Archive for July, 2011

Quote of the day: SPACE

July 31, 2011

SPACE

You know what space is. There is space in this room. The distance between here and your hostel, between the bridge and your home, between this bank of the river and the other – all that is space. Now, is there also space in your mind? Or is it so crowded that there is no space in it at all? If your mind has space, then in that space there is silence – and from that silence everything else comes, for then you can listen, you can pay attention without resistance. That is why it is very important to have space in the mind. If the mind is not overcrowded, not ceaselessly occupied, then it can listen to that dog barking, to the sound of a train crossing the distant bridge, and also be fully aware of what is being said by a person talking here. Then the mind is a living thing. It is not dead.

— J. Krishnamurti

Quote of the day: ILLUSIONS

July 30, 2011

ILLUSIONS

We would rather be ruined
than changed
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die.

— W. H. Auden

Photo diary: the last of Berlin

July 27, 2011

on the U-bahn

Badeschiff is a hilarious faux-beach that has become a kind of hipster hangout

Lutz

Pietro, pretty in pink

underground or underwater?

Harald and Robert

the twins

In this week’s New Yorker

July 27, 2011

Some highlights: “Hack Work,” Anthony Lane’s cheerfully knowing survey of the Murdoch empire and its influence on British life and “The Asylum Seeker,” Suketu Mehta’s matter-of-fact, dismaying report on asylum coaches who teach refugees how to embellish their stories of torture and abuse in order to stay in the U.S.

But more than anything else, I was mesmerized by Platon’s portfolio featuring the gleaming, gnarly, life-worn faces of Egyptians involved in this year’s uprising, such as 23-year-old Sarrah Abdel Rahman, an aspiring television journalist who made online videos from Tahrir Square:


And I must admit I was even more taken with Autumn Whitehurst’s illustration for Justin Torres’s surprising short story, “Reverting to a Wild State”:

Theater review: THE PATSY and JONAS

July 26, 2011


My review of David Greenspan’s latest show, a double-bill of The Patsy and Jonas produced by the Transport Group at the Duke on 42nd Street, has just been posted on CultureVulture.net. If you know me, you know I’m a huge Greenspan fan, and this show doesn’t disappoint. Check out my review here, and also check out the show, which plays through August 13.

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