(Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’amoroso menzogna (1949).)
october 26–october 30
Books
- Thomas Love Peacock, Nightmare Abbey
- Thomas Love Peacock, Crotchet Castle
- Dino Buzzati, The Siren: A Selection from Dino Buzzati, trans. Lawrence Venuti
- Ursula Le Guin, The Word for World Is Forest
- Francis Steegmuller, trans. & ed., Flaubert in Egypt: A Sensibility on Tour
Films
- Fados, directed by Carlos Saura
Exhibits
- “David Mann,” McKenzie Fine Art
- “Sister Corita Kent,” Zach Feuer Gallery
- “Lynn Koble: Capacity,” Venetia Kapernekas Gallery
- “Robert Frank,” Robert Mann Gallery
- “David Colosi: Imaginary Numbers and Other Calculated Fictions,” Cueto Project
- “On Top of the Whale,” Mitchell Algus Gallery
- “Sean Scully: Recent Paintings,” Galerie Lelong
- “Damián Ortega: CAPITAL Less,” Gladstone Gallery
- “Stripes/Solids,” Paula Cooper Gallery
on returning
“At one in the morning, after hours of sobbing and anguish such as no other separation ever caused me, I wrote a letter. I have it now: I have just re-read it and am holding it in my hand, quite without emotion; its paper gives no hint that it is different from any other piece of paper, and the letters are like any other letters in any other sentences. Between my self of that night and my self of tonight there is the difference between the cadaver and the surgeon doing the autopsy.”
(Gustave Flaubert, travel notes, p. 21 in Flaubert in Egypt, trans. & ed. Francis Steegmuller.)
toive
(Vladislav Delay, “Toive”, directed by Carolina Melis & Lorenzo Sportiello.)
faith, like a jackal
“But Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.”
(Melville, Moby-Dick, chapter 7.)
no better than a spacious kennel
“Mr. Glowry used to say that his house was no better than a spacious kennel, for everyone in it led the life of a dog. Disappointed both in love and friendship, and looking upon human learning as vanity, he had come to a conclusion that there was but one good thing in the world, videlicet, a good dinner; and this his parsimonious lady seldom suffered him to enjoy: but, one morning, like Sir Leoline in Christabel, ‘he woke and found his lady dead’, and remained a very consolate widower, with one small child.”
(Thomas Love Peacock, Nightmare Abbey, chapter 1, p. 2.)
october 21–october 25
Books
- Tan Lin, Ambience is a Novel with a Logo
- Thomas M. Disch, On SF
- Christien Meindertsma, Pig 05049
- Herman Melville, ; or The Whale (ed. Damion Searls)
Exhibits
- “Jack Tworkov: Against Extremes – Five Decades of Painting,” The UBS Art Gallery
- “Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess,” Francis M. Naumann Gallery
- “Elaine Lustig Cohen. My Heroes: Portraits of the Avant-Garde,” Adler & Conkright Fine Art
pig 05049
(Christien Mieindertsma’s Pig 05049.)
noted
- A good interview with Alasdair Gray by Ari Messer at The Rumpus. (More here.)
- Full Tilt, a journal of East-Asian poetry, translation and the arts, from Steve Bradbury.
- The life of taxidermist Walter Potter, at the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- Tan Lin at PennSound; also “Disco as Operating System, Part One”.
- Suzanne Jill Levine interviewed at Words Without Borders (that name still doesn’t make sense at a very basic level).
- Tom McCarthy at Everyday Genius
october 16–october 20
Books
- Thomas M. Disch, 334
- Julio Cortázar, All Fires the Fire (trans. Suzanne Jill Levine)
- Tan Lin, plagiarism/outsource / , Notes Towards the Definition of Culture / ,Untilted Heath Ledger Project / , a history of the search engine / ,disco OS
- Tove Jansson, Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip, Book 4
- Apostolos Doxiadis & Christos H. Papadimitriou, Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
Films
- An Education, directed by Lone Scherfig
- Olympia, dir. Leni Riefenstahl
- Die Macht der Bilder: Leni Riefenstahl (The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl), dir. Ray Müller