Round-Up: Artist’s 3-D crime, Darwin’s library, why parking’s a mess

The ways in which parking spaces devour a city, LACMA director Michael Govan’s defense of his museum’s architectural plans and one of the awesome-est documentaries about L.A. — finally released on DVD! Also: pit bulls, lots of pit bulls (but not the singer), all in Thursday’s Round-Up:

— First up: Palestinian artist Khaled Jarrar has been barred from attending his own show in New York. He was nonetheless scheduled to be present at his talk at the New Museum on Wednesday night via Skype.

— Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi, aka Rokudenashiko, has been arrested by Tokyo police for distributing data from a 3-D scan of her vagina, which she was going to turn into a vagina boat … as one does with 3-D scans of a vagina. Artnet shows a video of the artist’s crowdfunding appeal.

— LACMA and the MTA are in early talks about building a skyscraper at Wilshire and Fairfax.

— Related: KCRW’s Frances Anderton has a terrific interview with LACMA’s Michael Govan on “DnA” about architect Peter Zumthor’s proposed plan for the museum (as well as the skyscraper).

— In other architecture news: Justin Davidson at New York Magazine has a very thoughtful piece on why Beaux Arts museums are so difficult to keep looking beautiful.

— Trouble at the Corcoran Gallery — an update: The museum responds to a lawsuit to prevent its merger with the National Gallery, which, if it goes through, will result in plenty of lost cultural jobs in Washington, D.C. (Artnet)

— What the art world is frothing about now: Instagram.

— The library that Charles Darwin traveled with on the Beagle is now online. (Hyperallergic)

— Pablo Neruda goes for a walk — 41 years after his death. (In case anyone is wondering, Neruda’s Santiago, Chile, home, mentioned in the story, has a magnificent library that contains an antique French volume on the art of farting.)

— Glad to see Michael and Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, an older L.A. couple who make whimsical ceramics — and who are featured in this year’s “Made in L.A.” Biennial at the Hammer — getting some play.

— In the echo chamber: Seth Myers interviews Jeff Koons and plays it straight. I love the part where Myers asks him if his aim as an artist is to be accessible and a look of horror briefly flashes across Koons’ face. (h/t Weisslink)

— The Top 10 most expensive living West Coast artists. At #1: Ed Ruscha. (Glasstire)

— You will finally be able to buy the best documentary about L.A., “Los Angeles Plays Itself.” Thom Anderson’s exhaustive look at how Hollywood portrays our city will be available on DVD in late September. (Gizmodo.)

— Parking is eating our cities alive. The video is totally worth watching.

— A bottle-tree ranch grows in the desert outside of Victorville.

— Rhizome has established an Internet art prize with the Tsinghua Art & Science Media Lab and Center for Art and Technology. Winner gets $10,000.

— “Would you adopt a pit bull?” A wrenching story in Esquire about what our attitude toward pit bulls says about us as a culture. This follows an excellent feature in Pacific Standard about the history of “America’s dog,” and a rivetingly tragic documentary by the BBC’s Louis Theroux about how they are weaponized by humans. Here’s my pit adoptee: Bonnie, who hails from the shelter at the Pasadena Humane Society. She’s into cuddles, long naps and cat videos on YouTube. (@sleasca)

— And at the risk of being grotesquely self-promotional, a story I did for Studio 360 on the intersection of art and celebrity, featuring a half-naked James Franco covered in gold.

— Finally, a good one to end on: The new AirBNB logo is getting the Internet all turnt up!