Artist of the Week

William Crump- This New York based painter has his finger firmly on the pulse of prolonged adolescent angst. He embraces "pop standards" such as athletics, dancing, and courtship in an effort to find the origin of suburban collective experience. While his work is instantly familiar, thanks to sitting room patterns and washed out pastels the color of your first girlfriend's makeup, it is unnerving almost as quickly. It makes me feel vulnerable and anxious and juvenile, reminds me of unfullfilled potential, like I just struck out to end the Little League season. Or when the popular guys have the best jobs and prettiest wives at the 15 year reunion. Crump's brushwork is perfectly suited to this subject matter-confident and translucent, dreamy and vague. Now showing at Evoke Gallery(see above)

CDs of the Week

The Pop Perfection Edition
Phoenix-It's Never Been Like That: I guess it is logical that pop at its finest would be the product of a French band singing in pitch-perfect English. High-neck guitar riffs, tinny cymbals, and tambourines combine into Skittles for your eardrums. Imagine the Strokes, if they were actually good, and your on the right track(maybe that's why no "The" in the band moniker). Only downfall is the instrumental "North", which just serves to increase the desire for more singing.
Favorite Lyric:Napoleon says take off your coat
Take off your longjohns too
The Weepies-Say I Am You: Utterly precious XY/XX chromosome Sunday morning music best served with a side of breakfast nook. Not as sacharine as above, but no more flawed. Again calls attention to Steve Tannen's brilliance(His "Shelter Hotel" is on my top ten list of tracks), while Deb Talan sounds like everyone's favorite aunt who always gave the best gifts.
Favorite Lyric: What do I compare you to
My favorite pair of shoes
Maybe my bright red boots
If they had wings

Ficciones

New article this weekend in the Times in regards to the "Greatest Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years". Poll results here. More interesting than the solid victory by Morrison is the complete domination of the polling by DeLillo and Roth. I would rank White Noise above Underworld , and am surprised to see Libra, what I thought a minor work included. Also Roth has never struck my fancy. Additionally; congrats to Denis Johnson, collected Updike should not be included(Rabbit I is from 1960 for goodness sakes!), and Confederacy of Dunces should be required reading post-Katrina. My winner of the top vote getters: Blood Meridian. Its raw, unimpeded Violence seems apt, and McCarthy's individual words weigh as heavy as anything since the Jazz decade. Best ommisions of the list, the entire McSweeney's clan, I guess unflinching pretension and quarterly mixtape magazines don't actually get you anywhere. My favorites of the period in question would include:
Richard Powers, catalog- His interweaving of Big themes with contemporary narrative is essential in our current domin-info-troni-caince.
Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All- Art and terrorism ten years too early..."to create what did not previously exist"
David Means, The Secret Goldfish Stories- A collection of magic realism that reads like Marques writing iambic pentameter.
Michael Cunningham- Kavalier and Clay- Certainly the most palpably visual novel of the last quarter century.
Now that my opinions are out of the way.. I am fascinated with this poll, especially now. The very idea of the Great American Novel implies the presently profane idea that America has an importance and resonance, and that this characteristic is best expressed through the prose of our native authors. Perhaps we should take a cue from this survey and reconsider our collective pride and identity, not through alarmists news reports and hollow flag waving, but through our shared and unique experiences, especially those collected by our most powerful wordsmiths.

Artist of the Week

Since I struck out on the openings on Friday, we'll look out of town for our artist.....

The work of Jacob Lunderby rings familiar to me, with its investigation of picture making, beauty, and pattern. While his claim of a connection to Western philosophical history rings hollow, his work is clearly investigative and hypothetical, thus mathematics seems for applicable. Most interesting is his exploration of preconceptions about what painting needs to be, and how it should be produced, an undertaking best suited for a Midwesterner's naivete. Marks and brushstrokes become elements in a proof, but neccessarily remain eye pleasing. Or maybe I just have a soft spot for silhouettes and birds and flowers.

CDs of the Week

The Raconteurs-Broken Boy Soldiers: Like a match made in musical heaven, Jack White's analog nostalgia and not-quite-right songwriting plus Brendan Benson's three chord, partly cloudy, Apples in Stereo-nessequals a pop record made in the garage of the local PTO's haunted house. Looks like Jack grew that hideous Zorro/Dylan handle bar to play the role of gypsy ringmaster. Regardless his nasally whine has never sounded better than when paired with Benson's syrupy tenor. And yes these are the only two members of this "group" that matter.
Favorite Lyric- You want everything to be just like,
The stories that you read but never write

Drive By Truckers- A Blessing and a Curse: It may have been obvious that the alt country kings of Southern anthropology would eventually run out of macro-themes and be forced to turn their microscopes up a few orders of magnitude, but I don't think anyone saw this disc coming. By personalizing favorite issues such as suicide, poverty, family crises and stasis, and learning to write a decent melody for more than four songs on a record, the Truckers have added another pony trick to their Montgomery stable. Or maybe its just that I am a sucker for the pedal steel. Plus, another addition to the saddest song of the year race, "A World of Hurt."
Favorite Lyric- I was twenty seven when I figured out that
blowing my brains out wasn't the answer.
So I decided maybe I should find a way to
make this world work out for me.