Richard McGuire

I first experienced (that I am aware of) Richard McGuire's work in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, a literary journal of the comic persuasion. I really with I could share with you the comic of McGuire's included in #13, as it is brilliant. His clean, stylized narratives only contain type in order to describe sound. His use of scale adds dimension, as well as visual interest and movement.

His website is pretty skeletal, so perhaps you should try to get your hands on a copy of this 2004 journal, which at this point is owned by the library and is selling from $4 on Amazon. That it was edited by Chris Ware will come as a surprise to no one.

Richard McGuire also works in animation. Never before have I felt so inspired.


Peur du Noir from Richard McGuire on Vimeo.

Dry Soda

Dry just seemed like a cute name, but the reality is, Dry implies Not Sweet.
This soda is not sweet, but it is sweetened. The packaging is really beautiful, but the flavor didn't win me over. Lemongrass seemed interesting, but I'm a beverage wuss and really wanted sweetness. It was certainly bubbly, and tasted a bit like one drop of flavoring in a glass of spring water (actual spring water, the bubbly, mineral-y stuff I grew up....disliking). The Co-Op also has kumquat and rhubarb. I like to try things that are exotically flavored, but I can imaging that my experience with these other two will be pretty much the same, just a little more acidic.

I suppose it is like my disinterest in beer. I could finish a bottle eventually, but I don't enjoy the flavor at all so it is really wasted on me.

In conclusion: I won't buy another bottle of DRY soda, but that doesn't mean you wouldn't like it.

Nina Katchadourian

Nina Katchadourian spoke at the College of St. Rose last night. Be sorry that you missed it.

Katchadourian is an interdisciplinary artist dealing mostly with conceptual and many times humorous subject matter. Her work involves collaborations with nature, exploitations of misunderstandings, organization and appreciation of the disarray that comes from perceived failures in her work. Katchadourian was articulate and personable, slightly resembling Rachel Griffiths, both in looks and mannerisms, and I overheard the terms "cute" and "adorable" more than several times from the people around me.

Some of my favorite pieces of hers included her Mended Spiderwebs, Renovated Mushroom, Artificial Insemination, Animal Crossdressing, and CARPARK, where she organized cars at a college campus by color.

If you live where I live, you may have seen some of her work recently at Mass MoCA (Falls Colors) or a few years ago at the Tang at Skidmore, such as Accent Elimination and Talking Popcorn.

In Talking Popcorn, Katchadourian translated Popcorn popping noises using Morse Code and a computer program. A carnival style popcorn machine with a microphone inside is hard to miss in a gallery. She even had bronzed a few kernels "Talking Popcorn's First Words". You may be saddened to know that Katchadourian received a phone call from a gallery curator, letter her know that Talking Popcorn had, in effect, committed suicide. Luckily (perhaps in a silver lining sense) for Katchadourian, the computer housed within the base of the popcorn machine was not badly damaged by the flame, and she was able to have Talking Popcorn's Last Words.