tater loving Sam Gamgee says Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew (movie) (thanks K.) 

Peter Blegvad's leviathan archives

(thanks Metafilter for the reminder) 

Beaver Moon

"This was the time to set beaver traps
before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter
furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Full
Beaver Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now
actively preparing for winter. It is sometimes also referred
to as the Frosty Moon. " 

A Truly Lame Duck

"Mr. Bush campaigned on the idea that he is the man to handle the aftermath of 9/11. But if he could not deliver a sound bill with the Democrats, most Republicans, the entire 9/11 commission, the 9/11 families and a lot of ordinary Americans backing him up, what will happen on something actually hard?" 

US campaign behind the turmoil in Kiev

"In Belgrade, Tbilisi, and now Kiev, where the authorities initially tried to cling to power, the advice was to stay cool but determined and to organise mass displays of civil disobedience, which must remain peaceful but risk provoking the regime into violent suppression.

If the events in Kiev vindicate the US in its strategies for helping other people win elections and take power from anti-democratic regimes, it is certain to try to repeat the exercise elsewhere in the post-Soviet world. "

halfway through Genesis in Robert Alter's new translation of 'The Five Books of Moses' 

new version of Raymond Roussel's New Impressions of Africa

"It took him 12 years to compose, or as he himself calculated, approximately 19,110 hours. The book was illustrated by an artist Roussel commissioned through a private-detective agency so as not to have to show him the text he was illustrating. The pictures are trapped inside uncut pages, and one of them depicts a man peering into the uncut pages of a book." 

info on Miyazaki's new film Howl's Moving Castle!!

(thanks Bookslut) 

Neko Case in The Emerald City Saturday and Sunday, also has a new live album out... 

"W Hannah Accordeonist Kirkwall 14-8-29" from Postcards of The Orkney Islands 

Carellin Brooks

"I wouldn't be able to threaten to leave anymore, that much was clear. Nothing about our happiness, which is considerable, would require regulation: it's only our unhappiness that would be legislated. "

<$Xvarenah$>

"Recoil from what natty pumpkins say. Go back into study of colors, old songs, truthful books. Past days had such wars, tyrants, and bad art. Try not to run into cars. Strong thoughts. It is gray but not cold. Icy gnashing far; dying in Iraq. Put that in your small songs. Nobody knows your faction."

Overlap

"Ave. B: doughnut holes arranged lovingly on the windshield wipers of a vintage MG."

Will digital editions become the art world's new headache?

"Once files start floating around in cyberspace, the certificate of authenticity becomes paramount. And what if that certificate gets lost? That's precisely what happened with a Dan Flavin neon-light piece recently offered at Christie's London. Estimated at roughly $83,000 to $117,000, it had to be withdrawn from the sale because the owner mislaid the certificate and Flavin's estate would not issue another." 

photographs of the Faroe Islands


via Plep 

happy birthday to the unequalled Boris Karloff--as also with Vincent Price and Poe, so much of what I think of as the Romantic tradition was transmitted to me by the performances of these men, encountered in childhood on snowy blue screens, that I can't separate them from it.  

The Rap Against Rockism

"Rockism isn't unrelated to older, more familiar prejudices - that's part of why it's so powerful, and so worth arguing about. The pop star, the disco diva, the lip-syncher, the "awesomely bad" hit maker: could it really be a coincidence that rockist complaints often pit straight white men against the rest of the world? Like the anti-disco backlash of 25 years ago, the current rockist consensus seems to reflect not just an idea of how music should be made but also an idea about who should be making it."

"Daguerre's Soup" by Marcel Broodthaers, and an interview with his cat. 

memoirs of Thomas Jones

"Two small rooms under the Stair Case, on the Ground-floor were allotted to a poor woman to live in on condition that she took care of the Portone or Great Street Door, and supply with Oil a lamp which was placed before a picture of the Virgin at the foot of the Stairs -- The first floor was inhabited by a [deletion] kind of Attorney & his wife -- On the second, lived an old Baron who had parted from his Lady Baroness, and kept an old Woman as housekeeper -- The third floor, which in Naples, is reckoned the genteelest and consequently the dearest being vacant fell to my Lot -- and which, with the exclusive Use of the Lastrica, I engaged 'till the 4th of the May following for the very moderate Sum of 20 Ducats -- From this Lastrica by which Term the flat roofs of the houses in Naples, surrounded by parapet Walls, are called; I say from this Lastrica you Commanded a view over great part of the City, with the Bay, Mountains of Sorrento & Island of Capria -- on the other Side, the Rocks, Buildings, & vineyards about Capo de Monte -- and where I spent many a happy hour in painting from Nature -- " 

Thomas Jones "Houses in Naples" at the Web Gallery of Art 

"Buildings in Naples with the North-East Side of the Castle Nuovo" 1782 Thomas Jones at the National Gallery, Cardiff 

David Mamet's guide to movie gags--

"All right, what about magnets? Cat, with magnet hidden (or, indeed, implanted) in its neck, is lured to stick its head into a funnel smeared with tuna fish. Funnel contains radio-controlled electromagnet. Two prop guys hold monofilament lines, one to ootz cat and funnel over the ledge, second to ootz it back. Electromagnet is turned off, and grateful cat removes head from funnel. In this scenario, I would shoot the cat sequence first. That is, before "establishing" the cat.

Or: set up four or five ledges, four or five different cats. Whichever cat-and-team first got the shot in the can, that cat would be the Hero Cat, and play in the rest of the film. This version, of course, would require many, many cats standing by. " 

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