crooked road

leitch: My cab driver coming back from LaGuardia this afternoon...

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 14:36:39 -0400

My cab driver coming back from LaGuardia this afternoon handed me a clipboard and a pen and said, “Will you draw me a painting?” I am quite obviously not a skilled artist, but I obliged.

His name is Fabio Peralta, and he asks everyone in his taxi to “paint” when they get in. (I am not the first person to write about him.) He has been driving a cab for 41 years, but the picture requests have only been going on for 3 1/2 years. He said he was inspired by then-Presidential candidate Barack Obama, who made him feel like “I could be and do whatever I wanted.” He has collected 35,000 “paintings” — he refers to them exclusively as “paintings” — and he sells a book of his favorites to riders for “whatever you think it’s worth.” I gave him 10 bucks, though it was clearly worth a lot more. I hope you are lucky enough to hail him down someday.

The Mighty Explorers : (You Froze the) O-Rings of My Heart

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:10:00 -0400

The Mighty Explorers : (You Froze the) O-Rings of My Heart

Tarkovsky Films Now Free Online

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:53:00 -0400

Tarkovsky Films Now Free Online:

Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986) firmly positioned himself as the finest Soviet director of the post-War period. The Cahiers du cinéma consistently ranked his films on their top ten annual lists. Ingmar Bergman went so far as to say, “Tarkovsky for me is the greatest [director], the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream.” And Akira Kurosawa acknowledged his influence too, adding, “I love all of Tarkovsky’s films. I love his personality and all his works. Every cut from his films is a marvelous image in itself.” Tarkovsky’s seven feature films often grapple with metaphysical and spiritual themes, using a distinctive cinematic style. Long takes, slow pacing and metaphorical imagery – they all figure into the archetypical Tarkovsky film.

Thanks to the Film Annex, you can now watch Tarkovsky’s films online – for free.

—- of the films available now, I’d recommend The Sacrifice.

Photo

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 20:12:49 -0400

Photo

Sun, 27 Jun 2010 16:37:00 -0400

“This curious world we inhabit is more wonderful than it...

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 19:33:00 -0400

“This curious world we inhabit is more wonderful than it is useful; it is more to be admired and enjoyed than used.” -Henry David Thoreau

[Walden Pond, April 2010]

Elvis Costello : Beautiful

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:06:00 -0400

Elvis Costello : Beautiful

tylercoates:[via] Jesus Christ Superstar, 1973 (dir. Norman...

Sat, 03 Apr 2010 12:12:00 -0400

tylercoates:[via]

Jesus Christ Superstar, 1973 (dir. Norman Jewison)

ericepps: One of my favorite photos, taken by my favorite...

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:13:00 -0500

ericepps:

One of my favorite photos, taken by my favorite woman.

"There is much humour in Ozu’s films, but they are most profoundly marked by an atmosphere of..."

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:37:00 -0500

“There is much humour in Ozu’s films, but they are most profoundly marked by an atmosphere of bitter-sweet melancholy … life, inevitably, is full of loss and disappointments, but there is beauty even in sadness. Japanese have an aesthetic expression for this: mono no aware, the tears we shed over the transience of things. It is hard to translate precisely into English, and is frequently cited as a kind of definition of Japanese culture, but it is something all of us can feel.”

- Yasujiro Ozu: an artist of the unhurried world

“On about February 14th the Americans came over, followed...

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:22:00 -0500

“On about February 14th the Americans came over, followed by the R.A.F. Their combined labors killed 250,000 people in twenty-four hours and destroyed all of Dresden — possibly the world’s most beautiful city. But not me.”

-Kurt Vonnegut’s letter to his family after release from Slaughterhouse Five in Dresden (Read the rest)

melody gardot : who will comfort me

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 14:52:00 -0500

melody gardot : who will comfort me

Daily Drop Cap “an ongoing project by typographer and...

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:13:00 -0500

Daily Drop Cap “an ongoing project by typographer and illustrator Jessica Hische. Each day (or at least each WORK day), a new hand-crafted decorative initial cap will be posted for your enjoyment and for the beautification of blog posts everywhere.”

On art and beauty

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 17:14:00 -0500

homeofthevain:

No matter how keenly, how admirably, a story, a piece of music, a picture is discussed and analyzed, there will be minds that remain blank and spines that remain unkindled. A poor man is robbed of his overcoat; another poor fellow is turned into a beetle — so what?

There is no rational answer to so what. We can take the story apart, we can find out how the bits fit, how one part of the pattern responds to the other; but you have to have in you some cell, some gene, some germ that will vibrate in answer to sensations that you can neither define, nor dismiss.

— Vladimir Nabokov, Lecture on Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”

you ain’t born typical

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:17:25 -0500

you ain’t born typical

atencio: waxandmilk: Stella Artois and The Auteurs presents Le...

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:32:38 -0500

atencio:

waxandmilk:

Stella Artois and The Auteurs presents Le Recyclage De Luxe Online Film Festival: featuring 7 essential French New Wave films, for free, this week (Dec. 15th - 21st)

More info here: http://www.theauteurs.com/stellaartois

"It takes an enormous act of violence to begin something."

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:12:19 -0500

“It takes an enormous act of violence to begin something.”

- Rainer Maria Rilke, “The Young Workman’s Letter”

(via tanya77)(parisreview)(langer)

part of the tumblr film festival. beautiful. [via chioke...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:49:00 -0500

part of the tumblr film festival. beautiful. [via chioke nassor’s notes]

popcandy : “Wow, Wonderwall is on YouTube. Not the Oasis...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:47:40 -0500

popcandy : “Wow, Wonderwall is on YouTube. Not the Oasis album, the crazy Jane Birkin flick (w/George Harrison soundtrack)”

"I think most writers have a failure of character, a failure to accept what’s being assigned to you..."

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:39:00 -0500

“I think most writers have a failure of character, a failure to accept what’s being assigned to you to write. And that often what we’re most talented at we resist, because we think it’s silly, or small, or not good enough.”

- An interview with Mary Karr