Author Archives: maedez

Unknown's avatar

About maedez

Writer, biographer, poet. History nerd, silent movie maven. Punk rocker, amateur baker, bookworm. Cricket fan, Scotch drinker, craft beer snob.

A Year in Books/Day 38: Bedside Book of Famous French Stories

Posted on by
Reply
  • Title: Bedside Book of Famous French Stories
  • Edited By: Belle Decker and Robert N. Linscott
  • Year Published: 1945 (Random House)
  • Year Purchased: 1991
  • Source: Columbus Public Library, library sale
  • About: A compilation of French short stories by such heavyweights as Honore de Balzac, Prosper Merimee, George Sand, Anatole France, Emile Zola and Jean-Paul Sartre.
  • Motivation: Even as a teenager, I had an affinity for short stories. I think I knew that, as a writer, it would be my most natural (fiction) medium. This book was my introduction to the work of those listed above. Prior to that, they were just enticing but empty names. I also really love old books. I picked up an 80-year-old copy of Zola’s ‘Nana’ at the same sale. It was a good day.
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 23: “The old lady meanwhile, passive as a child and almost dazed, sat down on her chair again. But the honest pastry-cook came back directly. A countenance red enough to begin with, and further flushed by the bake-house fire, was suddenly blanched; such terror perturbed him that he reeled as he walked, and stared about him like a drunken man.”
  • Happiness Scale: 7 1/2
    English: Emile Zola, French writer, at the beg...

    Image via Wikipedia

     

A Year in Books/Day 37: The Reel List

Posted on by
Reply
  • Title: The Reel List An Irreverent Guide Arranged by Uncommon Categories, from Rock ‘n’ Roll to Revisionist Westerns
  • Author: Lynne Arany, Tom Dyja, and Gary Goldsmith
  • Year Published: 1995 (A Detal Book/Published by Dell Publishing)
  • Year Purchased: 1996/1997
  • Source: Little Professor Book Company
  • About: The subtitle gets to the point better than I could. I’ll add that some of the categories are a hoot, and let them ‘speak’ for themselves-The Butler Did It; Hot Rock Rip-Offs & Other Capers; The Aesthetics of Elvis; Adulteries to Remember.
  • Motivation: One of the points you will see me assert repeatedly is how much I love movies. I really, really do. Mostly old ones, but I digress. I also love lists. No, let me take that a step of 932 further: I need lists. They are a lifelong and basic requirement to my happiness and well-being, one of the tools I use to keep my untidy and wildly fertile mind in some semblance of order. This book is a winner on dual fronts.
  • Times Read: 2
  • Random Excerpt/Page 110: “The best thing about movie cats is that precious few of them belong to sensitive tykes with no friends. These cats have sex, work for the FBI, come from outer space, even rise from the dead, and the last thing they’d ever do is wander cross-country to find a beloved owner. Apparently these inert lumps of fur can be interesting when they want to be.

    A photograph promoting the film Jailhouse Rock...

    Image via Wikipedia

Inspiration Board-8 February 2012

Posted on by
Reply
  1. The work of the late Cincinnati (and internationally famous) artist, Charley Harper. I’ve never been a big fan of animal art (or puns) but there is something about his clean lines and mid-century modern aesthetic (which he dubbed “minimal realism”) that has been drawing me in, almost unwillingly. Any previously declared distaste for animals-in-art has been sliding slowly away, in the face of his compelling creations. I don’t love them all (far from it, actually) but am seriously enamored of some of the pieces.
  2. Although this is hardly new, or cutting edge, I’m slightly obsessed with Jane Wiedlin‘s acoustic version of ‘Our Lips Are Sealed’. I love kooky chicks; for this reason alone she has always been my favorite member of the Go-Go’s. When I was very young, my Aunt Linda gave me her copy of ‘Beauty and the Beat’. Ah, nostalgia, right? Not entirely. I almost prefer this version to the original; maybe it’s just because the stripped-down sound goes better with winter’s quiet ways.
  3. Margaritas. Maybe I’m terribly eager for warm weather but I have been ordering this salt-rimmed concoction at every available opportunity, instead of my usual Scotch.
  4. The book reviews in the current (FEB/MAR 2012) issue of ‘BUST’. There are so many compelling entries. I want to read them all, particularly ‘Agorafabulous!: Dispatches From My Bedroom’ by Sara Benincasa (William Morrow), ‘Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality’ by Hanne Blank (Beacon) and ‘Treasure Island’ by Sara Levine (Europa).
    Charley Harper

    Image via Wikipedia

     

A Year in Books/Day 36: Shadows, Fire, Snow

Posted on by
1
  • Title: Shadows, Fire, Snow The Life of Tina Modotti
  • Author: Patricia Albers
  • Year Published: 1999 (Clarkson Potter/Publishers)
  • Year Purchased: 2002
  • Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
  • About: Tina Modotti, though little recognized today, was a woman of many talents: she worked as an actress, artisan, photographer (which is her main claim to immortality) and communist revolutionary. Her fierce abilities, ideals and passions took her from her native Italy to the shores of America, Mexico and Russia.
  • Motivation: I love strong, artistic, intelligent women. Her photography is stunning, never-to-be-forgotten.
  • Times Read: 2
  • Random Excerpt/Page 32: “Meanwhile, the military debacle had cut off communications with the family in Italy, leaving Tina, Mercedes, and Giuseppe frantic with anxiety. Was Tina also experiencing guilt that she had been absorbed in playacting as her loved ones suffered? If so, it was not the last time she would anguish over the thought of art making in the face of human affliction.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10

    English: The white Iris (tina modotti)

    Image via Wikipedia

[Intermezzo] The Sky is Flaunting Itself

Posted on by
5

My husband has the flu. Although he mock-whines when sick, in a pleading little boy voice, he doesn’t need my help now: he’s snoring, sleeping contentedly by my side. The dogs are at his feet, murmurs from their canine dreams occasionally breaking free: they are warm, happy. I’m on my back, staring at the too-blue sky that is flaunting itself through the carelessly closed blinds. Clouds are spinning past the electrical wires; faded brown squirrels are on the march. I swear I heard a bird chirp. I have important things to write, a shower to take, tea to brew. It’s 3 o’clock on a Sunday, February has dawned. I’m too satisfied staring at the incandescent sun. It hasn’t been Winter at all.

A Year in Books/Day 35: Ford Madox Ford

Posted on by
Reply
  • Title: Ford Madox Ford
  • Author: Alan Judd
  • Year Published: 1990 (Harvard University Press)
  • Year Purchased: 2004
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: A biography of the great, prolific and mostly forgotten English writer who was so closely associated with Joseph Conrad.
    Ford Madox Ford

    Image via Wikipedia

     

  • Motivation: Although I mostly concentrate on dead female writers, I am always eager to add to my collection of literary (auto)biographies. I especially love those obscured by time or circumstances; the more out of favor, the better! I actually bought this volume as a vacation read for a 3-week trip to Canada in the summer of 2004.
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 168: “Goldring adds that he cannot vouch for the accuracy of the story ‘but if it didn’t happen it ought to have done. Events of this description occurred daily, almost hourly, during the twelve month’s of Ford’s editorship of ‘Review’. Looking back, it seems amazing to me, that so much could have happened in so short a time. It was only a year: but what a year!’ “
  • Happiness Scale: 9 1/2

Shopping for the Bookworm: A Strange Miscellany of Yummy Things

Posted on by
Reply

This edition of ‘Shopping for the Bookworm’ is comprised entirely of shiny, interesting things that caught my eye, magpie-style. All of the goods are from Etsy. The author offerings include pieces featuring Poe, Austen and Burroughs. There is also a fabulous typewriter print, a conversation-starting belt buckle and a fab necklace.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

.

 

A Year in Books/Day 34: A History of Ireland

Posted on by
Reply
  • Title: A History of Ireland
  • Author: Mike Cronin
  • Year Published: 2001 (Palgrave)
  • Year Purchased: 2001/2002
  • Source: History Book Club
  • About: A compact, well-written account of the last 900 years of Irish history.
  • Motivation: I could read history tomes all day, every day. This volume is one of many I own on the Emerald Isle.
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 15: “Following the favourable reaction from the Irish kings, Henry called an Irish synod together at Cashel. The synod brought the Irish Church
    Drawing by Albrecht Dürer of Irish soldiers.

    Image via Wikipedia

    back into line with the greater Church and enacted reforms which addressed Papal concerns. Through his actions, Henry brought a level of peace to Ireland which had been absent for years, reformed the Church and won the approval of the majority of the different native kings.”

  • Happiness Scale: 9