March 10, 2017 at 10:38 am (Artists and Writers, Books, Plays, Recommended)
Tags: Annaghmakerrig, discoveries, Fridays, music, Tyrone Guthrie Centre
Libretto for Peter Grimes, by Benjamin Britten:
- Women’s Chorus
O when you pray you shut your eyes
And then can’t tell the truth from lies.
Yesterday (9 March 2017), Unit # 1
- Auntie
Loud man. I never did have time
For the kind of creature who spits in his
wine.
A joke’s a joke and fun is fun.
But say your grace and be polite for all that
we have done.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
February 22, 2017 at 7:53 pm (Artists and Writers, Food and Drink, Movies, Places, postaday, Recommended, Surprises, Traveling)
Tags: concerts, Events, film noir, museums, music, postaday, postaweek, San Francisco, Washington DC, Wordpress
— Ben Huberman, The Daily Post
Self has wanted to blog this picture for the longest time: at Dulles International, the day she left Washington DC, there was a one-man concert in the departures terminal. OMG, what a send-off this man’s music was! The sign next to the musician announced that the free concert was in honor of Black History Month. WOW. Self has no words. Thrilling.
Merlon Devine, playing at Dulles International, in honor of Black History Month: February 2017
And here’s a sign self saw at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore:
Definitely, Food is Love.
Finally, a poster advertising the annual Noir Film Festival at the Castro Theatre. San Francisco and Noir go together like white on rice:
The 15th Annual Film Noir Festival (Noir City), held at the Castro Theatre
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
December 26, 2016 at 12:35 am (Artists and Writers, Holidays, Sundays, Surprises)
Tags: Christmas, music, transitions
George Michael, Nooooooooo!!!
2016 is ending terrible.
I’m never gonna dance again.
Guilty feet have got no rhythm.
Though it’s easy to pretend
I know you’re not a fool.
I should have known better than to cheat a friend
And waste a chance that I’ve been given
So I’m never gonna dance again
The way I danced with you.— George Michael lyrics, “Careless Whisper”
There better not be anyone else. You hear, 2016? NO ONE ELSE . . .
December 23, 2016 at 2:29 am (Artists and Writers, Eavesdropping, Links, Movies, Recommended)
Tags: David Bowie, grief, music, reviews, transitions, websites
Early in January, David Bowie died, and then Alan Rickman four days later, and those twin losses now seem like the double toll of a warning bell whose somber echo would resonate through the year. 2016 was a year when the pillars that used to hold up our shared cultural universe wouldn’t stop crumbling around us. Prince? You expect us to somehow continue American pop music without Prince? Oh God, Gene Wilder. Oh no, Leonard Cohen.
— Dana Stevens, Slate movie critic, The Top 10 Movies of 2016
December 2, 2016 at 8:37 pm (Artists and Writers, destinations, Places, postaday, Recommended, Traveling)
Tags: California, Capitola, Fort Bragg, Fridays, Ireland, music, performances, postaday, postaweek, Wordpress
This week’s Photo Challenge — RELAX — is perfect, just perfect!
We all need to relaaaaaax. Especially after the kind of elections we just had.
Three relaxing things self got to enjoy in 2016 (Can you believe it’s almost 2017? Time flies!)
Relaxed in Capitola, CA
Relaxed in Ferrycarrig, County Wexford, Ireland
Old Blind Dogs Performing in Fort Bragg, CA in March 2016
September 1, 2016 at 3:38 pm (Books, Conversations, Recommended, Women Writers)
Tags: British writers, David Bowie, music, novel
Bowie’s Let’s Dance.
Right? Right?
“If you say run/ I’ll run to you.”
Almost word for word what our smitten heroine told Mr. Henry Tilney, when she had barely met him.
More later.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
July 28, 2016 at 7:15 am (Artists and Writers, Surprises, television, Traveling)
Tags: David Bowie, London, memories, music
In the spring, self was in the UK. She remembers wandering around Heathrow (window shopping) when Bowie’s “Life on Mars” began playing over the PA system.
Sometimes, life is perfect like that.
The chorus is fantastic:
Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man!
Look at those cavemen go.
It’s the freakiest show.
Take a look at the lawman,
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he’ll ever know
He’s on the best selling show.
Is there life on Mars?
Also, great song title, seriously.
There was a short-lived BBC cop series starring John Simm which was about a time-traveling cop. Grrreat series, ended too soon. The title: Life on Mars.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
April 30, 2016 at 8:51 am (Artists and Writers, Books, Filipino Writers, Publishers, Recommended)
Tags: AWP, Events, Los Angeles, Mayor of the Roses, memories, music, postaday, postaweek, praise, Saturdays, teaching, UCLA Extension, Wordpress, writing conferences
— Krista, The Daily Post
Here’s one: David Bowie, who died of cancer early this year. Self cannot get the lyrics of his songs out of her mind. Here, the chorus of “Changes”:
Ch-ch-ch-ch changes
Turn and face the strange
Listening to David Bowie on YouTube: “Changes”
Here’s another: Keith Tuma, Miami University Press. This man has steered the Press to indie greatness. Seriously.
Keith Tuma of Miami University Press, at the 2016 AWP Book Fair in Los Angeles
Finally, shout-out to Nutschell Ann Windsor and Phoebe Lim of UCLA Extension’s Writers Program: Grace Under Pressure, Personified. Here they are at the UCLA Extension Writers Program booth at the 2016 AWP Book Fair in Los Angeles (Fabulous book fair, BTW).
UCLA always has the best swag. They gave out, among other goodies, a UBS stick, a leather-bound blank journal, and really good pens.
Three Cheers for UCLA Extension’s Writers Program! Love the people. Here they are, doing Spin the Wheel at the 2016 AWP Book Fair in Los Angeles.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
April 21, 2016 at 7:52 pm (Artists and Writers, Surprises, Traveling)
Tags: London, memories, music, transitions, travel
Sailors fighting in the dance-hall
Oh man!
Look at those cavemen go
It’s the freakiest show.
— David Bowie, “Life on Mars”
This is a pretty freakish year.
Just because. First, Bowie and now
Prince
“When Doves Cry” — Aaargh, aaaargh, be still, self’s beating heart!
It’s too much.
Last week, in Heathrow, eating a sandwich and waiting for her flight to Dublin, her ears pricked up as Bowie came over the piped-in sound system: LIFE ON MARS.
What. An. Incredible. Song.
And, like today, SAAAAAAD.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
April 17, 2016 at 12:09 pm (Artists and Writers, Links, Recommended, Salon.com, Sundays)
Tags: 9/11, essay, inspirations, memories, music, praise, Salon.com, Sundays, websites
Self looked him up last Fall, when she was wandering around the East Coast.
She didn’t even know his name, then.
All she knew was that, in the days following 9/11, she was stuck on Salon.com, reading anything and everything.
And there was a piece titled:
Juilliard Student Plays the Concert of His Life
Maybe that’s not the exact title, but that was the gist.
It was first-person. The writer was a freshman at Juilliard when 9/11 happened. He didn’t even have to think twice: he grabbed his violin, headed downtown. And then, he played in the Armory. Hours and hours. Until his fingers bled (? She thinks, anyway). And Juilliard sent its students to keep the music going. The students literally played until they couldn’t lift their arms anymore. Firemen were standing there, weeping. Exhausted and weeping.
Salon.com is still around (Thank goodness. It has introduced self to so many good writers) From time to time, self will do an archive search on Salon.com, but she never found the original posting. But, by dint of patient digging and Google, she found the student’s name. And she found his website. She found that the Armory concert was only the first of many good acts he was to do.
His latest project? He is “traveling to all 50 states in 2016, asking What is American culture?”
Read his blog so you can follow him along. There’s still a lot of 2016 left!
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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