#Bram Kinet

[juliehowlin]

8 November

In 1994, the physical education department at a high school in Winnetka, Illinois was renamed Department of Kinetic Wellness.

10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 8 November:

[jongvanhart]

© Bram Kinet

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/17/2018 & 10/19/2018: DRACULA, DRÁCULA (1931)

Because so much has been said about Dracula in general, and most especially the Universal Pictures iteration, I won’t pretend to have anything new or elaborate to offer on the subject. I hadn’t seen the contemporaneous George Melford version before (shot at night using the same sets, but starring a spanish-speaking cast--a common practice at the time), so I felt like it was about time. Considering my limited comments about Bram Stoker’s massively influential antihero, it seems most reasonable to bundle these two features together.

I always find it a little challenging to revisit the original Universal monster movies. I find it difficult to view them with fresh eyes, without simultaneously thinking of their sprawling cultural legacy. Dracula, for instance, can be very difficult to separate from Sesame Street’s The Count, or Count Chocula the cereal mascot, or the variously green and purple bloodsuckers that terrorized one’s favorite cartoon characters each October, or any of the cinematic variations that materialize unceasingly, year after year, in pictures as diverse as the slumber party classic MONSTER SQUAD, and the pornographic DRACULA SUCKS, and even DRACULA’S DOG, whose title speaks for itself. We can easily set aside Dracula’s narrative context, and recognize him by his abstract parts: The fangs, certainly, but also the cape, the widow’s peak, mysterious medallion, even extrapolations like pointy ears. At this point in history, Dracula has become a kind of hieroglyphic, a semiotic unit that is difficult to reincarnate as a unique figure of horror from a specific narrative.

But if Dracula is a sign, then what is signified? The honest answer is, practically everything. Just as Dracula mesmerizes his prospective victims and slaves, audiences from every age are inexorably drawn to dress him in their personal hangups. The obscure Hungarian Count, whose reproductive behavior eschews the genitals but contaminates the blood, whose sadistic form of lovemaking creates around him a harem of addicts, who is accompanied everywhere by pestilent animal familiars--according to hordes of scholars, there seems to be no subtext unsuited for Dracula, be it xenophobia, homosexuality, incest, the march of imperialism, the ravages of drug addition, plague, and sexuality transmitted disease. Also, of course, as a supernatural id monster who experiences wonders unfathomable to the human senses, Dracula also represents the conflict between our survivalist reliance on stifling civilization, and the criminal but magical freedom enjoyed by those who dare to free themselves from taboo. He even represents true love, as he shares an intimacy with Mina (or Eva in the Melford version) that outstrips the strictures of her marriage and social obligations. I would hesitate to place Dracula, the Mummy, the Wolfman, and the Invisible Man in any sort of hierarchy, but it does seem that while the other Universal monsters have fairly specific stories to tell, Dracula has been all things to all people.

This is the mountain of baggage that I try to climb out from under, when I watch Dracula. I would love to be able to see either film--the better-known Bela Lugosi version, or George Melford’s somewhat more robust and kinetic spanish version--without all this burdensome academic awareness. I find it possible to some minor degree. I love how muted and fleeting the Browning version is, a nearly-silent nightmare that strikes the viewer and then passes in the night without a lot of undue procedural nonsense. Renfield, a solicitor who chases a lucrative real estate deal into the remote mountains of Transylvania, meets a bizarre scenario there: Instead of a grand castle, an uninhabitable ruin; Instead of a regal personage attended by his loyal servants, an alienated loner who personally waits on his guest hand and foot, who doesn’t seem to understand the most basic rules of conversation. In Renfield’s place, you might expect the murdered corpse of the “real” Count Dracula to come tumbling out of a wardrobe at any moment, triggering a mortal battle with this perverse home invader. If certain rumors prove out, the fundamental oddness of Lugosi’s Dracula is due in part to his own foreignness, which obligated him to learn his english dialog phonetically. Carlos Vallarias’ vampire is only a little less weird, though. The Melford edition is longer by about 20 minutes, which gives the disturbing story more time to settle in and expand, resulting in some richer performances and a denser emotional fabric. At the risk of sounding pretty weird myself, Vallarias reminds me a little of Andy Kaufman. I actually think they look alike to some degree, but it is also a matter of character. Is this crackling charm and humor genuine, or is there something kind of wrong with this guy? Is this what you’d call a dynamic personality, or manic depression? Is he more exciting, or more dangerous? Is he irresistibly seductive, or an insidious parasite? The big question really is, who is Dracula to you, when you first meet him? According to decades of multivalent critical analysis and artistic reiteration, it seems that the answer is truly up to you.

[nwisblog]

Spring Course: C

Class: Elementary

Teachers: Dani & Bram

Theme: Robin Hood

Today was the last day of our spring course C. We started our day with a small game followed by circle time. During circle time, we talked about "Energy" and different kinds of energy. We talked about what is potential energy and kinetic energy. Also, answered their questions about energy. We use the bow and arrow that we made and described and showed them how do the potential and kinetic energy work. After that, we started to make the quiver. They selected color foam material and sewed it together and they learned different kinds of sewing skills. At the end of the day, they stacked the cup together and used their archery skills. We had lots of fun together.

[thequillsink]

Vampire State Building review Published by grimoireofhorror.com and The Banshee June 26, 2021 

Vampires have been the subject of media as far back as the publication of John William Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897). Their is lore subject to variation and change over the years to create the vampiric entities that have cemented themselves as part of our popular culture.

This history has not deterred creators to attempt to reinvent the mythology to effectively devise a new distinct type of fear from these classic staples of horror history. For example, Guillermo del Toro’s and Chuck Hogan’s The Strain achieved commercial success and popularity – proving audiences’ readiness to embrace reinterpretations of the iconic creatures. Consequently, Vampire State Building embraces its own unique take on the genre and looks bloody wonderous while doing it.

What is it?

Vampire State Building is a 2019 horror graphic novel from the pens of French writers Ange (Anne and Gerard Guéro) and Patrick Renault, which contains illustration provided by Charlie Adlard, co-creator and artist of the legendary The Walking Dead comics. The graphic novel was published by Ablaze Publishing and Diamond Books. It was released as a full volume including all four issues alongside cover artwork and character designs.

The comic follows Terry Fisher, a young soldier soon to be deployed to Afghanistan on active military duty. Before leaving, his friends decide to throw a going away party at the Empire State Building. However, without warning, the building is swarmed by a legion of vampires who massacre the numerous occupants ruthlessly. It is now up to Terry to take charge and escape with his friends before succumbing to these rampaging creatures.

What Worked

Vampire State Building’s story is quick to introduce the carnage, launching into the action after a dozen or so pages – continuing at a breakneck pace until its climatic finale.  Thankfully, the short mini-series does not affect the narrative quality – the work never feels rushed with a naturally kinetic action bolstering story progression.

Visually, Charlie Adlard’s artwork conjures up a tense and desperate atmosphere. Highlighting gritty, earthy colours contrasted by the bright crimson from the aftermath of violence, the artwork is especially pronounced. Unsurprisingly, given Adlard’s previous work, the aesthetic is reminiscent of The Walking Dead with minute attention to detail and amazing use of lighting to incisively contour scenes.

This newly released volume is the definitive way to enjoy this graphic novel, in my opinion, versus tracking down single issues – it is the complete version for any collector.

Caution! Spoilers Ahead

Finally, the vampires having links to Native American culture is an intriguing angle from the lore. They act less like parasitic entities and more like an organized cult, working as individuals but loyal to a single cause. Additionally, how people become and transition into vampire undergoes significant changes – death at the hands of these creatures is enough to ensure transformation.

What Didn’t work

I couldn’t help but notice a very meta reference to The Walking Dead that was very cheesy and should have been omitted, in my opinion. It is an obnoxious distraction as needless indulgence.

Being a mini-series, Vampire State Building has a heavy emphasis on its action-packed story, leaving characters feeling somewhat lacking in depth. They have their basic character outlines to differentiate between themselves, but it hardly goes any further in depth. Consequently, it was difficult to care about their fate and feel any attachment.  Conversely, the non-stop action easily compensates for this minor flaw as action entertainment over character development.

Where Can I Get It?

Vampire State Building is available to order on Amazon, as well as anywhere specialist comics are sold.

Overall Thoughts

Vampire State Building is a fun, if not short, graphic novel, full of brutal depictions of violence flooding the pages to build into a glorious climax. Certainly, lovers of action horror graphic novels will get a kick out of this page turner. Unfortunately, fans of traditional vampire lore may not revel in the changes made to the identity of vampires – their stubborn loss absolutely.

The high velocity story completely engrossed me up until the last page – a highly enjoyable experience paced well from start to finish. Fans of The Walking Dead, The Strain and other similar titles will certainly appreciate this unique gem.

[chicagoindiecritics]

New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: MOVIE REVIEW: Run This Town

(Image courtesy of Oscilloscope and Quiver Distribution)

RUN THIS TOWN— 3 STARS

Behind every political monster has a staff of underlings who have stories to tell and permanent stains on their resumes. More often than not, unless they are a featured mouthpiece or the eventual public whistle-blower, we don’t really see these people, even when we know they are there. Across the guarded podiums, pushy microphones, and invasive cameras are also the faceless by-lines of cub reporters trying to break stories and make a name for themselves. They too are dependent on the grinding political machine. Run This Town, an alum of the 2019 SXSW Film Festival, gives faces and voices to unfortunate minions and nobodies tied to the late and former mayor of Toronto mayor Rob Ford.

This shrewdly movie leaves the monster in the background and highlights the eager and opportunistic help. After a quick primer of archival footage, we meet a cadre of subordinates filling the council chamber seats of their political bosses after hours. They are crushing beers and challenging each other with practice lobs of schemes to spin. The king of this court is Kamal, the special assistant to the mayor, played by Aladdin discovery Mena Massoud. Rapid-fire Sorkin-esque dialogue framed by split-screen shooting and editing shows the smoothly acidic, yet pragmatic guile of Kamal and this crew, none of which are likely over the age of 30.

With a braggadocios “they don’t call us special assistants for nothing,” what was done in mock here becomes their day-to-day livelihood in public trailing the rotund, sweaty, and explosive Rob Ford. Looming in the wild and clueless periphery, the mayor is played an unrecognizable Damian Lewis of Homeland. Outstanding prosthetic makeup from department head and It makeup artist Emily O’Quinn and designers Steve Newburn and Neil Morrill (Shazam! And Suicide Squad) molds the actor into the rough-edged sinner who sees himself as a man-of-the-people do-gooder when he’s actually a raging addict and philanderer. 

But that’s the boss, and you don’t cross the boss. Smashing opposition, combating scandal, and dodging social media pursuits has become the livelihood of all in Ford’s inner circle of handlers. It’s a choice paycheck, but one that costs integrity, as noted when a jaded law degree holder named Ashley (Nina Dobrev) is brought in as a new hire to swim in these murky waters.

Parallel to Kamal’s cynicism of misinformation is another twenty-something trying to squeeze virtue and confidence from the truth instead. Bram (Ben Platt of Pitch Perfect) is a mossy green journalism grad who earns a job with The Record writing bottom-of-the-roster list pieces for his tired desk editor David (Scott Speedman) and to the disapproval of his pushy parents. Idealist to a fault, Bram is a squirmy, dithering bumbler, and Platt overplays those wussy nerves every chance he gets as a foil to the Massoud’s suave slants. When he chases a possibly incendiary story of Ford’s recorded crack cocaine use, entangled sources from the mayor’s office and a pair of detectives (Hamza Haq and long-lost Ally McBeal star Gil Bellows) come sniffing around.

LESSON #1: THE DESPERATION CONNECTED TO EARNING AND KEEPING A PROMINENT JOB— Two halves between Kamal and Bram are both struggling. The reporter is at the bottom looking up and the political puppeteer is on top peering down. Working for a powerful mayor at this level is quite the springboard for a young person, as is getting the chance to hop up the ladder to pitch and scoop a legitimate journalism assignment for a name publication. However, the height of career failure is high for both sides in Run This Town. Keeping your job overshadows the CYA of “cover your ass” and that potential calamity is even higher for a woman like Ashley.

LESSON #2: WHEN YOU HAVE A STORY— For Bram, the question is validating all of the rumors and misinformation for what is being presented. For Kamal and his office, the same possible incident is measured for any needed damage control. One is untangling, the other is twisting, and the yarn in question is the worthiness and clarity of the truth. This chase slots Run This Town as an highly off-beat and intriguing scandal and journalism flick.

LESSON #3: WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE A STORY— The rub of it all becomes the words used, between both spoken statements and printed copy. Those stabbing and snappy words come from debuting writer-director Ricky Tollman. Free speech, lacking facts, and slanted coverage allow spin which can flush a bad thing away, leaving the pursuer with nothing to corroborate or publish. Poor moves and bumbling the channels of reporting will cost stories as well. What destroys spin is when the victimizing and crossed lines add up or go too far, even against the aforementioned desperation of forced career loyalty.

The style is present in Run This Town to be a modern homage to the slow-boil political thrillers of the 1970s. The punchy music from debuting Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge (Black Dynamite) creates a sharp tone to the kitschy visual motifs that include clever screen-filled hidden letters of the opening and closing credits. The multi-point cinematography by Nick Haight (Clara) is top-notch. Lit often and appropriately by fluorescent isolation or bar-lit seediness, Haight’s rotating establishing shots and pinching zooms pump the peril fueled by kinetic editing by emerging talent Sandy Pereira. Their combined split-screen effect creates an energetic film experience, but that approach is slowed and eventually abandoned by the end.  That pacing and presentation would have done wonders if kept the entire film.

The narrative impact of Run This Town veers closer to Lesson #3 than Lesson #2. Taking this background route is a far more unique approach to an expose than documenting the main man himself and all of the deplorable behavior connected to him. The professional high-wire creates and includes more character opportunities than a single focus. That said, there’s a loosey-goosey grip on this because, no matter what, the story is still Rob Ford. As compelling as Massoud and Dobrov are, the business of true suspense and menace picks up when Lewis makes his appearances. A film wanting to be heavy needed more of its heavy.

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#864)

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[man-creates-dinosaurs]

“I couldn’t care less about dinosaurs…”

                                   - Mike Mignola* It may surprise followers of this blog to learn that my favorite comic book artist is not one who is predisposed to drawing dinosaurs, at least if the above quote is any indication. Mike Mignola (b. Sept. 16th, 1960) is a twelve-time Eisner Award winning American comic book artist and writer best known for his Lovecraftian, folklore-infused, occult-horror comic series including Hellboy, B.P.R.D., Abe Sapien, Jenny Finn, The Amazing Screw-on Head, Lobster Johnson, and Sir Edward Grey: Witchfinder. Mignola has also co-authored and illustrated three novels with writer Christopher Golden - Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire (2007), Joe Golem and the Drowning City (2012) and Father Gaetano’s Puppet Catechism (2012) - and one with writer Thomas E. Sniegoski: Grim Death and Bill the Electrocuted Criminal (2017). He has also worked as a concept artist on a number of films including BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA (1992, Dir. Francis Ford Coppola), Disney’s ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE (2001, Dir. Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise), BLADE II (2002, Dir. Guillermo del Toro) and Pixar’s BRAVE (2012, Dir. Mark Andrews & Brenda Chapman). Mignola is best known for his distinct high contrast, angular art style which writer Alan Moore has described as “German expressionism meets Jack Kirby.” Though today a source seemingly unending accolades, Mignola’s unique drawing style was initially seen as an impediment when he began working in the comics industry in the early 1980s. Poorly suited for the kind of kinetic action and supermodel physiques which typify superhero comics, Mignola’s early work on miniseries like DC’s Cosmic Odyssey (Dec. 1988 - March 1989, 4 issues) were notorious disasters. The following year however Mignola drew the one-shot Batman story Gotham by Gaslight, by writer  Brian Augustyn, which re-imagined Batman as a Victorian-era detective hunting down Jack the Ripper. With his moody art carrying what would become the vanguard of DC’s Elseworlds line of alternate reality comics, Mignola had finally come into his own. Eventually Mignola would break away from the mainstream superhero markets of DC and Marvel and join the budding independent publisher Dark Horse Comics where he would create his own monster-centric, horror comic series like Hellboy. Prior to that however the mainstream publishers needed to figure out something to do with him which is how Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure (1990, one-shot) with writer Walt Simonson, came about. As Mignola tells it in Comic Book Artist #23 (TwoMorrows Publishing, Dec. 2002) he was approached with the project because it had been decided that while he couldn’t draw superheroes he could probably handle “dinosaurs and cavemen.” So for the first and last time, we present Mike Mignola’s drawings of dinosaurs... Above:               

1) Wolverine, stranded in the Savage Land, befriends the Tribe of Fire and becomes their champion. Here they move across and the plains while a lone sauropod wades in the background. 2) Wolverine finds himself quite at home in the Savage Land, impressing his caveman comrades by killing a dimetrodon with his bare hands… em, claws. 3-5) Wolverine becomes the champion of the Tribe of Fire - henceforth the Tribe of Wolverine - by slaying a marauding T. Rex. Mignola may not care about dinosaurs but damn, he certainly can draw them.  *Deliberately taken slightly out of context. The full quote, which appeared on the back of Ricardo Delgado’s Age of Reptiles: The Hunt #2 (Dark Horse, June 1996), is “I couldn’t care less about dinosaurs, but I love Age of Reptiles.”

[louisonurmark]

The Volkswagen Group as we know it, could undergo a transformation programme on a scale that may be unprecedented in automotive history. According to Automobile, the auto giant revealed that it will release a whopping 70 new electric vehicles by 2028, up from the 50 it originally announced.

The move will see production of EVs soar from 15 million to 22 million units, and by 2025, the group would have invested over 30 billion euros (RM140 billion) in electrification alone. By 2030, the EV penetration across all brands under the VW Group is set to exceed 40%, and by 2050, it wants to be a fully CO2-neutral carmaker, both in terms of products and manufacturing processes.

Those are ambitious targets, and in order to achieve them, a bold, radical plan would have to be set in motion to make it work. Brace yourselves, folks, this one’s going to be heavy.

Earlier this year, first details of Vision 2030 began trickling down from the board level to several senior managers. Apparently, the proposed rethink is based on four pillars – the restructuring of the global production network, the streamlining of key technologies, the focus on core brands, and the clear emphasis on EVs, autonomous driving, and digitalisation.

According to the report, the unions have already started to fight this policy, which naturally entails substantial cost-cutting. It added that the VW Group is overstaffed, under-efficient, and desperately short of pragmatic forward thinkers. The company is also said to be in short supply of electrical-architecture specialists, software specialists, and digital marketing experts.

Conversely, Volkswagen’s mechanical engineers and assembly-line workers are to evolve into a financial burden, especially when compared to lean start-ups (Tesla is a great example of this) which are devoid of inherited liabilities.

Moving forward, the group will work with three brand new EV platforms, those being the MEB (compact- to mid-size cars; development led by VW), the PPE (mid- to full-size cars; jointly developed by Audi and Porsche), and the J1 (Porsche Taycan, Audi e-tron GT). These EVs will gradually take over the combustion engine portfolio, with engine variations reduced by up to 60%, depending on the brand. Also on its way out is the manual transmission.

VW Group chairman, Herbert Diess said: “In the long run, we want to scale back the portfolio of conventional models and concentrate instead on a fast-growing family of EVs. With the ID model range, Volkswagen is about to demonstrate the benefits of fusing diversification and standardisation.”

Will Bugatti be sold off?

Now comes the tough part. According to sources in Wolfsburg, only Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche are likely to survive long-term in their current forms, whereas other remaining brands may eventually be merged, reinvented, or sold off. Insiders also insist that there are plans to create an additional marque that, like Tesla, would exclusively sell electric vehicles.

That means brands like Bugatti, Bentley, Lamborghini, Italdesign, and Ducati may no longer be part of the Volkswagen Group. Italdesign and Ducati are rumoured to be spun off soon, Bugatti could be gifted to Ferdinand Piëch (former VW Group chief), and Bentley’s future is uncertain as well. Lamborghini, however, may get a second chance under Audi or Porsche.

According to a senior strategist, the Bentley brand combines all the wrong brand values with old world design and conventional engineering. “Why invest on a backward-looking enterprise when you can support a trendsetter? A proud history and excellent craftsmanship alone don’t cut it anymore.”

Although not confirmed, there exists a plan B for Bentley, that is to keep it as is until a suitor, perhaps from China, steps forward and takes it away. The Automobile report adds that neither the PPE nor J1 platforms are part of the Bentley DNA, so the “dowry might be heavy on glitz and light on substance.”

Lamborghini belongs to Audi on paper, but the reality is Porsche is already pulling quite a few strings while Ingolstadt foots the bill. Even though the new Aventador has the board’s blessings, Audi CEO Bram Schot said it’s merely a formality, with Diess adding “I am not prepared to let every sports car have its own bespoke drivetrain.” Sounds like the death of V12 engines to us, but make of that what you will.

Apparently, VW Group honchos currently prefer a trimmed lawn to a wildflower meadow, but rare and exotic species can only survive with plenty of passion in the equation. Return on investment is the top priority, whereas persistent underperformance will lead to uncertainty for the nice-to-haves (cue Bentley and Lamborghini).

When asked whether VW is considering launching a fully electric and mobility-focused brand aimed at young urbanites, Diess said “it would be a mistake not to address the increasingly volatile market with potentially game-changing new offerings. Trouble is, we already have a very full plate, and there is a limit to our spending power.”

The VW Group is currently worth around 80 billion euros (RM373 billion), but Diess thinks he can more than double the value by taking bold decisions, such as shifting the emphasis from classic brands to new fully connected ventures. Insiders say the proposed urban-vehicle architecture ranges from “a little shorter than the Up! to a little longer than the Polo,” and it could allegedly spawn up to 10 different body styles.

Static Photo Colour: kinetic dust

However, the biggest challenge is to turn the so-called urban brand into a solid business case, sources say. Although the city cars can make do with smaller batteries and a range of no more than 160 km, VW would need a low-cost production facility (most likely in China, India, or Russia), a strong cooperation partner, and a willing supplier base to achieve the target profit rate of 6%. For now, the venture seems unrealistic, owing to the fact that its car business is currently barely breaking even.

Going back to the trio of platforms (MEB, PPE and J1), several brands within the family will use it as the base for upcoming cars. Those may include the Audi TTE Coupe/Roadster, next-gen Porsche Boxster and Cayman, reborn Lamborghini Urraco, a high-end 2+2 Audi crossover (based on the J1; development to be led by Porsche), an ultra-luxury Bentley grand touring crossover (also based on the J1), as well as a 1,341 hp/1,500 Nm Porsche/Lamborghini hypercar with solid state batteries.

Similar proliferation schemes have been mapped out for MEB- and PPE-derived products. While MEB involves VW, Audi, SEAT, and Skoda, PPE is reserved for the premium and sport/luxury divisions. “These days, risks and opportunities live next door to each other,” says Diess. “Smart timing can make all the difference, especially as far as future EVs are concerned. We can offer the customer great products at competitive prices, but without a fully functioning infrastructure, the prettiest kite won’t fly.”

VW Group may undergo massive overhaul – Bugatti, Bentley, Lamborghini, and Ducati to be sold by 2030? The Volkswagen Group as we know it, could undergo a transformation programme on a scale that may be unprecedented in automotive history.

[multipublicity]

Diamond Kinetics CEO, CJ Handron, On The Future Of Baseball Technology

This week on the SportTechie Podcast with Bram Weinstein, Diamond Kinetics CEO and Co-Founder, CJ Handron, joins us to discuss the future of baseball and training technology. Diamond Kinetics is a baseball and softball technology company that strives to help players of all levels gain deeper data-driven insights into their skills and performance.

You can also subscribe to the SportTechie podcast…

[caveartfair]

18 Artists Share the Books That Inspire Them

Some artists wear their literary loves on their sleeves. Take Frances Stark, who, for this year’s Whitney Biennial, filled a room with enormous, painterly reproductions of the first chapter of Censorship Now!, an irreverent essay collection by Ian F. Svenonius. Likewise, Icelandic art star Ragnar Kjartansson is such a fan of Halldór Laxness’s World Light that he not only plowed through the multi-part epic, he translated it into an almost 21-hour, four-channel video.  

But more often than not, we have no idea what artists are reading, no idea what books have shaped their life and work. And so, we asked 18 of our favorites to help compile an eclectic, artsy summer reading list, which includes everything from nature guides to Toni Morrison, Playboy, and a history of psychedelics.

Before we begin, I can’t resist interjecting my own beach-ready recommendation: Alissa Nutting’s Made for Love, out in early July, a smart-and-perverted tale of deranged tech geniuses and dolphin romance.

Ivana Bašić

The Eye, by Vladimir Nabokov

“This extraordinary book is based around post-existence and the malleable nature of reality,” says Bašić (whose own reality-bending kinetic sculptures can be found at Marlborough Contemporary in New York through June 24th). “The main character commits suicide at the very beginning, in one of the most profound and visceral scenes I’ve ever read. Yet instead of nothingness, he encounters a world constructed from his own imperfect memories. He is a disembodied gaze: The Eye. The world he creates becomes as convincing as the one he lived in, destabilizing the idea of the origin of reality. The character exists outside of a body in what he describes as a state of ‘absorption.’ A tireless, unblinking eye that observes—watching oneself, and others—is an eerie vision of today’s world…written 87 years ago.”

Ridley Howard

A Field Guide To Getting Lost, by Rebecca Solnit

“I was always the kid on school trips that got lost, and I took pleasure in it,” says the painter, whose travel-inspired work was recently on view at Marinaro Gallery in New York. “I’ve always been a daydreamer; it seems harder to do those things now. Solnit’s book is really about introspection and loss, but also about wandering, drift, the mythology of place, old country music, and the color blue. I think a lot of artists will relate.”

Betty Tompkins

Lives of the Artists, by Calvin Tomkins

Post-To-Neo: The Art World of the 1980s, by Calvin Tomkins

Seeing Out Loud, by Jerry Saltz

Seeing Out Louder, by Jerry Saltz

The Generosity of Women, by Courtney Eldridge

The Family Fang, by Kevin Wilson

Tompkins—a fearless painter of all things sex-positive—likes to read about the art world itself. ��When I was an undergraduate in the 1960s, I read an article about Robert Rauschenberg by Calvin Tomkins in the New Yorker,” she says. That kicked off a fondness for Tomkins that led her to a series of books that she revisits every summer, beginning with Lives of the Artists and Post-To-Neo: The Art World of the 1980s.

“I was, and still am, impressed by critics—like Jerry Saltz today—who write for mass media,” Tompkins explains. “They talk to an audience who may not be art-wise, and they make art make sense.” Her recommendations include two volumes by Saltz: Seeing Out Loud, and Seeing Out Louder. “Those get tough competition from my two favorite novels about art: Courtney Eldridge’s The Generosity of Women, and Kevin Wilson’s The Family Fang.”

Roger White

October: The Story of the Russian Revolution, by China Miéville

The writer and painter suggests a searing historical survey he’s currently reading. “It’s billed as a layperson’s introduction to the birth of communism in the epochal year of 1917, but it’s a lot more than that,” he says. “Miéville, known for his extravagantly weird science fiction and fantasy, is a virtuosic storyteller; here he conjures a society convulsing on the verge of total transformation while staying squarely within the lines of the historical record. Reading this blow-by-blow account of revolution now, when political life is stranger than any fiction, is galvanizing.”

Sean Landers

Dracula, by Bram Stoker

The painter was drawn to “the firsthand diary narrative written within the novel by the fictional character Jonathan Harker,” he says. “I liked the idea of a fictional character writing within a larger fictional context. It gave me the idea to write as a fictional character, Chris Hamson, in my early written artwork Art, Life and God (1990).  My character Hamson’s penchant for writing in a flowery, Gothic, 19th-century style of English was me paying homage to Bram Stoker.”

Joel Mesler

Playboy

The painter and gallerist (who recently set up shop in the Hamptons) has fond memories of his childhood reading material. “When I was around nine, my father kept most current issues of Playboy in a magazine rack by his side of the bed,” he recalls. “When the coast would seem clear I would frantically look through them, knowing my time would always be cut short. Other than the Playboys, the only other ‘reading material’ was a medical journal of some sort called, I think, Blood and Guts. This was my shield, my go-to deflection when either my father would come home or my mother would walk into the room. I would often just lay there on the floor reading Blood and Guts, waiting for my mother to walk into the room, just to drive home the point that this was the book of choice, not the Playboy.

“So by way of lies, this book and all of its detailed illustrations have forever scarred me and created a mountain of medical phobias I still suffer from to this day. I cringe at the sound of my stomach rumbling. I hate hearing people chew their food.  I’ve been known to pass out at the sight of blood. I blame Blood and Guts forever for this, as I am sure that if I had been able to comfortably peruse my father’s Playboys, I would be normal today.”

Shara Hughes

A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle

“I wanted to be really cool and say something artsy or more interesting, but I keep coming back to something that was in Oprah’s Book Club,” says Hughes, whose paintings are currently on view at New York’s Rachel Uffner Gallery, as well as in the Whitney Biennial. “I read this book while I was alone for a summer, making work in a tiny Danish town called Vejby Strand. The paintings I was making were based on a tragic event I had been working with for a long time; they were driven by my mind trying to keep this tragedy alive. A New Earth was a huge influence because it taught me to chill out—that nothing in your mind actually exists. It’s a pretty heavy book—with study guides and many, many spin-offs—but the message is always the same, just applied in different ways. It continues to be something I think about often.”

Derek Fordjour

Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison

“This novel demonstrates the immense power of exceptional prose,” says Fordjour, whose immersive exhibition “Parade” opens at the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling in New York this July. “To call this book a page-turner would be a severe understatement. In addition to living with the characters so intimately, I marveled at Morrison’s thinking, her innate ability to transmit culture, to weave supernatural phenomena and the natural world seamlessly, and to captivate with language. I have never read a final page so slowly.  The novel does what only a novel can do: transport, transcend and transform.”

Haroon Mirza

The script for Einstein on the Beach, by Robert Wilson and Philip Glass, based on the poems of Christopher Knowles

“Einstein on the Beach changed my understanding of art,” says Mirza, whose own work blends sculpture, installation, and sound. “For me it is a true gesamtkunstwerk at a grand scale, and allowed me to see how various forms of production and representation can be synthesised through collaboration. It led me to believe that true creativity can only come from two or more minds. Robert Wilson came across the work of 13-year-old Christopher Knowles. His poems and paintings, sometimes compared to concrete poetry, become the abstract narrative for the epic opera to emerge through the collaboration between Wilson and Philip Glass. I find it encouraging that people with very different situations can coalesce and focus their efforts to realise something that would individually be unimaginable.”  

Mirza’s Aestival Infinato (Solar Symphony 11), on view at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park through July 2nd, represents its own unique form of collaboration: The piece is integrated into an existing James Turrell “Skyspace.”

Sara Cwynar

Mythologies, by Roland Barthes

The conceptual photographer and video artist celebrates this iconic look at “how the most seemingly benign products of our popular culture are actually filled with meaning and power,” a notion that’s perfectly in keeping with her own practice. Barthes’s work, she says, shows “how kitsch has a class-based motivation. He breaks down how the bourgeoisie present their ideologies as ‘natural’ in order to mask hierarchies of power, and this happens through the everyday images and objects of pop culture: travel guides, cooking photography, movie stars.”

Of all the everyday things dissected in Mythologies, Cwynar’s favorite passage concerns plastics: “It is a ‘shaped’ substance: whatever its final state, plastic keeps a flocculent appearance, something opaque, creamy and curdled, something powerless ever to achieve the triumphant smoothness of Nature.…Its noise is its undoing, as are its colours, for it seems capable of retaining only the most chemical-looking ones. Of yellow, red and green, it keeps only the aggressive quality, and uses them as mere names, being able to display only concepts of colour.”

Samuel Jablon

A Simple Country Girl, by Taylor Mead

“When I read this book of poems, I thought Mead completely captured New York City with all of its disgustingly glamorous faults,” says Jablon, who is both a poet and a painter who works with words. When Mead died in 2013, Jablon made a painting in his honor, spelling out verses—like “I burned my candle at both ends I shall not last the night but what a fucking life”—using glass, mirror, and gold tiles.

Diana Al-Hadid

Don’t Think Of An Elephant, by George Lakoff

Metaphors We Live By, by George Lakoff

Don’t Think of an Elephant, by George Lakoff

The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, by George Saunders

The artist’s work often deals with massive architectural forms or riffs on classical sculpture. She recommends a few books that might help you parse our current reality. “I recently returned to George Lakoff’s Don’t Think Of An Elephant,” she says. “The first book I read of his was in grad school—Metaphors We Live By—and it shook my world. Completely reshaped my little brain. Don’t Think of an Elephant was written during the time of George W. Bush, but Lakoff has also written essays on why Trump was elected.” For a fictional take on politics in America, Al-Hadid also suggests The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, a novella by George Saunders.

Joshua Citarella

Into the Universe of Technical Images, by Vilem Flusser

“This 1985 book has been a huge influence,” says Citarella, whose photography and sculpture often deals with technology, data, and the future. “I think it’s the best introduction for understanding images today. Before Photoshop and the internet, Flusser prophetically described how technology is going to reshape society. It feels like it was written yesterday. The first English translation was only made available in 2011, so it is still relatively under-referenced compared to other voices of the era. Last year I curated a show at Carroll / Fletcher in London—‘Dense Mesh’—based on several passages from the book.”

B. Ingrid Olson

Book of Mutter, by Kate Zambreno

The artist—whose highly personal, mixed-media assemblages are currently on view in “Fond Illusions” at Galerie Perrotin in New York—suggests this “especially raw, multifaceted portrait of loss.”

“Zambreno weaves together fragments of art history and biography (including pieces of Roland Barthes, Louise Bourgeois, Henry Darger) and her own episodic memories of her mother,” Olson says. “The structure of her writing reads at the pace of thinking, of the quick connections between one thought to another: Sometimes the text is full and clear, and other times it is an amalgam of scattered images, or simply a list of words.”

Trudy Benson

True Hallucinations, by Terence McKenna

“It’s a psychedelic adventure set in the Amazon, complete with aliens and miniature people,” explains Benson, whose work can be seen through July 28th at New York’s Lyles & King. “There are botanical and anthropological tangents, where mysticism and science blur together. A magical summer journey!”

Gretchen Scherer

We Have Always Lived In The Castle, by Shirley Jackson

“In the summer of 2015, I received an email from David Armacost asking me to be in a three-person show with himself and Katrina Fimmel,” Scherer says. “The gallery was called Evening Hours, a small artist-run space on the lower level of an East Village apartment building. Elspeth Walker, a writer and curator, also a member of the space, suggested we call the show We Have Always Lived in the Castle, after the novel by Shirley Jackson. I had never read the book, so Elspeth sent a short passage for us to read.

“The passage described a book nailed to a tree, meant to ward off evil spirits. I had a painting in process at the time of an old house, with a big tree in the foreground. Inspired by the passage, I decided to paint a book nailed to the tree. Katrina made a very large, washy and bright painting of figures in a forest. David made a large flower arrangement that was nailed to the wall, sort of the inverse of the book nailed to the tree.

“That summer, I read We Have Always Lived In The Castle in full. It was very different from what I had imagined—like entering a parallel universe. The feeling of the book and the show are forever linked in my mind; from time to time I think of it and can very quickly enter that world we created.”

Marilyn Minter

The Complete Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen

“I got a copy of these tales when I was a kid,” says the painter, whose lush subjects have their own larger-than-life, occasionally sinister magic. “I loved the illustrations, and tried to copy them all the time: witches thrown in barrels, covered with nails and rolled down a hill. Not like today’s fairy tales, I suspect.”

TM Davy

Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman

Dionysiaca, by Nonnus

Tree Finder, by May Theilgaard Watts

“I return most summers to Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, the Kalamos & Karpos myth in Nonnus’s Dionysiaca, and other poetry that will wake me back into the transmutational mysteries of being under our sun,” says the painter, whose recent work has explored natural landscapes (and horses). “But perhaps nothing has been more directly enlivening toward nature’s variations than the ‘dichotomous keys’ of May Theilgaard Watts. Her Tree Finder is an easy path of observational questions toward identifying East Coast trees by the shape and character of their leaves and branches. Small enough to take on hikes, it helped tune my novice naturalist eye to a living play of forms.”

—Scott Indrisek

from Artsy News

[otto-collection]

Bram Kinet / exposition by artist Ruben Boeren / invitation / 2015

[jongvanhart]

Fragmenten van songteksten uit de Jong van hart Expo in wzc Sint Lucia.

[nwisblog]

This is the blog for MONDAY AUGUST 23!

We started the STEAM week with painting cubes and popsicle sticks. While the paint dried, we read books, wrote book reports and watch a video about 5 forms of energy. We focused on mechanical energy. We learned that energy can be stored (potential energy) in for example a rubber band. Once the rubber band is released it transforms into kinetic energy. With this knowledge we could make our own chain reaction by creating a “stixplosion”. Details can be found here: https://babbledabbledo.com/steam-activity-stixplosions/

Bram and Dani

[nwisblog]

We started with watching a short video how energy changes in a bouncing ball. It changes from kinetic to potential back to kinetic energy. Then we set out to making our own bouncy balls by mixing powder and water in a mold. We were really excited about our bouncy balls. They came out very colorful and bounced well! Besides reading and writing, we played fun games like “who is the leader” and hangman.

Bram and Dani