Wilfrid

My other ideas for Detroit, and comments welcome: Bars: Nancy Whiskey Pub; Tommy’s Detroit; Abick’s; Kiesling; Willow Museums: Detroit Institute of Arts; Motown Museum; The Wright Other: Corktown; Downtown; Heidelberg Arts District

Blast from the past. Michel Roux coming to L'Abeille (itself) for a mid-Sept residency. I hardly dare look at the price. I would have last eaten his food more than 20 years ago.

I thought the girls were in town already but the gig is 9/24 so those are old photos on the IG.

I started watching the Criterion Collection's set of movies directed by Jia Zhangke. Fascinating mix of drama and pretty much documentary footage of beautiful and ugly aspects of China. I quickly became entranced with Zhao Tao, his wife and frequent lead. She is an astonishing actress and moves like the dancer she trained to be. Then I started looking for her movies with other directors. "Shun Li and the Poet," set in Italy, is amazing. She won awards. And you can watch it free on Tubi. Thank me later.

I remember my daughter's excitement in 2013 at a new One Direction song called "One Way or Another." Once upon a time, I said, there was a band called Blondie...

I'm an idiot. I read that as Larry McMurtry (a big collector).

Okay, thanks. I will obsessively choose my own music, but that's me. Looks like the best option.

Really nice here in NYC, my daughter and I out on a boat on the Hudson and the sun plus breeze were perfect.

I arrived today at the two thunderclap chapters at the heart of Karamazov, "Rebellion" and "The Grand Inquisitor." I remember them well but had not expected how they would resonate. First with Ivan's horrifying plea for murdered children. Then with the Inquisitor's insistence on the evils of freedom, education and science. Holy shit. Dostoevsky's answers might not appeal but he asked all the hard questions back in 1880.

Quite a story. I remember Po.

They have a copy in my library and I have almost borrowed it...

I have been a Napster (formerly Rhapsody) user for many years. It had everything I needed and of course it had my saved playlists. However, labels have started pulling their catalogues and the music selection has collapsed over the last few weeks. Time to cancel. The obvious alternative is Spotify. What I need is a very extensive catalogue and Spotify seems to have that. What I don't need is recommendations and playlists chosen for me, which seems more a Pandora thing. Posting here in case anyone has advice.

Nice snapshot of Patricia Lockwood's writing style by Alexandra Schwartz in a profile for the new issue. The profile is as hilarious as one might expect. I think I knew Lockwood's second novel is due, but was surprised to read that she also has enough poetry for a new collection which would be her first in about ten years.

I don't want summer to end but having fun sitting here with the windows open feeling that lovely cool breeze whistling by.

Sounds like Baltimore has gone downhill in just a year. Didn't strike me as a "hellhole."

Less than a month to the Brooklyn show. 😮‍💨

17. Eliot, Middlemarch 18. Ellison, Invisible Man 19. Faulkner, probablyThe Sound and the Fury. Maybe As I Lay Dying. 20. Fosse, Septology. But which part(s)? I am still reluctant to go direct from Karamazov to Middlemarch because of the sheer bulk, so I may jump forward to Faulker. I have to figure out which parts of Septology I have already re-read.

I had skipped The Unnamable, feeling it's not that long since I last read it, but it is comparatively short so I read it after Alexanderplatz. Strange that something so intensely experimental should also have so many funny lines. What made it fresh is that about a year ago I read a study by Pascale Casanova that sought to show that Beckett, especially in his later writings, was not addressing existential angst but the literary project itself -- essentially, writing about writing. That's controversial, but it's certainly possible to read The Unnamable that way, and it makes it a different book. Now I'm far into Karamazov, which meanders of course but is compulsively readable. And thank god at 800 pages.

Haven't decided on my next domestic trip, but I wonder if anyone has recommendations for Detroit? My research, so far, has come up with the following dining options: Freya Cuisine Marrow Mabel Gray (but it's 10 miles from downtown) The Whitney looks pretty, but the menu reads like something I would have enjoyed in a hotel dining room in the 90s. Looks like Coney dogs are compulsory too.

I thought they were old farts in 1975.

Morton Feldman. Will take a week to get to the end of the block.

Not arguing with that; saying that the reviewers holding off for 10 months is really odd and not explained by that.

Yes, Hunters and Collectors are better, so I would have said Crowded House/Finn Brothers. Next time?

I think you'd agree that the Times, in particular, has not traditionally waited 10 months for a PR trigger to review a restaurant.

Love Midnight Oil. I couldn't love Lola Young. If we're talking about CDs you own, hard to make suggestions. Except of course to buy Hinds CDs for future trips. Television?