Gun violence, art & protest
Details are a little hard to piece together right now, but there’s a protest happening tonight over an art show at the Art Institute. Art Students decided to put together a show featuring six artists on the theme of gun violence. Apparently, the President of the school decided to shroud one of the pieces, an installation by Steven Earl Weber, with a black curtain. In an email I just received from David Kessler, another artist in the show, apparently the rest of the artists will shroud their work in the same way, to express their opposition to censorship.
Lynda Barry wrote 'Cruddy' with a brush
Lynda Barry spoke at the Free Library of Philadelphia tonight about her book What It Is. I can’t imagine a better way that I could have spent my later evening. Barry is one of the most charming and unpretentious writers I have ever listened to. She makes a point of it. And, I sort of had a feeling that she would come off as nice as can be. That’s why it’s a little crazy to think that she wrote Cruddy, a book I read in 2002, but I’ve often heard that the most twisted creators are the nicest people.
Finally visiting the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
I went to the Pennsylvania Academy for the Fine Arts this weekend. Better late than never, right? I have to save, overall, this place is really worthwhile. In ways, I liked it better than the Philadelphia Art Museum. If you haven’t been, I recommend going. You’ll see a lot of good stuff, and I think the whole collection is 100% American. I like that. Call me a xenophobe if you must, but I think we have our own way of looking at the world.
'Survivor' and the infidelity of plot
I finished my first book by Chuck Palahniuk this weekend. You know Palahniuk. He wrote Fight Club. His fan club is called The Cult. He gives away weird souvenirs to everyone that asks a question at one of his readings. Fight Club is one of my all time favorite movies, but I’ve never read the book. I think the reason I’ve never read the book is because this college girl I met during a conference when I was 22 years old told me it was nothing like the movie.
Golem Radio still believes in a place called Hope
Last night, one of my friends called me an optimist. It was one of those fascinating moments where you stop and wonder what on Earth they could possibly mean. No one ever calls me an optimist. In most circles I run in, people think I’m the most dark-hearted and cynical person in the room. Yet, if you’ve ever read any of my comics, there’s no question that there is a bright (or at least goofy) side inside me.
If you write more will you write better?
“Nine out of ten writers, I am sure, could write more. I think they should and, if they did, they would find their work improving even beyond their own, their agent’s, and their editor’s highest hopes.” - John Creasey Is that right? Could that possibly be right? If you really just kept putting one word after the other, would you really improve dramatically? No question, all of us who want to get better need to write much much more than we do, but can you really transform your literary efficacy by dint of sheer volume?
When humans get out of LINE
Imagine that you’re standing in line to pick up your prescription at the pharmacy, right? There’s someone in front of you, and he asks if you can hold his spot for a minute. He wants to pick up a pack of Ace It - test taking gum. Sure, you say, no problem. Now, it’s hella busy in there, right? Everyone is getting really frustrated because the woman at the counter is chatting with everyone as if no one else is wasting their lunch hour in that line, but when the guy comes back you’re only a few spots away from the register and the guy behind you protests.
The Radical Boy Manifesto: Teach the heart humility
Free will doesn’t exist. Just kidding! I got a rise out of you, though, didn’t I? Kurt Vonnegut has a great little story about Free Will. In it, God creates a world with just one inhabitant, and he endows that inhabitant honestly and truly with complete free will. Every day, that one man, wakes up in the morning, jumps in the river and when he comes back out, he yells something different.
Ghosts that haunt me now
People my age (turning 31 this year) have a strange perspective. We became adults as the Internet became very, very real. That means, we’re old enough to remember when people weren’t so easy to keep track of but young enough to understand just how much technology has enhanced our interconnectedness. I have been haunted lately by people I will never see again. People who drifted out of my life before Friendster accounts and blogs gave us a permanent way to find each other through an eternal on-line address.
David Kessler, creator of 'Shadow World'
I met David at the opening of his showing of video and paintings from Shadow World, a series he’s doing in Philadelphia’s Kensington Neighborhood, beneath the elevated train. Shadow World opened on April 16th at UPenn’s International House. ———————————– TTWP: David, you’re an artist who’s getting some richly deserved attention in our city for different projects. An artist has to show a lot of personal initiative, especially to be in as many projects as you are.