Blogging To Myself

Well, it has been an interesting exercise, but I have been blogging to myself. I know you can't expect visitors unless you link in some way or they find you. The fact is, I am not a blog reader or a blogger. Blogging is I think, a way to meet people with whom youi have something in common. At 73, I have more in common with the deceased than the living. There are so many little clues in aging that you don't matter anymore. That's why Donald Rumsfeld has failed. Who wants to look at that sourpuss with his cranky disposition and a brain without a control tower staff. Becoming invisible has its upside. When you don't matter you can speak your mind since none are listening. When you don't matter you are not challenged much by people who don't agree with you. They give you the look that says "its not worth it, he'll never change his views." Maybe that was the point. In an age with so much blab, one less blabber is probably welcome......blabber? ...hmmmmm.....a new kind of blog for seniors? blab.com?

National Book Critics Circle Blogging In

Item: The NY Times reports that the National Book Critics Circle has establsihed a blog, Critical Mass (bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com "where publishing and criticism news, commentary, reviews, tips, and product information" will appear. "The bloggers are professional critics, book review editors and judges of the organization's annual awards." Supposedly their comments will be personal and not those of NBCC. Sounds risky to me. In some other category of arts news, Frank Sinatra Jr., and his 20 piece orchestra will appear at "the Fifth Sorrento Cheese Summer in Little Italy" on May 29th in the Mulberry St. parking lot. One wonders if this is his Frank's fifth appearance in the Mulberry St. parking Lot? (That's between Canel and Hester Streets)

Harry Potter

Item: NY Times reports that Harry Potter books are under fire by a parent in Gwinnett County, GA. They actually had hearings on the question. Opponents claim the books are all about evil. Students attending the hearing said they did not confuse fiction with reality. Potter's books are the most popular books in this Atlanta suburbs library. " I want to protect my kids, children and others from evil, not fill their minds with it, " said Laura Mallory, a parent. A hearing officer will make a recommendation to the school board within five days and the board has 10 days to decide if the novels stay on the shelves. The hearing officer? The board? Hmmmmm? F.451?

Muriel Spark

Muriel Spark's death was announced this week. by Massimiliano Dindalini, the mayor
of the Tuscan village of Civitella della Chiana. She was 88. Described as a writer of finely polished darkly comic prose. She died in Florence. To have lived in village with such a lyrical name and with an equally lyrical Mayor's name is is just fine. Romantic enough and somehow very final. When you die far away from your place of birth which for Ms. Sparks (her married name) was Scotland, it does seem final. She lived in a sprawling mediveal church with her companion "an old fashioned friendship" Penelope Jardine. Her first novel "The Comforters" was published when she was 39 and subsequently produced a "steam of slender novels and enigmatic short stories". In her work "evil is never far away, violence is a regualr visitor and death is a constant companion." She said she saw her craft as driven by inspiration from an "outside force" unlocking memory in a manner derived from reading Marcel Proust. The obituary is long and appeared in the April 16th issue of the New York Times. You may remember her for "The prime of Miss Brodie" adapted for the stage in 1964. The obit did not make me want to read her books. I had enough hints about what I would find in her work to turn the page.Two photos of Ms. Spark taken 21 years apart added a Proustian touch to her story. Obituaries that cover the span of an artist's life in detail are always interesting to me. It's not like reading about the life of a banker. It's about art and life.

Vincent van Gogh

Hilarie M. Sheets reports the sale of yet another painting by Vincent, Madame Ginoux, on May 2 at Christie's. Previous portraits have sold for $71.5 million and $82.5 million. Early collectors of Vincent's work eventually die and their heirs claim it is better to sell the work for various reasons. What do collectors purchase when they pay millions? Have you seen a van Gogh? Then you know why someone with that much wealth can pay millions. Have you ever purchased something that you just had to have? I mean an art purchase. You knew that your life would be richer, fuller, happier, more complete if you owned that work and could treat it as one of your own. Call it foster care until you pass on and your heir looks at this now valuable work of art and wants to sell it at auction. It does not resonate with them the way it did with you. The money might. Mr Bakwin, 78, the owner of Madame Ginoux, says " It was a very major decision of mine to sell it. The risk of damage of any kind or robbery just felt to high. Much as I would have liked to continue holding it, it seemed to me too important to have hanging in a modest apartment in Chicago. Uh huh.

The Three Penny Opera

The Three Penny Opera is skewered by Ben Brantley who came to the performance expecting Lotte Lenya and Bertolt Brecht to be in the audience. He may be correct in his review of the Studio 54 production - "the shrill numbing revival" with "crossed-dressed men and women writhing in sexual pretzels; leather boys and glitter queens vacuuming up piles of snow with their nostrils; strobe lights, neon lights and, yes, disco-ball lights " " a cast packed with misused talent"" calling "sexual organs by their most common names, loudly and repeatedly" with acting "bereft of character- defining purpose" " a brave carefully thought- out performance" but fails "to sustain an intellectual distance, to allow audiences to see their own reflections in vicious thugs, whores, beggers, and policeman motiviated by the same primal needs and instincts as themselves." This review is certain to attract a different kind of audience. PS: Cindy Lauper in the show "looking like Dietrich and singing like a Brooklyn Piaf."

Julia Roberts

I must admit I was more than curious about Julia Robert's success in her broadway debut. I am not a fan of Julia Roberts. I used to have a dog that smiled like Julia Roberts. Anyway, I am a fan of the human race and I was rooting for her anyway. She flopped. The play flopped. Big. The reviewer was rooting for her as well. He couldn't. " Stiff with self self-consciousness" "Her voice is strangled, abrupt and often hard to hear" "the tenseness of a woman who might break into pieces at any moment" "Theatrically challenged movie star" Too bad, but her career isn't over.
She will recover and smile and smile and smile from the screen. I wonder why that was the first story I read this morning? Am I a closet Julia Roberts fan? No. I am not a big risk taker and wanted to see how she made out.

"The Boy Who Fell Out Of the Sky"

This book review about Dave Doorstein, the Lockerbie passenger, by his brother Ken resonates in some strange way with my growing awareness that our private lives have now become a commodity. Everything we do has 'story' potential. We are like termites that consume and consume until the house collapses. Why can't we just leave a sad story where it is? This appetite for the unhealthy inner lives of people reveals something about our own health. What is it that makes us lean closer to hear a conversation meant to be a private matter? Why do want to know about the secret lives of public figures? Why does the evening news focus on fires, murder, robberies, rape, etc. Is it to humble us or create discomfort? If we turned from all of this and saw the life around us, would we know ourselves and the world we live in better?

FM-FM

FM-FM will comment and report news on the Arts daily. The source for all comments will be the New York Times. Other comments will reflect my interest in the arts with a bias that will look conservative at first, due to an inherent ingrained caution. I will acknowledge this caution when I can catch it's squirming nature long enough to crosss examine it before I comment. Please call me on my failure to do so. It will be helpful.