Saturday, December 31, 2005

Art: Mumbai Mirror


I got interviewed while I was in Jehangir Art Gallery.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Zeitgeist: Everybody's An Expert

From the recent New Yorker - an excellent article about punditry - Everybody's An Expert by Louis Menand.
Excerpt:
Tetlock uses Isaiah Berlin’s metaphor from Archilochus, from his essay on Tolstoy, “The Hedgehog and the Fox,” to illustrate the difference. He says:
Low scorers look like hedgehogs: thinkers who “know one big thing,” aggressively extend the explanatory reach of that one big thing into new domains, display bristly impatience with those who “do not get it,” and express considerable confidence that they are already pretty proficient forecasters, at least in the long term. High scorers look like foxes: thinkers who know many small things (tricks of their trade), are skeptical of grand schemes, see explanation and prediction not as deductive exercises but rather as exercises in flexible “ad hocery” that require stitching together diverse sources of information, and are rather diffident about their own forecasting prowess.

Friday, December 02, 2005

Art: Karkhana


I read about this collaborative group of artists - Karkhana - in the NY Times. I am smitten by their work especially since I recently got an art piece by the Austin collborative art group Sodalitas and also because Mughal and Persian minature paintings are familiar to me. Here is the the press release from the exhibition at the Aldrich museum. And here a series of images that shows how each work progressed through the hands of each artist.

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Books: Saturday by Ian McEwan (book club)

The second book for book club was very good - Saturday by Ian McEwan. Great writing - a finely detailed observation of human thought. Excerpt:
"Just like the digital codes of relicating life held within DNA, the brain's fundamental secret will be laid open one day. But even when it has, the wonder will remain, that mere wet stuff can make this bright inward cinema of thought, of sight and sound and touch bound into a vivid illusion of an instantaneous present, with a self, another brightly wrought illusion, hovering like a ghost at its center. Could it ever be explained, how matter becomes concious?"

Art: This Whitney Biennial Will Take In the World

A good article from the NY Times about the upcoming Whitney Biennial 2006. Excerpt:

"Another first claimed by the museum is that this year's biennial, which is to open on March 2, has a title: Day for Night.
It is inspired by the English title of François Truffaut's 1973 film, "La Nuit Américaine," which became famous for using a cinematic technique of shooting night scenes during the day by using a special filter. The title was chosen to reflect the kind of restless, in-between moment that the curators believe defines art now - somewhere between day and night, when work may be irrational, religious, dark, erotic or violent."

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Quote: Kindness

When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people. -Abraham Joshua Heschel, theology professor (1907-1972)

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Art: East Austin Studio Tour

EAST is growing with 76 studios and about 100 artists. I visited:
Archaic
Fisterra Studio
Ginko Studios
Kala Fine Art
Slugfest Print Studio
Flatbed Press
Bolm Studios
Sodalitas
Splinter Group
Art Palace (Ali Fitzgerald)

Friday, November 18, 2005

Music: New CDs - Laika


A discovery I made on the 3hive music blog - Laika. A combination of trip hop and jazz with fine female vocals. Athmospheric and layered.
Good Looking Blues
Wherever I Am, I Am What Is Missing

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Quote: Life and art

If you want to work on your art, work on your life. -Anton Chekhov, short-story writer and dramatist (1860-1904)

Monday, November 14, 2005

Art: To Ask and How to Ask: Those Are the Questions

A good article from the Times about fundraising for the arts (and other non-profits).
To Ask and How to Ask: Those Are the Questions

Technology: If Books Are on Google, Who Gains and Who Loses?

A good article from yesterday's NY Times that discusses Google Print and the (non) controversy around it.
If Books Are on Google, Who Gains and Who Loses?

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Poetry: Orr on Keillor - Elitism vs. Popluism

Excerpt from Hit Parade by David Orr on Garrison Keillor's new anthology: Good Poems for Hard Times.
"But great poets often produce mediocre work, bad poets can be surprisingly good, and very good poets are frequently no better than consistently above average - all of which is to say that it's far more difficult to isolate "great poetry" than Kleinzahler (and most critics) might like to believe. We're forced to live with a chaos of styles and a muddle of best guesses. This makes everyone uncomfortable; we're much happier when we can have well-worn arguments about populism and elitism, about Good Poems and High Brows. But what Elizabeth Bishop once said about knowledge may be equally said of poetry itself; that it is "dark, salt, clear, moving, utterly free"; not a sure matter of sides, but a fleeting balance of currents. The best we can do - the best we have ever been able to do - when faced with the words "Good Poems" in a book's title, is to turn the page hoping to say yes they are, or yes they were, or yes (believe it or not) they will be."

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Friday, November 11, 2005

Art: AMOA Tom Lea & Dr. Seuss

New exhibit at AMOA: Remember When Storytelling Mattered - Tom Lea and Dr. Seuss.
I liked one ink on paper work by Tom Lea. The rest was not to my taste - southwestern.
Dr. Seuss - endlessly creative, inventive, humorous and serious. I will need to go back and see the works again.

Thursday, November 10, 2005


IMG_0488.JPG, originally uploaded by Shrez.

Austin, TX. 9th and Colorado. July 2005.

Friday, November 04, 2005

Art (Theater): Americamisfit


Salvage Vanguard's new play - Americamisfit - by Dan Dietz.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Quote: Fanatic doubt

When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kind of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt. -Robert T. Pirsig, author and philosopher (1928- )

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Technology: I want to - page of utilities

I want to - a page of utilities that help you do stuff you want to.
(Found it on 43 folders)

Monday, October 31, 2005

Technology: Meet the Life Hackers

A very good article - Meet the Life Hackers - from the Sunday NY Times about how we can use "interruption technology" to improve productivity at work. A good website in the mentioned in the article - 43 Folders - gives life hacks: useful tips to make life more productive and less stressful.

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Art: Architect Tonic - Gallery 2040

The 2040 Gallery in Austin opened their season with "Architect Tonic" a show of works celebrating the merging of art and architecture. Mo Scollan, the gallery director, picked four Austin artists whose work addresses architecture, each one in their unique way: Margaret Henkels, Roi James, David Leonard and the art collaborative Sodalitas. The show was a coming out party for Peter Dick, an architect (and her husband) who will use part of the 2040 gallery as his new office.
I will be reviewing this show for the December issue of Voices of Art magazine.

Friday, October 28, 2005


IMG_0328, originally uploaded by Shrez.

MLK and Guadalupe. Austin, TX. May 2005

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Books: Book club - Kite Runner

Our first book club - Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. A poorly written book that clobbers you with a wooden, hackneyed plot. It is a somewhat compelling story that generated some good discussion. It is a bestseller because US readers post-9/11 were hungry to read a personal story about Afghanistan.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Quotes: Poetry (Frost - 2)

I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering. -Robert Frost, poet (1874-1963)

Friday, October 21, 2005

Quotes: Poetry (Auden)

Another good poetry quote in this weeks AWAD:
Poetry is the clear expression of mixed feelings. -W.H. Auden, poet (1907-1973)

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Technology: Google map hacks (NY Times Circuits article)

A good article about all the nifty things people are doing with Google Maps: A Journey to a Thousand Maps Begins With an Open Code

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Technology: Categories in Blogger

Yay! I found a way to add categories in Blogger thanks to Orangewise (Read about it on FreshBlog).

Quotes: Poetry (Frost)

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words. -Robert Frost, poet (1874-1963)

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Art: AMOA symposium

Attended a symposim at AMOA to discuss how Austin fits into the context of the broader art scene.
Self Portrait: Austin Art in Local, National, and International Contexts

Art: Openings - Lora Reynolds & Art Palace

Lora Reynolds Gallery - Suspended Narrative. Group show including a piece by Jason Singleton who is in 22 to Watch. Some of the pieces were impenetrable to me. A very nice gallery.
Art Palace Gallery - Sterling Allen (in 22 to Watch) and Jonathan Marshall.

Friday, October 14, 2005

Technology: The Long Tail

Gary Chapman talked about The Long Tail at a Leadership Roundtable: The Future of Media. Janet sent me this link to the Long Tail blog.

Monday, October 10, 2005

Technology: Folksonomy

A good article in the NY Times: 'Folksonomy' Carries Classifieds Beyond SWF and 'For Sale'
Three websites mentioned:
del.icio.us
43 Things
Pledge Bank

Design: Office 12 - Results Oriented UI


Today's Alertbox article is about MS Office 12's new Results Oriented UI. I like the approach of providing features based on the context of the work you are doing.

Friday, October 07, 2005

Music: My Morning Jacket

My Morning Jacket - Z
I was not sure about this one; their other albums were southern rock. But this album is a genre hopping distillation of the last 30 years of music with hints of 60s pop, 70s rock, electronic effects and great melodies. The album art is awesome too.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Happy Birthday


36 today. I have a feeling it will be a good year. Got this great personalized street-art birthday e-card from Theresa.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Quotes: Vocations

Vocations which we wanted to pursue, but didn't, bleed, like colors, on the whole of our existence. -Honore de Balzac, novelist (1799-1850)

Monday, October 03, 2005

Art: Learning to Love You More

Peter told me about this collaborative art web site - Learning To Love You More - when I mentioned Taxi Journal to him.

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Friday, September 30, 2005

Quotes: Simplicity

"If I had more time, I would write a shorter letter." Pascal (mathemetician)
Came across this in The Art of Project Management that we have been taking excerpts from to discuss in our staff meetings.

Books (Comics): TinTin in India


Keiko sent me this article about the release of Hindi TinTin videos in India. Yaay for TinTin - my childhood favorite. It is so neat to see the TinTin covers with Devnagri script.

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Poetry: Reading list

Just got through reading:
CK Williams - Repair (Excellent. Almost every poem has to do with repair - emotional, mental, physical)
Poetry Magazine - Sept issue (The first three poems were by CK Williams, so I picked it up. Read a great essay in it too. Convinced me to subscribe. Quality poetry.)
Just started:
Vijay Seshadri - The Long Meadows (He wrote the poem in the New Yorker 9/11 issue and I have been meaning to read more of his work. Enjoying it so far.)
On the shelf:
Jeet Thayil - English (I think I saw an excellent interview Thayil did of Seshadri and so thought I would get his book.)
Vandana Khanna - Train to Agra (Not sure how I found this one, but wanted to read an Indian American poet won a first book prize. Get a sense for where I can possibly find a niche for getting my work published.)
Charles Wright - Black Zodiac (I remember reading a poem by Wright in Pushcart Prize in the mid-nineties and being blown away by how long, full and rich it was. Inspired me to write my Lawrence to NYC poem. Saw this book in Davis and picked it up.)
Aimee Nezhukumatathil - Miracle Fruit (Recently submitted to Tupelo Press and saw this book on their website. I was smitten by her poems - sensual, physical. Can't wait to read more.)

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Poetry: Tupelo Press - letter from editor


WOW! I submitted my manuscript to Tupelo Press a few weeks ago and got this very encouraging letter from the editor. I am very excited. Fuel!!

Saffron and Blue is a compelling first manuscript. I was especially taken with the vivid language and seriousness of purpose tinged with human fallbilities demonstrated in poems like Return, Cadence, His Passing (brilliant last line), and The Beach on Sunday. But really, there are many other fine poems, and it is clear you're a gifted at this thing you love. Thanks so much for sending it to our open reading period. Your poems gave me great pleasure.
Unfortunately, I'm not able to take your manuscript at this point, but I urge you to resubmit the manuscript to our Dorset Prize and/or the next first book competition. If you remind me at that time, your manuscript will automatically pass beyond the first round of readings.
In other words, please let me see the manuscript again.
Sincerely yours,
Jeffrey Levine

Quotes: Stay Hungry! Stay Foolish!

Stay Hungry! Stay Foolish!
Steve Jobs at 2005 Stanford commencement
I think I got the stay hungry part some of the time but not enough of the stay foolish.

Monday, September 26, 2005

Music: ACL Fest Day 3 (9/25)


A scorcher of a day. 105, no wind and lots of dust. At least it was not humid. And I made my daily stop at Barton Springs which made a huge difference - cooled off, cleaned off.

Doves - They became on of my fave bands a couple years ago with their masterpiece - Lost Souls - a gem of a mood piece. Their live show did not disappoint. The drummer had this curious tic of raising his eyebrows every other beat - funny to see.

Arcade Fire - Another highly anticipated indie favorite. An energetic and enjoyable set of songs with the crowd singing along on most of them.

Wilco - When I saw them last year, I was moved - the songs pulling out emotions that had been overlaid with weeks of apathy. This year it did not have the same impact - I am in a different emotional place. Jeff Tweedy was a lot more talkative and was truly happy to be playing at the festival. It was refreshing to see. This year the standout song was Spiders (Kidsmoke) which was suprising since I don't like this song a whole lot - too much rambling and repetition - but it was so much more focused.

Coldplay - At the risk of gushing and damaging my puffed-up indie cred, I will say that this show was awesome. Chris Martin pushed all the right buttons. He is a great performer and the crowd loved him. This was an arena-concert worthy performance. I sang along to every song like so many others around me. I realize now that their new album is built for arena concerts. The first two were softer, more complex.

(Photo from ACL website)

Music: ACL Fest Day 2 (9/24)


Built to Spill - 2:30 in the afternoon and the crowd was thin, but BTS played an incredible show. Most of the songs were from the last two albums. In addition to Doug Martsch on guitar, there were two other guitarists. Tight, shredding solos. BTS is a solid indie rock bet - under the guitar heavy shambling are great melodies and a tight rhythm section.

What Made Milwaukee Famous - A last minute addition to the festival after another band did not make it. What luck for local Austinites - WMMF. I have been following them for over a year and really enjoy the unique pop-rock of their self-relased cd - Trying to Never Catch Up. This is their big break (I hope). The opened for Arcade Fire on Friday at the Stubbs aftershow. They split the bill on a taping for the ACL TV show with Franz Ferdinand (!) on Saturday. They played a good show - nervous but they were enjoying themselves.

Bloc Party - Highly anticipated show. What a stylish crew! And Kele Okereke is such a charismatic lead. He made up for a not so tight show - the crowd loved him. They got better towards the end. Does their music not translate that well live or were they just not warmed up?

(Photo from ACL Website)

Music: ACL Fest Day 1 (9/23)


Spoon - Started off ACL this year with a tight show by Britt Daniel and his band. I have been enjoying Gimme Fiction the more I listen to it.

Allman Brothers - A bit of nostalgia for me. I used to have a tape of the Brothers & Sisters album and listened to it quite a bit in college. A very good show (when they were not doing too much guitar solo noodling). A good blend of southern rock, r&b and blues.

Lyle Lovett - I watched part of this show. Lyle is such a unique character. His perfect coif, dry quips and lyrical Texas swing.

(Photo from ACL website)

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Music: Built To Spill Live


An ACL Aftershow at La Zona Rosa. I was too exhausted from ACL Day 2 to really enjoy this show. I was super close to the stage and my ears were throbbing the next day. Note to self - bring earplugs or stand further back. A very different set from what they played at ACL. They played more of their longer songs from Perfect From Now On and songs from earlier albums that I am not as familiar with. Dough Martsch looks like an assistant professor of Slavic languages. He does not look like a rock star. Very unassuming - sings with his eyes closed. He set up his own gear. The three guitar attack was amazing to see up close. They closed the set with an amazing version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
(Photo from BTS website)

Friday, September 23, 2005

Technology: Using Google Earth for Katrina

An Austinite Jason Bollenbacher used aerial photos of Katrina and overlayed them on Google Earth. These images were used by both rescuers and evacuees. A perfect example of the beneficial use of technology.
Full article

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Music: Thievery Corp Live


Thievery Corporation live @ Stubbs.
Great music, great people watching. Music: A veritable buffet of musical genres - reggae, dub, salsa, samba - peppered with good beats. Crowd - a smattering of Indie Kids with their arty t-shirts and disshevelled hair, a clump of jam band enthusiasts with their self stitched skirts, dreads and free-from dancing, and a bunch of clean cut, perfumend and colonged lounge bar regulars with their leather wrist bands, tight designer jeans and shiny white teeth. Yes, it was a feast for the ears as well as eyes. At the end of the show I went to Magnolia and had a Martian Landscape. Perfect!

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Music: New CD - American Analog Set


Got the new AmAnSet CD and have heard about half of it. The first three songs are great - soft drone with the vibraphones plinking beautiful sounds in the back of the mix. This music reminds me of my nature - a man of routine with a heightened awareness of the slight changes in pattern and texture.

Poetry: Why poetry - William Carlos Williams


It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.

- William Carlos Williams; from Asphodel, that Greeny Flower

"...poetry can make our daily existence mean more to us. It can cut through all the distractions and busyness and help us to seize our lives, to be more completely in them."

I got this in a mailing from Poetry magazine. I picked one up after ages when I was in Davis. I am going to subscribe. Top quality poetry and an engaging Letters to the Editor section.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Design: Defunker t-shirts


Defunker - yummy t-shirts by individual t-shirt designers.

Friday, September 16, 2005

Music: M.I.A. Live


Tim, Theresa and I went to La Zona Rosa to see M.I.A. A short but powerful show. She is captivating, beautiful and a great vocalist. She does not just sound good on her CD - she is awesome live. The crowd was so into the show - great vibe all around.

Citizen Reza


I became a citizen today. The ceremony was at the LBJ Auditorium, UT. 354 new citizens from 74 countries. It was a moving ceremony. There was a man sitting a few rows in front of me and he was so excited! - he waved his little flag and clapped at every opportunity. I am very happy, very pleased. I came to the US on August 12, 1987 - 18 years, 1 month and 4 days ago. I feel firmly planted here - it is such a good feeling for the nester in me.
Photo with Officer John Fuentes; he did my citizenship interview/test in San Antonio on July 22nd.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Music: New CD - Hard Fi


I read a review on Pitchfork when I was in Davis over Labor Day and had an immediate hankering. Found an inexpensive EP on half.com and now am looking forward to their CD to being released stateside. A good blend of post-punk and ska - the tunes lodged into my brain right away.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Poetry: The poetry scene in Austin

Scott Pierce pubishes finely made chapbooks - effing press. He aslo has a blog - snapper's junk(boat)heap

And here is a quick take on the poetry scene in Austin by local poet Farid Matuk (whom I met last year at the Round Top Poetry Festival)
Fascicle - Local Poetry news
Austin - Farid Matuk
The Austin area has a couple of graduate creative writing programs through which young poets are siphoned and then expelled. I can tell you a little about the people who make this an interesting place to stay. Hoa Nguyen and Dale Smith run Skanky Possum Press and Magazine. Their reading series takes place at an independent used-book shop called 12th Street Books. Recent readers have included Stefan Hyner and Jim Koller. They also brought down the Arlington-based poet Chris Murray who has since been a frequent visitor and an insightful voice in our conversations. Nguyen also runs a workshop out of her home that has sustained and bettered the work of many interesting locals. Poet and translator Susan Briante curates a reading series called 0 to 60 that features first or second book poets and fiction writers. Using funds from the UT Austin, this series has brought in folks like Renee Gladman, Joshua Clover, and Matthea Harvey for public readings and talks about how they lied, cheated, stole, or worked in order to pay the bills and keep writing until they got teaching gigs or whatever it is they now do. Working in concert with this series is Unibrow, a collective of writers and designers Susan Briante Erin Mayes, and Vince Lozano who create beautiful, graphically innovative broadsides. Scott Pierce runs effing press and only recently folded effing magazine. Pierce concentrates on publishing beautiful chapbooks of great stuff. He'll be doing Tom Clark's new collection soon. Just today I finished reading through the last batch of poems for Borderlands #25. Borderlands is a print journal that's been carried through the last ten years or so by rotating editorial teams. This issue marks the end of my two issue co-editing tenure. My partners were Phil Pardi and Vive Griffith. We're all excited for the arrival of David Hadbawnik, a recent transplant from San Francisco who has brought with him Habenicht Press. Add to these Corrine Lee's Winnow Press and you get a sense of the publishing momentum building in the area. Now entering its fifth year, the Round Top Poetry Festival has brought in folks like Nicky Flynn and Adam Zagagewski. We're hoping to bring in Harryette Mullen and others this spring. It's also worth noting that Austin is home to senior poets Christopher Middleton, recently featured in the Chicago Review and David Wevill, neither of whom can be found drinking and smoking with us.

Poetry: Utter Reading Series

The first time I have attended this series that has been running for a couple years(?). Tonight's event at Book People featured: Farid Matuk, Susan Briante, and Moira Muldoon. It was good to be out among poets and poetry lovers. Fuel.

Friday, September 09, 2005

Art: Deepest Thought on World Tour (collaborative journals)

An article from the NY Times about collaborative journals -
Deepest Thoughts on World Tour. I am going to try and start one of these journals and send it around to friends and acquaintances.
Here are two projects in progress:
Sight Unseen Journals
1000 Journals

Excerpts from article:
The practice of sending a message in a bottle has gone out of fashion, lost to the decline in ocean travel and rise of surer methods of communicating. But the impulse to reach out to strangers has not disappeared. It has lately resurfaced in the form of an elaborate type of Internet-based game.
...
Combining the worldwide reach of the Net with old-fashioned writing, drawing, pasting, wrapping and sending by conventional mail, the traveling journals are modern, loosely organized games of message in a bottle. They offer people a chance to cast out their feelings, their wisdom and their secrets, and in so doing, to ease their loneliness and reach out to worlds beyond their own."There is this belief that the Internet has killed off note keeping, and it's really not true," said Ms. Rothke, a freelance writer and writing teacher who called the combination of the Net and "a notebook floating around" "the best of both worlds."
....
"It is a relatively new phenomenon," said Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, a historian and futurist at the Institute for the Future, a research organization in Silicon Valley. Cyberspace used to be considered an alternate dimension, he said. Now, with the proliferation of cellphones, BlackBerrys and other wireless devices, that alternate dimension has begun to meld with everyday life. "It's a move away from talking about that information as separate from the physical world," Dr. Pang said.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Zeitgeist: Seeking Justice, of Gods or the Politicians

A great article in the NY Times that gives some historical perspective on our reactions to natural disasters. Excerpts:
Recently, the philosopher Susan Neiman argued in "Evil in Modern Thought" that the Lisbon earthquake also destroyed an ancient idea that nature could itself be evil. After Lisbon, she argued, moral evil was distinguished from natural disaster. Earthquakes and floods could no longer be fitted into traditional religious theodicies.But this did not mean, of course, that theodicies faded away.
Ms. Neiman argued that for philosophers theology had been replaced by history. The fates of peoples and nations reflected other forces, and disruptions were given other forms of explanation. Hegel saw history as an evolutionary series of transformations in which destruction was as inevitable as birth. Marx believed other kinds of economic and human laws accounted for destruction and evolution. This mostly left natural disasters for the growing realm of science: if they couldn't be prevented, at least their origins could be understood.
Now though, with the prospect of thousands of dead becoming plausible with reports from New Orleans, other forms of theodicy also taking shape. Much debate is taking place about the scale of human tragedy, about procedures and planning and responsibility. And none of that should be ignored. But it is remarkable how this natural disaster has almost imperceptibly come to seem the result of human agency, as if failures in planning were almost evidence of cause, as if forces of nature were subject to human oversight. The hurricane has been humanized.
Full article

Art: Untitled (Arial Maps #1)










Flying out of Sacramento, 9/6/2005, 5:40pm

Music: New CD - Mylo


Mylo - Destroy Rock & Roll. Yummy sounding 80ish dance electronica by solo artist Mylo.

Monday, September 05, 2005

Books: The Accidental Masterpiece


A new book by the Art editor of the NY Times: The Accidental Masterpice - On the Art of Life and Vice Versa. I am looking forward to reading it and hopefully add some context to my exploration of the arts this year.
Book review.
I bought this book at the Avid Reader while I was in Davis, CA visiting Diane & David.

Friday, September 02, 2005

Art: Curators discover new worlds

The first paragraph of this art review in the NY Times - Wide Open Spaces and Between the Frames - describes so well what a good curator does:
"Like the starship Enterprise, museum curators are supposed to go where no curator has gone before. They can do this with relative ease in temporary exhibitions and also with acquisitions. But the meat of their job lies elsewhere: curators must find unexplored planets in a very familiar galaxy, the artworks in the museum's permanent collection. Like orchestra conductors working with the classical repertory, curators must discover new worlds within existing artworks and till familiar terrain for fresh interpretations."
Full article

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Design: New Lamy Studio pen



Drool. I love fountain pens and I need to add this to my collection - Lamy Studio.

Art: Street art photo blog


Street art photo-blog: Streetsy. I liked this one - comic like.
I have not been out taking pictures of street art for a while. Maybe on my trip to NoCal this weekend.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Technology: Apple & Motorolla iTunes Phone

Announced in today's NY Times and on Apple Insider - a new cell phone collaboration between Apple and Motorolla. To be launched Sept. 7. Can't wait to see what it will look like.

Monday, August 29, 2005

Music/Technology: Garage Rock Meets Garage Critics

An article about pitchforkmedia.com (part of my daily media intake) in todays NY Times. Excerpts:
"The nexus of influence has shifted in the last few years. Destroying someone's career or pulling work from obscurity used to be the province of well-financed mass and trade publications, but now anybody with a voice strong enough to stand out on the Web can have a real impact - and maybe make a couple of bucks in the process. Pitchfork Media is a case in point. Started by Ryan Schreiber in his parents' house in suburban Minneapolis in 1995, Pitchfork (pitchforkmedia.com) has emerged as one of the more important indie music tastemakers in any medium, with 125,000 unique visitors a day and only three full-time employees.
....
The Web is a place where tribe is built and serviced by likeminded folks who thrive on the insiderness of it all. There is a common language, common values and a belief that whatever obsession is being serviced, it is the right one to have."
Full article

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Art: Untitled (Stamps #2)


Postcard series using stamps and fauna inspired drawings (8/27/05)

Art: Untitled (Words #2)


Postcard series using words (8/21/05)

Friday, August 26, 2005

Movies: Spirited Away


This is the third Miyazaki film I have seen - Spirited Away. As always, the animation is detailed and very beautiful.

Music: New CD - Laura Viers & Thievery Corp.


Laura Viers - Year of Meteors
This cd suprised me. I don't usually like singer/songwriters. The lyrics are poetry, her voice is plain but immediate, and I love the use of electronic instrumentation. It makes for a rich listen.
Theivery Corporation - Cosmic Game
I decided not to get this when it first came out, but PK emailed this week to say it was an awesome listen. I agree.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Technology: A Techie, Absolutely, and More

An article from today's NY Times about how techies are becoming "renaissance geeks".

On campuses today, the newest technologists have to become renaissance geeks. They have to understand computing, but they also typically need deep knowledge of some other field, from biology to business, Wall Street to Hollywood. And they tend to focus less on the tools of technology than on how technology is used in the search for scientific breakthroughs, the development of new products and services, or the way work is done.
...
At the same time, the march of computing is rippling across all academic disciplines. Even as computer science students are being encouraged to take more courses outside their major, students in other disciplines are finding more often that they need to use, design and sometimes write computer programs.
Several universities, for example, are developing multidisciplinary courses in "services science." The idea is to combine research in the social sciences, management, engineering and computing to pursue insights, innovations and increased productivity in the huge services sector of the economy, which now employs more than 80 percent of American workers. The University of California, Berkeley will offer a services science graduate course in the coming academic year.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Zeitgeist: Grasping the Depth of Time as a First Step in Understanding Evolution

An excerpt from an article by NY Times editorial observer Verlyn Klinkenborg that gives some perspective on the hot fuss around Intelligent Design:
One of the most powerful limits to the human imagination is our inability to grasp, in a truly intuitive way, the depths of terrestrial and cosmological time. That inability is hardly surprising because our own lives are so very short in comparison. It's hard enough to come to terms with the brief scale of human history. But the difficulty of comprehending what time is on an evolutionary scale, I think, is a major impediment to understanding evolution.
...
That is a lot to absorb and, not surprisingly, many people refuse to absorb it. Nearly every attack on evolution - whether it is called intelligent design or plain creationism, synonyms for the same faith-based rejection of evolution - ultimately requires a foreshortening of cosmological, geological and biological time.
Full article

Music: Amanset Live



Saw American Analog Set live last night at Club de Ville. They played a few songs from the upcoming album - Set Free. The sound was a bit buzzy and there was a lot of talking going on in the crowd. The new songs sound a bit more pop and less drone.

Monday, August 22, 2005

Books: Mideast - popular new genre


An article in today's Statesman - New genre of popular novels focuses on Mideast, Islamic culture. Interesting note towards the end of the article about an Iranian novel - My Uncle Napoleon. Supposedly it is considered an important Iranian novel. I had never heard about it before. Learn something new every day.
"Next year, she says, Modern Library, part of her group, will publish a classic work many consider the most important Iranian novel of the 20th century, "My Uncle Napoleon" by Iraj Pezeshkzad."

Deep Eddy Mile - Team Cloverleaf results

I swam about 30 seconds slower this year - just never got into a good rhythm. I was in the first heat - too early on a Saturday morning. I proudly wore my Team Cloverleaf t-shirt. Jace wrote a hilarious email to sum up the results:

Greetings Team Cloverleaf Comrades!
As expected, Team Cloverleaf crushed the competition in the 2005 Deep
Eddy Mile.
Here are the official results of all TC members in the Marine Amphibious Assault Division:
Jace Graf 22:301.55
Clint Bledsoe 23:29.99 (1st in age group)
Reza Shirazi 24:39.67 (2nd in age group)
Christina de los Santos 24:09.66 (2nd in age group)
Pam LeBlanc* 25:10.07 (1st in age group)
(*New member, pending blood & urine test results.)
As you no doubt noticed on Saturday, there was naturally a great deal of interest in Team Cloverleaf. Many of us were asked to explain our affiliations to the mysterious TC, and how we earned the right to wear such a stylish uniform. In order to maintain our clandestine activities, the Internal Security Committee of the Executive Board recommends that any public discussion of TC be limited to the following statement:
"Team Cloverleaf is a shadowy organization of ancient and controversial origins, comprised of an undetermined number of unidentified individuals who are in league for unspecified, though possibly nefarious, purposes, which allegedly include regular assemblies for
cultic ritual."
And to further insure the ultimate success of our grand mission, the ISC/EC furthermore recommends that all members adopt a code name when discussing TC affairs with other members in public. Therefore, henceforth all female TC members will be known by the code name "Scooter"; all males will be known as "Sparky." You will be notified via the usual encrypted channels of our next rendezvous, at which time we will work on the secret handshake.
Congratulations valiant TC brothers and sisters! All glory and honor to The Team!!!
Jace Graf

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Art: Zak Smith illustrates Gravity's Rainbow


Zak Smith illustrated all 760 pages of Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. An amazing example of words inspiring art; a dialogue between writer and artist.
"Most of the pictures are drawings-- ink on whatever paper was lying around, but there are also paintings (acrylic), photos I took, and experimental photographic processes. I tried to illustrate the passages as literally as possible-- if the book says there was a green Spitfire, I drew a green Spitfire. Mostly, I tried to make a series of pictures as dense, intricate, and rich as the prose in the book. The entire project was shown in the Whitney Museum's 2004 Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary Art and is now in the permanent collection of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis."

Friday, August 19, 2005

Art: 22 To Watch - AMOA


I went for the opening of 22 To Watch at AMOA. Heather is one of the 22 - has a super cool installation in the show using nails, thread and emobroidered engineering drawings. The place was packed with the art gliterati of Austin, so I need to go back and spend time with the art in there.

Poetry: Index of Indian Poetry

Index of Indian poets writing in English since Independence.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Open Water


A great article - Open Water - from today's Statesman XL section on open water swimmers.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Books: Philosopher of Optimism

This article - Philosopher of Optimism Endures Negative Deluge - from today's NY Times reminds me being positive and optimistic is a habit I can adopt and practice.
Quoting from the article:
That foundation, he said, is that human perception is intentional; the pessimists themselves paint their world black.Mr. Wilson has spent much of his life researching how to achieve those moments of well-being that bring insight, what the American psychologist Abraham Maslow called "peak experiences."Those moments can come only through effort, concentration or focus, and refusing to lose one's vital energies through pessimism."What it means basically is that you're able to focus until you suddenly experience that sense that everything is good," Mr. Wilson said. "We go around leaking energy in the same way that someone who has slashed their wrists would go around leaking blood."Once you can actually get over that and recognize that this is not necessary, suddenly you begin to see the possibility of achieving a state of mind, a kind of steady focus, which means that you see things as extremely good."

Monday, August 08, 2005

Quotes: Thoughts

The fingers of your thoughts are molding your face ceaselessly. -Charles Reznikoff, poet (1894-1976)

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Music: New CD - Amadou & Mariam


Amadou & Mariam: Dimanche a Bamako - Every once in a while, there is a world music cd that goes beyond the hackneyed stuff. This has got a great mix of Mali guitar, street voices mixed in, rhythmic vocals and good melody.

Monday, August 01, 2005

Art: Art is beautiful, Nature is sublime


An excerpt from a longer article - Mother Nature's Blockbusters - from today's NY Times.
"The sublime defines our limits as well as our possibilities. Perhaps that is also one difference between museums and natural preserves: museums focus on human possibilities; nature can reveal our limitations. These contrasts may even echo the differences between beauty and the sublime that Edmund Burke once described. Museums are the domain of human beauty; preserves the domain of the sublime. Burke described the sublime as vast, beauty small; the sublime as rugged, beauty smooth.
These realms intertwine, but there is a hunger for the sublime not easily satisfied. Religion may invoke its sensations; pop culture may try to emulate its effects with amplified sound-and-sight spectacles. Great art sometimes achieves it. But wilderness seems to have first claim over the sublime."

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Music: New CDs - Spoon & New Order

After much hemming and hawing, I picked up the new Spoon: Gimme Fiction. This one grows on you after many listens.
Also got New Order: Best Remixes off iTunes (available online only). Can't go wrong with No.

Monday, July 25, 2005

Quotes: Stumble

Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand. -Emily Kimbrough, author and broadcaster (1899-1989)

Friday, July 22, 2005


IMG_0299, originally uploaded by Shrez.

Near the corner of 2nd and Congress. Street art by Matthew Rodrigues. March 2005.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Art: Liebovitz/Kubricht - AMOA


Current show at AMOA
Annie Liebovitz: American Music
Charles Mary Kubricht: Scanning the Grand Canyon
The latter was interesting - engaging you with the massive landscape of the Grand Canyon in a unique way.

Art: New American Talent 20


New American Talent: The 20th Exhibition at Jones Arthouse.

Monday, July 18, 2005

Technology: Marrying the physical and virtual worlds

Article from today's NY Times - Marrying Maps to Data for a New Web Service. Nifty ways of marrying the physical and virtual worlds.

Saturday, July 09, 2005

Movies: Rize


Saw Rize with Theresa, Tim and Marie at Dobie. Documentary by David LaChapelle about dance phenomenon in South L.A. - clowning and krumping. I love that word - krumping.

Friday, July 08, 2005

Movies: Paheli


A Bollywood film - Paheli - based on a folk tale and directed by Amol Palekar who has mostly done art films. Good story - somewhat over the top - but what Bollywood film is not. Made me homesick.

Art: Arthouse space to be renovated

Wow! Arthouse is going to renovate it's space. They have become a fixture in the contemporary art scene in Austin (and Texas). This is a great step forward and a boost for the art scene in Austin. From today's Statesman:
"Arthouse, the statewide contemporary arts organization, is expected to announce today that it has selected the up-and-coming New York-based architecture firm Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis to design a $2.5 million renovation of its building at Seventh Street and Congress Avenue." (full article)

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Music: ACL Fest Schedule released


Woo hoo! The ACL fest schedule is out and I have already marked down the shows I don't want to miss: Built To Spill, Doves, Wilco, Arcade Fire, Coldplay, Bloc Party, Thievery Corp., Allman Brothers, Lylle Lovett.

Monday, July 04, 2005

Austin: Stacy Pool

An article and photo gallery about Stacy pool in today's Statesman. I swim there some days in the winter when Deep Eddy is closed.

Saturday, July 02, 2005

Technology: OQO handheld

Tim has one of these OQO handhelds at work. Nifty - very nifty.

Friday, July 01, 2005

Art: How a Japanese Master Enlightened the West

An article from today's NY Times about an exhibition in Washington: East Meets West: Hiroshige at the Phillips Collection
"Legend has it that mid-19th century French artists discovered the wonders of the Japanese woodcut when they examined papers used to wrap imported Japanese ceramics. Today, looking at the prints of Utagawa Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai, the greatest of Japanese woodcut printmakers, it is hard to fathom that their works could have been viewed as the equivalents of our funny pages.
And it is easy to see how Modernists from Manet to Bonnard could find in the lucidity and technical and formal economy of those Japanese artists inspirational guides for escaping the suffocating conventions of Beaux Arts and Victorian painting.
[It] interweaves the print series that made Hiroshige famous - "The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido" - with paintings from the museum's collection by famous artists like Cézanne, Whistler and Braque, as well as by artists of less sturdy repute like Augustus Tack, Ernest Lawson and Maurice Prendergast.
....
Hardly any of the Western paintings in the Phillips Collection show convey that adventurous feeling of traveling through or into the picture.
That dimension of pictorial and psychic travel was left undeveloped by Western Modernist painting, which has tended to try to arrest the eye and the mind in the empirical here and now. But Hiroshige's kind of narrative did not die out. It flourishes in comic books, graphic novels and animated films that Eastern and Western artists continue to churn out in great volumes, transporting minds all over the world."

Thursday, June 30, 2005

Art/Design: Better Wall


This is a great idea - Better Wall - recycle vinyl banners from museums all over the world and sell it to grace your home.

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Technology: Collaboration for the masses

The democratizing power of the web - Web Content by and for the Masses - an article from today's New York Times.

Monday, June 27, 2005

Books/Poetry: What I am reading

Just bought C.K. Williams' - The Singing and My Alexandria by Mark Doty
Next on the list is Marie Howe's - The Thief
Recently finished Naomi Shihab Nye's - Red Suitcase and Atlantis by Mark Doty
Also finally finished Derek Walcott's - Omeros

Sunday, June 26, 2005

Books: Going Going

Naomi Shihab Nye was at Book People today to read from her new novel for teens - Going Going. It is about Florrie who starts a movement in her family and high school to support local stores. I hope many teens read it and absorb the message. Enough Big Box stores - the local, independent, unique stores need our support. Or each city in the US will look like other cities - nothing distinctive - just a bunch of similar looking stip malls and bix box stores. Yuk!!
By the way - Book People won the Publishers Weekly's Best U.S. Bookseller award for 2005. Book People rocks - Austin is so lucky.

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Movies: Howl's Moving Castle

Amazing Japanense animation - Howl's Moving Castle - by Miyazaki. He also did Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Art: Public art in Austin

An article in today's Austin American Statesman - Catch the Green Wave - about public art in Austin. It mentions Heather's Cracks in the Pavement project.

IMG_0329, originally uploaded by Shrez.

Street art on boarded up Texaco on MLK and Guad. Austin, March 2005.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Music: New CD - Grand National

Grand National: Kicking the National Habit - Brit band; read about them on pitchfork last year, but have not been released in the US yet. Great catchy melodies and 80s sounding stuff.

Saturday, June 11, 2005

Music: Festival Hill opening concert

Diane and I went to Festival Hill for the opening orchestral concert. The concert hall is beautiful; the sound is great. I don't know enough about classical music to understand and appreciate it, so my attention flagged at the concert. It was an enjoyable evening nonetheless. I will return.
W.A. Mozart, Symphony No. 41 in C, K.551 (Jupiter)
Robert Schumann, Symphony No. 3 in E-flat, Op. 97 (Rhenish)
Texas Festival Orchestra conducted by Heiichiro Ohyama

Friday, June 10, 2005

Music: New CDs - Coldplay and Secret Machines

Coldplay - X&Y: To borrow from a recent Pitchfork review - there is some art that you enjoy and some that you admire, but it is rare when you both enjoy and admire a work of art. I both enjoyed and admired Colplay's first album. This album is good - not great. Nothing significant acheived, but a good listen nonetheless.
Secret Machines - The Road Leads Where It's Led: New EP. Still have not given it the requisite three listens - so the jury is still out on this one. Funny that they have Led in the album title. Some of the songs are very Lep Zeppish.

Thursday, June 09, 2005


IMG_0351, originally uploaded by Shrez.

Downtown Austin. April 2005.