This particular song brings back a lot of memories (mostly of CTY, i.e. nerd camp)...
http://youtu.be/de3N5QJxMMw
I'm told it was quite well-known in past decades.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
Girls Who Read
A moving, thought-provoking pair of essays on literature and love:
"You Should Date an Illiterate Girl"--
http://thoughtcatalog.com/2011/dont-date-a-girl-who-reads/
"Date a Girl Who Reads"--
http://littlemissdorkette.tumblr.com/post/3118512524/date-a-girl-who-reads-by-rosemarie-urquico
(Read these first, if only for context. I don't completely agree with them -- the bit about lying, for instance -- but I share the general sentiment, quite deeply.)
I don't think I could love someone who doesn't appreciate books. Words are love; words are life (and livelihood -- I'm in publishing, after all). Literature lends one's love the richness of a thousand loves, imbues one's life with the joys and sorrows of a thousand lives. There is a reason why love poems have lost none of their power over the centuries, why stories continue to move readers to tears and laughter. There is a reason why books still burn. They are dangerous -- and so is love.
I want to live life gloriously, in many colours, with as much passion and splendor as any of the heroes of story and myth. Yes, introduce me to books I haven't yet read, places I haven't yet seen, words I can't yet wrap my tongue around, and I will do the same for you. I don't mind sharing a bed with lords and ladies, Victorian gentlemen in morning coats, bonneted midwives, princesses, admirals, magicians, demons, lovers. They're the distant cousins whose faded features we see etched in black and white, whose stories we know through irregular letters, whose children we have never kissed but love already. When we close our books and turn off the lights, they recede into our minds again, a trick that flesh-and-blood house-guests never seem to have mastered. And yes, when they make me cry, hold me. This, too, shall pass.
I want to die without regrets, or failing that, I want to die regretting only what I have done, rather than what I never did. I want to die having learned something new every day of my life. I want to die doing something I love, something I've never done before, or perhaps something I've enjoyed doing every day, every week, with the people I love most in the world. I want to die between the pages of a book, or in the arms of a loved one, or perhaps both at once. It's possible. With the right book, and the right person, they are much the same, after all.
I believe it's possible. Do you?
"You Should Date an Illiterate Girl"--
http://thoughtcatalog.com/2011/dont-date-a-girl-who-reads/
"Date a Girl Who Reads"--
http://littlemissdorkette.tumblr.com/post/3118512524/date-a-girl-who-reads-by-rosemarie-urquico
(Read these first, if only for context. I don't completely agree with them -- the bit about lying, for instance -- but I share the general sentiment, quite deeply.)
I don't think I could love someone who doesn't appreciate books. Words are love; words are life (and livelihood -- I'm in publishing, after all). Literature lends one's love the richness of a thousand loves, imbues one's life with the joys and sorrows of a thousand lives. There is a reason why love poems have lost none of their power over the centuries, why stories continue to move readers to tears and laughter. There is a reason why books still burn. They are dangerous -- and so is love.
I want to live life gloriously, in many colours, with as much passion and splendor as any of the heroes of story and myth. Yes, introduce me to books I haven't yet read, places I haven't yet seen, words I can't yet wrap my tongue around, and I will do the same for you. I don't mind sharing a bed with lords and ladies, Victorian gentlemen in morning coats, bonneted midwives, princesses, admirals, magicians, demons, lovers. They're the distant cousins whose faded features we see etched in black and white, whose stories we know through irregular letters, whose children we have never kissed but love already. When we close our books and turn off the lights, they recede into our minds again, a trick that flesh-and-blood house-guests never seem to have mastered. And yes, when they make me cry, hold me. This, too, shall pass.
I want to die without regrets, or failing that, I want to die regretting only what I have done, rather than what I never did. I want to die having learned something new every day of my life. I want to die doing something I love, something I've never done before, or perhaps something I've enjoyed doing every day, every week, with the people I love most in the world. I want to die between the pages of a book, or in the arms of a loved one, or perhaps both at once. It's possible. With the right book, and the right person, they are much the same, after all.
I believe it's possible. Do you?
Monday, February 18, 2013
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Love Stories, State by State
In celebration of St. Valentine's Day, Amazon posted this fun list of love stories set in each of the fifty states:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_369934762_43?ie=UTF8&docId=1000990781&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=086299APP4PDE6PV437H&pf_rd_t=1401&pf_rd_p=1479457942&pf_rd_i=1000990781#TN
I'm so pleased that they picked John Green's The Fault in Our Stars for Indiana -- it's a lovely, heartbreaking book. For West Virginia, though, I would have chosen Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam (it was subsequently adapted into film as October Sky), which they list as an alternate. There are so many good books on the list that I haven't yet read -- Gone with the Wind (Georgia), for example, is a classic that I feel I ought to have read a long time ago.
Here's to a love- and literature-filled Valentine's Day!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_369934762_43?ie=UTF8&docId=1000990781&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=086299APP4PDE6PV437H&pf_rd_t=1401&pf_rd_p=1479457942&pf_rd_i=1000990781#TN
I'm so pleased that they picked John Green's The Fault in Our Stars for Indiana -- it's a lovely, heartbreaking book. For West Virginia, though, I would have chosen Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam (it was subsequently adapted into film as October Sky), which they list as an alternate. There are so many good books on the list that I haven't yet read -- Gone with the Wind (Georgia), for example, is a classic that I feel I ought to have read a long time ago.
Here's to a love- and literature-filled Valentine's Day!
Monday, February 11, 2013
NYTimes: Richard III, Lost and Found
In recent news -- making both archaeological and regular news headlines around the world -- the bones of Richard III were discovered under a parking lot in Leicester:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/world/europe/richard-the-third-bones.html?hp
I'm inclined to be more sympathetic towards Richard III than literature portrays him (Shakespeare's play was an instrument of the Tudor smear campaign against the Plantagenets). He probably suffered from "younger sibling syndrome," as did many "spare heirs" of monarchs in the Middle Ages -- see Scar vs. Mufasa in The Lion King (and play "spot the Shakespeare references"). This was also probably exacerbated by his uninspiring physical appearance -- see Tyrion Lannister in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. (Especially in those days, physical birth defects were seen as portents of ill fortune.) Richard came by the throne in a slightly roundabout way that involved some unsavory tactics; certainly, he can't have been completely innocent in the Princes in the Tower episode. But he was by and large a competent administrator who contributed significantly to the nascent English legal system and, notably, lifted most public and private censorship of written work -- not a move to be taken lightly, especially given the political turmoil surrounding his ascension and reign. He was ruthless, to be sure, sometimes excessively so, but his were much more violent times. (Nasty, brutish, and short would be about right.) Richard III was not, among his peers, particularly remarkable in his ruthlessness -- which the Tudors, Shakespeare, and partisan historians conveniently forget.
Anyhow. I imagine it must have been a fascinating experience for the modern-day descendants of Richard III, a few of whom contributed some DNA to the project.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/world/europe/richard-the-third-bones.html?hp
I'm inclined to be more sympathetic towards Richard III than literature portrays him (Shakespeare's play was an instrument of the Tudor smear campaign against the Plantagenets). He probably suffered from "younger sibling syndrome," as did many "spare heirs" of monarchs in the Middle Ages -- see Scar vs. Mufasa in The Lion King (and play "spot the Shakespeare references"). This was also probably exacerbated by his uninspiring physical appearance -- see Tyrion Lannister in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. (Especially in those days, physical birth defects were seen as portents of ill fortune.) Richard came by the throne in a slightly roundabout way that involved some unsavory tactics; certainly, he can't have been completely innocent in the Princes in the Tower episode. But he was by and large a competent administrator who contributed significantly to the nascent English legal system and, notably, lifted most public and private censorship of written work -- not a move to be taken lightly, especially given the political turmoil surrounding his ascension and reign. He was ruthless, to be sure, sometimes excessively so, but his were much more violent times. (Nasty, brutish, and short would be about right.) Richard III was not, among his peers, particularly remarkable in his ruthlessness -- which the Tudors, Shakespeare, and partisan historians conveniently forget.
Anyhow. I imagine it must have been a fascinating experience for the modern-day descendants of Richard III, a few of whom contributed some DNA to the project.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
BBC: Parisian Women Legally Allowed to Wear the Pants
There are a surprising number of antiquated laws in the books, in France and in any country (including the US) with a long legal history. A lot of these are along the lines of "morality" laws, faith-based laws, sumptuary laws, &c. -- laws that regulated behavior and are no longer compatible with modern notions of freedom of expression. Most of these were buried in reams of text and forgotten about as times changed and attitudes modernized, so nobody ever got around to changing them. Of course, because they seem so silly, few of these laws are actually enforced these days, which allows them to remain in the books until someone stumbles upon them, as in the case with Parisian women's pants (Trouser pants, not... underwear pants. In France, I imagine underwear might have a whole different set of laws, or lack thereof.)
Anyhow, there was apparently a ban on Parisian women wearing pants that was never stricken from the books until now:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21329269
It reminds me of this book, which for some reason has been sitting on my sister's shelf for a good many years.
Anyhow, there was apparently a ban on Parisian women wearing pants that was never stricken from the books until now:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21329269
It reminds me of this book, which for some reason has been sitting on my sister's shelf for a good many years.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Birds on Wires Make Unintentional Music
When artists talk about getting inspiration from nature, they usually don't mean it quite so literally...
Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.
Now, if only you could get the birds to sing this. That would be quite a feat.
Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.
Now, if only you could get the birds to sing this. That would be quite a feat.
Monday, February 4, 2013
The Economist: Is the EU the Holy Roman Empire 2.0?
A thought-provoking historical perspective on the current economic and political situation in the EU:
http://www.economist.com/news/christmas/21568659-old-empire-offers-surprising-lessons-european-union-today-european-disunion-done
Several such entities have been attempted in Europe through its long history, from the classical Roman Empire to today's European Union. Though the continent derives some unity from its vaunted Greco-Roman roots, it contains a great deal of diversity in terms of language, ethnicity, culture -- all the necessary components of national identity. There are, in fact, a number of key differences (some articulated in the above article, some not) between the current EU and comparable historical entities (interestingly, they all begin with 'c'). Here's my (history buff's) perspective (it's longer than usual, so I've put it under the cut):
http://www.economist.com/news/christmas/21568659-old-empire-offers-surprising-lessons-european-union-today-european-disunion-done
Several such entities have been attempted in Europe through its long history, from the classical Roman Empire to today's European Union. Though the continent derives some unity from its vaunted Greco-Roman roots, it contains a great deal of diversity in terms of language, ethnicity, culture -- all the necessary components of national identity. There are, in fact, a number of key differences (some articulated in the above article, some not) between the current EU and comparable historical entities (interestingly, they all begin with 'c'). Here's my (history buff's) perspective (it's longer than usual, so I've put it under the cut):
Sunday, February 3, 2013
io9: Race Relations in the Space Age
An adorable, moving video about breaking all sorts of glass ceilings in pursuit of one's dreams (also, Star Trek pioneering integration FTW):
http://io9.com/5981089/a-sweet-animated-tale-of-challenger-astronaut-ronald-mcnairs-early-experience-standing-up-to-racism
Ronald McNair. I didn't know who he was until I saw this, but I'm glad I found it. I'll admit to tearing up a little at the end. (Challenger, why?) He's one of the many unsung heroes of science -- much as the Catholic Church has a body of saints, I propose that science establish its own roster of martyrs for the cause. McNair would be up there with Galileo and Marie Curie.
http://io9.com/5981089/a-sweet-animated-tale-of-challenger-astronaut-ronald-mcnairs-early-experience-standing-up-to-racism
Ronald McNair. I didn't know who he was until I saw this, but I'm glad I found it. I'll admit to tearing up a little at the end. (Challenger, why?) He's one of the many unsung heroes of science -- much as the Catholic Church has a body of saints, I propose that science establish its own roster of martyrs for the cause. McNair would be up there with Galileo and Marie Curie.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)