And sometimes, there's good news...

"Bush Monkeys," by Chris Savido (acrylic on canvas)

For those of you who haven't been following this story, here's a quick recap: the manager of the Chelsea Market public space in New York had a conniption fit when he saw this piece by artist Chris Savido - a portrait of Bush II comprised of monkeys swimming in a marsh - part of an installation featuring work from an upcoming issue of Animal Magazine. The offended manager ordered the removal of the entire installation, cancelling the show which was scheduled to stay up for the next month. Fortunately, the rest of New York is not quite as uptight and ill-humored as the aforementioned manager, and now a group of anonymous donors has ponied up the funds to have the work displayed on a giant digital billboard above the entrance of the Holland Tunnel. Thanks to one man's cretinous tirade, 400,000 motorists will see the digitized image every day for the next month. Moreover, Savido is putting the piece up for auction on e-Bay, with a portion of the proceeds going to the parents of soldiers in Iraq who want to equip their sons and daughters with body armor they desperately need (see below). Sometimes, the good guys win.