This is anecdotal. Still. Think of the significance! A friend told me yesterday that he knows somebody who lives on the Upper West Side whose dog passed away. Rather than being content with this as a fact of life, sad as it is, he asked a South Korean entrepreneur to clone the dog for … Continue reading
On 1/6/2015 3:05 PM, Joachim Frank wrote: . All I know about St. Anne is St. Ann’s Warehouse, now moving into the old Tobacco factory in the DUMBO area. And St. Joachim, purported violator of St. Ann’s virginity, is far from my mind indeed. (Though I wouldn’t mind having a powerful son-in-law. And I don’t … Continue reading
Walking deep into our new property in the Berkshires, 800 feet of it, into the depths of the forest, I found an authentic dream catcher. It is of the no-frills kind, without the fancy spiderweb criss-crossing you see on the ear-ring variety, but it is naturally grown, and on a gigantic scale. It makes you … Continue reading
I confess I’m not a patriot. I don’t fulfill the basic requirements of the trade, which according to our present CIA Director is the ability, and the willingness, to torture people. Of course Obama says “folks” when he refers to people who have been tortured, and Brennan says “enhanced interrogation” when he actually means torture, … Continue reading
The origin of music is in the ether, way above us, accessible only by gifted people. The origin of music is a well-kept secret. To see it one needs to look at a window of a storefront, under an angle, at a particular time of the day. This was my lucky day. . . . … Continue reading
Thanksgiving with friends and family (33 in total) in the Birkshires, with almost a foot of snow. The view from the back of the house is a scene of harmony — I can look at it all day; it puts me into a state of equilibrium. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . My friend Jan died this Easter, I just found out. I’m doubly sad, for one since he passed away, and with him an entire universe filled with his restless energy and his inventions. The other reason is that he stopped responding to my letters more than 10 years ago, … Continue reading
. Athena on the public plaza in Ag. Marina, island of Aegina. A fitting image. Ag. Marina, on the side of the island opposite to the city of Aegina, is the most dilapidated place I found on my recent trip to Greece. It is entirely built in concrete for the tourist industry, the hill a … Continue reading
Whenever I see his name, whenever I see his face, I become incensed. He, the engineer of the old world order, who used bombing as primary tool. For people who have not been around: On his advice the US bombed Cambodia, a country whose main offense was the fact that it had a long border … Continue reading
Remember David Brickman’s blog entitled GET VISUAL? I commented on it when I started this blog. Soon after David suspended his blog. Well, it is back now. These are highly interesting commentaries on visual art that are in the margins of the normal discourse. . . . . . . . . .
During my vacation, just days ago, I sat happily in front of my Mac Air, a machine without moving parts so none can break, when the screen went black and the computer spoke to me no more, nor did it listen or react to touch. The worst that can happen is that all is wiped … Continue reading
A while ago I found the book by John Berger again in my little library, “Ways of Seeing.” Written in 1972, it is a series of essays containing a refreshing demystification of the visual arts, particularly oil painting, established in our Western canon. He has helped me understand the huge step that was taken collectively … Continue reading
This is a true story, as everything, by the way, that has been written here. We have a scale in the bathroom that shows weight in a fancy, electronic way. We’ve had it for four years, and now it ran out of battery power. A quick look with the skew driver revealed a dime-sized battery. … Continue reading
The mutual adaptation of tree and lantern, the way they respect each other’s space, is quite remarkable. It teaches us a lesson of civility, right here in Central Park.
Highland Park, Rochester: there are stunning images of loneliness, but also of self-containment, in early spring. This one reminds me of the picture of the Little Prince standing on his little planet, on the book cover of the story by Saint Exupery. The roots of three large trees are about to split the planet apart. … Continue reading
What makes me wonder if I still belong in this century are two articles, just a couple of days apart, one about the 9-month old baby in Pakistan accused of manslaughter (with a picture showing him being fingerprinted by the police), and the other one the plan, by NASA, to redirect an asteroid (by means … Continue reading
Two magnificent phoenixes (if this is the correct plural), each 100 feet long and made from scrap material, one male and the other female, is on exhibit at St. John’s until next January. The sight of the two birds is overwhelming. How is this vision and its realization humanly possible? We were close to tears … Continue reading
Reflections increase in frequency and intensity as we get older. The life we have lived appears as a discontinuous fabric, which we are trying to mend with acts of memory. To me the beautiful phrase “Lost and found times” alludes to this process of creation or re-creation of a person from many pieces. LOST AND … Continue reading
. Walking along the river I saw this man on a bicycle, face entirely covered by bronze paint under the bicycle helmet. It took me a few seconds to realize, Yes, this must be one of those Statue of Liberty people whom we see on 59th Street near Central Park, and he is on his … Continue reading
I discovered Mimesis, by Erich Auerbach, which is THE authoritative examination of the literature of the Western world. Its subtitle is “The Representation of reality in Western literature,” it was first published in 1953, and it runs over 550 pages of the most wonderful interesting prose. A passage of a text he wishes to analyze … Continue reading
