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Arts & Literature, Books, Newspapers, Previews, Reviews

The New York Times Book Review – November 5, 2023

November 3, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (November 5, 2023): This week’s issue features music memoirs and biographies crammed into a single season including Madonna, Tupac Shakur, Sly Stone, Britney Spears, Thurston Moore, Jeff Tweedy and — soon — Barbra Streisand…

The Muchness of Madonna

Mary Gabriel’s biography is as thorough as its subject is disciplined. But in relentlessly defending the superstar, where’s the party?

By Alexandra Jacobs

MADONNA: A Rebel Life, by Mary Gabriel

“I want to be alone,” Greta Garbo’s dancer character famously said in “Grand Hotel,” a quote permanently and only semi-accurately attached to the actress after she retreated from public life. Garbo was first on the list of Golden Agers in one of Madonna’s biggest hits, “Vogue,” but the pop star has long seemed to embody this maxim’s very opposite. She wants to be surrounded, as if with Dolby sound.

Rock ’n’ Soul: The Amazing Story of Sly & the Family Stone

This black-and-white photograph shows a young man singing into a microphone. He has an Afro and is wearing oversize glasses and a large necklace.

At the age of 80, Sly Stone has finally produced his memoir, and it gives a strong sense of this giant’s voice and sensibility.

‘By Alan Light

THANK YOU (FALETTINME BE MICE ELF AGIN): A Memoir, by Sly Stone with Ben Greenman

It is difficult to convey just how astoundingly unlikely it is that this book exists. Sly Stone is one of pop music’s truest geniuses and greatest mysteries, who essentially disappeared four decades ago in a cloud of drugs and legal problems after recording several albums’ worth of incomparable, visionary songs. Fleeting, baffling, blink-and-you-miss-him appearances at his 1993 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction and a 2006 Grammy tribute only served as reminders that he was still alive and still not well.

Art, Arts & Literature, Historical, Museums, Tours, Travel, Videos

Art Tours: Michelangelo’s ‘Secret Room’ In Florence

Video November 2, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

The Florentine (November 2, 2023) – For the first time since its discovery in 1975, Michelangelo’s secret room in Florence, Italy, will be regularly open to the public starting from November 15.

The tiny space accessible via the New Sacristy in the Museum of the Medici Chapels contains charcoal drawings attributed to Buonarroti and will be open on an experimental basis to small groups of visitors until March 30, 2024.

Arts & Literature, Culture, Homes, Magazines, Previews, Reviews

Previews: Country Life Magazine – Nov 1, 2023

October 31, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Country Life Magazine – November 1, 2023: The new issue features the rural delights of Durslade Farm to the heart of Mayfair; The secret garden in Regent’s Park in London; Norman Foster, the architect who helped shape the capital; the historic American bars that offer a taste of the US on this side of the pond, and more…

London Life

Emma Love welcomes the rural delights of Durslade Farm to the heart of Mayfair
The secret garden in Regent’s Park, seasonal suggestions and Matthew Williamson’s London
Carla Passino meets Norman Foster, the architect who helped shape the capital
Robert Crossan visits the historic American bars that offer a taste of the US on this side of the pond

Nick Trend’s favourite painting

The art historian picks a steely-eyed painting that signalled the invention of the self-portrait

At Canaan’s Edge

Carla Carlisle ponders the story of the Promised Land and hopes that common sense prevails

A local revival

The future is bright for Lytham Hall after locals stepped in to save the house at the heart of the Lancashire estate, as John Martin Robinson discovers

A nightingale sang…

Tiffany Daneff visits a garden in Kent planted for wildlife and surrounded by new woodland

Native breeds

Kate Green admires the hardy Lincoln Red, a low-input rare breed that produces quality beef

Stranger things

From horn dancing to burning barrels and cheese rolling, Harry Pearson delves into weird and wonderful British folk festivals

You’re a dark horse

The black horse is a symbol of strength and courage. Celia Brayfield gallops through the history of the fabled steed

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson savours the turnip’s sweet and nutty flavour, perfect with scallops

Travel

Jo Rodgers follows in the foot-steps of the Durrells in Corfu
Welcoming, home-from-home villas
Pamela Goodman pedals off the beaten cycle path

Speak like a Georgian

Know your ‘fubbs’ from your ‘fizzle’ — Matthew Dennison investigates 18th-century slang

Arts & Literature, Books, Magazines, Previews, Reviews

Books: Literary Review Magazine – November 2023

October 30, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Literary Review – November 2023: The new issue features Sex, Satire & Revolution; The Race to the Future: The Adventure that Accelerated the Twentieth Century; Notes from the Atlantic Archipelago – The Britannias: An Island Quest; and more…

And It’s Go, Go, Go!

The Race to the Future: The Adventure that Accelerated the Twentieth Century

By Kassia St Clair

Cost, not a lack of courage, ensured that the entry field for the 1907 Peking to Paris car race was small. A massive two-thousand-franc deposit (equivalent to a professor’s annual salary) kept all but five of the aspiring contestants out of the race. That exclusion, as Kassia St Clair demonstrates in her captivating history of one of the most challenging endurance trials in the history of motoring, was precisely what the organisers intended.

Notes from the Atlantic Archipelago

The Britannias: An Island Quest

By Alice Albinia

In July 2023 Orkney Islands Council voted to explore alternative governmental arrangements for the archipelago. One option proposed by the council leader was for it to become a self-governing territory of Norway, the kingdom which lost control of Orkney to Scotland in 1468. The episode – in reality, a smart political stunt in a row over the Scottish government’s transport policy – attracted extraordinary international attention. In the UK press, it was treated with an uneven mixture of constitutional soul-searching and patronising amusement at the Passport to Pimlico-styleantics of the Orcadians.

Arts & Literature, Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – Nov 6, 2023

October 30, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

People walk by The Cube at Astor Place at night.

The New Yorker – November 6, 2023 issue: The new issue‘s cover features Jorge Colombo’s “Astor Place” – The artist discusses landmarks and his own New York City.

Why Maui Burned

A burned vehicle is seen through the branches of a tree.

Lahaina’s wildfire was the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century. Now the community is grappling with the botched response as it tries to rebuild.

By Carolyn Kormann

At 4 p.m. on August 8th, Shaun Saribay’s family begged him to get in their car and leave the town of Lahaina, on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The wind was howling, and large clouds of smoke were approaching from the dry hills above the neighborhood. But Saribay—a tattooist, a contractor, and a landlord, who goes by the nickname Buge—told his family that he was staying to guard their house, which had been in the family for generations. “This thing just gonna pass that way, downwind,” Saribay said. At 4:05 p.m., one of his daughters texted from the car, “Daddy please be safe.”

In the Cities of Killing

Mourners carry multiple coffins in a line. Two busses are in the background.

The Hamas massacre, the assaults on Gaza, and what comes after.

By David Remnick

The only way to tell this story is to try to tell it truthfully and to know that you will fail.

On the evening of Wednesday, October 18th, with the entire Middle East in a state of mourning and outrage, I took a taxi to the information offices of the Israel Defense Forces, a heavily guarded compound in northwest Tel Aviv. Like many reporters, I’d accepted an invitation to see video evidence of the worst massacre of Jews in generations, certainly in the history of Israel—Hamas’s rampage through Kibbutz Kfar Aza, Kibbutz Be’eri, and other communities near the Gaza Strip, extending to an outdoor electronic-music festival, Nova. At last count, the attack throughout what Israelis call Otef Aza—“the Gaza envelope”—had claimed some fourteen hundred lives; thousands were wounded, and around two hundred and twenty people had been kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip. Hamas gave the operation a name, the Al-Aqsa Flood.

Arts & Literature, Books, Magazines, Reviews

Books: World Literature Today – November 2023

October 29, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

World Literature Today (October 29, 2023) – The latest issue features 4 Artists of Iraqi Descent – Achieving recognition in the Diaspora; Cornel West’s prophetic witness; Traveling Mexico City’s Body by Metro; The Cheikh Bookstore – One of the Few Still Standing in Algeria, and more…

Artists of Iraqi Descent Celebrate Roots and Global Belonging

by Shakir Mustafa

Traveling Mexico City’s Body by Metro

by Erik Gleibermann

The Cheikh Bookstore: One of Few Still Standing in Algeria

by Saliha Haddad

Art, Arts & Literature, Magazines, Previews, Short Films

Arts & Literature: Ursula Magazine – FALL 2023

October 28, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Ursula (FALL 2023): The new issue feature Takesada Matsutani, 86, who has lived and worked in Paris since the late 1960s, but he came of age as an artist in Osaka, Japan, as a member of the avant-garde Gutai movement. He has long worked in highly experimental ways with printmaking and artist’s books.

LIFE TO MATTER

Takesada Matsutani’s Paris

Takesada Matsutani, *Eyes*, 2023. Part one (double-sided): Collage with photo by Matsutani, felt pen, sumi ink on burnt and cut silkscreen printed paper

THE TOWN,
THE COUNTY,
THE DESERT,
THE DROP

Mark Bradford on history, painting and unstable places

Mark Bradford, *You Don’t Have to Tell Me Twice*, 2023 © Mark Bradford. Photo: Joshua White. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Arts & Literature, Books, Newspapers, Previews, Reviews

The New York Times Book Review – October 29, 2023

October 28, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (October 29, 2023): This week’s issue features “A Haunting on the Hill,” by Shirley Jackson; ‘I Feel a Human Deterioration’ – making sense of the violence and loss in Israel; Is It Time to Pull Up Stakes and Head for Mars? – Probably not, Kelly and Zach Weinersmith argue in “A City on Mars”….

A Fitting — and Frightening — Homage to ‘The Haunting of Hill House’

Apparitions, black hares and time warps festoon the pages of Elizabeth Hand’s “A Haunting on the Hill,” set in the same moldering mansion as Shirley Jackson’s classic horror novel.

‘I Feel a Human Deterioration’

Etgar Keret at home in Tel Aviv. “I think that this entire nation is going through PTSD,” he says.

The Israeli writer Etgar Keret has spent the last few weeks trying to make sense of the violence and loss around him. So far, he can’t.

Is It Time to Pull Up Stakes and Head for Mars?

This is a black and white illustration of our solar system.

Probably not, Kelly and Zach Weinersmith argue in “A City on Mars.”

By W. M. Akers

A CITY ON MARS: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?, by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith

Face it, folks. Earth is finished. It’s overheated, overcrowded, overregulated. It’s the ultimate fixer-upper, a dump we inherited from our parents that we’d be cruel to pass on to our children. It’s time to pull up stakes. It’s time for Mars.

Or maybe not.

Lighting out for the solar system is an appealing fantasy, but “A City on Mars,” an exceptional new piece of popular science by the “Soonish” authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, suggests we shouldn’t be so quick to give up on Earth. Forceful, engaging and funny, it is an essential reality check for anyone who has ever looked for home in the night sky.

Art, Arts & Literature, Exhibitions, Museums, Podcasts, Reviews

Reviews: ‘The Week In Art’

Audio October 27, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

The Week In Art Podcast (October 27, 2023): This week: the first Kyiv Biennial since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year is taking place in various locations across the wartorn country as well as a host of neighbouring European states.

We talk to the co-curator, Georg Schöllhammer, about this year’s event. As refugees and displaced people continue to dominate the news, a global sound art project, Migration Sounds, aims to explore and reimagine the sounds of human migration and settlement.

We speak to Stuart Fowkes, the founder of Cities and Memory, who has conceived the project with the University of Oxford’s Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (Compas). And this episode’s Work of the Week is Rebirth of a Nation, a mural made for Brixton Underground Station in London by the Ethiopian-Italian artist Jem Perucchini, which is unveiled next week. Jessica Vaughan, the senior curator of Art on the Underground, tells us about the commission.

The Kyiv Biennial continues to unfold into 2024, visit 2023.kyivbiennial.org

Cities and Memory’s Migration Sounds project, citiesandmemory.com/migration; compas.ox.ac.uk

Jem Perucchini: Rebirth of a Nation, Brixton Underground Station, London, from 2 November.

Arts & Literature, Fiction, Magazines, Poetry, Previews, Views

Literary Arts: Zyzzyva Magazine – Fall 2023

October 26, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

ZYZZYVA Magazine Fall 2023: In This Issue:

Fiction
“Thinking Ahead” by Joan Silber:
“How does a person behave when he knows he’s dying? There’s a myth that people go off and do what they’ve always wanted to do—sail to Spain, buy a horse, eat at the world’s most famous restaurant. ‘They never do that,’ my mother said, ‘that I’ve seen. They don’t even remember why they wanted to do it.”

“Seabreeze” by Korey Lewis:
Jojo and Jaz wait for The Defendant to pick them up from their mother’s place and take them to Seabreeze. “If Disney is where dreams come true, then Seabreeze is where they give up.”

“Eau de Nil” by Chloe Wilson:
“It was a website called Geriatrix. On it were women my age, in various states of undress. I saw breasts droopier and flatter than mine, necks that were crêpier, bellies that bulged and hung. But what really struck me was how happy they looked.”

“Country Furnishings” by Earle McCartney:
The equilibrium in a tetchy blue-collar workshop gets jostled with the arrival of Frank Wonderwood—future son-in-law of the business’s new co-owner and future woodworking graduate from Del Tech.

Poetry
Karen Leona Anderson, Stuart Dybek, Johanna Carissa Fernandez, Mike Good, Cleo Qian, Sarah Lynn Rogers, Joel M. Toledo

Nonfiction
Laura M. Furlan her birth parents, identity, and butterflies. Adam Foulds on the home-turned-museum of one of England’s greatest architects, Sir John Soane. Sam McPhee on the singular fascination hands have on his attention. Jessica Francis Kane on her lifelong affinity with the fascinating James Boswell. And Devon Brody’s “Beth”: “I’m glad to be with only Beth and her long hair that meets the hair on my arms, and the hair on her arms that meets the hair on my arms.”

In Conversation:
Ricardo Frasso Jaramillo delves with Justin Torres into Torres’s career and his new novel, Blackouts, a finalist for the National Book Award.

Art
Wangari Mathenge