Log24

Continued from December 2, 2009

"…no one will be surprised to learn that this Papini is the scoundrel of literature, the blackguard of journalism, the Barabbas of art, the thug of philosophy, the bully of politics, the Apache of culture, and that he is inextricably involved in all the enterprises of the intellectual underworld."

— Giovanni Papini, self-description in Four and Twenty Minds (1922)

Papini is also the author of Gog, Life of Christ, and The Devil

Related material:

This journal on Hotel Hymns in general,
and specifically on the Hotel Hassler.

What Song the Sirens Sang

“Wake you up in the
 middle of the night
 just to hear them say…”

“Suitcases filled with cash had changed hands in the four-star Hotel Hassler in Rome.”

— F. Mark Wyatt, recently deceased
   career CIA officer,
   quoted in this morning’s
   New York Times

The New York Times, with its usual lack of clarity about dates, says Wyatt died “on Thursday.”  Presumably this was Thursday a week ago– June 29, 2006, the Feast of Saint Peter.

Dreaming Game

A phrase from yesterday’s entry:

Lust und Freud.

This phrase, together with the concluding song from the recent film “Good Night and Good Luck,” suggests the following links (the first two from Sinatra’s birthday, 2004):

One For His Baby,
One More for the Road,
and LIFE in Camelot: The Kennedy Years.

In this morning’s New York Times obituaries: 

Philip B.Kunhardt Jr., editor of “LIFE in Camelot: The Kennedy Years.”  Kunhardt was also the author of memoirs about his parents, My Father’s House and The Dreaming Game— the latter about his mother, herself the author of the classic Pat the Bunny.  Kunhardt died on Tuesday.

Related material:

Tuesday’s Log24 entry The Kennedy School and yesterday’s entry Welcome to the Hotel Hassler.

“There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say…”

• The Name
• The Novelist
  “Hassler’s narrative style and implied values are old-fashioned but solid. He acknowledges evil and portrays it convincingly….” –Library Journal
• The Notes
  • The midi
  • The lyrics – “All Lust und Freud”
  • The illustration (March 3, 2006)

Related material:

• Alfred Bester on the Spanish Steps
• Harvard students on moral reasoning
• Orson Welles on the Borgias