Tuesday, May 31, 2005


IMG_0294, originally uploaded by Shrez.

Cesar Chavez Street, East Austin. April 2005.

Monday, May 30, 2005

Quotes: Simplify

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. -Hans Hofmann, painter (1880-1966)

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Art: The Modern - Fort Worth

Visited The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. A beautiful building designed by Tadao Ando. They had a Dan Flavin Retrospective. I did not expect to like it, but was moved by the play of color and light. I really liked this Robert Irwin piece - pure use of light and space - the photo does not do it justice.

Friday, May 27, 2005

Music/Film: Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts

I read about this DVD set - Leonard Bernstein's Young People' Concerts - in this week's New Yorker. A good intro to classical music.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Art: HRC Spring Exhibitions

I have not spent much time at the UT Harry Ransom Center. It has an amazing archive for scholars and has interesting exhibitions. I saw three today:
Place: Photographs of Environment and Community
A succinct and well curated exhibit of photos. "Operating between pure portraiture and pure landscape, these photographers' imaginative responses to their subjects could be called "cultural landscapes" or "environmental portraits." Many of my photos could fit into this category.
"In Flight": The Guild of Book Workers Presents Wright Brothers Exhibition
I took a book binding class many years ago and it really made me appreciate the incredible art and craft of the books created for this exhibit.
Images of the World: Maps, Globes and Atlases & The Muse in Motion: Travel Literature through the Centuries
By the time I got to these last two exhibits, I was tired and skimmed through most of it. I will need to go back and see them again.

Saturday, May 21, 2005

Movies: Anthony Lane's review of Star Wars

Anthony Lane slams the new Star Wars in his New Yorker review. This is too funny:
"Also, while we’re here, what’s with [Yoda's] screwy syntax? Deepest mind in the galaxy, apparently, and you still express yourself like a day-tripper with a dog-eared phrase book. “I hope right you are.” Break me a fucking give."
We need to make a t-shirt with Yoda on it saying - Break me a fucking give. :-D

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Art: An Invisible Street Photographer Gets His Close-Up

Being an artist requires persistence and perseverance. This is an inspiring story from the NY Times about Gary Stochl who took street photos in Chicago from the late sixties and only recently got to show and publish his work.

Music: New Order Live Review

I would love to see New Order live someday.
New Order: Pitchfork Live Review

Wednesday, May 18, 2005


Untitled, originally uploaded by Shrez.

NYC. March 2005.

Quotes: Zeal and charity

Never let your zeal outrun your charity. The former is but human, the latter is divine. -Hosea Ballou, preacher (1771-1852)

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Music: New CD - The Hold Steady

The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday. Chunky guitar riffs, punky attitude and Craig Finn's shouty lead singing - compelling combo but not convinced. A bit to straight-ahead-rock for me.

Zeitgeist: Sniffing Out the Gay Gene

A good opinion piece from today's NY Times about how our sexuality and sense of smell are connected: Sniffing Out the Gay Gene

Friday, May 13, 2005

Quotes: Books are bees

Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind. -James Russell Lowell, poet, editor, and diplomat (1819-1891)

Wednesday, May 11, 2005


Untitled., originally uploaded by Shrez.

NYC. March 2005.

Zeitgeist: Beyond Red vs. Blue - Political Typology questionnaire

Great story on NPR last night: Beyond Red vs. Blue: Redefining the Political Landscape.
I took the Typology questionnaire. Result: Liberal. It fits.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Poetry: The Poet's Handbook

I found this while looking through the Comstock Review site:
A Guide to Submitting,Publishing and Living Poetry

Friday, May 06, 2005

Art (Theater): Stories That Tell vs. Storytelling

Great article on theater from today's NY Times. Excerpts:
"A great man once said, 'The first duty of a storyteller is to tell a story,' and I believe in that wholeheartedly. Or was it, 'The only duty of a storyteller is to tell a story.' " He could be speaking for the playwright. Mr. McDonagh's view of theater is all about the medium, not the message. Here's Katurian again: "I say, keep your left-wing this, keep your right-wing that and tell me a story!" (I've elided one of Mr. McDonagh's trademark expletives.) "No ax to grind, no anything to grind. No social anything whatsoever."
This is a popular idea at a time when many serious artists seem to have ceded the landscape of ideological entertainment to the likes of Mel Gibson and Michael Moore. It is taken for granted that a movie's opening weekend box office, its stylistic allusions to other movies or the potential romantic alliance of its stars are more relevant topics for discussion than any artistic aspirations it might have. The same mindset infects Broadway, now a tag-along, unhip member of the culture clan, on a smaller scale.
But is this a healthy ideal? Entertainment can, after all, aspire to do more than merely serve up narratives diverting enough to keep us hooked for a couple of hours.

Mr. Shanley has an abiding belief that theater, despite its marginal status in popular culture (or, paradoxically, because of it), can illuminate ethical and spiritual questions that are of both immediate and eternal relevance.
This may strike a discordant note in today's self-conscious, irony-saturated cultural landscape, in which sincerity is automatically suspect. The idea that theater should say something, and not necessarily with a smirk, may seem quaintly old-fashioned. It harks back to the ethos of this country's great theatrical moralist, Arthur Miller, whose dramas grappled, sometimes bluntly, with moral questions of immediate currency.
But it derives from an essential truth about the artistic endeavor. Great writers are driven to write to give enduring form to their perceptions about human life and thought, not just because they have a particular knack for prose or dialogue, style or structure. (Although you wouldn't necessarily know this from reading lavishly praised, extravagantly self-conscious novels that get so much ink - and use so much - today.)

Just before it opened off Broadway last fall, Mr. Shanley decided to append a parenthetical phrase to the play's pleasingly trenchant title: it is officially called "Doubt, a Parable." Mr. Shanley wanted to prod audiences to look beyond the play's surfaces, to experience it not merely as a he-said-she-said drama with narrow topical currency, but also as a broader commentary on the state of the cultural and political discourse in America, and indeed on the dangerous human tendency to take refuge in certainty when the truth may be more complicated and elusive.
After the play won the Pulitzer Prize, Mr. Shanley told The Times, "People who have great certainty can be a force of good, but can also be incredibly destructive." And in an essay he wrote for The Los Angeles Times, which now serves as the introduction to the play's published text, he describes the poisonous cultural environment he was reacting against. "We are living in a culture of extreme advocacy, of confrontation, of judgment and of verdict," he wrote.

And yet Mr. Shanley isn't just writing an op-ed piece in theatrical form. The play gets at a deeper, more universal truth. To be in doubt is not comfortable, as anyone can attest who has ever awaited lab results, fretted over a test score or stood vigil over a silent telephone, awaiting a call. It's a psychological itch, and you want to scratch your way to certainty. But it is often the first step on a path to greater spiritual or moral wisdom, a deeper compassion, a breaking free from constricting dogma.

Quotes: Question with boldness

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, then that of blindfolded fear. -Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826)

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Music: ACL Festival

The lineup for the Austin City Limits Music Festival is out today. Wow! Built to Spill, Bloc Party, Coldplay, Wilco, Secret Machines, Arcade Fire, The Doves. So many of my faves!

Window sprite, originally uploaded by Shrez.

Takeshitadori, Tokyo. December 2004.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Music: New CDs - Niyaz, The Ponys

Niyaz - A great blend of Indian, Iranian and electronic music. Azam Ali, the singer, was born in Iran, grew up in India and then moved to the US. This CD hits the spot for me.
The Ponys: Celebration Castle - The jury is still out on this one. Need to give it a couple more listens. A blend of post-punk and garage. Hmmmm....

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Quotes: Friction and art

I read this in Naomi's preface to What Have You Lost?
"The things that cause you friction are the things from which you might make art."

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Books: Marjane Satrapi's new graphic novel

I picked up Satrapi's new graphic novel - Embroideries - from Book People.