music: This Charming Man

Film: Bond

After seeing Quantum of Solace last night, I am officially going on the record by saying that Daniel Craig is the best Bond ever.
You can disagree if you want, but I most likely won't be paying attention.

file under: sometimes fashion can kick Ass

Adam Kimmel presents: Claremont HD from adam kimmel on Vimeo.
don't be fooled by the slow start....

photo: Duane Michals

If you think that Pace/ MacGill is too staid, go see Duane Michals' newest photos.

Duane Michals: Photographs from the Floating World until 1-10-09
Pace MacGill, 545 W22nd St, NY, NY

music: Willy Mason

reading: night table

Nantucket: The Life of an Island by Edwin P. Hoyt; for research. I do not recommend. Read my pending book, instead.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by CS Lewis; because I need to read it at least every other year.

and lastly, to whomever sent me a subscription to Rolling Stone, please tell me that you got it for free and didn't need to use any money of your own...?

music: One For My Baby

film: To Catch a Thief

file under: Perfect Timing

Is there an artist alive with the prescience of Damien Hirst? Who else could have sold over $200 million in new art as the world financial markets were shuddering a death knell?
Sounds like the perfect subject for a new Damien Hirst, actually.

tv: Korla Pandit

I love

you, Nan Goldin.
No one can do better what you do. The kids these days... so obsessed with wanting to be "cool;" if you have to try, you ain't gonna get there, I'd say.
When I came across this photo recently it immediately reminded me of those times with the initial shock of your stuff; I was hunched in the dreary corridors of Mount Holyoke College's library, a lad in the veritable wilds. A new world unfolded, all taking place somewhere not far from where I sat.
Thank you!

music: la Divina

music: the Mamas and the Papas

goods: Steelcase furniture

how much do I love my battleship gray Steelcase desk? More than I might share. So much of this company's furniture has been imbedded into our American consciousness, it might be hard to separate fact from creative memory. Try imagining a schoolhouse from the latter half of the 20th C. without one of these beauties holding forth at the front of the classroom like a temple, a veritable altar in steel.

our history in print

ahhh, the gentler time in America, when decent people smoked in blithe unawares.

film: Los Monstruos del Terror

the weather

music: Henry Purcell

Hedi Slimane, or the collision of art and commerce

is there a better fashion photographer working today? Nope. Is it a reduction of the highest order to call him simply a fashion photographer? Yupp.
Somehow, I never really liked his clothes... didn't dislike, but rather a detached admiration.
However, the photographs? Now that's a different story. Ever heard of Irving Penn, Frantisek Drtikol, August Sander, Richard Avedon, or Herbert List? So has Hedi Slimane, yet somehow he manages to absorb and then quietly explode beyond anything they ever did. That's right, I said it.

vows: Tammy Wynette & George Jones

music: Hejira

film: My Own Private Idaho

my favorite comment from Congress

As the big three sat before Congress a couple weeks ago, the meeting is alleged to have grown somewhat hostile to the CEOs.

When asked, by Representative Peter Roskam (R-IL), if in return for federal assistance, they would each draw a salary of one dollar. Ford's Alan Mullaly, 2007 compensation somewhere around $22 million, stated, "I think I'm ok where I am."

film: Mahogany

what happened to Anthony Goicolea?

with all due respect, where did the brutal, aesthetic, comedic imagery go? Thom Browne's clothes are cool, yes, but does your art need to be contingent upon the vagaries of his fashion design? The environmental stuff is also pretty three years ago. Sorta looks a little too Parke-Harrison, without the weird dude.
Sorry man. You are a good photographer. I expect more.

historic crush: Robert E. Lee

well, the North may have won the war, but the South certainly had their share of victories also. This man failed only in having a chain of leadership who failed him. Us Yanks were very lucky to have won the war, indeed.
Could be that it is my "favorite" war, but RE Lee is a character for all times: authentic, flawed, loyal, heroic... a man to define history. All this from a lifelong Massachusetts resident. It don't hurt that he was h.o.t.t. either.

Happy Thanksgiving!

music: Sarah Vaughan

obsession: Arrow Moccasin Co.

It has been years, YEARS, that I've wanted a pair of these. Perhaps this is my combination Xmas/ birthday gift to myself.
Damn, that list is long

tv: Entourage

goods: Tauer's Incense Rose

So, Christmas is indeed right around the corner, as they say. For all the times I've said, "I don't want anything," I finally have come 'round.

The 1.7oz size will be fine. If you call up the company in Switzerland, there's an excellent chance that Andy Tauer will answer the phone.

Any questions? Trust me: if you smell this, you will be forever captivated. Experience and be changed.

www.tauerperfumes.com

music: French covers

I'm not terribly fond of the rise in amateur exposition. However, there is something immensely charming about this French ephebe sashaying through Belle & Sebastian covers.
Good job, sir. Seems like you've got alot of the factors in the equation; Hollywood might come calling!

field trip: Montague Book Mill

ahh, good 'ol New England. Such small pockets of hidden charm, increasingly less hidden. One shouldn't be too selfish, though, in appraising the crowds; there's a reason why wonders are well-populated.

The Book Mill has always been a favorite place to go with loved ones (or one's self), and today was no different.

film: Don't Look Back

goods: Sienne l'Hiver

The perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour wields the scents of incense, woods, and aromatic resins as though he conjured a djinn. Presently the in-house "nose" for L'Artisan Parfumeurs, he also is responsible for the masterpieces from a small Italian house called, rather magnanimously, Eau d'Italie. Fine by me; call them Eau d'Europe if you want, they are each of them a work of art.

Eau d'Italie's Sienne l'Hiver (Siena in winter) will, and always will be, a scent of such complete emotional beauty that I am at a loss to give it further words.

tv: Absolutely Fabulous

painting: Van Gogh at MoMA

Really, only the most jaded would find fault in the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh. Also, his biography is such a romantic narrative on the artist's existence.... I'll be rather p.o.'d if I don't get myself down to NYC to see it.

Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night at the Museum of Modern Art, until January 5, 2009

film: Stardust Memories

tv: Hart to Hart

What do you think of Jasper Johns?

wheels: BMW, yes please

This is still in a planning stage, and I'm just stunned that they need to think twice about it.

music: "The Vogue Years" Francoise Hardy

As the thermometer plummets here in New England, this CD set is like a scirocco from Saint-Tropez.
Since I don't speak a bit of French, she could be ya-ya'ing through her grocery list, for all I know. If so, never did dry goods sound so good.

painting: John Evans at Gallery Henoch

one of the finest contemporary landscape painters, a former student of Philip Guston, a mean golfer, and a friend.

If you are or are planning to be in NYC this month, see his paintings. There really is nothing quite like them.

Gallery Henoch West 25th Street New York City

reading: on the night table

currently:

Because the Night James Ellroy

The King and the Cowboy David Fromkin. 19th-20th century European nobility can be such a drag. We know, we know; they all married their cousins. Toss good 'ol TR into the mix, however, and there's bound to be a good read.

and nary a dud in the newest New Yorker, a pleasant surprise. Who knew about the midwestern knife master of the 1930s? http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/24/081124fa_fact_oppenheimer

Wodin's day

Well, this is going to be an inauspicious start, as I need to figure out basic details like A. how do I get back to this page, and B. how do I post this post.

Grant me a wide berth on this learning curve!

I just was sent a youtube video of "Raimunda" singing Volver, from the movie of the same name; had every intention of posting that here... all clean and 21st C.-like. No such luck. Seek it out though... fantastic Spanish melodrama from a living master.