ON TOP OF THE WORLD: Mike Mezeul II is a 26-year-old photojournalism graduate student at the University of North Texas. But he has his sights set on the North Pole. Mezeul is competing against other photographers in a contest sponsored by Quark Expeditions to visit the top of the world for a photography project. And he needs your vote to send him there. If you’d like to help him out, you can visit his web site, www.freezingmike.com, where you can view his work and cast your vote for him.

ART OUT LOUD: Tonight at the South Dallas Cultural Center, writers and musicians will take turns at the mic at the monthly Queerly Speaking event. The night is an opportunity for gay artists to gather and foster their creativity, and its an event near and dear to Harold Steward’s heart. Stewart is the founder of the Fahari Arts Institute, an organization that supports black gay artists. “I don’t know why it’s me in this position,” Stewart says when discussing the challenges of running the organization with dallasvoice.com. “There are days when I wanna throw my hands up, but I have to remember somebody paid the price for me to be here and so with that reason I do ask, ‘Why not me?’”

SUPER SWAP: We all know about the traditional wagers between mayors of the cities sending teams to the Super Bowl. And now art museums are getting in on the action. The Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh has agreed to send the Milwaukee Museum of Art Renoir’s Bathers with a Crab for a temporary loan if the Packers win. If the Steelers win, the MMA will ship Gustave Caillebotte’s Boating on the Yerres to the Carnegie. The New York Times Arts Beat blog has the trash talk going back and forth between the museums.