This is a short work week, thanks to the Fourth of July. One of the things that makes the country great is its many different immigrant communities and the citizens they have produced. Polish-American Andy Warhol was the impresario of the Pop Art movement, and this fall the museum will host the museum-curated special exhibition "Andy Warhol: 15 Weeks of Fame." The fun part of my work week will be a little advance reading, starting with Andy Warhol: Giant Size.
In terms of the postures of popular culture, few are more entrenched than converse sneakers in arts professions. Plus I've discovered they are surprisingly comfortable on the concrete slab floors underneath the parquet I track when working in galleries. My old pair are on the verge of decomposing. Now, with the economy puffing fumes, self-interest and patriotic action intersect. Why not spend a little money for the Fourth? So Rock City Kicks it is, Little Rock's first sneaker boutique.
On a much broader scale, pop culture gets a summarization in Entertainment Weekly's "New Classics" issue. I love lists, top tens, top 100s, personal best etc. and these lists are fun, full of cheesy asides like Viggo Mortensen's top ten pieces of advice heard on a movie set or trying to sum up the other 26000 years not deemed "new" with a ten item time line. Sounds like docent training.
For op-eds with a little more historical significance, there is Library of America's Debate on the Constitution. Lots of the entries are small enough to treat like a daily primer, say before bedtime.
Not bedtime reading but on the list, Russell Shorto's "Childless Europe" in The New York Times Magazine. Today, for the first time in forever, I actually bought an ink 'n paper NYT. The cover art for the NYT Mag is nice too.
Last up, for the Fourth itself, pop and genteel unite. The Arkansas Symphony shows its patriotism with Pops on the River. It's free and P has tickets for the Junction Bridge, the best spot in town for fireworks.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
Sight Unseen Movie Review
Rare is the movie that you love before ever seeing a single frame. But WALL-E is that way for me and I want to get this on the record before I go to see it. That way, when I exclaim that I loved it after walking out of the theater and somebody says something like, "You're only saying that because you just saw it!," I can reply, "No, no, no, no! I loved it before I saw it!" Which is true.
So why would you write a review to record your original Reasons For Loving before you go to the movie and have new reasons crowd the old ones out? Only to note that it is pretty impressive for Pixar to create a sense of beleaguered everyman-ness out of something that isn't even a man. On visuals alone, with its dumpy square body and patchwork parts, WALL-E has me at hello. Gazing up from the front page of today's STYLE Section in the paper, Pixar has coxed a soulful-eyed expression from a pair of binoculars on a swivel. My newsprint WALL-E has all the pathos of a portrait painting. When I finally do go see this movie I won't be sitting in the theater for an hour and a half being slowly convinced to care. Even if the story stinks and the dialog is lame (unlikely), I'll still care about WALL-E. Pixar is Pixar because despite all else it does well, it realizes that a good image, like a good actor, can make you care.
C'est beau la vie
Gourmet chocolate!
Cocoa Belle: Beautiful Chocolate launched tonight at the River Market. Sing Hillcrest inhabitants! Sing all who mourned River City Tea and Coffee (and Chocolate), which last year changed hands and began the process of making itself over into a basket shop. The only place in town with its own chocolatier, and it converts to baskets. In a state full of catfish and pig 'n chik BBQ, is it too much to ask for a little luxury chocolate? Thankfully no. No more condescending to Godiva boxes off the Barnes and Noble sales counter. Or even those imported chocolate bars with infusions of Earl Grey. Now here is Cocoa Belle - fresh gourmet chocolate prepared by Carmen Portillo.
Cocoa Belle: Beautiful Chocolate launched tonight at the River Market. Sing Hillcrest inhabitants! Sing all who mourned River City Tea and Coffee (and Chocolate), which last year changed hands and began the process of making itself over into a basket shop. The only place in town with its own chocolatier, and it converts to baskets. In a state full of catfish and pig 'n chik BBQ, is it too much to ask for a little luxury chocolate? Thankfully no. No more condescending to Godiva boxes off the Barnes and Noble sales counter. Or even those imported chocolate bars with infusions of Earl Grey. Now here is Cocoa Belle - fresh gourmet chocolate prepared by Carmen Portillo.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Local Brew
Diamond Bear
When I first heard about Diamond Bear I immediately assumed it had been around forever. And somehow this idea persisted until tonight, when I googled them and discovered that no, there will be no grainy photographs of men in handlebar mustaches and suspenders, because Diamond Bear was founded in 2000. This is a little depressing. Free Brewery Tour is now out as alternate cheap date idea. What is a brewery tour without grainy photographs?
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Unveiling Toshiko Takaezu
The museum where I work has instituted a new series of mini-installations called "Building the Collection" which highlight recent acquisitions. A line drawing by Matisse began the fun and now we have famed ceramicist Toshiko Takaezu. Quick story: last winter a former curatorial assistant for contemporary craft had finally decided to move to NY after eight years with the museum. Then our contemporary craft curator finds her unpacking the Toshiko Takaezu pieces in tears, because she found them so beautiful and she was leaving. So if you love craft hurry down. They are up in all their glory, christened with a few tear stains from a NY gallery assistant.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Breakfast in Brinkley
Brinkley, Arkansas sits on the flat delta plain between Little Rock, AR and Memphis, TN. Once upon a time much of the Delta was covered in bottom land hardwood forests, swamps, and bayous. Now it has mostly all been drained, cleared, or cut and what's left turned to farmland. Thus Brinkley, a little farming community next to I-40 interstate, where the tourist dollar means stop-over traffic gassing up between Little Rock and Memphis.
Last weekend I was such a Brinkley tourist. Mama and I stopped over on our way up to Memphis. This was my idea as I had recently read a book on the rediscovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, which also included an admiring description of breakfast in Brinkley. Only Tim Gallagher, author of The Grail Bird: The Rediscovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, had neglected to give the name of the place. We pulled over at a gas station and I took the opportunity to ask the clerk if she knew a good breakfast in Brinkley.
"You mean besides MacDonald’s?"
"Yes Ma’am"
"Well not Waffle House. I wouldn't eat at the Waffle House in Brinkley if you gave it to me for free. And not the Kentucky Fried Chicken. Don’t eat Kentucky Fried Chicken in Brinkley. Try Gene’s Bar-B-Que."
So Mama and I rounded the bend and found Gene’s. Inside there was the smattering of the local people that had so struck Gallagher (although his experience was in hunting season and I imagine a room full of camo is a more impressive sight). Mama wanted to know what book it was that I was reading that knew about breakfast in Brinkley. So I explained about Tim Gallagher and his fascination with the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, rare among rare birds, called the Lord God Bird on account of its size and beauty, and thought to be extinct since the 1940s. Little remains of the birds' old haunts (ancient swamp forests of cypress) and it was assumed that logging had killed the last of them. Still, narrow fingers of bayou survive with a habitat that might hide the bird and in 2004 a team of scientists from Cornell (including Gallagher) claimed to have sighted an Ivory-Bill in Bayou de View, just outside of Brinkley.
I wasn't living in Arkansas at the time but I still remember the news of the rediscovery on the cover of an international newspaper. Sufjan Stevens, the singer/songwriter who has made a career of sussing out the profound from mundane landscapes, wrote a song about it. Now, however, it has been four years and dissent about the bird's existence is growing.
At Gene's BBQ (Home of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker) we sat in a corner with some coffee. A ceramic Ivory Bill sat perched on a log on the wall. People indifferently munched their breakfast underneath a massive artist rendering of an Ivory Bill in flight.
Mama peppered our waitress with questions. She was soft spoken.
"They come out here and set aside all this hunting and fishing land so nobody would get on it."
"Did people mind about that?" I asked.
"No," she said, "they was happy about the bird."
Then she said there had been a team from Cornell down this winter. They still haven't found the bird. I ordered breakfast and flipped over the menu.
Last weekend I was such a Brinkley tourist. Mama and I stopped over on our way up to Memphis. This was my idea as I had recently read a book on the rediscovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, which also included an admiring description of breakfast in Brinkley. Only Tim Gallagher, author of The Grail Bird: The Rediscovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, had neglected to give the name of the place. We pulled over at a gas station and I took the opportunity to ask the clerk if she knew a good breakfast in Brinkley.
"You mean besides MacDonald’s?"
"Yes Ma’am"
"Well not Waffle House. I wouldn't eat at the Waffle House in Brinkley if you gave it to me for free. And not the Kentucky Fried Chicken. Don’t eat Kentucky Fried Chicken in Brinkley. Try Gene’s Bar-B-Que."
So Mama and I rounded the bend and found Gene’s. Inside there was the smattering of the local people that had so struck Gallagher (although his experience was in hunting season and I imagine a room full of camo is a more impressive sight). Mama wanted to know what book it was that I was reading that knew about breakfast in Brinkley. So I explained about Tim Gallagher and his fascination with the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, rare among rare birds, called the Lord God Bird on account of its size and beauty, and thought to be extinct since the 1940s. Little remains of the birds' old haunts (ancient swamp forests of cypress) and it was assumed that logging had killed the last of them. Still, narrow fingers of bayou survive with a habitat that might hide the bird and in 2004 a team of scientists from Cornell (including Gallagher) claimed to have sighted an Ivory-Bill in Bayou de View, just outside of Brinkley.
I wasn't living in Arkansas at the time but I still remember the news of the rediscovery on the cover of an international newspaper. Sufjan Stevens, the singer/songwriter who has made a career of sussing out the profound from mundane landscapes, wrote a song about it. Now, however, it has been four years and dissent about the bird's existence is growing.
At Gene's BBQ (Home of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker) we sat in a corner with some coffee. A ceramic Ivory Bill sat perched on a log on the wall. People indifferently munched their breakfast underneath a massive artist rendering of an Ivory Bill in flight.
Mama peppered our waitress with questions. She was soft spoken.
"They come out here and set aside all this hunting and fishing land so nobody would get on it."
"Did people mind about that?" I asked.
"No," she said, "they was happy about the bird."
Then she said there had been a team from Cornell down this winter. They still haven't found the bird. I ordered breakfast and flipped over the menu.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Sorry Friends and Neighbors
My AC adapter for my laptop bit the dust this last week, hence the light (or total lack of) posting. But I promise a (cheap, knock-off) replacement is even now on its way to me. Let us hope this new cheap replacements website is better than my last cheap replacements website, which took over a month.
Today was almost the day that I bought both silver and John Deer gear in the space of 24 hours. What a perfect summation Southern culture! I'm not sure if I should say "high/low" culture. John Deer seems pretty classy as far as agri-companies go. Maybe "indoor/outdoor" culture? Sadly it was not to be. Mother bought me the Strasbourg compote in commemoration of our afternoon in Memphis and the John Deer fell through. But it was close so I thought I'd mention it.
Today was almost the day that I bought both silver and John Deer gear in the space of 24 hours. What a perfect summation Southern culture! I'm not sure if I should say "high/low" culture. John Deer seems pretty classy as far as agri-companies go. Maybe "indoor/outdoor" culture? Sadly it was not to be. Mother bought me the Strasbourg compote in commemoration of our afternoon in Memphis and the John Deer fell through. But it was close so I thought I'd mention it.
Friday, June 6, 2008
How Now Brown Cow?
I live in a rural state. How long was it going to be before I got to a cow post? Clearly not long. Because it is now time to celebrate the most famous brown cow in the state, The Heifer Project cow, and all that he (no udder, yes?) stands for.
The Heifer Project is an international non-profit organization that supplies people living in poverty with animals for husbandry and economic growth. It also supplies plants and even training in sustainable agriculture. But the Heifer Cow is the most famous part. In elementary school we hoarded pennies for our own slice of a cow to send to a poor family in Africa. In middle school there was a field trip out to Heifer's thousand acre spread in Perryville, where we got to pet the animals themselves on a tour complete with motorized hay cart ride. So it is that the Arkansas schoolchild can name with justifiable pride a major non-profit organization based in the state. You would remember it too if you got to pet a large brown cow destined for Africa.
Thus it was with a little nostalgic twinge that I pulled up to The Heifer Project's new headquarters with my friend E. a while back. Sadly it was closed, but I promised E., who is an architect and had expressed interest in the structure, that I would come back with a camera and post a photo tour of the building. Sorry it's a little late E. It required sunny weather, flexible use of a lunch hour, and actually owning a camera.
Heifer International Center Headquarters, as E. pointed out, has a unique design nationally recognized for its innovative green architecture. The building harmonizes our local environment and Heifer's moral credo of responsible sustainability with the demands of corporate office space.
The site is by the Arkansas river, just to the east of downtown. From here the river flows down to the cotton fields of Scott.
Off to the left is the Clinton Library. The red building is now the Clinton School of Public Service. It used to be a train depot (notice the old railroad bridge) and there were several old warehouses along the river, but otherwise development was light. The area was a designated brownfield which Heifer cleaned by removing thousands of tons of soil. Construction continues with a global village and hunger education center.
The building itself is a narrow crescent raised over a reconstructed wetland, which also serves as a bioswale for surface runoff water.
Notice the happy turtles in the water. These turtles came up from the river, which means they had to cross the global village construction site desert in search of greener pasture. The Land Before Time for turtles.
The orientation of the building is east-west, allowing maximum exposure to sunlight. Sunshades integrated into the exterior shelter the building from excess heat in summer, while light shelves installed along the interior wall bounce light up to the ceiling and capture it for winter heat. A unique design feature that might interest you, dear E., were the custom-made light shades installed vertically between punchouts to protect from overexposure.
Materials for the building are as far as possible local, from the stone facings (Subiaco possibly?) to the native pine ceiling to the gravel. In fact, the gravel is the crushed masonry of the old warehouses along the river, almost all of which was recycled into the current project.
I realize, E., that the parking lot is the one aspect of the building with which you are already familiar. We both appreciated the aesthetic of paving the lot in concrete and reserving the gravel for the parking spaces only. In addition to allowing water to reach the ground, the lots drain surface runoff to bioswales which in turn sustain the wetlands. Nifty.
The interior is only 62 feet wide (I checked), so the penetration of natural light is almost total. Insulation is made of Arkansas soybean and recycled cotton. (Really? I'm not sure how this works.) Modular raised floors contribute to the energy efficiency. Notice the carpet and wood on the lower floor in the picture. Both are designed for corrections to be made with minimal interference. The carpet can be removed and replaced by the square. The floor can come up in panels to allow easy access to plumbing and wiring.
Finally, the main stairways (there is also an interior elevator) are located in two exterior shafts along the back facade of the building. The shafts are not climate-controlled, for greater energy efficiency. In one, the stair wraps around a retention tower capable of holding up to 25,000 gallons of water. Roof rain is piped to the tower where it is filtered and used for the cooling system and to flush the toilets. A large retention basin beside the parking lot is fed by excess rain water and nourishes the wetland.
So there it all is. The only thing to add is that the gift shop is nice, with lots of fair trade products and a good library on green issues, though a little doom-and-gloom in keeping with current fashion. I must say free trade chocolate is a tempting way to end a lunch break.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
General Election Eve
Floating around the cable news networks listening to McCain/Hillary/Obama speeches....
I missed McCain's speech. Somebody said it read better than it sounded in delivery. While I certainly don't equate rhetorical ability with capacity to serve the nation, still it seems to me that more than any other political office that of President requires the ability to speak directly and eloquently to the country. Has there been a transcendent American President who was not a good public speaker? After eight years of a rhetorical paucity, McCain had better not underestimate the appeal of a candidate capable of eloquence.
Hillary is one steely lady. That speech took a certain imperviousness to Obama's historic achievement, a certain disregard for the Democratic party's larger needs, and a certain resolve to concede no more that forced. This election season I have found myself torn between an admiration for her total commitment and a queasiness that nothing calls this quality out in her so much as her own political survival. In the end policy points, allegiances, even party welfare all seem negotiable compared to that larger necessity. She not only didn't concede - which Obama must surely have hoped that she would given how he praised her in his speech - she didn't even acknowledge his crossing the delegate count goal post! Here in Arkansas the anecdotes I heard growing up of the Clinton campaigns had Hillary as the one most unwilling to give an inch to an opponent, right down to crashing an opponent's press conference. Such fight makes for an efficient, capable politician, but brings as well the opportunities for Clintonian political theater. That is how her speech struck me tonight, a theatrical display of nerve.
Obama's speech was generous to Clinton, nice to McCain before socking him, and in love with the American people. He is in love with our innate nobility, our basic decency, our capacity to change. All these qualities in us he ties to our larger American identity, so that in celebrating ourselves we are celebrating the country, or vice versa. It's brilliant, it's beautiful, and it's moving. Especially moving to me is the prospect of a great mind in the White House. My main question is whether this is true of Obama. Is he a Jefferson in the 1776 mold, young and relatively inexperienced but nevertheless rising admirably to the challenge of the Declaration of Independence? Or is he more in the mold of Kennedy, again young and relatively inexperienced, whose administration was inspirational from start to finish but whose policy decisions (especially foreign) were mostly unimpressive and sometimes disastrous. So which is he? A statesman such as we rarely see, with a greatness of mind and a largeness of character to make resume secondary? Or an inspiring speaker merely, who will stumble on policy decisions immune to the effects of rhetorical uplift?
I missed McCain's speech. Somebody said it read better than it sounded in delivery. While I certainly don't equate rhetorical ability with capacity to serve the nation, still it seems to me that more than any other political office that of President requires the ability to speak directly and eloquently to the country. Has there been a transcendent American President who was not a good public speaker? After eight years of a rhetorical paucity, McCain had better not underestimate the appeal of a candidate capable of eloquence.
Hillary is one steely lady. That speech took a certain imperviousness to Obama's historic achievement, a certain disregard for the Democratic party's larger needs, and a certain resolve to concede no more that forced. This election season I have found myself torn between an admiration for her total commitment and a queasiness that nothing calls this quality out in her so much as her own political survival. In the end policy points, allegiances, even party welfare all seem negotiable compared to that larger necessity. She not only didn't concede - which Obama must surely have hoped that she would given how he praised her in his speech - she didn't even acknowledge his crossing the delegate count goal post! Here in Arkansas the anecdotes I heard growing up of the Clinton campaigns had Hillary as the one most unwilling to give an inch to an opponent, right down to crashing an opponent's press conference. Such fight makes for an efficient, capable politician, but brings as well the opportunities for Clintonian political theater. That is how her speech struck me tonight, a theatrical display of nerve.
Obama's speech was generous to Clinton, nice to McCain before socking him, and in love with the American people. He is in love with our innate nobility, our basic decency, our capacity to change. All these qualities in us he ties to our larger American identity, so that in celebrating ourselves we are celebrating the country, or vice versa. It's brilliant, it's beautiful, and it's moving. Especially moving to me is the prospect of a great mind in the White House. My main question is whether this is true of Obama. Is he a Jefferson in the 1776 mold, young and relatively inexperienced but nevertheless rising admirably to the challenge of the Declaration of Independence? Or is he more in the mold of Kennedy, again young and relatively inexperienced, whose administration was inspirational from start to finish but whose policy decisions (especially foreign) were mostly unimpressive and sometimes disastrous. So which is he? A statesman such as we rarely see, with a greatness of mind and a largeness of character to make resume secondary? Or an inspiring speaker merely, who will stumble on policy decisions immune to the effects of rhetorical uplift?
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Cranford
P.: Bonnets
Me: Celebration of all that is warm and best in human nature
Cranford: ..."Open a tea shop?..."
P.: Now I see why you like this...
Me: Hardly for the tea shop. I appreciate the grander themes.
P.: Bonnets. Tea.
Me: Celebration of all that is warm and best in human nature
Cranford: ..."Open a tea shop?..."
P.: Now I see why you like this...
Me: Hardly for the tea shop. I appreciate the grander themes.
P.: Bonnets. Tea.
In this week's docket...
"Turning Away From Jesus: Gay Rights and the War for the Episcopal Church" by Garret Keizer, in the June issue of Harper's.
Heifer International has a new building out by the Clinton Library.
Flight of the Red Balloon is coming to Little Rock next weekend!
Heifer International has a new building out by the Clinton Library.
Flight of the Red Balloon is coming to Little Rock next weekend!
Steely-Eyed Focus
My mother has just walked in the door off a flight. She announces we have 15 minutes until Cranford, changes into her gown and robe, and puts on the kettle on.
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