In other news, Image journal has announced the lineup for next year's Glen Workshops. Hard to believe it's already time to register again!
:: Sandy's impact ::
Though the storm hasn't yet produced any art I'm aware of, it's unfortunately taken a great deal from some artists and galleries who stored work in low-lying areas.
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| Some of Mako's works, seen in a basement drawer in the Dillon gallery, October 2011 |
- Mako Fujimura reported via Twitter that the Dillon Gallery, which had some of his work, was under 12' of water and "there were significant amount of works destroyed, including the most recent Elm Grace." When I was there last October, I so remember going down to Dillon's basement with an assistant, who opened several drawers to show me some of the letter paintings from Mako Four Gospels project. Other Chelsea galleries also lost a lot of work, Business Week reports. The New York Times also reports on the galleries' losses: Where Creations Faced Destruction.
- On the music front, a small but respected record label housed in Redhook, Brooklyn, lost a lot of equipment and files, which weren't covered by any flood insurance (due to the landlord's refusal).
:: film & television ::
- Meet the Press interviews Stephen Colbert about politics, satire and his new book. Though I don't usually expect much substance from television (vs. print), the conversation about the Colbert segment goes into some interesting analysis of satirists' current role in exposing hypocrisy, especially in the political process.
- Letterman did the Late Show without an audience at least part of last week -- the night of the storm and the day after, which included a last-minute guest appearance by Andrew Bird. I still need to watch more than the Bird part of these, but I always think Dave nears his best under zany circumstances.
- A couple weeks back, I shared the "Gangnam Style" video with its frequently parodied horse dance, but this piece offers a different, richer take -- how it both reflects and mocks a fascination with Western culture, while sharing Koreans' sense of social connection with the West.
- Via Brainpickings, here's a hand-drawn stop-motion animation of the The Old Man and the Sea. Pretty cool.
- If I gave awards for top aural delight of the last couple weeks, it might go to the Cody ChesnuTT album stream on NPR's first listen. If you don't know his name, he has a great soulful sound that's somewhere between Marvin Gaye and Cee Lo Green, but also pushes beyond them. His album came out last Tuesday, but so far they haven't pulled the album stream. My favorite track: Under the Spell of the Handout.
- Paste reviews Andrew Bird's new EP, Hands of Glory.
- Lately I've been trying to buy my CDs from the neighborhood record shop, Down Home Music, which also happens to be a real gem.
I assume the staff know far more about music than I ever could, so I
enjoyed a slight satisfaction the other day when I picked up an order
that had come in -- Bill Fay's Life is People -- and was asked who he is. I told the guy what little I knew, which is that I've seen him mentioned by NPR Music and Christianity Today
but almost nowhere else. I'm just starting to listen to the album, but
so far my favorite song is the still the first one I heard, "Never
Ending Happening," which NPR featured in its summer music preview. Already I get the sense this is a very rich album. Listen for yourself on the Paste site (they have a full-album stream in the video player at the article's end).
- Folks weren't supposed to shoot it, of course, but one attendee got footage from the recent, intimate show the Rolling Stones performed in Paris.
- Robert Cray gives NPR a tiny desk concert.
- Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward -- a.k.a., She & Him -- cover "Stars Fell on Alabama" in this video karaoke session.
- Calexico performs "Splitter," a breakup song off their new album Algiers, which came out last month.
- Taking inspiration, perhaps, from Bob Dylan, Cee Lo Green has a Christmas album due out this year. "All I Need is Love" features the Muppets. Really.
- Manipulated photography before Photoshop: WSJ takes a look at the show up at New York's MOMA.
- Depicting our fears as monsters: the New York Times commissioned a short series of works by visual artists. I'm not sure which was more compelling -- the concept or the execution.
- America for Beginners -- Or the Forgetful. The NYT's Lens blog looks at a new book by photographer Arthur Grace,
which apparently features a lot of pictures he forgot he took. I didn't
have time to see all of them, but his style reminds me of some of the
early street photographers like Robert Frank.
- As I've probably mentioned before, I really love what little of Dave Hickey's writing I've read, especially one essay in his book Air Guitar. However, I've also retained a lot of his thesis in the shorter volume The Invisible Dragon
-- and there aren't many books I read that long ago that I could still
summarize. All that to say, I therefore perked up when I saw his name
come through my Twitter feed ... in an announcement that he has
supposedly quit the art world. The piece that followed was an interesting look at the current state of the fine art world.
- I'm not a huge fan of books by and about celebrities, but Dwight Garner's review of The Richard Burton Diaries is enticing.
- Purists are probably shuddering at this, but some guy figured out how to make a plastic guitar with 3D printing or something.
- I've been cutting back on cooking a tad, pre-trip, but recently I made a quarter batch of this hot sauce recipe, using regular serrano chilis. It makes about of pint of the condiment, which turns out beautifully if you roast the peppers first. This is an easy recipe for occasional cooks, too -- after roasting the peppers in the oven (split them in half, brush lightly with oil, then roast at 400 until they start to char), you basically blend them up with a few other things. I found it kept several months in the fridge.
- When I get to Chicago, I hope to visit a bar called the Aviary, which apparently makes a pretty wild hot chocolate. I plan to try Tasting Table's recipe for reproducing it once I get back, though I'll have to make my first ever purchase of tobacco.
