Duration: 52 minutes

An extraordinary study of mortality, creativity and memory. A 69-year-old man sits alone on his birthday and listens to recordings of his past. A rare chance to see the sell out performance of Samuel Beckett’s critically acclaimed play, starring Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter.

After the success of “Catcher in the Rye”, J. D. Salinger began writing almost exclusively about a fictional family, the Glass siblings of New York City, from various narrative points of view. The sublime short books “Franny and Zooey” and “Seymour/Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters” were about the Glass children, and Salinger’s most famous short story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” tells the chilling tale of Seymour Glass’s suicide in a Florida hotel room. Most of these stories are fractured narratives containing reflections of reflections of the Glass children, usually related in dialogue and allegedly recorded by the mild, stealthy older brother, Buddy Glass.

A few months ago, writer Michael Norris and artist David Richardson began working together on a project to imagine the faces of the Glass family members. This represents a creative first, as far as we know, because no well-known film, play or art project has ever emerged to represent these characters. Michael and David previously illuminated
Marcel Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time” for Literary Kicks, and David Richardson drew the cover for “Beats In Time“, the new Literary Kicks Beat Generation anthology..

via J. D. Salinger: Seeing The Glass Family | Literary Kicks.

via QR codes and museums | MuseumNext – Europe’s big conference on social media and digital media for the museums.

Air Iomlaid (On Exchange) was a partnership project bringing two schools and their communities together with practising artists to explore their outdoor environments through art and language. The lead artist described the project as undergoing a process of ‘getting fit’ artistically.

This resource is intended for primary and secondary teachers who want to build confidence in discussing the visual elements of the art and design curriculum with learners and colleagues. A key focus is the use of sketchbooks as a method of developing artistic confidence in the learners. Sketchbooks are also used by teachers as a way of recording and analysing learners’ progress.

Five films about the Turner Prize 2011 made by young people as part of Arts Award Bronze. The nominated artists are: George Shaw, Martin Boyce, Karla Black and Hilary Lloyd.

In 1735 William Hogarth, after a lively public campaign, helped to pass an act giving engravers the rights to their work for 14 years from publication. It was a landmark in the history of copyright as it bestowed on engravers similar legal rights to authors and stopped sellers of prints from creaming off all the profits. Hogarth would be amazed today to find that in the US copyright has been extended to 70 years – not from the date of publication, but from the death of the author. In Britain it was regarded as rather bold of the Gowers report – on which the government will pronounce soon – to suggest that Britain should keep the existing limit of “only” 50 years after death.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/nov/29/comment.intellectualproperty

John Pasche was still a student at the Royal College of Art when he was asked to design an image for a Rolling Stones tour in 1971. As Pasche explains in this film Mick Jagger invited the young designer to his Chelsea home to brief him. The logo was initially inspired less by Mick Jagger’s famous pouting lips than by the Indian goddess Kali who is often portrayed with a protruding pointed tongue. The image was an immediate success. Pasche was paid £50 and commissioned to design a logo which has featured on every Stones album since.

An interesting weblog about drawings, scribbles, notes and an occasional painting or photograph; mostly contemporary.

Click on an image to go directly to the original, or on the links to learn more about the artist involved.

http://lorrainelamond.wordpress.com

Had the pleasure of filming Lorraine Lamond a few weeks ago, on the completion of her latest stained glass commission for St Alphonsus Church, Calton, Glasgow. We filmed on five levels of scaffolding as far as we could go, luckily we didn’t have an aversion to heights. Mark Campbell (http://whitehouseglasgow.blogspot.com/) was instrumental in arranging this opportunity as well as assisting in the interview. I’ve edited about 15 minutes of film of Lorraine explaining the background to this commission, which spans approx 23 years, going back to the first section – The Beatitudes ‘Rose Window’ from 1996.

The opportunity to view Lorraine’s work close up was a real treat which I made the most of, taking as many close up photographs as possible (approx 300). This work, which is truly stunning in my opinion, will be unveiled to the public in November. We’re also working on a collaboration with Glasgow Museums – St Mungo Museum of Religious Life & Art for 2010 to increase awareness of Lorraine’s work.

JF

Scottish musician and blogger Momus provides interesting cultural critiques and other thoughts. Aka Nick Currie.

http://imomus.livejournal.com/

/