This weekend I’m going to watch Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau and starring, in the role he was clearly born to play, Gerard Depardieu. As an extra added bonus, it also features the dreamy Vincent Perez as Christian. Le sigh. But my heart belongs to Gerard. I love this movie. Definitely 5 stars.
Today would be our parents’ 61st Anniversary (10/7/1950). Zut Alors! How old does that make us?
According to The Wall Street Journal, Tomas Tranströmer beat out Bob Dylan for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Check out the Speakeasy story.
I am so bummed.
I’ve always been drawn to ruins — whether that has anything to do with where I grew up, I leave to your imagination — but I think Mervyn Peake got it exactly right when he wrote in his magnificent Gormenghast trilogy:
“Titus sat down by the side of the road and frowned. He had been born and bred to the assumption that buildings were ancient by nature, and were and always had been in the process of crumbling away. The white dust lolling between the gaping bricks; the worm in the wood; the weed dislodging the stone; corrosion and mildew; the crumbling patina; the fading shades; the beauty of decay.”
abcNEWS.com has a list of the 5 Most Memorable Movie Cats and it’s pretty weak: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=13429213 (Why don’t they ask Mary before they put these things together?)
But, really, how could they leave out Thomasina!
By Rainer Maria Rilke
(Translated By Mary Kinzie)
After the summer’s yield, Lord, it is time
to let your shadow lengthen on the sundials
and in the pastures let the rough winds fly.
As for the final fruits, coax them to roundness.
Direct on them two days of warmer light
to hale them golden toward their term, and harry
the last few drops of sweetness through the wine.
Whoever’s homeless now, will build no shelter;
who lives alone will live indefinitely so,
waking up to read a little, draft long letters,
and, along the city’s avenues,
fitfully wander, when the wild leaves loosen.
“When in doubt have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.”
–Raymond Chandler
I was not crazy about this bestseller by Muriel Barberry. But I thought this passage was spot-on perfect about the feeling one has as a high-schooler in a choir. I felt the same way when I would attend a band or orchestra or choir concert back when my children were in school.
“Every time, it’s the same thing. I feel like crying, my throat goes all tight and I do the best I can to control myself but sometimes it gets close: I can hardly keep myself from sobbing. So when they sing a canon I look down at the ground because it’s just too much emotion at once: it’s beautiful, and everyone singing together, this marvelous sharing. I’m no longer myself, I am just one part of a sublime whole, to which the others also belong, and I always wonder at such moments why this cannot be the rule of everyday life, instead of being an exceptional moment, during a choir.”
It is true, as C. S. Lewis said, that we read in order to know that we are not alone.
Gillian Welch
I really like the song “Annabelle”, especially the chorus:
“And we can not have all things to please us
No matter how we try
Until we’ve all gone to Jesus
We can only wonder why”
Well, it is Monday morning!
I went to Evensong tonight because I do love that service.
I was recruited immediately to read the first lesson. I did not sound like Anthony Hopkins I’m afraid, but I did my best.
And I was rewarded with this:
“‘For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.”
Awesome.
And, of course, St. Augustine’s great evening prayer:
Keep watch , dear Lord,with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give thine angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for thy love’s sake. Amen.
Let us bless the Lord.
dual personalities 