Recently in art & culture Category

I've always been a reader, and in the last year or so, I've had more time to read than ever before. Mostly, it's almost a furtive thing. Sneaking in a few magazine pages while on the subway, reading a chapter while waiting for a restaurant meal.

Books are chosen based on size, and how heavy they'll be to lug around. The heaviest so far has been "The Tender Bar" by Pulitzer Prize-winner JR Moehringer.

The swiftest read in recent weeks was "More Tales of the City" by Armistead Maupin. It's easy to tell Maupin's a playwright. The chapters were very short and mostly in dialog.

Next up:

• It feels like time to revisit Orson Scott Card's masterpiece, "Ender's Game."
• An advance copy of "Simplexity" by Jeffrey Kluger just landed in my mailbox.
• Which reminds me, I have an advance copy of "Mistress of the Art of Death"by Ariana Franklin that I need to finish.
• And finally, as inspiration to get back out and explore, "City Secrets: New York City" and "The Historic Shops & Restaurants of New York" are coming back off the shelf.

A few weeks ago, 700 people gathered on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York to create an Improv Everywhere happening. The idea was to create a camera flash "wave" back and forth across the span. In theory, it should have worked. But the cold, rainy, noisy reality cause the project to morph just a bit.

Nevertheless, the edited version of the mission turned out pretty well. The full description of the project is on the website. As Improv Everywhere picks up notoriety — and as the weather gets better — these gigs are probably going to get bigger.

"Iron Man" rocked. Totally. So much so that I'm tempted to see it again.

It's part of my procrastination strategy. Really, I should be writing, shooting, recording and studying, but hey, there's always Sunday.

There is a 6 o'clock deadline today for dinner with a dozen strangers, but give me two hours and there'll be no problems. Fortunately, I'm only responsible for appetizers.

So as has become my Saturday morning habit, I've been doing some computer reading. Which brings me back to "Iron Man" and this fantastic review by Mark Kermode from BBC Radio 5:

With thanks to Fake Steve Jobs.