Smug celebrations of Soviet decay, the Tunisian Quarter's Peace Prize, Si Racha factory tours, defensive critics: Cultural Digest October 10

• Article on how certain artists wish to "dance upon the grave" of Soviet decay by looking at physical sites of abandonment or dilapidation in brutalist built spaces. It's not discussed in the piece, but yet this is another symptom of capitalism run amok with no competing ideologies (unless we can call Islamic extremism - better called plain old 21st century fascism - a "competing ideology").
• A very good primer on the Tunisian Quartet, their role in preventing full out civil war in the country, and the reasons they were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last week.
• In memory of crime-writing sensation, Henning Mankell, who died earlier last week. Mankel was one of those authors whose work I've had on my list for years and years but never got around to reading anything (though I know his reputation and have read much about him). Compiling my Christmas reading list now and he'll certainly be there.
• You can take a tour of the Si Racha factory in California. One of my personal favorite condiments (I put it in chili, pasta sauce, soup, it livens up most dinner-time fare), I might even consider it if I were traveling out west...just to see the "truckloads of chili peppers" coming in and being unloaded.
• I thoroughly enjoyed this article about why critics are so defensive. In particular, the writer takes down Emily Nussbaum (New Yorker TV critic) and her suggestion that lovers of TV have "won the war." "What war?" the writer asks, suggesting then that feeling proud that TV is such a culturally dominant medium does not, in itself, make it something to praise. I often think about this topic: why no one wants to "poo-poo" any piece of art in public, why there are always "intellectuals" (most usually self-defined intellectuals who don't really understand what it means to be an actual intellectual) who can talk something up, but there are, without a doubt, bad TV shows (most), bad books (many), bad artists (ahem) and bad theatre (praising something or someone because they are the only or the biggest show in town is shockingly common). Let's face it: we can't have good art without lots and lots of bad art. It's easy to find something good to say about most anything, anyone or any piece of art, but when I read a really bad book yet see 10 "this book is brilliant" quotes on the cover, I wonder to myself: does this critic really believe this or is this blurb simply done for political points which are beyond my kin? People praise something for a whole myriad of reasons (though I like Emily Nussbaum's project and some of her recommendations: her love of certain formulaic, simple-minded shows baffles me. Maybe I'm just not that appreciative of TV as an art form overall?) but takedowns can be incredibly fascinating, especially when they are artworks being consistently and seemingly universally praised (see Daniel Mendelsohn's takedown of Mad Men a number of years ago, really calling the entire series into question at a time when no one seemed to want to say anything negative about it at all).

Gloria Steinem wins peace prize, NYT posts thousands of recipes, in stock at D&Q, New York City Reading List: Cultural Digest August 22

• New book alert: Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh is now in stock at Drawn & Quarterly (consistently impressed at the quality of their curation: every time I step into that shop, I want to buy 20 books). Get in on the ground before this writer is a household name.
• Hungry? The New York Times just put up 17,000 recipes online. Get feasty!
• Headed to New York? The Millions has an entire reading list to get to. Get cracking!
• Gloria Steinem wins Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
• James Baldwin and Malcolm X spar.

Gloria Steinem: longtime peacenik, now official

Montreal art mural, Iris Murdoch loved Titian, Ta-Nehisi Coates & James Baldwin, Historical Montreal walking tours and literary road maps: Cultural Digest, August 3

Iris Murdoch: Titian #fangirl

• Salon explains why all the recent buzz around the work of Ta-Nehisi Coates would have been impossible without the work of his predecessor and literary ancestor, James Baldwin.
• French Mural artist creates a stir with his fascinating Montreal street mural.
• Heritage Montreal announces new walking tours of various historical neihghborhoods of the city including Griffintown, St-Henri, and the Plateau, among others. Tours take place on Saturdays and Sundays from August 1 until late September and last two hours. Register here.
• Iris Murdoch talks about her favorite painting, Titian's The Flaying of Marsyas in this 1990 Paris Review interview.
• Youtube makes available this four-part documentary on the life and death of Caravaggio, hosted by Andrew Graham-Dixon, author of Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane.
• The Guardian reports on Atlas Obscura and their US literary map which maps in space scenes from the work and the lives of many American writers including Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and (one my favorite writers), William Least Heat-Moon and his book Blue Highways.