Monthly Archives: May 2020

Growing up in the ’50s, you could not miss Elvis Presley’s sensational start in live performing, television, movies, and recording. I can still recall his first appearances on Sunday’s Ed Sullivan Show. My favorite songs that influenced my early interest … Continue reading →

Francis Ford Coppola has made 4 masterpieces: The Godfather Trilogy, Apocalypse Now, and The Conversation. Godfather II is one of the few movies I have to watch to the end if I accidentally bump into it being broadcast on tv. … Continue reading →

A nice biography of this artist’s life and work, focusing on on exhibition of his late works after he lost his wife, young mistress, and went bankrupt. Film features his early historical work with mythical and biblical subject matter. The … Continue reading →

“…each day is like a year. A year whose days are long.” –“The Ballad of Reading Gaol”

My tastes have long been eclectic to put it mildly. Jazz and classical probably occupy about 40% of my mix, with  folk another 20%, and rock/pop another 40%. (I’ve also, incidentally, met many of the following in person and gotten … Continue reading →

With May trees coming into bloom followed by lilacs, it is a fragrantly sensory time for noses. Easily my favorite time of spring.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man–James Joyce To the Lighthouse–Virginia Woolf Pride and Prejudice–Jane Austen Return of the Native–Thomas Hardy your choice of Heart of Darkness, The Secret Agent, or Lord Jim–Joseph Conrad Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland–Lewis … Continue reading →

In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter asks “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” but this is never answered in the book. In the fall of 1969, at University of Winnipeg, in a course on 20th century … Continue reading →

“What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?” –George Eliot