Daily Archives: July 18, 2012

The Dead Writers Round-Up: 18th-21st July

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  • William Makepeace Thackeray was born on 7/18/1811. “A good laugh is sunshine in the house.”
  • Jane Austen died on 7/18/1817. “A person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill.”
  • Clifford Odets was born on 7/18/1906. “Life shouldn’t be printed on dollar bills.”
  • Hunter S. Thompson was born on 7/18/1937. “Buy the ticket, take the ride.”
  • Hart Crane was born on 7/21/1899. “Love: a burnt match skating in the urinal.”
  • Ernest Hemingway was born on 7/21/1899. “As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.”

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

 

Daily Diversion #27: Duncan 0, Ghost Crabs 1,987

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I’m still toiling away at my Colossally Annoying Studio Clean-Out Project, Version 2012. I’m 90 percent there, aesthetically speaking. It took many dedicated hours to reach this point. A mental weight of approximately 999 pounds has been lifted! Unfortunately, the hard work is about to begin: sorting through the papers and notebooks hiding away in drawers and cabinets. Egads, do not get me started on this or I will shrink away in horror from the task. To right my mind, before dutifully getting back to my boring task, I am going to leave you with some cuddly puppy photographs as my Daily Diversion. It beats a progress photo of my studio any day.

Jennifer over at Quirk’n It made me think about crabs and, when I think about crabs, I think about my honeymoon. No, do not go there. We are discussing crustaceans here. Focus, people. This is a clean web-site (well, mostly). Enjoy these photos of my sweet dog, and wedding present, Duncan, trying his mightiest to catch a ghost crab (any ghost crab) on the beach in front of our honeymoon condo. He tried for a week, and came up empty after every effort.

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A Year in Books/Day 175: Memo from David O. Selznick

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  • Title: Memo from David O. Selznick
  • Selected and Edited by: Rudy Behlmer (With an Introduction by S.N. Behrman)
  • Year Published: 1972 (The Viking Press)
  • Year Purchased: 1990s
  • Source: Antique Barn, Ohio State Fair
  • About: Over the years, and quite by accident, I have amassed a nice sub-section to my Cinema Library, what I call The Lives and Times of Ruthless Moguls. This book started it all. The memos, covering the years 1926-1962, provide us with intimate access to the professional dealings and private concerns of one of the most powerful men in Hollywood during the greatest years of the studio system. Continue reading →

A Year in Books/Day 174: Blumenfeld Photographs

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  • Title: Blumenfeld Photographs A Passion for Beauty
  • Author: William A. Ewing
  • Year Published: 1996 (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers)
  • Year Purchased: 2010
  • Source: My lovely Momma
  • About: Before reading this book, I could recognize some of the more iconic images of Berlin-born photographer Erwin Blumenfeld as his, but I knew nothing of his life. Although I place value on my own emotional responses to art, music and literature, and as a parallel it could certainly be argued that the end product is all the biography we need, I love back stories, perspective; I’m obsessively curious about context, facts, and individual versions of the creative process. Artistic pathways fascinate me. The 235 illustrations in this thick coffee table volume are, of course, extraordinary. From erotica to fashion to adverts, it is all here; the experimental nature of his work is stunningly apparent. All are sumptuous, provocative, memorable. The biggest revelation for me-and it really was a revelation, make no mistake-is the extensive text, which, in forming a serious and detailed biography, echoes back to my love of concrete information. This two-sided approach gives us a bigger picture (ha!) than either traditional biographies or coffee table retrospectives usually offer. The result is aesthetically pleasing and deeply satisfying.
  • Motivation: I love coffee table books and vintage photography.
  • Times Read: Once
  • Random Excerpt/Page 32: “It is more than likely that Blumenfeld’s mind had not been entirely focused on his work. Ever since his arrival in the Netherlands-indeed, since he had fallen in love with Lena just prior to the war-he had been making art, partly to communicate this passion, partly as a release from the mundane pressures of daily life, and partly as a means of expressing his outrage over the war and the bankrupt values which, in his view, had brought it about.”
  • Happiness Scale: 8 1/2