Lord Berners, Art Market, Alice Walker, Allen Ginsberg, Interns
Serious, Silly, Charming, & Heartless
Alan Hollinghurst | New York Review Of Books | 6th April 2015
The rich aesthete Lord Berners charmed Salvador Dalí and Gertrude Stein at Faringdon House; his partner, "Mad Boy" Robert Heber-Percy, maintained the grand style after Berners's death in 1950. Heber-Percy willed the house to his grand-daughter, Sofka Zinovieff, whose memoir of the ménage, The Mad Boy, is "a study in unconventional relationships" — and a singular account of art, and class, and English eccentricity (3,900 words)
Art Market Laid Bare
Cynthia O’Murchu | Financial Times | 8th April 2015 | | Read with 1Pass
Russian tycoon sues dealer who sold him paintings worth $2bn, claiming they were overpriced; but who really knows; when the taxman is asking, suddenly your paintings aren't so valuable after all. There again, when your paintings are stored in a bonded warehouse in Zurich, probably the taxman doesn't know. But your ex-wife, who wants to divide your fortune, certainly does, and may also have a view. Is that really a Leonardo? (2,250 words)
What Can The White Man Say To The Black Woman?
Alice Walker | Nation | 6th April 2015
"I will tell you, black woman, that I wish to be forgiven the sins I commit daily against you and your children. I will look at your children and see not a threat but a joy. I will not assassinate them for dreaming dreams. I will agree to sit quietly for a century or so, and meditate on this. This is what the white man can say to the black woman". First published in 1989; republished in the Nation's 150th anniversary issue; full PDF here (http://thenation.s3.amazonaws.com/150/archive_articles/1985-1995/whitemanblackwoman.pdf) . (560 words)
A Semester With Allen Ginsberg
Elissa Schappell | Longreads | 6th April 2015
Notes from the front row when Allen Ginsberg taught a course in poetry at New York University in 1994: “My office is over in the English Department. Everyone should sign up for an interview. So, whenever you feel like it come by my office, we can talk poetry, we can rap, we can make love. Gregory Corso will be teaching class on February 22. He is provocative, he might try to push your buttons. Bone up on Homer" (15,700 words)
The Assistant Economy
Francesca Mari | Dissent | 6th April 2015
Behind every high-achieving artist or intellectual stands a personal assistant or two, carrying the bags and keeping the diary and watering the plants. It's a great job until it isn't. "When Bob [Silvers] was thirty-four years old, he was commander in chief, at the helm of the ship, steering the New York Review to greatness. When I was thirty-four I was sharpening his pencils, and feeding him dried blueberries" (4,450 words)
Video of the day: How To Structure A Video Essay
What to expect: Tony Zhou shows what you can learn about editing from Orson Welles's F For Fake (4'31")
Thought for the day
Be the first to not do what nobody has ever thought of not doing before
Brian Eno (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/9a344ea2-e8af-11e2-aead-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2YuWbWNsa)