42nd Street

42nd Street is a 1933 musical choreographed by Busby Berkeley and starring Warner Baxter, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers, Guy Kibbee, and Bebe Daniels. I had never seen this movie before. It's fun to watch, even though I find plenty of sadness woven through the plot.

Part 1 via Daily Motion:

42nd Street (1933) 1/2 by heapsoflovehide3

Part 2 via Daily Motion:

42nd Street (1933) 2/2 by heapsoflovehide3

FilmSite.org calls it "a refreshing film that changed the film musical forever and saved Warner Bros. studios from bankruptcy, helping it grow into a major studio." Weird Wild Realm says, "It was undoubtedly old-hat even in 1933. But it's a damned nice old hat & just about as good as movies get, with super cinematography, extraordinary choreography, & songs by Harry Warren & Al Dubbin that are a timeless delight."

The Examiner says it's "definitely worth your time." 366 Weird Movies says, "What Berkeley did for the musical is the equivalent of what Hitchcock did for the thriller and what Lucas did for science fiction."

DVD Talk says,

42nd Street surely cannot be the first puttin'-on-a-show backstage Broadway spectacle but it's the one that's become known as the archetype. Gold-digging chorus girls, goggle-eyed sugar daddies, old pros and young hopefuls are all here, as is the notion that the eager understudy might get her big break, should the star be so obliging as to break her leg. The cornball plot is compelling because the 'young and healthy' cast believes in it so strongly; Al Dubin and Harry Warren's songs have an aggressive, Depression-era immediacy.

Rotten Tomatoes has a critics rating of 95%. TCM has an overview.

The Town That Dreaded Sundown

The Town That Dreaded Sundown is a 1976 horror film. It stars Ben Johnson (better known for his Westerns), Andrew Prine (who has Star Trek:TNG and Star Trek:DS9 connections) and Dawn Wells (Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island). It's loosely based on a true story involving a serial killer. That killer was never caught. I am not surprised I had never heard of this one. There's just not much to it.

trailer:

DVD Talk says, "its mix of terror, humor and police procedure is uniquely entertaining." Stomp Tokyo says, "The Town That Dreaded Sundown is a sad little movie that no one needs to see, but its true-story origins and "factual" presentation have given it a more positive reputation than it deserves." 1000 Misspent Hours points out some good elements and says, "a movie that any serious horror fan should probably see, even though they probably won’t like it very much." DVD Verdict calls it a "simple yet seminal film". The Rotten Tomatoes critics rating is 50%.

Offshore

Offshore is the 1979 Booker prize-winning novel by Penelope Fitzgerald. I love the way this author makes you feel a part of the lives of characters you have nothing in common with. I have also read and enjoyed her novel The Bookshop.

from the back of the book:

On the Battersea Reach of the Thames, a mixed bag of the slightly disreputable, the temporarily lost, and the patently eccentric live on houseboats, rising and falling with the great river's tides. Belonging to neither land nor sea, they cling to one another in a motley yet kindly society. There is Maurice, by occupation a male prostitute, by happenstance a receiver of stolen goods, by nature a friend to all. And Richard, a buttoned-up ex-navy man whose boat, much like its owner, dominates the Reach. Then there is Nenna, a faithful, loving, but abandoned wife, the diffident mother of two young girls running wild in the waterfront streets.

It is Nenna's domestic predicament that, as it deepens, draws the relations among this scrubby community together into ever more complex and comic patterns. The result is one of Fitzgerald's greatest triumphs, a novel the Booker judges deemed "flawless."

favorite quote:

There isn't one kind of happiness, there's all kinds. Decision is torment for anyone with imagination. When you decide, you multiply the things you might have done and now never can. If there's even one person who might be hurt by a decision, you should never make it. They tell you, make up your mind or it will be too late, but if it's really too late, we should be grateful.

The Telegraph says, "All Fitzgerald’s books are the product of maturity, reflection, the quickly touched depth of accumulated knowledge and long experience. Their creation reflects the new sense of opportunity that may come with the bereavements and displacements of later life." The Independent says, "Fitzgerald’s humour is gentle but aware, sensitive to ordinary human failings and the mess people inadvertently make of their lives in their attempts to connect with others, their need to feel less alone." Kirkus Reviews calls it "A quietly spirited little novel about people living on the edge (and at the end) of things".

The Guardian begins its review with this:

Penelope Fitzgerald has been compared variously to DH Lawrence, Evelyn Waugh and Martin Amis. Her admirers are drawn to Fitzgerald's sparseness of expression and her ability to trace the subtle social interactions between disparate characters, who often work or live together in small, offbeat communities. Offshore, which won the Booker prize in 1979, showcases her talent as a miniaturist.

Before I Go To Sleep

Before I Go To Sleep is a 2011 psychological thriller by S.J. Watson, his debut novel. I found it in the mystery section at my local bookstore. I had never heard of it before I happened to pick it up there, but now I see it's an international bestseller translated into at least 40 languages. It won all kinds of awards, including the Crime Writers' Association John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award. It has been adapted for film.

The book develops gradually, but not slowly. It's a relentless press towards a climax. I can't explain how edge-of-the-seat this one is. I read it through 2 movies the family was watching on DVD, and I read on into the night unable to let go of it. I can understand how irresistible it was to film it. I bought it because once I started it in the store I couldn't put it back on the shelf. Compelling.

from the book jacket:

"As I sleep, my mind will erase everything I did today. I will wake up tomorrow as I did this morning. Thinking I'm still a child. Thinking I have a whole lifetime of choice ahead of me...."

Memories define us.
So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep?
Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love-
all forgotten overnight.
And the one person you trust may be telling you only half the story.
Welcome to Christine's life.

The L.A. Times says, "Having read the book once I was compelled to read it again, enjoying the special pleasure of noting clues missed or misinterpreted the first time. Certain books are so good that they remind you of the vast pleasures good writers can give you if you're willing to pay them attention." The Independent calls it "an enjoyable and impressive first novel." Kirkus Reviews calls it "a story that is both complicated and compellingly hypnotic" and concludes, "Watson’s pitch-perfect writing propels the story to a frenzied climax that will haunt readers long after they’ve closed the cover on this remarkable book."

The Guardian says,

The structure is so dazzling it almost distracts you from the quality of the writing. No question, this is a very literary thriller. It reifies books as memory boxes, dispatches from the dead. It also has – and expects its readers to share – a delicate appreciation of the links between fabulation (that is, the writing of stories that violate readerly expectations) and confabulation (the creation of false memories and experiences by a damaged brain). The most unnerving aspect of Before I Go to Sleep is the way it is rooted in the domestic, the suburban, the trivial.

Breakfast of the Birds

This looks like a perfect way to have breakfast: overlooking the birds outside the window -Or are the birds overlooking her? In the painting you can't see her cup, but I know she has it nestled between her hands in front of her. That's really me there, sitting at that table, you see. I've spent many a happy hour bird-watching from my home. It's harder to do now that we have an enclosed patio instead of a yard. The mess accumulates, and provides quite a build-up on the patio furniture. I missed the bird feeder so much, though, that I put out some sunflower seeds this winter. I've been enjoying cardinals, blue jays, purple finches and sparrows at that feeder and mockingbirds and sparrows at the suet feeder.

The picture is of Breakfast of the Birds, a 1934 painting by Gabriele Munter (1877-1962). She is described by Wikipedia as "a German expressionist painter who was at the forefront of the Munich avant-garde". You can see more of her work at The Athenaeum.

The San Diego Museum of Art has a video overview of her work:

Please join the T(ea) Tuesday link gathering at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog.

George Coleman

The George Coleman Quartet:

Happy Birthday, George Coleman, who was born in Memphis and celebrated his 80th birthday yesterday.

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang is a 1932 crime drama starring Paul Muni. A tragic tale of the failures of the justice system. I found it unexpectedly hard to watch.

via Daily Motion:

I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang by FilmGorillas

Bright Lights Film Journal has an article that includes this: "Fugitive is read today as a Depression-era critique of an oppressive system. The film suggests the denial of the common worker, whose service to industry is only as worthy as his social status." DVD Talk says, "Seen in 1932 or today, the film has a powerful emotional effect on audiences - James Allen is a lightning rod for social frustration. Paul Muni explodes with rage upon hearing that his pardon has been denied, a moment that still sets one back in one's seat. Muni looks ready to start a revolution."

Slant Magazine gives it 3 out of 4 stars and says the film

was instrumental in swaying public opinion. The inhumanity and soul-crushing horrors of slave labor in the penal system, where the gruesome punishment didn't fit the crime, is neatly interwoven into a highly gripping plot that still holds up today. It feels more like an uncompromising prison film than a message movie, so its frequent heavy-handedness seems more like unabashed pulp rather than sanctimony.

Empire Online says,

The most powerful of Warner Brothers’ early 1930s ‘social problem’ films, this indictment of organised cruelty remains potent, hard-hitting melodrama. Adapted from the autobiography of escapee Robert E. Burns, it skates about some specifics, never naming the state which claps the hero into grand guignol prison camps (the book was called I Am a Fugitive From a Georgia Chain Gang) but is eye-openingly frank for a film of its vintage.

Time Out says, "Some of the social commentary now seems a little heavy-handed, but the film still packs a hefty punch." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 100%.

A Throw of Dice

A Throw of Dice (Prapancha Pash) is a 1929 German/Indian/British silent film about 2 kings who each want the beautiful daughter of the hermit. This is a movie worth the watching. I enjoyed the acting, the plot, the lush visual images.... I enjoyed it all.

via Youtube:

The BBC opens its review with this: "Entrancing as it is exotic, silent classic A Throw Of Dice (1929) plays like a fairytale for adults." DVD Talk says, "Directed by the German filmmaker Franz Osten, the story is based on a classic Sanskrit poem called The Mahabharata, and it was shot entirely in India, using the country's landscape and its people to make a love story that reflects the Indian culture." DVD Beaver has an impressive number of screen shots and says, "Shot on location in Rajasthan, the film features over ten thousand extras and an impressive array of horses, elephants and tigers" and also, "the film avoids the clichés of a simplistic morality tale and instead creates a hybrid melodrama, action, and romance."

The Changeling

The Changeling is a 1980 George C. Scott ghost story. It's directed by Peter Medak, who directed an episode of Carnivale. I like this one. I like Scott as the tragic man whose wife and daughter have been recently killed in a road accident. When he moves into a historic house and feels an odd presence, you can't help but cry for him as he seeks to find out what happened. It's an eerie murder mystery, more than what you might think of as straight horror.

Moria says, "Peter Medak never lets his scares go often enough and mostly the film ends up being carried by the story which is structured with a sense of deepening mystery." HorrorNews.net says, "I highly recommend THE CHANGELING to anyone who loves good, old fashioned horror movies—the kind that get labeled suspense thrillers today because marketing executives view “horror” as a dirty word." DVD Beaver calls it "A subtle and genuinely scary ghost story". Roger Ebert likes its "craftmanship", but says, "Scott makes the hero so rational, normal and self-possessed that we never feel he's in real danger; we go through this movie with too much confidence." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics rating of 76%.

Norwegian By Night

Norwegian By Night is the 2013 debut novel by Derek B. Miller, an American currently living in Oslo. The book won the Crime Writers Association New Blood Dagger award for debut novel. I liked everything about this book. The characters are well-developed, the plot is well-paced.... I look forward to his next books.

from the back of the book:

Sheldon Horowitz -widowed, impatient, impertinent- has grudgingly agreed to leave New York and move in with his granddaughter, Rhea, and her new husband, Lars. In Norway -a country of blue and ice with one thousand Jews, not one of them a former Marine sniper in the Korean War turned watch repairman. Not until now, anyway.

Home alone one morning, Sheldon witnesses a dispute between the woman who lives upstairs and an aggressive stranger. When events turn dire, Sheldon seizes and shields the neighbor's young son from the violence, and they flee the scene. As Sheldon and the boy look for a safe haven in an alien world, past and present weave together, forcing them ever forward to a wrenching moment of truth.

favorite quotes:

It's the dementia, Donny, said Mabel.
She didn't understand. She had other anchors to steady her. But he wanted to correct her all the same.
"How demented is it to have the past rush up to meet us just before the end? Isn't that the final act of the rational mind as it struggles to comprehend its step into the darkness? The last push for coherence before the great unraveling? Is that so mad?"

...

It occurs to him that he's spent so much time remembering his son's childhood that he has almost entirely forgotten his own. At his age it can be overwhelming and painful to harbor a thought accompanied by too much nostalgia. Not that he wanted to. Mabel, in her final years, had stopped listening to music. The songs of her teenage years brought her back to people and feelings of that time -people she could never see again, and sensations that were no longer coming. It was too much for her. There are people who can manage such things. There are those of us who can no longer walk, but can close our eyes and rmember a summer hike through a field, or the feeling of cool grass beneath our feet, and smile. Who still have the courage to embrace the past, and give it life and a voice in the present. But Mabel was not one of those people.

...

The eternal wisdom of the United States Marine Corps immediately returns to him in the voice of his drill sergeant. When you have only one option, you have yourself a plan!

...
Kirkus Reviews says the author

makes the setting a powerful character as well. Hovering over the narrative is Norway's roundup of its Jewish population during the Nazi occupation —for which, the author points out, the nation didn't formally apologize until 2012.

Scandanavian Crime Fiction says, "Did I mention it’s incredibly funny? It is – in a gentle, sardonic, life-affirming way. And when it takes off at a gallop you can’t turn the pages fast enough. I suspect this will be on my top ten list for the year." Crme Scraps calls it "a brilliant book full of insights into life, love and loss" and one of the year's best.

Mysterious Reviews says, "it's nearly impossible to classify this book. Which to some readers will be its great appeal, a cross-genre, whimsically quirky, novel". Daily Kos says, "It is at heart, a novel of fathers and sons, as Sheldon wrestles with the guilt he feels for his encouragement of his son's enlistment during the Vietnam War which led to his death" and "It is the kind of book that stays with you when you reach the end, like the aftertaste of a fine wine."

Osunaarashi, the Great Sandstorm

I've been interested in Sumo since I saw my first picture of sumo wrestlers when I was a child. It was one of those old Japanese paintings, and I was fascinated.

I live in West Tennessee, and news about Sumo isn't exactly in the local headlines. I picked up tidbits and information as I could, but it couldn't help but be a back-burner interest. When years later I discovered news readers, information on current Sumo events became a bit easier to come by.

My breakthrough was the discovery of the Jason's in Japan Youtube Sumo channel. Suddenly I could get emails informing me of his video coverage of the tournaments. I was a happy camper, and I learned a lot more about the sport and the current wrestlers. I discovered other Youtube channels and news sources. My next idea was to find wrestlers with Facebook pages and follow them. I searched, but -although there are some wrestlers who are on Facebook as individuals- I found only one who has a page you can follow.

Because Osunaarashi is easier to get to know because of his Facebook page, he is now my favorite wrestler.

He seems to be popular. There is a short 24-minute documentary on Oosunaarashi that you can watch at this link, which explores his journey from Egypt to becoming the first African and the first Muslim to rise so high in Sumo ranks. Here's another short documentary chronicling his work:

The next tournament (there are 6 major tournaments each year, held in odd-numbered months) begins on March 8. Check out Jason's Youtube channel for full videos and commentary of selected bouts or watch Kintamayama's overview of the entire tournament. I do both.

And if it's in your mind to ask why I like Sumo, don't. After all, I don't ask why you like baseball or football or tennis, do I?

Life of Pi

Life of Pi might fairly be described as a fantastic tale told over tea, so I'm linking this post to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's Tea Tuesday link gathering. The story begins with a writer visiting the adult Pi to hear his story. The story is told gradually during tea and long walks and a meal. Here they are visiting together:

and here's Pi pouring the tea:

Life of Pi is a film based on Yann Martel's book by the same name. I loved the book, and this film brings it to the screen exactly as I'd pictured it in my mind as I read.

trailer:

The Guardian says, "The versatile Ang Lee brings Yann Martel's tale of shipwreck and spirituality to the big screen in magnificent fashion". Empire Online closes with this: "Verdict: To produce a coherent film from Martel’s tricky novel would be achievement enough, but Ang Lee has extracted something beautiful, wise and, at times, miraculous." Rolling Stone says, "You don't just watch this movie, you live it."

Entertainment Weekly closes by saying,

Martel’s bigger theme is about the narratives we all tell to keep ourselves afloat — whoppers and prayers, diversions and dreams. Lee’s bigger theme isn’t God or survival, but the awesome adventure of making the imaginary visible, the adventure of making movies.

Roger Ebert concludes, "I have decided it is one of the best films of the year." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 87%.

Strictly Memphis

Strictly Memphis:

by The Rolling Stones

lyrics excerpt (but I had trouble finding these words in the singing on this video...):

Yes I'm goin' to Memphis
Yes I'm goin' to Memphis
And down in New Orleans
(Down in New Orleans)
Yes I'm goin' to Memphis, (goin')
Yes I'm goin' to Memphis, (goin')
I'm gonna be there
Whooo
Step on it!
Yeah .... yeah

Back down on in the south
Sweet tastin' in my mouth
And honeysuckle vine, suckle vine
Into the big bayou
In with the Zydeco
My lovin' come alive, come alive
Too big to come upstairs, and Muddy Waters stayed,
Water-stayed
From an old man's mouth
Whoowooo

Yes I'm goin' to Memphis
Yes I'm goin' to Memphis
And down in New Orleans, (down in New Orleans)
Owwo
Yes I'm goin' to Memphis
Yes I'm goin' to Memphis
I'm gonna be there
Step on it!
You got it!
Bit on it!
...

Yes I'm goin' to Memphis
Yes I'm goin' to Memphis
And down in New Orleans
You come alive.

Letter Never Sent

Letter Never Sent is a 1960 Soviet drama film about a group of explorers seaching the Siberian forest for the diamonds that soil testing suggests are there. After much hardship they find diamonds, but they are cut off from their supplies by a forest fire. Will any of them survive? I enjoyed the journey.

via Daily Motion, part 1:

Letter Never Sent (1959) pt. 1 by karimberdi

part 2:

Letter Never Sent (1959) pt. 2 by karimberdi

DVD Talk highly recommends it, saying it's "not to be missed," and says, "It's a man vs. nature tale worthy of Werner Herzog, one with hubris, misplaced ambition, and even a touch of romance. Letter Never Sent is both human and elemental" and calls it "a wondrous thing to witness unfold."

Slant Magazine gives it 4 out of 5 stars. Rotten Tomatoes has no critics score, but the audience rating there is 83%.

TCM says,

In this film [director] Kalatozov represents something like the original source waters for one the cinema's greatest tangential histories - that of the plan sequence art film, beginning here and progressing to Tarkovsky, Jancso, Angelopoulos, Sokurov and Tarr. It's a style of cinematic experience that galvanizes your attention, as the world we see through the camera changes with movement and time, and we are free to wander around within the shots as if they're three-dimensional events. It's a shared realism in a myriad of ways a "normal" film, with all of its cutting and eye-direction, cannot touch, but the extreme sequences in this style also rope in historic, cultural, even existential thematic ideas, just by virtue of their length, complexity and scope. You can have a film tell you about man's relationship to the wilderness, or to God, or to totalitarian history. But then you can have a film hold you by the hand and take you on the tour instead. And then the experience is yours.

Young and Innocent

Young and Innocent (known as The Girl Was Young in The US) is a 1937 Alfred Hitchcock crime thriller. It's based on a novel by Josephine Tey. It stars Nova Pilbeam, who at 95 is the oldest surviving Hitchcock leading lady. She was in films from 1934 to 1948 but left acting before she turned 30. This is good -Hitchcock with a lighter touch, but still Hitchcock.

via Youtube:

BFI Screen Online says, "It is much lighter in tone than most of Hitchcock's previous thrillers, thanks in part to the easy charm of lead Derrick de Marney, and anticipates the successful blend of comedy and suspense in The Lady Vanishes the following year." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics rating of 100%.

An American Werewolf in London

An American Werewolf in London is a 1981 John Landis horror film of the comedy-leaning variety. This is a fun movie. It's also a sad film, which surprised me since it succeeds at both the comedy and the horror.

Moria says, "An American Werewolf in London was innovative at what it did during its day, although I fall short of calling it the all-time great genre classic that many were certain it was at the time." 1000 Misspent Hours says, "It’s extremely witty, surprisingly well acted ..., and tautly directed" and closes with this: "The long and short of it is: watch this movie. Director John Landis really knew what he was doing here". Empire Online gives it 4 out of 5 stars and concludes, "Carnivorous lunar activities rarely come any more entertaining than this."

Roger Ebert says, "it's as if John Landis thought the technology would be enough. We never get a real feeling for the characters, we never really believe the places ...), and we are particularly disappointed by the ending." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 89%.

The Garden Party and Other Stories

The Garden Party and Other Stories is a 1922 short story collection by Katherine Mansfield. She was born in 1888 and died of Tuberculosis at age 34 less than a year after this book was published. The stories can be read online.

The stories include:

"At the Bay"
"The Garden Party"
"The Daughters of the Late Colonel"
"Mr and Mrs Dove"
"The Young Girl"
"Life of Ma Parker"
"Marriage à la Mode"
"The Voyage"
"Miss Brill"
"Her First Ball"
"The Singing Lesson"
"The Stranger"
"Bank Holiday"
"An Ideal Family"
"The Lady's Maid"

The first story At the Bay begins with this:

Very early morning. The sun was not yet risen, and the whole of Crescent Bay was hidden under a white sea-mist. The big bush-covered hills at the back were smothered. You could not see where they ended and the paddocks and bungalows began. The sandy road was gone and the paddocks and bungalows the other side of it; there were no white dunes covered with reddish grass beyond them; there was nothing to mark which was beach and where was the sea. A heavy dew had fallen. The grass was blue. Big drops hung on the bushes and just did not fall; the silvery, fluffy toi-toi was limp on its long stalks, and all the marigolds and the pinks in the bungalow gardens were bowed to the earth with wetness. Drenched were the cold fuchsias, round pearls of dew lay on the flat nasturtium leaves. It looked as though the sea had beaten up softly in the darkness, as though one immense wave had come rippling, rippling — how far? Perhaps if you had waked up in the middle of the night you might have seen a big fish flicking in at the window and gone again. . . .

Ah–Aah! sounded the sleepy sea. And from the bush there came the sound of little streams flowing, quickly, lightly, slipping between the smooth stones, gushing into ferny basins and out again; and there was the splashing of big drops on large leaves, and something else — what was it? — a faint stirring and shaking, the snapping of a twig and then such silence that it seemed some one was listening.

Round the corner of Crescent Bay, between the piled-up masses of broken rock, a flock of sheep came pattering. They were huddled together, a small, tossing, woolly mass, and their thin, stick-like legs trotted along quickly as if the cold and the quiet had frightened them. Behind them an old sheep-dog, his soaking paws covered with sand, ran along with his nose to the ground, but carelessly, as if thinking of something else. And then in the rocky gateway the shepherd himself appeared. He was a lean, upright old man, in a frieze coat that was covered with a web of tiny drops, velvet trousers tied under the knee, and a wide-awake with a folded blue handkerchief round the brim. One hand was crammed into his belt, the other grasped a beautifully smooth yellow stick. And as he walked, taking his time, he kept up a very soft light whistling, an airy, far-away fluting that sounded mournful and tender. The old dog cut an ancient caper or two and then drew up sharp, ashamed of his levity, and walked a few dignified paces by his master’s side. The sheep ran forward in little pattering rushes; they began to bleat, and ghostly flocks and herds answered them from under the sea.

I love the descriptive language, the sense of the settings, the mood. The stories are vignettes, pictures of life and the joys and sorrows that make life what it is.

The story The Garden Party begins:

And after all the weather was ideal. They could not have had a more perfect day for a garden-party if they had ordered it. Windless, warm, the sky without a cloud. Only the blue was veiled with a haze of light gold, as it is sometimes in early summer. The gardener had been up since dawn, mowing the lawns and sweeping them, until the grass and the dark flat rosettes where the daisy plants had been seemed to shine. As for the roses, you could not help feeling they understood that roses are the only flowers that impress people at garden-parties; the only flowers that everybody is certain of knowing. Hundreds, yes, literally hundreds, had come out in a single night; the green bushes bowed down as though they had been visited by archangels.

Don't get the idea, though, that it's all descriptive. There is plenty of action, and there are plenty of conversational passages.

A review from the time of the collection's publication says,

It is necessary to read no more than two or three of Miss Mansfield's stories before discovering that she has great talent. And after reading all of them, ... there is no doubt at all that this talent amounts to the rare thing which a lack of a juster word to express our enthusiasms we call genius, and that her name must be added to that small company of the living —so small that they could all get into one Lexington Avenue car without straphanging— who really have something to say, and can say it uncommonly well.

Here's another review from the period:

I read this as part of the 2015 Read Harder Challenge as "A collection of short stories (either by one person or an anthology by many people)".

Custom of the Country

Custom of the Country is a 1913 novel by Edith Wharton. I thought I had read this before, and it didn't take me long to remember it. Wharton's books do tend to be memorable for me. She's a master at building an entire world and peopling it so perfectly that it's almost as if you are there. I'd recommend anything by her as can't-miss enjoyment. You can read it online.

from the back of the book:

First published in 1913, Edith Wharton's The Custom of the Country is a scathing novel of ambition featuring one of the most ruthless heroines in literature. Undine Spragg is as unscrupulous as she is magnetically beautiful. Her rise to the top of New York’s high society from the nouveau riche provides a provocative commentary on the upwardly mobile and the aspirations that eventually cause their ruin. One of Wharton’s most acclaimed works, The Custom of the Country is a stunning indictment of materialism and misplaced values that is as powerful today for its astute observations about greed and power as when it was written nearly a century ago.

The New Yorker looks at Wharton's career and says, "Undine’s story is one you absolutely have to read. “The Custom of the Country” is the earliest novel to portray an America I recognize as fully modern, the first fictional rendering of a culture to which the Kardashians, Twitter, and Fox News would come as no surprise." The Guardian calls it "one of the most enjoyable great novels ever written" and says, "Not all enjoyable novels are great, and not all great novels are enjoyable. This is, supremely, both."

The First Cup

Jean-Étienne Liotard was a Swiss painter from the 1700s. This painting is called "The First Cup" and is from 1754. The Encyclopedia Britannica says, "A versatile artist, in addition to his graceful and delicate pastel drawings he achieved distinction for his enamels, copperplate engravings, and glass painting. He wrote a Treatise on the Art of Painting and was himself an art collector." You can see more of his work at The Athenaeum.

I think the woman in the chair has been happily anticipating this first cup and looks very pleased with her modest servant. I get my own tea, thank you, and wouldn't quite know how to act with a server in my own home. A lot of paintings show servants, but it's certainly not a common thing in any homes I'm familiar with.

Please join the T(ea) Tuesday gathering at Bluebeard and Elizabeth's blog, where talented people post their own art. What can I say? There have to be people out here who aren't artists themselves but who appreciate the artistic talent of others. That's me!

note: We have cancelled out AT&T internet service because we keep losing internet access and then it takes days for us to get service back. We are using a hotspot device, but it's slow as Christmas and "spotty" at best. We'll have service through another provider by the end of the week, but I'm not sure how much visiting I'll be able to do in the meanwhile.

Every Day I Have the Blues

Every Day I Have the Blues:

by Memphis Slim, who was born here in Memphis and who died in Paris, France, on 2/24/1988 at the age of 72.