ArtSake

What do football receivers and artists have in common? Multiyear, guaranteed contracts? No. Measuring success in terms of inches gained? No. Cool uniforms? Well, perhaps. Actually, its the ability to recognize patterns and contrast sensitivity. And thanks to his optometrist grandfather, who created a unique visual training program, the Arizona Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald has acquired visual skills that just might just give his NFL team its first super bowl. Heres an interesting interview on NPR about the development of Fitzgerald’s vision.

Photo credit: Image of Boston Militia playing Pittsburg Passion, from Boston Militia’s website

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This is one in a series of breathtakingly brief interviews with participants in the Commonwealth Reading Series.

Michael Downing reads at Porter Square Books on February 10, at 7 PM.

Michael’s work in fiction and nonfiction, along with being highly acclaimed, has led to awards, a play, a movie, a surprise footwear-related gig–and now, to a miniaturized interview.

MCC: What are you working on these days?

Michael: I am writing a memoir. The title is I’ll Make It Up to You. It’s not exactly the story of my life. It’s about the aftermath of a genetic diagnosis, which has occasioned a lot of confusion about who has the authority to tell the story of my life.

MCC: What’s the most embarrassing sentence/line of poetry you’ve ever written?

Michael: That’s easy: “I am writing a memoir.”

MCC: What’s the best/worst day job you’ve ever had?

Michael: Writing is definitely the best/worst day job I’ve ever had.

MCC: What’s the most surprising reader response you’ve ever received?

Michael: I was asked to be a spokesperson for National Flip-Flop Day. Really. Even more surprisingI accepted.

Michael joins Rebecca Kaiser Gibson, Rachel Kadish, and Joan Wickersham for a reading at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Tuesday, February 10, 7 PM. Event co-sponsored by AGNI Magazine. Read about all of the events in the Commonwealth Reading Series.

Michael Downing’s novels include the national bestseller Perfect Agreement and Breakfast with Scot, which was adapted as a movie that premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. In addition to Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center, a narrative history of the first Buddhist monastery outside of Asia, Michael’s nonfiction includes the revised 2009 edition of his history of clocks, Congress, and confusion – Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time, and a memoir, I’ll Make It Up to You, which will be published in October 2009. His essays and reviews appear in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and other periodicals. He teaches creative writing at Tufts University.

Read all of the nano-interviews.

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This is one in a series of brief (yet short) interviews with participants in the Commonwealth Reading Series.

Rachel Kadish reads at Porter Square Books on February 10, at 7 PM.

As a lauded novelist and short story/essay writer, Rachel knows her prose. Which may be why she’s able, here, to make so very little prose so very engaging and interesting.

MCC: What are you working on these days?

Rachel: A novel set in 17th Century London. It’s tremendous fun doing the research — though I often feel this book is as much work as two regular novels.

MCC: What writer do you most admire but write nothing like?

Rachel: Joseph Heller. By the time you’ve read two pages of Catch-22, you understand that nothing will be sacred. The book is an absolutely wild ride.

MCC: Do you secretly dream of being a) a pop icon, b) an algebra teacher, and/or c) a crime-solver/writer a la Jessica Fletcher?

Rachel: d) a gospel singer. Or — barring that — I want to push people’s cars out of the snow for a living. It only takes a few minutes, and the fruits of the labor are immediately visible. The opposite of life as a novelist.

MCC: How many revisions does your work typically go through?

Rachel: Dozens. I’ve come to look forward to the revision-stage. A first draft is fun, but it’s also nerve-wracking, because I’m anxious to get everything down on paper. Revision is the fun part–that’s where I get to tinker, understand the characters more deeply, and try to make things as good as they can be.

Rachel joins Michael Downing, Rebecca Kaiser Gibson, and Joan Wickersham for a reading at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Tuesday, February 10, 7 PM. Event co-sponsored by AGNI Magazine. Read about all of the events in the Commonwealth Reading Series.

Rachel Kadish is the author of the novels From a Sealed Room (Putnam, 1998) and Tolstoy Lied: a Love Story (Houghton Mifflin, 2006). Her work has been read on NPR and has appeared in publications such as Zoetrope, Tin House, and The Gettysburg Review, in the Pushcart Prize anthology and elsewhere. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, MacDowell, and Yaddo, and has been the Koret writer-in-residence at Stanford University. She teaches creative writing in Lesleys M.F.A. program in Creative Writing and is currently a Visiting Research Associate at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center.

Read all of the nano-interviews.

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We want the hole, um, I mean whole, story.

We recently had a chat with Andrea Shea, the arts reporter from WBUR radio. She’s trying to get a handle on the economic downturn, particularly as it relates to artists here in Massachusetts. So pony up to the ArtSake blog and let us know what you see happening. Are there any trends you’ve noticed? Are you experiencing any dramatic decreases in sales, performance opportunities, publishing? Any increases? Are you worried about your teaching jobs? Is your day/night job(s) threatened? Perhaps most importantly: how are you responding?

Don’t be shy, let it fly – just leave a comment and join the conversation.

Image: Recycled sweater from Louise Cady-Fernandes’ THE HOLE THING series. Louise is a member of Boston Handmade, a collection of Boston-area artists, artisans, and craftspeople.

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On Tuesday in the US of A, the word following “President” peacefully changed hands from a monosyllabic last name to a rhyming, trisyllablic one, and thus we have transitioned from the Era of Art Made with Bush as President to the Era of Art Made with Obama as President.

So, this roundup is going to be all about the inauguration, our president, and of course, the nation of art (and to celebrate, I’ve re-posted fiber artist Adrienne Sloane’s “Inaugural Necklace and Bracelet,” above).

Speaking of the inauguration, The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research has a pictorial review of the event. (Always intriguing to see an artist’s photo-journalistic choices.)

Berkshire Creative reports on striking similarities between the inauguration and… Tanglewood.

One difference: Tanglewood is generally warmer. But it was an icy day for a classical music, so can you blame the quartet for pre-taping their performance?

At Slog (of Seattle’s The Stranger), Jen Graves delves into the tradition (since Reagan, anyway) of borrowing an esteemed painting to hang in Statuary Hall during the inaugural luncheon. (Check out Obama’s choice.)

Remember that petition advocating for a Secretary of Arts? CultureGrrl isn’t convinced a Culture Czar is what we really need. Others, like Big RED & Shiny’s Matthew Nash, are not necessarily against the idea, so long as the post would be effectively used.

The LA Times Culture Monster blog speculates that Chicago attorney Michael Dorf is the front-runner to be the new NEA head. Also at Culture Monster, Mark Swed says “we have reason to believe we have an arts president” (but he’d do well to get a bit artier).

Part two from Arlene Goldfarb’s exploration of what a new WPA for artists might mean. Great stuff! (Part one is here.)

And finally: playwright Theresa Rebeck loved loved loved everything about the inauguration… well, except for the art.

Anyway, being an artist at Obama’s inauguration is the quintessential tough act, and I do salute those musicians and writers. But I would like to take this moment to publicly endorse Art. Art is great. At its best it engages the intellect and challenges the spirit; it connects us across history and reminds us of our humanity. I think we should all just remember that, as long as we’re taking the time these days to think about fixing the planet.

And at the next inauguration maybe Steve Colbert could write the poem.

(For the record, I thought Elizabeth Alexander’s poem [c/o Poets.org had a graceful power – though I bet I’d enjoy Colbert’s inaugural artistry, too.)

Image: Adrienne Sloane, INAUGURAL NECKLACE AND BRACELET (2008)

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This is one in a series of exuberantly brief interviews with participants in the Commonwealth Reading Series.

Harvard Review is co-sponsor of an upcoming reading on February 5, at 7 PM at Porter Square Books in Cambridge. Christina Thompson (left) is the journal’s editor.

Along with her editorship, Christina is the lauded author of Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All, part memoir and part exploration of the uneasy history of Maori and European cultures in New Zealand. Unsurprisingly, she’s equally adept at nano-answering from either perspective, editor or writer.

MCC: What’s new and exciting at Harvard Review these days?

Christina: New layout, new cover, new paper, new writers – the question is what isn’t new?

MCC: How do you balance your duties at Harvard Review with your writing career?

Christina: I’m half-time at Harvard but I also teach in the Writing Program at Harvard Extension and I have three kids, so the writing is always giving way to production deadlines or grading or parent-teacher conferences or something. I tell myself that this is why it took me so long to write my first book but it doesn’t make me any happier about it.

MCC: What are you working on these days, writing-wise?

Christina: Right now I’m reviewing a couple of books about Captain Cook, I’m going to write an essay about living with my 90-year-old mother, and then I’m going to start a new book about Polynesian Voyagers.

MCC: What writer in history would you refuse to publish in Harvard Review, were he/she to submit to you today?

Christina: Oh, probably William Burroughs. I have such a low tolerance for vulgarity.

MCC: What’s the most embarrassing sentence/line of poetry you’ve ever written?

Christina: I once said of a young writer whose book I was reviewing that, while most people had an ideal reader, they also had a reader from hell and, unfortunately for him, I was she. I’d take that back if I could. In fact, I’d take back the entire review.

Please revise the following sentence:
Though every muscle in his body urged him not to, Sanderson crept toward the tinted windows of the gray-green Caprice.

MCC: What’s the best/worst day job you’ve ever had?

Christina: Editing Harvard Review is the best job I’ve ever had; the worst job I ever had was as a telemarketer.

MCC: What’s the most surprising reader response you’ve ever received (could be a reader of your own writing or of the journal)?

Christina: Someone on the web once described Harvard Review as “the least experimental journal,” which I thought was so funny I considered having T-shirts printed with it.

Christina and Harvard Review are partnering with MCC to present Steve Almond, Lisa Nold, George Rosen, and Tracy Winn for an event at Porter Square Books on Thursday, February 5, 7 PM. Read about all of the events in the Commonwealth Reading Series.

Christina Thompson is the editor of Harvard Review. Her essays and articles have appeared in numerous journals, including Vogue, American Scholar, the Journal of Pacific History, Australian Literary Studies, and in the 1999, 2000, and 2006 editions of Best Australian Essays. She lives near Boston with her husband and three sons.

Read all of the nano-interviews.

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This Friday, Grub Street, Boston’s talented and attractive professional development organization for writers, is presenting an evening of “tales of mistakes, devolutions, and foolish choices,” called Grub Gone… Wrong. The event is hosted by Steve Almond (memorably featured here just two posts ago).

Event details:

READING AND PARTY
Friday, January 23rd, 7PM, Grub Gone… Wrong
At 8pm, enjoy short readings by Grub authors, instructors and students, hosted by Steve Almond. Before, after and during the readings, there will be music, drinks, food and maybe even some dancing.
$8 non-members/$5 members in advance, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

You can buy tickets online. (While you’re there, be sure to click on the Grub Gone… Wrong promotional image and take a closer look at the titles on the book spines.)

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You’re encouraged to vote for the 2008 Boston Art Awards, a contest organized by The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research “to honor the best art made in New England (excepting Connecticut) and exhibits organized here in 2008.”

There are numerous categories in which to vote, from standards like “Painting” and “Photography” to more specialized categories like “Local curator of locally-made art” and “The decline and fall of civilization.”

Here’s the ballot and an explanation of how to vote.

The deadline for votes is 6 PM on Friday, January 23, 2009. And check out the 2008 Boston Art Awards Ball from 6 to 8 PM, Monday, February 2, at the Beehive at the Boston Center for the Arts, 541 Tremont St., Boston. The free event is co-presented with Big RED & Shiny, who encourage one and all to “join us for cocktails, toasts to great art, and some awkward speeches! Support art from New England, and don’t forget to wear your best creative attire.”

Image: Promotional image for the 2008 Boston Art Awards, created by Matthew Nash of Big RED & Shiny.

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This is one in a series of brief (but devastatingly handsome) interviews with participants in the Commonwealth Reading Series.

Steve Almond, award-winning author of books including Candyfreak, My Life in Heavy Metal, The Evil B.B. Chow, and most recently, the essay collection (Not That You Asked), reads at Porter Square Books on February 5, at 7 PM.

Steve’s blend of smarts, iconoclasm, edge, and hilariousness never fails to edify and surprise (even in under 15 words).

MCC: What writer do you most admire but write nothing like?

Steve: John Williams (the novel Stoner).

MCC: Were President Obama to create a cabinet post in the arts, whom should he appoint as Secretary?

Steve: George Saunders.

MCC: Do you ever revise your work on the spot during live readings?

Steve: All the time.

MCC: The unauthorized biography of your life is titled…

Steve: Anxiety on Parade.

Steve joins Lisa Nold, George Rosen, and Tracy Winn for an event at Porter Square Books on Thursday, February 5, 7 PM. Event co-sponsored by Harvard Review. Read about all of the events in the Commonwealth Reading Series.

Steve Almond is the author of two story collections, My Life in Heavy Metal and The Evil B.B. Chow, the novel Which Brings Me to You (with Julianna Baggott), and the non-fiction book Candyfreak. His new book is a collection of essays, (Not That You Asked). He lives outside Boston with his wife and daughter Josephine, who can now make the noises of seven different farm animals.

Read all of the nano-interviews.

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The Foreigner by Greenfield author Francie Lin (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06) was just announced as a nominee for an Edgar Allan Poe Award!

The awards are administered by the Mystery Writers of America and will be announced on April 30. Francie’s category is Best First Novel by an American Author.

Congratulations, Francie – it’s a well-deserved kudo for a smart and emotionally rich literary thriller.

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