Friday Feed

Some suggestions to satisfy your reading and viewing appetite throughout the weekend….

FOREIGN ART | Michael Kimmelman, lead art critic of the New York Times, reports on culture and arts across Europe (and beyond) in his Abroad series. Begun in the fall of 2007, his most recent dispatch details the cultural damage inflicted on L’Aquila, Italy, by the devastating earthquake earlier this month. His writing  is clear, descriptive and informative, full of insights and context, resulting in great reading accessible even to those of us without an art history degree. Kimmelman, whose book The Accidental Masterpiece: On the Art of Life and Vice Versa (as I am currently discovering) is also a worthwhile—even inspiring—read, will be speaking in Savannah on Tuesday, April 21, at 7:30 p.m. The free event, at the Trustees Theater, is part of the Savannah College of Art and Design’s 30th Anniversary Lecture Series.

NOTES OF INSPIRATION | “The Soloist,” the based-on-a-true-story film starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr., hits theaters next Friday. With as much media attention the film has already garnered, there’s no need to rehash the details of the plot. Check out the trailer; better yet, read the “Points West” columns by Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times that served as the basis for Susannah Grant’s screen adaptation. The columns, as popular as they were, also resulted in a book deal for Lopez, enabling him to expand on the story of Nathaniel Ayers and the columnist’s relationship with the once-promising musician. I actually picked up a hardcover copy of  “The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music” not long after its release, long before I knew anything about the movie, while browsing the aisles of Barnes & Noble and reading the jacket copy. (The book is currently available in a movie tie-in paperback.) It’s next on my “to-read” list. While I have not yet seen the film, it certainly seems to hold promise, from the powerful true story to its intriguing themes—not only the power of music, but also the underlying one about the devastating demise of the newspaper and what its loss means for the community, as Hank Stuever details in “A Columnist, ‘The Soloist’ And Echoing Tales of Loss” this Sunday in the Washington Post. David Carr of the New York Times focuses most of his attention in “A Film Like a Cello: It’s Just as Delicate” on the film’s young British director, Joe Wright, a seemingly unlikely choice whose previous credits include “Pride & Prejudice” and “Atonement.” Watch the “60 Minutes” segment about the real-life figures played by Foxx and Downey Jr. in the movie:

LIT INK | Here is a site that combines two art forms in a new, oddly compelling way. Contrariwise posts user-submitted photos of their literary tattoos, from books, poems, lyrics, quotes, and more. Some are inspired choices, others—like those with misspellings (ouch!)—are disasters. Each entry includes a photo of the tat, the source material, and an explanation from the skin’s owner. All in all, a fun site to spend (waste, perhaps) some time exploring, especially if you’re in the market for a literary tattoo.