Category: Short Takes
You’re not bad. You’re just in pain ~ Scent of a Woman
I have to admit, I’m still a bit miffed that Al Pacino won the Oscar for Scent of a Woman, essentially robbing Robert Downy Jr, who had so exquisitely channelled Charlie Chaplin that same year. But, hey, Pacino had his moments.
Lager
A high-school chum, storm-bound in DC due to the recent blizzard, posted this image on my Facebook timeline. Thinking of you! — at Capitol Lounge. Of course, it tickled me like foam on my mustache. But it also jogged loose a memory. I can’t believe it was over a decade ago. Another friend was in…
Bodhisattvas of Science ~ Sagan, Feynman, deGrasse Tyson & Nye sing to the rhythm of the universe
This is a clever and quite lovely mashup of science, astro-physics, meta-physics, spirituality and rhythm. A dance floor Tao of Physics. I think I’ll let these bodhisattvas of science speak for themselves…what a wonderful collection of muses, of musical musings they give us…and John Boswell, the head musician and producer behind the Symphony of Science…
The second book of The Way ~ Stephen Mitchell illuminates the Tao again.
Mmmmm… a day of cloudy wet so a retreat into a tub of hot water with salsa & tortilla chips and a good book about one of my favourite subjects, Stephen Mitchell’s The Second Book of the Tao (Dao, Tao, same thing, same pronunciation: Dao). Hmmmm… the liner notes of this book explain that the…
Country Girls love their Mommas on Mother’s Day ~ Faith Hill
Finding an appropriate song to post for my mother on Mother’s Day proved more difficult than I expected. Searchers on “Mother” turned up a paucity of titles, and all the songs portrayed…well, I’d rather not get started on that. But I stuck with it and…finally found something in the country genre. Yes, Country Girls do…
Amazing Grace comes in small packages ~ Rhema Marvanne
‘Grace’ is among my favourite words. There is divinity in it, and poise, as there is in this little girl’s voice, and in her being. Rhema Marvanne is, apparently, all of 7 years old. An age of innocence, so there should be no surprise there’s not a hint of wretchedness in the performance. But whence…
Passport to Paradise ~ Three songs you’ve almost certainly never heard before…
…unless you’re Stephen Guy. (Who, by the way, almost certainly introduced me to this band. Have you started on that guest post yet, Steve?) This is a literary blog. While the theme is movies, music and books, it’s really about words and how these themes inspire them. Every now and again, though, we’re going to…
Blade Runner ~ do androids weep electric tears?
Blade Runner is among my favourite films. In a veritable symphony of cinematic elements — cinematography, script, production design, soundtrack, direction, acting — it doesn’t miss a note. The film touches on all the major themes of the human condition: love, death, good and evil, redemption, justice, ethics, greed, passion. It’s philosophically spiritual and passionately…
The Fool’s day in April
April is my month of the extraordinary. In April 1991, I took the first job I was offered after having been unceremoniously fired by my previous employer. A year later, I’d had enough of the computing industry and was poised to quit that job…when Microsoft bought the company I was working for and made me…
