Currenlty on analyse at Gallery Kayafas are digit exhibitions of photographs that contest the attitude of the viewer. Amy Montali’s super colouration photographs, and Jess T. Dugan’s small black-and-white images, apiece inform moments in which …

Source:AMY MONTALI JESS T. DUGAN @ <b>GALLERY</b> KAYAFAS

Source: AMY MONTALI JESS T. DUGAN @ &LT;B&GT;GALLERY&LT;/B&GT; KAYAFAS

Via Bad American:

I think he might have known what was about to happen.

Associated Press
And more commentary here

CLAREMONT, Calif. (AP) - David Foster Wallace, the author best known for his 1996 novel “Infinite Jest,” was found dead in his home, according to police. He was 46.
Wallace’s wife found her husband had hanged himself when she returned home about 9:30 p.m. Friday, said Jackie Morales, a records clerk with the Claremont Police Department.
Wallace taught creative writing and English at nearby Pomona College.
Wallace’s first novel, “The Broom of the System,” gained national attention in 1987 for its ambition and offbeat humor. The New York Times said the 24-year-old author “attempts to give us a portrait, through a combination of Joycean word games, literary parody and zany picaresque adventure, of a contemporary America run amok.”
Published in 1996, “Infinite Jest” cemented Wallace’s reputation as a major American literary figure. The 1,000-plus-page tome, praised for its complexity and dark wit, topped many best-of lists. Time Magazine named “Infinite Jest” in its issue of the “100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.”
Wallace received a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation in 1997. His short fiction was published in Esquire, GQ, Harper’s, The New Yorker and the Paris Review. He wrote nonfiction for a number of publications, including an essay on the U.S. Open for Tennis magazine and a profile of the director David Lynch for Premiere.

Wallace also taught Freshman English at Illinois State University in the 1990s. It was during that time, I almost met him. I admit that I could not fathom Infinite Jest, but thoroughly enjoyed his spot-on critique of American Society, A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again.
The supposedly fun thing was going on a pleasure cruise.
I heard a lot about Wallace, all of it second hand from people who knew and worked with him at Illinois State. Wallace was always rather self-conscious about the whole ‘genius’ label and seemed genuinely happy (when not writing) teaching English composition.
From his LA Times obit this morning:

Gary Kates, the college’s dean, called Wallace’s death “an incredible loss.”
“He was a fabulous teacher,” Kates said Saturday. “He was hands-on with his students. He cared deeply about them. . . . He was a jewel on the faculty, and we deeply appreciated everything he gave to the college.”

He was somewhat reclusive except to a small circle of close friends but friendly if approached. His fans started an unofficial website which hasn’t been updated since 2000. Here is the embryonic bio that appeared there:

David Foster Wallace is the award winning author of several novels, more than a few short stories, and numerous articles, as well as being a college professor. Still in his 30’s, David has been called one of America’s most important young authors and is often compared to Thomas Pynchon, though he tends to shrug off that association. He is most widely known for his epic (1000+ page) novel, Infinite Jest, published in 1996 and critically acclaimed by critics and readers alike. Topics covered in Wallace’s work are wide ranging, but he seems to have a special interest in American culture, addictions, and excess. Ironically, because of his edgy body of work and his public persona, DFW has gained a cult following and become somewhat of a celebrity himself.

According to his Wikipedia entry, Wallace’s favorite book was CS Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters.
Also from the Wikipedia entry:

In the November 2007 issue of The Atlantic, which commemorated the magazine’s 150th anniversary, an invited series of authors, artists, politicians and others were asked to prepare 300 words or so on “the future of the American idea”. Wallace asked whether some things were still worth dying for, and presented a “thought experiment” in which “we decided that a certain baseline vulnerability to terrorism is part of the price of the American idea.” He goes on to say that we might have to accept that every now and then “a democratic republic cannot 100% protect itself [from terrorism] without subverting the very principles that made it worth protecting.” By comparison, he continues, we accept the 40,000 highway deaths each year as the price we pay for the convenience of the motor car. Finally, he asks, in the context of Guantanamo Bay, the Patriot Act, and warrantless wiretapping, “Have we become so selfish and scared that we don’t even want to consider whether some things trump safety?”

ALSO: Salon is trying to re-run it’s 1996 Infinite Jest interview with Wallace but is screwing up their own link. But here’s a 1999 interview in Salon on the release of Brief Interviews With Hideous Men.
This might seem rather morbid, but I’m not surprised, based on what I know and read of Wallace, that he chose hanging. I don’t think he believed in guns and I would also guess he viewed the act of hanging as a far more poignant statement than leaving one’s brains on the wall.
We don’t know exactly what brought him to this end. It seems extremely sad that his wife had to find him like that. His genius may have given way to depression (Hemingway) or he might have (and I base this on his writings) decided America was truly about to go off the deep end and he didn’t want to see it (Hunter S. Thompson).
While reading the comments on the LA Times obit, I came across this typical comment from a typically brain dead American conservative punk:

5. Never heard of this “progressive” guy; probably came to the realization that Barry and Joe ain’t gonna win, and could not face the truth about his skewered and very liberal views of the world around him. Or, maybe he fancied himself as Hemingway, who was depressed, so he decided to take the ultimate cure for all ills. It works, liberals, so have at it, now that you see the future with BO and Joe…I made a ditty: see the future with BO and Joe.
Submitted by: CT Sherwin
6:52 AM PDT, September 14, 2008

In light of that, I have to add something here as well. Many critics of Wallace complain that his prose is too dense, uses too many big words and is essentially hard for the average American mind to decipher. I freely admit I couldn’t handle Infinite Jest. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a work of genius. I might now give it another go.
But the one problem that people like Wallace face in modern America is they have so few intellectual peers. I consider myself a fairly intelligent person but I was actually intimidated with the idea of meeting him.
When you live in a nation that seems proud of it’s ignorance, the mere act of living becomes a hard road to hoe. I know that sounds arrogant but after being forced by everyone from Notre Dame nuns in the 70s to the staff at the Cedar Rapids Gazette in 2005 to apologize for being the smartest person in the room, I no longer care. America is a nation that celebrates idiocy and largely because of that, we are no longer great in the sense of arts and letters but only in the sense of making war/killing people.
Thomas Jefferson, dining alone in The White House, as the old joke goes, could maintain his sanity because he was surrounded by a cadre of learned men. They didn’t always agree, but they could at least respecteach other’s opinions. Jefferson could also ensconce himself at Monticello and tinker around with his ideas, inventions and writings with minimal interference.
That’s almost impossible to do today unless you’re independently wealthy. I always wondered how Wallace got on in such a society, how he was able to find people to have a reasonably intelligent conversation with and people who could understand what he was thinking. Technical knowledge is a different sort of matter - thank Goddess the geeks can find themselves fairly easily.
But a knowledge of arts and letters is so denigrated in American society that people who still retain a vocabulary above 500 words feel a part of a secret, closeted and somewhat persecuted minority. And they have a harder time finding solace in each others company. In fact, merely having this kind of knowledge renders you guilty of being an ‘elitist’ nowadays and the rest of your motives become suspect among your fellow Americans.
I think living in this society could have gradually become very difficult for Wallace.
In any case, a giant of American letters has checked out. I don’t know if they ever met, but I bet David and Kurt Vonnegut (they had Ithaca, NY in common) are probably chatting each other up in the hereafter. I hope he is at peace this evening.

One of my compatriots at Heartless and Brainless also speaks on Wallace’s death. I didn’t know his body of work, but I might have to check it out sometime, seeing as how I’ve heard he was so good.

I guess I’ll have to find out for myself.

But as for the man himself, it’s a sad event. We can always use more writers from his stock.
Source: Another dead writer: David Foster Wallace

sargasso sea - Stolen from Bezzie and then Jo.

I’ve highlighted all the books I’ve read, and starred the authors I’ve read, but not specifically the book listed. If they’re highlighted and starred, then I’ve read more of that author’s catalogue in addition to the book listed.

Allison, Dorothy. Bastard Out of Carolina, 1992
Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1969 ***
Atwood, Margaret. Cat’s Eye, 1988 ***(read The Blind Assassin)
Bainbridge, Beryl. The Bottle Factory Outing, 1974
Bambara, Toni Cade. Gorilla, My Love, 1992
Barnes, Djuna. Nightwood, 1937
Barker, Pat. Regeneration, 1992
Brookner, Anita. Hotel du Lac, 1984
Brown, Rita Mae. Rubyfruit Jungle, 1973
Buck, Pearl S. The Good Earth, 1931
Byatt, A.S. Possession: A Romance, 1990***
Carter, Angela. Nights at the Circus, 1984
Castillo, Ana. So Far From God, 1993
Cather, Willa. My Antonia, 1918 (I own though…should read)
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening, 1900
Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street, 1984
Compton-Burnett, Ivy. Elders and Betters, 1944
Desai, Anita. Clear Light of Day, 1980
Dinesen, Isak. Out of Africa, 1938
Doerr, Harriet. Stones for Ibarra, 1984
Drabble, Margaret. The Radiant Way, 1987
DuMaurier, Daphne. Rebecca, 1938
Emecheta, Buchi. Second Class Citizen, 1974
Erdrich, Louise. Tracks: A Novel, 1988
Fitzgerald, Penelope. At Freddie’s, 1985
Flagg, Fannie. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, 1987
Frame, Janet. Yellow Flowers in the Antipodean Room, 1969
French, Marilyn. The Women’s Room, 1977
Goldstein, Rebecca. The Mind-Body Problem: A Novel, 1983
Gordimer, Nadine. July’s People, 1981
Gordon, Mary. The Rest of Life, 1993
Hall, Radclyffe. The Well of Loneliness, 1928
Head, Bessie. When Rain Clouds Gather, 1968
Highsmith, Patricia. The Talented Mr. Ripley, 1955
Hobhouse, Janet. The Furies, 1993
Hulme, Keri. The Bone People, 1983 (another one I own, but haven’t read)
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God, 1937
Jackson, Shirley. The Haunting of Hill House, 1959
Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer. Heat and Dust, 1975
Jong, Erica
Source: sargasso sea - Feme Meme

hurricane hannah 2008 -

by Mark Silva

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Sen. John McCain, keeping a watchful eye on Hurricane Gustav - now a Category Five monster steaming into the Gulf of Mexico - says the storm also could have an impact on the staging of the Republican National Convention that opens here on Monday.

“You know, it just wouldn’t be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster,” McCain says in an interview with FOX News Sunday that will be shown tomorrow, “so we’re monitoring it from day to day, and I’m saying a few prayers too.

Three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi and inundated New Orleans, Gustav arrives in the Gulf with a force similar to what Katrina first threatened.

Gustav has reached Category Five - Katrina had achieved the maximum category, Five, before making landfall as a Category Three.

The predicted path of the storm includes New Orleans.

Chris Wallace asks McCain, for FOX News Sunday: “Hurricane Gustav is bearing down on the Gulf Coast. Are there any circumstances under which you would consider suspending the Republican convention if the hurricane really bashes that part of the country?”

“I’m afraid, Chris that we may have to look at that situation and we’ll try to monitor it,” McCain replies in the interview, an excerpt provided by FOX.

“I’ve been talking to Govs. Jindal, Barbara O’Reilly, Christ, I’ve been talking to all of them, but you know it just wouldn’t be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster, so we’re monitoring it from day to day, and I’m saying a few prayers too.”

The Republican National Committee says the convention is still on, for now, but they are monitoring events.

The Naional Hurricane Center said, just before the most recent upgrade: “GUSTAV BECOMES AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS CATEGORY FOUR HURRICANE…WESTERN EYEWALL DIRECTLY IMPACTING THE ISLE OF YOUTH… A HURRICANE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE CUBAN PROVINCES OF PINAR DEL RIO…LA HABANA…CIUDAD DE LA HABANA…ISLA DE JUVENTUD…MATANZAS…AND CIENFUEGOS. PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY IN THE HURRICANE WARNING AREA SHOULD HAVE ALREADY BEEN COMPLETED.”,,

hurricane
Source: hurricane hannah 2008 - McCain eyes Gustav, ‘festive’ convention

hawaii football - Yes, Busta, you’re right. We made it…finally.

Good thing this is only a “quasi-live” blog of the Florida/Hawaii tussle since it’s getting started part way through the second quarter. Oh well, better late than never, and as Kanye said “you should be honored by my lateness”.

Anyway, Major Wright just gave the Gators a pick-six, and the secondary has looked pretty good. Though, it’s not like Colt Brennan is still under center for Hawaii. Wright has also laid the wood on a few tackles, and if he can cover pass routes as good as he hits this season then we could see an heir to RFN’s stature as “scary fuckin’ safety”.

Joe Haden just recovered a fumble, and UF’s secondary is all over the field today. There are five of them covering sideline to sideline, so they better be blanketing a lot of turf.

Brandon James returns a punt for a TD, and there’s a flag…wait…no there’s not. It’s a fucking miracle! Hopefully that’s a sign of good things to come.

Chris Rainey for a TD. Yes, he is one of the fastest guys in college football, and it’s nice to see him socring when he gets his hands on the ball.

Speed. Last season it seemed that if a defender made a mistake there was no one else to help out. So far this season, Florida’s defense is swarming with DB’s, LB’s and D-linemen.

Real life is taking over now, so this will end the “live blog”. So far, I’m pleased by what I’ve seen out of Florida. Hopefully, the offense can get on track a bit more because they’ll need to score points and put together long drives when they start their SEC schedule.

Source: hawaii football - Florida vs Hawaii, The Quasi-Live Blog

mark hayden -

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Police have arrested a 19-year-old man in the shooting of a Mansfield man found dead behind the wheel of a running car.

Mark Hayden of Mansfield was arrested last night at the town’s police station.

He faces charges including murder at his arraignment, which has been postponed until 2 p.m. today.

Eighteen-year-old Andrew Colwell was found Monday night in a car with a gunshot wound to the head outside a condominium complex in Mansfield, about 25 miles south of Boston.

The Colwell family has sent a statement, through the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office:

“We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the heath care professionals and law enforcement agencies for their relentless efforts in assisting Andrew and our family during this very difficult time. We ask that the media respects our need for privacy as we begin to grieve the loss of our son Andrew.”

Hayden was wanted for questioning after the shooting and was spotted by MBTA officials Monday afternoon at South Station in Boston.

He was stopped by police and agreed to return to Mansfield for questioning.

Authorities did not immediately comment on a motive.

– The Associated Press

mark
Source: mark hayden - Update: Parents of slain Mansfield man speak out

jason siemon - Media: Going from the CNN drunk to a married man, classy.

jason
Source: jason siemon - Lara Logan’s hot Iraq love life.

OAKLAND, California – Now that Hans Reiser, the Linux developer, has led authorities to the gravesite he dug 4-feet-deep for his estranged wife he killed in 2006, there’s likely to be some psychological closure for Nina Reiser’s family and her two small kids the defendant fathered.

“Now the family gets to pick a burial site, not the defendant,” prosecutor Paul Hora told a news conference Tuesday, as he explained a complex legal maneuver by which a California jury’s April first-degree murder conviction can be nullified and converted to a second-degree conviction in exchange for the defendant’s production of the body.

The difference is an automatic 25-to-life term being reduced to a 15-to-life term, leaving it to California parole officials to determine eligibility for release only after the 44-year-old defendant serves 15 years. No sentencing date has been scheduled.

The psychological benefits of the deal are impossible to quantify. Clearly, the deal brokered between Hora and defense attorneys and being approved by the judge will open up old wounds. While the six months of trial verged on a story that Hollywood playwrights could only dream of concocting, the real life actors of this made-for-television drama are the victim’s mother, Irina — Nina’s and Han’s two children, a boy now 8 and a girl now 6, and other family members and friends.

The children are living with Nina’s mother in St. Petersburg, Russia, where the couple met when Hans was overseas hiring programmers for his Namesys software company.

At least for the blood relatives, the benefits to them are easy to see. During the trial, Reiser and his attorneys maintained that Nina abandoned the children after he accused her of bilking his company, and that he stood falsely accused of murdering the mother of his two children.

Reiser and his attorneys told jurors the grandmother even coached her grandson to testify against his father. But the b
Source: reiserfs file system - Analysis: Recovery of Nina’s Body Provides Closure, New Meaning to Hans Reiser Murder Trial

butch patrick -

Filed under: Fandom, Cinematical Indie, Trailers and Clips

Strangers are staring at me. No, I’m not paranoid, and I’m not a beautiful person. But ever since I saw Linda Linda Linda, a sweet yet perceptive film about the dreams and aspirations of high school girl musicians, the title song has been stuck in my head. The toughest part? It’s sung in Japanese. So now I find myself singing “Linda Linda. Linda Linda Linda” and humming the insistently memorable tune over and over again. It’s just so darn catchy. (Check out the clip from the movie.)

I don’t really mind, though, because I loved the movie, which follows three Japanese girls who recruit a Korean exchange student to become their singer so they can perform at an important school function. And I’m not alone in loving the song, which was originally recorded by the seminal punk band The Blue Hearts in the 1980s. (Watch this clip for evidence.) Japanese pop culture expert Patrick Macias says on the DVD that the song is still a karaoke favorite and that learning all the words makes foreigners instantly cool (or words to that effect).

Songs from movies have gotten stuck in my head before. Way back when, I found myself constantly singing “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and then I became a John Williams freak, humming and tapping my fingers to music from Jaws, Star Wars, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I hated disco, so I worked very hard to keep all those songs from Saturday Night Fever out of my head.

Continue reading Discuss: Movie Songs Stuck in Your Head

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Source: butch patrick - Discuss: Movie Songs Stuck in Your Head

As a blogger, and in particular as a YANKEES’ blogger, I feel it is my sworn duty to write something about the Alex Rodriguez-Madonna-Cynthia Rodriguez-Lenny Kravitz entanglement, and the Rodriguez’s reported separation.

After all, the illustrious Dan Shanoff called it “the best sports story ever” in an entry on The Sporting Blog this morning. Deadspin spent time today wondering how Yankee fans will greet A-Rod tonight when the Yankees face the Red Sox.

The thing is, I really don’t give a damn about the whole sordid mess. If A-Rod and the missus want to go their separate ways, and spend their time swapping bodily fluids with used-up, passed around, former super stars that’s their problem. Not mine.

Sports story? The amazing Tampa Bay Rays are a sports story. Seattle losing the Sonics after 41 years is a sports story. The ongoing Wimbledon tennis tournament is a sports story.

The Alex-Madonna-Cynthia-Lenny entanglement? That’s a New York Post Page 6 celebrity gossip story. A fine, juicy one with lots of rumors, half-truths, denials, secrecy and untold stories for sure, but still a celebrity gossip story. Not a sports one.

Maybe I’ve been rendered humorless by the less-than-stellar season the Yankees are having. Maybe I just don’t have the true soul of the humorist blogger, the kind who lives to expound on and make fun of the juiciest of rumors.

I don’t know. I just know that what I care about is A-Rod hopefully using his wooden bat to get some key hits this weekend against Boston and next week against first-place Tampa Bay.

I really could care less what he uses his wood for on his own time.

Source: The biggest sports story ever?