born 28 May 1970

Alex LeMonde, birthplace unspecified, Canadian gay porn star

Glenn Quinn (died 3 December 2002), Dublin, Ireland, actor

Gry Blekastad Almås, Oslo, Norway, TV news anchorwoman

Heidi Ferrer, state of Kansas, author of the screenplay for The Hottie & the Nottie

Ian Cashmore, Luton, England, ghost hunter

Jerry Schuller, San Fernando, California, internet radio host/magician

Jimi Goodwin, birthplace unspecified, English Dove

Koe Rodriguez, Jersey City, New Jersey, graffiti writer

Mark Richardson, birthplace unspecified, American baritone

Michael Barrett, Riverside, California, cinematographer

Morgan Fox, Prince George, British Columbia, Playboy playmate

Roger Newcomb, Springfield, Tennessee, writer

Sami Sirviö, Pyhäjärvi, Finland, musician

Stephanie Zari, Anaheim, California, short filmmaker

Timothy A. Bennett, Flint, Michigan, comedian

Looking up his name, I didn’t find much regarding Today’s Winner. But I did find this page out of a 1980 Ebony magazine.

The sight of that leads me to a brief disquisition on the few things I saw that were interesting at this year’s Whitney Biennial, which closes this weekend.

In alphabetical order by artist:

David Adamo’s whittling-attenuated walking canes.

Nina Berman’s harrowing series of just-folks shots of a hideously disfigured Iraq war veteran at large in his small town home.

Hannah Greely’s pretend bar booths with fake pay phone attached.

Jeffrey Inaba’s enormous ceiling lanterns, like hoop skirts for mod angels.

Babette Mangolte: pretentious and way overblown, but too many pretty black and white photos from the seventies not to mention kindlily.

Aurel Schmidt’s “Master Of The Universe: FlexMaster 3000”. A mintaur made of beer cans, cigarettes and fluttering Disneyfied fauna. Nine kinds of awesome.

Stephanie Sinclair’s photographs of Afghani self-inflicted burn victims. Horrifying but too well-composed not to actually look at and see; that’s the essence of hardcore photojournalism.

Last but not least, Pae White’s enormous smoke tapestry, which was the only item that transported the wife and I completely. Stunning up close and more so from afar: the only complaint is that the way they hung it, you couldn’t get far enough away to take the true measure of its magnificence.

And that’s really it. It was a very understuffed show, with a lot of dreck and dross. Way, way, way too much dippy video noodling. Ulitmately, though, it was worth it. Clementine had a good time looking at stuff; it was very empty; and the special Biennial sandwich stand they set up in the basement had a ham sandwich with beet relish that blew my taste buds’ minds.