Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is 50 today
It was love at first read, as well as second and third read, so a very happy birthday to Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, which was published 50 years ago today. It remains my favourite book of all time.
Image from Project Le Tour by Brent Humphreys
Just received a copy of Le Tour Exhibition catalogue, a collection of photographs by the American photographer Brent Humphreys of the Tour de France. Some stunning photography.
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Franz Kafka
Lawyers open cache of unpublished Kafka manuscripts
Franz Kafka wanted all his manuscripts to be burned after his death, but his friend Max Brod disregarded the request, seeding a complex legal battle over thousands of manuscripts that has the literary world agog. That legal tussle takes a new twist today as four safety deposit boxes in a Zurich bank containing the manuscripts are opened.
The boxes are believed to contain thousands of manuscripts by Kafka and Brod, including letters, journals, sketches and drawings, some of which have never been published and could provide literary detetectives an insight into one of the 20th century’s greatest writers.
Franz Kafka is one of my favourite writers, shame this looks like turning into a shit fight about ‘ownership’, I’d be really excited if some new Kafka work was to be published.
Managed to get to the last day of the Ed Templeton show on Saturday. Bought a copy of his book Deformer.
Image from Gentlemen of Bacongo
Just bought a book called Gentlemen of Bacongo, it is utterly nuts. The book contains photographs taken by Daniele Tamagni of the Sapeurs of Bacongo, a group of elegant, colourful and immaculately dressed dandies from Brazzeville in the Congo and has a preface by fashion designer Paul Smith.
The images are a real twist on the concept of satorial elegance set against a most incongruous backdrop. Great stuff, it’s made me want to go out and get a pink suit, some white brogues, a cane and a smoking pipe.
I Just read this really interesting article on a book published by Thames & Hudson, The Atlas of the Real World: Mapping the Way we Live. The maps in the book depict the world demographically. Both the information itself, and the way that the information distorts the maps, is fascinating.
World Map of House Prices
Thought this was a fairly topical one at the moment.
The size of each territory shows the total value of all housing, adjusted for local purchasing power. Western Europe contains the most expensive housing, while Africa and South Asia has the cheapest, even after allowing for the fact that money goes further here.
I went to see Adaptation/Translation, an exhibition of work by the Brooklyn based artist José Parlá at the Elms Lesters Painting Rooms in Flitcroft Street, London last night. For anyone who has never been to the building, it is an amazing space. Aside from the gallery space itself, there are two huge scenic painting rooms with massive motorised stretchers, which can be used to paint large scale theatre back-drops. I think the largest stretcher is around 20 square metres. I was lucky enough to do work experience there many years ago as the gallery owner, Paul Jones, is an old friend of my father.
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