Off the top of my head, and in no particular order:
Albert Einstein, James Joyce, Jane Austen, Thelonious Monk, Paul Erdós, J.S. Bach, Guy Davenport, Emily Dickinson, Bob Dylan, John Coltrane, Thomas Pynchon, Plato, Charles Dickens, Niels Bohr, Ludwig Wittgenstein, John Coltrane, Samuel Beckett, Yasujiro Ozu, Akira Kurosawa, Richard Rorty, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Leonardo Da Vinci, William Faulkner, Matsuo Basho, Aristotle, Charles Mingus, Bill Evans, Marcel Proust, Jorge Luis Borges, Joni Mitchell, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Georges Perec, Aretha Franklin, William Shakespeare, Leo Tolstoy, Ada Lovelace, Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, W.A. Mozart, Franz Schubert, Richard Feynman, Gabriel García Márquez, Anton Checkhov, and George Eliot
are all very likely geniuses.
Michael Jackson: No.
Be serious, please.
--David
someone use the word "rumbustious" in (a podcast) conversation.
--David
—David
that Under the Volcano
(I started a side project over at LiveJournal the idea of which was to record a single thought, as pithily as possible, each day, the sort of thing more hip-and-with-it people do on Twitter. [I've been playing around there, too.] The every day part of that project has fallen by the wayside, and my partner in blockhead suggested in no uncertain terms that it would be a good idea to fold that project into this one, so I have. Today's post is the first instance of that infolding. More such one-liners will follow, perhaps.)
--Julian
The original incarnation of this time waster stipulated that one shouldn't take longer than fifteen minutes to arrive at one's choices. This seems to me a good spur toward spontaneity and, perhaps, honesty: the ten or so films we'd really like to spend the rest of our lives watching, not the ten we feel we should be watching. NC Tate made his selections in ten minutes. Here they are:
Barry Lyndon
Big Lebowski
Detour
Double Indemnity
Godfather 1
Godfather 2
Happiest Days Of Your Life
Late Spring
Out Of The Past
Red Shoes
Searchers
Seven Samurai
Tokyo Story
Ugetsu
Vertigo
I'm happy to be reminded of the two Godfather films. Of course they're essential, and—this isn't true of every good film—infinitely rewatchable.
—David
Today, June 23, My Dinner With Andre comes out on DVD in a brand-new Criterion edition. To celebrate this--in a
Before Sunrise (and Sunset)
This is Spinal Tap (and Guffman)
Deconstructing Harry (and Bullets over Broadway and Crimes and Misdemeanors)
Love in the Afternoon (Rohmer) (and all the Comedies and Proverbs)
My Neighbor Totoro (and Fireflies)
What are your desert island movies?
--Julian
On June 14, we caught the last day of the Kaisei Hydrangea Festival. It's a very small, very local event on the agricultural plain across the river from a forgotten town on a one-track rail line.
Hydrangeas are usually seen on roadsides and in parks, gardens and temple precincts. At Kaisei you can see them in a different context. Hydrangea bushes have been planted along the irrigation stream and between the rice paddies, and the festival is a chance to wander among them, enjoying the varied blooms. Beer and snacks and local crafts were for sale. On that final afternoon, a loud jazz band played, and along the paths, a good-sized mikoshi portable shrine was being carried and bounced by men and women of all ages in varied states of inebriation. Their coats identified which team they belonged to and from where they came: traveling to carry portable shrines at local festivals is a weekend hobby.
There's a short video of the festival and the flowers, but not the mikoshi, on this site. Watching it is very nearly, but not quite, as good as being there yourself.
--Julian
After overcast weeks with rain both heavy and fine, the rainy season was officially declared for the region ten days
On Saturday, a strong sun shone in a blue sky with white clouds piled from the horizon. By noon it was a glorious early summer's day. A generous breeze eased the heat.
Between the rice shoots, the water in the paddies still mirrors the sky.
The clouds closed in during the afternoon. Rain began falling in the middle of the night and on into a warm, dim, dripping Sunday.
--Julian
