a small aside

President Obama: “Why would it drive private insurance out of business? If private—if private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality healthcare, if they tell us that they’re offering a good deal, then why is it that the government, which they say can’t run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That’s not logical.”

Burroughs

Jan Herman wrote on her blog today about Naked Lunch@50 which is something that I hadn’t yet heard of but seems very wonderful. I read Naked Lunch a few summers ago and it was something that I could only accurately describe as an experience. I wouldn’t suggest it to all readers — has a rocky history of bannings and even a supreme court case (neither of which I know much about, but can understand). I just finished reading The Nova Express which I also enjoyed and it made me want to go back and read the books that came in between NL and it.

Anyway, it’s sort of neat that the publishing of the book “turns fifty” this year, it was written over so many years it is probably impossible to say when Burroughs began writing it. Naked Lunch@50 is a book of essays coming out all on Burroughs’ text which sounds quite interesting.

sartre and art

I’ve been reading Sartre’s The Aftermath of War and in the essay “What is a Collaborator?” he makes the following statement.

“They do not know where they are going, but since they are changing they must be getting better. The latest historical phenomenon is the best simply because it is the latest … They are seized by a kind of pithiatism, abandon themselves passively to the emerging currents and float towards an unknown destination; they experience the delights of not thinking, of not looking ahead and of accepting the obscure transformations that necessarily turn us into new and unpredictable human beings.”

As an artist, my first reaction was to apply this passage to the creation of new works. It is easy to accuse some of “not knowing where they are going” and blindly following trends without thinking, although I do have these thoughts at times. It is, of course, very difficult to judge what these “toxic trends” are objectively. I think this is a typical reaction when one doesn’t like someone else’s art: “oh, this is very in vogue now…” (the opposite being “this is very cliched” which seems most often to mean “I like it but I’m embarrassed”). My second reaction was, “I hope my own art doesn’t do this.” For the aforementioned reasons, this is also difficult to judge, but I’d like to vouch for my thinking.

Perhaps out of this whole passage it seems that the largest problem is the perception of progress towards some high point[1]. This could be an alternative: Things aren’t supposed to get better and at the same time they never got worse. It is easy to see myriad changes in the production, subject matter, and function of art in society, but it might be the valuing of these adjustments is more the problem than the changes themselves. With this model, the attitude and intentions, the “must be getting better,” becomes the problem.

[1]Sartre later accuses these collaborators of judging their present thought from the future. I.e., jumping ahead two centuries (of course making assumptions about what happens in them) and looking back on their current choice in light of the fabricated history they have laid out before them; and a bit later of assuming that history is, ultimately, teleological.

NYC trip in brief

Just a few words about all of the plays and concerts I got to go to in my NYC trip.

The first night was graced with Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. A wonderful production with Nathan Lane, Bill Irwin, John Goodman, and (correction) John Glover full of humor, wit, and sadness. If anyone has even the slightest interest in this play, I cannot recommend seeing this version enough.

Ionesco’s Exit the King was the next afternoon’s play. A strange and wonderful one. The set and staging are amazing and the acting is (obviously) wonderful. Another play full of humor, wit, and sadness although more politically oriented. This one is probably a bit more “easy to take” than Godot, if just a bit more straight forward.

That night I saw Ensemble Intercontemporain at Alice Tully Hall (which is incredible). It is newly renovated (apparently all of the wood lining the walls came from a single tree), with a wonderfully rich and warm sound. The concert opened with Ligeti’s Melodien from the 70s. The ensemble performed beautifully and it was very nice to hear this rarely performed work. Next was Ligeti’s Violin Concerto. This is such a wonderful piece of music, by far one of my favorites of Ligeti’s. I’m used to hearing recordings of this work, and ones with a lot more “in-your-face” approach to the solo part. Hae-Sun Kang played with much elegance and it was a wonderful way to hear the piece! The second half of the concert was a Bruno Mantovani piece titled Le sette chiese. I very much enjoyed this piece: colorful, weird, well-paced, etc. The ensemble has a CD out of the work that I plan to purchase soon.

We also stumbled upon a Latin American baroque music concert at the Trinity Church on Wall Street which was very enjoyable. The Trinity Church Choir sang accompanied by the Rebel Baroque Orchestra. A very nice treat.:)

Bachelor

I’ve finished all obligations to Eastman now, and presumably will become a Bachelor or Music on May 17th, which is rather exciting! Tomorrow I get to take a trip to NYC with Sara and my parents to see some plays and concerts. As far as I know, the docket contains these

• Beckett’s Waiting For Godot
• Ensemble Intercontemporain at Alice Tully Hall
• Ionesco’s Exit the King
• A poetry reading and song performance at the Guggenheim
• possibly an interview of Frank Ghery and Esa-Pekka Salonen

Should be a very fun trip. After that it’s back to Rochester for packing and moving.