Softball: A Pitcher’s Tale
Dear People,
My team crushed Ruth's, 20-11, even though her side was more power-laden, looked better on paper and had a certain je-ne-sais-quoi that had me feeling colicky right from the get-go. But then in the bottom of the 4th, Matt smashed a curiously sensual Chris Fure curve ball straight up the middle, and indeed, that orb took off with such explosive velocity that if Chris had not had bionic reflexes, it would’ve drilled an aerobic worm hole right through the medulla oblaganta of his perfectly innocent brain.
Fortunately, he snagged the ball clean, thereby preventing a certain hit and total chaos, and amazingly, the exact same scenario played out again just three innings later! Yeah, there are those that merely inspire underdogs to victory, and then there is the Furinator—America’s towering symbol of sublime self-preservational mojo. And therefore there will be a game at Codornices this Sunday at 11, IF I get enough commits by this Friday morning…Raymond
2/6/09
Softball: My Familial Role as a Shameless Philistine
Dear People,
There will be a game at Codornices this Sunday at 11AM, and as of now there are still three slots left. If it rains heavily between now and then, or if conditions are ambiguous that morning, you will need to check your email.
Please bring $4 for the field, which I believe will stimulate the local economy in ways that could only intrigue, soothe and utterly delight her…Raymond 845-7552
PS: My brother Lawrence Weschler, the fantabulous New Yorker writer and art dude, will be speaking on a couple artists of note this Monday evening in San Francisco. Before giving you his publisher’s blurb on this engagement, I thought I’d present the essence of a recurring conversation that he and I have had over the years…
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Speaking in front of "Yellow and Orange"
(1949), at a Rothko exhibit in NYC
Ren: Can you see how the colors blend in a pattern that almost speaks to the observer personally? It's really extraordinarily lovely.
Ray: Aesthetically, I like it. Of course any autistic toddler could draw it, and given we live in an age of perfect reproduction, I'd say its true worth---not counting the pitifully insecure egos of the most likely buyers---is about a thousand bucks. Paint, canvas and $20 an hour for labor.
Ren: Well, maybe one day you'll actually grow up.
Ray: Oh yeah? Well fuck you.
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Nevertheless, if you’re into the modern art scene, I promise my bro will not disappoint…
On three decades of writing about Robert Irwin and David Hockney
On the occasion of the publication of his paired books on artists Robert Irwin (a new expanded edition of his classic "Seeing is Forgetting" ) and David Hockney ("True to Life"), longtime New Yorker writer Lawrence Weschler will consider what it has been like, lo these past many years, to be ponging back and forth between two artists who seem to disagree about virtually everything though they have never actually spoken with one another…
Monday February 9 7:30 pm
San Francisco Art Institute, Lecture Hall
800 Chestnut Street
San Francisco