Keogh, Theodora. The Fascinator. New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1954. —. My Name is Rose. 1956. New York: Signet, 1958. —. The Tattooed Heart. 1953. New York: Signet, 1954. Theodora Keogh is my latest literary obsession, so I’ve been buying her out-of-print books on amazon.com as I find them (several of her novels haveContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently: Theodora Keogh”
Monthly Archives: June 2012
Euro 2012: Group A Craziness
Euro 2012’s Group A ended today in surprising, fairly exciting fashion. The Czech Republic beat Poland 1-0 and Greece did the same to Russia, so the Czechs won the group with six points and Greece finished second with four points because their victory today gave them the tiebreaker over Russia, who also ended with four points.Continue reading “Euro 2012: Group A Craziness”
Euro 2012: The Situation After The Penultimate Group Matches
With only one set of first-round matches left, Euro 2012 is shaping up as a very exciting tournament. Only two teams, Ireland (who I picked to get to the second round, oops!) and Sweden, have been eliminated, and no team has guaranteed a berth in the quarterfinals, which means that all eight final group gamesContinue reading “Euro 2012: The Situation After The Penultimate Group Matches”
Books Acquired Recently: Giannina Braschi
Braschi, Giannina. Empire of Dreams. Trans. Tess O’Dwyer. Las Vegas: AmazonCrossing, 2011. —. United States of Banana. Las Vegas: AmazonCrossing, 2011. —. Yo-Yo Boing! 1998. Trans. Tess O’Dwyer. Las Vegas: AmazonCrossing, 2011. I hadn’t heard of Giannina Braschi until about a month ago when I received an email from amazon.com in my school account (notContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently: Giannina Braschi”
Euro 2012: The First Round of Matches
All 16 teams have now played one match at Euro 2012, and it has been a rather entertaining tournament thus far. Here are some thoughts on each of the groups: Group A Poland were lucky to escape with a draw against Greece in a crazy match that saw both sides reduced to ten men andContinue reading “Euro 2012: The First Round of Matches”
Theodora Keogh’s Meg
I just finished reading Theodora Keogh’s 1950 novel Meg, which is about the eponymous protagonist’s struggles with her entrance into womanhood in the year before she turns thirteen. I am generally not a fan of books that are primarily about children (two major exceptions are Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and MiriamContinue reading “Theodora Keogh’s Meg”
“The Wake-Up Bomb” at the 1995 MTV Music Awards
Here’s a link to R.E.M.’s performance of “The Wake-up Bomb” at the 1995 MTV Music Awards (oh those halcyon days when MTV mattered/was relevant to music)*: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLhZN6dwnEY I remember watching it on television at the time and being a) disappointed, because I had never heard the song before since it hadn’t been released yet–I wasContinue reading ““The Wake-Up Bomb” at the 1995 MTV Music Awards”
Some Thoughts on the Role of Pop Culture in Teaching Us How to Live
One of my favorite film scenes is when Rob (John Cusack) asks in High Fidelity “What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands ofContinue reading “Some Thoughts on the Role of Pop Culture in Teaching Us How to Live”
The Django Unchained Trailer
Here’s the trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s forthcoming film, Django Unchained: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/django-unchained/ I am fantastically excited about this movie! I love most of Tarantino’s work. Deathproof was only so-so, but Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bills are two of my favorite films (remember that Kill Bill was meant to be a single release). I am alsoContinue reading “The Django Unchained Trailer”
“Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me”
Here’s the video for U2’s “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_WDG8iLT1o There’s not much to say about it other than that it’s a fantastic video: It’s animated! Bono reads The Screwtape Letters! Batman plays the cello! It was always a treat when it came on television, back when MTV still played videos.
Daniel Shank Cruz 