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Quoted
“I meant,” said Ipslore bitterly, “what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?” Death thought about it. CATS, he said eventually. CATS ARE NICE. — Terry Pratchett, Sourcery
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Reading Watching Listening
Reading… And I Alone Survived to Tell You by Sylvia Hamilton. I picked up Hamilton’s latest poetry collection in the fall when I was in Nova Scotia (it was published by Gaspereau Press in Kentville, NS and I picked up a copy in Wolfville). I went to a poetry event that she was at on Tuesday, so in preparation I finally sat down and read it. It is astonishing and powerful poetry. Watching… Ballet 422. I finally got around to watching this documentary about Justin Peck choreographing a new work for the New York City Ballet. It’s wonderful. Of course, as someone who is a major fan of ballet,…
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Read This
Required Reading. I first read this story almost four years ago, but I still go back to it with some frequency. Josephine Rowe’s stories feel both raw and guarded at the same time, and perhaps that is how I feel about love and life. Perhaps that is why I love them so much. She also has a gift for putting the reader in a situation, in a place, in a specific moment with her characters, and yet these stories never feel so specific that they couldn’t be about you or your sister or your best friend. Perhaps that is why I love them so much, the spectre of relatability looms large…
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Quoted
A perfectly kept house is the sign of a misspent life. — Mary Randolph Carter
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Reading Watching Listening
Reading… The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels. Technically this is work. I’m presenting a conference paper on Saturday about this novel, so I’ve been frantically throwing some thoughts together about it this week. Fortunately, any time I do work on Michaels’s writing, I get to spend some time reading it. So beautiful. Every time I read this novel, I love it even more. Watching… Gilmore Girls. I needed some comfort TV to counteract the conference-related stress. Plus, all of the casting announcements about the revival made me really want to watch the series again. Not that it takes much for me to want to watch this show. I’ve seen…
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Read This
If you know me at all, then you know that this project is right up my alley. I am an avid fan of ballet. It is such a beautiful, powerful, emotionally compelling art form. I am also a serious fan of Degas’s famous ballet works. So the second I heard that Misty Copeland recreated Degas’s most famous ballet works, I had to know more. The images are compelling, and the article accompanying them here is interesting. Check it out here. (Photo: Ken Browar & Deborah Ory, from this Harpers Bazaar article)
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Quoted
Le temps passé avec un chat n’est jamais perdu. — Collete
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Reading Watching Listening
Reading… Still nothing of note right now, so instead I am going to reach back to the fall and recommend Spinster by Kate Bolick to y’all. It is so incredibly good. I loved every page of it. It’s one of those rare books that lived up to all of the hype I had heard and then surpassed that bar. Watching… Chicago Fire and Chicago PD. It is a damn good thing that I have little interest in medical shows, otherwise I would need to add Chicago Med to the list as well. These shows are phenomenal. I started PD because of the lovely Sophia Bush, and quickly realized I needed to watch Chicago…
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Read This
Things That Might Go Wrong John Steffler I was trained to be cautious: my father always there two steps ahead of my every move: “If you hold it like that it’ll slip…. Now what are you going to do with it?… I saw a guy try that once and it tore off his arm.” But I go beyond such rote-learned caution. I am creatively cautious, exquisitely sensitive to things that might go wrong. Quicker than any computer my mind scoots down dozens of possible turns events might take, spotting the dangers, clucking warnings automatically as a hen. Now, lying in bed, I listen as my young daughter goes to…
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Quoted
Walking was not fast enough, so we ran. Running was not fast enough, so we galloped. Galloping was not fast enough, so we sailed. Sailing was not fast enough, so we rolled merrily along on long metal tracks. Long metal tracks were not fast enough, so we drove. Driving was not fast enough, so we flew. Flying isn’t fast enough, not fast enough for us. We want to get there faster. Get where? Wherever we are not. But a human soul can only go as fast as a man can walk, they used to say. In that case, where are all the souls? Left behind. They wander here and there,…