Update:
I didn't get in to the National Book Awards. Instead, I went to see Umberto Eco talk about his two new books. The place was packed. The highlight was when he spoke of the world in between beauty and ugliness. He mentioned Barbara Streisand as an example of this. He calls this category, "charm." But I think she's beautiful.
While standing around before the reading, I flipped through an architecture book and came upon a drawing (called The Story of the Pool) by the Dutch artist, Madelon Vriesendorp. I believe her drawing is based on a story written by her husband, also an artist:
"In the late 70s Rem Koolhaas wrote a parable on the political trajectory of Constructivism called The Story of the Pool, in which Constructivists escape from the USSR in a self-powering Modernist swimming pool, only to die, after being criticised for much the same reasons as they were under Stalinism, soon after their arrival in the USA. Meanwhile, many of the original Constructivist buildings are poorly preserved or in danger of imminent demolition."
I can't find the image online (but I've supplied another image created collaboratively by Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis, with Madelon Vriesendorp and Zoe Zenghelis called Exodus, or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture, 1972), but it reminded me of the floating pool idea that Aimee?, Joe?, and I? (not sure who was originally involved) came up with for New York. Only to find out that someone had stolen our idea and created it ahead of us.
All this is to say that I really miss swimming daily. I need a pool. I heard that there's one at Astoria Park. As soon as I stop being lazy, my life is going to be amazing.
In the meantime, I've got a new cultural literacy project. (Aimee gets Kanye, I get Madelon.)
Tonight's plan:
*spy on a friend who is on a blind date?
*The new Coen brothers movie, No Country for Old Men.
*listening to Any Old Wind That Blows by Johnny Cash
