Son of Table-Talk of P.G. for November 3, 2008

I. New Believer is out—the Art Issue! Hooray!

Lawrence Weschler on/with Robert Irwin and David Hockney; Mark Swartz on ; Sheila Heti interviewing Frank Stella; Morgan Meis on the art of the clubhouse; Joshua Cohen on a fake Caravaggio; Michael Marcinkowski on Cavemen (!!!?!?!?!?!?!); epic Hillary Chute interview with Lynda Barry; Jonathan Taylor on the third Twin Tower...in Tulsa; much, much more!







II. The NYT goes to the Bowery for the return of the Homeless Museum:

He said Albert pointed to a pumpkin that was keeping a stack of letters from blowing away and told him, “Twenty-seven years ago I could have drawn this perfectly.”

(Read all of Samantha Topol's Believer piece on the HoMu, from Dec. 2006/Jan. 2007 issue here.)

III. A Flickr set of spirit photography (via L.G. Thos.)

IV. Dizzies Name of the Year™: Ninth place N.Y. marathon women's finalist Dire Tune.

V. Dizzies Lede of the Day (trademark pending):

It’s like being named the outstanding British soldier of 1776.
The trade publication American Banker unveiled its Banker of the Year award last week: It went to Kenneth D. Lewis, chief of Bank of America.
—Stephanie Clifford, NYT

Homeless Museum is homeless

The Homeless Museum, featured in a Believer piece by Samantha Topol, is shutting its doors:

Brooklyn, March 20, 2007

Dear friends and members of the Homeless Museum,

Madame Butterfly and I regret to inform you that we have decided to officially close HoMu BKLYN as of today.

As many of you know, I founded the Homeless Museum in 2003. It had its humble beginnings online and in a temporary exhibit in a painter's studio in Chelsea before I installed it in our rental apartment in Brooklyn in March 2005. I was always aware that this would be a temporary solution and am grateful for having been able to house the Museum in our home up until now. Sadly, my landlord has recently informed me that he would not tolerate any more openings on the premise unless I sign a commercial lease and carry my own liability insurance coverage, a financial burden I am not able to take on. After consulting with several lawyers, I had to resign myself to stop using my residence for openings, lest I run the risk of being evicted.

I want to thank all of you who came and supported HoMu BKLYN in those two wonderful years. Madame Butterfly and I will miss the magic of our monthly openings. I will forever cherish the memory of welcoming and getting to know you in the coziness of our Staff and Security Department. Madame Butterfly will never again be able to cook eggs and mussels without shedding a tear. As for Florence Coyote, she has vowed to not utter a single word until a new home has been found for the Museum. [...]

Filip Noterdaeme & Madame Butterfly

Ruthless — HoMu sapient — Snarkwatch 2.0

From Dizzyhead Thomas:

January 7
Ruth Cleveland

1904. Ruth Cleveland, daughter of President Grover Cleveland, dies on this day at age thirteen of diphtheria, four years before her father. They lie near one another in Princeton Cemetery in New Jersey. Born between her father's two terms, she had been adored by the public, and a candy bar was even named for her: Baby Ruth. —James and Kay Salter's Life is Meals

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The Times jumps on the HoMu BKLYN story—alas, without a mention of Samantha Topol's in-depth piece in the Believer's current visual issue.

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UPDATE: This just in via Dizzyhead Brent, an LYT-caliber review (that word should be in quotes) of Pynchon's Against the Day, in the Boston Dig. (Link fixed!) It has to be read to be believed:

To call reading this book a waste of time is almost an insult to activities like picking your toes and staring at the wall.

Everything else aside, it’s the Chums of Chance—boy adventurers who travel the world by hot air balloon—who serve as the absolute nadir of the book, and perhaps all books everywhere, ever written, in history.

I'm beginning to think it's a parody?