One of the things I love most about being able to present art via the Friday Favorites format is that it gives me an opportunity to share a variety of art styles, techniques, genres, mediums, etc. The internet is a fascinating place to discover artists and it feeds my fascination along the broad spectrum within which my interests lie.
Today I bring you something a bit different than more recent Friday Favorites. Allow me to introduce you to artist Irisz Agocs.
The New York Trilogy ~Paul Auster
–published 2006 (this edition)
–308 pages, Penguin Classics
–4/5 stars
“In the good mystery there is nothing wasted, no sentence, no word that is not significant. And even if it is not significant, it has the potential to be so–which amounts to the same thing. The world of the book comes to life, seething with possibilities, with secrets and contradictions. Since everything seen or said, even the slightest, most trivial thing, can bear a connection to the outcome of a story, nothing must be overlooked.” (City of Glass)
Having recently discovered Paul Auster via Travels in the Scriptorium, and recalling that I actually had purchased a copy of The New York Trilogy earlier in the year based on end-of-the-year reviews, it was easy to choose which book to move to the top of my reading pile. The New York Trilogy has an interesting premise–three novellas of a mysterious nature set in and around the city of New York that somehow overlap and tie in to one another. Knowing what Auster was capable of because of Travels, I knew it would be far less simple than this–and I was correct. There is more going on in each of these three brief stories than one can deduce in a first reading.
Call me Mr. Optimistic. Amidst the early rumblings from those who had seen the film pre-release I continued to remain positive and upbeat. The new Indiana Jones film just had to be good. We had all waited so long. No amount of trepidation could keep me away from opening weekend and Saturday afternoon found me at the very front of the line in an hour long wait to get in to see the return of a hero from my youth.
Good things come to those who wait…sometimes. This is not one of those times.
I want to say first off that I can certainly understand why someone could go and see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and enjoy it. I won’t beat you up for that. I too enjoyed aspects of the film knowing full well that I went in to the theatre with my Indy-colored glasses on. But even viewed through the lens of nostalgia I felt that the film was a let down in ways that continued to become more apparent after the film was done and it had time to simmer in my mind. Spielberg, Lucas, and company wanted to recapture the magic. I truly believe their intentions were good. Unfortunately the only place they succeeded in recapturing that magic was in the classic poster illustration by Drew Struzan.
The following review will, of necessity, contain some spoilers:
Continue reading Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
(Image by Jason Chan, click for larger wallpaper version)
No, the Angel of Death hasn’t come sweeping down to collect me, but if you had been anywhere in my vicinity the past few days you might have suspected such–I brought back an extra special gift from my anniversary trip…a nasty cold. On Tuesday evening my voice started to fade. By Wednesday, much to the delight, no doubt, of my employees I could barely talk and sounded like a boy with a bad case of laryngitis going through puberty. 🙂
The cold remains but my voice has somewhat returned and with it some energy and time to get back to posting and visiting others’ sites. No Friday Favorites as such today (shed no tears) but there is a bit of art, some comedy, and a prize winner following the break!
Travels in the Scriptorium ~Paul Auster
–published 2006
–145 pages, Picador
–4/5 stars
I have been very good in controlling my book buying habits of late (which I attribute primarily to the fact that I haven’t been going into the bookstore much lately). Because of this my defenses were down and when I went in to Barnes and Noble last week to pick up a copy of Stephanie Barron’s A Flaw in the Blood for my wife I wasted no time in deciding to pick up this Paul Auster book shelved close by.
My conceit during our annual anniversary getaways is that I will finish one book during our time away. That rarely happens because I often take something along that is too big to realistically finish in the time frame alloted (after all, I don’t only want to read on my anniversary *wink, wink*). At only 145 pages, I knew I could not go wrong with Travels in the Scriptorium.
And how could I resist with a back cover blurb like this: