…that 9/11 happened. So please spare a memory for those who died and for how our world has grown much less stable in the past two decades because of it. One good way is to watch Spike Lee’s film that captures New York’s faith and fate since September 11, 2001. Make it a communal thing: bring your family, friends, neighbours old and new.
And now, back to our regular rabbit-holes.
1. Speaking of New York. Which happens to be the most filmed city in the world, here’s a tribute to how it looks in movies old and new.
2. Gould writes Shakespeare. When Glenn Gould was still a student at Malvern Collegiate in Toronto, he composed four piano pieces as incidental music to TwelfthNight. They were unearthed by Montreal journalist Daniel Poulin who came to know Gould while working for Radio-Canada, and here they are, with commentary by the teenaged Gould.
3. If you like drawing, try these TikTok tutorials. Quick, easy, loud and breezy – even if you’re all thumbs around drawing.
4. Turnstiles to get into Venice. The pent-up demand to visit Venice was so huge this summer that Venetians are considering charging people to enter the city, and enforcing that via turnstiles and QR codes at its few entrances.
5. Don’t try this at home, kids. There’s parkour; then there’s this guy.
6. Morgan Housel rules. The US investor and former Wall Street journalist has some luscious rules of life we need all heed. The first is Little Flaws that can drag us down, and the second is Rules, Truths and Beliefs to live by.
7. Why you should love opera. No. Stop. Don’t leave. Opera can be thrilling. Really. Watch and see how.
8. How to be easily pretentious. A compulsory part of every art show is the artist’s statement. I read these statements and, even though they are written in English, and I know how to read English, I don’t understand a word. It’s all so much piffle to me. But now you can write your own artist’s statement with the help of this app. Just fill in the blanks and your poetic, post-modern, semiotic-influenced drawings will be child’s play.
9. The chart of the week. The inestimable Scott Galloway shows why the old have gotten twice as rich over the past 30 years while the young have grown twice as poor.
10. What is America’s 45th President doing tonight? As Heather Cox Richardson noted: “While Trump-reflecting lawmakers are demanding Americans put their lives, and their children’s lives, on the line for “freedom,” news broke tonight that Trump and his son Don, Jr., will spend the night of September 11, 2021, the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, commenting on a “gamecast” of a boxing match between former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield (who stepped in when Oscar De La Hoya tested positive for Covid) and Vitor Belfort at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. “I love great fighters and great fights,” Trump said. “You won’t want to miss this special event…” – which can be purchased for $49.99.
11. Finally, a lullaby of Broadway. We end our “New York” edition of the Omnium Gatherum with a tribute to the Great White Way. Broadway is only opening this month, long after the West end re-opened in London. But oh what a show it shows, voiced by Oprah and sung and danced by everyone from John Travolta to Elaine Stritch and Yul Brynner.
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Upcoming RamsayTalk Event
Helen Walsh will launch her propulsive Canadian thriller Pull Focus at the next RamsayTalk on Monday, September 27 from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. ET.
Admission to the talk is FREE and we encourage you to buy the book before, during or after the event. To register, click here.
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To order a copy of my book Love or Die Trying, click here for Canadian orders, click here for US orders, or visit your favourite bookstore.