Naguib Mahfouz died a month ago. I vaguely remember the day I read about it, yet I recall not feeling much of anything. It used to rather ruin my day when an author whose work I'd fallen in love with passed, but in this case it was but a footnote on my memories. A story of Mahfouz's titled Zabalawi once enchanted me, it was about a man searching ( Read more... )

Just a bit ago I was watching the documentary about when the levees broke in New Orleans. I found the film to be wonderfully emotional, heart wrenching at times, and at the end of the first half, a scene with Wynton Marsalis, famed jazz musician, appeared. Amidst all of the shots of dead bodies floating in New Orleans, people crying for help, and ( Read more... )

As cliche as it is to post quotations and other people's poetry in a blog, I'm going to do it anyway. I had a conversation about humor with Patty yesterday, and this morning was reminded of an Oscar Wilde quote that was rather apropos to that discussion...

"Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about"-Oscar Wilde ( Read more... )

I read Whitman for the first time this evening, well, this was the first reading that had any effect on me anyway. "Song of Myself", to this day, is certainly one of the most beatific works I've ever laid eyes upon. It is indeed wondrous to find in art an affirmation of one's own feelings about the cosmos. Whitman's words are humbling yet ( Read more... )

This weekend was splendid, truly truly, filled with indian food, ice cream fights, hiking at grandiosely beautiful Mount Charleston, excessive silliness, and cuddling on the dock of a man made lake with an amazing person ( Read more... )

A Drinking Song
By William Butler Yeats

Wine comes in at the mouth
and love comes in at the eye;
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.

I’ve been ruminating on lost loves and missed opportunities far too much lately. The previous weekend was enough to lift me out of a funk of self doubt toward my chosen area of study, a major concern of mine, but quickly the elation I felt from having an exceptionally successful weekend academically was overshadowed by my ever so pressing desires ( Read more... )