Counterbalance

RIP David Foster Wallace

My heart is in my throat as I type this.  But, alas, it is true. David Foster Wallace ended it all on Friday.

DFW is gone.

More when I can wrap my head around this news...

UPDATE: Still processing, as are many readers & writers who've emailed.  Until I get my act together, here is the four-part series, DFW on the Installment Plan, that I wrote about his reading in Westwood at the Hammer Museum in 2006:

• Going to See the Unseeable Man
• DFW on the Installment Plan Part One: The Cold, Cold Hammer Courtyard
• DFW on the Installment Plan Part Two: Consider Me Smitten-Humbled-Smitten
  
• DFW on the Installment Plan Part Three: The Things We Do for Love
  
• DFW on the Installment Plan Part Four: Thank Goodness for Kenyon
  

RIP Rauschenberg

An artist I greatly admired - for his art as well as the fire that burned within him (crazy or no) - has died.

Moments to cherish: the 2006 MOCA exhibition of his Combines work which I visited too many times to count and watching Man at Work in the downstairs film room at the museum. I highly recommend this film (or this book) for anyone wishing to pay him tribute or wanting to learn more about this fascinating, fiery, ever-curious artist that made me laugh with his work and his words.

UPDATE: An excellent resource for viewing Rauschenberg's work online...

(Photo by eston via Flickr)

An American Dream, Ended

Norman Mailer died this morning at the age of 84. Such a vociferous man - whether you loved him or hated him or both - will be sorely missed.Who will fill the void of that much ranting and raving and brilliance all wrapped up into one difficult package? As I've spent the past week re-reading the works of Joan Didion, I'll glom on to her sentiment:  "Obviously, he was a great American voice," said a tearful Joan Didion, struggling for words upon learning of Mailer's death."

While he was cranky & outspoken on many issues these last few years, it seems he truly enjoyed writing his last novel, The Castle in the Forest.  Good on him.

UPDATE: NYT Obit & many good Huffington Post links

Halberstam = Raising the Bar

The news of David Halberstam's death has me thinking not only of his many, many works, but of one specific quality that ran through all of his writing: truth.  Getting at the truth, in all its ugliness, despite the risks. 

Every Halberstam interview, article or book I've read has always left me with the distinct feeling that I need to do more. In my writing, in my life, in the way I research and present both truth and fiction. He raised the bar for anyone who cares about his subject matter (from war coverage to his love of sports) and anyone who is in the business of writing.  While I will miss the wisdom that would, no doubt, have been imparted in his unfinished and unwritten works, his published work has had a profound effect on me. His passing reminds me how important it is to ask the hard questions, to seek out the truth regardless of how buried (intentionally or no) it may be.

My brief coverage of Halberstam's passing is up at LAist.  I've included links to his many works - consider this an excellent time to read or re-read him.

Update: Glenn Greenwald at Salon has an excellent piece up about Halberstam's brand of journalism and meaty links & context for still other meaty links.