blog entry on the Bassiouny show in Venice

HERE.

Tamanya beneath India/Sri Lanka map

It’s hard to catch her motionless very often anymore, so I have to take what I can get, even these relatively distant shots.

I’m afraid it’s only a matter of time before she destroys that map. She loves biting small pieces off of it already.

Laruelle review

I also agreed to review Laruelle’s Philosophies of Difference in NDPR. Look for it within the next couple of months.

Should be an interesting project. So far I’m neutral on Laruelle, though I have friends who are both very pro- and very anti-. Neutrality is always the best starting point for review work, though not the best ending point.

Venice Biennale

I decided spontaneously this morning that I have to go. Already have my tickets. I want to see the whole thing, but am especially interested to see the Egyptian pavilion that my office helped fund. (The Ahmed Bassiouny tribute.)

It will be a disappointment if the volcanic ash spreads that far.

shows my ignorance of fishing

What? Texas may soon be the 18th state to make it legal to catch catfish with your bare hands:

“Noodling is the practice of using a person’s hands to find the fish in underwater nooks, then to get the fish to latch onto the noodler’s arm with their mouths. Sometimes, the noodler can get their hands in the catfish’s gills.

The noodler then takes the fish to a boat or to shore and gets the fish to let go of the arm. It is often a two-person job, as catfish can grow to nearly 50 pounds.”

Somehow, this seems grotesque.

Does it sound pleasant to run your arms through “underwater nooks,” hoping that a catfish will bite you?

Bulls lose in overtime

That was a tough one to lose, but Miami now leads the series 3-1.

Looks like it will be a rematch of the Dallas-Miami final from a few years ago. Dallas blew that series, but they seem to be mentally hardened since then, and they have Jason Kidd now who still has game at age 38.

As feared, these Bulls are still too young and need a bit more seasoning.

Speaking of Kidd, he’s an interesting example of how sometimes our worries about a player turn out to be wrong. There were a couple of points in his career when he looked like he was going to be just another great talent derailed by numerous police and domestic incidents and conflicts with fellow players (I still remember the ridiculous on-court arguments between Kidd and Jimmy Jackson over a woman they were both involved with). But give Kidd credit: he had enough inside that he was able to mature into a great teammate who now might be a key puzzle piece for a championship team.