Hoo-Hoo House

LOVE AS ALWAYS, KURT

That's the title of Loree Rackstraw's memoir of her lifelong friendship with Kurt Vonnegut. I had to read it despite fearing that it would destroy my hero worship of Vonnegut. But it didn't.

OLD SCHOOL ARTIST

Found this great image of David Hammons work on Fonghouse's FLICKR feed. I didn't know about him but I related to his anti art=commerce philosophy. This is the way we thought back in the day. An interview with him follows.

Yes. Yes!

The Wish to be Generous by Wendell Berry

ALL that I serve will die, all my delights,
the flesh kindled from my flesh, garden and field,
the silent lilies standing in the woods,
the woods, the hill, the whole earth, all
will burn in man's evil, or dwindle
in its own age. Let the world bring on me
the sleep of darkness without stars, so I may know
my little light taken from me into the seed
of the beginning and the end, so I may bow
to mystery, and take my stand on the earth
like a tree in a field, passing without haste
or regret toward what will be, my life
a patient willing descent into the grass.

HUMANS ARE GOOD! Albert Cullum & A Touch of Greatness

You must see this fabulous documentary--A TOUCH OF GREATNESS- on the kind of teacher we all should have had. Albert Cullum taught Shakespeare to kids in the 50s & 60s and luckily Robert Downey Sr.--29 at the time- filmed some of Cullum's classes. So the doc. is fabulous visually as well as just providing the opportunity to meet this wonderful man. Cullum passed away in 2003.

Helen Levitt: Documentary Expressionism

Children as they are, not as they should be. My opinion. Levitt,New York,1930s.

MUNTADER AL ZAIDI - Thanks New York Times

BAGHDAD — The brother of Muntader al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush during a joint press conference on Sunday with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said Monday that he was proud of his brother as all Iraqis would be.

XMAS CAME EARLY

FRUIT

More photos by Susan Worsham here.

BERENICE ABBOTT- ESCAPEE FROM SPRINGFIELD OHIO

Okay, she was there in 1898 but...

Springfield Ohio is the dead zone. No wonder she dedicated her early years to documenting New York street scenes. Anything but Ohio. I love the NYC gun shop sign.

I KNOW YOU KNOW