The Errant Æsthete

~ The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Unifrance USA host the 13th Rendez-Vous With French Cinema at the Walter Reade Theater and IFC Center, Feb. 29 through March 9. This year’s festival includes 15 premieres. Slide Show

~ Philip Glass Falls in Love With $650,000 Cello, Discovers His Inner Bach “This piece can bring me the recognition that I’m actually part of an older tradition,” Philip Glass said recently. “We’re about to break a new barrier — the barrier of the classical-music world.” The 71-year-old composer was talking about his “Songs and Poems” for solo cello, which has just been released. It may be his most expressive piece. The plaintive, seven-movement work, introspective yet expansive, could pass for a long lost Bach cello suite.

~ Campbell McGrath on Poetry, Walt Whitman and Schaefer Beer. This poet, whose voice sometimes dances between William Carlos Williams and Walt Whitman, goes about enjoying himself. In his “Luxury” section, he offers up “October 7″ in which he celebrates sea sponges that unexpectedly cover the beach. “It’s a notebook about being thankful for the good things because they may not last,” he says.