"Champagne exciter"
Where to go for a drink in London
Ignoring the recommendation to read Adorno—which you either did or didn’t do twenty years ago—this list, by the Yale Review, about books that make you think about the craft of writing is extremely useful. I’m partial to Parallel Lives (a book about marriage and its potential sacrifices and collaborations) and Love’s Work (a rare piece of “I’m dying” writing that I can stand). I haven’t read Bernadette Mayer’s Midwinter Day, but I’m a big fan—like everyone else—of her photography show Memory, which I was lucky enough to see in New York at CANADA a few years ago (the internet says 2017, I didn’t realize it was that long ago). “For the month of July 1971, the 26-year-old poet kept a stream-of-consciousness journal and shot a roll of 35mm Kodachrome slide film every day. When the month was up, she projected the slides and supplemented her original observations with new details taken from the images—casual scenes of everyday life, from her lover in the driver’s seat of a car to nature walks and late-night chats with fellow artists…Writing at the pace of life.” This article by Wendy Vogel says there’s a book of the project. Worth a purchase ($45).
Sherman’s March. It’s always fascinating when people are able to elevate the personal to art. (So many fail to justify it.) I’m suddenly struck with a memory of watching Sherman’s March (1986) in college. “Documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee sets out to make a movie about Union General Sherman's March to the Sea towards the end of the American Civil War, but keeps getting sidetracked by his own love life.” Watch the full film on YouTube. A masterpiece of self-interested genius.
