I'm going to write a letter to my true love

[sovay]

1. Happy birthday, rushthatspeaks! My best cousin, whom I love so: I am glad you're in this world.

2. I am afraid that Samuel Morse is undergoing a critical reappraisal as a painter. This is the second article about his artwork I've seen in two days. I understand his Gallery of the Louvre (1831–1833) might be a priceless snapshot of Morse's tastes and encouragement of the American museum-going public. The problem is, he also painted this. It hangs in the new American wing of the MFA and I marvel at it every time I visit. Perhaps "boggle" is the more accurate word. Little Miss Hone (1824). Probably she grew up to be somebody's society wife, because the nineteenth century was depressing like that, but I like to think she never wore pink again and if she kept cats, they were Isabella Stewart Gardner's leopards.

3. Speaking of cats, sort of: Haruki Murakami, "Town of Cats" in The New Yorker.

4. rosefox on the guideline changes to the Lambda Literary Awards. Read.

5. When Jerry Leiber died last week, the shock was not that I knew so many of his songs with Mike Stoller, but that they turned out to be by the same people—I mean, "Is That All There Is?" and "Love Potion No. 9"? Nonetheless, I'd go to see their musical about Oscar Wilde.

What I am going to see tonight is La strada (1954) at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. I was supposed to be in New York for the Marvell Rep's staged reading of Sholem Asch's God of Vengeance, but it's been postponed due to transportation issues in the wake of Irene—and someone from the theater called this morning to make sure I'd gotten the e-mail and wasn't making the trip for nothing. That's a kind of astonishing thoughtfulness, even for a small company. I already knew I liked their taste in plays. Now I feel like sending roses.

Comments

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

Look, I really want a Lambda someday soon, but that does seem like someone somewhere has narrowed the playing field to the extent of pissing on the goal-lines. Why we do this to ourselves as a community I will never, never know.

[helivoy.livejournal.com]

Although La Strada has powerful images, it also has the subtlety of an ox-killing mallet.

As for the Lammies, none of the groups represented by the LGBT acronym are natural allies, so it's not surprising it's taking a long while to read a truly viable solution.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

While there has been a history of tension between the LG and the B and the T, I have to respectfully disagree with your assertion that we're not natural allies. I'm not a huge optimist, so I'm not coming at this with a sprinkling of fairy dust and unicorn shavings; I just think this is a chance to be supportive rather than divisive. When all queers are marginalized, infighting and further compartmentalization is not productive; I think allies are all we can be.

[helivoy.livejournal.com]

I think you and I agree, actually.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

Sorry to have misread, then. The internet can be funny that way.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday, dear rushthatspeaks! You are a marvel and a joy.

I'd hadn't seen the acronym QUILTBAG. It delights me: but then, I love patchwork.

Nine

[barry-king.livejournal.com]

Oo! La Strada. The world needs more Anthony Quinn. Though I'm beginning to think he was reincarnated as Ron Perlman, so maybe it already has some.

[sovay]

Though I'm beginning to think he was reincarnated as Ron Perlman, so maybe it already has some.

Ah, I think he was one of a kind.

All the principals in that film are so good. And I love them all, but Richard Basehart is the one who blew off the top of my head when I saw La strada for the first time, because I couldn't believe it wasn't the film he was remembered for. This time I noticed the elemental underpinnings, that if he is a creature of the air, then it must be significant that he dies on the ground, grass clenched between his fingers, his body dumped under a bridge and his earthly possessions burning. It's only one of his masks, that he's as ungraspable as a breeze. No one in the film is quite what they seem, or believe.

[barry-king.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... I see your point. But to me, Strada is always paired with Juliet of the Spirits. I see it as Fellini's attempt to dive into himself to understand the other, in particular, Giuletta Masina. He's a sentimental fool, and doesn't mind showing it. And he has a point.

[sovay]

But to me, Strada is always paired with Juliet of the Spirits.

Which I have not yet seen.

in particular, Giuletta Masina. He's a sentimental fool, and doesn't mind showing it. And he has a point.

Fair. La strada wasn't the first film I saw Giulietta Masina in; that was Le notti di Cabiria (1957), so I already knew she took my breath away.

[barry-king.livejournal.com]

I hate my failing memory. I saw Cabiria SO long ago, probably 1985. I'm just going to have to see it again. Strada and Juliet I've seen several times, so they are familiar, but Cabiria... nope. gone. all gone, now.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday belated to your cousin!

That in particular Morse painting is a bit kitschy, yes. I find I can forgive him for it when I reflect that it probably made Miss Hone's mother and aunts (and grandmothers, if either of them lived to see it) happy. Perhaps that's simply because I'm in a sentimental mood.

I hope you've enjoyed La Strada. I'm sorry you didn't get to see the stage reading, but I'm delighted they rang you so you didn't have to make the trip for naught.