Long Island City Sanctuary at http://www.noguchi.org/
9,335-square-foot model of the five boroughs at http://www.queensmuseum.org/
Listen to Opera, watch snow flurries, and stand near the old school radiators at http://momaps1.org/
If you’re in NYC get yourself to MOMA P.S.1 this summer (before July 24th!). Not just for their awesome summer dance parties, but for the incredible exhibitions showing right now! P.S.1 can be totally hit or miss in my experience but it is absolutely worth a trip right now to see The Holy Mountain (pictured) directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, Laurel Nakadate’s Only the Lonely, and Nancy Grossman’s Heads.
Pencil
My little sister started this cool art blog, check it! http://linneachaserussell.tumblr.com/
Bike Rental 7€/day
Picnic spot!
“I <3 you supershit”
Bike paths done right! Worked up the perfect appetite for a trip to Monsieur Vuong for dinner.
Mom chose the hotel for tonight off the internet.
I haven’t been posting as often as usual because I’ve been busy starting up an interactive web art project. We won’t be launching until this summer but you can follow our progress here:
http://interviewnewyork.blogspot.com/
Type rest of the post here
For some reason Updike gets a bad rap. My feminist English professor lumps him in with Philip Roth (what?!) and then dismisses his work as “male perspective,” and my peers refuse to read the Rabbit novels thinking that they’re about middle-aged sex. But for me Updike’s talent and value often lies less in his plots and themes and more in the individual sentences, words, and metaphors he conjures over and over to describe everyday events (see “Dentistry and Doubt”). His last collection of poems (“Endpoint”) continues to showcase his funny and interesting genius:
“…Meanwhile our President Obama waits downstairs to be unwrapped and I, a child on Christmas day…”
As does his book Couples,
“Nature dangles sex to keep us walking toward the cliff.”
And for those of you who still haven’t read any of his novels let me point you again to the Rabbit series (get them here) and once and for all dispel the middle-aged rumor: Rabbit is 26 at the start of the first book! If you’re still too scared to take on a longer novel try one of his short story collections (get them here) which are entertaining quick reads.
The man who brought you Index of the Ordinary (http://indexoftheordinary.com/) launches another website with an extensive portfolio of his work (http://www.andrew-elliott.com/). See more polished funny and interesting images like these:
Today is finally the launch of the much anticipated Index of the Ordinary (http://indexoftheordinary.com). Photographer Andrew Elliott gives his audience alphabitzed poetry. Search “cat” or “cow” or “crossing” and find something lyrical. The quiet grace of the photographs creates the perfect contrast between calm and common, and startling and beautiful. Below are photographs from the site and a short interview with Andrew.
Cameron: What was your first job taking photos?
Andrew: My first job was photographing couples imitating the “Jack I”m flying” scene from the Titanic. It was against an ocean backdrop in a huge titanic themed restaurant with 2 levels and an actual life raft in it. I was 21.
Cameron: Whose work inspires you? (Authors/Artists etc.)
Andrew: Jonathan Lethem (www.jonathanlethem.com) , Tibor Kalman (on wikipedia), Gerhard Richter (gerhard-richter.com), Wolfgang Tillmans (tillmans.co.uk), Bruce Davidson (davidson photography), Shomei Tomatsu (on wikipedia), Martin Parr (martinparr.com), Jonas Bendiksen (jonasbendiksen.com), Robin Schwartz (robinschwartz.net), Josef Koudelka (at magnum), Kurt Vonnegut (vonnegut.com), Eikoh Hosoe (on wikipedia), Sonic Youth (sonicyouth.com), Taryn Simon (tarynsimon.com)…
Cameron: Any favorite searches we should do when we get to the index?
Andrew: Photography, suburbs, donkey.
Thanks Andrew and best of luck on your new website!
Since a large part of my life is fashion and since it is often funny and interesting, I have decided to introduce it as another theme. Recently I’ve become obsessed with Vladimir Nabokov’s writing. From his prophetic Bend Sinister, to his eerily tender Ada, to the much loved Lolita, and in and out of collected poems and short stories his writing is impecable and awe inspiring. And so to celebrate the influence of models and fashion here is his amusing poem, “Ode to a Model.”
(Twiggy)
I have followed you, model,
in magazine ads through all seasons,
from dead leaf on the sod
to red leaf on the breeze,
from your lily-white armpit
to the tip of your butterfly eyelash,
charming and pitiful,
silly and stylish.
Or in kneesocks and tartan
standing there like some fabulous symbol
parted feet pointing outward
— pedal form of akimbo.
On a lawn, in a parody
of Spring and its cherry-tree
near a vase and a parapet
virgin practising archery.
Ballerina, black-masked
near a parapet of alabaster.
“Can one — somebody asked —
rhyme ‘star’ and ‘disaster’?”
Can one picture a blackbird
as the negative of a small firebird?
Can a record, run backward,
turn ‘repaid’ into ‘diaper’?
Can one marry a model?
Kill your past, make you real, raise a family
by removing you bodily
from the back numbers of Sham?
One day my friend Lee Swillingham admitted to me that he suffered Pareidolia.
“What is that?” I asked him.
“It’s like when people see Jesus in their hamburger,” he said.
“You should take pictures of everything you see,” I suggested. “Then other people can tell you if you’re crazy or not. If you really are delusional then people won’t understand what the pictures are of. If, on the other hand, people can see what you’re talking about when you frame it for them, then you’ll know you’re much more observant than everyone else. “ He agreed and a month or so later sent me these.
People have many different interpretations of Pareildolia. Doing some brief internet research I found that some describe Pareildolia sufferers as crazy and insane, religious fanatics and worse. But there are those who see Pareidolia as an advanced human trait. The leader of this camp being Carl Sagan, an astronomer, who wrote,
“As soon as the infant can see, it recognizes faces, and we now know that this skill is hardwired in our brains. Those infants who a million years ago were unable to recognize a face smiled back less, were less likely to win the hearts of their parents, and less likely to prosper. These days, nearly every infant is quick to identify a human face, and to respond with a goony grin (Sagan 1995: 45).
Of course trusting a scientist who uses the word “goony” isn’t easy.
I think it is Clarence Irving Lewis that provides a good middle ground. Founder of the philosophical school of Conceptual Pragmatism Lewis argued that one has no way of knowing whether or not perceptions are “true” in any absolute sense; all one can do is determine whether one’s purpose is thwarted by regarding it as true and acting on that basis. According to this approach, two people with two different purposes will often have different views on whether or not to regard a perception as true.
And so, here are the photos of what Lee sees. After you look at them leave a comment telling us whether you think he’s insane, advanced, or just one person with a unique perspective he has no reason not to believe. 
