This year the New York Review of Books, one of the world’s most esteemed English-language journals of literature and politics, turns fifty. To mark the occasion, there have been celebrations in New York and a series of remembrances and essays published online. Sample the latter by clicking here, where you’ll find pieces by (and audio clips of) writers such as Darryl Pinckney, Andrew Martin, Jason Epstein, Revan Schendler, and others.
Turnaround, 1965, oil on canvas, 68 x 60 inches
Ginia Bellafante profiles an exemplary New York exhibition—on view until June 14—in the NYT:
“Jane Freilicher: Painter Among Poets,” an exhibition at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in Midtown . . . places Ms. Freilicher’s work in the context of her exalted status among the poets of free online pokie machine games the New York School — Mr. Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, Frank O’Hara, James Schuyler — to whom she was muse, confidante, beloved brain. “One doesn’t stay friends with somebody for 40 years unless they have a lot of nice qualities, such as brilliance,” Mr. Ashbery wrote two decades ago. “Jane Freilicher is also the wittiest person I have ever known.”
Paul Polak is attempting to raise money to bring solar power to farmers around the world. His SunWater crowdfunding campaign is a noble effort to change the way agriculture functions for the vast communities around the globe that are simply too impoverished to bring themselves up and grow more crops to make a living. These workers, unable to afford the inefficient diesel pumps to irrigate crops, must water their soil by hand, often carrying water great distances with much physical hardship.
SunWater aims to provide these farmers with a solar powered method that would bring water to crops cheaply, efficiently, and in an extremely environmentally friendly way. As detailed in a itself isn’t destroyed by pollution or unsustainable farming methods. The community benefits from cheaper and better produce, and most importantly a more bountiful supply of it.
In the proposal for SunWater, Paul states, “The much lower cost means farmers will be able to pay off the loans they use to purchase one in less than two years. Plus, there’s no fuel to buy. This game-changing reduction in cost will enable farmers to transform their small plot agriculture, create water markets where they don’t currently exist, and significantly increase their earnings.”
This is no small change. It’s a big, ambitious project, that involves a lot of work. But the plan is laid out in great detail, and it can be done. Read more about it on the Indiegogo page, and consider contributing even the smallest amount to a global change for the better.
Surfers in Santa Monica offer prayers of thanks to the spirits of surfers past and present. Photo: Karen Grigsby Bates/NPR
From NPR’s Morning Edition comes an interesting story about the Black Surfer’s Collective in Santa Monica, which “recently gathered to honor pioneer Nick Gabaldon, a legendary surfer who is remembered as the area’s first documented board man of African-American and Mexican heritag.” Gabaldon, they note, went to great lengths to surf Malibu in the ’40s and ’50’s—paddling twelve miles up coast to get to Surf Rider—and serves as an inspiration for many. Read the full story here.
According to Boston’s Business Journal, The EPA has predicted unhealthy air quality for many coastal beaches in the Northeast region this weekend. Children and adults with respiratory conditions are especially advised to avoid strenuous activities as elevated ozone levels can lead to breathing problems. Though it’s going to be this year’s first hot weekend since they opened, the beaches surrounding southern Massachusetts, Cape Cod and the Islands, eastern coastal Connecticut and Southern Rhode Island will be affected through Saturday.
Wondering how you can stay mindful this weekend? EPA officials recommend less driving, use of lawn mowers, chain saws, power washers and leaf blowers will help reduce the smog.
New Yorkers, kick off your summer with two fun summer events. This weekend in Montauk, head to Sole East for this fundraiser BBQ, catered by the Backyard Restaurant, with complimentary beer, courtesy of Brooklyn Brewery.  Proceeds from ticket sales benefit Waves For Water’s Hurricane Sandy Relief Initiative.
After sundown, a special outdoor screening of surf films, curated by SMASH Productions, featuring:
For kids and adults – design your own espadrilles with Soludos! Â Art supplies and shoes provided by Soludos. Â 100% of donations will benefit Waves For Water.
Then, next weekend, head to Rockaway for the re-opening of The Rockaway Beach Surf Club, and take part in the first of their women’s surf events:
DJ, Surf Films, Drinx – Free (event flyer coming soon)
One of my favorite websites to browse is ARCHI/MAPS, which pulls photographs of buildings, floorplans, other architectural renderings, and maps from various historical archives and posts them to the web. You can find Online Casino all manner of buildings, from medieval to modern, at the site, which also ranges across continents. Get lost there for hours! Above is the Iranian pavilion at Expo ’67 in Montreal.
Check out this mysterious, oceanic-ish installation at Swiss Institute in SoHo; it’s on view until June 23 and not to be missed.
From SI:
| The enigmatic body of work by Swiss artist Reto Pulfer (b. 1981, lives in Berlin) might be said to occur at the intersection of architectural space and performance. In his first solo-exhibition in the United States, Pulfer suspends large swathes of hand-painted cloth from the ceiling structure, countering the architecture of Swiss Institute’s main gallery while exploring an ethereal environment.Visitors enter into a mysterious sky-lit interior. The walls, enveloped in the unbleached cotton cloth, sway with movement, while dramatic pinpoints of swirling color are splayed out on the fabric-covered ceiling. This illuminated starry sky extends in a diagonal band from corner to corner across the space. The exhibition’s title, Zustandseffekte, roughly translated, means the effects of a phase of matter, referring to a contradictory process of both stagnation and transformation. Pulfer innovates ancient rhetoric, deploying it as a compass for his temporary intervention. Drawing from the ancient Greek strategy of mnemonics, the artist translates thought patterns into three-dimensional form: secondhand bed sheets, Raku-ceramics, and the handmade crate in which the work is shipped are used as vocabulary.
Reto Pulfer has exhibited at CCS Bard College (2013); Kunstverein Nürnberg, Germany (2013); Künstlerhaus Graz (2013); Kunsthaus Baselland (2012); Istituto Svizzero di Roma (2011); and the Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art Vienna (2011), among others. |
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