Amber Sparks
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A Bushelfull of Bloggity Links
August 26, 2010
Harvest Time by Matthew Lyons
Stephen Colbert decides to start a for-profit online school: Steven Colbert “University.”
Two must-read “Folktales of America” by Emily Mitchell can be found in the brand-new online TriQuarterly. Actually, the whole thing is a must-read.
Sinclair McKay on my favorite movie fight ever:
And then the fight itself. It’s the implacable violet of the compartment night-light that somehow sticks in the mind, the only point of stability in a breathtaking blur of fists, punches, swings, kicks, all choreographed in this claustrophobically small space.
And Isaac Chotiner on McKay’s new book about Bond. Which I shall obviously have to read.
The Rumpus interviews the fantastic Lydia Davis.
And a gentle, loving reminder: GO PURCHASE Aaron Burch’s How to Predict the Weather and Matt Bell’s How They Were Found! NOW! Before you kick yourself in the teeth and head because they’re all, all, all gone.
My Favorite Kind of History: The Dusty, Forgotten Kind
August 25, 2010
SEED Mag has a really neat slideshow up of artist Justine Cooper’s large-format photographs of the scientific collections at the American Museum of Natural History. Lots of old specimens in dusty back rooms, never-unwrapped fossils from a hundred years ago, even a closet full of old leopard skins.
All of this is especially cool since I’m in the middle of reading Melissa Milgrom’s Still Life, a totally creepy and fascinating book about taxidermy, much of it at the AMNH. Highly recommended.
Oh, the French; or, This Sounds a Lot Like a Story Some Writers I Know Could Have Written
August 3, 2010
The Laundry Room (Men and Woman in the Shower), 2009, by Richard Jackson
A wife and her lover lock her elderly husband in the laundry room for a year. Nope, that’s not the opening of a joke, but a news story making the rounds today.
Read more here.
As I Lay Dying, Reinterpreted
June 18, 2010 — 2 Comments
Artwork by Tony Lee Jr.
This is really cool. Artist Tony Lee Jr. has reinterpreted Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying as a series of found objects. You have to check it out here.
(Link from NotCot, of course.)
Ashes to Ashes to…
June 14, 2010
This is an amazing art project. The artist, Wieki Somers, creates these pieces out of human remains–out of our ashes. The philosophy behind the project:
her project ‘consumer or conserve’ evaluates this notion of a second-life. she considers, how human ashes can be reused by means of rapid prototyping or 3D printing, so that we may afford someone a ‘second life’ as a rocking chair, vacuum cleaner, perhaps even a toaster? would we become more attached to these objects if this was the case? would our willingness to pay more for a product increase if it is made from human tissue or ashes?
A Story About Things that You Will Love
June 14, 2010
Art by the amazing Matthew Lyons, whose site you should most certainly visit.
“Against Specificity.” By Douglas Watson. Who is apparently a genius. In Fifty-Two Stories. Read a bit:
On your way to the Thing Exchange, Thing B tucked under your arm, you run into someone—an unemployed magistrate, say, or a circus clown who comes up to you and says, I have scurvy. Give me an orange!
You say, Orange!
The clown lurches away.
You revolve through the front door of the Thing Exchange and into the lobby. Ah, the lobby. How grand, its pillars or frescoes or whatever! How high, its well-crafted ceiling! How long abandoned, the style in which it was built!
But you have not come here for the architecture. Holding Thing B tight against your side, as though it might leap from your grasp, you hurry across the lobby to the elevator. A sign reads, Things A-Q, Floor 2. You operate the elevator in the usual manner.
When the doors open and you step out onto Floor 2, a flutter somewhere near the center of you reminds you how very badly you want Thing A.
I want it considerably more than I ever wanted Thing B! you think.
Read this whole wonderful story here.
On SJP’s New Art Reality Show
June 9, 2010 — 1 Comment
My first reaction on seeing commercials’ for Sarah Jessica Parker’s new reality show about the art world was, “Oh, awesome! Art on TV.”
My second reaction was, “Wait a second. Art isn’t made like sushi. Art isn’t a dress (though a dress can be art.) Hmm. This sounds like it could be horrifying.”
My second reaction was probably closer to the reality of this reality show. The Daily Beast has an interesting piece up about it, including this bit that I love:
As brilliant an auctioneer and entertainer as Simon de Pury can be, he needs to reconsider his snappy comment that “in a split second I can tell whether a work of art is great or not.” All I have to say to him is: Louise Bourgeois.
The artist, who died last week, was the antithesis of the sound bite, and didn’t “make it” until she was well into her 60s because no one saw the importance of her work until the next generation of (women) artists began to cite it as an important influence. De Pury should remember that some things happen slowly, and not all artists—or their work—can be recognized as “great” or “genius” in a split second. Art is about slowing down time, and thinking—neither of which television does very well.
Pretty much.
Congratulations, PANK Little Book Authors!
June 8, 2010
Painting by amazing artist Dan McPharlin
PANK has just announced their latest selections for their Little Book series:
That said, we are excited to announce we will be publishing three manuscripts:
Matt Salesses Our Island of Epidemics (Fall 2010)
Ethel Rohan Hard to Say (2011)
Nicolle Elizabeth Read This Shit Out Loud (2011)We also had a shortlist of finalists who created books we loved:
Anne Leigh Parrish An Imaginary Life
Laura Ellen Scott Curio
Gabe Durham Camp Bylaws for the Hearty and True
Jensen Beach Everyday Every Day
Joseph Goosey Rory Gilmore Wants to Fight
Stephen Mills A History of Blood
Sue Williams They Say We Don’t Exist
James Tadd Adcox The Artificial Mountain
Ravi Mangla Hear Ye Knives
Kerri French Instruments of Summer
Andrew Borgstrom Mumbling for the Chorus
Congrats to Ethel, Matt, and Nicolle, and to everyone on the shortlist as well. I’m familiar with almost all of these writers, and they’re all fantastically talented. And I can’t wait to get my hands on Matt, Nicolle, and Ethel’s books this fall and next year.
The Book About Street Art
May 5, 2010
This, just out from Gestalten, sounds kind of awesome:
Beyond the Street is comprised of interviews with 100 key players in street and urban art from around the world, each of which is richly illustrated with inspiring images. Its impressive list of participants, as well as the unique diversity of their perspectives, makes the book an authoritative manual on these genres. For the first time, this 400-page tome brings together the direct points of view of leading artists and the most important sales outlets for street art as well as key commentators, collectors, and enthusiasts.
Things You Ought to Know About
April 30, 2010 — 2 Comments
A striking image from Robert's Bone Art series
Francois Robert’s amazing Bone Art series, featuring religious iconography, weapons, and other instruments of violence and war. It’s devastating stuff.
A fantastic story by Emily Schulz in Fanzine, featuring a woman and her…minotaur. Yes, exactly. How could it NOT be fantastic?
A killer blog called The Big Caption, which takes pics from The Big Picture and gives them choice captions. I could spend hours on this site. (Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the heads up on this one.)
An oh-so-good story by Jac Jemc in the new issue of Frigg. (Thank you, PANK, for this one.)
New exhibit in my town at the National Gallery that I’ll be checking out ASAP: Allen Ginsberg’s photos of his friends and fellow beats .
And finally: I WANT HER HAIR. (This is really not something you ought to know about, but I just thought I’d throw it in there anyway.) This whole looks actually reminds me of me in, say, early college, and it’s making me very nostalgic. (Thank god my husband doesn’t read this blog, because if he did he’d be packing his bags right about now. He missed most of the stripey tights phase, though he did know me during the wearing-costumes-I-found-in-the-theatre-wardrobe-discards-bin-as-clothes phase. I still mourn the loss of my Scarecrow pants.)
