One of my favorite filmmakers working today is Bill Morrison. There aren't many directors whose work compels me to see every film they make, but Morrison is one of those rare artists I've enjoyed following closely through the years. His films are always memorable and worth seeking out. Over [...]
Poet Elisabeth Frost Monarch Those of us who survive are waiting for normal life, believing in the idea, though everybody knows from months of TV that the wait has extended impossibly, like a line in space or a rope stretched beyond all capacity. We see signs. [...]
Gregory Pardlo (Photo by Jay Franco) Problema 3 The Fulton St. Foodtown is playing Motown and I’m surprised at how quickly my daughter picks up the tune. And soon the two of us, plowing rows of goods steeped in fructose under light thick as corn oil, [...]
If you're in New York be sure to stop by Julie Saul Gallery to catch Bill Jacobson's new photography show. Into the Loving Nowhere (1989 till now) opens Thursday, October 20th with a special reception from 6-8 p.m. and will be on view through December [...]
I've had a few emails from readers asking for an update on the Occupy Writers project, which was unveiled on Friday. The list, which was the brainstorm of writers Jeff Sharlet and Kiera Feldman, began with almost 200 signatures, but has burgeoned to over 800. News of the project has [...]
I recently came across this hypnotic piece of music by Finnish musician Antti Paalanen. Paalanen is a composer and a master of the diatonic accordion. Accordions are made in a range of different configurations and styles. Diatonic button accordions are bisonoric, which means each button produces two notes: one when the [...]
Quieter After grandmother's funeral, I rode home in a black limo built to hide faces like mine, and to schlep the famous to their galas, or high rollers to their ruin. Next day, in my little Toyota, I headed north to price the cost of forgetfulness at [...]
I don't often post satirical videos, but thanks to Gwarlingo reader Elly Weiss, I had the pleasure of watching this hilarious "commercial" for the "all-time greatest hits by the beloved twelve-tone masters" this morning and wanted to pass it along. The fact that the video was posted by the Arnold [...]
The Occupy Movement has just received the support of almost 200 great novelists, non-fiction writers, journalists, poets, editors, and playwrights. Occupy Writers was published this morning and includes the signatures of Jonathan Lethem, Lemony Snicket, Mary Karr, Neil Gaiman, Salman Rushdie, Barbara Ehrenreich, Sasha Frere-Jones, Honor Moore, Luc Sante, Ann Patchett, Sam [...]
Robin MacArthur and Tyler Gibbons are Red Heart the Ticker (Photo by Doron Gild) Two weeks after Hurricane Irene I'm wandering the back-roads of Marlboro, Vermont, making my way to Robin MacArthur and Tyler Gibbons, also known as the music duo Red Heart the Ticker. Route 9--the main thoroughfare [...]
an invitation to lunch we tailgate the ambulance escaping the explosion of midday holiday shoppers gridlocked there’s the assaulting antiseptic odor and the head nurse suggesting we wait outside perhaps go for a bite to eat nothing for us yet not allowed in condition critical but stable [...]
Recently, I stumbled across a small online collection of rare color images taken by photographers from the Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information. The above photograph of Jack Whinery and his family was so remarkable and surprising that I immediately began exploring the online archive of the Library [...]
American Gothic I. Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton was naturally stunned by the commercial success of his pupil Jackson Pollock, whose No. 5, 1948, a “nest-like drizzle of yellows and browns on fiberboard,” sold for 140 million, becoming the most expensive painting in the history of modern [...]