Well, Thanksgiving weekend was blessedly slow-paced, and I spent most of it hanging out with my family and being completely unplugged. Now I’m catching up: The Classical Language Instruction Project (via languagehat, and don’t miss the comments on pronunciation). Features people reading bits of Homer, Vergil, Plato, et al. out loud in Greek and Latin. […]
I’m off to my native city for Thanksgiving dinner at my grandmother’s, followed by day-after-Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt and uncle’s. There are half-formed plans to see either Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire or the new Pride and Prejudice adaptation or possibly both, and definite plans to eat a lot and play Scrabble. […]
Overheard at the screening of Capote I saw this afternoon: "That certainly wasn’t a movie for homophobes, was it?" No, indeed. I love overheard audience commentary. Seriously, though, see it. (Spoilers ahoy, for those of you who require warnings of that type.) Philip Seymour Hoffman demonstrates not only his commendable acting chops, but his total […]
I just figured something out: Roughly half of my dissertation was about how people mentally organize and store information; the other half was about what it means to talk about poetic form and how poetry seeps into our heads and stays there. (Actually, the proportions are off. Another big part was making the argument that […]
Io sono quel gran medico, dottore enciclopedico chiamato Dulcamara, la cui virtù preclara e i portenti infiniti son noti in tutto il mondo… e in altri siti. [I am the great physician, the walking encyclopedia, Doctor Dulcamara; my skill is famous, and my boundless marvels are known all over the world … and in other […]
1. Cole Swensen’s Oh, a very short book that does for opera what her later books of poems did for the Tres Riches Heures and the history of illumination. A fellow LibraryThing user recommended it, and I snapped it up, because I dug Goest big time, and there are so few poets who write about […]
Your random poetry link of the day: 30 translations of Matsuo Basho’s frog haiku, with commentary. From the literal — "Old pond / and a frog-jump-in / water-sound — to the not at all literal — "There once was a curious frog / Who sat by a pond on a log…" Kerplunk. (Via this moment.)
Every year, I forget that November is National Novel Writing Month, and then remember, too late, when people start talking about it. But this year, I’m writing it down in my calendar to remember for next year. Maybe then I’ll actually write that historical spy novel about itinerant musicians. Then again: today, waiting for the […]