Cal
References:
On the author of The Virgin Suicides:"Eugenides' [strength] is his
prodigious grasp of history and ancestry as limitless fields that
surround us and through which we travel, both forward and backward,…
Today's birthday:Deborah Kerr From Dr. Mac’s
Cultural Calendar:
"Film star Deborah Kerr was born on this day in 1921. Her signature
film is Night of the Iguana." Is he kidding?
Meditation for the Feast ofSaint James Dean
From a Xanga journalist in the wee small hours:
Sara Teasdale
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, 1918committed suicide, 1933 Sylvia Plath
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry(post…
Angel Night
In honor of Ellis Larkins, jazz musician, who died on Sunday, September
29, 2002, the feast of Saint Michael and All Angels, here is the best
midi rendition I can find of the classic melody "Angel Eyes."
(T…
New from Miracle Pictures- IF IT'S A HIT,
IT'S A MIRACLE! -Pi in the Skyfor Michaelmas 2002
"Fear not, maiden, your prayer is heard.Michael am I, guardian of the
highest Word."
-- A Michaelmas Play
Contact, by Carl Sa…
ART WARS on the Feast of St. Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas died in Paris on September 27, 1917. See also today's news
stories about the new permanent sculpture exhibit at the National
Gallery in Washington, D. C…
ART WARS for the clueless
Someone's weblog entry for 9/27/02:
[27 Sep 2002|08:33pm] "After a while you learn to cope with things like
seeing your dead grandmother crawling up your leg with a knife in her
teeth."-Hunt…
Modern Times ART WARS September 27, 2002:
From the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, October 2002,
p. 563:
"To produce decorations for their weaving, pottery, and other objects,
early artists experimen…
The Dark Lady
O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark....-- T. S. Eliot, Four
Quartets
From a list of people who died during 1991:
September 27
Oona Chaplin, daughter of Eugene O'Neill/wife of Charles, di…
Birthday of T. S. Eliot, George Gershwin,and
Olivia Newton-John
Time past and time future What might have been and what has been Point
to one end, which is always present. -- T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets
In time the Rock…
Birthday of Michael Douglas and Catherine
Zeta-Jones
To honor Michael's adventures in "Romancing the Stone" (filmed near
Veracruz, Mexico) and Catherine's impressive performance as the
daughter of Zorro, this site's ba…
The Shining of Lucero
From my journal note, "Shining Forth":
The Spanish for "Bright Star" is "Lucero." The Eye of the Beholder:
When you stand in the dark and look at a star a hundred light years
away, not only…
The Group "When shall we four meet again?"
This phrase was suggested by a recent weblog entry recounting how the
author hesitated to meet for lunch with three of her friends because,
while acquainted in pairs, the fou…
Force Field of Dreams
Metaphysics and chess in today's New York Times Magazine:
From "Must-See Metaphysics," by Emily Nussbaum: Joss Whedon, creator of
a new TV series --
"I'm a very hard-line, angry atheist" a…
Music for Patricias
On this date in 1892, actress/author Patricia Collinge was born in
Dublin, Ireland. She is not to be confused with the Patricia Collinge
of
In honor of both Patricias, the backgound music of th…
William Golding and the Lost Boys
Author William Golding was born on this date in 1911.
Theater review, 'The Terrible Tragedy of Peter Pan' at House Theatre in
Chicago
By Chris Jones
"J. M. Barrie's famous 1904 tal…
Fermat's Sombrero
Mexican singer Vincente Fernandez holds up the Latin Grammy award (L)
for Best Ranchero Album he won for "Mas Con El Numero Uno" and the
Latin Grammy Legend award at the third annual Latin Grammy Awa…
The winner of the self-promotion award at
the third annual Latin Grammys last night was... Stella!
An Awfully Big Adventure is the story of Stella, a headstrong,
starry-eyed young teenager whose passion for …
Tierra y Cielo:Meditations on the initials
TC Tierra y Cielo en Baja: TC Boyle:
Tortilla Curtain:
T y C, Andalucia:
Heaven and Earth in Heidegger
Cuando imaginamos algo en la tierra, este …
The Garden of Allah There she stood in the
doorway; I heard the mission bell. And I was thinking to myself, "This
could be Heaven or this could be Hell." Then she lit up a candle and
she showed me the wa…
A Time to Gather Stones Together
(Ecclesiastes 3:5)
Readings for Yom Kippur:
"Stones," from Jewish Heritage Online Magazine "The Foundation Stone:
The Center of Creation," from Jewish Heritage Online Magazine Man…
Evariste Galois and The Rock That Changed
Things
An article in the current New York Review of Books (dated Sept. 26) on
Ursula K. Le Guin prompted me to search the Web this evening for
information on a short story of he…
God Is Her Co-Pilot
On the soundtrack album of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,"
Clint Eastwood advised us to "eliminate the negative." As a sequel to
the extremely negative note below, written at midnight on…
September 14:Triumph of the Crossand Death
ofPrincess Grace of Monaco
September 13 was the feast day of St. John Chrysostom. From the
Catholic Encyclopedia:
"St. John Chrysostom more than once in his writings makes…
Meditation for Friday the 13th
The 1946 British film below (released as "Stairway to Heaven" in the
U.S.) is one of my favorites. I saw it as a child. Since costar Kim
Hunter died this week (on 9/11), and since today i…
ART WARS September 12, 2002
Artist Ben Shahnwas born on this date in 1898.
John Frankenheimer's film "The Train" --
Und was fur ein Bild des Christentums ist dabei herausgekommen?
In memory of Kim Hunter, who died on 9/11,
2002:
A transcription of a journal note from 1996...
National Dance Week
Thursday, May 2, 1996
National Day of Prayer will be observed at noon today, Thursday, May 2…
Double Cross
From the New York Times obituaries of 9/11, 2002:
"Henri Rol-Tanguy, one of France's most decorated Resistance heroes,
who organized the popular uprising against the German occupation of
Paris... died Su…
Doonesbury, morning of 9/11, 2001:
The Sound of Hanging Rock
On this date, director Robert Wise was born in Winchester, Indiana.
Credits include
"Born to Kill,""I Want to Live," and"The Sound of Music." "Director
Robert Wise suggests that we all sha…
Politics of Hell
Born today: Michael Keaton, star of "The Dream Team"
Regarding my claim in the note below that Michael Dukakis lied about an
ancient Greek pledge, thereby incurring the wrath of the Gods...
A Google s…
On this, his birthday, actor Hugh Grantis
hereby named an Honorary Waco Wacko.
By the authority vested in me by the possession of Knowledge of
Vivienne Browning's My Browning Family Album, a work dedicated to Dr. …
ART WARS of September 8, 2002:
Sunday in the Park with Forge
From The New York Times obituary section of Saturday, September 7,
2002: Andrew Forge, 78, Painter and a Former Dean at Yale, Dies
By ROBERTA SMITH
ndrew…
The Maltese Cross
In my journal note for Rosh Hashanah (The Boys from Uruguay, Sept. 7)
below, I noted that the cross as a symbol of intelligence may be
offensive to some readers.
Such readers may contemplate the Malte…
The MalteseV
Today, September 8, is The Feast of Our Lady of Victories in Malta.
"The 8th of September festivity is close to Maltese hearts."
Victory Day: 8th September
"The 8th September is a special public holi…
In honor of the September 8 birthdays of
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (The Killer Angels), Peter Sellers ("Doctor
Strangelove"), and Patsy Cline ("Crazy"):
From a website on Donna Tartt's novel The Secret History.…
For Elia Kazan:
A Birthday Song: Las Mañanitas
(Song, lyrics, and animated story) Today is the anniversary of the
opening of the New York Post Office Building in 1914.
Today is National Postal Workers Day.
From the…
The Boys from Uruguay
If one were to write a "secret history" of the twentieth century,
one possible organizing theme might be the religious struggle between
worshippers of the Semitic deity (variously known as Yahweh…
Santa's Wit
Edmund Gwenn, actor, died on September 6, 1959.
When asked if he thought dying was tough, Gwenn reportedly said, "Yes,
it's tough, but not as tough as doing comedy."
This may or may not be true; if it …
Arrow in the Blue
A description by Arthur Koestler (born Sept. 5, 1905) of a close
encounter with the divine:
"...a wordless essence, a fragrance of eternity, a quiver of the arrow
in the blue."
Koestler also ment…
Trifecta
Born today: Arthur Koestler,former Communist and writer on
parapsychology
From To Ride Pegasus, by Anne McCaffrey, 1973: "Mary-Molly luv, it's
going to be accomplished in steps, this establishment of the T…
Birthdate of film producer Darryl F. Zanuck
Among Zanuck's films were "All about Eve" and "Viva Zapata!"
Bright Star I do not have a photograph of Lucero Hernandez, the subject
of my journal notes Shining Forth and…
Birthday of AI guru John McCarthy
If you enter the question "Is there such a thing as artificial
intelligence?" as a Google search phrase, you will be referred to
ALICE, a chat robot. ALICE's possible answers include "Y…
Today's birthday: James Joseph Sylvester
"Mathematics is the music of reason." -- J. J. Sylvester
Sylvester, a nineteenth-century mathematician, coined the phrase
"synthematic totals" to describe some structures base…
Today's birthday: Laurindo Almeida
Almeida was a Brazilian guitarist, composer, and arranger. He was one
of the pioneers of the bossa nova style. Although he did not write the
song " Manha de Carnaval" ("A day in the …
Elevation of the Host
Some religious fanatics may be offended by my account, in the note
below, of a theatrical bartender-priest at Lincoln Center who last
night held a CD aloft in what may seem a parody or satire of th…
Backbeat in Heaven
The great musician Lionel Hampton died at about 6:15 a.m. EDT Saturday,
August 31, 2002, in New York City's Mount Sinai Medical Center.
Quincy Jones said, "Heaven will definitely be feeling some back…