There are so many things about being horizontal that are worthy of praise. Look at what great things can happen in the supine position: Sex. Sleep. Meditation. And inspiration, something I came to understand from a novelist friend. While writing a complex trilogy, she would lie down whenever the direction wasn’t clear. In that position, […]
Month: August 2009
Lean Out a Window
Just Thinking Got up on a cool morning. Leaned out a window. No cloud, no wind. Air that flowers held for awhile. Some dove somewhere. Been on probation most of my life. And the rest of my life been condemned. So these moments count for a lot – peace, you know. Let the bucket of […]
(Still) Lovin’ Rocco (Part 2)
Transgressives like me are always pleased when the political masks drop and the truth spills out, unencumbered by cautious, diplomatic strategery (thank you George Bush for one of my favorite neologisms). But there are cooler and more sagacious heads who point out that candor can be dangerous in worlds where egos have no check. One […]
Lovin’ Rocco
Rocco Landesman (Damon Winter/The New York Times) Straight talk. That’s in shorter supply in the Obama administration than a lot of us had hoped. And by that I mean straight as in right at ya rather than around, over or not at all. But newly-installed head of the National Endowment for the Arts Rocco Landesman […]
Hesse in the Beyond
Eva Hesse. She’s one of those artists in the Influencer Pantheon who just keeps giving. Her work lights up my dashboard again and again. And how I wish I were going to be in Edinburgh in October rather than November—50 works by Hess, never before seen in public, are being featured in a show as […]
Best Year Ever
The Economist’s More Intelligent Life conducted an online poll asking the question, What was the most important year in human history? The winner as of right now is 1439, the year Gutenberg invented the printing press. Here’s the list as it currently stands. BTW, it isn’t too late to cast your vote, which you can […]
Tuttle Therapy
Richard Tuttle, artist and wisdom worker From time to time I have observed how protracted, focused work in the studio can leave me feeling a particular kind of tightness. It could be described as a slow motion contraction that has moved me away from that elemental sense of expansion and playfulness that should always be […]
Brought to You as a Public Service
Recently while exercising I caught part of a fascinating program on the Food Network. A hyper-energized host travels the world getting the inside scoop on how food items get packaged. In my short viewing I saw the packaging facilities for bubblegum-filled lollipops, champagne and my favorite, multi-colored popsicles. (Who knew a garishly colored rocket-shaped frozen […]
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Narrative or Episodic, or Both
Falling water: Is it narrativistic or episodic? An excellent article by Lee Siegel (author of Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob) appeared in the Wall Street Journal. At first blush it may seem to be yet another Robert Benchley “pick one” dichotomous probe (It was Benchley of the Round […]
Cooper-Hewitt Update
Palace, by Janice Arnold (All photos courtesy of the Cooper Hewitt Museum) At the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York, two excellent exhibits: Fashioning Felt, a show that is much more than fashion, fabric or costuming the body. Wool felt is the earliest textile fabric known, and some samples found date back to the Bronze […]