April 29, 2013
Indexing Love

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The subject of Rebecca Lindenberg’s debut book of poetry, Love, An Index, is her boyfriend, Craig Arnold, who went missing while hiking a Japanese volcano in 2009, and is now presumed dead. Arnold was a highly acclaimed poet, earning numerous fellowships and accolades from early on in his career, which began with the book Shells, and ended with the fateful trip. He was 41 when he disappeared. He left behind a son, Robin, whom he had with his ex-wife. The relationship between Arnold and Lindenberg lasted six years.

I admit freely that I bought Love, An Index because of the tragic and sensational story behind it.  I was feeling melancholy, and it was a beautiful day,  so I figured that a story of tender love coupled with unspeakable tragedy would either relieve or validate my mood. What I found was a book far more rewarding and far less melodramatic than I expected.

Lindenberg writes about love, but only sparingly broaches “love” the idea, and instead focuses on the debris that serves as its evidence. The poems are mainly set in Rome and the East Village, and on road trips through the American West. She describes these landscapes precisely, with details such as “luminous emerald /grass around the fortress” (19) “in the shadow of a massive trunk of basalt” (21) and “morning filled/ wine bottles in the kitchen” (84). She writes forebodingly about burying Robin in the sand on a beach vacation to Greece. Through Lindenberg’s details, the reader gets to sense not only the places they inhabit, but also Arnold as a person – his physical traits, his literary and philosophical preferences, and his quirks and flaws. For example, in the poem, “Which, If I Never Thought to Mention It Before, I Now Feel Compelled to Address,” Lindenberg mentions Arnold’s tallness repeatedly, but also his “strident devotion to the real as knowable” (4). In this way, Lindenberg creates a double loss, of both the physical and intangible presences of her beloved.

Not every poem is an elegy or tribute. Lindenberg often experiments with form. For example, two poems are written in the form of Facebook status updates, in which she quotes movies and requests to add someone as a “loyal assassin” (82). Most poems seem to be taking place in the immediate now, even though Lindenberg was writing at different times. She began working on the bookin 2005, when she, Arnold, and Robin lived in Rome together. Arnold disappeared in April, 2009, and that fall, Lindenberg received a seven-month residential fellowship at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where she says, in an interview with her publishers at McSweeney’s, that she wrote “most of the book” (McSweeney’s Books). The lack of temporal distance between events and writing gives some poems a patchy, yet powerfully unprocessed quality.

I did not find any of the poems sentimental, which seems miraculous when the subject matter is love and grief.  Lindenberg writes an entry on sentimentality in the title poem, saying:

I don’t know what this word means. Sometimes it means maudlin, sometimes kitsch. What is the opposite of sentimentality? Is it restraint? Is it silence?

(52). From the way she structured this entry in her “Index,” Lindenberg undermines the negative connotations of sentimentality, and compares restraint to silence. In her interview with McSweeney’s, she says that she feels “hemmed in” by the techniques of restraint and reduction that are valued in contemporary poetry workshops, and that she calls herself a “maximalist” poet. She defines maximalism as “a kind of idiosyncratic exuberance, a kind of unapologetic bigness” (McSweeney’s Books). “Maximal” was hardly the first word that came to mind while reading this slender volume, but I did get a sense of Lindenberg’s openness and generosity of emotion, and the sense that to her, this was an all-encompassing, eternal love. It was at least vast, intricate, and dense enough to merit an Index.  

One maximalist quality of the book is the history of poetry it covers through literary allusion. Throughout Love, An Index, Lindenberg makes many references to poets that she read, or Arnold read, or that they shared with each other. The references are not pedantic, but rather, necessary to understanding what a relationship between two poets might be like. The allusions span the course of Western literature, from Plato, to Sappho, to Milton, to Coleridge, to Frank O’Hara, to Arnold himself. My favorite use of these references was in “Love, N1.” in which Lindenberg classifies collections of lines and verses from other poets by her own definitions of love. Lindenberg’s last definition is “7. that which indescribable grief is evidence of; the wound and its balm” (76). In this section, she quotes Wordsworth: “Though nothing can bring back the hour/ Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower; /We will grieve not, rather find / Strength in what remains behind” (77).

The index of love inevitably leads to the loss of love, and the Wordsworth verse highlights the coming-to-terms aspect of the elegy that Lindenberg mentions. The poems in Love, An Index are varied in form, content, and scope, but inevitably the entire book serves as an en elegy. Lindenberg’s poems rarely focus on grief, but in composing a book of poems that focus on the richness of her life with Arnold, the central event is, of course, Arnold’s death. Love, An Index offers no prescription for how to cope, however. There is no sense of wholeness or redemption or completion. The index provides footnotes and definitions, context and allusions, but it does not attempt to fill the hole caused by loss. Therein lies its restraint.

April 29, 2013
The Eye Contact Trick

Senior column for the Columbia Daily Spectator. Who knew a free etiquette dinner could be so worthwhile? 

April 29, 2013
Yearning for the original onscreen Jay Gatsby in this week’s T&C Family Album. 

Yearning for the original onscreen Jay Gatsby in this week’s T&C Family Album. 

April 20, 2013
One of my favorite Tumblrs. 

One of my favorite Tumblrs. 

(Source: thingsorganizedneatly)

April 19, 2013
The WBAR #music List

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Yesterday, Twitter launched #music, its new app that allows users to see and hear what their favorite artists are listening to. Last week I covered WBAR, the student-run, free-form radio station of Barnard College, in an extensive feature story.

If it catches on, #music may present an opportunity for emerging artists, such as the ones WBAR draws to its shows, to make their names and songs viral, and to spread the word about other new artists, especially if a celebrity with a large following mentions them.

I thought it might be fun to see what WBAR’s favorite artists, past and present, are listening to and tweeting about. Their eclectic tastes did not disappoint:

LE1F (@LE1FNY) –on the “skronky” rapper’s page, you can find tracks from A$AP Rocky, Lil Kim, and Kendrick Lamar, as well as French DJ Bambounou and rap group Drones Over Bklyn. His upbeat, sassy tweets are also worth a peep.

Roomrunner (@rmrnnr)- a favorite of WBAR Promotions Director Nathan Albert, the Baltimore bunge rock band will be playing at the WBAR-B-Q April 27th. They like Beach House, Marnie Stern, Dan Deacon, Future Islands, and the Foo Fighters.

Bikini Kill (@thebikinikill) – the feminist punk band broke up in 1997 but their page features other female powerhouses such as Joan Jett, the Donnas, MIA, Yoko Ono, and Girl in a Coma.

Mos Def (@MosDefOfficial) – He hasn’t appeared to tweet much since he last played at Barnard in 1997, but Mos Def, who writes poetry these days by his real name, Yasiin Bey, does like Talib Kweli.

Swearin’ (@aqcrutchfield) – Swearin’ is an underground pop-punk group from the Baltimore and Philadelphia areas, and the Twitter tastes of lead singer Allison Crutchfield reflects that: Pixies, Grimes, Neko Case, Julian Casablancas, and Loretta Lynn.

Vampire Weekend (@vampireweekend) – The Columbia alumni, who have had tremendous mainstream success since their days as WBAR DJs, tend to tweet about similarly successful artists: Calvin Harris, Janelle Monae, Arcade Fire, Chromeo and Sleigh Bells all make their list.

It’s easy enough to spend a few hours going through the pages of #music. This might just be the cure to the impending post-Coachella blues.

April 19, 2013
Home News from Afar: Gay Scouts

Approximately a month after the Boy Scouts of America sent out a divisive survey to its 1.1 million members about gay membership in the organization, and thirteen years after the Supreme Court decision that upheld its ban on openly gay scouts, Scout leaders have made an announcement today about a proposal to reverse the ban. The new membership policy would apply to scouts themselves, but not scout leaders.

England has a rich tradition of scouting dating back to the turn of the 20th century, when British army officer Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell wrote Scouting For Boys, so naturally the issue has fascinated British audiences. Over at The Guardian, strong opinions have been voiced by polls, editorials and reader comments for both sides of the debate, but more or less overwhelmingly in favor of lifting the ban.

South African news source The Independent has covered the boy scouts story since the BSA affirmed its decision to deny membership to gay members in July. Scouting in South Africa has undergone several changes due to its history of racial discrimination. The Independent’s coverage has elicited some colorful comments from readers who support the ban, including one reader who suggested Madonna, who spoke out against the ban in March, “can go start Gay Scouts.”

The Latin American community has been relatively quiet on the issue, but an op-ed appeared today by Fabiola Santiago in El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language division of the Miami Herald that reaches communities in Latin America and the Caribbean. In it, Santiago states, “Discrimination has no place in the Scouting movement,” and “The Boy Scouts should promote tolerance and inclusion.”

The new proposal will be voted on May 20th, and must be approved by approximately 1400 members of the Scouts’ National Council. Openly gay members are not excluded from scout organizations in Canada, the UK, Germany, Sweden, and Australia; nor are openly gay members excluded from the Girl Scouts of America.

 

April 18, 2013
“He was trying to have a relationship, even for 30 seconds,” -Sebastian Junger on the photography of his friend, Tim Hetherington, who is the subject of Junger’s new HBO documentary, Which Way is the Front Line from Here? Hetherington died covering the rebel conflict in Libya on April 20th, 2011. The International Center for Photography will exhibit his photo series Sleeping Soldiers through May 13. 
image source: rocmandesign.com

“He was trying to have a relationship, even for 30 seconds,” -Sebastian Junger on the photography of his friend, Tim Hetherington, who is the subject of Junger’s new HBO documentary, Which Way is the Front Line from Here? Hetherington died covering the rebel conflict in Libya on April 20th, 2011. The International Center for Photography will exhibit his photo series Sleeping Soldiers through May 13. 

image source: rocmandesign.com

April 18, 2013
London Marathon is a Chance to Set Records, Show Resilience

The next major event in running will happen Sunday, if not entirely as planned, then close to it. England’s Home Secretary, Theresa May, announced Thursday that police presence will be increased along the London Marathon route in response to the bombings at Monday’s Boston Marathon. The London route includes major landmarks such as Big Ben, Tower Bridge, and Buckingham Palace. 37,500 runners have registered for the event, including world record holder Patrick Makau of Kenya.

There will be a 30-second moment of silence at the start, and runners will be given black ribbons to wear to show solidarity with the victims of the Boston attacks. Additionally, the organizers of the Virgin London Marathon have announced that they will donate £ 2 ($3) for each finisher, which could amount to as much as $100,000, to the One Fund Boston. 

From the New York Marathon’s cancellation due to Hurricane Sandy to the attacks in Boston, this year’s events have turned marathons, usually inspiring celebrations of human determination, into scenes of devastation. The decision by London officials to not cancel the marathon is an important one, a decision in favor of this determination, broadcast on a global stage.

A resident of New York, I witnessed the sportsmanship shown by the runners who had travelled from across the globe that first week of November. Instead of partaking in the act of personal achievement that they had trained so hard for, they selflessly lent a hand to those in need. They set up shelters, cleared away debris, and served food in the areas hardest hit by the hurricane. Two weeks later, I ran my first marathon, in Philadelphia, with many of these same individuals. All I could think about during the race was qualifying for Boston. When I crossed the line with plenty of qualifying time to spare, I was already looking forward to Boston 2014.

That hard-earned excitement returned this week, and now the anticipation is more urgent than ever.  Marathoners always have something to prove. It is the sport of the most dogged of underdogs; the ones who won’t give up even when they should. London 2013 should be an indicator of that. And for all who qualify for Boston next year: I’m coming for ya.

April 17, 2013
Spring in New York

Spring in New York

(Source: thatkindofwoman)

April 16, 2013
Training Days

Running a marathon is still one of the most self-fulfilling challenges you can undertake. http://eye.columbiaspectator.com/?q=article/2012/12/05/training-days

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