The author of The Catcher in the Rye died of natural causes, his literary representative has said. Salinger was famously reclusive, and his fans hoped for decades that stores of unpublished fiction might be stashed in his New Hampshire home. Click here for more.
Author: mara.ahmed
Muse – United States of Eurasia
muse’s “united states of eurasia” is absolutely spectacular. reminds me of “bohemian rhapsody”. their entire new album is stellar. it’s called “the resistance”.
UNITED STATES OF EURASIA
You and me are the same
We don’t know or care who’s to blame
But we know that whoever holds the reins
Nothing will change
Our cause has gone insane
And these wars, they can’t be won
And these wars, they can’t be won
And do you want them to go on
And on and on
Why split these states
When there can be only one?
And must we do as we’re told?
Must we do as we’re told?
You and me fall in line
To be punished for unproven crimes!
And we know that there is no one we can trust;
Our ancient heroes, they are turning to dust!
And these wars, they can’t be won
Does anyone know or care how they begun?
They just promise to go on
And on and on
But soon we will see
There can be only one
United States!
United States!
Of…
Eurasia!
… sia!
… sia!
… sia!
Panorama: A Walk in the Park Part 1/3
First part of BBC documentary on house demolitions in East Jerusalem.
Wallace Shawn reads Howard Zinn
the incomparable howard zinn.
Hunger – Trailer
The film “Hunger” looks at the last six weeks of the life of IRA hungerstriker Bobby Sands. “It happened 27 years ago,” the director Mr McQueen said at the New York Film Festival, “but it has just as much relevance to what was happening with Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.”
gabriel orozco at the moma
Gabriel Orozco. Installation view of Mobile Matrix (2006) at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Graphite on gray whale skeleton. 6’ 5 3/16” x 35’ 8 ¾” x 8’ 8 ¾” (196 x 1089 x 266 cm).
the installation’s shape, form and aerial suspension are as interesting as the shadows it produces.
Gabriel Orozco. La DS, 1993. Modified Citroen DS, MOMA, NY
orozco cut a citroen DS into three parts, lengthwise, then appended the car’s exterior elements to the middle section. the end result exaggerates the car’s aerodynamic qualities.
el greco at the onassis cultural center
“Dormition of the Virgin, Syros” by El Greco, The Onassis Cultural Center, NY
A ravishing gathering of fifty religious paintings is really two shows in one. The first follows the blossoming of an Old Master, the painter El Greco (1541-1614), born Domenikos Theotokopoulos on the island of Crete. The second traces an East-West mashup in Greek icon painting, in which the stately flatness of the Byzantine style met the more naturalistic perspective of the Italian Renaissance, influenced by Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian (in whose workshop El Greco is thought to have apprenticed). — The New Yorker
“The Coronation of the Virgin” by El Greco, The Onassis Cultural Center, NY
The show’s grand finale is the oil study “The Coronation of the Virgin” (c. 1603), painted as if El Greco were gazing into a concave mirror reflecting the vault of heaven. — The New Yorker
anish kapoor at the goog
Anish Kapoor. Memory (2008), Guggenheim, NY
Memory is a site-specific work that was conceived to engage two different exhibition locations at the Guggenheim museums in Berlin and New York. Utilizing Cor-Ten steel for the first time, the sculpture represents a milestone in Kapoor’s career. Memory’s thin steel skin, only eight millimeters thick, suggests a form that is ephemeral and unmonumental. The sculpture appears to defy gravity as it gently glances against the periphery of the gallery walls and ceiling. However, as a 24-ton volume, Memory is also raw, industrial, and foreboding. Positioned tightly within the gallery, Memory is never fully visible; instead the work fractures and divides the gallery into several distinct viewing areas.
The division compels visitors to navigate the museum, searching for vantage points that offer only glimpses of the sculpture. This processional method of viewing Memory is an intrinsic aspect of the work. Visitors are asked to contemplate the ensuing fragmentation by attempting to piece together images retained in their minds, exerting effort in the act of seeing—a process Kapoor describes as creating a “mental sculpture.”
[Third viewing area]
most breathtaking. from afar we perceive a two-dimensional black canvas. i was a bit disappointed that this was the third part of the installation. however, i was intrigued by the lushness of the black. was the canvas wrapped in velvet? as u approach the canvas, u suddenly realize that this is a three-dimensional opening, with immense depth. this is in fact the cavernous interior of the sculpture. as it is covered by light-absorbing black tiles it gives the impression of rich color and two-dimensionality. the installation beckons constantly. i had the urge to crawl into spaces around it, to discover it, feel it, see it as one complete structure. the third viewing area was most inviting. there was a line on the floor beyond which we could not venture. it was hard not to pop one’s head into the dark opening. kapoor explains that it’s more than just curiosity which compels us to do so. the darkness that exists within each and everyone of us, attracts us inexorably to the darkness inside the sculpture. love it!
A People’s History of American Empire by Howard Zinn
brilliant. will miss howard zinn.
Howard Zinn, historian who challenged status quo, dies at 87
an american hero passes on…
“His writings have changed the consciousness of a generation, and helped open new paths to understanding and its crucial meaning for our lives,” Noam Chomsky, the left-wing activist and MIT professor, once wrote of Dr. Zinn. “When action has been called for, one could always be confident that he would be on the front lines, an example and trustworthy guide.” Full article.
on healthcare and national security
that’s called killing two birds with one stone! too funny!!!
The Image and the Imagined: On Why We’re not Allowed to see Detainee Abuse
The issue is not simply that these photographs pose a danger to the safety of existing soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan or the 30,000 soon to be deployed, but that they present more evidence that questions the legitimacy of what we now know will be an ongoing war; and this threat to the state’s legitimacy exists both internationally and domestically. The bottom line is that these images will challenge our perception of ourselves, of our national identity, and will exacerbate the anxieties of an administration already struggling to gain public approval. Full article.
Operation Care Rochester – to help people in Afghanistan
Finally a chance to do something concrete to help the people of Afghanistan!
Pls join us Friday, February 26, 2010, 5:30 to 9:30pm
at TRIBECA NIGHT CLUB, 233 Mill Street, ROCHESTER, NY
$10 Donation
For More information and sponsorships visit: www.operationcarerochester.org or contact Julie Behlok: (585) 321-9777, jbehlok@gmail.com.
Rep.Eric Massa will keynote this special event to raise money and collect supplies for the children of Afghanistan displaced by war. Proceeds will benefit the BAYAT FOUNDATION, www.bayatfoundation.org. Donated goods will be shipped thru OPERATION CARE.
Reflections on Rancière’s art-politics in lieu of the perspective of Deleuze and Guattari
“…today art must indict – or at the very least play the role of the jester who unmasks the unspeakable lies of the powerful. It is now widely recognized that Americans (and the Western World for the most part) have been deceived and victimized by governmental propaganda and if art cannot rebuff and contest this grave …situation by fueling the political will and imagination of resistance, I wonder why we need it at all – other than to make rich people richer. In the current political world it is painfully obvious that we need investigative strength of mind to heal our intelligence, and so an art that demands a mental mood of investigation would support such a need.” Full article.
Mon rêve familier” by Paul Verlaine
Mon rêve familier
Je fais souvent ce rêve étrange et pénétrant
D’une femme inconnue, et que j’aime, et qui m’aime,
Et qui n’est, chaque fois, ni tout à fait la même
Ni tout à fait une autre, et m’aime et me comprend.
Car elle me comprend, et mon coeur transparent
Pour elle seule, hélas! cesse d’être un problème
Pour elle seule, et les moiteurs de mon front blême,
Elle seule les sait rafraîchir, en pleurant.
Est-elle brune, blonde ou rousse? Je l’ignore.
Son nom? Je me souviens qu’il est doux et sonore,
Comme ceux des aimés que la vie exila.
Son regard est pareil au regard des statues,
Et, pour sa voix, lointaine, et calme, et grave, elle a
L’inflexion des voix chères qui se sont tues.
Paul Verlaine (Poèmes saturniens)
My familiar dream
I often have this strange, engrossing dream
of an unknown woman, whom I love and who loves me,
and who, each time, is never quite the same
nor completely another, and who loves and understands.
For she understands me; my heart, an open book
to her alone (alas), is no longer a problem,
at least not to her; and when my pale brow is clammy
she alone knows how to refresh it, with her tears.
Is she brunette, blonde or redheaded? I don’t know.
Her name? I recall that it’s sweet and sonorous
like the names of lovers whom Life sent into exile.
Her gaze is like the gaze of a statue,
and her voice – her distant, calm deep voice –
has the inflection of beloved voices that have fallen silent
(Translation from French to English by Peter Low)
