Friday, March 1, 2019

Suppose it were Friday clxx: Or Kashmir


Now and again, at various hours 
of a day, it can be entirely pos-
sible for an active mind to won-
der what it's doing in Virginia.
We remark on this as lightly as
we can, who hold any equity in
our residence, but you can read
it, where our trousers wrinkle
and in the occasional irregular
nail. Friday focuses the matter.



The problem of Pakistan-envy, a
not unprevalent risk of Fridays,
is every bit as delicate to dis-
cuss. Merely to envision a soci-
ety where sectarian prejudices
are not only indulged, but pos-
itively fellated, and ethnic di-
versity the very stuff of target
practice by every practicable
means, is to restore the innoc-
uous traditionalist in Everyman
to the full, upright position.

What could be more natural, to
propose, in exchange for one
mir, the transfer of one black-
face Governor and incorrigibly
finitely? We could even sweet-
en the deal with our HQ offices
of the NRA, intractable heroic
statuary, and Falwellian "uni-
versity," without overpaying.

But then the spell is broken,
and the Virginian realizes he
has nothing to be anxious for,
no basis for Pakistan envy, af-
ter all. There are some 1,200














Charlie Heaton



Monday, February 25, 2019

West of Sunset





The capacity of a photograph to stir
instant recognition of time and place
isn't specific to photography and, to
hear many tell it, isn't even worthy.

Possibly the photograph allows time
and place to escape into permission
elsewhere to be valued. This lenity
is also not specific to photography.
So, it's the low coastal range in a
classic melting haze, the ample ten-
nis whites, and the molded chair by
Charles Eames that lift the seal of
memory for refreshment to be taken.


                  All it lacked, really, were the
                  reminding bells from countless
                  steeples at dawn and at sunset,
                  and at moments throughout the 
                  day. On the other hand, at the
                  age which he had managed to reach
                  in comparative comfort, he was
                  perfectly happy not to be remind-
                  ed, that time, his time, was pass-
                  ing. Uncomfortably quickly.



                   

Criterion has refurbished Visconti's
film of Death in Venice, in time for
permissions to extend to its escape.











Charles Eames
Chair in bent wood
Los Angeles, ca 1950

Dirk Bogarde
West of Sunset
Penguin Books, 1984©




Sunday, February 24, 2019

Sunday nibbled sleeve v: Machine for living?






     





I probably would have answered,
language, if Le Corbusier hadn't
claimed that title for architec-
ture - possibly even more narrow-
ly, for residence. Frank Gehry's
going to be 90 this week, and it
feels as if music is exerting a
claim upon that linkage between
mechanism and being, if only be-
cause of his identification with
buildings of concert performance. 





A remarkable collaboration between
musicians and linguists, perform-
ers and builders, Berlin's Boulez
Saal is Gehry's most dynamically
adaptable concert hall, and here
is where the celebration will be.
One does like to think it could
be anywhere, but architecture is
the machine for being in place.
American schoolboys will recall
the duality celebrated in Henry
Adams at Chartres, of the Virgin
and the Dynamo. This is building.
The subject will still be music.
















Daniel Barenboim
  & Martha Argerich
Boulezsaal, Berlin

St Paul's School library
Druries House links

Cameron Dallas
  x Fabien Kruszelnicki