blog riley

DETERIORATA XIII:1 BERNSTEIN, 50 SHADES, CLIVE JAMES, EE CUMMINGS, BELUSHI

Tim Riley — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:15:59 +0000

By far the most influential musicology of my young adulthood, steering me towards specialization. #

via Open Culture: Leonard Bernstein’s Norton Lectures (1973). See Elitism for Dummies (on Young People’s Concerts, 2005) #

via NYRB: Why So Popular? by Tim Parks #

Touching yourself” was strictly forbidden in the Parks family. My father was an evangelical clergyman, my mother his zealous helper. The hand mustn’t stray below the belt, because such pleasures were always accompanied by evil, lascivious thoughts. Yet as Dusty Springfield memorably sang in “Son of a Preacher Man,” “being good isn’t always easy, no matter how hard I try,” and at thirteen for this son of a preacher man it was impossible. To get around the conflict—the sexual imperative and the fear of falling into sin—I would imagine going through the entire Anglican marriage ceremony with whatever girl was the object of my desire before allowing the hand to move to its inevitable destination; in this way, I hoped, my fantasies would be conjugal rather than lecherous and any sin much diminished. #

via NYTimes: “If you tell Americans that your narrative is unreliable, they don’t smile: they call the cops…” . #

via Brain Pickings: ee cummings “pretty how town” (Harvard, 1953). #

via pitch interactive: Drone Strikes Visualized. #

via Slate: Woodward’s Belushi v. The Sequester. #

DENK, SCHWARTZ, SEBOK

Tim Riley — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 12:25:32 +0000

Jeremy Denk wrote a piece in the current New Yorker about two of his piano teachers, one of whom we shared. A friend wrote to ask about my reaction, so I replied: #

“Joseph Schwartz was really quite a terrific teacher, and invested in the idea of teaching on an individual level. We were all friendly in his studio and played for one another informally all the time. He had no cult of personality, and although his musicianship had virility and danger, he was a quiet man who acted as though all the great ideas were there for the taking. He exerted a quiet idealism that kept growing on you long after lessons stopped. #

“Sebok gave a terrific master class at Eastman, and my teacher there, Rebecca Penneys, had worked with him in Indiana. He had that gentleman’s cigarette holder Denk describes , and every word he uttered seemed fragrant with possibility. I recognize much of his philosophy about motion and physicality from what Penneys taught. Sounds like an incurable eccentric with pedagogical limitations. #

“I wish Denk’s piece had been longer…” #

DUCHAMP WAS HERE

Tim Riley — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 15:00:44 +0000

via Parodiesandvariations #

JAGGER, ESCHER, LEIGHTON

Tim Riley — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:51:30 +0000

Refused at first, then bought three months later. Interview with cartoonist Robert Leighton at Inkspill | Inkspill – New Yorker Cartoonists News. #

And this: Mick Jagger to MC Escher, Escher demurs. #

WE ARE BRADLEY MANNING: Hedges Knocks Press

Tim Riley — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 13:57:51 +0000

English: Support for Bradley Manning via postcard from Portugal, August 2010 Deutsch: Unterstützerpostkarte an bradley Manning aus Portugal, August 2010 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

…The cowardice of The New York Times, El Pais, Der Spiegel and Le Monde, all of which used masses of the material Manning passed on to WikiLeaks and then callously turned their backs on him, is one of journalism’s greatest shames. These publications made little effort to cover Manning’s pretrial hearings, a failure that shows how bankrupt and anemic the commercial press has become. Rescuing what honor of our trade remains has been left to a handful of independent, often marginalized reporters and a small number of other individuals and groups—including Glenn Greenwald, Alexa O’Brien, Nathan Fuller, Kevin Gosztola (who writes for Firedog Lake), the Bradley Manning Support Network, political activist Kevin Zeese and the courtroom sketch artist Clark Stoeckley, along with The Guardian, which also published the WikiLeaks documents. But if our domesticated press institutions believe that by refusing to defend or report on Manning they will escape the wrath of the security and surveillance state, they are stunningly naive… # #

via Chris Hedges: We Are Bradley Manning – Chris Hedges’ Columns – Truthdig. #

THEN THERE’S THIS: Bradley Manning Nominated for 2013 Nobel Peace Prize #

Related articles #

CHILDHOOD RESEARCH

Tim Riley — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:41:25 +0000

Moonrise kingdom poster (Photo credit: ga3lle)

…The things in Anderson’s films that recall Cornell’s boxes—the strict, steady, foursquare construction of individual shots, by which the cinematic frame becomes a Cornellian gesture, a box drawn around the world of the film, as inMoonrise Kingdom’s dressing room scene, with the little bird-girls framed by strips of lightbulbs; the teeming, gridded, curio cabinet sets at the heart of The Life Aquatic, The Darjeeling Limited, and Fantastic Mr. Fox—are often cited as evidence of his work’s “artificiality,” at times with the implication, simpleminded and profoundly mistaken, that a high degree of artifice is somehow inimical to seriousness, to honest emotion, to so-called authenticity. All movies, of course, are equally artificial; it’s just that some are more honest about it than others. In this important sense, the hand-built, model-kit artifice on display behind the pane of an Anderson box is a guarantor of authenticity; indeed I would argue that artifice, openly expressed, is the only true “authenticity” an artist can lay claim to. # #

Anderson’s films, like the boxes of Cornell or the novels of Nabokov, understand and demonstrate that the magic of art, which renders beauty out of brokenness, disappointment, failure, decay, even ugliness and violence—is authentic only to the degree that it attempts to conceal neither the bleak facts nor the tricks employed in pulling off the presto change-o. It is honest only to the degree that it builds its precise and inescapable box around its maker’s x:y scale version of the world… #

“Films of Wes Anderson,” by Michael Chabon, in NYRB. Cue music: “Let Her Dance,” Bobby Fuller Four #

WHAT WOULD FAULKNER SAY?

Tim Riley — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:38:31 +0000

English: William Faulkner, Nobel laureate in Literature 1949 Deutsch: William Faulkner, Nobelpreisträger für Literatur 1949 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

…Where are the writers of that stature today in the Tea Party South? I was made aware of the odd mix of gain and loss when I went back to Atlanta to see my beloved grandmother. She told me not to hold change between my lips while groping for a pocket to put it in—“That might have been in a nigger’s mouth.” Once, when she took me to Mass, she walked out of the church when a black priest came out to celebrate. I wondered why, since she would sit and eat with a black woman who helped her with housework. “It is the dignity—I would not let him take the Lord in his hands.” # #

Tradition dies hard, hardest among those who cannot admit to the toll it has taken on them. That is why the worst aspects of the South are resurfacing under Obama’s presidency. It is the dignity. That a black should have not merely rights but prominence, authority, and even awe—that is what many Southerners cannot stomach. They would let him ride on the bus, or get into Ivy League schools. But he must be kept from the altar; he cannot perform the secular equivalent of taking the Lord in his hands. It is the dignity… #

“Dumb America,” by Gary Wills, via nyb blog. Written before Justice Antonin Scalia’s “racial entitlements” outburst last week in the Supreme Court. #

Related articles #

KIM GORDON ON COBAIN, BECK ON BOWIE

Tim Riley — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 20:48:36 +0000

Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) at Rock en Seine Route du Rock, August 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: # #

“I don’t want to talk about 1993. Want to talk about 1994.” #

Kim Gordon Looks Back – NYTimes.com #

DOWNTON’S ROB JAMES-COLLIER, EARS BUZZING

Tim Riley — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 22:20:30 +0000

National Television Awards 2012: More Photos (Photo credit: Beacon Radio)

# #

How has your life changed following the success of Downton? #

I’ve been to parliament in England. We went to the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Paul McCartney was off-key completely, but I’m a massive Beatles fan, so who cares? I was there. I’ve been to South America to promote this show. I’ve swam with Great White sharks. It’s all because of this show and how people have bought into it. I just want to say thank you to everyone who watched and tuned in and loved my evil gayness. #

via Downton’s Rob James-Collier Assures Vulture … — Vulture. #

AND NOW THIS: #

15 REASONS WHY ROADRUNNER WILL BECOME STATE SONG OF MASSACHUSETTS #

WHILE YOU WAIT (THOMPSON ON KCRW)

Tim Riley — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:08:31 +0000

Released date: February 5 #