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Desert Island Disks: Thomas Bodinetz

This weeks Desert Islander, and head editor of The Courtauldian, is Thomas Bodinetz.


Top 3 Albums?

BB King, Live at the Regal, 1965 The greatest blues player at his best. He only played about five different notes yet said more through them than any other musician. Bahamas, Bahamas is Afie, 2014 Simply the best album of 2014.


Paul Simon, Graceland, 1986

Eighties pop meets Sun Records meets Isicathamiya singing. And Chevy Chase is in the video for You Can Call Me Al. What more could you want?


Favorite song? Sidney Bechet’s Si tu vois ma mere. The most timeless of New Orleans jazz.


Top 3 books?

Perspective as Symbolic Form by Erwin Panofsky Yes I'm a nerd but this is still one of the best art historical texts: a Kantian, cultural art historical model.


On the Road by Jack Kerouac Maybe I'm betraying some idealism of youth with this choice. Certainly Sal Paradise's pretense that he isn't as weird as everyone around him chimes with how I feel at Courtauld.


Collected Short Stories by Raymond Carver Prose as poetry: the greatest short story writer.


Top 3 films? A Matter of Life and Death A truly British technicolor romance with a prescient message of comradeship in the face of conflict.


The Breakfast Club The best of the Brat Pack. Young people pissing off their teacher: a must watch for all Courtauld students.


The Empire Strikes Back

I fucking love Star Wars!


Favorite artwork?

Sir Jacob Epstein, Jacob and the Angel (1940-1) Even if you know nothing of the biblical story, the power of this work is clear. The Herculean mass of the figures, the ambiguity of their embrace and the wild, organic veining of the alabaster show Epstein at his best. Even without reference to the sculpture's religious and wartime origins, I cannot help but be affected by its primitive energy.

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