Escape Into Life Digest No. 42

Daniel Danger, regardless of everything…

October is a good time to remember the heat of summer and prepare for the cold months to come as we harvest, mulch, and prepare forcoming feasts and famines.

Artist’s Watch: Uta Barth . . . Since the early 1990s, Los Angeles–based German born artist Uta Barth has challenged the viewer to develop an awareness of the act of seeing with her slippery and diverse images in life stilled. Her latest series “…and to draw a bright white line with light” draws visual attention to the wavy iterations of living light in a room and on a curtain. As always, Barth’s choices, while apparently effortless and simplicity itself, provide the viewer with a great deal to consider.

Short Story: Frost in the Hague by Karin Van Heerden . . . . In immediate and sharp terms Van Heerden draws a small, claustrobphobic world. Her protagonist slips in and out of contact with the adult world with the fierce and fearful daring of the awakening adolescent, and is in  turns comforted and isolated, as we all have been at times, by Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.

Movie Review: Close Encounters of the Third Kind . . . Take a look back with Luke Grundy at one Stephen Spielburg’s early hits. While not,  perhaps, in the same category of iconic films as some of his later works, Close Encounters, broke hard on the audiences at the time when it first came out, hitting new buttons and fanning fears we didn’t even know we had. As always it is the feeling of wonder and the close encounter with our own inner obsessions and quirks that make’s Spielburg’s take on the “Alien Invasion” genre just a little bit more addicting than most.

Album Review: The Whole Love by Wilco . . . With this eighth studio album and the first to be released under their own label DBpm Wilco retains the devoted following they have developed over 18 years. According to EIL reviewer, Luke Grundy, this album maintains the versitility and unpredictability that keep this band interesting to over time, and from track-to-track they can jump from post-rock to prog-rock, or from punk to pop. From the eleven-minute opening track, “The Art of Almost,” this new offering demonstrates that Wilco has not lost relevence or courage.

Blog by Kathleen Kirk: Poems that Scare You . . . If you need another reason to keep the lights on, don’t miss EIL poetry editor Kathleen Kirk’s spooky little collection of eerie and twisted verses. From inner torments to more munificent hauntings and bell-like bedlam — this little collection provides a good reason to leave October and tiptoe into the long, long nights to come.

Stacy Ericson is an editor, poet, and photographer addicted to imagery both in word and in art.  Her work often reflects her roots in the western states and an abiding interest in other cultures, ancient languages and religions, and other visceral passions. She lives and works in Boise, Idaho. Her poetry, fiction, essays, and photos can be found at the old bouquet , while fine art and portrait work can be seen on her professional website Stacy Ericson Photography.