Categories
Archives
-

-
Recent Posts
- 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- “I don’t represent anything.” — Liz Phair
- “I don’t really know why, but danger has always been an important thing in my life – to see how far I could lean without falling, how fast I could go without cracking up.” — William Holden
- “Some syllables are swords.” — Metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan
- “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- “All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.” — Charlie Chaplin
- “As a cinematographer, I was always attracted to stories that have the potential to be told with as few words as possible.” — Reed Morano
- “Even though I’m writing about very dark material, it still feels like an escape hatch.” — Olivia Laing
- “It’s just one of the mysteries of filmmaking that sometimes you do something that you don’t even think it’s important, then it turns out to be.” — Lili Horvát
- “Ballet taught me to stay close to style and tone. Literature taught me to be concerned about the moral life.” — Joan Acocella
Recent Comments
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Scott Abraham on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Scott Abraham on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on March 2026 Snapshots
- sheila on “I don’t really know why, but danger has always been an important thing in my life – to see how far I could lean without falling, how fast I could go without cracking up.” — William Holden
- Jessie on March 2026 Snapshots
- Helen Erwin Schinske on “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- Maddy on “I don’t really know why, but danger has always been an important thing in my life – to see how far I could lean without falling, how fast I could go without cracking up.” — William Holden
- sheila on “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- Helen Erwin Schinske on “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- Joseph Pedulla on Susan Hayward Sleeps Raw
- sheila on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” — Christopher Smart
- P Nickel on “The realization of ignorance is the first act of knowing.” — Jean Toomer
- Melissa Sutherland on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” — Christopher Smart
- Bryce on The Books: “Nine Stories”- ‘The Laughing Man’ (J.D. Salinger)
-
Tag Archives: Marcel Proust
Launch of the Commonplace Book
Way back in the day (and I am coming up on the 19th anniversary of starting this blog – CRAZY) – but I used to do “commonplace book” entries, and even started a Tumblr called Commonplace Book. I’ve always kept … Continue reading
My second move in a year
Library getting packed up again. I’m too old for this shit. So this bookcase is half-packed and what is there is random, but it makes a pretty funny collage. — Dad’s book on Anglo-Irish literature (dedicated to Mum) — my … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Movies, Personal
Tagged Annie Proulx, Bringing Up Baby, Elvis Presley, family, Federalist Papers, Liz Phair, Marcel Proust, Pauline Kael, William Shakespeare
2 Comments
Things that got me through 2020. In no particular order.
Elvis mask, made for me by Jill Blake who was like “I just happened to have this Elvis 68 Comeback Special fabric lying around … do you want a mask?” Do you have to ask? There were so many great … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Books, Directors, Founding Fathers, Movies, Music, Personal, Television, Theatre
Tagged Alexander Hamilton, Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, Eminem, family, friends, George Orwell, H.D., Hannah Arendt, Hope, Jackass, Jean Arthur, John Garfield, John Sturges, Johnny Flynn, Lucille Ball, Marcel Proust, Martha Coolidge, Nick Tosches, poetry, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Steve McQueen, Supernatural, Twin Peaks, women directors, X-Files
30 Comments
2020 Books Read
What a year, huh. What a dumpster-fire year. I read a lot, mostly in the mornings, and it helped create rituals for the days, which often seemed endlessly the same, interchangeable. I read a lot of long and challenging books … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Austria, ballet, Ballets Russes, Belfast, Biography, books read, Croatia, Czechoslovakia, Czeslaw Milosz, dance, Dubravka Ugrešić, Elinor Lipman, Elizabeth Bishop, Eminem, essays, Ezra Pound, fiction, H.D., Hannah Arendt, Hitler, Ireland, Jane Austen, Jean Arthur, Marcel Proust, Nick Tosches, nonfiction, Olivia Laing, poetry, Poland, politics, Rebecca West, Robert Kaplan, Roman empire, Russia, Ryszard Kapuściński, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Shirley Jackson, Stalin, true crime, Ukraine, war, WWII, Yugoslavia
38 Comments
Stuff I’ve Been Reading
— Finally getting to Olivia Laing’s debut, To the River: A Journey Beneath the Surface (Canons). I fell in love with her because of the one-two punch of The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone (which I … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged fiction, Jane Austen, Marcel Proust, nonfiction, Olivia Laing, poetry, stuff I've been reading
Leave a comment
Watch What You Want. Find Comfort Where You Can.
I originally posted this on Facebook. It is not directed (as far as I know) to anyone who reads me here. But I still think it’s important to share, as a general commentary on the VIBE I have noticed post … Continue reading
My Social-Distancing “#StayTheFHome” Reading List
Have a lot of writing to do, plus my day job, which I already do remotely (so hanging around in my apartment with my cat is not all that big an adjustment), although having three weeks of perishable food lined … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Austria, Biography, D.H. Lawrence, Elizabeth Bishop, Ezra Pound, H.D., Marcel Proust, Nick Tosches, Russia, Stefan Zweig, stuff I've been reading, true crime, war
8 Comments
Nothing/Everything
It resembles nothing that I know of, and reminds me of everything I admire. — Jean Cocteau on Marcel Proust’s “Swann’s Way”
Reading Proust
I really enjoyed reading this post on the experience of reading Proust. It sounds kind of marvelous, actually – and I have put off reading Proust because it’s just daunting and huge, etc. My father has been working on the … Continue reading

