Portraits of newly minted Egyptian martyrs. A pair of Italian artists who hijacked a million Facebook profiles for an online installation. The Republican anti-art agenda and the failure of art people to show up as a united progressive force. Hyperreality and Google Art Project. The end of art itself (a revisitation). The rise of art news over art criticism.

This is what Ben Davis, Seattle native and author of the much-discussed "9.5 Theses on Art and Class" (grab it on Google docs here), has been writing about in the last, oh, month or so in his new position at Artinfo.com (his author archive here).

His aptly named weekly column, Interventions, comes out Wednesdays. It tackles the big questions, blending theory-based eggheadedness with an insistence on real-world events and concerns outside the presumed confines of art. Davis is also a really fine writer.

So I thought it might be fun to talk to Davis about all this, especially the two subjects he's become known and criticized for: Art and class, and the shifting landscape of art critics, writers, and bloggers.

I caught him at home in New York. The audio is the best we could do given the involvement of iPhones—I apologize in advance. It's worth a try, I think.

Enjoy!