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

[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.