Tag Archive: NYC


The New York Public Libary: for the many not the few

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April 27, 2018

EX LIBRIS: THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY a film by Frederick Wiseman (USA, 2017)ex_libris_e28093_the_new_york_public_library

Zadie Smith expressed it well when in ‘North-west London Blues, when she wrote that: “Well-run libraries are filled with people because what a good library offers cannot be easily found elsewhere: an indoor public space in which you do not have to buy something to stay”.

Appropriately enough, this essay was published in the New York Review of Books for what applies to the London suburbs applies equally to the bustling metropolis of NYC.

This is more than clear from Frederick Wiseman’s painstakingly epic documentary film which presents many of the Big Apple’s library branches and buildings as beacons of anti-capitalist hope. Although not overtly political, it’s hard to miss the fact that these resources represent the polar opposite of everything Trump and his minions stand for. Continue reading →

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But first, coffee! Patti Smith’s M Train

Filed under: Books, Gender, Music, Poetry — Leave a comment
June 5, 2017

M TRAIN by Patti Smith (Bloomsbury , 2015)
smith

If you have lived in a cave for the past four decades or spent too much time listening exclusively to crappy chart pop you wouldn’t know that Patti Smith is a Rock’n’Roll star.

You wouldn’t necessarily be any the wiser from reading her second autobiographical work either since there are practically no references to music making.

What you do learn from this collection of short loosely connected essays is that she is addicted to coffee, hates housework, loves visiting the graves of dead poets, likes taking black and white photos with a Polaroid camera and spends a good chunk of her free time binge-viewing TV shows (The Killing is a particular favourite). Continue reading →

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LIVING IN AMERICA : GIRL IN TRANSLATION

Filed under: Books, Fiction — Leave a comment
September 21, 2014

GIRL IN TRANSLATION by Jean Kwok (Riverhead Books, 2010)

girl-in-translationAs a compelling, at times shocking, account of a young immigrant’s life in America this book has many merits. As a convincing work of narrative fiction it leaves a lot to be desired.

The episodic nature of the novel is problematic in that the story has a disjointed quality. As the author jumps from one event to the next, the reader is left with more questions than answers.

In the opening chapter we learn that the mother of the first person narrator, Kimberley Chang, had suffered from tuberculosis in China but her state of health is something which is barely mentioned therafter.

Later on, at the age of 18, when it is clear that Kimberley (Kim) needs to obtain U.S. citizenship, she applies and studies hard for naturalization but we are never told how the actual test went. The cumulative effect of these gaps is disorientating and infuriating. Continue reading →

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RESPECTFUL DISCOURSE NOW

Filed under: Politics — Leave a comment
August 11, 2013

I love the sentiments behind of this placard and the principles behind the dialectic revival campaign by NYC artist Alyce Santoro:
discourse

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NYC SLAVES – PAST AND PRESENT

Filed under: Books, Fiction, Gender, Humour — Leave a comment
July 30, 2013

I have never been to New York but I think it’s safe to assume that the city as portrayed in this lively collection of short stories is very different from when it was first published in 1986.

As Tama Janowitz said in a recent interview, in the 80s it was still possible to buy or rent a relatively cheap terraced house (brownstone) in the centre and communities of struggling artists were commonplace; now these same properties sell for millions and the ragged bohemian culture has been forced out.

Nowadays, she says : “On every block [there] is Starbucks, Banana Republic, The Gap …… it’s changed in such a homogenous, universal way”.

It will also be obvious to any modern reader that the equivalent NYC hipsters would, these days, be jabbering on cellphones or glued to their tablets. A scene in which a woman dare not leave her apartment for fear of missing a call reads as a quaint slice of modern history – is this really how they/we used to live?

But although the setting and details are dated, the ambitions and attitudes of the characters are still recognisable – after all, cities and technology change more rapidly than people do.

Continue reading →
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