Delphiniums in a Window Box

film & television August 5, 2014 Leave a comment

Every sunrise, even strangers’ eyes.
Not necessarily swans, even crows,
even the evening fusillade of bats.
That place where the creek goes underground,
how many weeks before I see you again?
Stacks of books, every page, characters’
rages and poets’ strange contraptions
of syntax and song, every song
even when there isn’t one.
Every thistle, splinter, butterfly
over the drainage ditches. Every stray.
Did you see the meteor shower?
Did it feel like something swallowed?
Every question, conversation
even with almost nothing, cricket, cloud,
because of you I’m talking to crickets, clouds,
confiding in a cat. Everyone says,
Come to your senses, and I do, of you.
Every touch electric, every taste you,
every smell, even burning sugar, every
cry and laugh. Toothpicked samples
at the farmers’ market, every melon,
plum, I come undone, undone.

-Dean Young

“Fray” by Joss Whedon

books poetry lit August 4, 2014 Leave a comment

“In your dreams, you’re someone else. A slave. A princess. A girl in school in a sunlit city.”

FrayHeaderI’ve been reading Joss Whedon’s “Fray”, and I am very in love with it. Set in a chaotic, dystopian future world in which crime runs rampant and the gap between the wealthy and the poor has divided all of society, it’s focused on Melaka Fray, a street kid who has made a living as a skilled thief. Manhattan, where she lives, has become a deadly slum run by mutant crime-lords and corrupt or disinterested cops, and Melaka’s only family is her estranged sister, a cop. One moment, Melaka Fray is fulfilling another job for her crime boss, and the next, he’s paid her extra for the job, cut off all ties with her, and she’s being hunted by multiple assassins.

It’s fascinating and badass and the world is like a cross between the cyperpunk grittiness of Dark Angel and the sardonic one-liners of Veronica Mars. It’s not particularly unique – it’s very much a combination of previous Whedon projects – but there’s so much flare here. And something entirely magical about the character of Melaka, a great blend of vulnerability and utter, effortless cool.

Illustration Love: Ramen

art & illustration August 2, 2014 Leave a comment

ramen-illustration-noodles-paintingby Holly Exley

Caffeinated Links: Louis-Dreyfuss and Seinfeld Sing, Eating Well on $35/Week, Leaf Art

art & illustration, film & television, this & that August 1, 2014 Leave a comment

leaf art

Omid Asadi makes the most exquisite hand-cut leaf art.

Stephen Colbert has a hilarious take on the Orlando Bloom/Justin Bieber spat. This is real news, folks. And Mashable has all the funniest Twitter responses.

The manga Soul Reviver, which is about two soul revivers who have the ability to move between the worlds of the living and the dead and to bring certain people back whose mission on Earth was not complete at the time of their demise, is coming to Hollywood as a live action movie. I am excited. RT

Lifehacker is running an experiment on eating well on only $35 a week. It’s fascinating and important. RT

Really gorgeous cover of Sam Smith’s “Stay with Me” by, of all people, Vin Diesel (love that man. Is there nothing he can’t do?). The actor’s voice is surprisingly deep-timbred and he gives it a sexy, rich depth.

How did I miss this at the time? Oh right…I was living in a third-world country. Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and Seinfeld reunite to sing The Sound of Music. It’s perfection. Also, they have incredible chemistry.

The Steeple-Jack

books poetry lit July 30, 2014 Leave a comment

Dürer would have seen a reason for living
in a town like this, with eight stranded whales
to look at; with the sweet sea air coming into your house
on a fine day, from water etched
with waves as formal as the scales
on a fish.

One by one in two’s and three’s, the seagulls keep
flying back and forth over the town clock,
or sailing around the lighthouse without moving their wings –
rising steadily with a slight
quiver of the body — or flock
mewing where

a sea the purple of the peacock’s neck is
paled to greenish azure as Dürer changed
the pine green of the Tyrol to peacock blue and guinea
gray. You can see a twenty-five-
pound lobster; and fish nets arranged
to dry. The

whirlwind fife-and-drum of the storm bends the salt
marsh grass, disturbs stars in the sky and the
star on the steeple; it is a privilege to see so
much confusion. Disguised by what
might seem the opposite, the sea-
side flowers and

Continue reading →

Old Chinese Women

books poetry lit July 27, 2014 Leave a comment

They are moving, these women,

as if time were a vegetable to eat slowly
for dinner—as if bicycles were mountains
that could raise them to the sky.

-Meredith Johnson, from “Old Chinese Women” in Rattle

Illustration Love: Vintage Typewriter

art & illustration July 25, 2014 1 Comment

vintagetypewriter

He wrote a great deal, mostly because he liked the smell of ink from the pages rolling out of the typewriter.

Illustration by Holly Exley

 

Grocery Shopping

art & illustration July 24, 2014 Leave a comment

17 words for Wes Anderson: Suddenness

“I like to look for things no one else catches.” – Amélie

Photo by Dina Balenko

Drench

books poetry lit July 24, 2014 Leave a comment

You sleep with a dream of summer weather,

wake to the thrum of rain – roped down by rain.

Nothing out there but drop-heavy feathers of grass

and rainy air. The plastic table on the terrace

has shed three legs on its way to the garden fence.

The mountains have had the sense to disappear.

It’s the Celtic temperament – wind, then torrents, then remorse.

Glory rising like a curtain over distant water.

Old stonehouse, having steered us through the dark,

docks in a pool of shadows all its own.

That widening crack in the gloom is like good luck.

Luck, which neither you nor tomorrow can depend on.

– Anne Stevenson

ScarJo Interview

film & television July 22, 2014 Leave a comment

One of the main reasons I’m a Scarlett Johansson fan is that she’s so clearly intelligent.

“I love to travel and I made sure, as I always do when I go to a major city, that there was an Anthony Bourdain special on Taipei. Turns out that it’s a culinary mecca, much to my delight,” Johansson said. “It’s a city that comes alive at night. Tokyo was really quite a unique metropolis; this mix of fantasy and a very practical way of living. It’s just so different than any other place I’ve been. Japan and Taiwan both have their own culture of cinema, but film is a universal language, so it’s interesting to see how you can be in an entirely new place and environment, but kind of be talking the same language while making a movie. There’s an unspoken sense of collaboration on a film set, so it’s a nice way to travel.”

–Buzzfeed interview about her new film Lucy