Ian Sinclair on Ballard/ Ballard Tribute Show in Londong

It's been ten months since J. G. Ballard's death and the Gagosian Gallery is doing a tribute exhibition to show his influence on contemporary artists. Here is a piece by Ian Sinclair about his meetings with Ballard shortly before he died, from The Guardian:

Crash: JG Ballard's artistic legacy

Shortly before JG Ballard's death last year, Iain Sinclair made a pilgrimage to the author's Shepperton semi, a shrine to his surreal tastes and happy family life. A new exhibition of his favourite paintings and of art work he has inspired honours this distinctive vision
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Slide show of paintings at the exhibition:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2010/feb/17/art-j-g-ballard-gagosian?picture=359437748

Going to be Acting Boss at work for the next three weeks.
Not looking forward to it.

"Will you enforce me to a a world of cares?"
(Richard III, Act 3 Scene 7)

Of Two Minds

On Monday we went to see Collapse a documentary about Michael C. Ruppert, a man who has been analysing open-source intelligence for thirty years and has tied much of it together around the concept of Peak Oil and what it means for us as a planet. Gripping to listen to (but not well filmed, mostly it's a talking head with some clever montages intercut) and follow the ideas, and mostly a real bummer.

And today, Dangerous Minds gave me a link to this man's blog: (Charles Hugh Smith, http://www.oftwominds.com/blogfeb10/optimism02-10.html)

Why I am Optimistic (February 16, 2010)

I am optimistic about the future because the status quo is doomed and better options abound.
One of the characteristics readers seem to like about oftwominds.com is that fundamentally I am an optimist about the future, even as I trace out the inevitability of the status quo's devolution and implosion.

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Nice to hear another perspective, though I am not convinced of his arguments and rather more convinced that the transformation will not be easy - agreed there will be one, and the longer it is delayed the nastier it will be.