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Birthdays
and anniversaries: my own and others'.
READIN
READIN started out as a place for me
to keep track of what I am reading, and to learn (slowly, slowly)
how to design a web site.
There has been some mission drift
here and there, but in general that's still what it is. Some of
the main things I write about here are
reading books,
listening to (and playing) music, and
watching the movies. Also I write about the
work I do with my hands and with my head; and of course about bringing up Sylvia.
The site is a bit of a work in progress. New features will come on-line now and then; and you will occasionally get error messages in place of the blog, for the forseeable future. Cut me some slack, I'm just doing it for fun! And if you see an error message you think I should know about, please drop me a line. READIN source code is PHP and CSS, and available on request, in case you want to see how it works.
See my reading list for what I'm interested in this year.
READIN has been visited approximately 236,737 times since October, 2007.
William Wordsworth is just turning 239 years old today -- he is 200 years and a few months older than I. (In the picture at left he is 28, ten years my junior.)
Wordsworth is a poet whom I'm always thinking I ought to be more familiar with than I am. I know a couple of his poems but I don't really have any clear sense of his persona as an author -- know him better by way of his influence on some of my favorite writers and thinkers. (And come to think of it, here I am thinking more of "the English romantics" than of Wordsworth individually.)
And O, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves,
Forebode not any severing of our loves!
Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might;
I only have relinquished one delight
To live beneath your more habitual sway.
I love the Brooks which down their channels fret,
Even more than when I tripped lightly as they;
The innocent brightness of a new-born Day
Is lovely yet;
The Clouds that gather round the setting sun
Do take a sober colouring from an eye
That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality;
Another race hath been, and other palms are won.
Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.
-- from "Intimations Of Immortality From Recollections Of Early Childhood"
posted morning of April 7th, 2009: Respond ➳ More posts about Readings
Lawrence Ferlinghetti is 90 years old today. What a milestone! He is one of my favorite poets -- this evening when I have some time I would like to pick out a couple of his pieces to post here. In the mean time you ought to give him a birthday present by heading over to City Lights and buying a book.
Ooh and look at this! Nick Lowe (the Jesus of Cool) turns 60 today! And Olivia is 9 years old. A good day for birthdays.
Tomorrow is Ellen's birthday! Courtesy of Josh Hosler, here is the number 1 hit song in the U.S. on the day she was born, Rosemary Clooney singing "Come On a-my House" (which is, to my surprise, written by William Saroyan of Human Comedy fame and Ross Bagdasarian of Alvin & the Chipmunks fame):
Annie Proulx turns 73 today. I find this slightly surprising, somehow I had pictured her as being in her late 50's. (Proulx is two years older than Thomas Pynchon, but she did not start writing novels until 1992.) If you have not read Accordion Crimes and Postcards, well, you ought to read them. (The Shipping News is skippable.) And that's not even to mention her fine, fine short stories!
I found out about Proulx's writing when the movie of Brokeback Mountain came out, and read just about everything I could find by her in the months immediately after that. I love becoming infatuated with an author.
posted morning of August 22nd, 2008: Respond ➳ More posts about Annie Proulx
Today Mr. Pamuk turns 56 years old. (And it has been nearly a year since I first started reading his books.) I wish him a long and happy life of writing.
posted morning of June 7th, 2008: Respond ➳ More posts about Orhan Pamuk
Agnès Varda has her 80th birthday today. What a great life she has led these 80 years. (And oh boy! A new movie in post-production! Click on the picture for more info.) If any of you have not seen her movies, check my archives for some recommendations. One of the greatest (though hardly the most prolific) filmmakers of the 20th Century.
Today I find a brand-new Bob Dylan interview at the Times, with video of his new song "Feel a Change Comin' On"; and at the New Yorker, Louis Menand looks through some old Bob Dylan interviews, asserting, â??Dylan nil a me alienum puto.â?
Uncle Eddie posts some sylvan sketches by R. Crumb, from near his home in France -- quite different from the style I normally associate with Crumb. This one ought to be a wall hanging.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
56 years old today and absolutely 
Tomorrow is Ellen's birthday! Courtesy of 
(Proulx is two years older than Thomas Pynchon, but she did not start writing novels until 1992.) If you have not read Accordion Crimes and Postcards, well, you ought to read them. (The Shipping News is skippable.) And that's not even to mention her fine, fine short stories!
Senator Obama is 47 today! He is speaking in Michigan today about energy policy.
Uncle Eddie 