I’m really enjoying the Universidad Francisco Marroquín’s MOOC on Don Quijote and wanted to share the second live session that was held this past Thursday (18 Feb 2016). The session covered questions from Chapters 15 through 28 in Part I. I was fortunate to get a few questions in on the call…enjoy! Live Session 2 […]
Since I love seeing books used in shows and movies, I thought I’d share a few screenshots from 1957’s movie The Enemy Below. The story follows a cat-and-mouse game between an American destroyer and a German U-Boat during World War II (and is currently available on Netflix). The following screenshots take place about an hour […]
Don Quixote has long been one of my favorite novels. While I have seen several online open courses covering the novel, I’ve never participated in one until now. I **highly** recommend exploring (or re-reading) the novel along with the course from instructor Eric C. Graf and through the Universidad Francisco Marroquín. I’ve just finished the […]
…and bid them that they shall make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: and it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, […]
I know this is last minute, but I wanted to mention The Reading Odyssey’s Livy Discussion Group. The first meeting is Tuesday evening at 8pm EDT. More information can be found on this page. The focus of the group will be Books 21 – 30, Livy’s coverage of the Second Punic War and Hannibal’s invasion […]
Loch, J. N. K. (1968). A fringe of blue: An autobiography. New York: Morrow. Related posts A Fringe of Blue: A Fringe of Blue 1918 – 23 I’m hoping this marks the end of the blog’s hiatus. Things have been… challenging. But I’ve really missed posting here and being part of the online book community. […]
Four years ago, Amateur Reader hosted an Anything Ubu readalong, focusing on Alfred Jarry’s plays. I just discovered that the UK theatre company Cheek by Jowl will be livestreaming a performance of Ubu Roi Sunday, 11am PDT. Click here to watch the performance. There’s a handy countdown clock so you know exactly when it will […]
Starting Monday on BBC 4 Radio’s “Book at Bedtime” series, the book will be Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, read by David Horovitch and abridged by Tom Holland. And what an abridgment, since the total air time will be an hour and fifteen minutes. I have no idea what it will be like, but […]
Asymptote Journal had passed along an article about The Library of Congress Is Uploading 75 Years of Poetry and Literature Recordings. I’ve had fun listening to a few of the recordings, especially the ones with Joseph Brodsky, Czesław Miłosz, and James Merrill, and plan on listening to many more. Since I’m more of a “scroll” […]
Details on the screening Written up at midnight after seeing the Stratford Festival’s screening of King John, while a few thoughts I actually had during the viewing are with me. Forgive the hasty nature of this post. Philip Faulconbridge, the Bastard, is a marvelous character, and not just in the sense he’s a “type” that […]
I have been looking forward to the upcoming Stratford Festival screening of King John for several reasons, but especially since I’ve only seen it once. The play can be described as erratic, but there are some wonderful moments in it. The selection of incidents Shakespeare includes in the play brings home the parallels between the […]
The Death of Caesar by Barry Strauss Simon & Schuster, 323 pages, $27I’m rushing through this post since I want to post it on the Ides of March (and I just finished the book)… Barry Strauss, professor of history and classics at Cornell University, has provided an insightful study of the actions, motivations, and fallout […]
I wish I could say I’ve read Hilary Mantel’s books Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. I want to say that…I really do. But I’ve been knee-deep in readings about the Plantagenets lately. I’ll get to Mantel’s books soon, I know I will. In the meantime I just found out about PBS’ upcoming series […]
Adding to the continuing series of books in movies… In Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Steve Rogers’ climbs in through the window of his apartment after realizing someone has broken in. There are two shelves you see him pass by on his way to see who’s in his apartment. He passes by the second […]
The Firemen’s Ball. 1967. Czechoslovakia. Directed by Milos FormanPicture source First a few links, since they provide useful information and background: The movie’s page on Milos Forman’s official website provides a nice overview, troubles in releasing it, interesting trivia, some of Forman’s comments, and links to reviews. My favorite part is at the […]
The Collected Works posted a link earlier today to a YouTube video of Leonard Nimoy as Roger in the 1963 movie version of Jean Genet’s The Balcony. I have not watched the movie, but I was happy to watch these short clips. It highlights the absurdity of the play while providing Nimoy a great role. […]
This was the first screening of the Stratford Festival HD: From Stage to Screen Series that is now underway. They intend to offer 38 of Shakespeare’s plays…similar to that of the BBC’s Shakespeare project from 1978-1985 plus Two Noble Kinsmen. If last night’s show is any indication of the quality of the series, I am […]
Picture source Looking forward to seeing King Lear in the Stratford Festival HD: From Stage to Screen Series tonight. I could do much worse for a cheat-sheet on the play than the above summary. It almost puts me in the mood to review the movie from the standpoint of a Joe Bob Briggs Drive-In Movie […]
The Asymptote Blog has an interview with translator Tim Wilkinson. I’ve read his translations of Imre Kertész’s Facelessness and Fiasco, Miklós Szentkuthy’s Marginalia on Casanova and Towards the One and Only Metaphor (along with excerpts from other of his books, and I have Prae on deck), and Death of an Athlete by Miklós Mészöly. I […]
Well, despite the press release over two months ago this was news to me: Three of Shakespeare’s great dramas about the burdens, madness and romance of ruling, all performed by one of the world’s premier repertory theater companies – The Stratford Festival in Ontario Canada – come to select U.S. cinemas courtesy of Fathom Events […]