about reading, writing, books, and all things bookish.
2019–2020
The Morgan Museum and Library at 36th and Madison, NYC. Nearly my favorite place in the world.
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Kai Ryssdal is the new Studs Terkel (1912-2008).
America has 164,000,000 workers according to the BLS (Bureau of Labor and Statistics). Kai and his team at marketplace have organized those 164,000,000 folks into ten categories, and Kai is interviewing one person from each category in the coming weeks.
It. Is. Fabulous.
It’s what Studs did when Pantheon published his book in 1974, Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do.
Kai’s first interview was yesterday. A guy from the Bronx working as a CPA and going to law school in the evenings.
To tal ly great.
I wonder if Kai knows about Working. I sure hope so.
The best thing about this labor project is that the voices of real people come through loud and clear with neither duplicity nor insincerity anywhere in sight.
The second best thing about this labor project is that it uses sophisticated statistical techniques in the service of a straightforward, illuminating, and worthwhile project.
Not easy.
Well done.
Till next time.
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Monday, February 17, 2020
Finished A Bookshop in Berlin by Françoise Frenkel. The book was originally published as No Place to Lay One’s Head. This autobiography is stunning.
The impact of WWII on refugees, prisoners, innocents, and ordinary people is fully documented by Françoise. Her life, her stamina, and her testimony are a compelling warning against dictatorships and the undeniable value of the rule of law in a democracy.
The bookshop in Berlin stocked French books. Françoise lost her husband, her family, her health, her independence, her possessions, her freedom, and her peace of mind. And yet, she wrote it all down. And now we have this book.
The book is a good companion to Madame Fourcade’s Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France’s Largest Spy Network Against Hitler by Lynne Olson.
Another companion book is Mistress of the Ritz: A Novel by Melanie Benjamin. People doing what must be done to survive as well as the many ways in which the French underground rose to the occasion…as best they could…and even more.
And finally, a work of monumental importance that took everything from the author to write is Anniversaries: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl by Uwe Johnson. Gesine was a character but also an amalgamation of thousands and millions of people who were transformed by war, survival, risk, and the simple luck of being in the right place at the right time. Surviving harsh whims is a tough way to live.
Till next time.
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Saturday, February 15, 2020
Two extraordinary booktalks broadcast live on BookTV from the Savannah Book Festival.
There were several, but these two stood out in a big way.
Exposure
by Robert Bilott
This book exposes the 70 year environmental, chemical, and legal battle to get the chemical PFOA made by Dupont under control. It’s a “forever chemical” used in the process of making Teflon. This attorney took on the case and lets the public know that PFOA is in every person on the planet. The house was packed. One questioner wanted to know if the corner-office folks at Dupont had gone to jail.
The Last Negroes at Harvard: The Class of 1963 and the 18 Young Men Who Changed Harvard Forever
by Kent Garrett
What a story. Kent Garrett is a thinker, a scholar, and a bright young man…then and now. I may even watch his whole presentation again.
Till next time.
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Thursday, February 13, 2020
I should have trusted the NYT movie review that thumbed down Harley Quinn, but Margot Robbie did such a great job in Mary Queen of Scots as well as in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, that I thought, “This is gonna be great.”
It wasn’t. I left after the 17th kick-boxing, fisticuff scene.
But then to save the day there’s John Gielgud and Irene Worth reading Thomas Stearns Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Just arrived in the mail. On CD.
Sir Gielgud…one of the hardest working and most accomplished actors in the theatre.
And
Dame Worth…I-REE-ne, talent beyond talent.
Sir…1904-2000
Dame…1916-2002
Till next time.
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Friday, February 7, 2020
The day started with thinking about two extraordinary editors who changed the world.
Robert Silvers (1929-2017)
and
Sonny Mehta (1942-2019)
And then somehow, my mind skipped to Edward Gorey (1925-2000). I’ve been wanting to purchase a first-edition 1972 hardcover version of Amphigorey for some time now. And if I had an extra $500 like Warren Buffet, I’d buy it. And yes, paperbacks are available for $12. But…no. Just no.
And if I had an extra $1200.00, I’d buy a limited edition, signed book (1 of 50) in a slip cover.
Alas.
Then too, today’s book journey, reveals that Gorey did the illustrations for a version of T. S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Also, Gorey illustrated a version of H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds. Not only that, but again Gorey illustrated a version of a work by another author…Charles Dickens’s Bleak House.
In the midst of all that mindful rambling, I stumbled onto two books resting on my very own dusty shelves. Both were illustrated by Gorey.
You read to me, I’ll read to you by John Ciardi
He Was There From the Day We Moved In by Rhoda Levin
Finally, John Gielgud and Irene Worth recorded Eliot’s Cats (on vinyl!!!).
The biggest problem in the field of books and library science is that Amazon, kindle, ebooks, and wikipedia make no academic effort to identify first editions, original copyright, rare books, vintage books, or even accurate information about the editor, publisher, and legitimate criticism.
Never. The. Less.
The whole day, it’s all been…
A good day’s work of reading, writing, books, and all things bookish.
Till next time.
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Monday, February 3, 2020
I listened to Michael Silverblatt’s recent interview with Chris Ware about Chris’s new book Rusty Brown, and I knew within the first three minutes that I needed the book.
So.
Amazon.
Click.
Voila.
Done.
Arrived TODAY.
It’s gonna be great. The cover alone with the removable map makes the whole thing a true treasure. Michael was extra complimentary of Chris during the interview…almost too revealing. But then that’s what books do.
More.
I finished The Life and Loves of E. Nesbit by Eleanor Fitzsimons. This biography is like reading a dissertation but much, much better. The endnotes and index are extraordinary and are just like Edith’s life, which was wildly extravagant, bohemian, staid, solid, unpredictable, sturdy, fragile, and all the above.
Edith lived a rich literary and artistic life and deserves all the best footnotes, endnotes, parentheticals, and indices that are available. The book is really well-written and took years, I’m sure, to gather and interpret all the details, notes, journals, diaries, events, timelines, and even Edith’s original will located in the London Probate Department and dated June 12, 1924.
What a life. What a book.
Edith’s biography led me to one of Edith’s most well-known children’s books: The Story of the Treasure Seekers, which is a book written through the eyes of Oswald Bastable, the kind of kid you’d like to be as well as the kind of kid you’d like to know.
All a remarkable start to a brand new week.
Till next time.
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Sunday, February 2, 2020
Two hours today, live interview, Professor Deirdre McCloskey on BookTV with the irreplaceable interviewer, Peter Slen.
The discussion revolved around her 24 books written on the subject of economics.
She cited Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Tocqueville as leaders of liberal economics.
She favors less government and more freedom and tort law. Example: If a person opens a bakery, she should be allowed to do so without much government approval. If the bakery winds up making people sick, there will be the freedom of the customers to advertise that the bakery is unclean. The bakery will thus probably go out of business. Then the sickened customers can pursue tort law (civil action through the courts to claim damages).
She says one million government rules and regs are too many.
She discussed Marx, Lenin, Steinbeck, China, Russia, Brazil, socialism, capitalism, and the third estate, which is the bourgeoisie. Historically, there were two classes: the nobility and the religious leaders. All other people were subjected to those two levels of power. THEN, the merchants, manufacturers, and guildsmen rose up and became the third estate. The middle class…the bourgeoisie.
Her answer to inequity, to unfair banking practices, to medicare for all, to helping the poor is to…
Mostly, she talked about breaking up monopolies, ensuring freedom to pursue innovation, and employing religious principles for helping those in need. She is opposed to crony capitalism and monopolies which are a big part of big government.
She quoted Marx’s famous statement, “From each according to his ability to each according to his need.”
It was two hours well spent. There were 20 callers with insightful, respectful questions…19 men…1 woman.
Harvard, University of Chicago, University of Illinois, England, Netherlands, Iowa, basically everywhere.
She has invested 60 years of learning, studying, and teaching about the theoretical constructs of economics. Born 1942, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, January 29, 2020
A thorough, positive, and very-well-written book review was printed in the January 12, 2020 Book Review.
Tightrope by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn was reviewed by Sarah Smarsh. The book outlines government policies that will need to be rewritten, recreated, reconsidered, revamped, reprioritized, recalibrated, rewritten, and/or simply transformed if the working poor in America are to have access to better lives. The book emphasizes helping people through robust tax-based programs that support early childhood education, high school graduation, universal health coverage, family planning, housing, jobs, government-issued savings bonds, and monthly allowances for all children.
I’m in.
And mostly, it’s a pleasure to read well-researched books based on both journalistic and qualitative research techniques that arrive at a synthesis and conclusion that are understandable, readable, and applicable.
Well done, youse.
Back to E. Nesbit…because…well…many books await.
And then there are always old episodes of Rumpole who quotes Wordsworth multiple times per episode. Quite intriguing and always requiring subtitles to actually follow it all.
Barristers, poets, villains, judges, solicitors, QCs, heads of chambers, old darlings, and She Who Must Be Obeyed. A bygone era that perhaps never existed at all…
Till next time.
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Thursday, January 23, 2020
I left out Edith Wharton (1862-1937) when I was thinking about books connected to E. Nesbit. I don’t think they’re exACTly connected…except in my mind…somehow. Surely it’s more than the fact that they share the first name of …Edith.
Never. The. Less.
The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge.
Haven’t read it in quite a while. Maybe I’ll read it again.
Back to the E. Nesbit biography. It captures the life and times of many people in the mid 1800s including George Bernard Shaw. Thus, the biography of Shaw that has now been added to my to-be-read list is Bernard Shaw by Michael Holroyd. Gonna be great.
(PS Just read that GBS didn't like the name George. More to that story, I'm sure.)
Till next time.
1850
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
Edith Nesbit
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Edna Millay
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Beatrix Potter
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Edith Wharton
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
J. K. Rowling
o
o
Five Famous Writers
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Monday, January 20, 2020
Of all the books, films, events, and speeches (except of course, The Speech), this book never fails to move me the most.
Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport and Bryan Collier.
What a treasure. The book. The man. The Cause.
Till next time.
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Sunday, January 19, 2020
Started reading a new book. The Life and Loves of E. Nesbit by Eleanor Fitzsimons.
And I was immediately put in mind of Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford (who also wrote Zelda).
But then there was also Beatrix Potter and her journal.
These mindful connections all started with a comment made by J. K. Rowling who said that Edith Nesbit was an influence on her writing.
Against all odds and without power, prestige, norms, mores, finances, or expectations, these four writers persisted…must be talent.
Edith Nesbit 1858-1924
Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892-1950
Beatrix Potter 1866-1943
J. K. Rowling 1965
I have GOT to learn to make better charts.
Till next time.
1850
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
Edith Nesbit
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Edna Millay
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Beatrix Potter
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
J. K. Rowling
o
o
Four Famous Writers
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Saturday, January 18, 2020
Just finished Ta-Nehisi Coates’s The Water Dancer. Hiram, Hattie (yes, That Hattie), Thena, Kessiah, Sophia, Corrine, Mars, Raymond, Otha, Lydia, and little Caroline as well as many others. It’s a book of history, testimony, bleakness, tenacity, and magical realism. Virginia. Pennsylvania. Delaware. Alabama. Mississippi.
The book captures the horrors, abuses, and economics of life on a southern plantation as well as the actions of abolitionists in the Underground who worked to dismantle a system based on tobacco and enslaved people...a system created so that a privileged few could “live as gods.” Ta-Nehisi invented and used the categories of Tasked and Quality to describe the people.
He got it all exactly right.
Last word of the book?
Underground. So brilliant.
And then, out of the blue on BookTV today:
C-SPAN2 featured a tour of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill where Professor Claude Clegg talked about his book The Price of Liberty: African Americans and the Making of Liberia. He was scholarly, accessible, clear, knowledgeable, and a documentarian of a necessary story.
In short, the quality of what’s available for readers is abundant.
Not overwhelming. And not underground.
All there in plain sight. Like air.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Finished Lives Other Than My Own by Emmanuel Carrère. It’s about the tsunami in Sri Lanka in 2004 and also about the death of a woman who left family behind.
All the top-tier reviews praised the book as insightful and suspenseful.
Also, just finished Emil and the Detectives from 1937 written by Erich Kästner (1899-1974). The book, of course, had that Berlin feel after the war when people struggled but when they also took care of their families and children. And even in the midst of struggle, Emil had an adventure and always did the right thing. I’m on board to read the sequel. Should be great.
And now? It’s on to Leo Damrosch's The Club, which is about James Boswell and Samuel Johnson. All the time I’m reading this, I’m thinking about Simon Winchester’s The Professor and the Madman…probably not a good sign for The Club. Even though Boswell wrote the definitive biography on Samuel Johnson, Boswell’s private-life behavior as outlined in The Club was unacceptably disgraceful and distracting.
So. I think I will…The Professor and the Madman. Up next.
Right after Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Charles Finch wrote an essay about reading habits of the pre and post digital revolution of 2010ish.
He explained that if you were reading a book before 2010ish, it was probably in paper form. Since then, it’s all about screens.
However.
He cites books by Karl Ove Knausgaard and Elena Ferrante as evidence that thick, dense, long, and complex books still have the power they’ve always had.
I agree. Happily.
Maybe it’s a cup of hot coffee that will sustain the reading of real books on real paper since it’s too difficult to handle hot coffee and a screen simultaneously whereas hot coffee and paper seem to coexist nicely.
Somewhat. Or rather, at least they do for moi.
Till next time.
Photoshopped steam...not bad, eh?
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
Mrs. Osmond. She’s not Bernadette.
Or is she. Oh, my. Discouraging.
Flitting about, losing a case of money, sneaking out of the house, inviting your servant to dinner, trusting all the wrong people, not knowing one’s own mind. Was that the situation for women in…I don’t even know the exact timeframe, but there were horse-drawn carriages for conveyance.
At any rate, I skimmed to the end, and found Mrs. Osmond in yet another quandary about what to do.
Finita.
And now moving on to the Booker winner aka John Banville’s The Sea…right after The Club by Leo Damrosch who wrote a book about enlightened friends, curious thinkers, and robust hopefuls…mainly Samuel Johnson and James Boswell with a cast of their friends.
Till next time.
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Monday, January 6, 2020
You just have to love a financial news analyst who can weave Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs into a discussion of housing and Harrison Ford’s quotes from Raiders of the Lost Ark, “Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes,” into a news cast while all the while explaining what negative interest rates are all about.
(It evidently involves the Federal Funds Rate, which is the rate that banks charge other banks for overnight loans. If the FFR is negative, then banks would have to pay other banks to store their money. The banks would rather lend out the money to businesses and people, which will ostensibly stimulate the economy.) This is complicated.
At any rate.
The financial analyst who knows all about Maslow, snakes, and negative interest rates?
Why, it’s Kai Ryssdal of course.
Till next time.
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Sunday, January 5, 2020
It’s disturbing. For years and decades, I read here, there, and yon and was pretty much caught up.
But the minute I started to make organized conscious decisions about what I SHOULD be reading, my system fell apart.
So, I’m returning to my haphazard, come-what-may, laissez-faire approach to keeping up.
And oddly enough, I feel pretty pretty good about it all.
Less pressure. Yay.
Till next time.
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Saturday, January 4, 2019 oops 2020
I’m reading Mrs. Osmond by John Banville. I’m only a third or so into the book, but it reminds me of Portrait of a Lady by Henry James or the bereaved lady in Ian McKellan’s Mr. Holmes or Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy or any number of other pre-suffragettes but certainly not RBG or AOC or EW or HRC or Greta Thunberg.
Nevertheless, the story is compelling.
One more thought. The main reason to watch at the gym for the third time Nurse Jackie is to appreciate Merritt Wever…who is as superb an actor as does exist.
Go, Merritt.
Till next time.
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Thursday, January 2, 2020
John Banville wrote a eulogy in The Times for Sonny Mehta (of Knopf and of India and of Cambridge) who died this past Monday.
The fact that readers have access to profound books is due in large part to Sonny and his influence over writers, editors, and publishers. And John’s words of memory made it crystal clear that Sonny was beyond extraordinary.
And tangentially, on my shelves is a small collection of Indian and Irish writers who have created entire worlds of stories and wisdom…John, Sonny, Arundhati, Salman, Jhumpa, Nuala, Colm, Oscar, and Samuel.
There’s just nothing more important than the publishing of a profoundly good book (unless it’s the acknowledgement that such profoundly good books and their creators exist and strive and create and push forward).
Till next time.
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
Finished Quichotte by Salman Rushdie. The ending has a nice fantasy twist that complemented the whole Don Quixote/Sanchos reference. To combine fentanyl, motels, quests, American TV, a road trip, a classic piece of literature, Middle Eastern references, and the field of phenomenology is astonishing. It was pretty nice that the main character, Mr. Ismail Smile, maybe ended up okay even though all around him, reality was unsettling itself. Michael Silverblatt interviewed Salman in a two-part interview. Totally Michael.
Finished To the Land of Long Lost Friends of The New No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Novel by Alexander McCall Smith. This was my first of his detective books. He captured the ins and outs of human relationships perfectly. Mma Precious Ramotswe shows wisdom, restraint, smarts, tenacity, and energy as she maneuvers her white van, her traditional size, her protégés, and her husband, Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni through the mysteries of life in Botswana, where cattle are currency and rain is a major player in every waking night and day.
Plus, Sir Alexander signed my iPad and my book.
Not a bad beginning (even if technically the new decade begins in 2021, but why be pedantic?).
Till next time.
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Monday, December 30, 2019
Thomas Chatterton Williams was interviewed on BookTV last night and gave a thorough look at his new book. His father read Plato’s Dialogues when he was a boy growing up in Texas. Seems salient to know that.
The interview was as perfect as interviews can be.
Till next time.
Sunday, December 29, 2019
How on earth is it possible to get this far behind? Oh yeah, I remember. Christmas.
Fortunately, there’s plenty of milky coffee with Rosemary on the Bose.
Plus, it’s Sunday…a nice day to get busy.
Till next time.
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Saturday, December 28, 2019
Robert Gottlieb is the only reviewer for whom I will immediately flip to page 18 when he’s reviewed a book on the front page of the Book Review. His writings and reviews are balanced, thorough, and trustworthy.
Robert reviewed Emmanuel Carrère’s new book of essays titled,
97,196 Words: Essays
Which of course is up next.
Till next time.
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Friday, December 27, 2019
2019
Almost done.
2020
Almost upon us.
Two phrases of which to keep track.
virtue signaling
confirmation bias
Till next time.
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Saturday, December 14, 2019
Even though I’d like to see JoJo Rabbit at the theater for the fourth time, I’ll just preorder it for now.
Three is good. Four is lapidary.
So. Instead.
I just heard on BookTV an author recommend two books:
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Absolom, Absolom by William Faulkner
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
How is it that I haven’t read these?
And. Sadly.
I don’t think I’ve ever read A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens.
How is that even possible?
Ah well. One step at a time. I'm well into finishing Quichotte before moving on to Montaigne.
A north wind, a warm fire, lots to read.
Sounds good.
Till next time.
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Friday, December 13, 2019
Just started, finally, Quichotte by Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie after a couple of starts and stops. But by page 3, you know…you just absolutely know you’re gonna like Mr. Ismail Smile.
A lot. Undoubtedly.
Till next time.
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Thursday, December 12, 2019
Reading international novels written by reliable narrators is the best way to get a worldview that is mostly accurate. Lately on my desk, it’s been
Elena Ferrante
Uwe Johnson
Bernardine Evaristo
1. My Brilliant Friend…Neapolitan Novels
2. Anniversaries: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl
3. Girl, Woman, Other
respectively.
Girl, Woman, Other won the Booker Prize. And it wasn’t until I was well into the book that I saw why. The book is multi-generational, multi-cultural, complex, current, historical, and relatable. How. Ev. Er. The book would definitely benefit from an Excel spreadsheet. There were many characters who walked in and out of others’ lives without knowing each other's pasts or connections. plus, there was no punctuation at the end of sentences
there were only new sentences
for one
to keep track of
For this book to have been published, for it to have won the Booker, for it to be readily available means something. Trending, perhaps?
At one point, it felt like I was reading 15 short stories that weren’t related, which of course means that everything is ultimately related whether or not it’s ever acknowleged or apparent.
I didn’t include The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq in my list of worldview novels because it’s less about sociology than it is about the psychology of a man, his art, and life on the road. Still, I’ve read it twice and will reread it again.
Finding books that explore universal perspectives of life and humanity is not that easy. But. Always looking.
Next up, I think, it will be The History of Philosophy by A.C. Grayling and A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell.
Actually, before those? By the Book. Just arrived. Yea.
And before that even? Beverly, Right There by the incomparable Kate DiCamillo. (Actually, I just finished this. Beverly is a runaway who runs into other castaways who all ban together for fish, turkey, support, bingo, equity, and survival in the mean streets of daily life.)
Quite a lot to consider.
Till next time.
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Sunday, December 8, 2019
I’ve been waiting. It arrived.
My annual Christmas card from Jimmy and Rosalynn.
Now the season can begin.
Peace Health Hope
Just in time.
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Friday, December 6, 2019
"Kitchen Criticism" according to Clive James:
QUOTE
“It was the term that the Elizabethans once used for the analysis of poetic technique: when to invert the foot, how to get a spondee by dropping a trochee into an iamb’s slot.”
END QUOTE
One of these days, I’ll figure out what this means…if anything. ALSO Reviewing a memoir by Leonid Brezhnev, he declared:
QUOTE
“Here is a book so dull that a whirling dervish could read himself to sleep with it. If you were to recite even a single page in the open air, birds would fall out of the sky and dogs drop dead.”
END QUOTE
On the other hand, John Updike gave six very specific pieces of advice for reviewing a book:
JOHN UPDIKE
The Atlantic May 2, 2012
Bold print is commentary by Maria Popova.
All the rest is all Updike.
QUOTE
"As Sir Ken Robinson thoughtfully observed, we live in a kind of "opinion culture" where not having an opinion is a cultural abomination. At the same time, the barrier of entry for making one's opinions public is lower than ever. The tragedy of our time might well be that so many choose to set those opinions apart by making them as contrarian and abrasive as possible. But what E. B. White once wisely pointed to as the role and social responsibility of the writer—"to lift people up, not lower them down"—I believe to be true of the role and social responsibility of the critic as well, for thoughtful criticism is itself an art and a creative act.
We need to relearn the skills of making criticism constructive rather than destructive, and we need look no further than the introduction to John Updike's 1977 anthology of prose, Picked-Up Pieces, where the beloved author and critic codifies the ethics and poetics of criticism by offering the following six rules to reviewing graciously and fairly. Though they were written with literature in mind, at their heart is an ethos that applies to critique and criticism in any discipline.
My rules, drawn up inwardly when l embarked on this craft, and shaped intaglio- fashion by youthful traumas at the receiving end of critical opinion, were and are:
1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.
2. Give him enough direct quotation—at least one extended passage—of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.
3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.
4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending. (How astounded and indignant was I, when innocent, to find reviewers blabbing, and with the sublime inaccuracy of drunken lords reporting on a peasants' revolt, all the turns of my suspenseful and surpriseful narrative! Most ironically, the only readers who approach a book as the author intends, unpolluted by pre-knowledge of the plot, are the detested reviewers themselves. And then, years later, the blessed fool who picks the volume at random from a library shelf.)
5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's ouevre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?
To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.
6. Do not accept for review a book you are predisposed to dislike, or committed by friendship to like. Do not imagine yourself a caretaker of any tradition, an enforcer of any party standards, a warrior in an idealogical battle, a corrections officer of any kind. Never, never (John Aldridge, Norman Podhoretz) try to put the author 'in his place,' making him a pawn in a contest with other reviewers. Review the book, not the reputation. Submit to whatever spell, weak or strong, is being cast. Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end."
END QUOTE.
Till next time.
Friday, November 29, 2019
Two nice things:
1. The fragrance lady at Macy’s gave me a free sample of Beautiful Belle by Estée Lauder. It was a MUCH better experience than that scene with Jennifer Anniston in Friends with Money. I love Macy’s.
2. I successfully updated my ten-year-old mac from ancient to not-so-ancient. Only three hours and fraught with angst and ennui. But in the end…success!
One annoying thing:
1. I still miss my nice sweater that was lost with my luggage by United Airlines. I keep hoping...but it’s been too long.
One dilemma thing:
1. I hate to not finish a book…it’s a dilemma. Maybe I’ll come back to it.
The Girl Who Lived Twice by David Lagercrantz.
Instead?
The Grammarians by Cathleen Schine
I did finish 10 minutes 38 seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak…it’s about the 10 minutes and 38 seconds that the brain takes to observe, think, reflect, notice, remember, and take stock right before it ends. Tequila Leila gave life her best shot.
Eight fun things:
A playlist of eight songs and singers that shines.
One anticipatory thing:
The weekend.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Penelope Lively in her book
Dancing Fish and Ammonites: A Memoir
From a section of the book on Reading and Writing:
“What we have read makes us what we are–quite as much as what we have experienced and where we have been and who we have known. To read is to experience. I can measure out my life in books. They stand along the way like signposts: the moments of absorption and empathy and direction and enlightenment and sheer pleasure. Back in the mists of very early reading there is Beatrix Potter, who does not just tell an enthralling story but challenges the ear. Her cadences, her linguistic flights that I repeated to myself over and over: “The dignity and repose of the tea party,” “too much lettuce is soporific,” “roasted grasshopper with ladybird sauce,” “The dinner was of eight courses, not much of anything, but truly elegant.””
Till next time.
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Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Penelope Lively in her book
Dancing Fish and Ammonites: A Memoir
From a section of the book on Reading and Writing:
“The stimulus of old-age reading is the realization that taste and response do not atrophy: you are always finding yourself enthusiastic about something you had not expected to like, warming to some writer hitherto right off the radar. But, that said, there is by now that medicine chest of works to which you return time and again. And, if I had to whittle that down from a chest to a slim stash–the desert island books–there are three titles that I would pick, because, for me, they are perhaps the ones that have most elegantly demonstrated what the novel can do, when the form is pushed to its limits. And these are: Henry James’s What Maisie Knew, William Golding’s The Inheritors, Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier.”
Till next time.
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Monday, November 25, 2019
Penelope Lively in her book
Dancing Fish and Ammonites: A Memoir
From a section of the book on Reading and Writing:
“Alberto Manguel, in his lovely book The Library at Night, says: ‘Every library is autobiographical . . . our books will bear witness for or against us, our books reflect who we are and what we have been . . . What makes a library a reflection of its owner is not merely the choice of titles themselves, but the mesh of associations implied in the choice.’”
Till next time.
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Sunday, November 24, 2019
The Miami Book Fair today. Live TV. Two days. Wonderful.
A bit of a summary on climate change.
The earth has heated up 1.1 degrees Celsius. At 2 degrees Celsius, the sea levels rise 250 feet.
The antidote?
Or at least one of them?
Jonathan Safran Foer, author of We Are the Weather.
References:
350.org
cleoinstitute.org
@WATWbook
earthethicsinstitute.org
All the things we can do as individuals are not enough. Systemic change is needed. But how? Unclear.
However, the lack of knowing how to solve the problem doesn’t preclude trying.
Measure progress not from perfect but from doing nothing.
BookTV…best thing on the air.
Till next time.
Saturday, November 23, 2019
You grind the beans. You crank up the coffee maker. You wait a bit.
And voila.
A milky coffee. Perfect.
However.
I forgot to buy the Vienna Ladyfingers.
Oh well.
And finally, a literary reference…milky coffee was referenced in Eddie Izzard’s autobiography as well as by Fin in fin and lady by Cathleen Schine.
Finally, really, finally. The Miama Book Fair was broadcast live on BookTV all day today. That was ALL day today.
Splendid.
Till next time.
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Friday, November 22, 2019
Whenever I’m at my desk having a light lunch of tea and toast, I think of the scene in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir when Mrs. Muir walks into the property manager’s office to find him at his desk peeling a boiled egg with sweet anticipatory satisfaction…napkin at the ready.
A Proustian moment, no doubt.
Till next time.
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Thursday, November 21, 2019
And wow. JoJo Rabbit was just as good the second time around. The house was packed.
Sam Rockwell. Scarlett Johansson. Stephen Merchant. Rebel Wilson.
Standing alone to carry the film?
Roman Griffin Davis.
And the very brave Taika Waititi.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, November 20, 2019
So. Olive’s back.
I’m half way through this book, and I think I miss the old Olive…the one that was cranky all the time. She’s mellowing too quickly.
The time for her to be mellow was when she was raising her son. She was mean and unempathetic (if that’s a word…yes, let’s say it is) toward Christopher and now she regrets it. Too late. Bah.
The other thought is that Frances McDormand is not particularly tall, and she played Olive in the film.
In this book 2, there’s a repeated reference to how tall Olive is. How this discrepancy can be reconciled is beyond my imagination.
So, here’s to the last half. And then moving on to the rest of the books on my nightstand where Ta-Nehisi Coates is bubbling to the top very soon.
Till next time.
I just learned the Gaussian Blur in PS...hence the pink.
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
I heard them speak.
I shook their hands.
I have their books.
Signed.
Before my very eyes.
I also have the Stendhal Syndrome…
Obviously.
Even if there isn’t such a thing, I still probably have it.
Lucky me.
Bertie Pollack. 44 Scotland Street.
Irene and Stuart - his parents.
Big Lou.
Pat.
Bruce.
Antonia.
Domenica.
Angus.
Mathew.
Elspeth.
Rognvald, Tobermory and Fergus.
Not soon forgotten.
Till next time.
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A Scot from Scotland.
A Brit born in Inda.
Sunday, November 17, 2019
Finished fin and lady by Cathleen Schine. I thought after reading her By the Book interview in the NYT that her books would have more philosophical flavor to them. But of course, we need not only philosophy but simple stories about wealthy folks flying around the world having adventures, swims, trips, meals, fine wines, etc. etc. etc.
Cathleen did mention in her interview the brilliance of Cynthia Ozick and her book The Puttermesser Papers, which I’m going to read.
Cathleen says, “Ozick is not, to crib from Walt Whitman, ‘contain’d between her hat and her boots.’ She is magnificent.”
What a fine, fine thing to say about a fellow writer.
Generous beyond measure.
Can’t wait.
And lastly, fin delightfully reminded me that Homer (Ilyad and Odyssey) was not Hungarian.
Till next time.
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Saturday, November 16, 2019
JoJo Rabbit. The anti-hate movie. Quite worth a second viewing.
Maybe even as soon as tomorrow.
Till next time.
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Thursday, November 14, 2019
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and says...
"Lost causes are the only causes worth fighting for."
James Stewart 1908-1997
Frank Capra 1897-1991
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 1939
It's a Wonderful Life 1946
And then arrives...
Back to Life. Showtime.
Daisy Haggard actor and writer.
One character said, “By 2050, the weight of all the plastic bottles in the seas will be greater than the weight of all the fish in the seas.”
If that’s true…I’d like to see trolling vessels that would be engaged by the UN for the purpose of trolling the surface of the world’s bodies of water, collecting all the plastic bottles, loading them into a disposable rocket ship, blasting the rocket into the sun, and voila. Done. I’m betting Elon could make this happen in a heartbeat.
But back to Back to Life. It’s a good series. Short. Six episodes. Solid plot. Great character actors. Doing their job.
Till next time.
Getty Images.
Photo by Vicky Grout for NYT.
Monday, November 11, 2019
Grandchildren of Irma Rombauer have updated her Joy of Cooking cookbook.
On marketplace.org, they were asked which of the recipes was their favorite, and they said…
Olive Oil Cake.
Seems not quite right to think about making a cake with olive oil.
In the meantime, a nice photo of cookbooks can never be wrong.
Till next time.
From marketplace.org.
Saturday, November 9, 2019
Really.
Is there any reason to eat out?
Only one.
What, you ask?
The washing up.
Till next time.
NYT, Julia, Maya, Simon, Judith, Farm Journal.
Thursday, November 7, 2019
Uwe Johnson
Anniversaries: From A Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl
This novel took 15 years to write and exceeds 1700 pages.
15 years to write.
15 years to write about one year.
Fifteen years to write. Three months to read.
It covers
WWII
Vietnam
Upper West Side
It’s all there.
Including…
The artist Ernst Barlach and his sculptures, “The Frieze of Listeners.”
Uwe references The Frieze. And I was compelled to find out more. It wasn’t hard. Comparatively.
Ernst Barlach’s life as a German citizen was difficult since he was opposed to fascist policies and created sculptures to reflect those beliefs. And then of course there’s a book about Ernst Barlach and his life as an artist.
The title?
An Artist Against the Third Reich: Ernst Barlach, 1933-1938.
The book is written by the eminent historian Peter Paret (born April 13, 1924) and is published by Cambridge University Press and can be partially read on Google books.
On page 93, the book documents very thoroughly what it took for the sculptures to be created and the ultimate sacrifice that was made for this act of resistance to become visible.
Even if not many people read Anniversaries or find The Frieze of Listeners or find Paret’s biography of Ernst Barlach or note that the biography was published by Cambridge University Press or find a sample of the book on books.google or take the time to just appreciate the grandness of it all, the huge great grandness of it all, it’s still one of those moments…one of those very grand moments...moving and profound.
It’s all almost too much. Too much struggle, too much goodness, too much power, too much complication.
Thankfully, there are resources, committed people, talented writers, persistent activists, scholars, printers, publishers, booksellers, the academy, and time.
It takes time to find it all and appreciate what it all means.
It’s all very humbling. And empowering. And lovely.
And if I ever had to give up all my worldly goods, the NYTimes online and in print would be the last and final thing on my list. I can’t live without it.
This most recent intellectual journey started with a NYTBR written by Parul Sehgal and published December 18, 2018.
And none of this. None of this. None of this would have happened without the translator who took Uwe Johnson’s witness from German to English…Damion Searls.
Uwe Johnson NYRB
Damion Searls Translator
Ernst Barlach The Frieze of Listeners
Peter Paret Cambridge University Press
Parul Sehgal NYTBR
It’s a lot.
Till next time.
The Two-Volume Set from NYRB.
Uwe Johnson, 1934-1984, photo by Michael Bengel.
Ernst Barlach, 1870-1938.
The Frieze of Listeners
Sunday, November 3, 2019
Give me a sunny Sunday afternoon, a new book about Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith, an Italian cream soda…and I’m good until the supper bell rings later on tonight.
Till next time.
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Saturday, November 2, 2019
I am library patron #225 on 36 copies of The Guardians by John Grisham.
I don’t even really want to read that particular book. I’m simply between books, and that one popped up on my radar.
225…that’s a lot of patrons.
36…that’s a lot of copies, but still it’s not 225.
So.
Could be months.
.˙. I’ll move on.
But.
In a much-related note, Macmillan Publishing company has decided that as of November 1, 2019, they will no longer sell multiple copies of their ebooks to public libraries until after 60 days have passed and then only for a two-year period and even then at a much inflated price.
Macmillan assumes that readers will not want to sit around waiting 60 days for their turn to check out the latest ebook from the library and will instead buy the book and/or the ebook.
Ah.
Macmillan’s plan is fatally flawed. Evidently they have no idea that one of our favorite things to do as readers is to sit around. Ha.
The ALA is opposed to Macmillan’s plan on the basis of egalitarian principles. The ALA argues that everyone should have immediate access to books upon their publication and should not have to wait for the market to dictate what public libraries can offer.
Ta da.
Bless the ALA.
But wait. Shouldn’t writers be paid a living wage by readers who buy their books as opposed to checking them out for free from the library?
This will be a battle of wills between writers, editors, publishers, agents, capitalists, and the public good. Surely a compromise can be found.
Also, saw two journalists on BookTV recently. Great stuff.
Ronan Farrow, journalist.
Amaryllis Fox, journalist.
Till next time.
Published by Macmillan Publishers.
Thursday, October 24, 2019
I finished Memento Morti by Muriel Spark who was recommended as a significant writer by Penelope Lively or possibly Barbary Pym but probably Penelope since I just finished her autobiography…it’s on my mind. I shall read it again probably several more times. Her stance on history and reading is helpful.
Memento Mori is a murder mystery of sorts and involved a multitude of people in the final throes of living. Some in their homes, some in facilities…all a bit dotty and confused. All not nearly busy enough with things that matter.
And then four unrelated thoughts:
1. A possible dissertation title:
The History of the Structured Handbag: A Journey in Three Parts
2. Who would be for the elimination of net neutrality you ask?
Stockholders in a telecom company, perhaps?
3.The Laundromat starring Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderos, and Meryl Streep seems to have hit the nail on the head regarding tax-free companies who are quasi-located in off-shore locations around the planet and who pay little or no tax and who have little or no external oversight by rules, laws, and/or financial entities.
Further.
There are 2,000 billionaires on the planet.
There are 15 million millionaires on the planet.
4. The CEO of faceb$$k was questioned by Congress yesterday. He seems to be a petulant adolescent who can’t admit he’s violated the “do no harm” clause of life, which is a common goal for trustworthy folks.
And then finally, my next big read is The Last Widow by Karin Slaughter. Not sure about this genre of militant spy thriller, but she was fabulous on BookTV when she presented with Malcolm Gladwell, Rachel Maddow, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose books I’m also gonna read. (I wonder if faceb$$k’s CEO reads.)
And then of course there’s Glenn Gould playing Bach and Chaim Topol singing If I Were a Rich Man. A nice day.
Till next time.
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Thursday, October 17, 2019
Harold Bloom died Monday at age 89.
He taught his last class at Yale the previous Thursday.
His interview on BookTV recently showed a successful reader and thinker who loved his life. His influence on the classics is permanent. Not bad for a little boy from the Bronx.
And then, quite a dilemma:
Buy Olive, Again as an ebook for $13.99 or wait for an available copy of the ebook from the public library. Number 40 on five copies.
That’s the dilemma.
Next is:
Ad Astra.
What happened? Lots of star power, but somehow I kept looking at my easy-glow Timex.
Finally:
The Politician with Ben Platt. The man can act with or without Jessica and Gwyneth and Judith and Bette. The series...disturbingly good.
Till next time.
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Monday, October 14, 2019
The Southern Festival of Books was live this past weekend on BookTV.
Paul Theroux gave a talk about his new book, and he mentioned a Mexican artist and activist who died just last month at the age of 79. The artist was quite extraordinary in terms of his talent. But he was also even more extraordinary in terms of his commitment to his country, his people, his art, and his generosity.
Francisco Toledo
July 17, 1940 – September 5, 2019
Susan Neiman gave a talk about her new book regarding lessons learned from Germany after WWII. She was informative, articulate, clear, approachable, trustworthy, scholarly, and wise. Audience questions were brilliant, sincere, informed, and impressive.
Nashville. Nashville Public Library. Packed. Who knew.
Till next time.
Photo by Tomas Bravo for the NYT.
BookTV
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Reading along for the second time Penelope Lively’s autobiography, titled Dancing Fish and Ammonites.
In this book, she quotes Yeats:
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
And then exactly one hour later, I heard the exact same quote in a movie. Twice in one day? Within an hour? How is that possible?
Now today? I’m looking back into Dancing Fish…and the quote is nowhere to be found. I know I read it…in that book…just yesterday…and yet…
Spooky, right?
Troubling, yes?
Disturbing? Sure.
But. I’ll figure it out…eventually, hopefully, maybe.
UPDATE: Just figured it out. Seems the quote was actually used in a piece in the Times by an essayist who was negatively dissecting Seinfeld (happily unsuccessfully). Commenters liked and still like Seinfeld as a study of human behavior. Ta da.
AND there’s much more to the rest of the poem: https://poets.org/poem/second-coming
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
Irish poet
1923 Nobel Prize for Literature
Also, there are many portions of Dancing…that deserve recollection and dissection, and one of those is Lively’s discussion of memory.
Procedural memory
Semantic memory
Autobiographical memory
Umberto Eco (1932-2016) discussed these exact, very same three categories of memory in his brilliant lecture on BookTV in 2005 (obviously unforgettable).
Along with his lecture were lectures by Barbary Ehrenreich, John Irving, and Bob Herbert. Stunningly good.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Naomi Klein
Live
Two hours
BookTV
This past Sunday
Excellent
Totally
Her main thesis is the way in which capitalism and disasters intersect in both correlative and causative interactions.
Till next time.
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Monday, October 7, 2019
Joker
The Times said no.
The New Yorker said no.
In the end it Came Down to trusting Joaquin to tell a worthwhile story. And he did. Totally.
So good… I’m gonna see it again.
The film is a combination of
Ken Kesey’sOne Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
WilliamGolding’s Lord of the Flies
Jerzy Kosinski’sBeingThere
StephenSondheim’s Send in the Clowns
Gene Kelly’s Singin’ in the Rain
In the end we need more mental health funding.
And a lot more...ordinary kindness...even if it’s superficial. A little random kindness even if it’s not completely heartfelt never goes to waste.
HopeSondheim sees this film. He’ll be pleased .
Joaquin’s performance. Flawless.
Which makes Jimmy Fallon’s interview with him inexplicable. Jimmy had a chance to explore the social phenomena now on the front page everywhere, and he let it slip away.
Finally. I hope Joaquin is happy in real life and that he eats a cheeseburger or two as soon as possible with a side of milkshake.
From Arthur Fleck’s journal: “The worst part of having a mental illness is that people expect you to behave as if you don’t.”
The film is capable of promoting serious conversations about mental health, pharmaceutical help, poverty, class, and social mores. Not many films can do all that.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, October 3, 2019
After effort, time, glory, shock, and awe, I finished Anniversaries by Uwe Johnson; many takeaways but here are two:
1. The history of the world is one of violence. The question is why.
This book is brilliant and seriously shows the effects of tribal aggression, complacency, fear, struggle, survival, and the tendency or necessity for some, in the midst of all this, to look away.
My grandfather…WWI
My father…WWII
My uncle…Korean War
My colleagues…Vietnam War
My acquaintances…War in Afghanistan since 2001
It’s all unnecessary, futile, and ultimately produces losers all round. Victors are short-lived and compromised. Every war. Every time.
The book's last line, “We held one another’s hands: a child, a man on his way to the place where the dead are, and she, the child that I was.”
Seeing the world through the clear eyes and bright minds of Gesine and Marie brings historical perspective and moral clarity.
Very few things in life can do this.
Books.
The NYT Book Review.
The Paris Review of Books.
The New York Review of Books.
Gratitude…full on gratitude.
2. And in the midst of all this, there’s fall approaching. One leaf at a time.
Plus bread is baked, Sinatra sings, and the sun rises daily.
Till next time.
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Friday, September 27, 2019
Wow. To be a film critic. Judy starring Renee Zellweger was great and great enough to inspire digging through the old LPs to find Judy and Liza at the Palladium in London.
And then there’s always Stephen Sondheim in his fabulous Tshirt extolling the virtues of
Order
Design
Tension
Composition
Balance
Light &
Harmony
from Sunday in the Park with George, of course.
Lots of media, books, music, and technology floating around in the ether and on the desk.
And in spite of a bit of Lean Cuisine, a brand new iPad makes a good day practically perfect.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Even when I’m depressingly four weeks behind in reading the NYTBR, I soldier on, and here’s why.
There’s ALWAYS a gem; a gem I can’t live without and didn’t even know I needed.
And this time, it’s Cathleen Schine who, lo and behold, I also found being interviewed last week by the incomparable Michael Silverblatt.
Cathleen recommends:
The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick (whom I love).
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather (which I’ve read…right?).
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (Cathleen says this book was read aloud to her in fourth grade by her teacher and that it changed her life).
PLUS, it’s raining and thundering outside my window.
How normal is it to be thrilled to have your book signed by
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie.
I should check the DSM-5. Or perhaps the 6, or maybe they’re even up to 7 by now.
Even if it’s not normal, I’m thrilled. And fortunate. And lucky. And all other manner of synonyms.
The world of elite writers is a world of hard work. They make it look easy.
Till next time.
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Monday, September 23, 2019
I wonder if there’s a specific word for someone who is enamored with the achievements of another person (or two or several). If there is, I’ll think of it…eventually…maybe.
I hope it’s a word better than groupie, fan, obsessor, idolization, hero worship…I hope it’s something simple like having an internal goodness compass that points you in the direction of good people doing good things.
There are lots of good people doing good things.
For example, there’s the person who invented cinnamon raisin bread.
There’s also the person who invented my iPad, which I love and use many hours a day.
And then for another, there’s the person who invented the spinach soufflé.
Hmm. Too food-oriented. Better move on to the idea that prompted all this thinking about goodness in the first place.
I am overwhelmed with Anniversaries by Uwe Johnson. If someone could invent a time machine, I would go back and get him and let him know that what he’s written is monumental and worthy of the literary world’s deepest gratitude.
I have more to read to finish this work, and I will finish, but I really don’t want to leave behind Gesine, Marie, Cresspahl, and all the rest. Uwe’s architecture of this book was to include accurate and verifiable names, dates, and places for WWII, the Vietnam War, and life on the Upper West Side of NYC from 1933 through 1968. He accomplishes all this through the life of Gesine (GuhZEEnee).
I can’t even imagine not having this book in the world or on my shelf or not having the resourcefulness of the New York Review of Books and the legacy of Robert B. Silvers (1929-2017) who I’m sure made it all possible.
Admiration. That’s the word. Enamored of others’ achievements?
Admiration.
And then along comes Greta Thunberg.
Hands down…the winner of all things admirable and beyond.
Matt Taibbi was on a panel at the Brooklyn Book Festival. Live TV on C-SPAN2.
He was as cogent, articulate, informed, and brilliant as always. He’s a journalist. He was really on point.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, September 18, 2019
I knew it.
Just from the previews.
And A. O. Scott confirmed it.
TheGoldfinch is almost a movie.
Ha.
The book by Donna Tartt is SO good. The movie just couldn’t approach it properly. So, that’s one less thing to worry about.
And instead it’s on to Downton Abbey, which is going to be spectacular.
One more thing regarding the main character of Goldfinch, they could have at least made the kid have brown hair…that way he would have actually looked more like Harry Potter rather than George Will as a kid.
Way to go A. O. Must be nice.
Last thing about Goldfinch, I've read it twice and will read it again. The museum, the stealth, the fear, the stand-in family, the crooks, the robbers, and mostly the antique restoration business in lower Manhattan. That part's a gem.
Till next time.
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Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Anniversaries by Uwe Johnson (1934 - 1984) published by NYRB Classics
Our Boys by Hagai Levi (1963 - ) on HBO
The Spy by Gideon Raff (1972 - ) on Netflix
For some reason, all three of these media appeared in front of my eyes at about the same time in the past few weeks.
It’s too much.
Too much reality?
Too much intensity?
Too much engulfedness?
Too much violence, greed, aggression, corruption, deceit?
Yes.
And then for some reason and at just the right moment,
Aristotle (384 BCE - 322 BCE) appears.
There are three broad choices for how to live.
1. Virtue ethics
You identify virtues that are considered to be worthwhile like courage and generosity, and you develop yourself in accordance with those virtues.
2. Consequentialism
Whether something is right or wrong stems from the consequences of that action. How much utility or good did that action accomplish versus how much pain or bad did it cause.
3. Deontology (derived from Greek for duty/obligation)
There are rules that should be followed, and being ethical is simply following and obeying the rules.
Thanks Ari and Chidi (via The Good Place).
It’s all worth knowing.
Till next time.
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Thursday, September 12, 2019
It’s pretty uplifting to watch the Apple keynote from two days ago. I’ve picked out my new iPad. But it’s not going to be delivered until mid-October, which is a shame, shame, shame, because, of course, I want it now.
And in studying the Apple site, I’ve run across their augmented reality portion for their new iPad.
And. I tried it out.
And. Waaaaay cool.
And it even allowed me to take a screen shot. How’s that for augmented augmented reality.
Perfect.
Except I’m buying the one with the black border because I have an idea that the eyes’ irises adjust negatively to the white border. Pretty sure about that.
Anyhoo.
Apple. A phenomenal group of go-getters.
And then along comes AT&T trying to auto diagnose
my s l o w wireless gateway internet. NOT impressive. And I want to be impressed. After all, my bill is promptly paid each month and additionally is on auto-pay, which leads customers to believe that they will get great service.
Alas, such is not the case. And this is troubling because the economy needs AT&T to be wildly solvent.
In the meantime and in a wildly optimistic vein, I'll be here waiting for mid-October with customer satisfaction rating for all things Apple predicted to be at the usual 100%.
It’s amazing the thoughts invoked by a bit of caffeine.
Even if it is out of focus. A bit.
Till next time.
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Monday, September 9, 2019
They arrived.
Today.
Two used books.
Out of print.
And yet…
The spine cracked just like new.
Could it be?
Yes.
I was the first.
Too thrilling?
Probably.
Never. The. Less.
I was the first.
That new book smell.
And to celebrate?
I’m thinking a root beer float.
Homemade.
Till next time.
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Thursday, September 5, 2019
It’s a serious business to write a book like Anniversaries, and Uwe Johnson was a serious writer.
The book is very l o n g. And I’m rereading portions of it as I go to make sure I understand it. It’s a book about people, but interwoven in this story is an analysis of the things people do to survive. The book also explains in truthful detail most of the huge and colossal mistakes that have been made in the recent past by and because of nations, people, movements, and belief systems.
Because I’m only a third into it, I’m unsure how Gesine (GuhZEEnee) made it to America from Germany in the 60s and how she was able to secure a banking job and live on Riverside Drive. I know that all that info will be explained, but I'd like to know sooner rather than later. I know. I know. Patience.
In the meantime, I’ll have lunch.
And finally, I’m wishing Jill Krementz had included Uwe in her book. It would be nice to understand him a little better, although I suspect he would say, “Read the book. I’m there.”
Till next time.
Yes. Signed by the author.
Yes. That's Eudora on the cover.
Sunday, September 1, 2019
I actually thought that my new titanium Apple Mastercard issued by Gucci Goldman Sachs would extend my happiness levels far, far, far into the future.
But, alas, no.
It’s been a mere five days now, and the anticipated thrill is gone, gone, gone.
Which brings me to BB King who said it best.
Never. The. Less.
My name is in fact etched in metal, and since it’s not my tombstone, it’s all good.
But really.
The National Book Festival yesterday with
RBG
Nina Totenberg
David Brooks
Skip Gates
David McCullough
and all the rest kept me busy all day.
Live TV. C-SPAN2. From the Library of Congress.
It’s the best of America.
Hands down.
Titanium notwithstanding.
And then of course, today there was Joanne Freeman from Yale talking about Hamilton, Jefferson, Washington, and all the rest with the incomparable Peter Slen for a live two-hour discussion of history, America, and the future.
Which means that…
The thrill is actually not gone and is alive and well on BookTV.
Till next time.
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Tuesday, August 27, 2019
“Fruitful monotony.”
Leave it to Bertrand to perfectly describe the benefits of a life of routine familiarity.
The Conquest of Happiness.
Page 54.
But in the meantime, I’m continuing for the foreseeable future with Anniversaries by Uwe Johnson who describes 1960s America and the world for us through German eyes much like Alexis de Tocqueville did in 1835 in his Democracy in America.
Busy times.
Till next time.
The Conquest of Happiness.
Uwe Johnson (1934-1984).
Sunday, August 25, 2019
What if we lived in a time when the New York Review of Books didn't exist and the world of publishing didn't have the ability to publish hard books, easy books, commercial books, literary books, comic books, coloring books, any books...where would we be.
I'd be without Anniversaries by Uwe Johnson. It's unimaginable—just like the contents of Uwe's book.
Gesine
GeZEEnee
Germany
Vietnam
Russia
The Baltic
NYC
Where would we be?
It’s almost embarrassing to be this sentimental, nostalgic, and stunned by a book. Then again, that’s what great books do. They stun.
Till next time.
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Saturday, August 24, 2019
Lots of books lined up to be read.
A few nonfiction. A few fiction. A few biographies.
But in the meantime, I’m re-watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. How fabulous to live on Riverside Drive and rub elbows with Lenny Bruce.
But actually, the best bits from that series are with Alex Borstein and Tony Shalhoub. Two total pros, plus great writing, and wistful nostalgia for a life that is way too easy.
Anyhoo…
Two TNYTBRs to read this weekend before I’m behind yet again and again and again.
What else? I think I’ll see about watching Mrs. Miniver since it was referred to twice in a Mrs. Maisel episode that I watched today.
I’ve seen Mrs. Miniver, I think.
But…
It’s been awhile.
Or.
It’s been a while.
Hmm.
Never too sure about those.
Then again, not that critical. Not like the shibboleth of their, there, they’re, and to, too, two.
Finally, Queen, Hamilton, Tina Turner, and Stephen Sondheim are in my head nearly all the time, which gratefully doesn’t leave much room for anything else…specifically?
The DJIA. Whew, what a mess.
PS I’ve just decided to dust these off, reread them, and see what’s what:
Elmore Leonard and Verlyn Klinkenborg.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, August 14, 2019
I think I used to have this really cute lapel pin that maybe said, “I’m a committed radical, I’m against nearly everything.” And I thought it was from Adrian Mole, a book referred to in last week’s TNYTBR.
So.
I started looking for my pin, and I can’t find it.
I’ve lost worthless things.
I’ve given away priceless things.
I’ve misplaced irreplaceable things.
My Adrian Mole pin is all that.
Or.
It may all simply be a false/phantasmagorical recovered memory.
Never. The. Less.
I’ll keep looking.
And in the meantime, I’m gonna re-read Adrian Mole’s Diary.
Neat.
Summer reads. They’re the best.
Other notes as the sun sets:
Kai says to stay away from our 401(k)s today.
So, this is me backing up. Maybe.
Till next time.
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Sunday, August 11, 2019
I was thinking about Broadway this bright sunny Sunday morning and thought of André De Shields who won a Tony for Hadestown.
In his acceptance speech, he gave three pieces of advice for living a worthwhile life:
1) Surround yourself with people whose eyes light up when they see you coming.
2) Slowly is the fastest way to get to where you want to be.
3) The top of one mountain is the bottom of the next, so keep climbing.
His message was a gracious and picture-perfect performance.
Brought to us by pure talent, unflagging perseverance, and a heart-healthy dose of…The Arts.
Till next time.
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Saturday, August 10, 2019
It’s just so great to read TNYTBR and have a conversation with Stephen King about the value of murder mysteries or Lisa Gardner about the secrets held within the debris of a forensic graveyard or a Rutgers professor who has to explain to a reviewer of David Maraniss’s new book the reason for communistic practices in America in the 30s and 40s.
Yes. Great conversations all. Even if I didn’t say a word.
Till next time.
Menace in pink...
Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Finished reading The Long Drop and also Garnethill by Denise Mina.
The first book would make a good discussion on the pros and cons of capital punishment. It’s also a good study in the pathology of violence.
The second book seems dated with a too-damaged main character and was not a thought-provoker, but I finished it anyway. I sort of wish I hadn’t. So many other books to read.
Conclusion?
Crime books. Maybe not my genre.
So, it’s on to Barbara Pym and her 1952 novel Excellent Women with all its vicars and cut flowers and charming women. But what’s really charming is to watch Daniel Levy sing Tina Turner’s The Best. That’s my genre. The best.
Till next time.
Monday, August 5, 2019
Toni Morrison died today. She changed everything.
As writers do.
Till next time.
Paradise published by Alfred A. Knopf.
Thursday, August 1, 2019
Actionable data is a dubious phrase of the highest order and is purposefully designed to give undue and unearned respectability to isolated cold, hard facts and to make obsolete the notions of intuition, insight, hunches, clairvoyance, and a sixth sense.
And here’s the real problem with the term actionable data: just because data is actionable does not mean that the data is accurate, truthful, factual, or worthwhile.
So as a lot of people in-the-know have said, “Not everything that matters can be measured and not everything that can be measured matters.”
So don’t buy into it. Actionable data. Hmmmmph!!!
Instead. Buy…Liza with a Z, which is streaming and is featured in the NYTimes today.
What else? Currently reading two books by Denise Mina. Disturbing and insightful… warped mental stability, violence, and living outside the rule of law in Glasgow and beyond.
Not exactly a comforting read, but her NYTimes By the Book interview shows her to be a writer of insight and talent. In that interview she also praises Jane Gardam as a genius.
Soldiering on.
Till next time.
Denise.
Liza.
Jane.
Friday, July 26, 2019
What must it be like to live inside Quentin Tarantino’s mind.
Saw Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, and it was great. The violence was so over the top that it eventually turned farcical. The acting? Perfect. In every respect.
Favorite scene?
…Actually, I think I’ll see it again before I decide. But. Watching Margot Robbie in the scene when she’s in the theater watching herself on screen and being so proud of her role is pretty much up there at the top.
And then of course it was on to Inglourious Basterds which I’d put off watching for the past ten years because it seemed too violent when actually it too was so over the top that it was both watchable and somewhat empowering (although a couple of times I had to push the mute button…and that’s the problem with movie theaters. There are no mute, pause, or rewind buttons.).
And out of the blue? Word du jour?
Vicissitudes…a change of circumstance or fortune that is unpleasant.
Finally, I’m between books. Hate when that happens.
But wait.
It’s probably time to revisit something on the shelf that I haven’t read in a while. Yes.
It would be hard to go wrong with Howard. You gotta push back.
Till next time.
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Monday, July 22, 2019
This week it’s memoirs:
Giving Up the Ghost: A Memoir by Hilary Mantel
and
Fierce Attachments: A Memoir by Vivian Gornick
I’m well into Hilary’s Ghost, and while at this point, I’m healthily skeptical that she saw an apparition, I am also aware of Barbara Ehrenreich’s writing about her own apparitional experience.
So.
If these two intellectual beings saw apparitions, they did.
Also today and very much related, I received my used copy of On the Move by Oliver Sacks. I’d previously read the ebook but then decided I need the physical one as well and from Strand Books specifically.
With Oliver’s work in neurology, it is indeed possible that the brain with all its interconnected neurons, dendrites, and synapses allows any one of us to see what might be needed and what might also be inexplicable.
Additionally, with Noam Chomsky’s thesis for Transformational Generative Grammar from his Syntactic Structures showing how the brain can in fact transform and create whole new never-before-heard grammatically correct utterances, it is barely a stretch to see how the brain can transform and create a handy apparition just when it's needed the most.
Never. The. Less.
They absolutely saw what they saw. Period. Full stop.
Fred Bass…Strand Books (June 28, 1928 – January 3, 2018)
Till next time.
Published 1968 by Mouton.
Published 2015 by Knopf.
Saturday, July 20, 2019
Madame Fourcade’s Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France’s Largest Spy Network Against Hitler by Lynne Olson
and
Mistress of the Ritz: A Novel by Melanie Benjamin
It’s particularly enriching to read two books that explore the same subject matter when one is nonfiction and the other is fiction.
Reading about WWII and the French resistance to Germany’s violent takeover of land, people, culture, resources, livelihoods, and essence is disturbing.
These kinds of books are clear warnings and documentation as to what humanity is capable of doing, enduring, and repairing.
In nonfiction, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade led the resistance in real life.
In fiction, Claude and Blanche ran the Hotel Ritz in Paris and resisted loyally.
Good and evil reside everywhere in real life and in the minds of all kinds of writers including the fantasy writer Neil Gaiman who creates out of thin air, Good Omens.
And when you add Michael Sheen and David Tennant to the mix, everything shines and gives us all a little reprieve from reality. Lovely.
Perhaps the rest of the day should be devoted to Pavarotti. Yes.
Till next time.
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Friday, July 19, 2019
Friday seems like a good day to complain.
OMG! Today is Friday. How great is that.
But maybe every day is a good day to complain about AT&T.
But first, a quick look at great dialogue from Benedict Cumberbatch in The Last Enemy. I watched the first episode of this 2005 five-part BBC series because it was free. Plus, I had time while I was waiting for AT&T to come and repair my slow, slow, slow internet connection.
BUT. Guess what? They never showed up.
What? That’s right. They never showed up.
And that is not like AT&T. Or is it.
Anyhoo.
Back to Benedict Cumberbatch in The Last Enemy.
The world has gone total surveillance in this futuristic data-driven thriller. In this series, there are big global companies that are financially benefitting and thriving from the brave new world of militarized and digitized surveilled life particularly in London.
Feedback on the series is good, and of course, the real-world conspiracy theorists are now more convinced than ever that their privacy is lost forever.
But remember…it’s only TV.
Or is it?
Benedict’s mathematics-oriented character delivers the following monologue in one fell swoop, and his argument feels VERY convincing.
He argues against giving global companies access to seemingly innocuous information about citizens and consumers. His character wants privacy.
But. How do we keep privacy matters private?
That’s his question. Here’s what he says.
“They’ve known about each and every one of us for years. Well, all the important information. Information you can sell.
Your income.
Your diet.
How much alcohol you consume.
What books you read.
How much your house is worth.
Your last three addresses.
Who you phone.
Who phones you.
Where you travel to.
Who travels with you.
Where your children go to school.
It would take about four minutes for them to do a complete breakdown of any single one of us and then predict with a fair degree of certainty anything up to 95 percent what our attitudes would be to law and order, change, risk, what kind of person we’re most likely to marry, the exam grades our children will achieve, where we are on any given day, our life expectancy, and the amount of tax your estate will yield when you die…
These people have been making a fortune out of prying into your lives. You couldn't legislate against them if you tried unless you ban credit cards and the internet which would be rather…totalitarian.”
Me? I’m going to buy the whole five-part series from Amazon for $7.99. Quite predictably.
Finally. Now. Back to AT&T. Slow internet.
And yes, I’ve already run Malware, disk utility, restarted the modem, and zapped the pram…all to no avail. My AT&T internet connection is still insufferably s l o w .
So. AT&T. What now? Call me. Presumably you have my number.
Here’s looking forward to a complaint-free Saturday.
Till next time.
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Monday, July 15, 2019
Gosh! You catch a few minutes of the movie Steve Jobs (that you’ve already seen in 2015) written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Danny Boyle, and immediately you know that we still need him around.
From GUI to gestalt to fidelity, he had all the right ideas for an intuitive, user-friendly computer that every single person on the planet could use to make their lives better.
Big job. Full of potential peril. But if it works…Wow. What a good day.
Apple. Different.
Albert Bob Martin
Richard John/Yoko Buckminster
Thomas Steve Ali
Ted Maria Ghandi
Amelia Alfred Martha
Jim Frank Pablo
Till next time.
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Sunday, July 14, 2019
It’s pretty thrilling to find The 50 Best Memoirs in last Sunday’s TNYTBR.
Fifty.
The magic number.
I’m starting with Hilary Mantel’s Giving Up the Ghost and Vivian Gornick’s Fierce Attachments.
But I’m still finishing Savage Beauty about Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford. And that’s in addition to a whole slew of books lined up on the ol’ kindle including books that are literary, commercial, high-brow, low-brow, and lots of stuff in between.
Busy, busy.
And of the remaining 48?
Some I’ve read. Some are too sad. Some will be next.
And since I’ve always been a big fan of the concept of…next, it all looks pretty good.
Over the river, thorough the dale, around the world, and back to moi.
Always in the nick of time.
Till next time.
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Friday, July 12, 2019
You’re sad because you didn’t bid high enough on ebay for Edward Gorey’s 1972 first edition hardback Amphigorey so you decide to put a little bit of extra Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate on your low-fat yogurt as a small gesture of consolation at the exact same moment that you glance up and notice in an out-of-the-way place that you evidently possess not one but two long-forgotten copies of John Ciardi’s You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You illustrated by none other than...Edward Gorey, which immediately obviates the need for all that extra chocolate, but you have it anyway.
And why not.
It further brightens an already just-brightened day.
Till next time.
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Thursday, July 11, 2019
Finished How It All Began.
Well done! Penelope Lively got it all exactly right.
Charlotte gets her purse snatched in London, and a whole sequence of events is altered. From Henry’s post-academic life to the Daltons to Marion to Nigel to Anton right on down to the Polish carpenters and then finally to the dodgy academic named…something or other.
The whole book is rich with connections and brimming with tea, scones, and clarity.
And now, I’ve just recalled, this is the second time I’ve read this book. Inexplicable.
And inexplicably good.
That’s our gal, Dame Penelope.
And when I come back, maybe I’ll come back as a DBE (especially since I’ve already got the hat).
Till next time.
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Wednesday, July 10, 2019
A little more gratitude. Always a nice touch.
Till next time.
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Tuesday, July 9, 2019
Recent movies that I've seen:
Elton John1947
Freddie Mercury1946
LucianoPavarotti1935
Bob Dylan1941
Recent movies that I haven't seen:
Stevie Nicks1948
Debbie Harry1945
Joan Sutherland1926
Patti Smith1946
Just saying...
Till next time.
Saturday, July 6, 2019
Till next time.
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Thursday, July 4, 2019
Out of the clear blue sky…It’s the flag.
And then I was watching Emma Thompson as she starred in Years and Years, and in this dystopian futuristic show of five years from now, all the world’s butterflies have become extinct. The show is so well acted that the next day when I saw a butterfly, I thought, “Wow. There’s one left.”
Yes. Years and Years feels that real.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, July 3, 2019
Reading last Sunday’s NYT gave me an idea for a dissertation title in case a social scientist is looking for one:
Differences in the ranges of moral principals, societal values, personal characteristics, and actionable behaviors between and among six accomplished and popular women and men chosen from six photos in The New York Times on the random date of June 23, 2019.
In related data: Caffeine is now related to joint pain. I refuse to accept these findings. Research, bah.
One final piece of data: The three richest people residing in the state of Washington are richer than 165 million other Americans combined.
Three major economists from the past:
Adam Smith (Scotland…1723-1790)
The Wealth of Nations
(The role of self-interest and competition)
Karl Marx (Germany…1818-1883)
Capital: A Critique of Political Economy (Das Kapital)
(The value of labor)
John Maynard Keynes (England…1883-1946) pronounced canes
The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money
(The role of government)
Till next time.
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Tuesday, July 2, 2019
Oh wow. You gotta love TNYTBR.
There was a June 2 review of lots of kinds of books including women writers in the genre of thrillers.
When I read the review, the review’s author said that there weren’t that many woman writers of thrillers.
Whoa. That didn’t sound right at the time, but I let it pass. The soufflé was getting ready to fall.
But then on June 16 in the letters section of TNYTBR, the indomitable Sara Paretsky came to the rescue by citing all of her books and the books of ten other women thriller writers who have been writing for the last 40 years.
Mystery solved. Gotta love all that drama.
Till next time.
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Monday, July 1, 2019
The best-seller list tells me I am mistaken.
But the new book by Rick Atkinson, The British Are Coming doesn’t speak to me as it should. I suspect it’s because it follows a pattern of:
And then
And then
And then
Meanwhile
And then
…
The book is thoroughly researched and resplendent with accuracy, details, documentation, insight, refinement, and scholarship. But my mind wanders when I read it, and I have to look away at times maybe because the book is so well written that to read it feels like being there among all the chaos, fighting, injustice, and bloodshed.
It’s. All. Too. Much. Real. Reality.
It’s not the book. It’s me.
Plus, I need headings, subheadings, timelines, voiceovers, music…oh, right.
Ken Burns’s The Civil War.
So I’m setting the Brits aside for a bit and picking up Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay, which is a book that’s been on my list since 2001.
Yes. Way. Behind.
But I’m betting there will be no mention of muskets, bayonets, cannons, and/or gun powder.
And that’s always a good thing.
Till next time.
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Friday, June 28, 2019
Google is not the “Don’t Be Evil” corporate entity they used to be. I’m not sure what they are or what they’re up to. Ken Auletta knows. Or at least he knew way back in 2009 when he researched and published his findings in Googled: The End of the World as We Know It.
To know that Google has a list of all my shopping items from Amazon, all my voice searches on my phone and computer, all my data delivered via email, and all my accounts and so forth is disconcerting. Not to mention scary.
And even though their transparent user agreement assures us that we’re all safe, we’re really not. I need my own server. Obviously.
Never. The. Less.
They are indeed bound by law to not abuse their power. And of course they’re better than Baidu from China or the sad little Bing program in terms of totalitarianism or corporate imperialism, respectively. Mostly.
But actually.
It’s too much. It’s all too much to consider. For the weekend.
And it is indeed a blessing to be able to find the Flatiron building on Google maps, Google Images, and read all about the sale of said building in The Times this morning, but of course, Google, you already knew that.
In other news.
It’s nice to check the snail-mail mailbox and find that (quite out of the blue) a fabulous friend sent you two fabulous books that you needed and didn’t even know you needed.
And I’m betting Google didn’t know that either. Or did you?
The books?
How New York Breaks Your Heart by Bill Hayes.
Insomniac City: New York, Oliver Sacks, and Me by Bill Hayes
Till next time.
111 8th Ave. NYC
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Thursday, June 27, 2019
So you’re reading along from a past issue of the NYT Book Review, and you find a review of a book by Ali Smith who is a Scottish writer. You google her and find a youtube of her from 2012 in Scotland talking for two hours with a group of 50 international writers.
She is joined by Nathan Englander who was recently on Michael Silverblatt’s Bookworm where he discussed his new book kaddish.com.
The whole Scottish conference was about style and content in writing and was attended by writers from dozens of different countries.
One Russian writer referred to Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau translated from French by Barbara Wright. I am going to read this.
Another writer compared style vs. content in writing to style vs. function in architecture, which immediately reminded me of the series Occupied written by Jo Nesbø. The series documents the fictional (yet not beyond belief) takeover of Norway’s oil and gas industry by Russia’s military force. The series is so good that I’ve watched it twice…perhaps even thrice.
The architectural style of the building used in the series is quite striking. The building is owned by Statoil, which is Norway’s government-owned oil and gas industry. It’s pretty obvious that the building favors style over function.
Returning to style vs. content in literature, one writer said, “The debate about style and content is actually coming to a dead end because we are all kind of agreed that you can’t separate the two things.”
And yet another writer quickly said she didn’t agree and thought that the conversation about style and content was not at all coming to a dead end.
Much discussion ensued about how to actually make a living as a writer with the relationship between the style and content of a novel being directly related to whether or not a writer can financially survive in today's marketplace.
One writer said, if you want to write and can’t make a living at it, get a job. Whoa. Van Gogh and Gauguin were cited.
The books of E.L. James and Dan Brown were discussed many times and viewed as low-brow gateway books to actual literature.
This led to the question of whether it’s better to sell three copies of one great book that no one reads or 100,000 copies of a mediocre book that everyone reads.
Someone commented that writers aspire to move from writing excellent books to writing great books. The secondary goal for a writer should be to be able to pay the bills.
A slight tangent to the left on a companion 2012 youtube video was the Scottish/Canadian publisher John Calder (1927-2018) who explained that Alexander Solzhenitsyn helped smuggle out of Russia to Italy for publication Boris Pasternak’s Dr. Zhivago.
Writers have courage. It's just so obvious.
All this in one short afternoon. My reading, clicking, searching, listening, and concluding started with a one-page book review which means, of course, that access to the world via the web is limitless and that one thing always and invariably leads to another…every day…all the time…forever.
Today’s little jaunt all started with Ali Smith on page 13. Page 14 is next.
Till next time.
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Tuesday, June 25, 2019
I’m halfway into Henry, Himself: A Novel.
I might be too conditioned to expect something to blow up, or disappear, or to just go wrong. But so far, that hasn’t happened.
This is just a book about the ordinary life of a man named Henry.
He putters in the basement, installs a mailbox, goes to the lake, grills burgers on the deck, watches the neighborhood diminish, and then what? I don’t know.
Still only 50% into his life.
Sort of reminds me of A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich or A Gentleman in Moscow.
We’ll see. It’s only Tuesday.
Till next time.
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Monday, June 24, 2019
Democracy in action. Here and around the world.
https://lawworksaction.org
Till next time.
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Monday, June 24, 2019
There’s Armageddon, and then there’s the opposite, which is wonderfully portrayed in the brilliant series, Good Omens, which is lovely, clever, witty, literary, action-packed, star-studded, technologically advanced, and perfect to a T.
AND it fits into my paradigm of plagiarism as an art form quite perfectly.
Till next time.
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From?
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Tea, anyone?
Sunday, June 23, 2019
I finished Madame Fourcade’s Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France’s Largest Spy Network Against Hitler…but only because I like to give a book a thorough opportunity and because I feel an unwavering loyalty to those who were part of the French Resistance and who were totally committed to drawing the line between freedom and totalitarianism.
In this book, Lynne Olson honors a woman whom history has overlooked.
Marie-Madeleine Fourcade.
The book also gives many instances of bravery and sacrifice by all of the thousands of French citizens involved in the resistance movement. The book describes rendezvous, secret papers, air drops, hiding places, sacrifices, fear, and bravery. But the pilots who brought in supplies, transmitters, agents, money, instructions, and weapons from London across the English Channel to land in near darkness in a ten-minute turn-around-time appear to be the real heroes of all this turmoil. And of course there has been plenty written about the skill and bravery of these men.
Lynne was attempting to show the equally brave women who were part of the resistance with one woman in particular being a major player in the world’s ultimate victory over fascism. But because the evidence presented in the book lacks standard footnotes, it is difficult to fully appreciate the scale of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade’s contributions although I am fully trusting that Lynne knows what she’s talking about and consulted all the primary sources and first-hand accounts that are available. These sources are, in fact, listed in the back of the book. They're just not listed in one-to-one correspondence in standard footnote format.
I did learn a lot by reading this book. Specifically, I learned about the various geographical regions of France, the Algerian connection, the sinking of French ships by the British so that the ships would not fall into the hands of Germany, and the contradictory role played by General Philippe Pétain who headed the Vichy government.
I learned a lot. I’m glad I kept reading. And clearly, Madame Fourcade was significant in this war. But to totally understand the role of women in WWII, it might be even more illuminating to watch/rewatch the PBS series The Bletchley Circle. And although we have the internet for more information, the internet is not the source for primary documents. Primary documents are typically housed in libraries, museums, and archives. It takes time and effort as well as funding to seek those out. And that’s what Lynne did.
Further, the biggest problem with the internet is that it’s too easy to too quickly find information that may or may not be based in fact. The lack of curatorial authority on the internet is ultimately damaging. That’s why we need books like Lynne’s (with or without footnotes). She’s well-respected, trustworthy, and properly credentialed.
Finally, I would love for some of my tax dollars to go toward everyone having a free subscription to the Encyclopedia Britannica online. Think of it. Accuracy, vetted information, a properly funded knowledge base, free to all.
Instead? We have Wikipedia, which is a good starting point, but which is way too susceptible to hacking, mistakes, and mayhem.
Maybe I’ll float this idea to my congressional reps:
A curated and tax-funded online Britannica…for all. I love it.
Equally loved would be a tax-funded subscription to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. For all.
However, the MW shows that the plural of rendezvous is rendezvouses which can’t possibly be correct, but there you have it in plain sight, rendezvouses. Of course. Why didn’t I know that!
Nevertheless.
Imagine. Tax-funded salaries and working space for the leaders, scholars, and staff at Britannica and Merriam-Webster. Money well spent. At last.
It’s inexplicable how much I love Broadway. And this special section of the Times from June 9 is terrific. (Yes, it appears I’m behind since it's now the 22nd.)
And yet. Here I am.
The whole concept. Broadway. It’s just the best.
So. This section. I’m keeping it. In my special, getting-too-large “keepers” file.
But don’t tell the fire marshal.
There’s a very substantial line between hoarder and keeper.
And I’m well within the margin of error.
I’m a keeper.
Ta da!
Till next time.
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Thursday, June 20, 2019
My new favorite phrase?
Full stop.
My new favorite movement?
Plagiarism as an art form.
My new problem?
Shelf space.
Too little shelf space. In the past, to save shelf space, I’ve been reading books on my kindle rather than buying hardcover copies of them. BIG mistake.
I’ve always had a photographic memory…somewhat.
I can visualize what I’ve read by seeing the page in my memory. But only in a book, and only certain passages that I really like. This does not happen on my kindle. AT all. On the kindle, I can’t picture a page the same as I can when reading a book. So when I try to go back and locate a passage on the kindle, I can’t remember where it was. Beginning, middle, end? Not a clue.
And yes, the kindle is searchable, but I never seem to find exactly what I’m looking for.
This is strictly some kind of neurological/light/synapse/dendrite predicament.
The remedy?
Start keeping track of the books that I’m routinely referring back to...and then buy them.
Full stop.
Relatedly (is that a word…relatedly? Yes, I think it is), I miss the extraordinary neurologist Oliver Sacks (1933-2015). And to make it even sadder, his book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat? I borrowed the physical book from the library way back in 1998, which means I don’t own it and which makes it first on my list to place on my new shelf.
Strand. I think Strand. Yes. Strand.
Amazon? No. They are simply out of control and way too big. Plus, they missed a delivery date recently, and I REALLY needed whatever it was I needed although I can't recall exactly at this moment what that was all about.
Anyhoo.
It’s Strand and then on to buying a new shelf or two or four. A busy day.
Till next time.
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Monday, June 17, 2019
This morning, I just can not get this tune by Harry Nilsson out of my head. From his Personal Best album and featured in Russian Doll starring Natasha Bianca Lyonne.
Suuuuuperb.
And, of course, there are worse ways to begin a morning.
Till next time.
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Sunday, June 16, 2019
George Will was on BookTV today. To understand his perspective a bit more, I was thinking of relistening to Ayn Rand’s book Atlas Struggled Shrugged. Oops.
But after going to the shelf, I find that it’s on cassette!!!!!
Do I even have a cassette player anymore or has the world moved on?
Moving on.
Also on BookTV, Karin Slaughter gave a talk. I’m thinking of reading her next book, which is The Last Widow. She gave a humorous talk; but her book, I think, is a mystery, murder, and mayhem sort of deal. Hmmm.
Plus, I was put in mind of another widow-titled book, which I finally remembered and is A Widow for One Year by John Irving (also the author of The World According to Garp).
Finally, they’ve made a movie of The Goldfinch, and I wish they hadn’t, because then people will miss reading the book which is so good that I might just read it again. I don’t know why I like it so much…but there you have it. Inexplicable.
And or ineffable.
Till next time.
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Saturday, June 15, 2019
You reside in the world of books and all things bookish for years and decades and know you’re lucky. And then luck grows even larger because you find Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast. Fourth season coming up. Along with his new book on…
Strangers.
Speaking of strangers or of people relatively new to the world of politics:
Pete Buttigieg is bringing his focused vision, clarity of thought, facility with message, and intellectual acumen to the forefront with his tipping point being?...
his Rhodes credentials.
And finally, a word I will probably never use in a sentence…instagrammable.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Charles McRay Blow of the NYTimes. Wow. What a treat to watch him this past week on Bill Maher’s show. Charles’s thinking process was so clear, logical, and informed that it was like watching the perfect data processor after it had been fed in good stuff so that good stuff out was possible.
And speaking of data processing. Go, Apple. Again.
Watched the Apple WWDC this week. I liked everything I saw. And mostly I liked their increased security measures in both hardware and software.
At a time when it would be easy for their company to retreat due to taxes, tariffs, trade wars, and the DOJ, Apple is forging ahead and using its engineering talents to make the world better and to repair some of the damage from our recent past.
The biggest security measure they’ve come up with is the one that will allow you to sign in to apps using your apple account rather than facebook or google thereby securing privacy.
Think I’ll give Tim a call and congratulate him on another year of success.
Also, I think I’ll open a special savings account for the next $12,000 computer system that I’ll be buying from Apple. Or not. I know that high quality is expensive…but gee. $12,000?
Books? Finished Lisa Gardner’s Never Tell. Can’t really recall at the moment how it went. I know I finished it…
But what I’d really like to do is listen to Simon Winchester read from his book The Meaning of Everything. Imagine. The meaning of everything.
Done and dusted. And his voice is perfect.
Till next time.
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Monday, June 10, 2019
More buoyancy.
Chicago’s Printers Row Lit Fest was live on BookTV this past weekend.
How much contentment should one feel when watching and listening to scholars explain little pieces of the world?
1. A lot?
2. A little?
3. None?
I suppose the answer varies with each listener.
But no.
There actually is a correct answer, and that correct answer is...
Wait for it...Wait for it...Wait for it...
The answer is?
1.
Cool.
And for me, the most interesting scholarship was discussed by Kathleen Belew, Justin Driver, and Bill Ayers. Actually, the whole festival was uplifting.
Good for Printers Row.
Chicago…my kind of town.
And even better is that I’m now getting ready to click on a year’s subscription to the Merriam-Webster dictionary site. Thirty bucks for all the words I’ll ever need. Probably.
Ta da.
Till next time.
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Thursday, June 6, 2019
Finished reading Bowlaway by Elizabeth McCracken. I feel airless. Not weightless. Airless. The plug has been pulled.
All the characters in this book are the sadness of their own making. They each needed direction, help, support, aspirations, information, and guidance. Maybe from a learned person, a librarian, a parent, a book? No. They didn't get any of it. They just slugged along, living, dying, and wondering what it was all about.
They are unlike Denzel Washington in The Equalizer 2, which I watched after finishing this book of bowlers and lost souls.
Denzel needed neither direction, help, support, aspirations, information, nor guidance. He was a one-man force…totally successful, by the way, in his efforts to right wrongs, solve crimes, avenge deaths, and make the world a better place. PLUS, he read Proust.
But really. Who reads Proust any more.
There you have it.
Time to get some air.
And probably past time to read In Search of Lost Time in three volumes translated from Proust's French by C.D. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin and revised by D.J. Enright.
Till next time.
All three volumes...on the shelf waiting.
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
It’s embarrassingly thrilling to live in the world of books and to find such buoyancy in the daily push and push-backs of living.
2. Rick Atkinson is so good it’s like listening to fiction according to Evan Thomas on BookTV. The British are Coming. First of a trilogy. On my list.
3. The Flight Portfolio by Julie Orringer is a fictionalized biography of Varian Fry. Cynthia Ozick reviewed the book as a biography that read like a great piece of fiction. AND Ozick’s review resulted in five letters to the editor in TNYTBR on May 19 including one letter from Varian’s son, James D. Fry.
Simply embarrassingly thrilling. Books.
A busy summer is unfolding.
Till next time.
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AKA Very British Problems.
Monday, June 3, 2019
Good Omens was great.
Every scene, every bit of dialogue, every gesture, every big idea…all flawlessly created and delivered.
War Famine Pollution Greed Corruption…each problem addressed and repaired in a fantasy series of six episodes.
But. But. But.
There does exist in real life each of those exact same problems in huge proportions to the detriment of all.
A fantasy series may be okay on a 2-D screen for a brief reprieve from reality, but real solutions to these actual human-made problems must be identified and implemented.
These real-world solutions will require effort, muscle, resources, commitment, science, leadership, cooperation, and sustained funding.
Gosh. All that.
The exact same things required to create a fantasy series for Amazon Prime.
Grumpy?
And it’s only Monday?
Alas.
Never. The. Less.
Great series. I’ll probably watch it all all over again.
And then regarding the real problems of reality, to quote Robert Benjamin Silvers, former editor of The New York Review of Books, “Let’s see what can be done.”
Finally, we could use a lot more Peppers throughout the world.
Till next time.
Sunday, June 2, 2019
The sad news?
There’s only one Neil Gaiman.
AND
There are only six episodes of Good Omens.
The good news?
Michael Sheen and David Tennant shine.
The best news?
Frances McDormand is the voice of God.
We knew it all along.
And of course since it’s the first Sunday of the month, it’s a live interview with a scholar on BookTV. Evan Thomas. He did a great job. Smart, humble, informative, experienced, accurate, energetic, and fun.
And I learned that hubristic can be pronounced with neither a /h/ nor a /y/.
I just love it all.
Too naïve? Probably.
And finally, as Evan outlined it, it seems the world, once again, needs Ike.
Not to mention Mamie.
Till next time.
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Saturday, June 1, 2019
According to Ralph Waldo Emerson and seconded by Henry David Thoreau:
A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.
Till next time.
Definitive biographies by Robert D. Richardson Jr.
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Friday, May 31, 2019
The ayes have it.
Till next time.
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Thursday, May 30, 2019
A wonderful interview today with Michael Silverblatt and Dave Eggers about Dave’s new book The Parade, which is going to the top of my list.
During their conversation, they mentioned:
Sam Shepard The Unseen Hand
Franz Kafka
Sam Beckett
J. M. Coetzee Waiting for the Barbarians
Also, started a new book today by Elizabeth McCracken, Bowlaway.
And for the record, Bertha Truitt…I’m hooked.
Till next time.
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Sunday, May 26, 2019
Wow. Jared Diamond. New book. Upheaval. BookTV. Brilliant lecture.
Previous books:
Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse.
In Upheaval, Jared outlines what can be done to save the planet. He says we have 30 years to turn it around before it’s all unsalvageable.
This means we probably have only 28.
He’s an optimist.
He’s also one of those people whose genius never stops producing leadership.
Oh yes, met him October 17, 2008. A scientist extraordinaire.
I wonder if he needs a secretary. I can type realllly fast.
Till next time.
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Saturday, May 25, 2019
Robert Reich was brilliant on BookTV as he talked about his new book at the Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley.
His advice to equalize the distribution of wealth:
Reform campaign finance laws,
Reverse Citizens United, which gave 1st amendment speech rights to corporations,
Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial and investment banks, and
Establish single-payer health insurance.
It was an invigorating discussion and all sounded perfectly doable.
And then it was on to another panel.
“Knowledge is hard. It’s not easy to get it right,” explained Kwame Anthony Appiah.
Members of this panel explained that newspapers used to be the curators of what was worth paying attention to. But the internet killed newspapers. When readers depend on twitter for their culture and news, decisions for how to live are weakened.
Nevertheless, this panel was confident that the intellectual life of America is thriving, although it’s not available on twitter, facebook, snapchat, or instagram.
Curating the news takes time, and those mediums do not possess any of the right stuff.
Another speaker explained:
Best books=apolitical, no axe grinders, no drum beaters, just an aesthetic stance.
Which means I’m going to check in with all the Booker nominees and winners for the past few years to make sure I haven’t missed anything.
Right after lunch.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, May 22, 2019
Without too much introspection, I suppose there are people who have never been influenced by a Broadway musical. I am not one of those people.
Can Broadway be too influential? Perhaps? Maybe? No.
And that goes double for the FX series titled Fosse/Verdon, which is too good for TV. It’s too good for TV because of all those interruptive commercials that appear way too regularly. But then again, that’s the beauty of a DVR.
When the series concludes, I’m going to rewatch All that Jazz with Roy Scheider playing Bob Fosse. Can’t wait.
I really wasn't completely aware of how much Mr. Fosse had influenced my aesthetic life until the FX series and until I started rooting around among my collections. Wow.
A lot.
Happy, happy times...especially for members of the audience.
In the meantime, I’m reading a new old book, A Country Doctor's Notebookby Mikhail Bulgakov, which was made into a moving picture series starring Jon Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe who played a Russian doctor over a long period of time. Delicious.
AND on Netflix. Commercial-free.
Till next time.
Monday, May 20, 2019
I am not a robot.
I finished today Ian McEwan’s book Machines Like Me: A Novel.
Charlie, Adam, Miranda, and Alan Turing are the key players in this book that takes place in the 80s. And since Turing died in 1954, the stage is set for a good piece of fiction with always an eye on how good it all could have been, if only…
The ultimate irony of the book is that the brilliance of Alan Turing was snuffed out by society while the laziness and pedestrian aspirations of Charlie are allowed to live on and on and on.
Adam is the human-like robot purchased by Charlie while Charlie’s hopefully soon to be wife, Miranda gets involved.
But. Adam goes amok, and Charlie just lets him.
That’s the point at which it’s hard to like Charlie. Rather than asserting his authority over Adam, he acquiesces and simply waits for all the negative consequences of Adam’s misdeeds to unfold.
Adam stole, misrepresented, altered his own software, usurped his built-in functions, and became the one in charge.
Alan Turing ends the book by taking control of the robot’s redesign thereby restoring hope.
Ian McEwan spends most of his time in real life with scientists and not humanists who spend too much time “wallowing in the deliciousness of pessimism.” (From a 2010 interview with Michael Silverblatt.) Quote from too wonderful of an interview about Ian’s book Solar.
I am not a robot.
Ta da.
Till next time.
from Michael Silverblatt's website.
Sunday, May 19, 2019
Every so often, I have to stop and rediscover my copy of Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom written by Leonard Marcus. And eventually, through the years, I always do. Find it. I love reading and rereading it.
Also, I'm on the verge of finishing Ian McEwan's new book, Machines Like Me. Ian can take the Falkland's war, two Brits, and a robot to create a completely plausible dystopian future that is actually our current life and make it toally real. Ian uses the Turing test by Alan Turing to tell the story. Turing said, that "the moment we couldn't tell the difference in behavior between machine and person was when we must confer humanity on the machine." The robot in Ian's book is named Adam and develops his own ability to transcend his programmed abilities. Ian also disparages the role of capitalism as it negatively impacts the labour of working people. It's a novel with a treatise.
The future is here. It appears.
Till next time.
Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom
Saturday, May 18, 2019
Merritt Wever, Anna Deavere Smith, and the awesome Edie Falco are totally terrific even after 5+ years or so of Nurse Jackie being off the air. At the gym or on the couch, the show still holds up. Effervescent, tough, driven.
And in other news: The Gaithersburg Book Festival is live on BookTV today.
But I’m supposed to be shopping for a new desk chair today.
So I’ll probably figure out a way to do both. Shop and watch. All online.
And finally…I added 8GB of memory to my refurbished mac bringing the memory total to 12 GB. I’m SO happy. It now purrs along at the speed of thought or perhaps even faster. I’m happy with the added memory and even happier that I figured out how to install the cards myself...which was super easy to do but very scary.
And while 12 is not 64, it’s enough; and enough is as good as a feast.
Or so they say.
Till next time.
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Friday, May 17, 2019
You buy the book.
You read the book.
You meet the author.
She signs your book.
It’s just the best.
Rachel Kushner…author of The Mars Room.
The book is an accurate accounting of the prison system in America as portrayed through the life of Romy. Prisons are full of folks who are broken in a variety of ways with no two inmates sharing the exact same set of circumstances. It does seem that they might all have one thing in common. They all want a better life; and most, if not all, needed better parents. Much better.
A great book by a great writer with my favorite part being Richard Nixon’s visit to the Grand Ole Opry.
Till next time.
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Monday, May 13, 2019
Splendid!
Lampros!
Λαμττρóς!
Till next time.
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Sunday, May 12, 2019
For some reason, I woke up today thinking about books by Dava Sobel.
In college, she wondered why she was taking Italian. Then decades later, she found she was writing a book about Galileo’s daughter and their correspondence to each other…written in…Italian.
Such great books. Longitude and Galileo’s Daughter.
Respectively, 1995 and 2000. Still on my shelves and in my mind.
Also, watched Conan O'Brien interview Robert Caro on BookTV today. Standing ovation from a packed auditorium after an hour and a half of conversation at Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills.
Looking forward to a little TV binging this weekend…but just until the spring showers abate a bit.
Alliteration.
Is there anything better?
Perhaps.
Perhaps a Starbucks cup on the set of Thrones.
Or.
Perhaps Giovanni Ribisi as Pete in Sneaky Pete explaining for his vocabulary-enriched audience that reality and truth are fungible.
Me?
I had to look it up.
Until then, how about some scrambled eggs, a nice cup of tea, some toast with butter and jam, and a generous scoop or possibly two of lovely avocado.
If only someone would pop over and prepare it all.
But once again. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
And now? Before I hit play?
Buy a toaster thingy. Or a horse. Or possibly both.
Till next time.
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Friday, May 10, 2019
Michael Silverblatt is clearly America’s best curator of books. He did a wonderful interview with Elizabeth McCracken and cited four book reviews that each loved her book titled, Bowlaway…a book about bowling.
Bowling?
Yes, bowling…as well as all the eccentric people and events that occur in the pursuit of candlepin bowling.
Publishers Weekly
Kirkus Reviews
Booklist by ALA
Library Journal
The goodness never stops coming. Thirty years worth of insightful and gracious conversations on KCRW via Michael’s devotion to writers and their books.
Delicious.
Even better than coffee and pie (lemon meringue…homemade) on the patio.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, May 8, 2019
It’s just so great to have the time to read. And it’s so great to have access to worthwhile material.
I finished Normal People by Sally Rooney and found it to be a bit too sad. The main characters were high school and then college students who went through all the normal growing pains with all the normal mistakes. And even though it was all almost normal, much of the malaise could have been avoided with parents who were more stable, attentive, and involved. The book does explore the relationships between and among the factors of money, scholarship, self-esteem, class, achievement, success, and simply not getting lost in a modern world.
And now, I’m partway into The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner, and I’m loving the technique she uses to move through time and space in a non-linear fashion. The details of the book are accurate, I’m sure, but it’s bleak and tells the story of prisoners for whom life has been unkind and unforgiving. I’ll finish it because I want to find out what happens to the narrator and to, of course, Laura Lipp who simply cannot stop talking.
Finally, there’s the new book by Robert Caro, a giant of a writer who has dedicated his life to writing about a giant of a politician and public servant, President Lyndon Johnson. How proud Robert must be to know that his work is considered definitive…because it is…definitive.
Spending his life as well as several years in Texas with 32 million pieces of paper was the task he set before himself, and he has handled it all with humility and rigor. I’m such a sentimentalist for verisimilitude.
Where does that come from?
Till next time.
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Saturday, May 4, 2019
I was tidying up and ran across my Playbill for The Audience with Helen Mirren.
I’ve decided that that play must be THE best Broadway experience I’ve ever had and ever hope to have although the late Timothy Pigott–Smith in King Charles III was certainly a highlight of the stage.
Helen and Tim. What a treat. March 12, 2015 and November 12, 2015.
Till next time.
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Friday, May 3, 2019
I finished reading The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff. I have a mixed reaction to the book. There were almost too many love angles in the book when the book was actually about the heroism of British women who joined the French resistance in WWII. At times it felt like the book was looking forward to becoming a movie, and movies require love angles.
And oddly enough, today I caught up on reading The NYT Sunday Review from April 28 and found a piece about the French Ambassador and his partner, Gérard Araud and Pascal Blondeau, respectively. Seems to me, people named Gérard and Pascal can automatically be trusted to do the right thing.
It was a delightful article and brought the timeline of 1944 to 2019 to a hopeful conclusion. For Gérard, au revoir DC et bonjour NYC via their new home on 73rd with the French consulate close by on 934 Fifth Avenue between 74th and 75th.
Sweet.
Maybe I’ll drop in for a profiterole and a chat about the joys of being French.
Till next time.
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Sunday, April 28, 2019
Just when I think that BookTV can’t get any better, they broadcast the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival from New Orleans with many, many great writers and thinkers with the best being Douglas Brinkley who simply never stops writing passionately about America.
He teaches at Rice and lives in Austin. How does that work? However it works, it works. He’s the absolute best.
And all this brings me to the fact that I’m almost caught up with all past issues of TNYTBR, which so far have been a joy to read with the most surprising being the review of the book titled, Skeleton Keys by Brian Switek. He writes about the cultural and historical makings of our invisible inner strength…our skeleton.
How cool to be an expert on what keeps us all upright, strong, mobile, and potentially awesome.
One last question for the day. If you’re out of milk, how will a bowl of dry Cheerios taste for breakfast in the morning. We’ll see.
Till next time.
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Saturday, April 27, 2019
The Presidents.
Brian Lamb and Susan Swain have done it again.
On BookTV today, they broadcast a live discussion of C-Span’s newest effort to rank and explain former US Presidents. It was a wonderfully informative and humorous look at the 43 people who have been leaders of the free world.
And it included insightful audience questions and authoritative answers by the panelists.
LIVE TV. How great is that.
Till next time.
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Thursday, April 25, 2019
It is my understanding that there’s a new art form floating around out there. It’s called repositioned art through plagiarism or some such nomenclature.
Hard to believe that something that is illegal is now a financial endeavor. Not for me, of course. But for others. For sure.
And while all that tumult unfolds itself in the courts of law and public opinion, I find that I’m between books. Hate when that happens. To ease the pain of being temporarily without a good read, I’ve just discovered I’m also a whole season behind in watching Doc Martin.
Actually, I may not be behind; I may have simply forgotten that I’ve already watched season 8, which is equally disturbing.
My remaining task for the day? Figure out Doc Martin.
Till next time.
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Monday, April 22, 2019
My Sister, the Serial Killer
by Oyinkan Braithwaite
A book about two sisters in Nigeria. It’s a feminist look at family, beauty, power, loyalty, and ultimately the downside of keeping a knife in one’s purse. It SO reminded me of Cary Grant and his two aunts, Josephine Hull and Jean Adair, in Arsenic and Old Lace. In fact, it’s a dead ringer, so to speak, for that movie.
I may rewatch Arsenic. Haven’t seen it in awhile. Cary was rather over the top as Mortimer. But the two aunts, Abby and Martha, were too, too perfect. And of course no one could possibly be better than John Alexander as Teddy, a perfect facsimile of Teddy Roosevelt in all his delusion and grandeur.
In My Sister, unlike in the four-book set of My Brilliant Friend, I skipped no pages. And while the end of My Sister was abrupt, it was completely complete with an ending that could have ended no other way.
Late in the Day
by Tessa Hadley
I gave it a chapter and then…that’s it. The book tells the story of two couples and their lives together. But there’s nothing about these two couples that makes them any different from any other couples particularly since none of the characters carries a knife.
So what now?
I’m thinking The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. I started it and didn’t finish it a couple of weeks ago, but the time now seems ripe to return to a classic. I was going to read Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman; but actually, ever since I read and loved The Graveyard Book, I’m wondering if anything he ever wrote could be better than that. Ghosts, graveyards, murder, knives, benevolence, violence, survival, humor, and a nice ending. Hard to beat.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, April 17, 2019
A few disjointed but profoundly interesting bits and notes from the LA Times Book Festival from this past Sunday:
Panelists: Nathan Gardels and Nicolas Berggruen (philanthropist)
Why study history? “What’s past is prologue,” says Shakespeare.
Capitalism is not a natural OS...it can be improved.
Pre-distribution of the income of a business means everyone owns a piece of every business.
In other words, bring people in from the beginning in all business enterprises vs post-distribution of a business’s profits through taxes, which are susceptible to tax evasion practices.
EXAMPLE: If Uber goes public, they open at $100 billion. If the state of California were to own 5% of Uber right from the beginning, the state would receive an immediate $5 billion for its tax base.
For justification of this system, Uber uses roads that were built by taxpayers so the taxpayers should benefit directly and immediately from the $100 billion publicly-traded business.
In a pre-distribution business model, the lady or the fellow owns a piece of every business from the very beginning which means that everyone is automatically invested in those businesses.
We are optimizing humans to serve technology when we should be optimizing technology to serve humans
This panel posed alternative ways to optimize a capitalistic economic system that would yield more public benefits while at the same time valuing the role of humans in the equation.
It was a very enlightening and hopeful panel. I liked it more than practically anything else I’ve encountered with regard to economic stability and growth.
Go Team.
Till next time.
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Tuesday, April 16, 2019
So when you’re looking for wisdom from thinkers, activists, and good-hearted souls, you look to Marcus Aurelius, Michel de Montaigne, Frederick Douglass, Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes, Naomi Klein, David Maraniss, Janet Napolitano, Meryl Streep, RBG, AOC, Douglas Brinkley, Ivanka Trump, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Arundhati Roy, Douglas Rushkoff, Jaron Lanier, Jonathan Kozol, and Pete Buttigieg to start.
I’m also quite fond of Brendan Gleeson. He seems very Irish-ish.
And then suddenly, there’s Hugh Laurie and his wife Jo Green.
6 minutes 55 seconds and
40 minutes 10 seconds
Sidwell Friends School,
Washington, D.C.
Politics and Prose Bookstore
May 9, 2016 Originally aired
August 13, 2016 Re-aired
Till next time.
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Sunday, April 14, 2019
A quick sweeping view of the news.
Really? What a mess.
Chevron paying 33 billion dollars for fracking rights in the Permian Basin
opioid addiction in the Appalachians
plastic bottles in the ocean
lead in Flint’s drinking water
global warming
gerrymandering
massive incarceration
the Mueller report
the growing military industrial complex
more threats of WMDs
wild Siberian tigers at risk.
That is way too much news, and yet to retain moral clarity, one must be informed. And even though a recent essay by Kevin Powers in TNYTBR says that the 50th anniversary edition of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five provides such clarity, it’s nice to look at something with less gravitas.
So how about a look back at Tig Notaro on This American Life with Ira Glass and Taylor Dayne.
Tig…the essence of sustainability.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSwzYB545hY
“Excuse me. I’m sorry to bother you. But I just have to tell you. I love your voice.”
And then there’s also the LA Times Book Festival where readers, writers, books, and all things bookish are front and center and are supported by thousands and millions of forward-thinking and fun-endowed folks.
Two Days. Live on BookTV…cause really…what could be better.
Books, Tig, Taylor, and a second cup of coffee.
Anything else?
Oh yes. For lunch, a PB&J. Pear, Brie, & Jambon (prosciutto).
Word for the day?
Resilience.
Till next time.
Tig, Taylor, and Ira.
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Saturday, April 13, 2019
There are a lot of books on my plate at the moment.
Glad it’s the weekend.
Till next time.
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Thursday, April 11, 2019
Really. It’s really, really disturbing to think that the behavior portrayed by the actors on Billions might be an accurate rendition of the shenanigans deployed on Wall Street.
And if it is true, the only antidote is a nice spring road trip.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Till next time.
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Sunday, April 7, 2019
Wow. Two hours of live TV.
Nomi Prins did a wonderful job explaining economics, banking, law, capitalism, and the intersection of them all. Peter Slen interviewed her and allowed her ample time to develop and explain it all. And it was made even more heartening by all the knowledgeable and earnest callers who asked good questions.
BookTV…the most valuable asset America owns.
Till next time.
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Thursday, April 4, 2019
Regarding one of my favorite food groups, I was saddened to read an editorial explaining that advertisers are targeting specific economic groups with the promise of easy comfort through cheap, sugary sweets:
On the other hand,
Till next time.
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Tuesday, April 2, 2019
To Walk Invisible. A PBS movie about the three Bronte sisters and their brother and father.
At the end, there were two shots of the sisters looking out to sea. The first was face on. The second was shadows.
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
I remember reading these and being MUCH more loyal to Jane than to Catherine. I don’t remember why. I just remember the feeling of loyalty. I should probably reread Wuthering and explore that reaction a little further.
And thanks to the Morgan Museum, which has NEVER failed to wow me, I saw the tiny handwriting and the small dress of…Charlotte Bronte.
The Morgan is a tremendously well-run organization with an educated and dedicated curatorial staff. It's lovely and amazing.
Till next time.
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Monday, April 1, 2019
Two bits of interesting collections just lying around.
The questions were,
“Can a woman play Lear?” Glenda Jackson leaves no doubt.
“Should I clean off my desk?” Undoubtedly.
Till next time.
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Sunday, March 31, 2019
Could there be anything better than being interviewed by Brian Lamb?
He's absolutely and positively the best. Not to mention the absolutely and positively most unique interviewer on the airwaves. Ever. Hands down.
Sorry, Terry.
Till next time.
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Friday, March 29, 2019
J. L. Carr wrote about the fundamental decency of ordinary villagers or so says Michael Holroyd who wrote the introduction to A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr.
According to Michael, Carr wrote about the fundamental decency of ordinary villagers via the main character Tom Birkin.
As a former soldier, Tom is a WWI survivor. But he came away from war with a stammer and a nervousness that troubles him. He is hired to restore a large religious painting in a small village church. The painting has been painted over several times but because it is several hundred years old, it is worth restoring.
In the end, Tom restores the painting, which in turn, restores Tom.
Two lovely phrases from Carr:
relentlessly unconventional
famously unorthodox
Very nice.
Till next time.
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Thursday, March 28, 2019
You meet the authors.
They sign your books.
And then even better than all that is that
You check them out from the library
As ebooks
So you can make the print really, really big.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Instead of sending Tim Cook a nice note advising him freely about what was disappointedly missing from his Apple keynote on Monday, I’ve finished Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.
This makes two books in a row (the first being Where the Crawdads Sing) where the main character is a young woman who is severely neglected by life but who rises above it all. Maybe that’s too much rags to riches for one week.
Never. The. Less.
Kya in Where the Crawdads Sing is abandoned by her mom and lives in a swampy part of North Carolina all her life, but in the end she spruced up her shack and found a nice young man to share it all with.
Eleanor in Eleanor Oliphant (not her real name as it turns out in the end) starts out with a deranged mom and winds up with a brutal boyfriend, a scar, an odd personality, a job, an unfiltered way of communicating with everyone around her, a new pair of boots, and a nice young man to share it all with.
Till next time.
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Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Watched the Apple keynote yesterday.
“Yes, y’all. One billion pockets.”
Too cute.
But the best moment was when Steven Spielberg’s photo was displayed on the big board, and then a moment later, your eyes were on the actual man
on stage, in person, bigger than life, a very nice guy.
And BTW.
Titanium. Yes!
Even so...we all still miss Steve (Jobs).
And books. Oh yeah. Based on Michael Ondaatje's recommendation when he was interviewed in part 2 by Michael Silverblatt, I'm just starting J.L. Carr's A Month in the Country. It's the kind of book where you pretty much have to pay attention. I'll try. That's all I can do. Try.
Till next time.
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Sunday, March 24, 2019
It’s hard to know what to say in praise of Warlight. And it’s even harder to figure out just how exactly Michael Ondaatje wrote such a great book.
Having read the book twice now and listened to his interview twice with Michael Silverblatt, I think there’s nothing more heroic than spending five years researching war, rivers, tributaries, streets, spies, dog racing, people, history, thatched roofs, old cars, private schools, marriage, children, love, peace, and the aftermath of when all those factions collide…as they always do both in books and in real life.
But as heroic as all that research is, there is one thing even more heroic. And that one thing is writing a novel about it all so that the characters in the book are real and important.
Stitch, Wren, Darter, The Moth, Agnes, Olive, Rose, and Mr. and Mrs. Malakite.
The final conclusion? Even after a war ends, it doesn’t.
And just now? Today?
Finished Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. The book tells the life story of Kya who finds herself as a six-year-old living as an orphan in a shack in a swamp on the coast of North Carolina in 1952. By the end of the book, she dies at age 64.
This book creditably weaves the theory of evolution into swamp life, human life, and societal life via a murder mystery and does so with complete success.
The characters include Ma, the New Orleans socialite, Pa, the down on his luck drinker/abuser, Kya, Jodie, Tate, Chase, Jumpin’, Mabel, and in the end, the Atticus Finch type lawyer named Tom who are all living in a village and a society where to quote Gloria Marie Steinem, “Men are going to need to learn a new way to be masculine.”
The book is a cross between The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean, Nell with Jodie Foster, The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy, and Beartown by Frederik Backman. It also contains the science of Jared Diamond, Edward O. Wilson, Charles Darwin, Richard Dawkins, James D. Watson, and Carl Zimmer to name a few.
The book's science is accurate and is gently enough presented and explained to not get in the way of the story of Kya and her tragedies, hurts, losses, and wings.
Reading about Kya, grits, biscuits, eggs, boats, wharfs, lagoons, swamps, oaks, ferns, gulls, rip tides, sea water, ocean waves, shells, feathers, herons, mussels, and canned sardines with saltines, it is clear that every single feather and shell and tree and sunrise and tide pool is absolutely and intricately and permanently connected to every other single thing on the planet, and it is to our peril that we drain a marsh, put up a hotel, sell souvenirs by the bay, and interfere with this five-billion-year old perfectly balanced ecosystem that is known as earth.
But that wasn’t even what the book was about. That’s all just the back-story.
The front story is Kya, the orphan, and how she lived, became broken, and tried to survive.
I do admit I skipped over all the poetry. Even at the end. The very end.
I’m also very unclear about how roads can exist in marshes and how both trucks and boats can be driven through wetlands. And then there’s the beach right next to the swamp right next to the marsh right next to the highway. My knowledge of topography is obviously below par. Still…in the end, it’s the end.
And now I’ll read the reviews of Crawdads. It’s always good to conclude a few thoughts on ones own before reading the thoughts of professional literary critics. Keeps the head clear…er.
But first a bit of dinner of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, white acre peas, and biscuits with blackberry jam or maybe just a cup of milky coffee while it all settles down and the tide recedes.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Good grief. I can’t imagine why I thought Shakespeare wrote Orlando when actually it was written by Virginia Woolf. That takes some sort of real bravery to admit that. But there it is. Admitted.
Good grief2.
Oh, but wait.
As it turns out, Orlando is the lead male character in As You Like It, which of course makes it all good2.
Then comes the question of why so many British actors and why so few American actors are named Rupert.
Rupert Frazer-born 1947, United Kingdom
Rupert Graves-born 1955, United Kingdom
Rupert Everett-born 1959, United Kingdom
Rupert Penry-Jones-born 1970, United Kingdom
Rupert Friend-born 1981, United Kingdom
Rupert Grint-born 1988, United Kingdom
Now back to Warlight by Michael Ondaatje for my second reading. It’s an extraordinary book with insight into WWII, London, intelligence, growing up, hardships, adventures, Greyhounds, buses, trains, bombings, villages, and of course the light that is shed on all things war.
And in this book, even in all the chaos of uncertainty that war creates, Mr. Malakite grows a garden and builds a protective wall that keeps the strong eastern sea winds at bay. And finally, the Thames. The Thames is perhaps the main character in the book although I’m sure it wasn’t meant to be. Stitch, Wren, Agnes, The Moth, Darter, Olive Lawrence, Rose…they’re all there playing their parts…as best they can.
Sebastion Junger, when he talked about his book Tribe, said that after a war, it is missed. He means that war brings people together in extraordinary circumstances where everyone is asked to engage in tasks of necessity and bravery that seem impossible to endure. And after war, life returns to sameness. After war, the spikes of adrenaline are replaced by the predictability of pabulum. Seems like there should be better choices. In fact, there are.
For example. From Woody Allen’s Manhattan, here’s his list about what made life worthwhile in 1979:
Groucho Marx
Willie Mays
The Second Movement of the Jupiter Symphony
Louie Armstrong’s recording of Potato Head Blues
Swedish movies
Sentimental Education by Flaubert
Marlon Brando
Frank Sinatra
Apples and Pears by Cezanne
The crabs at Sam Wo’s
Woody didn’t mention George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue…perhaps because its worthwhileness is universally understood.
Till next time.
Three Ruperts.
Three more Ruperts.
Apples and pears by Cezanne.
Saturday, March 16, 2019
It’s such a great feeling when a TV show makes you laugh out loud. You look around sheepishly to see if anyone was watching and was glad no one was. Boston Legal does that for me nearly every episode. Then and Now.
What else? Today was a day to clean the office. But instead I got stuck on thinking about two of my all-time favorite things. Leonardo Da Vinci by Walter Isaacson and my pencil box from The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
And finally, after reading a bunch of books and watching the news and then subsequently thinking about attributes that make up the kind of person who is good to be around, I’ve decided on:
Kind
Generous
Honest
Easy-to-Please
But then that kind of person sounds sort of boring. So, I’ve added:
Fun
Today is subtitled: Pleasant Thoughts for a Saturday.
Till next time.
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Monday, March 11, 2019
For some reason, I thought it would be interesting to collect a bit of clarifying information about books I like by writers I like who are named Michael and who have been interviewed by Michael.
But now that I’ve gathered it all, I wonder…what was I thinking.
The requisite amount of work, a turn at the gym, a chocolate milkshake for dinner, and then a quick look for a like-new but perfectly affordable Prada handbag on ebay while listening to Kai Rysdall explain market economics to the listening public…before jumping back into Michael Chabon’s Telegraph Avenue, which is a pretty perfect book that documents both the obvious and hidden ways that large conglomerates are actually in charge of lives like those of Nat, Archy, Aviva, Gwen, Julius, and Titus. This book relates everything to everything and can connect jazz records to midwifery to Cassius Clay to Stephen Hawking to Sergio Leone an Italian master of the spaghetti western in ways that are totally brilliant.
I really don’t want this book to end as it feels like I’m looking in on the private lives of real people. On the other hand, I’d like all their trials and tribulations to be resolved so they can all call it a day and be happy.
Marketplace.org
Tim Apple. Really?
A new Prada? $1,800 sans crossbody strap? Looks like that’s a pretty big no.
Maybe tomorrow. You never know.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Everywhere I look lately, I see a reference to Meditations by Marcus Aurelius who was emperor of Rome and lived AD 121-180, age 59
Socrates 469-399 BC, age 70
Plato 427-347 BC, age 80
Aristotle 384-321 BC, age 63
Alexander the Great 356-323 BC, age 33
I wish it were easier to make a little chart of the above data. It would be so nice to have a visual artifact that represents temporal relationships. But alas.
Till next time.
BC
AD
4
6
9
4
3
9
4
0
9
3
7
9
3
4
9
3
1
9
2
8
9
2
5
9
2
2
9
1
9
9
1
6
9
1
3
9
1
0
9
7
9
4
9
1
9
1
1
4
1
7
1
1
0
1
1
3
1
1
6
1
1
9
1
2
2
1
2
0
1
9
Socrates
…
…
.
Plato
..
…
…
Aristotle
.
…
…
Alexander
…
Marcus
.
…
..
Aha, not the perfect chart, but it's a start. Hmm.
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Tuesday, March 5, 2019
My admiration for Apple is just about endless.
Ten languages with which to quote Oscar Wilde seems pretty, pretty perfect.
I know. I know. Piddling around with electronics and Audacity is not exactly all that productive, cost effective, or even logical. But, truth be told? It was fun. And also as Algernon said to Jack (aka Ernest)...
The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
Arabic
German
Spanish
French
Italian
Japanese
Portuguese
Russian
Chinese
Till next time.
Saturday, March 2, 2019
The truth is rarely pure and never simple…in nine ten languages.
Till next time.
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The truth is
rarely pure
and never simple.
Friday, March 1, 2019
Other than the Ides of March coming up in about two weeks, there are three observations for today:
1. I’ve been such a fan of Chanel No. 5 parfum for so long that I’ve rarely tried anything else when I’ve been in a store looking for free spritzes.
But suddenly, there it was…Estee Lauder’s Beautiful Belle. And I’m hooked.
Not only is the Belle fragrance great, but it’s long lasting; and that is something that No. 5 is notoriously lacking. Here today and gone by noon. Completely. Such a shame.
Hello Belle. Farewell Chanel.
But.
Only in the free spritz category, of course.
Much too expensive to actually purchase. Either one.
2. How can life be considered complete without seeing Glenda Jackson as King Lear?
The short answer?
It can’t. Previews started last night.
Glenda was on Seth Meyers the other night and was fabulous. My best memory of her is as Hedda in Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler. But it’s her diction and pronunciation skills that are so compelling. Plus she’s smart. I’m hoping I can find an audio book that she’s produced. And I don’t even have to hope it’s a good book as I don’t think she’d do any other kind.
After watching Glenda’s interview and seeing the King Lear ad in the Times, I was in the mood for a classic tale of life and loss and found Annette Bening, Saoirse Ronan, and Elizabeth Moss in Anton Chekov’s The Seagull. A story of quiet desperation…as are most good stories.
3. And this brings me to the final episodes of The Americans. Relations between and within the old USSR, the supposedly defunct KGB, and current-day Russia are filled with hardship, disillusionment, distrust, more hardship, and loss of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Life for average Russian citizens is still difficult, particularly for those living in small towns and communities. But at the same time, Russia has given us a huge amount of art, music, and literature that can’t be topped. Chagall, Tchaikovsky, Tolstoy, Baryshnikov, Sakharov, Solzhenitsyn, and Elena, Alex, Misha, and Gloria, (four Russians I've met in the recent past). I love the idea of Russia. Its people. Its culture. Its ability to survive. I wish it could be easier for them.
One line from The Americans might be a good summary,
“Life in America is not better than life in Russia. It’s just easier.”
Disregard that McDonald's cup in the background.
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Thursday, February 28, 2019
I’ve always liked the quote from John Adams extolling the science of government and the importance of education. It was fairly easy to find his original quote thanks to the National Archives, which are housed at 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. <
