drama, Shepard Fairey announced yesterday that he was suing The Associate Press with the hope (get it!) that a judge would find his use of the now infamous Barack Obama photo did not violate copyright law. This is an interesting move because the AP wasn’t going to sue Fairey, they just wanted compensation/credit for their photographer. [Via Chicago Tribune]
Yahoo & Tumblr, sittin’ in a tree: Valleywag reported yesterday that Yahoo was looking to buy Tumblr, “New York’s cutest startup” which is run by 22-year-old David Karp, for “low-to-mid eight figures.” Karp called bullshit over on Alley Insider, but Valleywag’s Owen Thomas is sticking by his story. It’s starting to sound very Dan Humphrey/Mrs. Chips, and we know how that story ended. So will they or won’t they? [Via Fimoculous]
Banks are this week’s university art museum: Deutsche Bank owns over 53,000 works of art that are worth well over an estimated £75m; last week the company reported its first annual loss since World War II. Huh. While most banks claim having creative works in their offices boosts staff and customer morale (those who visit a branch of Zurich-based UBS, which has a collection of worth at least $150m featuring pieces by Lucian Freud, Roy Lichtenstein, Candida Hofer, Edward Ruscha and Julian Schnabel, must be ecstatic), will they be forced to sell off pieces to deal with the economic crisis? [Via Wealth Bulletin]
Frank Lloyd Wright, total player: T.C. Boyle’s latest novel, The Women (in no way related to last year’s horrible remake with Meg Ryan), a piece of historical fiction about Frank Lloyd Wright, comes out today. Boyle — whose previous work tackled Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey and John Harvey Kellogg — examines the famed architect through the eyes of the four women who loved him. Read an excerpt here. [Via A Daily Dose of Architecture]
Tara is boss, homeslice: The first episode of United States of Tara not penned by Diablo Cody doesn’t disappoint. In fact ,in her recap New York Magazine’s Courtney Reimer suggests that “there may yet be saccharine-free hope for this series, after all.” This is good news, especially since we got started our grassroots Emmy campaign for Collette after watching the pilot; we’d hate to have to return all those “3 Alters R Better Than None!” T-shirts. [Via NY Mag]
Fanboys who heart Radiohead, brace yourselves: Thom Yorke has been talking to Terminator Salvation director McG about contributing some music to his upcoming post-apocalyptic flick. If this pans out, Yorke would be working with Gustavo Santaolalla, a composer who won an Academy Award for his Babel soundtrack. If it doesn’t, at least you weren’t thinking about Christian Bale’s flip out for approximately five seconds. [Via MTV]
Junot Diaz’s powers know no bounds: Famed Nation scribe and author of 31 books Walter Mosley has a new publisher. And it’s all because Riverhead editor Sean McDonald asked him to blurb The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. “I started to pay attention to Riverhead and thought, they know what they’re doing, they’re really on top of things in a way that’s hard to do in the modern world,” Mosley told Publishers Weekly. “And also they deal with writers who are most similar to me.” [Via PW]