ninme

The Times - Books speak volumes about life’s milestones Valerie Grove

Purchasers of houses do not like books. They make houses look old and tired. Lose the books!” I heard this advice in one of those “how to sell your house” makeover programmes, addressed to the hapless owner of a house (like mine) stuffed with […]

Categories: Art and Literature

I don’t really feel like it (never did mention, Saturday afternoon Peter said the movie looked like it was edited by a Drexel sophomore) but I have nothing else to do so I’m starting The Subtle Knife. I’ll be updating this post with my comments, since turning it into a community-enriching effort here at ninme […]

Categories: Art and Literature

Yesterday’s Profile, on Elizabeth Gaskell:

The Sunday Times - Cranford’s mistress drove Dickens to talk of spanking Thanks to the hit TV drama, a pioneering author of social upheaval is finally getting the recognition she deserves

Not word one about North & South.

Telegraph - People not having sex. Whatever next? By A.N. Wilson

The BBC costume drama […]

Categories: Art and Literature

I am now embarking on my atheism indoctrination: His Dark Materials!

Yes, back in May RC2 asked if anyone had read the series, and now, with a week and one day to go before the movie is released, I am fulfilling my promise to you all to write it up! Lured into this evil trap […]

Categories: Art and Literature

This is so fun!

Times Online Blogs - Want a motto? Do it in Latin., by Mary Beard (rofessor in classics at Cambridge and classics editor of the TLS)

I am delighted to see that some of the contributors to the great British national motto competition realised that a bit of Latin might help out […]

Categories: Art and Literature

Telegraph - Pope to purge the Vatican of modern music

The Pope is considering a dramatic overhaul of the Vatican in order to force a return to traditional sacred music. After reintroducing the Latin Tridentine Mass, the Pope wants to widen the use of Gregorian chant and baroque sacred music. […]

Categories: Art and Literature

The Times - Looking up If our buildings are taller, our green spaces will be safer.

There need be no conflict. The culprits are the planners, architects and bureaucrats, who insist on building the wrong kind of housing. The baleful architecture of the 60s and 70s has not only halted further construction of the hated […]

Categories: Art and Literature

(Re: the title. I could weave this into a big long rant, tying it into a bunch of other things, mostly Grave of the Fireflies, but one or two other apparently completely disconnected things as well, but a) I’m at that stage where I’m tired but I’ve had too much coffee so I’m lethargic and […]

Categories: Art and Literature

It’s book season again.

The Times - Lit Crit Sit Literary critics, reviewers, and the incestuous art of logrolling

Presenting the Man Booker Prize last night, Howard Davies referred to a curious habit of literary critics. Their curious habit is to review each other’s books fulsomely. Author X selects Author Y’s novel as her Book of […]

Categories: Art and Literature

The Corner - Madeleine L’Engle at Home, John Podhoretz

Madeleine L’Engle was our neighbor growing up. She lived on the 9th floor at 924 West End Avenue in apartment 95; we lived on the 6th floor in apartment 65. There was one elevator for this line of apartments and therefore everybody in them came […]

Categories: Art and Literature

AP - ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ Author L’Engle Dies

Author Madeleine L’Engle, whose novel “A Wrinkle in Time” has captivated generations of schoolchildren and adults since the 1960s, has died, her publicist said Friday. She was 88. L’Engle died Thursday at a nursing home in Litchfield, said Jennifer Doerr, publicity manager for publisher Farrar, […]

Categories: Art and Literature

This is fascinating to watch (I’ve never heard him speak before):

Pavarotti Masterclass

So, he died from his pancreatic cancer this morning. This Times article mentions this:

He started singing on the operatic circuit and his big break came thanks to another Italian opera great, Giuseppe di Stefano, who dropped out of a London performance […]

Categories: Art and Literature

— Ensanguining the skies How heavily it dies     Into the west away; Past touch and sight and sound, Not further to be found, How hopeless under ground     Falls the remorseful day.

Categories: Art and Literature

Cacciaguida - Introductory speech for Constitutional Law II (Individual Rights)

Curtsy: Wheat & Weeds.

Categories: Art and Literature

I don’t have the energy for this. I just don’t.

Telegraph Blogs - Warsaw’s new Old Town

When is an Old City not an old city? The thought struck me while wandering around Warsaw last week. Its main square is a delight to behold, like so many other in Eastern/Central Europe. […]

Categories: Art and Literature