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Learning.
The things I learn, here in the Hamlet: my pilates teacher used to be a drill sergeant. No joke. She used to be in the army! Now her teaching method (ah, the abdominal crunches!) makes perfect sense to me. It took a while to put 2 and 2 together ( Read more... ) -
"To Air is Human, to Air Guitar is Divine!"
Hamletissimo is hopping! The documentary film festival has hit town & boy are things exciting!
I saw "Souvenirs" by Shahar Cohen last night. An israeli roadtrip movie: father & son hop in the car and drive from Israel up to Holland to find potential step-siblings, which the father refers to as "souvenirs". The father was in the Jewish Brigades in ( Read more... ) -
We tell ourselves stories in order to live.
I picked up Joan Didion's White Album, read the first line and was hooked. I don't like everything I read, but there's an energy that carries me. And I keep coming back to that first line, which grabbed hold of me without my asking, without my permission almost. And so, when I should be reading some big fat monster of a Russian novel (my students ( Read more... ) -
Beehives and Spirits
If you're in the mood to be stunned, run to the video store and rent EL ESPIRITU DE LA COLMENA (spirit of the beehive), Spanish movie, 1973. A perfectly crafted movie about the power of texts (films, stories, what have you) to shape your existence. It's a beautiful meditation on crafting meaning from narratives, on childhood fantasies, loss, ( Read more... ) -
(Untitled)
Just when I think life can't get any stranger, it does. I took a drive out to BIG CITY yesterday morning to hear the symphony. It was an all Russian program: Rachmaninov Piano Concerto #1 (sounds like movie-music:), Rimsky's Coq d'or suite (amazing!!) and Scriabin's Poeme de l'ecstase (am I getting too old to be moved by symbolism the way I used to ( Read more... ) -
I Heart Valentine's Day!
No really, I do! Let's see: chocolate, cute little hearts all over the place, the color red -- what more could Midwesterngal wish for? -
Preparing.
I have a secret love of mushy food! In preparation for the day all my teeth will fall out, I made rice pudding tonight. There will come a time, when this will be all I'll be able to eat. Some people save up for retirement. Others prepare themselves by fashioning a diet that contains much mush. YUM. Mark Bittman (aka: GOD) has a great & easy recipe ( Read more... ) -
Two weeks & a day!
Until the Oscars ( Read more... ) -
Alignment
On my way back from Big City airport, my car felt a little off. Like it was out of alignment or something. I drove carefully, and then upon coming back to the Hamlet, promptly forgot about my car woes and decided that I had been imagining things. On Monday, after work, after locating my car in the garage (ha! only took me 5 minutes this time!) I ( Read more... ) -
Oscar Countdown!
It's on. 4 weeks from Sunday (last sunday, bread-making Sunday), I'll be watching Oscars! Woohoo! My favorite time of year. Not because I like awards all that much (the the ceremony, codes of behavior and enterprise is fascinating in and of itself, speaking of which, check out Jim English's awesome Economy of Prestige for more on that topic!) and ( Read more... )