Monthly Archives: June 2012

Daily Diversion #16: Summer Transiency*

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A sun-dappled view

A sun-dappled view among the shades

The views from the graveyard go on forever; they cross steep hills, tumble into valleys, and cross a breathtaking expanse of sky, all the while skipping across centuries. A sense of peace echoes about the place, and follows you wherever you look. Close your eyes, and it is still there. Tumult is absent. It is okay to step softly across the sod, and smile.

*”He loved, beneath all this summer transiency, to feel the earth’s spine beneath him.”-Virginia Woolf, Orlando

 

A Year in Books/Day 158: Bloomsbury Recalled

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  • Title: Bloomsbury Recalled
  • Author: Quentin Bell
  • Year Published: 1995 (Columbia University Press)
  • Year Purchased: 2002/2003
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: The author was the younger son of Vanessa and Clive Bell, two central figures in the Bloomsbury group (which was really just a loose network of friends, family and acquaintances). His aunt was, of course, novelist Virginia Woolf. Bloomsbury Recalled is his brief but excellently engaging memoir of the fascinating adults who formed his parents’ social and professional circles from WWI to the start of the next  great international conflict at the end of the 1930s. The little boy who grew up in a sticky web of conflicting personalities and crossed goals became an accomplished polymath with a distinctive, intelligent and highly amusing voice. His relaxed nature, probing wit and compelling birthright give this book a sparkle that the average Bloomsbury retrospective sorely lacks.
  • Motivation: Bloomsbury? Check. A relatively unbiased insider’s view? Check. Writers, artists and theorists? Oh my! Seriously, this book covers one of my favourite literary periods. That is reason enough.

    English: Portrait of Clive Bell

    English: Portrait of Clive Bell (Photo credit: Wikipedia). The author’s father.

  • Times Read: 3
  • Random Excerpt/Pages 11 & 12 : “I was not alarmed. I was convinced that I was not really consumptive; also, apart from the cough and high temperature, I did not feel at all ill. I enjoyed some fierce arguments with a clergyman, managed to do a little painting, and embarked upon historical research on the principality of Monaco for which I was totally unqualified.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10

A Year in Books/Day 157: Selected Poems & Letters of Emily Dickinson

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  • Title: Selected Poems & Letters of Emily Dickinson
  • Editor: Robert N. Linscott
  • Year Published: First edition:1959/This edition: ???? (An Anchor Book)
  • Year Purchased: 2001/2002
  • Source: This was a hand-me-down from a long-time friend.
  • About: If Emily Dickinson was alive and writing today, she would probably blog her poetry under a pseudonym. Since she was born in 1830, she composed reams of golden verse and hoarded them away in dark bureau corners. After she confined herself to home-a situation that was gradual, and not a fierce, sudden statement-she kept up with the outside world via the epistolary arts. Letters make the best (auto)biographies. They are a time capsule, a locus for self-mythology and the only genuine source of a person’s thoughts, feelings and actual opinions. For these reasons, I have long loved volumes with the chutzpah and heart (not to mention access to original material) to combine professional output with personal words. This book is a winner all around.
  • Motivation: Emily Dickinson is one of my preferred poets. Neruda is always and ever in the top spot, but she holds a place of honour in the court.
  • Times Read: Cover-to-cover:2/Random poems: countless
  • Random Excerpt/Page 288: “You wonder why I write so. Because I cannot help. I like to have you know some care-so when your life gets faint for its other life, you can lean on us. We won’t break, Mary. We look very small, but the reed can carry weight.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10+++
    Emily Dickinson

    Ubiquitous Emily Dickinson photo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     

Daily Diversion #15: Road to Nowhere

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The road to nowhere…..

The Road to Nowhere

We’ll take that ride

[ We’ve walked this quiet path before. Started, only to stop and turn around precisely where the road drops off at the top of this photograph: discouraged by time or weather or the onset of a sudden, strange ennui. This time, encouraged by a chorus of chirping birds, and enveloped in a moving and pervasive sense of calm, we persevered.]

Ends Somewhere

We’re on the road to paradise

….always ends somewhere.

A Year in Books/Day 156: Merchant of Dreams

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  • Title: Merchant of Dreams Louis B. Mayer, M.G.M., and the Secret Hollywood
  • Author: Charles Higham
  • Year Published: 1993 (A Laurel Book)
  • Year Purchased: 2000?
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: This is not a nice, unicorns and rainbows biography; nor does it go to great lengths to throw dirt on its subject. Any dirt tossed about was thoroughly earned by the actions of Mayer. It relies heavily on interviews with people who worked with the M.G.M. head  who, although willing to engage in breathtakingly awful antics to further his studio, made an incomparable contribution to Hollywood history. He was one of the leading architects in making it a place of mind, and not just a spot on the map. The mythology that he helped put in place is still screwing with our minds a  century later. Merchant of Dreams also succeeds in humanizing Mayer. Even if he isn’t likable or particularly respectable, he is interesting, controversial  and successful-three qualities that would make him an ideal subject for a biopic of his own.
  • Motivation: My passion for cinema history goes deeper than knowing films and their players; I love the machinations and inner workings of the entire system, down to every behind the scenes contributor–no matter how obscure or powerful. Mayer was definitely the latter.
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 25: “Work, constant work was the Puritan solution for grief, and the young Louis B. Mayer worked desperately hard in the first months of 1914. He was determined to build himself up as a motion picture distributor, taking on all comers.”
  • Happiness Scale: 9

    English: Louis B Mayer at the "Torch Song...

    English: Louis B Mayer at the “Torch Song” movie premiere in Los Angeles, Calif., 1953 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A Year in Books/Day 155: The Trouble with Thirteen

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  • Title: The Trouble with Thirteen
  • Author: Betty Miles
  • Year Published: 1979 (An Avon Flare Book)
  • Year Purchased: 1986
  • Source: Book fair at an authors conference
  • About: This one is obviously left over from my extreme youth. The plot is simple-the growing pains of two twelve-year-old girls. Even though I was of an age with the heroines, I was intellectually years beyond this book; I read it in half an hour, and immediately returned to better things. I’m fairly certain that the “honesty” of this slim volume was pretty quaint when it was first published in the late 1970s. Even though there is a quote from the Christian Science Monitor on the cover comparing Miles to Judy Blume, that is some real nonsense. However, I bought (and kept) it for a very specific reason. See below to find out why. Continue reading →

A Year in Books/Day 154: The Portable Dorothy Parker

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  • Title: The Portable Dorothy Parker
  • Author: Dorothy Parker (with an introduction by Brendan Gill)
  • Year Published: This Edition-1976 (Penguin Books)
  • Year Purchased: 2005
  • Source: The Book Loft, Columbus, Ohio
  • About: I’d like to think that Dorothy Parker needs no introduction, so I am not writing one. She engenders fierce loyalty in readers or, for those of a different mind-set, strong distaste. If you are known to curl up your tongue at her superior wit, and excellent writing, well, at least we know up front that we are from two different planets. Continue reading →

A Wild Tonic in the Rain

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The Daisy Buchanan print that I ordered a couple of weeks ago arrived today via the post.

Please do not bend

Please do not bend

She is in tip-top condition after a long trip across the Atlantic. Here she is, looking even better in person than I dared hope.

Daisy Buchanan by Skies Dream Blue

Daisy Buchanan by Skies Dream Blue-“The exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic in the rain.”

Yes, she is modeled after Carey Mulligan (the star of the upcoming Baz Luhrmann film adaptation). The best part? Daisy had an unexpected traveling companion….

Jane Eyre by Skies Dream Blue

Jane Eyre by Skies Dream Blue-“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being, with an independent will; which I now exert to leave you.”

Jane Eyre! Artist Grace Hamilton threw her in, gratis. Charlotte would be proud, I think. If you love literary or cinematic art, with a strong, unique style, be sure to check out her lovely, inspiring Etsy shop here. She is a joy to deal with.