Category: The Arts

My favorite things Kentucky

1. Favorite song, set in: "Blue Moon," Cowboy Junkies version  The Louvin Brothers have some contenders, including "Kentucky."

2. Basketball player: Rex Chapman.  Honorable mention to Pervis Ellison, I watched both of them for years with Angus.

3. Film director: Tod Browning, see Freaks to blow your mind.  "Goo-bah, Ga-bah, one of us, one of us!" is one of my favorite moments in all of cinema.  There is also John Carpenter's The Thing.

4. Popular music: The Everly Brothers, most of all their 1968 album Roots.

5. Jazz musician: Lionel Hampton.

6. Bluegrass music: It's hard not to pick Bill Monroe, who more or less invented the genre.

7. Country guitarist: Merle Travis, watch these clips on YouTube.

8. SculptorEdgar Tolson, here are various images.

9. Rapper: Muhammad Ali.

10. Movie, set in: "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!"  Can you figure out which film that is from?

Excluded: Robert Penn Warren's book has never made sense to me, sorry.  I also have the vague sense that a lot of movie stars are from this state.

The bottom line: Culturally speaking, Kentucky is a much more important and impressive state than it usually gets credit for.

The Back-up Plan

The journals of the American Economic Association have started an experiment that acknowledges the reality that papers move from one publication to another — and the system could save authors considerable time, and publications money. In the experiment, authors of papers that are rejected from the flagship journal — American Economic Review — can now opt to have referee reports sent directly to one of four other journals published by the association.

So far it looks like a near-Pareto improvement.  Here is more detail; by the way, editors from sociology and anthropology say that plan wouldn't work in their disciplines, though neuroscience has a reviewing consortium.

Is there a new Michelangelo?

Quite possibly, view it here, previously classified as Workshop of Francesco Granacci.  It is not a small work, dashed off in hours, it is a major painting, 29 by 82 inches.

No, I am not one of these people who thinks high art, or even "modern art," (or for that matter Jeff Koons) is a load of crap.  Still, I have a simple question.  Let's say it is by Michelangelo.  It's not that good.  Since no one used to call this painting a major masterpiece, and it is not being ascribed to "foul juvenalia" (it was painted right before the Sistine Chapel) does it not mean that Michelangelo wasn't as good a painter as we used to think?  Peaks matter but the average matters too (in the meantime, can we downgrade talent assessments on a purely stochastic basis?)

Here is the bottom line on our previous collective, "wisdom of crowds" judgment:

The Met bought the painting at Sotheby's London, along with a companion work attributed to Granacci, which depicts episodes in the life of the Baptist. "I think it's ironic that the Met paid $200,000 for the Granacci and $150,000 for the painting I attribute to Michelangelo," Fahy said.

My favorite bit is this one:

Keith Christiansen, who succeeded Fahy as chairman of the European paintings department and who is a prominent scholar on the Italian Renaissance, told me, "I think Everett has put forward the strongest argument that can be made for it."

Does that mean yes or no?

Christiansen smiled and said, "I don't do yes or no."

Hat tip goes to Kottke.

The iPad

Could this be the medium through which the fabled convergence finally occurs?

Most of all, think of it as a substitute for your TV.

It has the all-important quality of allowing you to bend your head and body as you wish (more or less), as you use it.  By bringing it closer or further, you control the "real size" of the iPad, so don't fixate on whether it appears "too big" or "too small."

The pages turn faster than those of Kindle.  The other functions are also extremely quick and the battery feels eternal.

So far my main complaint is how it uses "auto-correct" to turn "gmu" into "gum."

While I will bring it on some trips, most of all it feels too valuable to take very far from the house.

On YouTube I watched Chet Atkins, Sonny Rollins, and Angela Hewitt.

Note all the categories on this short post!

My review of the new edition of van Gogh’s letters

I read these new volumes in December.  There are six large books, two columns to a page, large pages, the whole thing weighs about thirty pounds.  I can't recall taking on such a large reading project in such a short period of time, but I am very glad I spent a few weeks immersed in the world of Vincent van Gogh.  I was impressed by how smart van Gogh was, what an intellectual omnivore he was, and how well he could compose a letter and pour forth a lot of information very rapidly.  The illustrations and footnotes in the volumes are stunning.  You'll find the review here.  Excerpt:

The collected letters of great creative minds can often be read as lengthy case studies in the dissimulation and the control of one's personal image to others. This is the case with van Gogh, whose writing also shows how such interpretive attempts break down. Some of his letters are practical documents containing very little information, a series of bland platitudes to cajole, influence, and perhaps even mislead their readers. Tone and content contrast strikingly, from one recipient to the next. He himself stated–if only in passing–that there is a lot wrong or exaggerated in his letters, "without my always [sic] being aware of it" (December 23, 1881).

When van Gogh writes to his parents, he sounds like a normal son who is keen to reassure Mom and Dad that everything is OK; with his sister Willemien, he is loving, doting, and domestic, and it feels that he is trying not to remind her of his chaotic life, rather than trying to conceal it. He describes to her the prospect of sharing a room with Gauguin (July 31, 1888), calling him "a very spirited painter." "We'd live together for the sake of economy and for each other's company." A few months later (October 8 and 29), he writes to Theo that Gauguin needs to eat, walk in the countryside with him (Vincent), and "have a screw once in a while": "He and I plan to go to the brothels a lot, but only to study them." The entire Gauguin story is a highlight of the volumes, and in those letters to Gauguin, not to mention to other artists, van Gogh is prickly, difficult, and condescending, playing the role of rival to the hilt.

As for his letters to Theo, these are so full of life that it's easy for the reader to assume that his brother is getting the "real Vincent." But is he? Through much of this period, Theo is supporting van Gogh, either by sending him money, by selling his art (or trying to), or both. Writing to Theo, the artist comes across as whining, manipulative, and in careful control of the flow of information. It's a kind of faux frankness, maybe not untrue but designed to portray a mind in creative ferment and to fit a certain stereotype. There is often first a thanks for money received, a blizzard of reports about what van Gogh is doing and painting, and then at the end a suggestion that even more painting, activity, and creative ferment might be possible if only Theo would do everything to support him. Time and again, the reader wonders just how much van Gogh and his brother trust each other. In the letter of August 14, 1879, for instance, he complains that Theo has advised him to give up his quest to be an artist. "And, joking apart, I honestly think it would be better if the relationship between us were more trusting on both sides," van Gogh suggests, before apologizing for the possibility that so much of the family sorrow and discord have been caused by him. These look and sound like letters to his brother, but in essence we are reading fund-raising proposals.

You have to register to read the whole review but it doesn't take long.  www.bookforum.com, by the way, is one of my all-time favorite web sites.

My favorite short stories

In the "Request for Requests," yc asks:

Your favorite short stories (or collections)

Most of the twentieth century greats, such as Cheever and Barthelme, don't much stick with me.  I am a huge fan of Alice Munro and have read most or all of her work (the last collection is good but somewhat below average.)  She is consistently interesting about human nature and its foibles; maybe start here.

From the classics I'll pick Kafka's "A Country Doctor" and lots by Melville.  Borges is a special favorite, especially Ficciones.  Joyce's short stories I admire but don't much enjoy.  I like Poe's "The Gold-Bug" and Hemingway's "Kilimanjaro"  For Chekhov I prefer the mid-length fiction, though this may be a problem of translation.  Tolstoy's "Hadji Murad" might count as a novella.  From Henry James, I would recommend many of the shorter works including "Turn of the Screw" and "The Beast in the Garden."  Isaac Babel.  Some Shirley Jackson.  Mark Twain.  There is much in science fiction and arguably the genre is at its strongest in this medium.

That's a very incomplete answer, but it's what comes to mind right away.

My favorite things Grenada

This one may seem like a stumper but in fact it's a breeze.  Here goes:

1. Painter: Canute Calliste, who paints in a naive style.  You'll find four images and a bit of biography here.  I first encountered his work at a Quito biennial in the mid-1990s.  His best works are not on-line.  Here is one other painting by Canute Caliste.

2. Short story writer: Paul Keens-Douglas.  This pick is a no-brainer.  Here is Keens-Douglas telling a story.  Here is Keens-Douglas doing a comedy routine.  I used to have some very good cassettes of him telling folk tales.

3. Musical artist: The calypso genius Mighty Sparrow is usually thought of as coming from Trinidad, but in fact he was born in Grenada.  Here is a YouTube clip.

4. 19th century Haitian revolutionary: Henri Christophe was born in Grenada.

5. Movie, set in: I can only think of one, namely the 1957 Island in the Sun, starring Harry Belafonte, which is well known for its early portrayal of an interracial embrace.  I haven't seen it, but I guess I like it in principle.  Much of it was filmed in Grenada as well.

The bottom line: For an island of about 100,000 people, that's not bad.

Ebert’s Voice

Esquire has an moving profile of Roger Ebert who has lost his lower jaw and ability to speak to cancer. I found this paragraph about resurrecting a lost voice–almost ala Jurassic Park–to be compelling:

Ebert is waiting for a Scottish company called CereProc to give him
some of his former voice back. He found it on the Internet, where he
spends a lot of his time. CereProc tailors text-to-speech software for
voiceless customers so that they don't all have to sound like Stephen
Hawking. They have catalog voices – Heather, Katherine, Sarah, and Sue
– with regional Scottish accents, but they will also custom-build
software for clients who had the foresight to record their voices at
length before they lost them. Ebert spent all those years on TV, and he
also recorded four or five DVD commentaries in crystal-clear digital
audio….CereProc is mining
Ebert's TV tapes and DVD commentaries for those words, and the words it
cannot find, it will piece together syllable by syllable. When CereProc
finishes its work, Roger Ebert won't sound exactly like Roger Ebert
again, but he will sound more like him than Alex [the generic voice] does. There might be
moments, when he calls for Chaz from another room or tells her that he
loves her and says goodnight – he's a night owl; she prefers mornings –
when they both might be able to close their eyes and pretend that
everything is as it was.

I have fond memories of listening to Ebert teach the classics like Citizen Kane, Sunset Boulevard and Vertigo during lazy summer seminars at the Virginia film festival many years ago. 

Karl Case, poet

It's about the housing bubble and subsequent crash and the poem is here.  Excerpt:

So now we come to the end of this ode
Without much to say for certain.
I hate to say, that where we are
Not beginning or final curtain.
The truth of the matter at the end of the day
Is that markets will make you humble.
Just when you think that it's time for a drink
They will turn and fortunes will crumble.

Will the price of Haitian art go up or down?

Here's a report on the destruction of Haiti's cultural heritage and many Haitian paintings, including the supreme achievement of Haitian art, the murals in the Episcopalian cathedral.  Furthermore the "Nader Museum" in Petitionville has largely been destroyed; that was probably the single best collection of Haitian art.

OK, so the supply curve shifts up and to the left.  But will the prices of the remaining stock rise?  It's not so simple and that's because of how reputation drives art prices.  In part people buy art to be affiliated with something grand and glorious.  A so-so Rembrandt is worth more because the first-rate Rembrandts exist.  If the first-rate Rembrandts were destroyed, the so-so work might fall in value, not rise.

Art works also require buyers to promote them.  If not many people own an artist, not many people are speaking up for that artist.  Again, we see the higher quantities can increase rather than decrease price.  Arguably Andy Warhol's prices have benefited from Warhol's work being widely held and sold in deep, liquid markets.

Here is Wikipedia on Carel Fabritius and here is his goldfinch.

If you are curious to see some of the Cowen Haitian art collection, go through my home page.  (Addendum: Links are broken right now, I'm working on getting them fixed.)

This account of the damage also offers a good slideshow on Haitian art.

What about the data?  Natasha and I have bought four Haitian art pieces since the earthquake.  Their prices were exactly the same as what we had been quoted before the quake.  So far the jury is still out.

The Boom and Bust Rap

The Keynes-Hayek rap video is finally here and it's brilliant. The lyrics cover Keynesian economics and Austrian business cycle theory very well but what I liked best were the many ways in which the visuals, the story and the music subtly and sometimes not so subtly (!) parallel the economics–e.g. note what happens to Keynes after the big party!

It's clear that a lot of thought went into integrating the music, the story and the lyrics in order to make the most of this medium and I give my colleague Russ Roberts and John Papola much props.