I was writing a note to someone, iTunes had been playing Bach, and this song came on. The aching beauty of it grabbed me. Wynton Marsalis, Yesterdays, Standard Time, Volume 3
I’m listening to Jakob Dylan’s album, Seeing Things. Up On The Mountain, in part: Oh, here it comes and there it goes The unbearable sound of the earth making men out of boys First you learn and then you’ll teach About that bright, bright light Making its way On up the mountain night and day [...]
Vic Chestnutt died. He was in a coma after having taken on overdose of muscle relaxants. The NY Times obituary didn’t say if the overdose was purposeful or accidental. I’m thinking that it was probably more the former than the latter. Mr. Chesnutt had a cracked, small voice but sang with disarming candor about a [...]
I didn’t really understand what contempt was until it was explained to me in this piece on Slate. Now that I understand it, I have contempt only for Ron Rosenbaum. Which brings me to Billy Joel—the Andrew Wyeth of contemporary pop music—and the continuing irritation I feel whenever I hear his tunes, whether in the [...]
This is one of the most remarkable collections of pictures I have ever seen. The Big Picture – Boston.com Of all of the pictures, this the one I like the most. The drip of blood, wet, expectant, on the old man’s hand captures me. What is the story? I don’t know. It is a confrontation [...]
60% of the world’s art comes from China. Most of it is reproductions of major works. Dafen is a village surrounded by the thriving metropolis of Shenzhen, and the origin of most of the world’s reproduction oil paintings. In the popular imagination Dafen’s artists produce anonymous works for unknown customers, operating no differently than a [...]
Lottolab.org is a pretty fun site. R. Beau Lotto is a researcher at the University College London and has created some interesting illusions, among other things. The illusions can be found via a link on the front page. See the website for the version that works.
SIFF has the Werner Herzog film, “Rescue Dawn“. It stars Christian Bale as Dieter Dengler, a pilot shot down on his first mission in Vietnam. It was a rather conventional movie; I didn’t know that Werner Herzog knew how to make those. I have seen many Werner Herzog films over the years, and he seems [...]
For those who don’t know, ’419′ is the term used to describe the phony email games run by Nigerians to con people out of money. A guy in England, reverses the scam with hilarious results. Check them out: 419 Eater
Before creating the television show, The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin wrote the movie, The American President. It is one of my favorite movies. The penultimate scene is at the end of the movie were President Shepherd faces down his critics. From link: INT. THE PRESS BRIEFING ROOM – EARLY MORNING ROBIN is on her last [...]