January 21, 2004
Upcoming attractions
I might be at SFMOMA tomorrow, in which case I will blog about what is there, otherwise I won't. If we don't go there, we will probably go to a gallery of some sort, so there should be some art talk coming up. I don't think that I will make the return trip to the David Ireland exhibit at the Oakland Museum this week, so a comprehensive discussion of Ireland, Bay Area Funk Art, Conceptual Art and the like will have to wait.
As for food, I have really not done anything that exciting since the duck confit, so you will have to wait until a wave of creativity hits me (unless I find out about some new thing at the Ferry Terminal Farmers' Market).
I am finishing up the Hughes book on Goya, so a review will be forthcoming. I am still not up to writing anything big on Fellini, as much as I might be tempted by Steven Riddle's discussion of the Responsibility of the Artist, mainly because I would end up spending too much time on it, and I really should be spending the time on writing for filthy lucre.
Ah yes, filthy lucre, filthy lucre. When I was in High School it seemed like a great dream: get paid to write! Wow! To be a professional writer! Does it come with cape and theme music? Well, no, not really. And with the demise of the manual typewriter and hats and chainsmoking, whiskey guzzling newspapermen, even some of the noir romance is gone. I do have to admit that I have a probably unhealthy love of hate mail, especially when it is misdirected and completely illiterate. There is nothing more fun than finding 100 emails in my inbox adressed to a colleague telling me in vastly substandard English that I am an idiot because I do not see the brilliance of whatever flash in the pan my colleague panned that week. The irony is that I have yet to have even heard of the folks that are so vehemently defended by their teenybopper fans.
"Your revue was unfair. X does to sing with emotion and for you to say that he is all commercial is unfair. Maybe you dont like him but you don't have the right to say that he is bad."
If you ever want a reason to despair over our education system, trade email addresses with me when a colleague pans the next American Idol and my address is stuck on the byline by mistake.
So that is what is coming up on Eriksrant. I hope it doesn't bore you too much, but if it does, please send me an email telling me so in no uncertain terms!
Posted by erik at January 21, 2004 5:51 PM | TrackBackErik,
If you think that you get bad e-mails, I will gladly swap you the comments that I receive on the memos I write at this place. I think that English has suddenly become a non qualifying need for employment. If only I could be paid to write, smoke, and guzzle whiskey. Actually, just smoke and guzzle whiskey, I might be one of the greatest businessmen in the world.
Ryan
I imagine that they are now writing letters to the local music critic defending Brittney Aguilera or whatever is the latest thing. That's depressing, though. I think that it is even more depressing when children "dumb down" to fit in.
Posted by: Erik Keilholtz at January 22, 2004 9:33 AMFor my CCD Christmas party, I had a look-it-up Bible contest for prizes. Realizing that these public school kids (mostly forced to come to CCD by parents to get Confirmation out of the way) were probably unfamiliar with Scripture's setup, I let them refer to the Table of Contents.
My idea: I'd read a question, "Is God impressed with X...?", then call out the Bible verse that contained the answer. Whoever found it first would read it aloud for the class and win the prize.
Good idea? In theory, maybe, but not in practice. Not only could they not find books of the Bible even with the Table of Contents and the motivation of greed, but 9 out of 10 read aloud very haltingly and unexpressively. The word "persevere" was too tough, and even a few two syllable words!
If it were only three or four kids, it'd be one thing, but I only had one decent reader IN THE WHOLE CLASS OF 17!
Maybe some were "dumbing down" so they wouldn't look like dorks who were "into" CCD. One can only hope!
Posted by: KTC at January 22, 2004 4:51 AM