covet this: diane arbus
Compulsively reading: Patricia Bosworth’s magnificent biography of the famed “freak” photographer, Diane Arbus, which not only offers an intense, spellbinding portrait of her subject, but introduced me to other avant-garde photographers of the period like Marvin Israel, Lisette Model, and Robert Frank. These artists eschewed perfect, refined portraiture and opted for the rough, raw and macabre. I can’t get Israel’s grim vision of sinister rooms full of dangling electrical cords out of my mind.
Found: The novel that I never imagine could have been adapted for film: Joan Didion’s masterful and brutally stark evisceration of Hollywood, Play it as it Lays. Although the movie is flawed and doesn’t bring the controlled white space of Didion’s novel to life as much as it could, the gorgeous writing (Didion/Gregory Dunne penned the screenplay) and performances by actors Anthony Perkins (as BZ) & Tuesday Weld (as Maria) make this a film worth viewing. Click here to view a clip. And although I couldn’t easily locate the DVD, I’ve been told that you can order it from Netflix.
Obsessively Listening to: San Francisco band Film School’s eponymous sophomore effort. I cannot stop listening to the track “He’s a Deep, Deep Lake”.
Sartorial Lust: Club Monaco’s entire Fall 2008 collection, and everything/anything by Peter Som (Check out the S09 Collection!!) & Thakoon.
