The Latest Stuff - Page 14 of 43

December 8, 2019 Bill Swislow

Seneca: Still Witty After All These Years

When last heard from, Lucius Annaeus Seneca was complaining about the gym rats who worked out noisily in the baths beneath his apartment. Two thousand years later and it doesn’t appear the issue has gone away. Seneca, a philosopher and onetime tutor to the emperor Nero, thought about lots of things besides grunting showoffs, of course. Sometimes he thought too much, winding up in cul-de-sacs of logic without much to show for his gruntworthy mental exercises. But he also had some marvelous insights, many of which have inspired thinkers from the Renaissance to today, including the rather memorable “There is

Double_herma_of_Socrates_and_Seneca_Antikensammlung_Berlin_07-2, By I, Calidius, wikimedia

October 30, 2019 Bill Swislow

Noisy Gym Jerks Of The First Century

I’m no gym rat myself, but I’ve encountered plenty of complaints, at home and online, about the noisy men who work out at gyms. Here’s a case where truly there is nothing new under the sun. Around the year 65, Seneca, the philosopher and former tutor to Nero, wrote this to his friend Lucilius: “I swear it — silence is not as necessary to a scholarly retreat as you might think. Here is cacophony sounding all about me — for I am living right upstairs from the bathhouse. Call to mind every sort of awful noise that grates on the

October 19, 2019 Bill Swislow

Clark Street

July 28, 2019 Bill Swislow

More of the Sweetest Song

If you like the Sukiyaki song (Ue o Muite Aruko) as much as I do, check out this playlist from WMBR in Cambridge, the MIT radio station. On his Subject to Change program, Patrick Bryant goes deep with multiple versions of one song. As readers of this site know, Sukiyaki has been covered dozens of times by artists all over the world since its 1961 release in Japan. Bryant tracked down a swell selection for his July 28, 2019, show and it’s worth a listen if you see this during the two weeks the audio remains available. Alternatively, you can

June 5, 2019 Bill Swislow

John Evelyn: Diary Of A Different World

I loved the three years I spent with John Evelyn and his lengthy diary. But poor John Evelyn — polymath, public citizen (and official), friend to kings and scientists, but destined always to be second fiddle to his friend Samuel Pepys in the 17th century diarist derby. Pepys is the one who is (sometimes) still read, and still frequently cited whenever the English Restoration era is mentioned. Where Evelyn was a pious man and a devoted Royalist, Pepys was scurrilous and a political skeptic, making his commentary more consistently pointed. Both let you enter the everyday life of someone in

May 20, 2019 Bill Swislow

A Single Game of Thrones Grievance

Please forgive this one comment on the Game of Throne finale: The chuckles of the lords and ladies over Samwell Tarley’s plea for a democratic resolution nicely encapsulated the show’s most consistent weakness. Far worse than the final season’s many notorious failings was the show’s lack of interest over its entire run in the lives of ordinary people. Not to take anything away from Arya and the Hound and other worthy characters, but it would have been nice if a few commoners had had a part in the great events other than as victims or as cannon fodder for the

Damaged statue from E.T. Wickham art environment

May 15, 2019 Bill Swislow

E.T. Wickham: Well that it is as it is

The E.T. Wickham site in Palmyra, Tennessee, is one of the country’s spookiest art environments, even in the open field to which the family has relocated most of the statues. Credit the vandals who wrecked the work, but even more the ghost of E.T.’s vision that survived their pummeling. The statues lining the north-central Tennessee back road were erected in the 1950s and 60s by Enoch Tanner Wickham to honor historical figures and family members. They did not fare well after his death in 1970s, but their state seems to have mostly stabilized. Thirteen years ago Wickham family members relocated

May 6, 2019 Bill Swislow

Danielle Jacqui: The House of She Who Paints

I wish I could add to the story of the prolific and ambitious artist Danielle Jacqui and her House of She Who Paints, but not being a French speaker I don’t know much beyond what’s been published in a few English-language venues, including a Raw Vision article here and a SPACES account by Jo Farb Hernández here. But I do have photos from a serendipitous 2018 visit to her environment northeast of Marseille. We were going to do just a drive-by and take some pictures, but it happens that two friendly French ladies were arriving for a tour just when I was

Vintage matchbook cover art from the New Deal Diner, Springfield, MA

February 1, 2019 Bill Swislow

Classic Diners — A Gallery

The art of vintage diners, via their promotional matchbooks, plus a smattering of little grills. I like the contrast between clip-art images and custom renderings. Meanwhile, hop over to John Baeder’s site for his spectacular renditions of matchcover diners, including the Yankee Flyer. Matchbooks

Outliers and American Vanguard Art book cover

January 8, 2019 Bill Swislow

Review — Outliers and American Vanguard Art

Outliers and American Vanguard Art, by Lynne Cooke. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 412 pages, 450 color plates, 2018. ISBN: 978-0226522272. Hardcover, $65 Outliers and American Vanguard Art, filling several rooms at the National Gallery of Art, is a dauntingly large-scale show. And at five pounds, 412 pages, 450-plus illustrations and a 10 x12 form factor, its catalog is even more daunting. But, despite some excess imbrications and fixed subject positions, the art and the important points being made are plenty sufficient to interest non-academic readers. Curator Lynne Cooke’s core premise is that the story of modernism is woefully incomplete absent