Thursday, May 08, 2008

random thoughts

hudson river landscape

I was going through old photos in my iPhoto folders and found this, which I took about one year ago today on one of my then-frequent train rides up the Hudson. I love this photograph. It has nothing to do with my following observations, which, while random, have all been inspired by recent reading and observation.

• I think Frank Gehry is totally overrated. His buildings are just clever surfaces over decidedly unimaginative interior spaces. Plus they leak, they blind passersby with their metal roofs; and they are already looking totally mannered.

•I was filmed for a piece on my school yesterday. For about 80 minutes I answered questions about the school's past, my own past, my views on teaching, and so on. It came up during the interview that when I finished school (after getting my doctorate at UChicago) I was debt-free. Now that I look back on it, that is miraculous and I am very lucky. I guess I was a good student after all.

• I would love to see George Bush and John McCain holding hands and riding off into the sunset to disappear forever.

• I don't understand, on an ethical level, how any intelligent person could defend the policies of the Republican party since Ronald Reagan's reign.

• On the train going to my ear doctor yesterday I was listening to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan on my iPod and I thought I would pass out from the sheer beauty and terrible power of that music. He was a master of a kind sufi sacred music, qawwali. Check him out if you can.

1 comment:

SHE said...

your collection of photos is amazing..

and so is this post. makes me so curious

which architects you respect? especially with what you see there in n.y.

how was that experience -being interviewed for 80 minutes? how did you prepare? -sounds ghastly-
except to know your passion for, and knowledge of, the subject

result wonderful/process dreadful? exciting?

bush/mccain: made me laugh

nusrat fateh ali khan -i will, and thank you. always love to read, or hear about the power of music ;how deeply it penetrates the soul -especially from people with highly trained ears (doctor visit went well i hope)

many references from joyce carol oats in her journals, which i'm currently reading

love, ~s.