Daily Diversion #71: I Just Can’t Stop

Posted on November 15, 2012 by maedez

Just when you thought it was safe, I post another winery photo. This is the last one, though. I promise. Go ahead, you can trust me.

Shelton Vineyards, North Carolina

Hemingway Liked to Drink? Who Knew?

Posted on November 14, 2012 by maedez

In case you were wondering, I didn’t type that with a straight face.

Hemingway’s Favorite Cocktail Recipes [Courtesy of Huff Post Books]

Which of these cocktails would you drink? I’ll take a Bailey, please.

The Dead Writers Round-Up: 14th-18th November

Posted on November 14, 2012 by maedez

Astrid Lindgren was born on 11/14/1907. “I have been very interested in labor movement. If I could have wished another life, I would have loved to be a pioneer woman in the beginning of labor movement.” (The Pippi Longstocking books)
Booker T. Washington died on 11/14/1915. “If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” (Up from Slavery; Working With the Hands)
Marianne Moore was born on 11/15/1887. “If technique is of no interest to a writer, I doubt that the writer is an artist.” (Poems; Selected Poems; The Marianne Moore Reader) Continue reading →

Quote

Posted on November 13, 2012 by maedez

“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.”-Victor Hugo

Daily Diversion #70: A Life of Lumpy Leisure

Posted on November 13, 2012 by maedez

When I’m not writing or reading, I’m taking snaps of the boys. Crosley and Duncan are truly my wet-nosed, slobbering, warm-eared Daily Diversions. Cros shows up on the blog more frequently because he spends most of his day sleeping on various lumpy things, his head on a pillow. It hasn’t been tested but I’m confident that Duncan has enough energy to power, at the very least, a four slice toaster. He doesn’t sit still for more than a few seconds. Today’s diversion features you-know-who, doing you-know-what. Imagine that.

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.”-Groucho Marx

Inspiration Board: Everything Old is New Again

Posted on November 12, 2012 by maedez

What follows is a mad cyclone of some of the oddly delectable bits and bobs setting my head and heart on fire this early November, vintage-style.

Maude Abrantes by Amedeo Modigliani, 1907

US Suffrage Map, 1920

Leatrice Joy

Joe Strummer. Always Joe Strummer.

Kiki de Montparnasse by Gustaw Gwozdecki, 1920

Louise Brooks, 1930

Opel Catalog, 1904

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1868

Zelda Fitzgerald, 1922

Mabel Normand, 1917

Cover of The Yellow Book by Aubrey Beardsley, 1894

William Butler Yeats, 1908

Solita Solano and Djuna Barnes in Paris, 1922. Look familiar?

Norma Talmadge on the cover of Photoplay, December 1929

Clyde Fitch’s Greatest Comedy, Girls

Voices from the Grave #45: John Masefield Reading ‘The West Wind’

Posted on November 12, 2012 by maedez

This animation is a bit, shall we say, weird. I like it, but then no one has ever called me normal. I’m including it here because it features audio of John Masefield reading his poem, The West Wind.

A Year in Books/Day 218: Max Factor’s Hollywood Glamour

Posted on November 11, 2012 by maedez

Title: Max Factor’s Hollywood Glamour
Author: Fred E. Basten (with Robert Salvatore & Paul A. Kaufman)
Year Published: 1995 (W. Quay Hays)
Year Purchased: 2003/2004
Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
About: Max Factor isn’t just a name on wands of mascara and tubes of lipstick found in the beauty aisle at your local grocery store. The Max Factor cosmetics line wasn’t invented and branded by impersonal, slick-suited admen in a glossy boardroom. He was a pioneer who not only shaped and defined the aesthetics of classic cinema (from glamour girls to tough guys and everything in between) but he brought make-up to the masses in a way that was, and is, distinctly modern. His genius for invention and marketing, as well as his humble beginnings in Central Europe, make his story a neat parallel to those of the movie moguls who were his contemporaries. Continue reading →