Saturday, July 11, 2009

This Week's Sign of the Apocalypse

Lauren Conrad (of The Hills fame) has a book on the NYT bestseller list. Not just on the list--topping the list. For two weeks...

So glad I'm having so much success with my Ph.D. Otherwise, I'd be bitter.

Saturday Musical Tribute

In a word, YES.

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Wedneday Musical Tribute and Movie Review Combined

Saturday Harrogate saw Elizabethtown for the first time. Once again, he found himself wanting to throw things at the television for the way that Hollywood continues to exploit the dangerous Town versus Country narrative in ways that A)posit them as fundamentally alien to one another (as opposed to the more reasonable proposition that they are in some ways (but not all ways!) unfamiliar and awkward in relation to one another), and that B)invariably celebrates the communal and familial integrity of country at the expense of vacuous, mendacious town. Oh how Harrogate hates the binary.

Still, the movie impressed Harrogate on a number of levels. The quiet unobtrusiveness of the directing, a willingness to let scenes play out on their own strength that almost reminds one of the Coen brothers. The high profile actors who have overacted at times in other movies, but who bring a light touch in this movie. But most of all, the surrealistic blend of mournfulness and cheer with which Elizabethtown engages the great problem of Death.

The below clip shows much of what Harrogate describes. And what a kickass use of "Freebird," in Harrogate's estimation rivalling even the song's appearance in Forrest Gump.

Poem of the Day: Wednesday, July 8, 2009

One of my favorites.

Dorothy Parker, "Philosophy"

If I should labor through daylight and dark,
Consecrate, valorous, serious, true,
Then on the world I may blazon my mark;
And what if I don't, and what if I do?

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Poem of the Day: Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Oh, just read it.

Kurt Schwitters, "Anna Bloom."

O you, beloved of my twenty-seven senses, I
love your!
You your thee thine, I your, you mine. -- we?
This (by the way) is beside the point.
Who are you, uncounted woman? you are
-- are you? People say you are, -- let
them say it, they don't know how it stands with us.
You wear your head on your feet and walk about
on your hands, on your hands you walk.
Halloo your red dress, sliced in white pleats.
Red I love Anna Bloom, red I love your! -- You
your thee thine, I your, you mine. -- we?
This belongs (by the way) out in the cold.
Red bloom, red Anna Bloom, what do people say?
Prize question: 1. Anna Bloom has a screw loose.
2. Anna Bloom is red.
3. What colour is the screw?
Blue is the colour of your yellow hair.
Red is the thread of your green screw.
You simple girl in simple dress, you dear
green animal. I love your! you your thee thine, I
your, you mine. -- we?
This belongs (by the way) in the ashcan.
Anna Bloom! Anna, a-n-n-a, I trickle your
name. Your name drips like soft tallow.
Do you know it, Anna, do you know already?
You can be read from behind, and you, you
loveliest of all, you are from behind as you are
from the front: "a-n-n-a."
Tallow trickles softly over my back.
Anna Bloom, you trickle beast, I love your!

Tuesday Musical Tribute

F@ck Kairos. I know that this should be a Michael Jackson tribute, or something like that. But I do not care.

Tuesday song of the day, "If I can't change your mind," by Sugar, one of the best bands from the 1990. Copper Blue, of course, is also one of the best albums of the 1990s. You can preview it here.



The band had only a three year run. But, in those three years, they made some great music.