The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories (Oxford Books of Prose)
Algernon Blackwood: Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood
Henry James: Ghost Stories of Henry James (Wordsworth Classics) (Wordsworth Classics)
Ramsey Campbell: Alone with the Horrors: The Great Short Fiction of Ramsey Campbell 1961-1991
Sheridan Le Fanu: In a Glass Darkly (Oxford World's Classics)
Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House (Penguin Classics)
A Florida photographer and blogger whose work I've much admired---and much used---turned me on to Dale Chihuly. How had I not known about Chihuly? You know how I love glass, light, and color, so how?
This is the sort of art that doesn't require any more words. Click here, wait, watch, and adore.... Breathtaking.
First of all, you need to check out Cute Overload's "Best of 2007" posting. How did I miss this? It starts with the cutest birdie on the wing shot ever.
Latest CO favorites:
Red Paaaaandaaaaaaa COMING TO GET YOU ("What's that?" my husband asked. Whatever: it's so darn cute it'll make your eyes water)
A Check List (tiny circular pup)
Full and Total Sproing-a-tude (Hover Pup)
Can't Wait for the Movie (thumb-sized baby tamarin monkeys)
Kitty Monkey Dog Bear? (strangest looking cute animal ever, like something from an animated series, but REAL)
Emo Zebdonk (a literal half-zebra)
"That seal will laugh at anything"
Moby Dick & Sidekick, the seal (Really: a seal grooms a white whale)
I know there are a lot of music resources out there, but this site's really good....See it now. I like listening to jazz as background when I work and this is a great selection....
If you're extremely interested in art, you presumably already know about Olga's Gallery, one of the web's largest and most accessible collections. I've been going there for years whenever I felt the need, as I sometimes do, to look at paintings, or whenever I need to follow up a reference to a particular work of art. You can search by artist, country, movement, or name.
Clicking this link will take you to the gallery for Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), one of my favorite painters. Clicking this one will take you to Nicolas Poussin's dark and enigmatic scene from Christ's last supper (The Eucharist, painted in 1647), my very favorite. I love the expression on young John's (I assume it is young John's) face.
Continue reading "Link of the Day: Olga's Online Art Museum (& Some Paintings by Poussin)" »
In my younger days, I studied music and specifically capital-V Voice. Yes, my friends, at the age of 15, while other girls dreamed of being rock stars (not too many credible women back in those days except Janis, who was already long gone), I wanted to be Beverly Sills. Alas, I lacked only the voice and the ear. I wasn't even, I'm afraid, a particularly gifted amateur. Even so, it was a very good thing for me since I learned what kids today seem not to be taught: aspiration and enthusiasm and even discipline are no substitute for talent. Over and over I saw others more gifted than I win the competitions, the important roles in performances, and the big solos. I can't think of any better training for life than successive demanding and disappointing auditions with judges generally more tactful but no less ruthless than, say, the infamous Simon Cowell (who---I confess---I've seen in action only once, and by accident).
I got a lot out of it. Through my adolescent ventures into territory where I simply didn't have the talent to stake a claim, I learned the joysof participating in the production of a great work of art and also the relief of letting go of the desire to be center stage.
Maybe you've seen this before. If not, you'll thank me. Didn't you secretly always want to play the drums? Doesn't everyone secretly want to be a drummer?
I always did, but---this was back in the Seventies---my father found drumming unfeminine, so it was my younger brother (who really just wanted to play guitar) who got the drum kit. ::Sigh:: As was later made clear to me, I have a poor sense of rhythm and little coordination in any case.
But---particularly after growing up to learn the ritual , mystical, and therapeutic value of drumming in certain cultures---I still have a secret longing to play the drums. Nowadays, it's my quiet husband and my fellow multiple-housing dwellers who oppose it....
So I'm grateful for this site, which appeases my yearnings to some extent, while simultaneously affirming my lack of talent.
This is an Office Max website. It turns out that elves have no necks. I find it....disturbing. But funny. But...disturbing. It's the clapping. It sounds sarcastic.
JibJab lets you "elf yourself" (as it were) so that you can be the star of various animated greetings. The best animated greeting I have ever seen is JibJab's "Menorah Hora" as presented at Zenmomma's. I watched it half a dozen times and laughed and laughed. The Hannukah card with Hora is---in my opinion---way funnier than the Christmas ones. It's something about the fixed smiles (well, they would be) on the characters' faces combined with the jollity and animatedness of the spindly little legs and the shortness of the arms. (Of course it helps that every single person in this family is really cute.)
I always thought it was a May Day fertility dance dating back to pagan times, but Wikipedia begs to differ. Shut up, Wikipedia.
Brilliant.
Note to the Brits: there are some traditions you must NEVER allow to die out.
I don't know why my mind went there today. This is "Essex based 'Cotswold' morris side dancing at Great Warley Spring Fayre on Headley Common, 26th May 2007 (near Brentwood, Essex, UK)." Hurray!
I like to imagine them practicing it. And I like to imagine the recruiting process. Someone should make a film of it, similar to "The Full Monty" (my all-time favorite film).
CROSS-POSTED (ANGLO-SAXON ATTITUDES). The British parody of "Spongebob" adds a whole new dimension to the cartoon. Far from challenging this as "fair use"Viacom really need to get JokeComics4001 on board. This Stephen is kind of a genius. Here's my favorite one: "Sailor Mouth", complete with British swear words. (Not for faint-hearted Americans)
There are lots of others. These are my favorites.
My only quibble is with the voice of "Squidward." I think Stephen made a mistake making him American. He's got that British thing of pronouncing "th" alternately as "v" or "f" which is kind of a dead giveaway. Besides, they lost that languid, Squidward-might-be-gay ennunciation that so exercises "Focus on the Family" and similar groups. I was also a little sad that he got rid of the real Mr Crab's fake west-country accent (the American idea of one). Still: A genius genius.
And only 17, judging by this. Blimey!
These guys were my favorite singers way back in the early Sixties. Remember their cover of "A Bicycle Built for Two"? Or this really annoying Christmas song?:
Yo! Here they are, straight from Chipmunk Nation, singing: "I got my drink and my 2 Step." Is it wrong that I love this? Dave must not know about this in his nursing home or wherever he is....
But wait! There's more:
