Dave Hickey

Art critic/writer Dave Hickey is visiting Penn right now. I was planning on going to his lecture tomorrow, but apparently my thesis advisor Colette pulled some strings and also got me invited to a faculty dinner with him at Pod. I can't afford to even breathe the air in Pod, but this is on the school's dime. I'm also supposed to visit Colette's Wednesday art writing class, which Hickey is sitting in on.

From the introvert's perspective, this whole scene seems rather forced. I love the guy's writing, but I seriously wonder if there's anything to be accomplished by playing the shmooze game for two days with a man who gives hundreds of these lectures every year --- to people a lot more talented than me. Part of my reticence is probably just a Protestant-work-ethic flare-up (Myers and Briggs might say it's the socialized latent J surfacing) that says "networking" is just another word for begging, and that it qualifies as selling your soul to the Man. Or maybe I'm just an insecure stoic and I hate criticism.

Playing:
Meshuggah - I
Mono - Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky...

Interview

Here's a bizarre interview with Rosetta on Indieworkshop.com, done by our friend C. Elmore, who lives in Florida. It's strange because it's pretty much an unedited chat room conversation.

Playing:
Stars of the Lid - Avec Laudenum, Maneuvering the Nocturnal Hum
LFO - Sheath
Oceansize - Everyone Into Position
Mono / Pelican Split LP
Dysrhythmia - No Interference reissue

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Fall draws intensity from its desperation. Nature's dying is far more splendid than its bloom, indeed, it's like a tragedy: immediately prior to destruction, the protagonist explodes with character and beauty, such that the absence is acutely felt. Spring connotes innocence, but Autumn is wise, mature. Witness now the last stand, the final fighting breaths of the trees, bound to death but also to resurrection, an allegory, a revelation in color, waiting for redemption.