RIP Mary Quant (11 February 1930 – 13 April 2023)
April 13th, 2023Photo 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, 2023Happy birthday Tony Cragg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Cragg (wiki)
See more sculptures by Tony Cragg from here, https://www.tony-cragg.com/
Good bye Ryuichi Sakamoto
April 2nd, 2023His 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 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
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.”
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, 2023Oe Kenzaburo
Oe was married to sister of Tampopo director Itami Juzo.
Oe Kenzaburo and Mario A
(interesting photos of Oe Kenzaburo and his family and friends here)
Oe and his son
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 hereArt 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, 2023Levitated Mass by Michael Heizer – A Thrilling Documentary by Doug Pray
March 6th, 2023Levitated 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, 2023Herbie 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
Hinamatsuri, Girls Day in Japan – 2023
March 1st, 2023
(Makanai directed by Hirokazu Koreeda)
Girls building a solar toy car.
Name these girls – Happy Hinamatsuri album
The custom of displaying dolls began during the Heian period. Formerly, people believed the dolls possessed the power to contain bad spirits. Hinamatsuri traces its origins to an ancient Japanese custom called hina-nagashi (雛流し, lit. “doll floating”), in which straw hina dolls are set afloat on a boat and sent down a river to the sea, supposedly taking troubles or bad spirits with them.(via wiki)