Archive: September 2007

• Lit / No room for anything but the old verities in lit, visual · Sep 26, 20:53

  The NYT book blog Paper Cuts recently published a nice entry about William Faulkner’s late-in-life visit to West Point. It reminded me of one of my favorite moments from the (apparently out-of-print) Faulkner Reader: his acceptance speech for the 1949 Nobel Prize.
  Reading it again this afternoon, this portion of his speech seems especially timely and [...]

• 100 Northern California Hiking Trails in lit, outdoors, the ancient past, visual · Sep 18, 22:09

  I stumbled upon a treasure trove of old outdoors books at Iconoclast Books in Ketchum, Idaho this weekend; this one’s from 1970.

  The cover ultimately doesn’t make much difference, but I like this one.

  If only hiking through sun cups like these was as serene and lovely as the photo implies. Also, the introductory text instructs [...]

• Baseball cards / 1960 Topps in baseball, the ancient past, visual · Sep 12, 20:43

  Like lots of stuff, they really don’t make baseball cards like they used to. Halftone action thumbnail! Alternating colors in the player names! Don Drysdale’s coif!

• Clare Rojas at Gallery Paule Anglim in inside art, san francisco, visual · Sep 7, 03:12

  Lots of intriguing stuff at Clare Rojas’s opening at Gallery Paule Anglim tonight. Woodland creatures, naked dudes in tai chi poses, an excellent video of Peggy Honeywell playing a slow sad song at a raging frat party filled with beer bongs and keg stands, Amaze, Barry McGee, and much, much more. Worth it.

  I call this [...]

• Literary blogs / Paper Cuts in lit, tip · Sep 6, 04:00

  I’ve spent a lot time combing through the archives of Paper Cuts, the blog of the New York Times Book Review editor Dwight Garner. It steers clear of smartypantsness, focusing on what one might call the lighter side of serious literature. In fact, most of the content is on the periphery of the strictly literary [...]

• Foto / Modernity in Central Europe in inside art, reviews, visual · Sep 5, 19:20

  When I was in Washington DC last month, I saw an incredible show at the National Gallery called Foto: Modernity in Central Europe 1918-1945. As you may have guessed by the title, the show is photography-oriented, but it’s more than that: It’s a story about photography craft, and the way that European photographers bent, broke [...]

• Cuban cashola in the ancient past, visual · Sep 5, 01:03

  Fidel doing what he does best: Moving the crowd.

  I traveled to Cuba 10 years ago this summer, and I unearthed this 10-peso note when I moved earlier this summer. Coincidence, or a sign that I should return sometime soon?
  When I was there, the official exchange rate was one American dollar to one Cuban peso, [...]

• Just Expect To Be Left Utterly Enraged in flickr, tip · Sep 4, 23:24

  My cozy bed between Herman Miller chairs at Dulles.

  News flash: Air travel really sucks right now (Washington Post). A couple of weeks ago, I too was touched by this national nightmare. On a Friday evening, I planned to fly from Dulles to SFO, but got slapped with an SSSS on my boarding pass (expired driver’s [...]