Author Archives: Laura

Poetry Wednesday 02/06/2008: The Wine Drinkers by Tennessee Williams

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  Drinkers by E. Denis The Wine-Drinkers by Tennessee Williams The wine-drinkers sit on the porte cochère in the sun. Their lack of success in love has made them torpid. They move their fans with a motion that stirs no feather, the glare of the sun has darkened their complexions. Let us commend them on their conversations. One says “oh” and the other says “indeed.” The afternoon must be prolonged forever, because the night will be impossible for them. They know that the bright and … Continue reading →

Theater Thursday: Midnight Cowboy (1969)

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Midnight Cowboy is an Academy Award-winning 1969 drama film based on the 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. It was written by Waldo Salt, directed by John Schlesinger. and stars Dustin Hoffman and then-newcomer Jon Voight in the title role.  The film follows the story of a young Texas named Joe Buck (Jon Voight), who works washing dishes in a seedy restaurant. He wishes to leave the restaurant, declaring to a workmate, “What the hell have I got to sit around … Continue reading →

POETRY WEDNESDAY 02/27/08: This Place I Know

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The Peace Of Wild Things by Wendell Berry When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I … Continue reading →

Theater Thursday: Airplane!

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Airplane! is anAmerican comedy film, first released on 27 June 1980, produced, directed, and written by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams,and Jerry Zucker. Airplane! starredRobert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Lorna Petterson. For release in Australia, Japan and the Philippines, Airplane! was re-titled as Flying High. Airplane! is a spoof of the disaster movie genre. It is unique among film parodies in that Airplane! is a virtual remake of the 1957 Canadian airplane disaster movie Zero Hour. … Continue reading →

Project Runway

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Project Runway was the only reality tv series that I could stand to watch. I love high fashion, so you know I was glued to my television set when this show came out. It really shows you the amount of stress and work that goes into designing clothes that people will want to buy. From Wikpedia: Project Runway is an American reality television series on the Bravo network which focuses on fashion design. The contestants compete with each other to create the best clothes and are usually restricted in time, … Continue reading →

POETRY WEDNESDAY 02/13/08: Somewhere I Have Never Travelled – E.E. Cummings

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Hannah and Her Sisters is a slow-paced, low-key film that begins and ends with the family coming together for Thanksgiving dinner. The film garnered three Oscars; they went to Woody Allen for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, Dianne Wiest, Best Actress in a Supporting Role and Michael Caine, Best Actor in a Supporting Role. A Woody Allen Manhattan mosaic, Hannah and Her Sisters concerns the lives, loves, and infidelities among a tightly-knit artistic clan. The eldest daughter of show-biz parents, Hannah (Mia … Continue reading →

Theater Thursday 02/24/08: Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’

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The Birds is a 1963 horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on the short story, The Birds by Daphne du Maurier. The film’s innovative special effects, soundtrack, and apocalyptic theme influenced later “revenge of nature” disaster films. Unlike most other films of its era, The Birds did not have a music score or an ending in the conventional sense.   Beautiful and young Melanie Daniels (“Tippi” Hedren), a wealthy socialite whose father is the proprietor of a large newspaper, visits a SanFrancisco pet shop … Continue reading →

POETRY WEDNESDAY 03/19/08: Come Down, O Maid by Alfred Tennyson

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A Room with a View is a 1986 Academy Award-winning feature film, with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. The film was directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant. pensione in Italy that Lucy meets elderly Mr. Emerson and his handsome son, George. These men, although English, represent the forward-thinking ideals of the turn-of-the-century. They are the living embodiment of change, seeking to leave behind the repression and caution that was the norm in Victorian times. At first, the two Emerson men seem … Continue reading →

Arthur C. Clarke has died at 90

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Arthur C. Clark,  a visionary science fiction writer who co-wrote “2001: A Space Odyssey” and won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, has died. He was 90. Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s, died at 1:30 a.m. in his adopted home of Sri Lanka after suffering breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva said. Co-author with Stanley Kubrick of Kubrick’s film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” Clarke was regarded as far more than a science fiction … Continue reading →

Dr. Chandra…will I dream?

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The achievements of Arthur C. Clarke, unique among his peers, bridge the arts and sciences. His works and his authorship have ranged from scientific discovery to science fiction, from technical application to entertainment, and have made a global impact on the lives of present and future generations. Arthur C. Clarke is the son of an English farming family, born in the seaside town of Minehead, Somerset, England on December 16, 1917. In 1998, his lifetime work was recognized by H.M. The Queen when he was … Continue reading →