December 29, 2022 : Wondercab Mini (32A)

ANNOUNCING: BOOK TOUR & SPECIAL EXHIBIT

Ren will be undertaking a West Coast Book Tour next month on behalf of his new Trove-of-Zohars book (the locus of all those Footnotes From a Book You Don’t Have to Have Read that Wondercabineteers have been regularly offered across earlier issues since the beginning of this Substack—Well, Now at least You Can).  See details below and please pass them on!

Lawrence Weschler’s January 2023 West Coast Book Tour

More on the book here.

Sunday January 8   SEATTLE   Elliott Bay Book Store   6-8 pm
1521 10th Avenue
https://www.elliottbaybook.com/events/20230108

Thursday January 12 SAN FRANCISCO   Mechanics’ Institute   6 pm
57 Post Street
     {alongside Zohar photo archivist Stephen Berkman}
https://www.milibrary.org/events/trove-zohars-onsite-mechanics-institute-jan-12-2023

Saturday January 14 CULVER CITY (LA)   Arcana Books     4-6 pm
8675 Washington Blvd.
     {alongside Zohar photo archivist Stephen Berkman}
https://www.arcanabooks.com/blog/?cat=events

Tuesday January 17 WESTWOOD (LA)  The Hammer Museum     7:30 pm
10899 Wilshire Blvd.
In conversation with Google AI maven Blaise Agüera y Arcas

{For a flavor of what you will have in store, see as well our earlier three-part conversations in Issues 17,  18, & 19 of this Wondercabinet.}

https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2023/blaise-aguera-y-arcas-lawrence-weschler

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MEANWHILE, FOR THOSE OF YOU LIVING IN NEW YORK

On view: A Major new vintage-postcard climate-change mural by David Opdyke

Those of you who were already following Ren’s work before the advent of this Substack may recall his release, back in 2021, of a collaborative book with New York artist David Opdyke, around the latter’s extraordinary epic vintage-postcard mural on the future of a country in ecological peril, This Land.

Their collaboration was variously praised by the likes of Bill McKibben ("This is among the most remarkable art projects that the climate era has produced—an epic work that bears endless seeing, and endless thinking.") and Naomi Klein ("David Opdyke’s mural, paired with Lawrence Weschler’s lively commentary, is a masterclass in looking closely at the climate crisis—in all its absurdity and horror, its complexities and transformative potential. A stunning work.").  You can sample passages of Ren’s text here, here, and here, and see a Covid-time zoom conversation between Ren and David (joined by Maya Wiley who provided the book’s afterword) here.

BUT ANYWAY, THE POINT IS that David Opdyke is back with a whole new epic vintage-postcard mural, every bit as, if not more vertiginously engaging than, the last one, entitled Someday, All This, and you can zoom-sample it at his website, (click through from “home” to “works” to “postcard mural” to the one on the left) or better yet, go see it in person at Soho’s extended pop-up Climate Museum, at 120 Wooster just down from Prince, now through March 31.

So, do yourselves a favor and go see it up close and in person! As Eric Fishl said of the last one, “David Opdyke’s mural is mind-blowing in the scale of its sustained and obsessive concentration. It is, in fact, so perfectly realized and beautifully executed that, while the subject Opdyke confronts might necessarily bring one down, somehow you emerge from engaging his artwork with an elevated feeling."