ninme

(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

The Sunday Times - Curious case of Rebus and the lesbian thriller drillers PROFILE: Ian Rankin

The 47-year-old writer found himself in the mire again last week when something else from his past came back to haunt him. The venue was the Edinburgh international book festival, where one of Rankin’s leading female rivals, Val McDermid, [...]

Categories: Art and Literature

Those of you paying attention to the Twitter will have noticed that I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows yesterday.

Given that I read it all (except for the few pages I managed to squeeze in between going to bed and zonking out after Tuesday’s adventures) in about 11 hours (less the time I took [...]

Categories: Art and Literature

First: In which she explains where she’s been.

Parents and sister showed up on Monday on their way down from Canada. When we moved to this new place in January, we took with us two pieces of furniture that Peter said wouldn’t go but I couldn’t let go of. He convinced me to let [...]

Categories: Art and Literature

(I wonder if the rich aging hippies have their maids go through this ceremony before dusting the buddhas they bought at the Earth Wind store or whatever it’s called on Queen Anne Ave) (just kidding)

Mainichi - 1 year’s worth of dust removed from Nara’s giant Buddha

NARA — About 200 people gathered at the [...]

Categories: Art and Literature

Telegraph Blogs - Holy Smoke - Bishops support book attacking the Pope

Catholic Social Justice, a volume of essays put together by an agency of the Bishops’ Conference, systematically rubbishes Benedict’s first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (God is Love). The book has been given a glowing foreword by the Bishop of Plymouth, Christopher Budd.

I [...]

Categories: Art and Literature

Telegraph - With all its treasures sold, who will visit Italy? By Malcolm Moore

The story is the same throughout Italy. A combination of incompetent government, lacklustre industry and a general refusal to pay taxes has left a deep scar on the country’s finances. The country’s crushing debts have forced the Bel Paese to [...]

Categories: Art and Literature

You scored as Emma Woodhouse, Emma is possibly one of the most loyal characters of Austen, always wanting better for those around her and doing all she possibly can to make it happen. Her motives sometimes get in the way of her good intentions and her own opinions can end up ruling her actions, [...]

Categories: Art and Literature