A Great Post At One Of My New Favorite Sites
The website being: Contemporist.
Erecting a Bucky Dome in Kabul
From Buckminster Fuller: Anthology for the New Millennium, which I just finished:
The U.S. Department of Commerce decided to set up a Geodesic dome as its Pavilion in the 1956 International Trade Fair, at Kabul, Afghanistan. [Above image is not from Kabul.] What followed was perhaps an historical speed record for engineering planning, manufacture, and construction. The project contract was signed May 23rd. Seven days later all designs, calculations, engineering plans had been completed. By the end of June, the entire dome had been manufactured and packaged, ready for air shipment to Kabul in the company of a single engineer. The dome was light enough and compact enough to be flown from America to Afghanistan in one DC-4 plane. It was designed to be erected anywhere, by workmen speaking any language, who were in no way trained or briefed for the operation. Directed only by one Geodesic engineer, the Afghans fastened blue-ended dome parts to other parts whose ends were blue. Red ends were matched to red ends. And forty-eight hours after the arrival of the air shipment, the Afghans found that they had erected a great a dome. A stranger, ambling innocently into Kabul, might have concluded that the Afghans were the most skilled craftsmen.
This collection, edited by Thomas T.K. Zung, seems to me a fine introduction to Bucky's life and work, designs and philosophies (including his commitment to projects that help "100% of humanity").
Tippett Turns to Goodenough
Last week's Speaking of Faith, "Exploring a New Humanism," closed with this passage from The Sacred Depths of Nature, written by Washington University in St. Louis biologist Ursula Goodenough:
So we arrive here at what is, for many, the heart of it all. If there is a major tension between an approach like religious naturalism and the monotheistic traditions, it centers on the question of whether or not one believes in a personal god. Most people raised in the context of theistic traditions would probably say that "being religious" means "believing in God." Indeed, when reminded that personal gods are not inherent in such systems as Buddhism or Taoism, they would likely question whether these traditions are really religions and not something else, like philosophies.For me, and probably for all of us, the concept of a personal, interested god can be appealing, often deeply so. In times of sorrow or despair, I often wonder what it would be like to be able to pray to God or Allah or Jehovah or Mary and believe that I was heard, believe that my petition might be answered. When I sing the hymns of faith in Jesus' love, I am drawn by their intimacy, their allure, their poetry. But in the end such faith is simply not available to me. I can't do it. I lack the resources to render my capacity for love and my need to be loved to supernatural Beings. And so I have no choice but to pour these capacities and needs into earthly relationships, fragile and mortal and difficult as they often are.
Theism versus Non-Theism. The choice has been presented to us as saved versus damned, holy versus heathen. But when I talk to thoughtful theists, I encounter not a polarity, but a spectrum. Belief and faith in supernatural Being(s), when deeply wrought, are as intensely personal and individual and dynamic as our earthly relationships. They add another dimension, another opportunity for relationship, to be sure. But those of us incapable of embracing that dimension remain flooded with opportunities to open ourselves to human relationship and hence to fill our lives with the religious experience of love.
Rosenbaum Online
An update on a previous post: The Chicago Reader has created a special page for the retiring Jonathan Rosenbaum, complete with some of his favorite reviews, various top-ten lists, and a video interview. Looking forward to digging in. (CR says that they'll help him launch jonathanrosenbaum.com, a URL that currently points to the page linked to above.)
Franz Wright Describes a Drink
A brilliant close to his poem "Bild, 1959."
EW on The Wire
Entertainment Weekly's 15 Brilliant Moments from The Wire. Some real gems in there.
Seamus Heaney on Time + Jealousy
Just finished Heaney's Open Ground: Selected Poems 1966 - 1996, which had been on the bedside table for months now. I had a teacher in college (Cheers, Dr. Duffy) who allowed our class to spend a month-plus just on Heaney, an immersion program I'm still grateful for. But it had been a while since I returned to this great poet. Here's one of my favorite lines in the collection, from the poem "Villanelle for an Anniversary":
The future was a verb in hibernation.And I love this ending to "A Dream of Jealousy":
We talked about desire and being jealous,
Our conversation a loose single gown
Or a white picnic tablecloth spread out
Like a book of manners in the wilderness.
'Show me,' I said to our companion, 'what
I have much coveted, your breast's mauve star.'
And she consented, Oh neither these verses
Nor my prudence, love, can heal your wounded stare.
37Signals on Work
The admirable Chicago crew, whose products I use every day, has been blogging about work. On Wednesday, "Workplace Experiments," which promotes, among other things, shorter work weeks. Today, "Fire the Workaholics," which offers five reasons to do so. Number four:
If all you do is work, your value judgements are unlikely to be sound. Making good calls on “is it worth it?” is absolutely critical to great work. Missing out on life in general to put more hours in at the office screams “misguided values”.
Markéta Irglová on that Oscar Moment
Pitchfork interviews Once's Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, asking the latter about her memorable return to the Oscar stage after being cut off by the all-powerful orchestra:
Pitchfork: Is it true that Colin Farrell had something to do with getting you back out to make your speech?MI: I actually don't know. I don't know what happened, to be honest. I know that Colin Farrell was a huge supporter. He was so great. He came to rehearsals at 9 a.m. to say hello and say he'd be supporting us there that night. He was so great and friendly, so I wouldn't be surprised if he did, but I honestly don't know. I also hear that maybe the director of the show was the one who called it, or maybe it was Jon Stewart who called. All I know is that Jon Stewart came up to me and said "let's get you back on stage." But who took the initiative? I don't know.
Pitchfork: It's nerve-wracking enough when your name is announced. Is it even more nerve-wracking to have to go back out again?
MI: No. I thought we'd be so nervous performing that song, and that I would be shaking all trough the song. That's what I expected. It's a big deal! But I was very surprised by myself. I kept waiting for the nerves to hit, and they didn't. It was just really enjoyable to be part of that, even when I went on stage. Playing for all those people in the room, looking at all the people with their fingers crossed for us. I was just so happy. When we went on stage after our names were announced, I was just so full of joy and so excited. We had agreed that if we went up there, Glen would be the one to get to say something. That was OK with me. So when they asked me to go back on stage and make my speech, I actually didn't have anything prepared. It was kind of a mistake, really. I had honestly just leaned forward to say thank you, with this big screen in front of me counting down the time and saying "wrap it up." So I literally just wanted to say thank you, but the mic was off and the orchestra was playing. That was fine with me. It wasn't like I had some big speech prepared, but I guess it looked like I was in the middle of saying something when they cut me off. But even though I didn't expect it, I was delighted to get to go back onstage and say something. I had a ball.
William Gass, "remarkable old codger"
A Google Alert brought this archived gem: William Gass interviewed by Phillip Adams on the Australian program "Late Night Live" in December 2002.
The Millions' 45
The folks at The Millions post their 45 favorite short story collections. Among the picks: Joyce's Dubliners, William Gass' In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, and two, count 'em two, collections from the wonderful Lorrie Moore.
Egan on Jobs
Timothy Egan responds to Steve Jobs' silly remark, made in the context of the Kindle, that "people don’t read anymore."
The Mac, Pixar, the iPhone, the iPod, iTunes. This stuff is cool. Lighter than air. iGetit. But it’s just product, dude.
Reading is something else, an engagement of the imagination with life experience. It’s fad-resistant, precisely because human beings are hard-wired for story, and intrinsically curious. Reading is not about product.
For most of my lifetime, I’ve heard that reading is dead. In that time, disco has died, drive-in movies have nearly died, and something called The Clapper has come and gone through bedrooms across the nation.
But reading? This year, about 400 million books will be sold in the United States. Overall, business is up 1 percent — not bad, in a rough economy, for a $15 billion industry still populated by people whose idea of how to sell books dates to Bartleby the Scrivener.
Ellmann on Joyce
Tonight I finished Richard Ellmann's James Joyce, certainly one of the greatest biographies I've ever read. Here are 12 reasons why, quoting directly from the text:
• Stanislaus Joyce reports the curious sequel of one such excursion, to see Sudermann's Magda. The next day, discussing the play with his parents, who had gone with him, Joyce said, "The subject of the play is genius breaking out in the home and against the home. You needn't have gone to see it. It's going to happen in your house." (p. 54)• His brother Sanislaus's outward rebellion, which took the form of rudeness to his masters at Belvedere and defiance at home—his atheism worn like a crusader's cross—did not enlist James's sympathy. He preferred disdain to combat. He was no longer a Christian himself; but he converted the temple to new uses instead of trying to knock it down, regarding it as a superior kind of human folly and one which, interpreted by a secular artist, contained obscured bits of truth. (p. 66)
• [Joyce, writing to Henrik Ibsen, in 1901] What shall I say more? I have sounded your name defiantly through a college where it was either unknown or known faintly and darkly. I have claimed for you your rightful place in the history of the drama. I have shown what, as it seemed to me, was your highest excellence—your lofty impersonal power. Your minor claims—your satire, your technique and orchestral harmony—these, too I advanced. Do not think me a hero-worshipper. I am not so. (p. 86)
• Departure from his country was a strategy of combat. Another strategy, which was closely connected with it, was writing. In later life Joyce told his friend Claud Sykes that, so long as he could write, he could live anywhere, in a tub, like Diogenes. Writing was itself a form of exile for him, a source of detachment. When a young man came up to him in Zurich and said, "May I kiss the hand that wrote Ulysses?" Joyce responded, somewhat like Lear, "No, it did lots of other things too." Only in writing, which is also departing, is it possible to achieve the purification which comes from a continual rebaptism of the mind. (p. 110)
• [Stainslaus's] main effort was expended in keeping a diary, but James read it and said that it was dull except when it dealt with him." (p. 133)
• The essay narrative was duly submitted to Eglinton and Ryan, and by them duly rejected. Eglinton told Joyce, "I can't print what I can't understand." (p. 147)
• He declared ironically to [the English printer Grant] Richards on June 23: "It is not my fault that the odour of ashpits and old weeds and offal hangs round my stories. I seriously believe that you will retard the course of civilisation in Ireland by preventing the Irish people from having one good look at themselves in my nicely polished looking-glass." (p. 222)
• The theme of Ulysses, Joyce intimates, is reconciliation with the father. Of course, the father whom Joyce depicts in Bloom is closer to himself. Insofar as the movement of the book is to bring Stephen, the young Joyce, into rapport with Bloom, the mature Joyce, the author becomes, it may be said, his own father. (p. 299)
• [Pound, writing to Joyce, in 1913] I am bonae voluntatis,—don't in the least know that I can be of any use to you—or you to me. From what W. B. Y. says I imagine we have a hate or two in common—but thats a very problematic bond on introduction. (p. 350)
• [Joyce writing to Pound, in 1920] My reasons for traveling north are these. I am in need of a long holiday (by this I don't mean abandonment of Ulysses but quiet in which to finish it) away from here. ... The second reason is: clothes. I have none and can't buy any. (p. 477)
• In all his books up to Finnegans Wake Joyce sought to reveal the coincidence of the present with the past. Only in Finnegans Wake was he to carry his conviction to its furthest reaches, by implying that there is no present and no past, that there are no dates, that time—and language which is time's expression—is a series of coincidences which are general all over humanity. Words move into words, people into people, incidents into incidents like the ambiguities of a pun, or a dream. We walk through darkness on familiar roads. (p. 551)
• When, at the innumerable sittings that proved necessary, [Irish painter Patrick] Tuohy began to philosophize about the importance to an artist of capturing his subject's soul, Joyce replied, "Never mind my soul. Just be sure to get my tie right." (p. 567)
There is so much more in this great bio. Want to hear the story of how the famous last word of Ulysses got there? That's on p. 521. Beckett and Joyce in silent conversation? 648. Joyce and Hemingway on an evening binge? 695. Buy it today.
Rosenbaum at 65
Jonathan Rosenbaum, my favorite writer on film, is retiring from his staff-writing position at the Reader. I will miss his weekly writing, but continue to return to his books and his online archive (for movies he both loved and loathed).
The Movie that Would Have Been #1 on the Below List Had I Seen It 6 Days Ago (I Really, Really Loved It)
Once.
Favorites: 2007
I've added a few new categories this year, perhaps in an attempt to compensate for the significant drop in the number of new books read. (For previous years, go here.) I blame the new job I took in April.
New Books
1. The Rest is Noise, Alex Ross
2. Quiver of Arrows: Selected Poems, Carl Phillips
3. Falling Man, Don DeLillo
4. Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris
Other Books
1. JR, William Gaddis
2. On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin
3. The Emperor's Children, Claire Messud
4. The Broken Estate, James Wood
5. Collapse, Jared Diamond
6. The Courtier & the Heretic, Matthew Stewart
7. The Emperor of Wine, Elin McCoy
8. Doubt: A History, Jennifer MIchael Hecht
9. The Battle for God, Karen Armstrong
10. Garden, Ashes, Danilo Kis
New Movies
1. Juno
2. The Lives of Others
3. The Darjeeling Limited
4. No Country for Old Men
5. 2 Days in Paris
6. No End in Sight
7. The Bourne Ultimatum
Other Movies
1. Infamous
2. Little Children
3. Blades of Glory
4. Blood Diamond
5. Babel
6. Fracture
7. Fitzcarraldo
8. Talladega Nights
9. Ocean's 13
New Records
1. Radiohead, In Rainbows
2. Wilco, Sky Blue Sky
3. Iron & Wine, The Shepherd's Dog
4. Kanye West, Graduation
Other Records
01. Midlake, The Trials of Van Occupanther
02. Bjork, Vespertine Live
03. Grizzly Bear, Yellow House
04. The Decemberists, Castaways & Cutouts
05. Richard Strauss, Four Last Songs (Karajan, Berlin Phil Orch)
06. Jay Z, The Black Album
07. Lupe Fiasco, Food & Liquor
08. Sufjan Stevens, Seven Swans
09. Pedro the Lion, Achilles' Heel
10. Nielsen, String Quartets Vol. 1 (Young Danish String Quartet)
11. Pedro the Lion, Winners Never Quit
12. Kanye West, Graduation
13. Mogwai, Zidane: A 20th-Century Portrait
14. Leon Fleisher, Two Hands
15. Stars of the Lid, And Their Refinement of the Decline
TV
1. "The Wire," Season 4
2. "30 Rock"
Technology/Software (alpha list)
Basecamp
Box
Highrise
Last.fm
Snooth (so far smoother than Cork'd)
Squarespace
Things
Podcasts (alpha list)
The Campaign Trail
Ethical Society of St. Louis
MacCast
On the Media
Music Popcast
Point of Inquiry
Shields & Brooks
The Diane Rehm Show: Friday News Round-Up
The Treatment
Washington Week
Blogs (alpha list)
3quarksdaily
Brand New
Clusterflock
Conversational Reading
Daring Fireball
The Daily Dish
Kottke
Jetson Green
The Millions
The Rest is Noise
Signal vs. Noise
Webware
Wines
1. Domaine de la Charbonniére Vacqueyras, 2003
2. Peterson Cabernet Sauvignon Bradford Mountain Vineyard, 2002
3. Oriel Hugo Zinfandel, 2004
4. Napa Cellars Merlot, 2005
5. Hahn Syrah, 2005
6. Rutherford Hill Merlot, 2003
7. Henry's Drive Pillar Box Red, 2004
8. Burley Fox Shiraz, 2006
