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The Fluttering of Things Going ‘Round (and Sometimes Away, and Sometimes Back)
[Video: La Fée des Grèves, or The Fairy of the Surf, a 1909 silent film by Louis Feuillade, dubbed "film's first fairy tale" by the Film: Ab Initio blog] From whiskey river: A Blessing For Absence May you know that absence is full of tender presence And that nothing is ever lost or forgotten. May [...]
Real-Life Dialogue (Remote Possibility Edition)
[The scene: a home in suburban northwest Florida. He and She are in the living room, watching TV (by way of a satellite-TV DVR). She clicks the remote control, pausing the show in progress to ask Him a question. Discussion complete, She clicks the "un-pause button" to resume viewing. Nothing happens.] She: It’s not doing [...]
In the Dark, (Un)Watching the Watcher
[Image: The Night Watch, by Rembrandt van Rijn. Click the photo for a larger view. For more information about the painting, see the note at the foot of this post.] From whiskey river: Desert Places Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast In a field I looked into going past, And the ground almost [...]
A Quirky Eclectic Christmas Mix (2010 ed.)
Just the latest in an annual series… All I’m going to do for the music portion here, as before, is just add ten songs (and pray that, over time, I won’t blow the little WordPress audio-player thingie out of the water). For the first time, I’m including a couple of newer songs. But I don’t [...]
$25 Worth of Hallmark Cards Just Turned to Ashes
in My Hands
Videographer, filmmaker, camera operator, whatever you want to call him, Jared Foster makes some very sweet video-based “family Christmas cards.” Here’s his first, from a couple of years ago (over the voices of Bing Crosby The Drifters, I’m pretty sure, and “White Christmas”): …and here’s last year’s (Squirrel Nut Zippers, “Winter Weather”): You can see [...]
Useful Typos, and the Voice of the Muse
[Video: the "Red Room" scene from the last episode of Twin Peaks. I've adjusted the starting point to begin at what's relevant to this post; if you don't want to watch the whole thing, you can stop it at about 2:04.] I have zero training as a typist, but type pretty fast anyhow just from, [...]
Experience, Meet Hope
[Video: "Wiley vs. Rhodes," a live-action Road Runner cartoon] From whiskey river: Ten Thousand Idiots It is always a danger to aspirants on the Path when they begin to believe and act as if the ten thousand idiots who so long ruled and lived inside have all packed their bags and skipped town or died. [...]
The Right Look. The Only Look.
A little what-if exercise. Here’s the setup: Imagine you’re living in a country — or maybe *cough* an institution — with a peculiar sort of dress code. You may wear anything you want there… but once you choose it, you must wear it forever. Not the same exact article of clothing, of course: I just [...]
Rummaging
Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry, has for the moment taken up graphic novels. (She illustrates as well as writes them.) The first installment in a planned series of them, The Night Bookmobile, was published in September. From a recent interview with Niffenegger at the Newsarama.com site (italics added): [...]
When Bad Writing Throws Down with Good Intentions, Which Wins?
Bad Writing, per its production company: …is a documentary about a wannabe poet who sets off on a quest for answers about writing — bad writing, good writing, and the process in between. What he learns from some leading figures in the literary world will inspire anyone who has ever dreamt of creating art. Here’s [...]
