Monday, July 12, 2010
Book Accidents
I wonder how many Columbia University library books accidentally end up on the subway tracks of the 116th stop on the 1 line.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Literary life...
I recently came across a brief autobiographical essay by Elif Batuman, a lecturer in literature at Stanford University:
Confessions of an Accidental Literary Scholar
I admire her ability to stay true to what felt right to her, as a developing writer and scholar of literature, and not to take for granted the steps one is "supposed" to take to become a writer (e.g., get an MFA, go to writers colonies, etc)...of course, I am sure part of my fondness for this essay also stems from my shared love of Russian literature (which I recently started studying) and my own budding career in higher education (well, "budding career" might be a bit excessive, but I sure do love spending time in the libraries of the campus where I work).
Confessions of an Accidental Literary Scholar
I admire her ability to stay true to what felt right to her, as a developing writer and scholar of literature, and not to take for granted the steps one is "supposed" to take to become a writer (e.g., get an MFA, go to writers colonies, etc)...of course, I am sure part of my fondness for this essay also stems from my shared love of Russian literature (which I recently started studying) and my own budding career in higher education (well, "budding career" might be a bit excessive, but I sure do love spending time in the libraries of the campus where I work).
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
William Kentridge
Went to a lecture given by the South African artist William Kentridge at Cooper Union's Great Hall last night, took some notes. Here are a few Kentridge gems:
-Kentridge's own term for his rudimentary stop-motion animation technique is "Stone Age Filmmaking."
-Kentridge is attempting to make work that reminds us "what it is we do when we see."
-"An artist talking about philosophy is like a drunk going on and on about a theory."
-The concept of mistranslation: things that get lost lost as images are transferred and shared...it's about the gaps, the things that go wrong...our memory.
-Goal: to make an image that is elusive of rational explanation.
-"Like connoisseurship, both forensics and psychoanalysis rely on the details as the key to solve problems."
-"Masks actually do not work as expected: instead of focusing on the mask, we focus on the movements of the body around the mask."
-"Holding onto possibilities even if they can't or won't seem to be is what gives us hope in the world."
-"It's not fair for artists to blame bad work on theory that came first."
-Kentridge's own term for his rudimentary stop-motion animation technique is "Stone Age Filmmaking."
-Kentridge is attempting to make work that reminds us "what it is we do when we see."
-"An artist talking about philosophy is like a drunk going on and on about a theory."
-The concept of mistranslation: things that get lost lost as images are transferred and shared...it's about the gaps, the things that go wrong...our memory.
-Goal: to make an image that is elusive of rational explanation.
-"Like connoisseurship, both forensics and psychoanalysis rely on the details as the key to solve problems."
-"Masks actually do not work as expected: instead of focusing on the mask, we focus on the movements of the body around the mask."
-"Holding onto possibilities even if they can't or won't seem to be is what gives us hope in the world."
-"It's not fair for artists to blame bad work on theory that came first."
Monday, December 7, 2009
24 Nov 2009
This image is unfinished...but it has remained unfinished for two weeks now, so I think it's time to move on and post it as is. I originally intended for there to be text in this drawing.
This is the final image for this round of the Daily Drawing Project.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Tradition!
Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and, like last year, I will be spending the day feasting on delicious food at my significant other's parents' house in Long Island.
This year I have a hankering to bring a little LaSota to the table. I won't be celebrating any part of the Thanksgiving weekend with my own blood relatives (a rarity, considering it's my mom's favorite holiday), so I'm going to bring a little of my own tradition to the dinner table tomorrow, gonna represent LaSota style.
And so...I just made my first Spinach Casserole (yes, it deserves to be capitalized). A staple at LaSota holiday dinners, the Spinach Casserole was, I believe, devised as a way to get kids to eat vegetables. The Spinach Casserole, you see, does not taste like vegetables. This is due to a careful (over-)cooking process whereby all nutritional value is squeezed out of several packages of frozen chopped spinach, which is then blended harmoniously with sour cream and dry onion soup mix, then topped off with plenty of butter and bread crumbs and parmesan cheese.
Yum.
Gourmet it ain't, but tradition it is. Yummy tradition.
This year I have a hankering to bring a little LaSota to the table. I won't be celebrating any part of the Thanksgiving weekend with my own blood relatives (a rarity, considering it's my mom's favorite holiday), so I'm going to bring a little of my own tradition to the dinner table tomorrow, gonna represent LaSota style.
And so...I just made my first Spinach Casserole (yes, it deserves to be capitalized). A staple at LaSota holiday dinners, the Spinach Casserole was, I believe, devised as a way to get kids to eat vegetables. The Spinach Casserole, you see, does not taste like vegetables. This is due to a careful (over-)cooking process whereby all nutritional value is squeezed out of several packages of frozen chopped spinach, which is then blended harmoniously with sour cream and dry onion soup mix, then topped off with plenty of butter and bread crumbs and parmesan cheese.
Yum.
Gourmet it ain't, but tradition it is. Yummy tradition.
Monday, November 23, 2009
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