Monthly Archives: December 2013

Happy New Year

Posted on December 31, 2013 by zjb

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a mark of red and white in the distance. The zoom lens did the rest. He’s still up there tonight, across the way over in Harlem. Happy New Year.

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Aesthetic Atrocity Disaster Sublime (Photography at the New York Times)

Posted on December 31, 2013 by zjb

Happy new year? This is what 2013 looked like, at least in the New York Times. I’ve been thinking this for awhile now, that the New York Times turns the image of atrocity and disaster into a sublime picture. I … Continue reading →

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Authority Looks Like Exilarchs and Rabbis (Geoffrey Herman) (A Prince Without a Kingdom)

Posted on December 31, 2013 by zjb

I read Geoffrey Herman’s book on the Exilarch, A Prince Without a Kingdom, because of my own philosophical interests in Jewish political theory and the problem of rabbinic versus non-rabbinic Jewish authority, as well as textual and historical relating to … Continue reading →

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Ornamental Cabbage & Flowering Kale (Park Avenue Walk)

Posted on December 30, 2013 by zjb

Purple and white, in winter decorative cabbage and flowering kale fill the public planters up and down the tonier residential blocks of Park Avenue.

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Death & Translation (Aaron Hughes) (Invention of Jewish Identity)

Posted on December 30, 2013 by zjb

I finished reading Aaron Hughes The Invention of Jewish Identity: Bible, Philosophy, and the Art of Translation a couple of weeks back, and have been struggling to come to some kind of conclusion about the book. It turned out not … Continue reading →

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Modern-Medieval (Christian Architectural Pieces) (New York Cloisters)

Posted on December 29, 2013 by zjb

Pieces of medieval Christianity, re-constructed bit by bit. “Buildings from Sant Miquel de Cuixà, Sant Guilhèm dau Desèrt, Bonnefont-en-Comminges, Trie-en-Bigòrra, and Froville were disassembled stone-by-stone and shipped to New York City, where they were reconstructed and integrated by [Charles] Collens into a cohesive whole by … Continue reading →

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The Body of the King (Hands) (Cloisters)

Posted on December 29, 2013 by zjb

Gilt, gold and alone, the spiritual body of the king levitates up the white space of the museum wall. The severed hands contradict the seamless line created by the brow and nose between and over the rouge cheeks and lips, … Continue reading →

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Museum Fragments Medieval (Cloisters)

Posted on December 28, 2013 by zjb

It’s been observed often enough that museums rip an object of its life-world. At the Cloisters, no longer absorbed into their use-function, a pink marble vouissoir with flower pattern, an oak door, and a limestone doorway are given their own sharp, … Continue reading →

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Outside & Inside (Christmas) (New York)

Posted on December 27, 2013 by zjb

On Christmas Day, this is what New York City looks like from the outside on Broadway, heading south just north, of 96th St. Everyone’s at home, out of town, asleep, in church, at the movies, in Chinatown, with family, eating, … Continue reading →

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Medieval Christian — Soft To The Touch & Rouge

Posted on December 25, 2013 by zjb

Not usually how I think about it. But re-assembled at the Cloisters in New York, you can see how the material object-character of medieval European Christianity was soft to the touch, put together out of wood, limestone, and paint –soft … Continue reading →

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