February 2012
60 posts
On a Clear Day, One Cannot See Forever
Outside, the blue of the sky — it’s summer azure with none of the sultriness — should promise something grand and wonderful. It doesn’t. I cannot smell adventure in the air that’s burning from the blaze of the sun. I cannot take flight. I am not myself today. Then again I have not been myself the past few weeks. I feel like a piece of trash lost in a garbage dump. I...
“It’s market day in Cortona. The piazza is an ongoing party and everyone is...”
– From Audrey Wells’ Under the Tuscan Sun [2003]
WatchInspired, in equal measures, by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a story of people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favor. Morris Lessmore is a poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story. This is one of five animated short films that will be considered for...
Anatomy of a Tear-Jerker →
Why does Adele’s “Someone Like You” make everyone cry? Science has found the formula. The Wall Street Journal’s Michaeleen Doucleff writes: “What explains the magic of Adele’s song? Though personal experience and culture play into individual reactions, researchers have found that certain features of music are consistently associated with producing strong...
The Voice: Whitney Houston (1963-2012) →
Time’s Howard Chua-Eoan writes: “In the end, the private Whitney Houston was in a hell that perhaps no one will fully plumb. It may be of some comfort that her travails are over. What will never be forgotten is the glory of her voice, the ease with which she projected it into the universe and the way she made us want to sing along, carried by its optimism and its promise – no matter...
“Writers are straight up, batshit insane people. You should never fall in love...”
– Don Jaucian
“What, are you supposed to just die when you’re 40? You’re just...”
– Madonna, on ageism in our culture — the frightful thing being that I’m getting this myself a lot these days
“It’s so frustrating to have the faith in which I have such faith so...”
– John Shore, on priests and pastors espousing doctrines of hate and discrimination.
[swiped from jimparedes]
“I offer you the memory of a yellow rose seen at sunset, years before you were...”
– Jorge Luis Borges, from Two English Poems
“Don’t be defeatist, dear. It’s very middle class.”
– Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey
“We start over. When there is nothing left to do, and there is nowhere else to...”
– Ramona Ausubel, No One is Here Except All of Us