Thursday, September 29, 2005

Striding Resolutely Into the Abyss

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I'm back after a long hiatus - a wedding, followed by the daring exploration of remote Oregon wastes. That means I haven't had a chance to do any writing or reading, and I still have 100 more Renaissance art questions to finish this week.

Once I've dispatched those 100, I'll be working on an article about Bulgakov and mining the new contacts I got from the National Book Critics Circle.

Upcoming articles in Rain Taxi and Flak, to be linked soon.

Sunday, September 18, 2005

I hate Renaissance art so much.

Things That Are Better in New York

Things That Are Better in New York, According to a Vocal San Francisco Party Guest

1. Bagels
2. Public transportation
3. Street fashion
4. Graffiti
5. Lox
6. "Authentic public culture"
7. Dance clubs
8. Slang
9. National Public Radio
10. The New Yorker
11. Suspension bridges
12. Cable cars
13. The Dodgers

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Friday, September 16, 2005

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Finally, something to live for...

Some kind soul posted this on Metafilter and I had to pass it on. I am beside myself with excitement. I often want to cite excerpts and articles from the New Yorker for pieces I'm writing, and usually I end up either digging through my pile of disordered clippings or wasting hours in fruitless Google searches. Now every issue of the magazine from 1925 to 2005 is available as a series of searchable DVDs - and at a surprisingly reasonable price.
I finally finished my first set of 50 multiple-choice questions on Renaissance art history for the academic decathlon. That means I have only 450 more to go, all due before Wednesday.

At least I'm reading a wonderful book - Axel's Castle: A Study of the Imaginative Literature of 1870-1930, by the critic Edmund Wilson. It features extended critical essays on W.B. Yeats, Paul Valery, T.S. Eliot, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, and Gertrude Stein. With many delightful digressions.

I also recommend Wilson's The Wound and the Bow: Seven Studies in Literature (Dickens, Kipling, Wharton, Hemingway, Joyce, Sophocles, and Casanova). Wilson finds in the life of each writer a psychic "wound" that is explored in their work. For Dickens, for example, this wound was occasioned by his childhood fall from middle class security into poverty and his time in a workhouse. To contemporary critics, the conclusions may seem a little too pat, but his textual observations are nonetheless outstanding.

Monday, September 12, 2005

The Tiny

My review of the new poetry journal The Tiny is up at Verse.

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Sunday, September 11, 2005

Last Days of Dogtown

I have a new review up in the Sunday Chronicle.

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Tuesday, September 06, 2005

This morning I reviewed the new poetry magazine The Tiny for Verse magazine. I recommend stopping by their (somewhat sparse) website and ordering the first issue.

Monday, September 05, 2005

I just got a new gig writing art, history, and literature questions for high school Academic Decathlon competitions. Specifically, European Renaissance art and history, and a few Shakespeare plays.

Friday, September 02, 2005

Here is a link for donating to the Red Cross fund for Hurricane Katrina, I just found it - earlier links I tried were down or incorrect.

I found some other, smaller aid groups listed here.