Playlist: Belly's Best Music of 2012, August-October

Ice Choir, "I Want You Now and Always," from the album Afar

Lindstrøm, "Rà-àkõ-st (Todd Terje Extended Edit)"

Matthew Dear, "Her Fantasy," from the album Beams

Four Tet, "Locked," from the the album Pink

Saint Lou Lou, "Maybe You (Good Night Keaton Remix)"

Wild Nothing, "Paradise," from the album Nocturne

How To Dress Well, "Running Back," from the album Total Loss

Teengirl Fantasy, "End," from the album Tracer

(Click the link for the song.)

Mark Fell, "SOA-1," from the album Sentielle Objectif Actualité

Deepchild, "Then We Dissolved," from the album Neukölln Burning

Andy Stott, "Luxury Problems," from the album Luxury Problems

Holy Other, "Held," from the album Held

Valgeir Sigurðsson, "Between Monuments/Guardian at the Door," from the album Architecture of Loss

Sigur Rós, "Varúð," from the album Valtari

Memotone, "With Time Between Us," from the album I Sleep. At Waking

Wednesday Wine Pairing: Joseph Händler Riesling with Ingres' "Death of Leonardo"

After yet another inexcusable absence, BWW&FP returns thanks to the largesse of an enlightened patron; a modern-day Renaissance man, he is a physician by profession, but excels also in the realms of athletics, humor, and the brewing of ultra-carbonated hard cider. From this close friend I received a month ago a shipment containing four bottles of wine intended to inspire my inebriated intellectual inquests. I can only ask that my generous benefactor will excuse the delay in the inception of what will hopefully blossom into a stimulating tetralogy; tardiness that I attribute to my prudent patience in awaiting a congenial confluence of my inveterate exertions with energetic enthusiasm, an essential but evanescent companion to creativity.

The first of the quartet of wines sampled was Joseph Händler Riesling, a 2011 vintage from the Pfalz region of Germany.

Exhibition Review: “Gauguin, Cézanne, Matisse: Visions of Arcadia” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Currently on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is the exhibition “Gauguin, Cézanne, Matisse: Visions of Arcadia.” Also the name of a region in Greece, Arcadia became a designation in art and poetry for a mythical, idyllic, rural paradise in which the sensual pleasures of wine, music, and love are exchanged freely in a lush, natural setting, while society’s ills – such as war and death – are mysterious presences relegated to the margins. Such themes have been a mainstay of Western cultural production since antiquity, when the first-century Roman poet Virgil fleshed out the fabled region and its inhabitants most enduringly in his Eclogues.

Belly’s Wednesday Wine & Food Pairings (and Concert Review!)

Greetings my dozens of faithful readers. I hope you will be enthused to discover that, after a long hiatus, BWW&FP has returned! And this might truly be my favorite one yet (though it has some stiff competition), for a couple of reasons: I was dining with my very good friend, Samantha, and after our meal we took in a wonderfully fun concert. Who knew venturing out of one’s parents’ basement and interacting with people could be so enjoyable?

Playlist: Belly's Best Music of 2012, April-July

A staggering amount of great music has been released in the past four months. I assembled the highlights from numerous albums, as well as some singles and EPs, in order to share some of the pleasure I've been experiencing. There are some excellent videos in here as well, especially the one for Little Boots' "Every Night I Say A Prayer." I'm kidding about that one, but, in all seriousness, readers/listeners would be well-served to see this playlist through to the end. That said, allons-y.

Art Review: Get Your Rats (and Get) Out*

On July 25^th, the artist Laura Ginn staged an exhibition called “Tomorrow We Will Feast Again on What We Catch,” at the Allegra La Viola Gallery on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. While I did not attend this event, I experienced it vicariously via a review in the New York Times. After doing so, I felt compelled to share my own assessment of the concept, execution, and reception of this exhibition.

Belly's Wednesday Wine & Food Pairings: Strictly Platonic Edition

This week, we again omit the “F” in BWW&FP, at least in the literal, material sense. Instead, this week’s wine is paired with sustenance for the soul. Behold.

We have here a 3-liter cask of Almaden Vineyards Heritage White Zinfandel (from California, $6.99 for the equivalent of four 750 milliliter bottles – that’s less than $2 per bottle, people; curiously, a slightly better value than the 5-liter casks) paired with Plato, specifically his Phaedrus. By way of an explanation for this pairing, allow me to articulate my motivations for selecting this particular vintage in the first place. (I swear it was not simply the price.)