We are in this together

Posted on June 25, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Telluride is a small town nestled in heart of Colorado’s majestic San Juan Mountains. It’s also one of North America’s best ski resorts. I’ve only visited during the late spring, so I don’t know much about the winter sports scene, but I can attest to the town’s beauty and charm. Artist Tavares Strachan is in the process of creating a huge neon light sculpture to grace the mountainside above Telluride. The glowing  pink installation will spans 50 feet at its widest point and be 10 feet off the ground. The message of the work, We are in the together has poignant resonance in these difficult times. Early September is the target date for the installation’s unveiling.

The neon words “We are in this together” will be viewed by riding the free gondola that transports  visitors more than 10,000 feet and 8 miles up the mountain from Telluride to Mountain Village.  Starting in September, the work will glow with varying degrees of brightness every day for 18 months.

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An Honor Without Irony

Posted on June 24, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

People look and photograph the new statue of American writer Jerome David Salinger in Paminklas, Lithuania, Friday, June 19, 2020. J.D. Salinger, the American writer best known for his 1951 novel “The Catcher in the Rye,” has been honored with a statue in a rye field, near the Lithuanian village where his ancestors lived. (AP Photo/Vladas Sciavinskas)

Last week, an outdoor sculpture honoring the iconic American author J.D. Salinger was dedicated on a hillside near his family’s ancestral home in Lithuania. The artwork celebrates the writer’s most acclaimed novel The Catcher in the Rye. Ironically, Salinger’s 1951 bildungsroman of adolescent angst was banned in Lithuania until the 1990s.

The recorded history of the Salinger family in this area goes back to the early 19th century when this region was still part of Czarist Russia. There’s documentary evidence that the writer’s great grandfather lived in the nearby village of Sudargas in the 1830s. In all likelihood, any of Salinger’s remaining relatives were murdered either by the Nazis during World War II, or even earlier by Lithuanians or Russians during 19th century anti-Semitic pogroms.

The sculpture is of a human silhouette cut out in a steel plate that is bent before a void. The metal plate is attached to a concrete block that carries the name J.D. Salinger above a rye field printed on the side of the block that is sticking out from a hill surrounded by a forest.

 

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fools elect fools

Posted on June 23, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Dream Song 46 John Berryman

 

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Bookseller’s Lament

Posted on June 22, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

As a bookseller and collector, I occasionally lament the sale of a book. Sometimes it’s because I undervalued a title, but more often it’s nostalgia for the missing volume from my shelves. The other day I stumbled on a reference to a particularly atmospheric book of black and white photographs from Prague that were taken during the first part of the 20th century up to the time of the German occupation in 1939. Praha ve fotografii, (Czech Graphics Union, Prague, 1940,) is a stunning collection of 208 images by Karel Plicka, who was known as the Ansel Adams of Czechoslovakia.

During his  long and celebrated career, Plicka published several photography collections. Among them are:
Prague in Pictures (Praha ve fotografii), Czech Graphics Union, Prague, 1940,
Beautiful Motherland (Vlast Libezna), xxxx, Prague, 19xx,
The Prague Castle (Prazsky Hrad), Orbis, Prague, 1962,
Vltava, Orbis, Prague, 1965,
Czechoslovakia (Ceskoslovensko), Orbis, Prague, 1974,
Walks in Prague (Prochazky Prahou) xxxx, Prague, 19xx, with Emanuel Poche,
Slovakia (Slovensko) Artia, Prague, 1959.

His urban photography revealed Prague in all of its medieval,baroque, neo-classical, and art nouveau splendor while capturing the mysterious allure of the historic city. My copy of Praha ve fotografii held special resonance for me because I discovered the first edition copy on my initial visit to Prague not long after the Velvet Revolution. That Prague bears little resemblance to the Disney-fied Czech capital that I found during subsequent time in the city.

 

These images from Plicka’s excellent book are a reminder of what was lost during the Communist era and through contemporary modernization and overtourism.

 

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Novel Problems

Posted on June 21, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

 

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Another Lazy Caturday

Posted on June 20, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

 

 

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Reading Is Fundamental

Posted on June 19, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

I just ran across these oldschool posters that were created by the American Library Association to encourage young people to read more. I guess that they were aiming for Star Wars and Back to the Future fans.

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Have you or a loved one been affected by persuasive cartography

Posted on June 18, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Although I am one of those odd people who actually took geography courses at university, Persuasive Cartography is a term I only recently encountered. It usually refers to propaganda art that uses cartography to make a point. An amazing collection of persuasive cartography maps and articles can be found in Cornell University Library’s P. J. Mode Collection of Persuasive Cartography: there are more than 300 maps available online.

PJM_2015_01, 11/21/14, 4:00 PM, 8C, 5806×7423 (60+204), 100%, Repro 2.2 v2, 1/15 s, R63.5, G40.0, B58.5

 

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Shorter than the Day

Posted on June 17, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Last week, artist Sarah Sze unveiled an impressive new sculpture titled “Shorter than the Day” —a reference to Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death”  at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport. Sze’s work, which weighs five tons, is suspended above an atrium in Terminal B.

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school where children played,
Their lessons scarcely done;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then ’tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses’ heads
Were toward eternity.

The New York-based artist captures the sky as it changes from cerulean blue morning to a colorful sunset to the many shades of night through nearly 1,000 photographs of the sky. Each printed image is fastened to the aluminum and steel with alligator clips and is revealed as viewers move around the massive work, just like the earth circles the sun to mark a day.

 

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Drive Time Radio

Posted on June 16, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Drive and Listen is a terrific mashup of city driving videos with the same city’s local radio stations. Pick a city and cruise the streets to tunes, news and talk that you can’t hear at home. Each time you select one of the 50 or so cities you’ll get a different combination of radio station and driving footage shot at differing times of day or night. But be aware that it can be oddly addicting. In these stay-at-home times, it’s both nostalgic and liberating to be able to wander the streets of your favorite cities in the U.S. and around the world.

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