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."

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)

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)

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

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)

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?

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."

Art: Untitled (river)

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.

IMG_0488.JPG, originally uploaded by Shrez.

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

Art (Theater): Americamisfit

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

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- )

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)