Friday, June 25, 2010

Two More Publications

Sorry for the long time between posts. I've read and seen some good things but haven't had anything very interesting to say about them.

A few recommendations: Sugar is a really wonderful and surprising movie about a Dominican baseball prospect who goes to Iowa to play Single A ball. And Niels Lyhne, by Jens Peter Jacobsen (a largely forgotten Danish writer who was one of Rilke's favorites) has some beautiful passages in Tina Nunnally's translation. Jacobsen also had an astounding mustache.

I also had two pieces published recently: a review of The Geometry of God, by Uzma Aslam Khan, in the Spring issue of Ploughshares, and a profile of the jazz musician Vijay Iyer for a new Indian magazine called The Caravan. Both were contract work, so I had to work a little to produce enthusiasm. The Khan book was accomplished but never made a profound impression - I ended up liking Iyer's music a lot, though.

Hope the pieces are worth reading - I'll post something more substantial soon.