The future first Anglo-American pope is also a connoisseur of avant-garde art.

Recently finished How to Sharpen Pencils by David Rees. He and some of his work are interesting to consider in light of that NYT op-ed on our dreaded, decadent irony. Get Your War On was all about the impossibility of approaching war with ironic or jokey detachment. Of course, here, he's more outright humorous, but…

Recently finished How to Sharpen Pencils by David Rees. He and some of his work are interesting to consider in light of that NYT op-ed on our dreaded, decadent irony. Get Your War On was all about the impossibility of approaching war with ironic or jokey detachment. Of course, here, he's more outright humorous, but…

Isn't Colby fantastic? Love that guy. Non-ironically.

Isn't Colby fantastic? Love that guy. Non-ironically.

I'm about two-thirds of the way through People Who Eat Darkness, an account of the disappearance of a young British woman working in Tokyo as a hostess. I'm not familiar with the true crime genre, but I quite like this one: the author (a British journalist) gives the sort of psycho/sociological insights into the case…

I'm about two-thirds of the way through People Who Eat Darkness, an account of the disappearance of a young British woman working in Tokyo as a hostess. I'm not familiar with the true crime genre, but I quite like this one: the author (a British journalist) gives the sort of psycho/sociological insights into the case…

And the inestimable: http://www.youtube.com/watc…

And the inestimable: http://www.youtube.com/watc…

Boy, the first picture on the Wiki article "Lobotomy," of the ice picks in question, is all kinds of chilling.

Boy, the first picture on the Wiki article "Lobotomy," of the ice picks in question, is all kinds of chilling.

Stemware made from human body parts has an amplifying effect.

Stemware made from human body parts has an amplifying effect.

Can I get my big delicious glass of wine sprinkled liberally with NUTMEG?

Can I get my big delicious glass of wine sprinkled liberally with NUTMEG?

Ahhh yes.

Ahhh yes.

Yeah, if always draws me in, him playing it well does seem the more likely of the two. I've only seen him in those two things as well, and no one really came out well from that other, so…not the fairest for me to give that one too much weight.

Yeah, if always draws me in, him playing it well does seem the more likely of the two. I've only seen him in those two things as well, and no one really came out well from that other, so…not the fairest for me to give that one too much weight.

Is Cube 2 the one that had the dark, dingy cubes, rather than the gleaming white cubes? Bold stylistic shift.