I do most of my movie watching via Netflix, tossing random titles into my queue as I come across intriguing reviews or recommendations. Since my queue is longish, compared to my viewing rate, by the time a movie shows up in my mailbox, I’ve generally forgotten what it’s about and why I picked it.
Every so [...]
Starting today, George Orwell’s diaries start appearing as a blog, 70 years after they were written (you may recall a similar project some time back blogging the diaries of Samuel Pepys). By way of introduction:
From 9th August 2008, you will be able to gather your own impression of Orwell’s face from reading his most strongly individual [...]
Itamar Moses’ Bach at Leipzig is in repertory at Shakespeare Santa Cruz; I saw the matinee performance on Thursday.
The NYT’s Charles Isherwood was not impressed in 2005.
Sitting through Mr. Moses’ reverent attempt to mimic the brainy irreverence of Tom Stoppard is like being forced to consume glass after glass of flat Champagne, with no hope of giddy [...]
(~5:00 in the second segment)
Nabokov, Trilling and…somebody else discuss Lolita.
Kay Ryan is our new Poet Laureate. Here’s her poem “The Niagara River”, from the eponymous collection.
As though
the river were
a floor, we position
our table and chairs
upon it, eat, and
have conversation.
As it moves along,
we notice—as
calmly as though
dining room paintings
were being replaced—
the changing scenes
along the shore. We
do know, we do
know this is the
Niagara River, but
it is hard [...]
CLAES OLDENBURG:
I go through the same preparations but now I tend to focus on the type of object that seems possible to construct. The Windshield Wiper for Grant Park is a more architectural shape, for example, than the Teddy Bear. This is also true of the Clothespin.
PAUL CARROLL:
As an example of the genesis of one monument, would [...]
I had no idea.
Watch this when you have an hour to burn listening to their other stuff, not missing Wuthering Heights and You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.
Via Harry at Crooked Timber. Thanks.