Library of Congress gets first big gift of major label music The largest music company in the world has just given the largest audio-visual gift ever to one of the largest libraries in the world, the US Library of Congress. Universal will donate more than 200,000 master recordings from the 1920s-1940s to the Library, which […]
Tag: Footnotes
“Are you sure?” (Apparently not…we ended up with a Hank the Cowdog book)
Speaking of pretexts, I was about to throw out (long overdue) my lone Shakespeare Santa Cruz shirt and wanted to test out my new phone’s camera. So here we go. Not pictured is the shoulder and sleeve discolored from falling down a hill during a hike on Kauai. The red-lava dirt permanently stained it, but […]
I’m not sure what links I followed to get to this article on Apt Adaptation: 10 Cool Converted Bookstores (otherwise I would be sure to credit them), but I’ll pass the link on regardless for your perusal. Note: the link still works but their pictures no longer load. My favorite is the Selexyz Dominicanen Church in […]
Picture source I want to make sure I give proper credit for these amazing pictures so I highly recommend checking out the other pictures and write-up from Martino – NL on his visit to an abandoned castle in Spain. The bookcase above looks nice from a distance, but upon closer inspection (below) the books have […]
Reading has taken a back seat lately so it follows that writing about reading has as well. But since I can’t write about what I’ve read, I’ll write about what I’m planning to read. While reading Petersburg I kept thinking that it reminded me of something I had already read and it finally dawned on […]
I’ve read maybe 10 pages this week and got nothin’, so in the spirit of Halloween I present a few clips of Monster Chiller Horror Theatre with Count Floyd. I haven’t seen these clips in years (and only vaguely remember seeing them the first time) but I’m hooked again and look foward to seeing more […]
From an article by E. J. Wagner in November’s Smithsonian: On the evening of April 6, 1830, the light of a full moon stole through the windows of 128 Essex Street, one of the grandest houses in Salem, Massachusetts. Graced with a beautifully balanced red brick facade, a portico with white Corinthian columns and a […]
Picture source My introduction to the use of contrasting plants to send an evil message involved a neighbor’s yard sprouting winter grass in their dormant bermuda grass reading “31 – 7”—that year’s Alabama/Auburn football score. Every day, until the neighbor seeded the rest of his yard with winter grass, I would look out my bathroom […]
I notice many blogs are posting poems related to autumn, capturing many of the attributes of fall through imagery and descriptions of the season. I’d like to volunteer a recording that, for me, aurally captures autumn, although it may be by association because of personal experience. The instrumental collaboration of Basic between Robert Quine and […]
I started Bulgakov’s Heart of a Dog this week and quickly fell in love with it. I also have a copy of the 1988 Russian movie that I hope to watch this weekend. For anyone not familiar with this short novel, it “tells the story of a scroungy Moscow mongrel named Sharik. Thanks to the […]
“I’m feeling thankful for the small things today” While I was gone from home the boys developed colds, the dog tried to have puppies, and I am overwhelmed by the emails and voice mails that are piled up at work. Be that as it may, I will still celebrate the start of my 50th year […]
Sergey Larenkov has overlaid recent photographs of St. Petersburg with pictures taken during the Leningrad siege of World War II. In keeping the same location and perspective, the juxtaposition can be eerie and moving. Not all the combinations work, but the ones that do are a fascinating blend of past and present. Part One Part […]
Picture source The first of several summer family trips will keep me away from the computer over an extended weekend. Withdrawl pangs start in 10… 9…
In 249 BC the Roman consul Publius Claudius Pulcher—a man variously described as being mentally unstable, an arrogant snob and a drunk—decided to launch an attack on the Carthaginian-held port of Drepana [on Sicily]. The mission got off to a rocky start when the sacred chickens used to gauge divine favour went off their feed, […]
The lack of recent posts is tied to summer fun with the family and too much work, not to lack of reading. Hopefully I’ll be able to post on the following books/chapters before an upcoming trip: Book 4 of The Histories–the Scythian chapter, or Darius invades Europe. After finishing this chapter my first time through […]
I have wanted to mention The Classics Circuit‘s current focus on imperial Russian literature, so I’ll do that now. Having recently read and enjoyed some of the books that will be reviewed I look forward to seeing others’ comments on them as well as adding more books to my “To Be Read” stack. I will […]
Published in 1965, the scans from The Recently Deflowered Girl at Bitten Nails Design & Illustration brought back memories of several upscale, tongue-in-cheek “racy” books from the ’60s. Not that I was old enough to understand the few I saw, of course. For a fun diversion, check out Mel Juffee’s….I mean Hyacinthe Phypps’ advice and […]
Work has been overwhelming lately (just finished a round of funding and an audit starts next week), which has meant almost no time to read. Hopefully things will slow down in a few weeks. In the meantime and to mark his passing, here are a couple of scans from Art Linkletter’s book. My favorite moments […]
Someone put this up at a bus stop near where I work. I hope they know it causes a smile every day: Bus StopSanta Clara, California