Wall built from gravestone fragments, Remu Shul (Synagogue) cemetary, Kraków, Poland. “The Remu [also: Rema, Remuh] synagogue (acronym for Rabbi Moses Isserles) is located in Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter of Krakow, and was founded in 1553 by Israel Isserles. The Remu was considered to be the ‘Maimonides of Polish Jewry’ and was known for his universal outlook, his [...]
Archive for March, 2009
Travel Photo of the Day: Krakow, Poland (Remu Shul Cemetary)
Posted in Europe, Foreign Travel, Jewish Life, Photography on March 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“The Treasures of Pompeii” at The National Gallery of Art
Posted in Ancient History, Anthropology, Archaeology, Architecture, Europe, Foreign Travel, Museums & Exhibitions, U.S. Travel on March 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I’ll not be posting to the NSRG this weekend when I’ll be visiting Washington, D.C. in order to view, in advance of my May trip to Naples, the exhibition, “Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture Around the Bay of Naples,” at the National Gallery of Art. The exhibition, which includes recent discoveries on [...]
“Protest Novel” Parissiene: French Protest Sarkozy Policies with 17th-Century Novel
Posted in Books, Europe, Literature, Politics on March 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“On the eve of national strikes, the French have found a new way to show their dislike of [President] Nicolas Sarkozy: by reading a 17th century tale of thwarted love that the president has said he hates. “Mr Sarkozy, a man often ridiculed in France for preferring fitness to literature, has frequently expressed his disdain [...]
The Houses HOK Built: The “New” Yankee Stadium & the Mets’ Citi Field
Posted in Architecture, Baseball, Business, New York City, Popular Culture, Sports, U.S. Travel, Urban Affairs on March 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for The New Yorker magazine, on New York’s two new baseball stadiums, “the first time that two major-league stadiums have opened in the same city at the same time”: “A stadium is a stage set as sure as anything on Broadway, and it determines the tone of the dramas within. Citi [...]
Selling Short: George W. Bush’s Sad Book Deal
Posted in Books, Bush, Business, Politics, Writers & Writing on March 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“There’s now a rumored-price tag on George W. Bush‘s forthcoming memoirs, ‘Decision Points:’ a $7 million advance from publisher Crown. How does that stack up to other Deciders? “It’s $5 million less than Bill Clinton‘s advance for My Life, $1 million less than Hillary Clinton got for Living History, and $2 million less than the advance for the memoirs of Tony Friggin’ Blair, the British prime minister who [...]
2009 Man Booker “International Prize” Contenders Announced
Posted in Books, Europe, Language, Literature, Writers & Writing on March 18, 2009 | 1 Comment »
“The Man Booker International Prize was announced in June 2004 and recognises one writer for his or her achievement in fiction. Worth £60,000 to the winner, the prize is awarded once every two years to a living author who has published fiction either originally in English or whose work is generally available in translation in [...]
Iconic “Iconic”: The Iconic Adjective for Our Iconic Times
Posted in Language, Media & Advertising, Popular Culture, Writers & Writing on March 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Iconic albino, iconic assassin, iconic baby lotion, iconic brand, iconic bridge, iconic bucket, iconic building, iconic button fly, iconic camper van, iconic car, iconic cassoulet, iconic CCTV camera, iconic celebration, iconic chainsaw, iconic chair, iconic chef, iconic chimpanzee, iconic children’s entertainer, iconic clock, iconic cocktail, iconic comb, iconic combover, iconic comedy, iconic cooling tower, iconic [...]
Yellow Brick Code, or: “The Wizard of Oz” as Monetary Allegory
Posted in American History, Books, Cinema, Economy, Politics, Popular Culture on March 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Was Dorothy in Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz a Populist “Everyman” who — with William Jennings Bryan (Lion), a farmer (Scarecrow) and an industrial worker (Tin Woodman) — went off to see the Wizard (President) to voice support for the use of silver as currency? Or, more critically, as economists today “fear [...]
Nobody’s Everyman: Richard Ford on Frank Bascombe
Posted in Books, Literature, Writers & Writing on March 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In the current issue of Bookforum, novelist Richard Ford considers whether Frank Bascombe, the narrator of his award-winning trilogy of novels, is “a stand-in for the rest of us”: “Over the last twenty years, goodwilled readers have occasionally asked me if Frank Bascombe, the yearning, sometimes vexatious, narrator of my three novels The Sportswriter, Independence Day, and Lay of [...]
Lost in the Stacks?: British Library “Mislays” 9,000 Books
Posted in Books, Collectors & Collecting, Crimes & Misdemeanors, Europe, Foreign Travel, Literature, Museums & Exhibitions on March 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“More than 9,000 books are missing from the British Library, including Renaissance treatises on theology and alchemy, a medieval text on astronomy, first editions of 19th- and 20th-century novels, and a luxury edition of Mein Kampf produced in 1939 to celebrate Hitler’s 50th birthday. “The library believes almost all have not been stolen but rather mislaid [...]
R.I.P. – Alan W. Livingston (1917-2009)
Posted in Business, Cinema, Counter Culture, Obituaries, Popular Culture, Popular Music, Rock 'n' Roll, Television on March 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Alan W. Livingston, an entertainment executive who had significant roles in bringing Bozo, the Beatles and ‘Bonanza‘ to American audiences, died Friday at home in Beverly Hills. He was 91. . . . “In 1963, Mr. Livingston was president of Capitol Records, which had declined three different times to release singles by a British band, then little [...]
2008 “National Book Critics Circle” Award Winners Announced (Mas Bolano)
Posted in Book Reviews, Books, Literature, Poets & Poetry, Writers & Writing on March 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The awards keep rolling in for the late Roberto Bolaño and 2666: “On Thursday, March 12, 2009, at a crowded ceremony at the New School in New York, the National Book Critics Circle announced the winners of its book awards, covering books published in 2008. . . . “Roberto Bolaño’s monumental 2666 (Farrar, Straus), a tale of love and [...]
What Recession?: 1st “Superman” Comic Book Sells for $317K
Posted in Business, Collectors & Collecting, Ephemera, Popular Culture, Rock 'n' Roll on March 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“A rare copy of the first comic book featuring Superman has sold for $317,200 in an Internet auction. . . . “The winning bid for the 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1, whose cover features Superman lifting a car, was submitted Friday evening by John Dolmayan, drummer for the rock band System of a [...]
Fading from View: View-Master 3-D Travel Reels Discontinued
Posted in Business, Collectors & Collecting, Foreign Travel, Photography, Popular Culture, U.S. Travel on March 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
First introduced at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York, “the iconic [View-Master] reels of tourist attractions, often packaged with a clunky plastic viewer and first sold to promote 3-D photography, are ending their 70-year run after years of diminishing sales. . . . “Scenic discs are no longer a good fit for the Fisher-Price division [...]
Not so Serenissima: Venice Vampire Skull Unearthed
Posted in Ancient History, Anthropology, Archaeology, Europe, Foreign Travel, Health & Medicine, Religion, Science & Technology on March 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Matteo Borrini, an anthropologist from the University of Florence, said the discovery [of a woman's skull with its mouth agape and a large slab of rock forced into its mouth] on the small island of Lazzaretto Nuovo in the Venice lagoon supported the medieval belief that vampires were behind the spread of plagues like the Black [...]
Travel Photo of the Day: New York City (Manhattan)
Posted in New York City, Photography, U.S. Travel on March 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Photo: Peter Funch (more @ V1 Gallery; via The Daily Dish) ["The City that Never Sleeps," indeed!]
R.I.P. – James Purdy (1914-2009)
Posted in Books, Brooklyn, Literature, Obituaries, Plays & Playwrights, Writers & Writing on March 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“James Purdy, whose dark, often savagely comic fiction evoked a psychic American landscape of deluded innocence, sexual obsession, violence and isolation, died Friday in Englewood, N.J. He was 94 and lived in Brooklyn Heights. . . . “Wayward and unclassifiable, Mr. Purdy, the author of the novels ‘Malcolm’ and ‘The Nephew,’ labored at the margins [...]
Must-See TV: Jon Stewart & Jim Cramer Face Off on “The Daily Show”
Posted in Business, Crimes & Misdemeanors, Current Events, Economy, Media & Advertising, Politics, Popular Culture, Television on March 13, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The full episode of last night’s The Daily Show featuring Jon Stewart‘s “interview” of CNBC’s Jim Cramer can be viewed here. Related To Catch A Predator Fight Night: Cramer vs. Stewart It’s true: Jon Stewart has become Edward R. Murrow Economic Meltdown Not a Laughing Matter Stewart’s Time to Channel Our Anger Is Jon Stewart the Most Trusted [...]
Allen Ginsberg’s “HOWL” Is No Sweet Music
Posted in Classical Music, Literature, Poets & Poetry, Writers & Writing on March 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Artists from different disciplines have long been inspired by one another’s works, often with remarkable results. But both words and music suffer in Lee Hyla’s ‘Howl,’ a string quartet written in 1993 to accompany Allen Ginsberg’s 1956 poem of that name. “A performance on Friday at Zankel Hall by the stellar Brentano String Quartet made me [...]
1st Annual “Dubai International Poetry Festival” Opens
Posted in Books, International Affairs, Literature, Middle East, Poets & Poetry, Writers & Writing on March 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“The words of the late Palestinian poet and author Mahmoud Darwish echoed in a packed hall yesterday at the launch of the first annual Dubai International Poetry Festival. “The festival was inaugurated by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, in the presence of more than 100 regional and [...]
