Reviews and News:
The weird, true story of the blind, homeless composer named Moondog: “In 1960s New York City lived a blind, often homeless man with a long, flowing beard, who dressed as a Viking and stood sentinel at the corner of West 54th Street and Sixth Avenue in midtown Manhattan. He sold his poetry and performed on custom-built percussion. He’d been there since the ’40s; the Viking gear came later, so that people would stop telling him he looked like Jesus—and to help him cope with navigating a metropolis where metal parking signs were at head level. Most people thought he was mentally ill; they didn’t know he was an acclaimed American composer, recording for notable labels, praised by Leonard Bernstein and Duke Ellington, and who even made a children’s record with a pre-stardom Julie Andrews. There was always a lot more to Moondog than met the eye.”
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What it takes to open a bookstore: “I’m surely not the only bookworm who has fantasized about working in a bookstore: The quiet, convivial atmosphere; the rows of spines with titles you have always meant to read; the enthusiastic conversations about books. But as I learned, it’s not quite as relaxing as it looks.”
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Sixteenth-century English prayer book, which may have belonged to a young Henry VIII, to be auctioned at Sotheby’s: “Few such English books survived the Reformation, and this one is particularly rare because it contains an image of Thomas Becket, which survived the widespread destruction of his image after Henry VIII outlawed the cult of the saint and martyr…Among the 50 full-page illustrations, the royal connections of the book are clear in one showing Henry VI as a saint – with a little figure of the owner of the book kneeling before him. He was never formally canonised, but was venerated by both Henry VII and his great nephew Henry VIII.”
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Frank Furedi writes in defense of populism: The “synthesis of market economics and identity politics, under the umbrella of technocratic governance, has provided the model that is followed, to varying degrees, by political classes throughout the West. The viability of technocratic rule rests on two key elements: the de-politicisation of public life and the passivity of citizens. From the managerial perspective of the political class, the upside of this model is that it limits the effects of the legitimacy crisis by insulating policymakers from public pressure. However, this upside is also a downside, insofar as it reinforces the isolation of the political establishment from the electorate. That is why political elites have found it increasingly hard to influence, let alone inspire, the public. A technocratic regime also creates a specific type of politician, one for whom career advancement depends on learning the rules of intra-oligarchical competition, from effective networking and PR skills to being well versed in the art of briefing against others. Such a political type has little experience of winning hearts and minds, let alone of political struggles or leading people. Instead, they are products of a technocratic, oligarchical culture that they share with their colleagues in the media, think-tanks and assorted cultural institutions. Their language, their values and their practices dominate formal public language and political debate. Yet despite all this, despite their institutional and legal power, the political oligarchy’s culture has failed to capture the public’s imagination.”
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Julian Barnes says Americans should be barred from the Booker Prize. A. S. Byatt and others agree.
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A new Herbert Hoover: “For a generation of Americans, his name was synonymous with failure. Before the Great Depression was great, it was the ‘Hoover Depression.’ Shantytowns built during its worst years were ‘Hoovervilles.’ Pulled-out, empty pants pockets were ‘Hoover Flags.’ These unhappy memories of Herbert Hoover and his presidency persisted for years after he left the White House—so much so that Mario Cuomo, in his 1984 keynote speech to the Democratic convention, could attack supply-side economics by saying: ‘the Republicans called it trickle-down when Hoover tried it’—and expect a knowing, visceral response from his audience. It’s unlikely Cuomo’s reference would be met with such emotion today, but most would probably get his point. Insofar as Americans think about Herbert Hoover at all, they likely do so in connection with his successor. Every great story needs a villain, and Hoover serves as perfect foil for Franklin Roosevelt. Supposedly reserved and grumpy, Hoover refused to abandon conservative orthodoxy in the face of economic disaster—which only ended with FDR’s ebullient application of activist governmental policies…It’s a welcome development, then, that Hoover is in the midst of a mini-revival. Earlier this year, Charles Rappleye wrote a well-received account of his administration. And in Herbert Hoover: A Life, University of Wisconsin professor Glen Jeansonne has produced an elegant, concise, and insightful full-dress biography of the former president. It will likely remain the definitive single-volume account for some time.”
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Essay of the Day:
In City Journal, Judith Miller explains how Marfa, a town of barely 2,000 residents in West Texas, became a tourist mecca. She also considers what the future might hold:
“In 2007, Marfa, Texas, population 2,485, went dark. Unable to pay the town’s electricity bills, the newly elected mayor and city council voted to turn off Marfa’s streetlights—all of them. “Winters here are dark and harsh,” recalled Mayor Daniel P. Dunlap, who owns Marfa’s sole appliance and furniture store and is now in the last year of his fifth two-year term as mayor. ‘We went six months that winter without lights. Folks were mighty unhappy.’ After raising utility rates and replacing power-guzzling bulbs with more efficient substitutes, Dunlap was able to restore the lighting in stages, light by light, street by street, starting with those lining the bus route of its only public school.
“Today, Marfa lights up the sky. Last year, more than 38,000 tourists traveled from throughout the world to this remote cattle town in West Texas. This year, more than 45,000, mostly art lovers, are expected.
“Marfa has become more than a place. It is a ‘destination,’ an arts-world station of the cross, or, to mix religious metaphors, a mecca of minimalism. What Lourdes is to ailing Catholics, Marfa is to aficionados of conceptual sculpture and painting. Think Art Basel in Miami, or Documenta in Germany. The temperature here in June can be scorching, but Marfa, in any season, has become supercool. ‘London, Paris, Rome, Marfa,’ boasts a popular T-shirt sold at Squeeze, a tiny deli in the heart of town that specializes in chocolates and fruit and vegetable drinks.
“Marfa’s new status as the quirky cultural hub of West Texas has not solved all its problems—and has even created new ones. Mayor Dunlap estimates that despite its tourist-driven prosperity, Marfa remains far from wealthy. Over 50 percent of its residents live below the poverty line, he estimates; so do over 70 percent of children in its public school. Many of the streets in the town’s one square mile badly need paving or repaving. And Marfa, while weighing a proposal to restrict the height of new buildings, faces a shortage of affordable housing and a diminished tax base. Still, compared with its earlier financial woes and those of neighboring towns in Presidio and surrounding counties, Marfa is doing fine. Median household income now stands at $41,719, up from $24,712 in 2000.
“The question that longtime Marfans increasingly ask is whether the influx of hipsters and art lovers will destroy their town’s simplicity and ‘live-and-let live’ solitude, qualities that brought newcomers here in the first place. ‘It’s hard to get here,’ said Tom Michael, the founder of Marfa’s NPR station. ‘And we like it that way.’
“What will happen to Marfa if it becomes even more fashionable among cultural tourists, as seems inevitable? The town’s 150 hotel rooms and superb restaurants are overwhelmed on some weekends. Conversely, what will happen if Marfa becomes not exactly old hat, but less chic, a non-first-tier destination? Is arts-based cultural tourism a dependable economic mainstay? And what can and should be done, if anything, to further integrate the art crowd and local Marfans—two separate, unequal groups?”
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Image of the Day: Gurten
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Poem: Wendy Videlock, “Deconstruction”
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