Check out Art Blog by Bob for "The Most Arrogant Contest in Blogging." Bob's giving away a beautiful new art book:“I am the most arrogant man in France,” Gustave Courbet once bragged, doing his best to live up to that reputation through the boldness of his art and personality. Thanks to the generosity of the awesome people at Abbeville Press, Art Blog By Bob hosts the first Art Contest By Bob in which a copy of Ségolène Le Men’s Courbet will be given to one lucky reader.
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]]>This review also interests me because, in his criticism, Lahr infers how Hamlet should be performed (I hope I don't infer how books should be written when I review them):
Shakespeare fulfills the genre’s requirement for violence, but in a new way; irony becomes the antidote to histrionics, enforcing an intellectual detachment that echoes Hamlet’s lecture to the travelling players.
But most of all, I find Lahr's criticisms odd, in that one could read many of his examples and approve of them. Maybe a listless, non-threatening Ghost adds something interesting to this play. Maybe a manic rather than melancholic Hamlet is a good choice for this production. What I'm getting at is Lahr seems to be reviewing this Hamlet not on its own merits, but on the merits of his own ur-Hamlet. Always a dangerous thing to do when reviewing.
]]>The Kelpius Site, Hermit Lane off Henry Avenue, at Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, Saturday June 21st, 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The program will feature guest speakers, and a presentation and demonstration of plans for the commemorative sundial whose design will display not only the ongoing 'movement' of the sun, but the sun's position at the arrival of Johannes Kelpius and his followers in 1694.
Unfortunately, I won't be able to make this event, but I will be going on Sunday for a tour of the Wissahickon. More info on the Quaker City blog.
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Richmond Books in Philadelphia for the book release party of Kenneth Milano's Remembering Kensington & Fishtown, Philadelphia's Riverward Neighborhoods, a collection of Milano's history columns from a local community newspaper. Some very interesting stuff here about William Penn's treaty with the Lenni-Lenape at Shackamaxon, famous people from Kensington like WC Fields and Albert Barnes, and the first US Navy submarine (built at a Kensington shipyard in 1861-2). There's even a short piece on Edgar Allan Poe writing about the Kensington railroad riots of 1840. Poe? Philly? You betcha.
As soon as I find out the time of the event, I'll update this post.
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Greg will be in Clinton NJ this Fri at the Clinton Bookshop with Jonathan Maberry and Jon McGoran/DH Dublin, both of whom have new books out that I'll be posting about soon.
]]>How did you feel when you heard that Buckley died this year? I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place, as he joins forever those whom he served in life, applauding their prejudices and fanning their hatred.
Read the rest here. Man, I'd love to hang out and bitch with this guy. I have a secret desire to be an old curmudgeon one day.
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“The criminal doesn’t escape,” Dix smiled wryly.
Brub said, “I won’t say that. Although I honestly don’t think he ever does escape. He was to live with himself. He’s caught there in that lonely place. And when he sees he can’t get away—“ Brub shrugged. “Maybe suicide, or the nut house—I don’t know. But I don’t think there’s any escape.”
and a very cool style:
She knew what a man wanted, coffee, now, not later. He lighted her cigarette, realizing her as he leaned acorss the table. She was real, not a begging dream in his loneness. She was a woman.
Sarah Weinman, who spoke about hughes at NoirCon this year, wrote a good review of Feminist Press' reissue of the novel a few years ago.
]]>The McFarland celebration starts at 6PM. More info here.
You can read Frank Wilson's review of the posthumous collection.
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