Eating Disorders

... Making Plans for Daniel: Pitchfork Feature Reviews News Features Mon: 03-27-06 Making Plans for Daniel Story by Nitsuh Abebe It's the last day of February, half past six, dark already, cold, insufferably windy.

Daniel Johnston has two things on his mind: He's out of cigarettes, and he's about to get a ride in a limousine.

I'm with Daniel's companions for the night, gathered in the lobby of a Marriott hotel in midtown Manhattan, and I'm guessing the rest of us are thinking more about where that limousine's going to take us- uptown, to the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Tonight is the preview reception for "Day for Night", their 2006 biennial, and 14 of Daniel's drawings are up there, somewhere, hanging in two small, neat rows.

This is pretty important, as Daniel's aware: "It's a really big-time art museum," he says.

But he's still thinking more about the cigarettes and the ride.

Whenever a large enough livery car circles the block, he perks up: "Is that really it?

" And then I bother him some more with questions about his art.

Art is complicated, but if there's anything we can learn from "Behind the Music", it's that the art itself is only the beginning.

Make art with any value, and you're immediately surrounded by action.

Managing that action can be tough.

It's treacherous enough that even savvy, stable artists wind up ruined- by trusting the wrong people, or making the wrong decisions.

The art is one problem; the business is another one entirely.

Daniel Johnston isn't sur...

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