From Federico Solmi's upcoming exhibit at Conner Contemporary, "Douche Bag City."

Morning, all. The funky weather we've been having is supposed to break today, and the forecast is 74 and sunny. Get outside during lunch if you can!

Anne Midgette of the Washington Post muses about the future of orchestral concerts, fearing they might be going the way of print journalism. The groups she chooses to illustrate her point? The Detroit Symphony Opera and the Michigan Opera Theater. While I don't necessarily disagree with her point–I don't know a lot of 20-and-30-somethings who regularly attend classical concerts–I think she'd have a stronger case if she chose organizations that weren't in a city she acknowledges "is fighting for survival." What's the state of the orchestra in Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco?

Talk about a provocative headline. Vanity Fair asks, "Is Nicole Richie the Next Jonathan Franzen?" on its homepage (though not after the jump.) She's shilling her new book, Priceless, and she actually exhibits some wit in her interview with Eric Spitznagel.

Spitznagel: "Let’s say someone’s at a bookstore, and they’ve got Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom in one hand
and Priceless in another. Which one do they buy?"
Richie: "Well, if you want to be educated, you get Priceless."

This Saturday, Federico Solmi opens a new exhibit at Conner Contemporary. The video-animation installation appears to be Solmi's imagining of a violent video game, complete with references to the Pope and King Kong. The show doesn't really sound like my thing, but I may have to check it out because I love the name: "Douche Bag City." Although my preferred usage of the term is "douchebag," rather than "douche bag."

And speaking of feminine hygiene, TBD's got a guide for this weekend's rally-goers on where to find tampons. Their best bets: the American Indian Museum and the National Gallery. Also, probably thousands of women in attendance, and you don't have to drop 50 cents.

Courtney Love should already be on The Surreal Life by now. That's the great tragedy. This is just farce: Apparently, Courtney Love's new album will be "sponsored" by a tequila company and a tampon maker. The Guardian UK writes:

When [the album] does finally land, the album, Nobody's Daughter, will be Courtney Love's first release since 2004. "She will not make you wait another year or five," her administrator emphasised. "The artwork is pretty much done [and] Courtney has 30 million dollars in sponsorships from a prominent feminine hygiene/menstrual company and a prominent tequila company."

Love has yet to confirm how these sponsorships will manifest – a free bottle and tampon with every CD? – or whether the album will be a free download. In a blogpost this weekend, she hardly touched on the album at all – ranting instead about people who pretend to be her late husband, Kurt Cobain.

Love needs to just quit. Really.