Monthly Archives: October 2015

1. The Ultimate Scary Kids Movie: “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (on The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad) 2. Ultimate Ghost Stories: The Innocents (1961)–Truman Capote-adapted version of Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw and The Haunting (1964)–based … Continue reading →

is that you, those closest to you, others you know, your lifestyle, your relative good health, institutions, services you take for granted, your screens and the Internet, countries, indeed the planet–will all be here tomorrow. We constantly experience change, chaos, … Continue reading →

makes the whole world kin”–Shakespeare (Feeding sparrows at the park. Stand near trees in a noisy chickadee area and hold your hand very still with black sunflower seeds on it, palm up. Stay immobile, especially when the bird lands.. Savour … Continue reading →

better batten down the hatches, stay inside, and turn on Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, op. 55 “Eroica”, Allegro con brio, the 1st movement.

(Canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral; from eulogy “Death the King of Terrors”, read at the memorial service of King Edward VII, 1910) Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. … Continue reading →

“And take me down to the harbor now Grapes of the summer are low on the bow Ghosts of my history will follow me there And the winds of the old days will blow through my hair.” –Joan Baez (1975)

(book recommended by Roger Ebert, signed; Lumet films were nominated over 50 times for Academy awards; they included the classics: 12 Angry Men, The Fugitive Kind, A View from the Bridge, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Fail-Safe, The Pawnbroker, Serpico, Murder on … Continue reading →

From where you stand beside the road, you can almost see the house. Fence slats bow to you & paint curls upon itself~ a mockery of maintenance. Overhead tall spreading trees threaten sun. Strange you never understood what time might … Continue reading →

(“The paths of glory lead but to the grave.”, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” by Thomas Gray; above: grave of Robert Frost in Bennington, Vermont) which I visited in the early ’90s) -Death is often a release from pain, … Continue reading →

lie, cheat, steal, kid themselves and others, live in illusion or delusion, use or manipulate others, avoid personal responsibility, and choose their own self-satisfying narratives than do otherwise. Honesty, love, and trust remain in short supply today.