Neal Stephenson: “I saw the best minds of my generation writing spam-filters.”
Bruce Sterling: “The wolf is beyond the door. The wolf is in the living room. This is the Anthropocenic condition.”
Two Philip Levine poems
Here is a recording of a reading Philip Levine gave at the 92 Street Y called The Language of the Place.
There are two poems in particular, about Brooklyn and the Sierra Nevada mountains, that I enjoyed (they start about 17 minutes in).
How To Speak
Patrick Winston is a professor at Harvard who gave a great lecture on how to give a great lecture.
He emphasizes how to start a lecture, cycling in on the material, using verbal punctuation to indicate transitions, describing “near misses” that strengthen the intended concept, and asking questions. He also talks about using the blackboard, overhead projections, props, and “how to stop.”
I was reminded of this after seeing some 404 errors in my server logs to a podcast version of the videos I put together, but forgot to transfer to my new server. To download these into iTunes (and onto your video-enabled iPod), go to the Advanced menu, choose Subscribe to Podcast and enter: http://phiffer.org/etc/how-to-speak.xml
Trade School workshops this week
Ellie is co-teaching a class at Trade School tomorrow night called Drawing for Pleasure and Relaxation. My (non-keyboard) hand coordination is kind of pathetic and I’d like some practice. It is full, unfortunately, but if you’re really into the idea it’d probably be fine to just show up.
Another one I’ll be going to on Thursday is Art Work: A Discussion about Art, Labor, and Economics, which has a companion newspaper edition and website. There are 3 seats left as of right now.
Also, in case you missed it, there’s a free lecture tonight by CLUI‘s Matthew Coolidge out at Pratt (although, not on the main campus).
Events for February 19-21, 2010
I’m kind of annoyed I missed the sold out Will Wright lecture last night. I had tickets and just totally forgot about it. But there’s a lot happening this weekend in my little sphere of interest, so maybe it’s good that I conserved some “going out energy.”
Friday, February 19
- Triple Canopy at the New Museum
- Flux Factory opening at their new space in LIC
- Bushwick galleries stay open late
Saturday, February 20
- A benefit party for the new home of Triple Canopy, Light Industry, and The Public School
- Homestead exhibition
- PechaKucha #9 with Zach Lieberman’s EyeWriter in the line-up
Sunday, February 21
- Sculpture Space: Utica’s Utopia (My friend Heather did a residency in Utica and there’s a video being screened about it.)
- The Phenomenal Handclap band is playing a free show at Brooklyn Bowl, which I’ll probably miss, but damn $2 Brooklyn lager!
And of course there are a few workshops with space left at Trade School including “Caviar: Demystified,” “Collecting amidst disaster” and “Accidental Pornographies: Developing Underground Health Magazines and Stealth Distribution Models.”
Matthew Coolidge speaking at Pratt
I’m not seeing this posted on Pratt’s website or at the CLUI or at Bomb, so I’ll just copy + paste the email announcement here.
Anthropogeomorphology Today: Current Programs and Projects of The Center for Land Use Interpretation
A Lecture by Matthew Coolidge, founder and director of The Center for Land Use Interpretation, part of Pratt Institute’s Spring Lecture Series
Monday, February 22, 6pm
Higgins Hall
60 St. James Place
(corner of Lafayette)
FREE
Listen to a BOMBLive! conversation between Matthew Coolidge and BOMB contributing editor and architect Deborah Gans after March 1 on BOMBsite.com.