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**

New Angle of Paris

Returned from our Paris annual trip. 

Usually, we go towards the end of the week for our traditional Thanksgiving, with our friends Alain and Ann and 15-20 of their friends. 

Bryan has a lot of great pictures from this past week, which I'll link to where appropriate. He's become quite a good photographer.

This year, we rented an apt in the 3rd right near them and had a full week in Paris instead. We started with a weekend in Normandy to see the D-Day beaches, American Cemetery and museum and stayed at an inn in Bayeaux. 

Then, during the week, we organized each day around lunch, of course, and found new things to see and do that we haven't done or seen. New restaurants, museums and walks in the city we've gotten to know so well.

Monday evening, we went back to our favorite English-speaking bookstore, Shakespeare & Company, which is in the 5th, though this time for their Monday night reading upstairs by a Shakespearean expert with a new book out. We also finally found The Village Voice, another good bookshop, in the 6th on Rue Princesse.

Tuesday evening, we met a childhood neighbor and her boyfriend who live in Paris for dinner, and a few other nights we just brought in dinner at our friends. All breakfasts started at charming and beautiful Cafe Charlot on Rue de Bretagne in the 3rd, where we became quite regulars, some days visiting 2 or 3x. Friday night at Alain and Ann's was the 5th annual Thanksgiving feast, Le Retour V. Each year we add a new dish or decoration (last year Pilgrim hats, previous year sweet potato pie). This year we revised the toast and speech ("le discours"), to the delight of the crowd, to include the Hugenot story in St Augustine FL.

Some more highlights of specific spots if you're lucky enough to go to Paris soon:

New neighborhood explored: Canal St-Martin. Even after 15+ trips to Paris, never realized there was a working canal running through the city just to the east of Republique.

Best meal: Lunch at Le Cave Gourmande du Marc Singer (10 rue du General Brunet) out in the 19th. Not usual place most people go but worth it out there. 

Other Best Meal: Le Timbre, 6th. British chef, French fare. 

Most disappointing meal: Chez L'Ami Jean in the 7th. Great soup (emulsion) but crappy service and overpriced.

Best new sight: Foundation Cartier, 14th. Jean-Nouvel designed exhibition building, currently showing footage and studies of migrants. Compelling.

Best old sight: Waterlillies at L'Orangerie, 1st. Seeing them especially in this space is pretty incredible in the oval room, just as Monet wanted, with no end or beginning.

Best outside, worst inside: Musée du Quai Branly. Another Jean-Nouvel building is the enormous and dramatic Branly on the Quai Branly, just east of the Eiffel Tower in the 7th. Walking up to it is really exciting since it's glass and grass design and landscaping are so cool and innovative. Inside is a huge collection of artifacts from Pacific Rim, Africa, Asia and North America. The thing is, it's so overdesigned that it's really dark and not to be an old person complaining, but I could barely read the descriptions.   

Worth seeing though crumbling a bit: Musée Rodin, 7th. Bryan had never seen the Rodin so we went to see The Thinker and see the other great sculpture in this big place. It's in crummy shape though.

Neighborhood not worth walking around: The 1st, near Place de la Madeline and Opéra. We tried to do a walking tour but got really bored fast. 

Favorite new wine I have to find here: Brully. Light, white, quite delicious.

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.

Watersheds in Digital: Past + Future

Just posted this entry to the AdAge Digital Next blog, to which I regularly contribute. 

'boards summit: Talent Panel

Last Friday, I sat on a panel called How to Win the War for Talent at the 'Boards Summit at the Crowne Plaza in New York. Good mix of panelists moderated and led by the fabulous Heidi Ehlers of BlackBag talent consultancy, including Sergio Lopez of Cramer Krasselt, Brian Collins, Monica Buchanan of BBDO, and author Sally Hogshead.

While Heidi had me talk about what to look for in portfolios and how I screen for talent to help digital agencies move closer to brand (I gave out my screening questions for: Screening traditional creatives who can do digital, and screening digital folk who can do brand), others covered how to prepare your portfolio, manage your personal brand, how they sort the fric from the frac, and what the future will require in their agencies. 

I had never read Sally's famous book Radical Careering, so I ran and bought it to catch up.

The conference was two days, with lots of good topics and speakers; and naturally, I didn't leave enough time to attend anything but my own panel ;-)

Subscriptions: Passive reading, active choosing

Most of us are looking over things in our life to cut vs. keep, and magazine subscriptions are the most glaring waste (though I'm not sure how much you really save by cutting). The difficulty is that subscriptions are so inexpensive (e.g. $12-50 for many) compared to buying at the magazine stand. Plus, you can use airline points towards many magazines so the downside ends up being the paper waste and the pain of recycling.

Still, here's my list so far to clean house and mind, not including the freebies:

Keep:

Monocle

The Economist

The New Yorker

Creativity

Glimmer Train 

Zoe All Story

Ad Age

Adweek

Could give up:

New York

HBO

Travel & Leisure

Food & Wine

New Republic

This Week

Communication Arts

Did give up:

Showtime

Netflix

The New York Times Sunday

T-mobile hot spot subscription

Plus I'm using those services, like Green Dimes, to cancel catalogs which is starting to work. Catalogs and other junk mail really bugs me, so I'll be curious to see how much this type of service can help. To be most effective, you have to enter specific catalog info as you get receive them, which is a pain but worthwhile if it works.

Fighting the cold: Comparing remedies

Like many people, I've been suffering from a cold the last few weeks. It started suddenly, brought on by a mix of allergies, cat hair, exhaustion and someone passing it to me. Thanks to a week of back to back presentations and working until 11 or midnight, it's taken longer than it should to kick it. 

One positive outcome is I've had plenty of chances to sample different remedies and compare. For basic stuffy head and running nose type of symptoms, I've switched loyalties from DayQuil (a reliable favorite) to Robitussin Cough & Cold. The change to Dr Mom was big for me, but not only is the bottle smaller, it tastes terrific and I feel less dried out than before. This cold, I also went with liquids rather than pills, and for pills I still recommend Tylenol Cold or Sudafed, which can dry you up like a desert.  At night too, I started with NyQuil and switched to Robitussin. Without alcohol though, it was harder to fall asleep so I'm not sure this was the brightest idea. 

Immunity powders you mix into your water is quite trendy and while I started with Boost for Vitamin C, several kind souls at work left me packets of Emergen-C, which tastes a lot better. I'm also toting around Halls new watermelon flavor, which helps a bit.

Not reviewing tissues. I basically blow my nose in anything handy. Sorry.