Monthly Archives: May 2012

A Year in Books/Day 132: Whatever became of…? All New Ninth Series

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  • Title: Whatever became of…? All New Ninth Series Over 100 profiles of the most asked about personalities from television series, documentaries, and movies
  • Author: Richard Lamparski
  • Year Published: 1985 (Crown Publishers, Inc.)
  • Year Purchased: 1990/1991
  • Source: Antique Barn vendor, the Ohio State Fair
  • About: The cover tag says it all, so I won’t rehash what you just read 5 lines above. The best thing about Lamparski’s series is who he focuses on: B-movie and television stars, flashes in the pan, and former A-listers who, through fickle chance, faded into obscurity instead of attaining permanent icon status.
  • Motivation: I was a teenager when I found these books at the public library. I was deep in the early rapturous phase of discovering old movies. I was also a theatre student. To this day, many of my favourite actors and actresses are the little-remembered also-rans.
  • Times Read: Countless
  • Random Excerpt/Page 74: “When her parents were cast in the touring company of No, No, Nanette Leila (Hyams) remained in New York City, studying dramatic acting while she supported herself by modeling. Oliver Clive, a noted artist of the time, called her “The Golden Girl” because of the delicate coloring of her skin and hair. According to the New York Times she was the first model to appear in advertisements for Listerine mouthwash.”
  • Happiness Scale: 9 (even in our IMDB universe)

Voices from the Grave #19: Ernest Hemingway

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This week’s Voices from the Grave is a bit different: Hemingway isn’t reading anything. In fact, we don’t hear his voice at all. It’s :53 of stock footage of the American writer, with a voice-over by a nameless narrator. It is interesting in its own time-capsule-esque way.

The sportsman we have seen standing by the giant fish, the fallen lion.

A Year in Books/Day 131: After the Fall

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  • Title: After the Fall A Play in Two Acts/Final Stage Version
  • Author: Arthur Miller
  • Year Published: 1964/This edition: 1987 (Penguin Books)
  • Year Purchased: 1990/1991
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: No matter how hard I want it to be otherwise, After the Fall has always left a bad taste in my mouth. Although he’s not my favourite American playwright, I love Arthur Miller. I do. My love even survived not only reading Death of a Salesman (which I adore) in my high school AP English class, but watching multiple film and television adaptations over the course of a few days. That’s asking too much, yet my love and respect remained intact. After the Fall, based on his relationship with second wife Marilyn Monroe, goes a step too far for my taste. The whole enterprise, although undoubtedly cathartic for Miller, is tainted by the too-fresh dirt of his ex-wife’s grave. All writers write, to one extent or another, about people they know and experiences they have. (I’m no different.) I’d like to think that most of us are sensible or compassionate enough to do it from behind at least a slightly opaque veil, without dozens of raw and neon-bright references to friends and family. Especially when they were-and remain-one of the most famous people in the world. If you were to reduce the play to just Maggie’s lines, it would almost read like an autobiographical monologue by Monroe. Unless you do that to yourself, it’s a bit icky. Now here’s where I must pause and tell a tale on myself: if After the Fall was top-notch Miller, I’d probably be more forgiving. I know I’m a hypocrite but great writing gets me every time. This isn’t great writing; it’s a curiosity piece, an exercise in egoism, condescension and hand-washing. It’s not a good look for one of America’s best playwrights.
  • Motivation: I’ve loved plays for nearly as far back as I can remember; not just in performance, but in text. I would read aloud all of the parts, like some sort of egocentric table reading. I guess I was theatrically inclined even then, loving the interplay between words and action that is missing from straight fiction. I wrote my first play in the 5th grade. Even though the short story is my (near exclusive) fiction medium, I write with play craft in mind.
  • Times Read: 3 or 4
  • Random Excerpt/Page 84: “That decency is murderous! Speak truth, not decency. I curse the whole high administration of fake innocence! I declare it, I am not innocent-nor good!”
  • Happiness Scale: 6 for subject matter and over all execution/10 for the few passages where Miller’s writing soars
    Arthur Miller, American playwright

    Arthur Miller, American playwright (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     

[Alternative Muse of the Month] Katherine Mansfield Fun Facts!

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In honour of our first Alternative Muse of the Month, we are preparing to go into Official Katherine Mansfield Mode. Until then, here are some random facts about the short story writer.

  • Kathleen (Katherine) Mansfield Beauchamp was born in Wellington, New Zealand on 14 October 1888.
  • Her cousin was writer Elizabeth von Arnim (Mary Annette Beauchamp), best known for her novels The Enchanted April and Mr. Skeffington.
  • Her second husband was English writer John Middleton Murry.
  • Her best writing was done during her final, tuberculosis-plagued years.
  • She was an excellent cellist.
  • She was highly influenced by Anton Chekhov.
  • Her brother Leslie was killed in World War I.
  • She spent her last months desperately seeking a cure for the tuberculosis that eventually killed her on 9 January 1923. She died at Georges Gurdjieff’s Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in Fontainebleau, France.
  • She remains one of the most important-and best-short story writers of the 20th century.

 

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Daily Diversion #6: Hunter S. Thompson Wants You….to Drink

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We recently checked out the hot new taco/tequila/whiskey place in an “up-and-coming” part of town that we frequent. (Note: In this case, “up-and-coming” means semi-gentrified with a side order of flying bullets.) A stack of these cards was sitting on the bar.

Hunter S. Thompson Recipe Card

“The Dirty Bird”

The food was good, the tequila was excellent. Seeing Hunter S. Thompson looking up at me from behind dark glasses was a bit of unexpected fun. Now, on to the other side:

Red Headed Stranger Recipe Card

Red Headed Stranger Recipe Card

Hmmm, ginger and bitters are two of my favourite things. I’ll probably go back just to try this. Oh, and let’s face it: I’m a sucker for dead writers. If they put a Virginia Woolf Gin Fizz on the menu, I’ll never leave.

The Dead Writers Round-Up: 12th-15th May

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  • Amy Lowell died on 5/12/1925. “Take everything easy and quit dreaming and brooding and you will be well guarded from a thousand evils.”
  • Daphne du Maurier was born on 5/13/1907. “Time will mellow it, make it a moment for laughter. But now it was not funny, now I did not laugh. It was not the future, it was the present. It was too vivid, too real.” (from Rebecca)
  • Jean Rhys died on 5/14/1979. “Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.”
  • L. Frank Baum was born on 5/15/1856. “Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.”
  • Emily Dickinson died on 5/15/1886. “Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.”
  • Katherine Anne Porter was born on 5/15/1890. Her The Collected Stories won the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

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[All images are in the public domain and are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]

 

[11 May 2012] This Week’s Lessons in Reading and Writing

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  • My Nook e-Book reader is my friend.
  • Bram Stoker’s Dracula is even better than I remembered.
  • Waking up a little earlier than normal is great for my writing brain.
  • Buying a fat stack of books is a natural high.
  • Success is at least 50% discipline, organization and perseverance. Self-promotion doesn’t hurt any, either.
  • I don’t hear pounding on my front door when I am in the writing zone. Which still does not give someone the right to walk in uninvited, even if this is an apartment. Ahem.
  • I’m not as attractive as I think I am when I am writing. I’m usually quite disheveled, apparently. Perhaps even wild-eyed. Whatever. This is what creation looks like, people. We don’t all look as preppy as Sylvia Plath whilst in thrall to the muse.
  • Taking a holiday-including from writing, however brief-is soul-illuminatingly wonderful.

A Year in Books/Day 130: Passionate Minds

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  • Screenshot of Mae West from the trailer for th...

    Screenshot of Mae West from the trailer for the film I’m No Angel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

    Title: Passionate Minds Women Rewriting the World

  • Author: Claudia Roth Pierpont
  • Year Published: 2000 (Vintage Books)
  • Year Purchased: 2002
  • Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
  • About: This is a subject close to my heart, and one that I frequently write about: women writers. Especially dead women writers. Twelve women (with different view-points, strengths and contributions), twelve in-depth profiles: each chapter is a study in grace, perseverance, individuality and talent. The subjects present interesting juxtapositions, from the expected (Gertrude Stein) to the controversial (Margaret Mitchell, Ayn Rand); the forgotten (Olive Schreiner) to the unexpected (Mae West). It offers complexity where so often there is indifference or cliché; it’s uplifting and respectful without resorting to heroine worship. Brisk and engrossing, you’ll be hard-pressed to put it down without finishing it in one straight read.
  • Motivation: DEAD WOMEN WRITERS.
  • Times Read: 3
  • Random Excerpt/Page 81: “Because there were no available acting roles for a woman who drove men wild and enjoyed them in bed by the dozen and gave as good as she got and didn’t want to marry and never suffered for any of it, Mae West had to become a writer before she could be a movie star.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10

Visiting The Book Loft in Columbus: Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?

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Books. I love ’em. If you’ve been following my Project 366 (A Year in Books) you know that I am not picky about where I buy them. Although I play no favourites, there is one bookstore I could happily spend the rest of my life in: The Book Loft in Columbus. It is my paradise, my succor. My idea of the happiest place on earth. Time stops in its narrow aisles and cramped corners. Continue reading →