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2012-12-03, 11:10 a.m.:
From a 1981 Paris Review interview with Paul Bowles. On Jane Bowles: INTERVIEWER
She wasn't by any means a prolific writer, was she? BOWLES
No, very unprolific. She wrote very slowly. It cost her blood to write. Everything had to be transmuted into fiction before she read it. Sometimes it took her a week to write a page. This exaggerated slowness seemed to me a terrible waste of time, but any mention of it to her was likely to make her stop writing entirely for several days or even weeks. She would say: "All right. It's easy for you, but it's hell for me, and you know it. I'm not you. I know you wish I were, but I'm not. So stop it." 0 comments
2012-11-30, 4:37 p.m.:
I love Camile Paglia. From this interview.
I don�t like the situation where the Democratic Party is the party of art and entertainment, the party of culture, while the Republicans have become the party of economics and traditional religion. What that does is weaken both sides. One of the themes in my book is the current impoverishment of the art world because of its knee-jerk hostility to religion, which is everywhere. That kind of sneering at religion that Christopher Hitchens specialized in, despite his total ignorance of religion and his unadmirable lifestyle, was no model for atheism. I think Hitchens was a burden to atheism in terms of his decadent circuit of constant parties and showy blather. He was a sybaritic socialite and rou� � not a deep thinker � whose topical, meandering writing will not last. And I�m no fan of Richard Dawkins� sniping, sniggering style of atheism, either.
A responsible atheist needs to be informed about religion in order to reject it. But the shallow, smirky atheism that�s au courant is simply strengthening the power of the Right. Secular humanism is spiritually hollow right now because art is so weak. If you don�t have art as a replacement for the Bible, then you�ve got nothing that is culturally sustaining. If all you have is �Mad Men� and the Jon Stewart �Daily Show,� then religion is going to win, because people need something as a framework to understand life. Every great religion contains enormous truths about the universe. That�s why my �60s generation followed the Beat movement toward Zen Buddhism and then opened up that avenue to Hinduism � which is why the Beatles went to India with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Then it all disappeared, when people became disillusioned with gurus. But spiritual quest was one of the great themes of the �60s that has been lost and forgotten � that reverent embrace of all the world religions. This is why our art has become so narrow and empty. People in the humanities have sunk into this shallow, snobby, liberal style of stereotyping religious believers as ignorant and medieval, which is total nonsense. And meanwhile, the entire professional class in Manhattan and Los Angeles is doping themselves on meds and trying to survive in their manic, anxiety-filled world. And what are they producing that is of the slightest interest? Nothing. Nothing is being produced in movies or the fine arts today (except in architecture) that is not derivative of something else. 1 comments
2012-05-18, 5:22 p.m.:
I will be taking a break from my incessant viewings of 'Wicked' in order to go see Kristin Chenoweth at the Ellie Caulkins, right across the courtyard from the Buell, in which 'Wicked' is playing. It will feel a little like I am cheating on 'Wicked' - something I swear I would only do for the original G(a)linda.... 0 comments
2012-05-02, 10:04 a.m.:
I can't stop thinking about the lighthouse kitchen scene in 'Battle Royale' and am relishing the anticipation of watching it again. I'll put it off and draw it out just a while longer. Because that is the best thing. I just watched 'The Lives of Others' for the second time, and the wait was long and so worth it. I don't want to ruin that film by over-viewing. And we just finished re-watching the third season of 'Avatar: The Last Airbender,' which is as perfect as a perfect television series could be, and I'm glad we waited so long. For one thing, the kids had completely forgotten having ever seen it at all. For another, they're old enough to relish all the different strengths, the masterstrokes, of the show (funny, moving, multi-layered, witty, self-referencing in the best way, visually stunning). I said to Atticus, "Remember when Oppa got up on his hind legs and started talking to Aang?" and we all three laughed and laughed and took turns imitating Oppa's dream-voice. 0 comments
2012-05-01, 9:25 p.m.:
"Gloriously sick and twisted. A masterpiece."
--from a review of 'Battle Royale'
And it so was! I loved it. Most especially the lighthouse kitchen scene. 0 comments
2012-02-22, 11:43 a.m.:
"and honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns" 0 comments
2012-01-08, 1:53 p.m.:
A little spinner in the Mollahan Mills, Newberry, S.C. She was tending her "sides" like a veteran, but after I took the photo, the overseer came up and said in an apologetic tone that was pathetic, "She just happened in." Then a moment later he repeated the information. The mills appear to be full of youngsters that "just happened in," or " are helping sister." Dec. 3, 08. Witness Sara R. Hine. Location: Newberry, South Carolina / Photo by Lewis W. Hine. (From the Wikipedia Commons page)
Watching the BBC version of 'North and South' (by 'Mrs.' Gaskell, aka Elizabeth Gaskell), and nothing seems to capture the essence of the thing, and its age, more than the above photo.
The severing of fingers was a danger, but what the workers mainly died of was so-called brown lung (byssinosis).
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2012-01-05, 12:13 p.m.:
Now that she's an IT-spawned multimillionaire, she's stopped writing in her blog. 0 comments
2012-01-05, 11:56 a.m.:
I'm posting them as I find them. Keep checking back.
Splintering
Crooks and Liars
Hurricane Katrina Diary
Stormsongs (aka the guy who most torments and obsesses over GRRM - yes! there is someone out there more obsessive than you when it comes to ASOIAF)Translationista
Jacob Clifton
Twisted Spork
Ladies and Gentlemen, the fabulous Felicia Day
Stain on Silence (Doug Ferrand)
John K. Stuff
Woodblock Dreams 0 comments
2011-12-27, 11:16 a.m.:
It's the day after Boxing Day and so of course we are re-watching "The Lord of the Rings" in full ... or have started to at least. 0 comments
2011-07-11, 12:21 a.m.:
What's weird is finding old Bathsheba, vintage Bathsheba, on the Wayback Machine. Because the internet never goes away. At least it doesn't seem to be incriminating (and you can see the evolution of my HTML/design skills and sensibility): 2-12-2001 3-30-2001 5-12-2001 9-24-2001 11-19-2001 1-16-2002 9-18-2002 11-20-2002 2-6-2003 2-13-2003 6-19-2003 9-28-2003 somebody's gonna be a pumpkin ... 0 comments
2011-06-14, 11:52 a.m.:
THIS. Someone else's nostalgia. Or maybe nostalgia isn't the word for it. 0 comments
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