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Thursday 17 February 2011

New Quote

From my new read:
"They warmed each other with those little gifts - kindness and beauty. They are precious. They are always in short supply"
Andrew Nicoll, The Good Mayor.

Wednesday 16 February 2011

True Grit

I dislike violent films, and the Cohen brothers' films are known to be full of violence, masked with artistic intentions. That said, True Grit is an excellent film - entertaining, extremely well written, great dialogue, rich characters, beautiful horses and a smart, brave young girl the likes of which we have not met since Pipi Longstocking was born. Watching it provided the exact thing movies were made for: a temporary escape from ourselves, harmless fun.

Monday 14 February 2011

Kiss Someone Today


Each kiss a heart-quake... ~Lord Byron, Don Juan

Mahler's adagio from the 5th symphony was on the radio, the airwaves are filled with love themed music today, they say he wrote it to his magnificent wife Alma. Youtube reminded me it was used in Death in Venice, but although the quality of the music in this video is not good, it works:

"... Do you believe (...) that it is a lovely but dangerous road that leads nowhere? Because you have to realize that we artists cannot take the path of beauty without Eros joining us and becoming our leader; we may be heroes in our own way, but we are still like women, because passion is what elevates us, and our desire is love — that is our lust and our disgrace". Thomas Mann, Death in Venice.

Thursday 10 February 2011

Speechless

Today I am a proud mother.
I sat on the benches of the school gym, the only parent present, and heard kids give speeches for the senior's speech competition. My darling son won the first place, moving on to represent his school in the regional competition.
He was surprised, I kinda saw it coming. Very sweet.

Water For Elephants

My new (temporary) road to salvation. This book makes for a very good read: it has all the great manipulation tricks fiction can possess to make us laugh and cry and stay tuned, but it reads true and subtle enough so you don't feel manipulated, and that is a talent. Apparently it was turned into a movie recently, it certainly is action packed from the first page, easily turned into a script. It reminds me of another book I posted about a while back, possibly because elephants and tigers seem to go well together: The final confession of Mable Stark by Robert Hough.