GOD
When I see a garden in flower, then I believe in God for a second. But not the rest of the time.
–Nobel Prize-winning writer Svetlana Alexievich
Archive for October, 2015
Quote of the day: GOD
October 23, 2015In last week’s New Yorker
October 22, 2015
I haven’t done this in a while, and I’m still working my way through this week’s, but last week’s issue of the New Yorker was unusually stuffed with exceptional pieces worth catching up on:
- “Thresholds of Violence,” Malcolm Gladwell’s riveting and disheartening report about how many school shootings specifically intend to replicate the massacre at Columbine. The piece leads and ends with a hair-raising account of a rampage that was aborted and concludes: “The problem is not that there is an endless supply of deeply disturbed young men who are willing to contemplate horrific acts. It’s worse. It’s that young men no longer need to be deeply disturbed to contemplate horrific acts.”
- “Road Warrior,” Jane Kramer’s in-depth up-close-and-personal profile of Gloria Steinem, which increased my already high regard for the feminist icon exponentially.
- “Drawing Blood,” in which reporter Adam Shatz introduced me to French-Arab cartoonist Riad Sattouf, whose book The Arab of the Future I can’t wait to read.
- “Cold Little Bird,” Ben Marcus’s short story about a father struggling to adjust to the reality of his ten-year-old’s son personality change.
- critical essays by Alex Ross and Hilton Als on two artists near and dear to my heart, Laurie Anderson and Sam Shepard (Hilton was kind enough to reference my Shepard biography in his review of the Broadway production of Fool for Love).
Not to mention Adrian Tomine’s cover image (above), which will induce groans of recognition from many writers who live in NYC.
Quote of the day: WANT
October 21, 2015WANT
The wasps outside
the kitchen window
are making that
thick, unraveling sound
again, floating in
and out of the bald head
of their nest,
seeming not to move
while moving,
and it has just occurred
to me, standing,
washing the coffeepot,
watching them hang
loosely in the air — thin
wings; thick, elongated
abdomens; sad, down-
pointing antennae —
that this
is the heart’s constant
project: this simple
learning; learning
how to hold
hopelessness
and hope together;
to see on the unharmed
surface of one
the great scar
of the other; to recognize
both and to make
something of both;
to desire everything
and nothing
at once and to desire it
all the time;
and to contain that desire
fleshly, in a body;
to wash it and rest it
and feed it; to learn
its name and from whence
it came; and to speak
to it-oh, most of all
to speak to it —
every day, every day,
saying to one part,
“Well, maybe this is all
you get,” while saying
to the other, “Go on,
break it open, let it go.”
–Carrie Fountain
Photo diary: friends from far and wide
October 21, 2015(click photos to enlarge)
Kai at Le Pif on the Upper West Side
My niece Faith visited NYC for the first time from Austin
late-night streetcorner in Astoria
selfie zone for TREE OF CODES at Park Avenue Armory
John Stasio (above) and Allen Siewert (below) at Easton Mountain
Andy’s delightful Aunt Jean came from Denver with her old chum Ruthie — Jean’s first glimpse of Times Square
Quote of the day: FEAR
October 19, 2015FEAR
Men fear ridicule the way women fear violence.
–Gloria Steinem, quoted in Jane Kramer’s New Yorker profile (a must-read)
another eye opens 