Fodder: Voltaire December 20, 2010

“I’ve wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but I still love life. That ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our most pernicious inclinations. What could be more stupid than to persist in carrying a burden that we constantly want to cast off, to hold our existence in horror, yet cling to it nonetheless, to [...]

Fodder: Kerouac July 30, 2010

A line from my diary: “We are sealed in our own little melancholy atmospheres, like planets, and revolving around the sun, our common but distant desire.” Jack Kerouac to Allen Ginsberg, August 1945

Fodder: Beckett June 28, 2010

“The only thing that separates the writer from others—and, far from making him or her a better or wiser person, let alone a more amenable one, as it redoubles the force of solitude, ‘one’s ultimate hard irreducible inorganic singleness’—is that the reading of a poem, or the pondering of a Crucifixion, becomes an event. Not [...]

Fodder: Blake June 10, 2010

“He whose face gives no light shall never become a star.”

Mamma Mia! April 8, 2010

O, hello, Mia Feuer… How did I not know about you before? You’ve been teaching sculpture at American and GMU and somehow managed to slip beneath my amazing-artists-in-DC radar. But now I have found you, and I will be a devout follower moving forward. This Saturday, the Canadian-born artist will be giving a talk at [...]

Fodder: Richard Bach April 8, 2010

“Some choices we live not once but a thousand times over, remembering them for the rest of our lives.”

Three bells and a flute April 2, 2010

When I was in high school, a good friend snabbed a role in the Seattle Opera’s “Die Zauberflöte,” or The Magic Flute. I never got to see it, but remember reading all these reviews about how it was the best children’s opera, how beautifully done, how simple. Tonight, at The Met, I got a chance [...]

Under and beside the sea April 1, 2010

The other night I went to see a documentary about the animation department at Disney called “Waking Sleeping Beauty.” It details the tumultuous time period for the sector between the years of 1984 to 1994, and shows how films like The Little Mermaid and The Lion King brought the company back to life. Now all [...]

Standing, sneaky. March 25, 2010

I really liked Antony Gormley when I was first introduced to his work back in December in London (remember all the little clay people?). His most recent work only further solidifies my belief in him: He’s made 32 life-size fiberglass nude body casts and has placed them all over New York. On sidewalks, rooftops, Madison [...]

Liking Mr. Larmee March 24, 2010

I was reading today about a new graphic novel that is due out by Portland-based 25-year-old artist Blaise Larmee called “Young Lions.” Supported by a prestigious Xeric grant, it’s about a group of hipsters trying to figure things out. While I’m not a huge fan of the story line, I am quite a fan of [...]