Holy Spider -A Courageous Film about Iran

April 30th, 2023

  • Holy Spider

  • An amazing film about Iran, great performances from two leading actress and an actor.

    Interview with Abbas and
    Zahra Amir Ebrahimi.


    (Spider Duo, on why Iran Protests have made the film more resonant)

    Sad News, RIP Harry Belafonte

    April 25th, 2023

    2 photos when Harry met Marlon and Chomsky. (repost)

    RIP Mary Quant (11 February 1930 – 13 April 2023)

    April 13th, 2023

    Photo by Armstrong Jones / Lord Snowdon

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Quant

    https://www.vogue.com/article/1960s-it-girl-model-pattie-boyd-on-mary-quant

    “Live and Become” – 2005 Film Directed by Radu Mihăileanu

    April 11th, 2023

    (Via MUBI Live and Become )

    Live and Become (French: Va, vis et deviens) is a 2005 French drama film about an Ethiopian Christian boy who disguises himself as an Ethiopian Jew to escape famine and emigrates to Israel. It was directed by Romanian-born Radu Mihăileanu. It won awards at the Berlin and Vancouver film festivals among others.  (Wiki)

     

    Tony Cragg

    April 9th, 2023

    Happy birthday Tony Cragg 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Cragg  (wiki)

     

    See more sculptures by Tony Cragg from here,  https://www.tony-cragg.com/

     

     

     

     

    Tyranny of Design? Or Chairs as Characters

    Good bye Ryuichi Sakamoto

    April 2nd, 2023

  • Ryuichi Sakamoto homepage

  • His nickname is Kyoju, which means Professor in Japanese.

  • Listen to Ryuichi Sakamoto playing “Bring Them Home” (Sakamoto was an activist for peace- scroll down) (Previous post)
    Kitano Takeshi and Ryuichi Sakamoto

  • Senga Nengudi at Dia Beacon – 2023

    March 28th, 2023

    “I live in the fourth dimension when I create landscapes.”

    Senga Nengudi homepage

    Senga Nengudi Exibition at Dia Beacon

  • Over her five-decade-long career, Nengudi has realized a remarkable body of work that blurs the boundaries between sculpture and performance, fine art and ritual, individual authorship and collective energy. Made of everyday materials such as vinyl, water, nylon, sand, dry-cleaning bags, lint, paper, and tape, Nengudi’s installations are at once proxies for bodies and sites for performance. The works accommodate a variety of cultural references from African, Japanese, and South Asian rites to Western avant-garde art. Characteristic of her openness to multiplicity, the artist, born Sue Ellen Irons, has assumed pseudonyms that inflect her creative identities as sculptor (Senga Nengudi), painter (Harriet Chin), photographer (Propecia Leigh), and writer (Lily Bea Moor).

    Dia’s long-term exhibition of Nengudi’s work will be accompanied by a performance program and publication, revealing the multiplicity of her practice. Sculptures and room-sized installations from the years 1969 to 2020 will be on display at Dia Beacon, including recent acquisitions in Dia’s permanent collection. Performances at Dia Beacon and partnering venues will activate and complement the sculptural presentation, and an artist’s book will collect, for the first time, Nengudi’s drawings, photographs, prints, poems, performance instructions, and other writings.

  • A. O. Scott Film Critic Retired from Film Criticism

    March 20th, 2023


    (Via

    A,O Scott

    In 2023, he moved to the The New York Times Review of Books.

  • In a 2009 interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Scott named the following five films as his favorites of all time. [15]
    La Dolce Vita
    The Godfather
    Sullivan’s Travels
    McCabe and Mrs. Miller
    The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance


  • Florida Project The Best film of the year 2017 NY times

    A.O. Scott puts “The Florida Project” at No. 1 and writes that it “managed to be both the most joyful and the most heartbreaking movie of the year.” Scott praised director Sean Baker, supporting actor Willem Dafoe and leading lady Brooklynn Prince, who is 7 and lives in Winter Springs. Scott adds that Brooklynn’s performance as Moonee “has earned a place in the canon of American mischief alongside the likes of Eloise and Tom Sawyer.”

    1a6dc8a-filmlazarescu
    Dec 11, 2007 actor Ion Fiscuteanu
    (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu)

    Actor Ion Fiscuteanu, a Star of Romanian Stage and Film, Dies at 70 (NYtimes)
    A, O Scott on Romanian New Wave

    New York Times critic A.O. Scott has recorded several pieces on films coming out of Romania, called Romanian Cinema Rising, in light of the current hype surrounding Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days.

  • The Passing of Nobel Prize Winning Author Oe Kenzaburo

    March 13th, 2023
  • Oe Kenzaburo
    Oe was married to sister of Tampopo director Itami Juzo.

    BBC Obit – Oe Kenzaburo

  • Oe Kenzaburo and Mario A
    (interesting photos of Oe Kenzaburo and his family and friends here)

  • Oe and his sonOe Kenzaburo and his son Hikari

    The birth of Hikari was a turning point in Oe’s life and in his literary career. Much of Oe’s later fiction examined the relationship between disabled and non disabled people. Hikari turned out to be exceptionally gifted in music, and he is acknowledged as one of the most famous composers in Japan.
    Hikari Oe Wikipedia here

    Art and Healing: Conversation with Oe (UC Berkeley edu)

  • Oe Kenzaburo and Kazuo Ishiguro in Conversation. (Among many other topics they discussed Yukio Mishima)

  • Happy International Women’s Day

    March 8th, 2023
  • 1catherineindochine
    (Indochine)

  • Requiem

  • Kate Millet by Alice Neel – 1970


  • (Nancy Kwan, Bruce Lee and Sharon Tate)

  • Levitated Mass by Michael Heizer – A Thrilling Documentary by Doug Pray

    March 6th, 2023
  • Levitated Mass documentary film Michael Heizer

    In 2012, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art debuted Levitated Mass by Michael Heizer. How it got there was a work of art in itself, and the topic of a documentary by Doug Pray. Derek Blasberg caught up with Pray to talk about his film.

  • Michael Heizer The City in the Nevada Desert (Previous Post) (See a photo of Michael Heizer with a short bio)

  • Isolated Mass / Circumflex (#2)
    Artist: Michael Heizer
    1968/1978
    Mayari-R steel
    146 × 1461 × 8 in. (370.8 × 3710.9 × 20.3 cm)
    Place Created: United States, North America

    De Menil
    Michael Heizer Isolated Mass./Cucumflex 2 1968
    https://www.menil.org/exhibitions/260-outdoor-sculpture-at-the-menil

    Wayne Shorter (August 25, 1933 – March 2, 2023)

    March 2nd, 2023
  • Herbie Hancock tweeted.

    Wayne Shorter, my best friend, left us with courage in his heart, love and compassion for all, and a seeking spirit for the eternal future. He was ready for his rebirth. As it is with every human being, he is irreplaceable . . .

    Wayne Shorter was able to reach the pinnacle of excellence as a saxophonist, composer, orchestrator, and recently, composer of the masterful opera “…Iphigenia “ I miss being around him and his special Wayne-isms but I carry his spirit within my heart always.

    Herbie Hancock
    12:44 PM · Mar 2, 2023

  • Wayne Shorter Official

    Remembering Wayne Shorter, Rogue Philosopher (1933-2023)