The sugar cookies are my contribution
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Friday, November 27, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Book Love: newspaper edition
I am sitting here at Waffle House while Cross Tire and Auto changes my tires, and I have a Sunday NYT to help me pass the time. And it is beautiful. I read the paper like this maybe once or twice a year. And that trend, writ large, is probably what is killing newspapers. The Internet is so much easier. But every once in a while, with a sheaf of papers that is like a finished book, a novel and a history and a how-to volume summarizing the world as of that day, you can't help but feel a spasm of admiration for what a newspaper tries to do. I wish just now that AR was a true wilderness and a paper might arrive once every few months, let's say the Sunday Times, and you would read it exhaustedly, like a novel, and let the wider world impinge on you no more than that.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
New Museum Blowback
See William Powhinda's cover for The Brooklyn Rail: How the New Museum Committed Suicide. Also a nice little summary of 50 years of cynicism about the way the art world really works.
Here, by the way, is the link to the Roberta Smith NYT review of the current Urs Fischer show in that space, which Powhida was able to mine for one damning quote.
Calvin Tomkins had a feature on Urs Fishcer a few New Yorkers ago. Really what Marcia Tucker, now deceased founder of the New Museum, had in mind?
Here, by the way, is the link to the Roberta Smith NYT review of the current Urs Fischer show in that space, which Powhida was able to mine for one damning quote.
Calvin Tomkins had a feature on Urs Fishcer a few New Yorkers ago. Really what Marcia Tucker, now deceased founder of the New Museum, had in mind?
Monday, November 2, 2009
Hansel und Gretel
... opened a sweat shop. Just kidding. We were all here because we wanted to be, 1. because it is gingerbread 2. because gingerbread is an art form (see Carmen, sweet things expert) and 3. because THINC does great work
And look how many survived! Even with Jeremy's ravenous appetite! The key is to feed the us discarded gingerbread chips. Hansel said he learned that tip from the wicked witch.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Damien Hirst is Getting a Drubbing
The BBC has a helpful roundup of reviews panning Hirst's foray into painting with his "No Love Lost" exhibition at the Wallace Collection. Mark Hudson at the Telegraph thinks the unanimity among critics is so total it might signal a pivotal moment in the history of art.
I haven't seen the paintings, obviously, so it's hard to say much there, but actually it hardly seems necessary when the real story is the critics. That is what everyone seems to want to talk about, concerted critical dismissal attached to so prominent a figure coming along so rarely as it does. Knife and fork, please. Mark Hudson has one remarkable quote in the article linked to above, speaking of
In contrast, the paintings themselves, both in the glimpses from the press photos and as outlined in the reviews, seem too nondescript to incite this sort of response. For an artist who made his name with adjectives like "outrageous," what is remarkable is that so little of the chutzpah is on the canvas. When the reviews puff about Hirst's gall they are chiefly complaining about his venue, the Wallace Collection being one of the grandest of grand old master galleries. It's as if, outraged criticism being no longer able to go hand in hand with outrageous art, critics have retreated to guarding original genius and treating the quality of being merely "derivative" as the original sin. The ire does not fit the crime. Moreover, there is an inversion at work in a model where the artist staging absurdist installations and literally phoning in work to subordinates is taking the critically safer path than the artist working in oil on canvas himself with more or less transparent references to other artists.
I haven't seen the paintings, obviously, so it's hard to say much there, but actually it hardly seems necessary when the real story is the critics. That is what everyone seems to want to talk about, concerted critical dismissal attached to so prominent a figure coming along so rarely as it does. Knife and fork, please. Mark Hudson has one remarkable quote in the article linked to above, speaking of
"...writers with an understanding of the art of all eras who have had to pander to every kind of money-inflated idiocy in order to appear relevant in our ever more uncertain cultural market place – in order, simply, to keep their jobs. But now the critical worm has turned."What is he saying? That critics have been faking it with work that but for "money-inflated idiocy" they might have considered rubbish? Is he so sure "the critical worm has turned" that he wants to raise the curtain like that? Hudson's is the giddiest expression, but reading these reviews you do get a sense that some backed up bile is enjoying an overdue venting of the spleen.
In contrast, the paintings themselves, both in the glimpses from the press photos and as outlined in the reviews, seem too nondescript to incite this sort of response. For an artist who made his name with adjectives like "outrageous," what is remarkable is that so little of the chutzpah is on the canvas. When the reviews puff about Hirst's gall they are chiefly complaining about his venue, the Wallace Collection being one of the grandest of grand old master galleries. It's as if, outraged criticism being no longer able to go hand in hand with outrageous art, critics have retreated to guarding original genius and treating the quality of being merely "derivative" as the original sin. The ire does not fit the crime. Moreover, there is an inversion at work in a model where the artist staging absurdist installations and literally phoning in work to subordinates is taking the critically safer path than the artist working in oil on canvas himself with more or less transparent references to other artists.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Nobel Status Anxiety
Little follow up. Is Obama getting this award because the Committee is eager to demonstrate it is not provincial? Maybe this seems like a stretch, but indulge me.
Remember back last year the big kerfuffle when Horace Engdahl (thank you, Google) ripped American literature as "isolated" and held back by "ignorance" of the wider world? A common defense on this side of pond was to note that the provincialism was all with Horace and and Noble Committee. That when American literature had focused on the rural and slowly built up still in the shadow of other traditions, it well pleased the Committee to award it the occasional prize. But as American literature flowered in the post-war years with countless major authors representing a global cultural and linguistic American presence, so to did American visibility in the Nobel awards slow to a trickle. In other words, America could be appreciated while its literature embodied certain stereotypes or as the country mouse to Europe's city, but not so much as an engine in its own right of international culture. "Europe," Horace had huffed, "is still the center." Provincialism, replied defenders, explaining Horace's en masse dismissal of American writers, his ignorance of the American literary scene, and his trite use of geography to locate a "center" for literature. It was provincial in another way as well. The attempt to pretend, both in the quote and in the Prize's ignoring of American literary contributions for the past several decades, that American literature didn't matter all that much smacked of les provinciales mocking les parisiennes in old French plays (coarse! not really so important!), with the Europeans in the role of les provinciales.
Seen this way, the controversial quote from Horace last October was a statement born of insecurity. The comically politically overdetermined awarding of Barack Obama might be seen as an attempt to play a relevant role in American politics. Perhaps it was meant to demonstrate the Committee wasn't as tone deaf as those Danes over the border. However it was meant, the case for continued relevance that the award unavoidably makes every year has been made ridiculous by its utter misapprehension not only of the US political scene (high octane political fodder for Obama opponents at crucial time for the president), not only of the political moment (ends a week of Obama being satirized SNL, Stewart, and Maher for accomplishing little), and but perhaps most appallingly of race in America. Even while the award undermines him (as a distraction and unwelcome occasion to play defense) politically, it crosses him up symbolically as well. There is a suggestion here of awarding Obama for African American-ness, a position both terribly patronizing (you need a political crutch only we can provide) and reductionist (he is black and powerful and so must be the same as Martin Luther King). Maybe the Committee wished to show that it had come away from the provincialism of anti-Americanism, away from the Danish squares unable to recognize the man of the moment, and into a continued relevance to great power politics and world brotherhood. Instead, they simply underscored that they have little conception of what they were doing.
Remember back last year the big kerfuffle when Horace Engdahl (thank you, Google) ripped American literature as "isolated" and held back by "ignorance" of the wider world? A common defense on this side of pond was to note that the provincialism was all with Horace and and Noble Committee. That when American literature had focused on the rural and slowly built up still in the shadow of other traditions, it well pleased the Committee to award it the occasional prize. But as American literature flowered in the post-war years with countless major authors representing a global cultural and linguistic American presence, so to did American visibility in the Nobel awards slow to a trickle. In other words, America could be appreciated while its literature embodied certain stereotypes or as the country mouse to Europe's city, but not so much as an engine in its own right of international culture. "Europe," Horace had huffed, "is still the center." Provincialism, replied defenders, explaining Horace's en masse dismissal of American writers, his ignorance of the American literary scene, and his trite use of geography to locate a "center" for literature. It was provincial in another way as well. The attempt to pretend, both in the quote and in the Prize's ignoring of American literary contributions for the past several decades, that American literature didn't matter all that much smacked of les provinciales mocking les parisiennes in old French plays (coarse! not really so important!), with the Europeans in the role of les provinciales.
Seen this way, the controversial quote from Horace last October was a statement born of insecurity. The comically politically overdetermined awarding of Barack Obama might be seen as an attempt to play a relevant role in American politics. Perhaps it was meant to demonstrate the Committee wasn't as tone deaf as those Danes over the border. However it was meant, the case for continued relevance that the award unavoidably makes every year has been made ridiculous by its utter misapprehension not only of the US political scene (high octane political fodder for Obama opponents at crucial time for the president), not only of the political moment (ends a week of Obama being satirized SNL, Stewart, and Maher for accomplishing little), and but perhaps most appallingly of race in America. Even while the award undermines him (as a distraction and unwelcome occasion to play defense) politically, it crosses him up symbolically as well. There is a suggestion here of awarding Obama for African American-ness, a position both terribly patronizing (you need a political crutch only we can provide) and reductionist (he is black and powerful and so must be the same as Martin Luther King). Maybe the Committee wished to show that it had come away from the provincialism of anti-Americanism, away from the Danish squares unable to recognize the man of the moment, and into a continued relevance to great power politics and world brotherhood. Instead, they simply underscored that they have little conception of what they were doing.
Nordic Nation Suckerpunches Obama (Again)
What does the Baltic have against Obama? Are they trying to make him look ridiculous? First Denmark and the Olympics, now Norway and the Noble Peace Prize. Suddenly, through no fault of his own, Obama has to try and distance himself from the silliness of it. When I saw the news in the NYT this morning I thought it was The Onion following up on the SNL Jack Squat skit. Although, I will say, as someone who likes to read pundits, Norway has made today oh so entertaining. Michael Tomasky exaggerated nothing when he envisioned heads exploding across the fruited plain.
What is frustrating in all this is the depth of the cluelessness at the Noble Committee. You are possibly the most prestigious international award in the world. But you've taken some hits in recent years alleging your premiere prize is partisan and political. So you give a guy an award for changing what is essentially atmospherics, for not maintaining the status quo of the guy who came before (although some aren't willing to go even that far, see Medhi Hasan in The New Statesman). This only proves your critics point. Not to mention the disservice it does to the recipient. Who wants to receive the Noble Prize for not being the other guy? Even if the you really wanted to give it to Obama, couldn't you have at least waited four years, so that you could pretend it was for something other than telegraphing what sort of American politicians Norway approves of?
What is frustrating in all this is the depth of the cluelessness at the Noble Committee. You are possibly the most prestigious international award in the world. But you've taken some hits in recent years alleging your premiere prize is partisan and political. So you give a guy an award for changing what is essentially atmospherics, for not maintaining the status quo of the guy who came before (although some aren't willing to go even that far, see Medhi Hasan in The New Statesman). This only proves your critics point. Not to mention the disservice it does to the recipient. Who wants to receive the Noble Prize for not being the other guy? Even if the you really wanted to give it to Obama, couldn't you have at least waited four years, so that you could pretend it was for something other than telegraphing what sort of American politicians Norway approves of?
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
What Will Obama Say?
Getting ready to listen to Obama tonight... Here is my guess on the health care speech. That if Obama rejects a public option in an effort to pass something now, or if Obama retrenches and extends deadlines for passage, then he will have sacrificed some of the glamour of reformer, because to reject a public option is to pass on a potentially good idea and to retrench is politically embarrassing. However, in doing so he would also be putting results first, because to force the public option over Blue Dog Democrats trying to retain support in Republican leaning districts, over Independents skeptical of the legislation, and over Republicans via reconciliation is to pass legislation with the suppport of the left wing only and so sow doubt that reformers will proceed with moderation, with explanation, and with the hard groundwork of building support in the middle. That's my reading of his options. But what does he think? We are on the verge of finding out.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Death of Conservatism?
I read and liked this interview with Sam Tanenhaus this morning.
Of course "death" is overstating things. Instead Tanenhaus is critiquing conservatism's slippage into radical opposition, which doesn't seem that unusual for movements out of power and so is probably just a phase. Still could there be a worse moment for it? Maybe public emotion against health care reform, or bank bailouts, or stimulus packages is real. That is no excuse for Republican demagogic riding of it for short term political gains. Take health care reform. Suppose it does fail to pass. Do Republicans think the push for reform is based on nothing? The same underlying stresses will still be there. A few more years of spiraling costs and the mandate for a massive government program will be even greater. And the chance that it is executed in an ill-thought gush of legislation riding on popular emotion will also increase, since people will be worried about the window of political will. So conservatives should be all the more eager to spell out now what a bottom up ideal health care system would look like while seeking reforms with Democrats that can relieve some of that building pressure. For example, what about ending the tax incentives for comprehensive care insurance (thus putting consumers in more direct contact with health care suppliers for the basic stuff), while instituting a public option (or single payer system, while we're dreaming) for the big stuff (thereby covering the uncovered)? I don't know much about health care, so there are probably good reasons why this proposal is nutty. But the point is why doesn't the opposition start acting like the loyal opposition and start coming up with ideas that could spell out new ways of pursuing 21st century goals in American terms. You can live most anywhere in the developed world and have a high degree of state interference in your life. The charm of America to me was always that it was option B, an experiment in a slightly more free and open system. There ought to be at least one place in the world you can live like that. But it will only be viable if its proponents are taking the best of other systems and other ideas and refitting them for improved American lives. Not pretending that anything already outside the fort is taboo.
Of course "death" is overstating things. Instead Tanenhaus is critiquing conservatism's slippage into radical opposition, which doesn't seem that unusual for movements out of power and so is probably just a phase. Still could there be a worse moment for it? Maybe public emotion against health care reform, or bank bailouts, or stimulus packages is real. That is no excuse for Republican demagogic riding of it for short term political gains. Take health care reform. Suppose it does fail to pass. Do Republicans think the push for reform is based on nothing? The same underlying stresses will still be there. A few more years of spiraling costs and the mandate for a massive government program will be even greater. And the chance that it is executed in an ill-thought gush of legislation riding on popular emotion will also increase, since people will be worried about the window of political will. So conservatives should be all the more eager to spell out now what a bottom up ideal health care system would look like while seeking reforms with Democrats that can relieve some of that building pressure. For example, what about ending the tax incentives for comprehensive care insurance (thus putting consumers in more direct contact with health care suppliers for the basic stuff), while instituting a public option (or single payer system, while we're dreaming) for the big stuff (thereby covering the uncovered)? I don't know much about health care, so there are probably good reasons why this proposal is nutty. But the point is why doesn't the opposition start acting like the loyal opposition and start coming up with ideas that could spell out new ways of pursuing 21st century goals in American terms. You can live most anywhere in the developed world and have a high degree of state interference in your life. The charm of America to me was always that it was option B, an experiment in a slightly more free and open system. There ought to be at least one place in the world you can live like that. But it will only be viable if its proponents are taking the best of other systems and other ideas and refitting them for improved American lives. Not pretending that anything already outside the fort is taboo.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Case 65 Soon To Be Swallowed in Massive Maquette
What if I have to change out the dessicant in Case 65? I asked Jimmy.
You can climb up through the interior with a flashlight, he said. Just where jeans to work that day.
Friday, August 21, 2009
I prepare to receive crates
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
Bargains Galore or Too Darn Hot Part II: Other People's Commemorative Music and Hwy 64
Again with the sweltering heat. But I gamely went back out Hwy 64 to see if there were Bargains Galore. It was the afternoon of Day Three of the event, so lets just assume things were picked over. Still, it was definitely more on the flea market side of the antiques and collectibles divide.
I started in Morrilton:
And there were some interesting things:
And some bargains:
($20)
But what else did 64 have in store?
Lots and lots of yard sales
Interspersed with cows
Lots and lots of hot faced children and women and men sitting under shade trees
Sadly I was a little frightened of some of the more interesting sales and so did not stop and did not get pictures of those
But this was OK because once again I had the perfect sound track for Hwy 64, this time a collection of favorite songs from the past year that some friends put together in commemoration of their third year of marriage, helpfully entitled "3." 3 was great company. If only yard sales could so successfully offer you selections that you enjoyed on their own terms even as they came to you as samplings of someone else's experience, little boutiques of someone else's nostalgia. Then Bargains Galore on 64 would have been a wonderland. But maybe that was Day One.
I started in Morrilton:
And there were some interesting things:
And some bargains:
($20)But what else did 64 have in store?
Lots and lots of yard sales
Interspersed with cows
Lots and lots of hot faced children and women and men sitting under shade trees
Sadly I was a little frightened of some of the more interesting sales and so did not stop and did not get pictures of those
But this was OK because once again I had the perfect sound track for Hwy 64, this time a collection of favorite songs from the past year that some friends put together in commemoration of their third year of marriage, helpfully entitled "3." 3 was great company. If only yard sales could so successfully offer you selections that you enjoyed on their own terms even as they came to you as samplings of someone else's experience, little boutiques of someone else's nostalgia. Then Bargains Galore on 64 would have been a wonderland. But maybe that was Day One.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Too Darn Hot: Ella Fitzgerald and Hwy 64
Saturday afternoon I drove out Hwy 64 all the way to Morrilton listening to Ella Fitzgerald and enjoying the beautiful day, although after a while it felt impossible to keep the heat out of the car. So I did a really smart thing: I pulled over and walked a block or so of downtown Morrilton. It really was too unbearable to be outside. Nobody was besides me, and some guys painting up on a crane and cursing in Spanish and English. There were fliers in the windows declaring: Bargains Galore on 64! August 13th -15th, 2009. I wonder what sort of things you find in a Morrilton wide (and wider) yard sale? Is Bargains Galore stuff from the small towns like Morrilton along 64? Or are yard sale sellers traveling in from other places with extra fare? What fills the attics of Morrilton? If it is feasible, I might try and find out next weekend. It is a pretty little downtown, if fairly lifeless (only partially due to the heat - the shops weren't much). A railroad track runs parallel to the main street/highway. The station appears to now be a museum. Across the tracks were a couple of steeples and a shady neighborhood. When Morrilton sprang up what did it do? Timber? Farming? Something to make it important enough to be the county seat. I passed a County Court House. Do you know what interests me about small towns? It is like looking at big towns early on, back when people were still moving out to build new towns. The stabs at institutions and even grandeur. The facade of a First National Bank. The old home implying First Family of wherever it is. Now when people move out into the country you get a clutch of chain stores around a junction and incorporation into one of two centers competing sprawls.
I couldn't handle more than a few minutes outside. Back in the car with the AC up and Ella Fitzgerald crooning Cole Porter I stuck to 64 through a few more junctions before turning off for the interstate and home. Ella Fitzgerald does not work on the interstate. So much better on state highways where you can take it easy.
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