Tribute to Summer of 2009
Rainy as it was, the last three months still felt like summer. Now that you can smell fall in the air, it’s time to pay a tribute to the past months and savor the last bits of it.
The Book of Summer 2009: Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon, a 70’s detective novel, is an easy read compared to his earlier works. Narrated by Doc “Sportello”, who is first a hippie, then a private eye, the story takes place in Southern California; at its backdrop are the hippies, real estate mafia, cops and babes. Smoke of dope rises from every single page of the book, smoothing the sarcasm of its characters. People die, get lost in drug trade but “Doc” remains a cool romantic until the end, curious only to solve the case. There is also a soundtrack to the novel, which, unlike many, can be read while listening to music. Notables are “Bang Bang” by The Bonzo Dog Band, “Fly Me to the Moon” by Frank Sinatra, “Stranger in Love” performed by The Spaniels…just a few out of the many. Here is a short video, voiced by Pynchon himself to get you in the mood:
For a larger look at detective novels and where Pynchon stands among the writers, see the New Yorker article by Louis Menand. Menand recites writer Raymond Chandler’s detailed description of a private eye, it’s rather cool:
“The personal honor of the private eye is the genre’s most hallowed convention. He owes nothing to anyone. He is in it only for himself; therefore, he is selfless. In Chandler’s description: ‘He is a relatively poor man, or he would not be a detective at all. He is a common man, or he could not go among common people. He has a sense of character, or he would not know his job. He will take no man’s money dishonestly and no man’s insolence without a due and dispassionate revenge. He is a lonely man and his pride is that you will treat him as a proud man or be very sorry you ever saw him. . . . The story is his adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure.’”
The Music of Summer 2009: This summer I rediscovered Miles Davis‘ 1958 album Porgy and Bess. Coincidentally the album was recorded during July and August of that year, so it is essentially a summer album and rhymes perfectly with a smooth bicycle ride.
I would also have to add Abbey Lincoln who I got into after listening live the Black Rock Coalition’s performance at the Lincoln Out of Doors Festival. Also I discovered an old school record shop on 12th Street: Second Hand Rose Music. They have Blue note record in LP and play it in store with an incredible sound system. It’s an old, small shop but the music’s so good you can stay there whole day.
The Movie of Summer 2009: Again I’m going to go with the oldies, since this one really did to me what movies should. I was so impressed by Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954) that it made me realize what I expected from cinema. Even though the film’s set in one room with a window looking over at the backyard, it definitely has the New York feel to it. Grace Kelly’s charm and fashionable ways also add to it, but it’s actually the windows and lives behind those windows that insert the New York feel. The movie was shot in black and white but then transformed to colored film. The colors therefore are highly saturated; the city’s brick buildings exaggerated with an orange-red color. The plot is well put and the actors do an amazing job of portraying their fictional characters. Nothing’s like real life, but rather a product of an imaginative child. Boxes of windows, each carrying a story of either love or hate, loneliness, desperateness, each representing a part of reality. Nowadays movie makers try so hard at realism that it’s not fun to go to movies anymore. They feel like a mere extension of your daily life. Rear Window opens your heart into possibilities of an ordinary life, to those a look out to window can bring.
The Art Piece of Summer 2009 was definitely the Waterpod Project. It is more than art; it’s a revolutionary movement to find a new, alternative habitat for us all. On a floating structure the 4 artists living in the Waterpod have their own chicken, use solar energy, have vegetable gardens, filter water and also hold events and lecture. It was founded by Mary Mattingly and will be on water until end of September.
Photograph by Michael Nagle for The New York Times.
The Political Article of Summer 2009: The best article I read this summer was on the mystified influence of madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan. Published on Dani Rodrik’s Blog, the article, written by Asim Khwaja, debunked the myth that madrassas proliferated in recent years, fueling militarcy. It also indirectly criticizes the educational reform plans in Pakistan that target only madrassas. I liked it because I found it applicable to situation in Turkey. It seems we are always choosing wrong targets by exaggerating religion’s influence and turning it into a fear factor.
The Arts Article of Summer 2009 was published in NY Times by A.O Scott, right after the much disputed Iranian elections. It’s on Iranian movies and moviemakers, like Abbas Kiastromi and argues that Iranian cinema, prolific since 1990s foreshadowed today’s struggle for democracy:
“The flowering of Iranian cinema in the 1990s was itself evidence of a cultural and political thaw, a tentative premonition of the current demand for change. As minister of culture and Islamic guidance from 1989 to 1992, Mohammed Khatami encouraged the expansion of film production, and his election to the presidency in 1997 (in an unexpected landslide) came less than a week after Mr. Kiarostami shared the Palme d’Or in Cannes for “Taste of Cherry.”
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