May 2008
83 posts
The subject of the cover story of this week’s Le Monde magazine is the singer Christophe, who is 62 and has an album coming out in a month. I used to love his songs, particularly “Les Mots Bleus.” Reading the article triggered a wave of memories of growing up in Vietnam, and the languages that formed me. Vietnamese was the language of family and of humor. To this day, my...
Just the song for a cloudy saturday morning. Berry, who sounds a bit like Françoise Hardy and Keren Ann, sings “Mademoiselle.” Apparently the acoustic version is not bad either although I quite like the string arrangement. “Mademoiselle, j’ai des regrets,/Des trucs pas très chics que j’ai faits/Une odeur de rhum/Qui colle aux souliers comme un homme.”
“2,000 images are added every minute to …flicker.com”
– Jackie Wullschlager, in a review of the Tate’s photography show: Street & Studio: An Urban History of Photography. I’ve been pondering the implication of this fact since I read it a week ago. What does it mean to be a photographer today, when the photograph is so ubiquitous, and...
“I’m trying to do something that makes you feel like life is exploding. If...”
– Dutch über-designer Marcel Wanders. A reminder to avoid mediocrity.
Jacob Weisberg left for last night to attend the Hay Festival, the literary festival sponsored by The Guardian in Wales. I am absolutely envious. I wish I could go there. This year’s lineup includes Jimmy Carter, Julian Barnes, Will Self, Ha Jin, Jhumpa Lahiri, Lorrie Moore, Hanif Kureishi, and so many others. Sam Taylor-Wood will also present her short film, “Love You More,”...
Julian, Lily and I went on a Brooklyn adventure this evening. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, which looked magnificent, despite its age, against a clear blue sky, the first we’ve had in a week. We strolled around historic Dumbo and had a picnic (courtesy of Rice takeout) at the park along the East River, where there was a small pebble beach nestled between the Manhattan Bridge and...
Confirmation email and e-ticket here attachedBooking reference : 65986 Your booking has been confirmed. Please print your electronic ticket here attached for check-in.I am going to France to photograph Lynn’s house before she sells it. I am so looking forward to 5 days in the Dordogne.
supernice: I’m headed out to a birdwatching field trip to Prospect Park. I get to ride one of those suh-weet yellow school buses, and walk around in the sunshine. Jealous much? Yes, I’m very jealous. I hope Lily will study birds in second grade next year and I’ll get to do the same.
Julian and I watched The Lives of Others last night. It’s the best movie I had seen in a very long time. The film reminded of the Fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. It was a time of unprecedented optimism in my life. I was living on Thompson Street with Toby, and Tim Burke was visiting from London. We watched the events on TV and were giddy with euphoria. Earlier that year, the...
"Orphan Works" Bill is being voted in the Senate...
This is a law that requires everyone register their works commercially (videos, drawings, photos, writings, etc.) or lose their copyright. Free-lance photographers, writers, illustrators, etc. do not have the resources to register every time they create a piece of work. The “Orphan Works” bill is actually a misnomer. The works that artists create rightfully belong to them and are not...
I had a solitary stroll early this morning at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden under the soft rain. I love the smell of wet earth. And the heady scents of lilacs, honeysuckles, and roses, all of which are in bloom. I wished I could have shared that pleasure with Dad. He would have loved the majestic old trees, especially the ancient oak with its sturdy branches spreading over thirty feet.
Today my banker gently told me that I wouldn’t be able to retire on my retirement fund. This confirmed my long-held suspicion that I would never be able to retire. Sigh…
I got an A in my History and Theory of Landscape Design class! Yippee! I can’t believe I am a student again.
“…nothing is making people realise the reality of climate change more than...”
– Phil Woolas, UK environment minister. When I was in the Hamptons, the place was buzzing with landscape companies’ trucks and the deafening roar of lawnmowers keeping all those gardens immaculately manicured. Environmental concern seemed like some exotic foreign concept in that part of the...
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
– Michael Pollan’s mantra on the way one should approach food. I am reminded of this today when I read an article in the New York Times about the looming famine in Africa. The article includes a picture of a young Somali mother of five who hadn’t eaten in 7 days. Suddenly the sumptuous...
“It’s important — even kind of exhilarating — for women to...”
– Barbara Ehrenreich, speaking of Hillary Clinton. Ehrenreich has been a champion of women’s issues for decades. I got to know her when I was an intern at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC years ago and have been following her work ever since.
“We’re not here to dilute the world,”
– English painter Frank Auerbach. I jotted this down on a little piece of paper when I when saw his show in London years ago. Just came across it again this morning. 