Pass the Eye

Love Comes Quickly ...

What started off so promising is now officially over. My summer fling didn't quite make it to the fall, and I am sad.

I won't bore you with details.

Just listen to this.

A Different Kind of 'Ghetto Fabulous'

Great dinner at Lattanzi in midtown last night. It's an Italian restaurant that specializes in food from Rome's Jewish Ghetto.

We started with their delicious fried artichokes which they masterfully caramelize in cast iron skillets. I had my old standby, bucatini all'amatriciana, a toothsome pasta with a tangy tomato sauce, flecked with pancetta. All washed down with a nice bottle of red wine.

Their panna cotta isn't the best I've had (that honor goes to il Bucco), but it was a nice way to end the meal.

The backdrop was the bustle of 46th Street -- somewhat tamed by an early evening thunderstorm.

Five O'Clock and Frantisek Kupka

I finished work a little early today and have a little time to kill before my dinner date shows up. So, I started doing some research for an upcoming post on my favorite paintings.

I didn't get very far down the road when I (re)discovered Frantisek Kupka.

He was an artist I first came across on a trip to Budapest, where I saw a couple of his (later) paintings in a museum. I jotted his name in my travel notebook and looked him up once I got back to the states. 

At the time, I was pretty amazed to learn that he'd done a few paintings that I'd seen before, including -- my favorite -- The Black Idol (pictured left).

If the painting looks somewhat familiar, that's because it seemingly served as the inspiration for Dracula's castle (pictured below) in Francis Ford Coppola's version of Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Think that's a stretch? Watch the movie again. It's littered with artistic references, from Dracula's Gustav-Klimt inspired traveling gown to the font that the movie's name is written in (also seemingly inspired by Klimt). In fact, it's one of the things I loved most about that movie. It was one big love letter to Symbolist art.

At any rate, if you haven't checked out Kupka, he's worth a look.

It also doesn't hurt that he was completely hot.

More Good Stuff From Naxos

In just under a week, Naxos has become my go-to place for "work music," background music I put on while playing around with spreadsheets, putting together traffic reports, or writing.

For a little under $20 a year, you get access to their overwhelming library of classical, jazz, and even some spoken word. But, of course, if you're choosing Naxos you're a classical nut looking for some real obscurities. Ligeti, anyone?

I can't say that I've worked my way into their vast store of musical arcana just yet, but I've been delighted to stumble upon some real gems.

Today, another: Music to Die For, an album made up of a tightly curated collection of requiems and other sorrowful selections. It's perfect music for a somewhat gray Wednesday.

Many of these I've come across before. The Mozart and Faure requiems were a gift from my first college boyfriend (yes, we were *that* couple). And, of course, others have become pop culture staples (Carmina Burana, Moonlight Sonata, etc).

But there are some real gems here that were news to me, most notably Samuel Barber's beautiful, melancholy, love-and-longing drenched Adagio for Strings, Op. 11.

The song apparently formed the musical backbone for Oliver Stone's Platoon, which I'm ashamed to admit I still have not seen in its entirety. But here's a nice sum-up I found on Amazon, attributed to James Stockstill:

"Barber's violins play first at the aftermath of the torching of a Vietnamese village and then again as the undercurrent for Charlie Sheen's reflective monologue at the film's finale. Each time, they embody the pain and anguish of the previous moments, searching for cause but finding only loss and despair. The strings become the screams of the wounded, the souls of the lost, and the conscience of the living, and in so, the Adagio for Strings itself serves as a testament to an experience that must be faced to be understood."

NB: Before you plop down your $19.95 for the Naxos subscription, there is one drawback. You have to manually play each song. That is, the cheaper subscription doesn't allow you to play an entire album with one click or create a playlist.

Dude Knows How to Write a Profile

This guy checked me out on Match, so I gave his profile a read.

Pretty impressive. Take a read for yourself.

If he hadn't disclosed his job in the profile (he's a nurse), I would've said writer or blogger.

The Early Fruit of My Naxos Subscription

I finally coughed up the $19.95 annual fee to become a subscriber to the Naxos music library via their website.

(This is the basic membership, btw. There's a much more expensive option aimed at professional musicians, composers, and scholars.)

Today, I stumbled across a nice discovery, Alexander von Zemlinsky's The Mermaid.

I don't think I can describe it any better than the Naxos site:

"Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale of the mermaid who sacrifices herself out of unrequited love for a prince, the work places greater emphasis on thematic development than on mere illustration. Written over three decades later, when Zemlinsky’s music was taking on a more astringent manner, the Sinfonietta is remarkable for its nervous energy, anguished passion and sheer virtuosity."

Here, here. It certainly puts Disney to shame. I wonder what a film (or even an animated version) would look like with Zemlinsky's music and a director like Tim Burton?

Speaking of, the trailer is out for Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Looks intriguing. He keeps experimenting with mood. The colors here are gorgeously overripe; in some scenes from the trailer, it looks like the characters are running around in an aquarium filled with unstirred tea. Excited to see it.

The Man With Five Kidneys ...

The headline is my clever way of introducing one of the better New Yorker stories I've read in a while.

(That's more an indictment of my inability to keep up with their output than a crack at their editorial chops.)

Larissa MacFarquhar has an excellent piece on the moral and emotional issues surrounding kidney transplants. With the introduction of a new site that allows donors to choose their recipients based on recipient profiles, a new dynamic is emerging -- and it's often tense and angst-ridden.

That aside, there are plenty of interesting tidbits that are the hallmark of a great New Yorker story.

During a kidney transplant, it's not required that a nonfunctioning kidney be removed. As a result, a person who's had multiple kidney transplants may have more than three kidneys. That is, assuming they were lucky enough to find multiple kidneys.

Kidneys are flushed free of blood prior to transport to their new donor. The blood inside would cause them to rapidly deteriorate. The scene in the story describing a transplant operation is fascinating -- the moment the kidney is attached to the donor's artery is incredible.

There's more, including a brief -- but illuminating and heartbreaking -- description of dialysis, but I'll leave the other gems unearthed so you'll read the story.

She's a Maenad!!

After watching last night's episode of True Blood, I realized I was going to have to invest a little more time in understanding Maryann's character. That is, WTF is she already?

You'd have to be a few blocks short of the average IQ not to know she was some sort of Greek mythical figure. There were just too many hints!

At first, I was absolutely convinced that she was Circe -- not so much because of her storyline with Tara but because of her storyline with Sam.

Circe, you'll recall, was the enchantress from The Odyssey. She lulls Odysseus into an erotic languor that puts a serious pause on his return voyage home. Oh, and she also turns his men into swine (which seemed to explain Maryann's mysterious pig in True Blood).

Now, compare that with the Maryann/Sam storyline. They had an affair (although a very brief one -- but this is a TV show not an epic poem!), and we know Maryann has the ability to turn Sam into his animal form (nice dog -- sit!). Seems promising, right?

However, after a little web research today, I came across this. While the article is posed as a question, a little further digging on Wikipedia turned up that Maryann appears to be based on Callisto from the Charlaine Harris books that inspired the series. So, mystery solved!

Maryann = Maenad.

I guess that kind of figures. I mean, if you were Circe -- not a mere nymph but a full-fledged demigoddess -- would you really be hanging out in Bon Temps, Louisiana?

BTW, If you're not familiar with the Maenads and their strange mix of DSM-3R worthy disorders, the HBO link above provides a great primer.

Who Invited John the Baptist?

I meant to post this last week when I first came across it, but oh wells.

The photo is courtesy of David Lynch; it's my favorite selection from his "Dark Night of the Soul" collaboration with Danger Mouse. 

Haunting, disturbing, macabre, but somehow also tragically beautiful. What do you think it means?

Noted Today ...

Animators bring to life the inner workings of a human cell. FASCINATING!!!

HBO options Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex for a one-hour series.

Alexander Girard launches a new line at Urban Outfitters.

The latest casualty of The Recession? Machismo.