2009: Culture Year in Review

Every year, I post a summary of a lot of the things I saw, read, did, experienced in the last 12 months. I'll add a little commentary and links where I can if you want to see more or buy the book at my Amazon store or elsewhere. Share your favorite experiences from 2009 too please.

BOOKS

Nonfiction:

• King of Madison Avenue, David Ogilvy biography, by Kenneth Roman -- poignant and detailed biography of the legend. I read this the month before I came back to Ogilvy and it was worth it.
• Five Men Who Broke My Heart, Susan Shapiro
• Only As Good As Your Word, Susan Shapiro -- good advice for writers from my writing teacher
• The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (memoir)
• You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas, Augusten Burroughs
• How We Decide, Jonah Lehrer
• The 4-Hour Workweek, Timothy Ferris -- shocking approach to life, including don't watch the news. If something's important, someone will tell you.

Fiction:

• Speed Shrinking, Susan Shapiro -- hilarious & my teacher's recent novel.
• Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout (Short stories) -- excellent collection. Won the Pulitzer.
• It's Beginning to Hurt, James Lasdun (Short Stories)
• East of Fifth Bliss, Doug Light (novel) - great East Village story, and by former colleague at Ogilvy
• The Vast Fields of Ordinary, Nick Burd - first novel from a great writer. Recommend buying it, reading it plus also good way to support emerging writers.
• How It Ended, Jay McIerney

FILM

• Objectified — a documentary about objects
• Julia & Julie — The better Meryl Streep vehicle in 2009
• Where the Wild Things Are — stunning
• A Serious Man - Quirky Cohen Brothers picture
• The September Issue, documentary — The real Devil Wears Prada
• A Single Man — Tom Ford's film. Beautiful and haunting.
• Up in the Air — killer opening credits and music
• The Hangover — finally saw this
• Avatar — didn't see it in 3D and it was still good.
• OSS 077: Cairo, Nest of Spies - French sendup of Bond and Austen Powers. Not great.

ART & ARCHITECTURE

• Musuem of Art & Design, New York
• Brooklyn Museum
• Rubel Collection, Miami (Feb)
• Shepard Fairey Exhibit, ICA Boston (April)
• Museum of Handbags & Purses, Amsterdam (March)
• Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (March)
• Anne Frank House, Amsterdam (March) - Book tickets in advance!
• Congress Hall, Philadelphia (April) - Went with Adam. Ran for president.
• Dwell House Tour, Brooklyn (May)
• Frank Lloyd Wright Exhibit, Guggenheim (June)
• Intrepid Museum (July) - not as good for kids as you'd think
• Sistine Chapel, Rome (Sept) - worth waiting on line in the rain for 2 hrs
• Roman and Imperial Forum, Rome (Sept) - worth doing a private tour
• Salk Institute, San Diego (Oct)
• ArtHome, Palais du Tokyo, Paris (Nov) - food meets design/art. Read the review.
• Louvre, Paris (Nov) - re-visited Venus de Milo, Winged Victory & La Jaconde
• Cite L'Architecture, Palais Chaillot, Paris (Nov)

THEATRE/MUSIC

• Met Opera Backstage Tour (March) - we took my parents on a saturday afternoon and it was a good way to see behind the scenes.
• Alan Cumming, Rose Hall (Feb) - if you can ever see him in person or perform, do it.
• Next to Normal (June) - thought it was going to be another coming out musical but it was not. recommend it if you love bold lyrics and heartbreaking story.
• U2, Giants Stadium (Sept) - amazing spectacle
• Aida, Met Opera HD - got to eat popcorn and watch live opera. (November)
• Brief Encounter, Noel Coward, St Anne's Warehouse Brooklyn (December)

WROTE/PUBLISHED:

• Minding the Snore, New York Press
• Talk to Me About My Pet, Our Town and West Side Spirit
• Clean Plates -- I only named it. Jared Koch wrote it. Fabulous guide to healthier eating too
• Real Simple Life Lessons Essay -- on my mugging when I first moved to NYC (waiting to hear)
• Advertising Age DigitalNext pieces (5)
• Lots more - will update

Timely Bulls and Bears

This is a painting I've always heard about but finally saw last month with my friend Suzanne. "The Bulls and the Bears" is an allegorical painting from 1879 about the turbulent market by William Beard. Setting is Broad Street, where the current NYSE is on the left. See it for yourself at the New York Historical Society on the upper west side. It doesn't have the wall space and drama it deserves but it's really exciting. 

2008: Year of Culture in Review

Each year, I like to track what I've seen, read and experienced. 

It's a great way to share ideas with others, not to mention capture the year that was.  Especially if you don't have a great memory like me. (It's more of a list than commentary, but a few things have ** were just terrific. Things with a ^ were awful.) I also put in some links to some I have on my Amazon store if you wanna buy them directly.

BOOKS

Fiction:
Family and Other Accidents, Shari Goldhagen

Mergers & Acquisitions, Dana Vachon, silly novel
Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahihi's new book of stories**
I Just Want My Pants Back, David Rosen
Music Through the Floor, short stories, Eric Puchner**
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers: Stories, Yiyun Li**
The Secret Servant, Daniel DiSilva** (now I'm into this genre)

Big Slick, Eric Luper*
The City of Your Final Destination, Peter Cameron
The Indian Clerk, David Leavitt^

Exiles in America, Christopher Bram

NonFiction:
Fair Game, Valerie Plame Wilson

Hot, Flat & Crowded, Thomas Friedman**
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, Tony Judt**
When You Are Engulfed In Flames, David Sedaris**
Have You No Shame? essays, Rachel Shukert**
I Was Told There'd Be Cake, essays, Sloane Crosley*

Things In My Life I Have Learned So Far, Stephen Sagemeister
If You Want to Write, Brenda Ueland
No Plot? No Problem, Chris Baty
What's That Job and How the Hell Do I Get It?, David Rosen
Pay It Down, Jean Chatzy* (for one of these type of bks, it's pretty darn good)
Camp Camp: Where Fantasy Meets Lord of the Flies
Perfect Pitch: The Art of Selling Ideas and Winning New Business
Radical Careering: 100 Truths to Jumpstart Your Job, Your Career, and Your Life, Sally Hogshead**

FILM
Sweeney Todd (better on bway)

Iron Man

The Savages (weird to watch on a plane)

Persepolis*

Sicko
No Country for Old Men**
The Other Boleyn Girl
Sex and the City
John Adams miniseries on HBO**
Helvetica
La Vie En Rose**
Mama Mia!^
Religulous* (Bill Mahr's piece de resistence)
W (James Brolin vehicle)
Quantam of Solace (not as good as Casino Royale)
Milk (Yes, Sean is great; narrative a bit halting)
Slumlord Millionaire** (utterly stunning)

Gosford Park (again, Maggie's great)

Casablanca (again)

It's a Wonderful Life (again, oddly timely)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button*

Lust, Caution (Ang Lee)

ART & ARCHITECTURE
What I Would Rather Be Doing Exhibit, One Club (January)

Murakambi, Brooklyn Museum

DaDa at the MoMA

Brooklyn Designs exhibit, DUMBO (April)

Interesting New York (Bryan spoke)*

Musee Quai de Branly, Paris

Musee Orangerie, Paris (Monet Waterlilies)**

Foundation Cartier, Paris (Migrants exhibition)

American Cemetary, Normandy** *(Nov)

Gilbert & George Exhibit, Brooklyn Museum (November)

THEATRE/MUSIC
August: Osage County** *(probably the best theatre I've seen in a decade)

South Pacific**

James Blunt, The Beacon (February)**

Rufus Wainright, Radio City Music Hall (February)

James Taylor, Tanglewood (July)

Paul Simon with appearance by David Byrne, BAM

Charlie & Chocolate Factory (Sam's musical)**

NYC Gay Men's Chorus Christmas Concert at Carnegie Hall (bit of a downer this year)

David Sedaris, Avery Fisher Hall**

DRAWING AT THE MET

To become an artist, one should learn from the masters. So, with a thirty-dollar credit to adult education’s The Learning Annex and a free Sunday morning , I signed up for “Drawing at the Met.”

The course description said the class would cover “Light and Shadow,” “Perspective” and “Color,” which all sounded fine, but a lot to do in just two hours. Armed with my graphite pencils, fat eraser and blank sketchbook, I hailed a cab, directing the driver as if I were simply going to brunch: “The Met, please.” (A few blocks later, self-conscious I was being too cavalier, I added: “Not the opera one.”)

The entrance to the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a sight — steps up to a Greco-Roman façade, beneath proud banners announcing exhibits spanning the centuries. At the information desk, two students had arrived, but not yet our group leader. After about ten minutes, Ralph showed up and introduced himself, apologizing for being late, and said we could run a little over to make up for it. Like any art student, I compared his looks to my expectations: clean cut for an artist, thirty-something, handsome, khakis, blue checkerboard oxford and a pair of severe black eye frames.

Trying to be friendly, I shook hands with the three other students: Joel, friendly, fortyish (this was Joel’s third session “Drawing at the Met” -- or second, if you don’t count the time he showed up but went to the wrong desk downstairs and missed the class); Umberto, fiftiesh with a lovely accent; and a young twenty-something woman with frizzy hair who chose not to reveal her name. Mystery is part of the arts, I reasoned, and this is, after all, the scene of the “Thomas Crowne Affair.”

In the Cezanne room in the Impressionist wing. Ralph directed us to choose a painting to draw. He imparted one piece of wisdom: Grip your pencil unlike a pencil so you don’t think too hard.

Confused but excited, I scanned the room of elegant still-lifes, lush landscapes and semi-famous portraits and asked Ralph if we should pick one or the other – for learning purposes, simplicity or otherwise? Ralph looked at me quixotically and said no, it didn’t matter, they were, after all, ALL PAINTINGS.

I thought back to the course description which said Ralph has taught anatomy and perspective. So, seeking to impress, I choose Cezanne’s “Card Players,” a painting of three peasants playing cards with one onlooker. It seemed to have a compelling story about friendship, socioeconomics, and gambling — not to mention it could be drawn sitting down from the bench.

So, on the wood bench in the center of the room, I sat down to copy this piece of art while the other students sought their own muse. Not knowing where to begin, and lacking any direction whatsoever from my well-dressed teacher, I relied on my honed skills from a previous expedition last year with The Learning Annex into art: Cartooning.

I first drew four fat ovals to indicate placement of the four people in the painting. Then, I drew one big square for the card table and small triangles for their noses and ears. For those of you who are neophytes, this is technically known as “blocking.” Or, wait, is that theatre? Over the next fifteen minutes, I refined my sketching and, to my amazement (as well as a tourist next to me), the four people and their scene began to emerge.

Ralph appeared over my shoulder and was pleased. He said, “You are drawing almost like a pro – confident lines, strong perspective…”

Pro?!?! Humbly, I admitted I had taken drawing classes before. He asked where, and assuming childhood classes at the Summit Art Center were not relevant, I said, “Oh through the Learning Annex also: Cartooning for Beginners.” Probably not recognizing the course, Ralph frowned, but offered advice on tone and contrast. He also suggested I get off my duff and get much closer to the painting.

Back up at the wall, I surveyed the room to see how the rest of the class was faring. Umberto drew feverishly, close to his chosen work, a Cote D’Azur landscape; he was chatting with Ralph, seemingly less getting advice and more just talking about art. The woman with no name was barely drawing, moving from picture to picture, still undecided on one. Joel was no where to be seen.

Returning fifteen minutes later, catching me back down at the bench, Ralph didn’t scold but was excited at my progress. “The drawing is coming along nicely,” he said, but was concerned I was thinking about the elements in the painting too much as separate elements. “Think about the negative space within the painting, as well as the continuous lines that let one element flow into the other.”

Perhaps I had a blank look on my face, or maybe I was thinking about lunch, but Ralph suggested I try an old trick of his. “Sometimes,” he explained, “it helps to squint at the work and you see things you wouldn’t otherwise.”

Well, I’ve never been one to turn down an inside tip, so together, in what was probably a storied teacher-student moment (I’ll need to again rent “Pollack”), Ralph and I together squinted at the Cezanne across the way.

Admittedly, I didn’t see much new, but my eyes did get tired, so I nodded gravely that I understood the value of the exercise, thanked him. Getting up to go see about the other students, Ralph told me we would get together at the end to share with each other our work and what we each had learned.

Quite comfortable I was clearly the favorite student, I got back to work with urgency, filling in details on the card table, fixing the men’s hats, and with flourish, drawing more confident dark continuous lines. (Joel, after all, has done the class TWICE.)

Ten minutes later, around the bench, the class gathered. Ralph offered the girl with no name to present her work first, but she declined, uncomfortable with what she had done. I was going to pressure her, but reasoned that maybe she was just there meet guys and perhaps hadn’t drawn anything anyway.

So veteran Joel showed what he drawn, a Renoir still life of fruit. Good varied color, nice black lines. We all offered smiles, encouragement and praise. Umberto then shared his landscape, which was really getting somewhere, and I think he would’ve made better progress if he had spent more time drawing and less time talking to Ralph.

Then I showed my drawing, which got rave reviews, modest applause from Joel, several questions from Umberto, and even a public compliment from Ralph.

Umberto then turned back to Ralph and unleashed a battery of questions on perspective and depth, for the first five of which I stayed. Eventually, though, I needed to eat and interrupted to say goodbye, thanking Ralph and everyone profusely and somewhat genuinely.

At the door, about to enter the Degas room, I was compelled to turn around and observe the group still huddled around the bench. Umberto was asking a question, Joel was listening intently, Ralph was trying to answer, and the woman with no name was looking elsewhere across the room. 

I was quite tempted to sit and draw.