December 2010
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Say Anything (1989)
Diane: Are you shaking?
Lloyd: No.
Diane: You're shaking.
Lloyd: I don't think so.
Diane: You're cold.
Lloyd: I don't think I am.
Diane: Then why are you shaking?
Lloyd: I don't know. I think I'm happy
Prose by Thomas Bernhard →
Bernhard’s neuroticism and his loathing of the everyday are palpable in these newly translated short stories. The stories are preoccupied with mental illness and a sense of disappointment at the world. Bernhard’s loathing of the everyday is palpable. Vienna is viciously referred to as a “cemetery” with “silent megalomania”. The city is busier but no less...
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“Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence.”
– [Robert Fripp]
“Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence.”
– [Robert Fripp]
Jeeves Takes Charge by P. G. Wodehouse
And now for a cure. Wodehouse’s perfect valet cures Bertie’s retching hangover through his magic potion. As Jeeves puts it: “It is the Worcester sauce that gives it its colour. The raw egg makes it nutritious. The red pepper gives it its bite. Gentlemen have told me they have found it extremely invigorating after a late evening.” Bertie attests: “For a...
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Comunque anche per quest’anno la rustichella sull’A1 del 24 dicembre 2005 rimane imbattuta e si riconferma mglior cenone di sempre.
Comunque anche per quest’anno la rustichella sull’A1 del 24 dicembre 2005 rimane imbattuta e si riconferma mglior cenone di sempre.
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The Thin Red Line (1998)
Pvt. Witt: I can take anything you dish out. I’m twice the man you are.
Sgt. Welsh: In this world, a man, himself, is nothing. And there ain’t no world but this one.
Pvt. Witt: I’ve seen another world. Sometimes I think it was just… my imagination.
Sgt. Welsh: Well, then you’ve seen things I never will. We’re living in a world that’s blowing itself to hell as fast as everybody can arrange it. In a situation like that all a man can do is shut his eyes and let nothing touch him.
Write a postcard
E-books, mobile phone apps, augmented reality - we live and travel in a world of instant information and sore thumbs. This year is a good time to pause and revisit that ol’ travel chestnut: the postcard. What started a century ago as a craze of keepsakes (recipients cherished them as much as travellers sending them cherished their actual experiences) has lost out to wi-fi, text messaging and...
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Mallrats (1995)
Brodie: There is something out there that can help us ease our simultaneous double loss.
T.S. Quint: What? Ritual suicide?
Brodie: No, you idiot, the fucking mall!
T.S. Quint: I'd prefer ritual suicide.
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Mallrats (1995)
Brodie: There is something out there that can help us ease our simultaneous double loss.
T.S. Quint: What? Ritual suicide?
Brodie: No, you idiot, the fucking mall!
T.S. Quint: I'd prefer ritual suicide.
Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem The National, “Bloodbuzz Ohio” This year, the one single song I heard that really took me back a step and made me not only consider how I write, but how music is written in general, was a song by the National called “Bloodbuzz Ohio.” I’ve spent many nights listening to this song over and over trying to pick apart how what seems to...
Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem The National, “Bloodbuzz Ohio” This year, the one single song I heard that really took me back a step and made me not only consider how I write, but how music is written in general, was a song by the National called “Bloodbuzz Ohio.” I’ve spent many nights listening to this song over and over trying to pick apart how what seems to...
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“Voleva diventare una brava fotografa, “non famosa, solo brava”....”
– [Acqua di mare, Charles Simmons]
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Great movies are a great pleasure, but great scenes and sequences are a joy as well - dependent works of art that take on lives of their own in our minds, often standing in for the film itself. You know what I’m talking about. The crop-duster scene in “North by Northwest”. The haunting final sequence of “I Vitelloni”, with the camera gliding through rooms like a ghost...
“Voleva diventare una brava fotografa, “non famosa, solo brava”....”
– [Acqua di mare, Charles Simmons]
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“Dopo manco cinco minuti che l’orchestra sonava e i cantanti cantavano, a mia sicuramente mi principiò una febbre àuta. U cori mi batteva forti, ora sentiva càvudo càvudo ora friddo friddo, la testa mi firriava. Didopu, come si fossi addiventato un palloneddro di acqua saponata, di quelli liggeri e trasparenti che i picciliddri fanno per jocu con una cannuzza, accominzai a volare. ...
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Morrissey - Life is a Pigsty
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“Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence.”
– [Robert Fripp]
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Great movies are a great pleasure, but great scenes and sequences are a joy as well - dependent works of art that take on lives of their own in our minds, often standing in for the film itself. You know what I’m talking about. The crop-duster scene in “North by Northwest”. The haunting final sequence of “I Vitelloni”, with the camera gliding through rooms like a ghost...
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Julian Barnes reads "Homage to Switzerland" by... →
A quiet, sly, funny story from an author deeply out of fashion. [For more podcasts, including Jeanette Winterson reading Italo Calvino, Anne Enright reading Raymond Carver, Margaret Drabble reading Katherine Mansfield, William Boyd reading JG Ballard, Colm Tóibín reading Eugene McCabe, visit the Guardian short stories podcast page.]
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Julian Barnes reads "Homage to Switzerland" by... →
A quiet, sly, funny story from an author deeply out of fashion. [For more podcasts, including Jeanette Winterson reading Italo Calvino, Anne Enright reading Raymond Carver, Margaret Drabble reading Katherine Mansfield, William Boyd reading JG Ballard, Colm Tóibín reading Eugene McCabe, visit the Guardian short stories podcast page.]
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Sardinia, Italy
Unlike much of the world, where average gender lifespan is different, men and women in Sardinia share equal longevity estimates. In addition, they reach 100 years old at twice the average than the rest of the world. A common saying on this Italian island is “a kent’ annos”, or “May you live to 100.” The cuisine consists of raw milk and cheese, fresh vegetables, and small amounts of...
Sardinia, Italy
Unlike much of the world, where average gender lifespan is different, men and women in Sardinia share equal longevity estimates. In addition, they reach 100 years old at twice the average than the rest of the world. A common saying on this Italian island is “a kent’ annos”, or “May you live to 100.” The cuisine consists of raw milk and cheese, fresh vegetables, and small amounts of...
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Blake Edwards dead at 88