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Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
Bolaño's poem "El Mono Exterior", "The Monkey Outside", starts out by asking, "Do you remember the Triumph of Alexander the Great, by Gustave Moreau?" -- I did not -- never seen it, I'm pretty sure, and did not recognize the painter's name. Here is an image of it: The poem is difficult to make much sense of, either by itself or in the context of the painting, but it's an attractive jumble of images. He seems to be addressing somebody who is blasé about the purported power of this painting (I can't see it; but then I am just looking at a little jpg of it), who "walked like a tireless ape among the gods,/ For you knew -- or maybe not -- that the Triumph was unfurling/ its weapons inside Plato's cavern: images,/ shadows without substance, sovereignty of emptiness." I'm not sure if he's reproaching the person he's talking to -- and indeed he might be talking to himself.
 Update: This poetry course from Aula de Poesia de Barcelona (PDF format, Spanish language) has some questions for writing about "El Mono Exterior", on page 5. Also featured: Borges, José Jorge Letria, Juan López de Ael, Claudia Groesman. (Why is the school's name not spelled "Aula de PoesÃa"? Is this a Catalán thing?)
Late Update: Bolaño also references Moreau in the first section of 2666.
posted evening of April 7th, 2009: Respond
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Saturday, April 4th, 2009
 My dad sends some lovely pictures of their latest trip to the Sierra foothills, including this great shot of a water strider.
posted evening of April 4th, 2009: Respond
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Sunday, March 29th, 2009
My dad passed along a link to The surreal photography of Jean-Yves Lemoigne as featured at Corcholat; there is a lot to love over there. I especially liked this one:
There is plenty more at LeMoigne's homepage.
posted afternoon of March 29th, 2009: Respond
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Thursday, March 19th, 2009
USA Network has published a lovely book and accompanying web site: Character Project is a journey around the country by 11 photographers (11 journeys actually) documenting the land and the people. Some really striking images. h/t The Wooster Collective.
posted evening of March 19th, 2009: Respond
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Thursday, March 12th, 2009
I'm still on vacation from blogging; but this is too good of news to pass up: Kate Beaton's new web site is open for business! And lovely to look upon.
Speaking of comix: Elan Rodger Trinidad has a hilarious Watchmen spoof at io9; be sure to follow the link there to Seanbaby's Hostess™ nostalgia.
posted evening of March 12th, 2009: Respond
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Friday, March 6th, 2009
Au Hasard Balthazar is seeming to me like just exactly the ideal that a movie ought to approach -- i.e. that an item should be called a "movie" or denied membership in this class, according to whether it is similar to this Movie or unlike it. Is seeming like what Bergman would be like if I liked his movies better. There is an excellent trailer you can watch by clicking on the still.
Is making me wonder, also, what kind of literature there is on the subject of composing subtitles for a film. Some information and reflections in this LanguageHat thread from last summer.
posted evening of March 6th, 2009: Respond
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Monday, February 16th, 2009
Drawn! links to a collection of children's dreams with illustration and narrative: El Monstruo de Colores no tiene Boca. (Thanks for sharing this, badger!)
posted evening of February 16th, 2009: 4 responses
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Thursday, February 12th, 2009
 Australian blogger Wildly Parenthetical linked a few weeks ago to the Cockatoo Island Project -- photographer Patrick Boland's documentary of the old, rusting disused installations on Cockatoo Island in Sydney harbor ("Peter Panâ??s Never Never Land for a photographer who likes industrial and historical decay"). Magnificent! (As Maurice said to me, "May we all decay so colorfully!")
posted evening of February 12th, 2009: 1 response
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Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
 UCLA has created an online collection of mediæval manuscripts -- to me this means primarily "pretty pictures"; looks like it will also be a very useful resource for people whose field of research this is.
 (Some further thoughts from a mediævalist: Mary Kate Hurley of In the Middle writes about the Digital Codex.)
posted evening of February 10th, 2009: Respond
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Sunday, February first, 2009
Thanks for linking this video, Dad! "Mind Wall", by Towa Tei. Note: if you click the little square icon in the bottom right, you can view this video on your full screen, recommended. Also, there is higher-quality video available; for some reason you can only request it after you have started playing the video -- click on the up-arrow icon in the bottom right, one of the options that comes up will be "HQ".
posted evening of February first, 2009: Respond
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Uncle Eddie