the ascension of patti smith via the artist robert mapplethorpe

'via' is probably unfair but i wanted something that would rhyme. anyway it is patently obvious that i read cxxii. just kids, by patti smith. really good! 'art' is something that i don't really understand as a lifestyle, but for the few days that i was reading this book i felt like i did. it also almost felt like a more mainstream streamlined version of eileen myles' inferno, in all possible permutations of the word 'mainstream', which is also unfair. but not in a bad way.

quote-rich

some time ago (nov 19th 2011, i forgot to write about it) i saw xv. the australian chamber orchestra play at city recital hall. i love the acoustics of this place, always nice and clean especially sitting up on the balcony. beethoven's pastoral symphony for chamber orchestra - i like it a lot! sure, not the same lush encompassing sound, but a lot more emphasis on wind solos, particularly bassoon, very good. richard tognetti playing wieniawski's violin conc no. 2.. i have mixed feelings about the conducting/turning around to play solo (complete with music stand?!) dual gig, it doesn't feel as focused as a regular solo performance. for obvious reasons. as a solo purist i prefer the soloist to be 'thinking' during down time rather than conducting with his bow.


cxix. mcsweeney's 21
miranda july delights in provoking weird feelings and i like it.

cxx. the secret of scent, luca turin
this guy! as a connoisseur of smells and smelling things (as my family will attest as i smell too deeply anything that i eat) i love his descriptions of scent. and his writing in general. 'like roger moor lifting one eyebrow to signal the highest degree of satisfaction, receptors barely move when fully turned on.' - this about molecular agonists/antagonists. i mean really.
'the lovely smell of gardenia, so perfectly pretty from every angle it almost hurts, like early pictures of audrey hepburn.'
'esters are transparent smells, watercolours for the nose, but they have close relatives that are more akin to pastels: the lactones... the cuddliest smells in all perfumery: almost every one is soft and powdery, sometimes to a fault.'
'..the peach base Pierre Nuyens composed... It is a huge, velvety, fluorescent peach thirty feet in diameter, with fuzz on it as deep as pile carpet, like Magritte's huge fruit inside a room. It is a peach played slowly, an arpeggiato chord that lets you enjoy in slow motion the entire sweep of that astonishing Persian plum from mouthwatering fruity acid, via biscuit-like softness to powdery, almost soapy bottom.' soapy bottom. come on. and i don't even like peach.
there were also no chapters in this book, at least not official ones, just headings starting further down the page. very interesting.

cxxi. bad behaviour, mary gaitskill
i have one more story to go but i have to write this review now for reasons which will become obvious. i can't believe i had never read any of her stuff before. here, have a description of a dentist that i liked A LOT. 'Dr Fangelli had very large forearms... his hands seemed weirdly placed on his wrists, and his unevenly spaced fingers suggested undue activity in impossibly varied directions... His face zoomed at her, and she had the disturbing thought that its happy, porous proximity could unhinge her jaw with the projected, exuberant desire that she open wide... He swiveled violently away.' love it.

tonight i saw david sedaris at the opera house speak like a muppet and tell stories about american airports and the people in them, learning different languages, jokes that people tell him, and how he loves his french dentists because they are his people. if david sedaris came and saw me every 6 months i would die. in fact the 2nd hand hearing about his new implants and periodontal problems has already killed me.

should i get a kindle?!? serious question

cxiv. the fat duck cookbook, heston blumenthal and other contributors
as i have doubtless mentioned before i am a big fan of heston's curved eyewear. he actually gives away all his recipes. i flicked through similarly brick-shaped tomes from ferran adria and noma and they are significantly, significantly lighter on technical detail. i guess that's what heston loves doing.

cxv. a cook's tour, anthony bourdain
take-home message (i hate this conferencey fixture of a phrase): vietnam has pride, man. and alcohol is everywhere. the world is addicted to alcohol.

cxvi. summer blonde; and cxvii. shortcomings, adrian tomine
i like! i like the depressing inconclusive endings and overall cynical tone. and mostly i like the clean lines and easily recognisable characters.

cxviii. complete essex county, jeff lemire
also good, i liked the transitions between times and generations and the linking themes, also the familial facial characteristics. it seems to have much more of a freehand style without getting too cluttered and pencil-liney.