Heard it through the grapevine today that the Russellman will be doing a 2-day show in November. Not sure if I wanna make the performance, but it’s really tempting since the 1st one I attended some time in 06 was humour par excellence. But still, the $119 pricetag smack on the ticket ain’t something to [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘People’
July 23, 2008
I Want A Hero: An Uncommon Want – Byron
Kudos to Nolan, for such a glorious interpretation and Ledger for a frightfully accurate portrayal. Could any other anti-hero be as unpretentious, contagious, anarchic, veracious, diabolical and tragic all at one go?
After an entire childhood of Bob Kane worship, all I can say is: Finally!
“All art is at once surface and symbol.
Those who go beneath [...]
May 27, 2008
Guitar Hero
Sometime in the early part of the year, with a stiff resolution to do my bit for the National Reading Campaign, I purchased the much-awaited-most-talked-about autobiography of the century. Wait. Ok, I’m exaggerating. Well maybe not that much-talked about, and definitely not that much-awaited; and autobio of the century is stretching the canvas more [...]
April 26, 2008
The Birth of Tragedy
W.S. begins 26 April 1564
Only remember. Nothing else.
What is understood, need not be discussed.
April 12, 2008
A Simple Desultory Philippic
Good
In his current residency at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Saint Simon has blanketed April with Love in Hard Times, a month-long melodic chutney featuring a bunch of artists (and him) spewing out 3 musical constellations from the chunk of his career: Songs from The Capeman. Under African Skies. American Tunes.
Bad
I don’t live in [...]
April 9, 2008
Forest of Walls
Drops out of Madison High.1885
Works for Allan Conover, the University of Wisconsin.
Swallows two semesters of civil engineering.
Chicago beckons.1887
Drafts the construction of Unity Chapel, the first building.
Apprentices under Louis Sullivan.
Theorizes. “Form and Function Are One.”
Marries Catherine Tobin. Raises 5 children.
Unleashes his firm. Chicago. 1893
Early works spew unique style:
Horizontal. Basement-less attic-free
Natural materials never painted
Low-pitched rooflines, yawning overhangs
Unbroken [...]
April 8, 2008
Blue Period
He moves, under the late afternoon sky, through the lush green expanse of the quiet park perfumed with the burnt brownish aroma of the earth and dotted with the sparkle of flowers and vegetables that he picks often for the kitchen or studio. He savours this habitual pastime, taking the midday air in the still [...]
March 14, 2008
Cu Huy Can
Been mucking and digging about to find some translations of the works by the great Vietnamese poet Cu Huy Can, and I fortunately managed to stumble upon one. Entitled “Sorrowful”, the poem languishes in its own brilliance, and is undeniably a southeast asian answer to Yeats and Neruda. Finger’s crossed on a Ho Chi Minh bookshop that carries his collected works.
Sorrowful
As the late sun [...]
March 7, 2008
Uncle Ho
Known to many as the rather humble Uncle Ho (blame it on the bush jacket and cheap sandals), the great revolutionary and his band of tattered fighters were the first to kick against the pressures of french colonist revival and the nixonites. Strangely, French and American forces assumed weakness of its enemy; while Ho Chi [...]
February 29, 2008
Music & Lyrics
Been racing through the master’s new book hoping to unravel some clandestine element in each of the songs. Remarkably, he discloses quite a bit on the history and background of his collected works, commenting as well on the mood of the times and the various ideologies surrounding the compositions. Some commentaries are startlingly strange. For [...]
