Anyone who knows me, knows I love Alice. I have two different Alice themed tattoos and back in Vegas in storage there are three or so boxes full of different editions of the book along with various paraphernalia and collectibles so this article definitely strikes my fancy.
That said, while I agree these are some great illustrations, I think there are some classics being left out.
I think this is a little bit disingenuous. Yes, it’s a funny article but I’m trying to figure out the point of it. Almost all of the reviewers here are name critics working for big time publications. You can’t tell me ANY of them went into this movie thinking they were going to get Death of a (car) Salesman. They’d all seen the last three films in the franchise and knew what they were getting themselves into. Continue reading “The Worst Things Written About Transformers: Age Of Extinction”→
Actually, it’s not even about money. We all like money. We can all appreciate money. Hell, we all want money. No, the issue recently isn’t about money itself, it’s about getting paid. It’s about how we get the money that’s coming into question. I first thought of this when I saw Sean Penn‘s adaptation of Jon Krakauer‘s Into the Wild. In the film (and book, but I hadn’t read the book then), there’s a scene where Chris McCandless decides to burn all the money he has because it’s not “honest” money. He didn’t earn it himself, it was given to him and so he didn’t feel entitled to it. Now, he understood the need for money, he gets various jobs along the way, but that was honest money, necessary money, so it was okay. Continue reading “When did “money” become a bad word?”→
Often attributed to Hemingway, the quintessential shortest story ever is “For sale, baby shoes. Never worn.” 6 words and you get a complete tale. The shortest horror story ever, attributed to Fredric Brown, is “The last man on earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock at the door.” For a few years, several friends of mine (in particular Gregory Crosby and Troy Darling) wrote 13 word horror stories around the time of Halloween.
All of this is to say that a piece of literature doesn’t have to be long in order to be brilliant – as pointed out by the recent article PolicyMic. In it they list “14 Brilliant Pieces of Literature” which are all short enough to be read after you polish off a sandwich but before you have to get back to whatever it is you’re meant to be doing. More importantly, they provide links on where to find them for free.
So here ya go, lunch time reading for the next three work weeks (You can take that last Friday off, you deserve it).
Then come back and tell me what you think. Any you particularly liked? Any you didn’t?
Over the last few days, I’ve been migrating old film reviews from the site they were originally on (and where they still reside) onto this here blog. I’m in the process, over the course of the next few months or so, of trying to get all my online writing in one place and this seemed like a good place to start. But the point is that while I was doing this, I had the chance to revisit about 70 or so reviews from april 2007-april 2008. It was interesting. There were films which I really loved which even this short amount of history has proven ultimately forgettable while other films I didn’t care for have become fondly remembered. Continue reading “On Film Reviews”→
So last week I get a call from a number I don’t recognize. The problem here in the LT with screening calls is that, well, you can’t. There is no answer-phone system easily discernible (which is to say I can’t access it. I think one exists but the instructions are in Lithuanian and besides, I get very few phone calls and the ones I get are usually students and since this was the last week of instruction and studying for finals was about to begin, my initial thought was that the call was from a panicked student wanting to know what chapters in the book were absolutely going to be on the exam because, well, job and no time to actually study. Continue reading “The Audition”→
This is a great piece on the difference between art, skill and performance. As someone peripherally involved in the world of magic, I can agree with a lot of Jason Fagone is saying here. Continue reading “Dropped”→
Not much really new here, but it’s all stuff which needs to be said, over and over again.
“Catmull begins by pointing out that failure, for most of us, is loaded with heavy baggage — a stigma that failure is bad and a sign of weakness, engrained in us early and hard.”
This is the result of “Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Words can hurt much more, and have a much more reaching effect than mere “sticks and stones.” Words can destroy us and keep us from being who we are truly capable of being. But at the same time, words can lift us up and and make us better than we ever thought possible.
It all depends on the words we use and how we use them. Words are important.
The late W.T. (Bill) Rabe, known for his clever PR stunts from his days as a Detroit-area publicist, created the Unicorn Hunters in 1971, shortly after he was hired as LSSU’s Director of Public Relations. Bill, with the assistance of LSSU Professors of English Peter Thomas, John McCabe, John Stevens and others, came up with the Hunters as a way of garnering more publicity for LSSU, which had just established itself as an independent school after being a branch of what is now Michigan Technological University. The Unicorn Hunters made the news often for activities and events including: the annual List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness, burning a snowman on the first day of spring, World Sauntering Day, International Stone-Skipping Tournament held annually on Mackinac Island, Unicorn Questing Season and Teacher Thank You Week.
Like the Beloit Mindset list, this is an amazing example of the way a university zeitgeist can enter non-academic worlds and have a profound effect. Personally, I think we need more Unicorn Hunting! The regulations seem pretty fair and equitable to me and hey, the license itself is free.
This is really a phenomenal piece. The awkwardness and passion, the downright humanity on display, is enough to make me really happy today.
There’s a part of me that wants to know the follow up story, did the pairings become couples, become friends, but I guess that’s the writer, the storyteller in me. I want to know the rest of their story. But then there’s another part which thinks this is perfect the way it is. We don’t need to know what happens because the only that matters, in this case, is the present.
The fact they all had a connection seems to me to be the most wonderful thing of all.
UPDATE: Turns out this is a clothing ad. Not sure how I feel about that. As a marketing bit, great. it gets everyone talking. And it’s certainly not the first time viral marketing has been used to sell a product. But then I guess this is what everything has become – there is no are anymore, it’s all commerce. I still like the piece for what it represents, but no longer for what it shows. They say the people (all of whom are “personalities” of some sort) really didn’t know each other and the reactions are genuine, but at the same time, as performers, there’s a certain amount of expectation they’re bringing to the project so I can no longer trust them.
Ah well… until the next time we’re all taken in by something which tugs at our heartstrings only to get at our wallets.
Our first full day in Edinburgh started off just fine. We easily walked into town, across the Waverley Bridge and into the Old Town. A wee bit about Edinburgh history here. Everything started with the Castle, which has been around, in one form or another, for close to 2000 years. It was built on the mound of an extinct volcano and would have been an imposing presence no matter which era you’d seen it. Had there been guidebooks back then, Roman centurions would have found it on their list of “places to avoid.” Continue reading “Reaching the heights of culture – Day three in Scotland”→
I’m a font geek, I admit it. Back in my design days, I was certainly guilty of over doing it and I’m sure, even now, my computer (and certainly my back up drive) is full of fonts I’ll never use but that just look cool!
This video is a must see for anyone who loves fonts, history, books, printing, design… whatever. It’s less than 6 minutes. You can thank me later.
As a film buff, former screenwriter, part-time art department flunkie and now history of film professor, I love this site. To me, 90% of the magic of film is what happens behind the scenes, how it all gets put together seamlessly so when you’re watching it, it’s all happening in real time – regardless of whether the scene were filmed miles or months apart, whether the characters involved were in the same room or they never met in person (or if they ever existed at all).
The other nice thing about seeing these behind the scenes glimpses is they serve to separate the actors from the characters and the drama of the finished product with the fun and enjoyment usually to be found in the making of.
This is a great glimpse into process but as I sit down today to outline my new writing project, I sit down with a computer and a tablet and a piece of software designed to make these notes. There are places and slots for all these notes.
It’s like email. We still have correspondence, sure, but there’s something sad about not having the “Collected letters of ….” to look forward to anymore. At least the art itself lives on.
The Best Illustrations from 150 Years of Alice in Wonderland | Brain Pickings.
14 Brilliant Pieces of Literature You Can Read in the Time it Takes to Eat Lunch – PolicyMic
Dropped
Getting the Hang of Thursdays 