“Don’t try to fix it. I just need you to listen.” Every man has heard these words. And they are the law of the land. No matter what.
“Understand that your cat is a whore and can’t help you. She takes on love with the whiskery adjustments of a gold-digger. She is a gorgeous nomad, an unfriend. Recall how just last month when you got her from Bob downstairs, after Bob had become suddenly allergic, she leaped into your lap and purred, gutteral as a German chanteuse, familiar and furry as a mold. And Bob, visibly heartbroken, still in the room, sneezing and giving instructions, hoping for one last cat nuzzle, descended to his hands and knees and jiggled his fingers in the shag. The cat only blinked. For you, however, she smiled, gave a fish-breath peep, and settled.
‘Oh, well,’ said Bob, getting up off the floor. ‘Now I’m just a thing of her kittenish past.’
That’s the way with Bob. He’ll say to the cat, ‘You be a good girl now, honey,’ and then just shrug, go back downstairs to his apartment, play jagged, creepy jazz, drink wine, stare out at the wintry scalp of the mountain.”
-Lorrie Moore, “Amahl and the Night Visitors: A Guide to the Tenor of Love”
I can’t choose favorite Lorrie Moore stories because every single one of them is beautiful and perfect and devastating, but this is one of my favorite openings to any story.
Ron Mueck (b.1958, Australia) - Couple Under An Umbrella. Mixed média, 300x400x350 cm (2013)
“I never made life-size figures because it never seemed to be interesting. We meet life-size people every day.” says Australian-born, London-based artist Ron Mueck. Mueck works slowly in his small North London studio, making time itself an important element in his creative process. His human figures are meticulously detailed, with surprising changes of scale that place them as far from academic realism as they are from pop art or hyperrealism.
Mueck has had highly acclaimed exhibitions around the world from Japan to Australia, New Zealand and Mexico, but shows of his new work in Europe have not been frequent occurrences. Artist has been invited to present his new sculpture at the Fondation Cartier from 16 April to 29 September 2013. This is his first major exhibition in Europe since the hugely successful Fondation Cartier exhibition of 2005.
Ron Mueck Exhibition @ La Fondation Cartier
261 Bd. Raspail Paris 14 - 16.04-29.09.2013
Photo Thomas Salva/Lumento for the Fondation Cartier
Photo artist’s studio by Gautier Deblonde[more Ron Mueck]
(via theonlymagicleftisart)
Christine Friar: A year ago this weekend, Mari and I spent three days in LA on a whim....
A year ago this weekend, Mari and I spent three days in LA on a whim. We had originally planned to stay with a friend of mine, but she ended up needing to fly out of town at the last minute for a medical emergency, so we turned to a friend I knew from tumblr who angelically let us crash with her…
This is the greatest.
“Perhaps, when we remember wars, we should take off our clothes and paint ourselves blue and go on all fours all day long and grunt like pigs. That would surely be more appropriate than noble oratory and shows of flags and well-oiled guns.” — Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle
Stereo Console Table by Symbol Audio, ICFF 2013
So much good stuff coming out of ICFF right now! I can barely stand it.
Thanks to Sofia Coppola, I am reminded that this happened, and it’s just as amazing as it was the first time around.
Selected Shorts: What Would You Do? (Feat. David Sedaris)
Recommended Listening: David Sedaris presented three short stories while guest hosting WNYC’s Selected Shorts. The three stories were written by Amy Hempel, Tobias Wolff, and Frank Gannon, and each one has to do with “hard choices,” says Sedaris.
“In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried” destroys me every time I read it. This is great listening.
