OK Go!

Here Comes The Spotless Sunshine

In the glow of Eternal Sunshine…. Believe the hype! : - ) “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind,” which I saw last night, is loopy, intelligent, directed with frenetic brilliance and beautifully acted. The premise of disenchanted lovers erasing their memories makes a good ‘relationship story’ twice as engaging by stretching your mind with sci-fi and presenting the flashback memories out of sync, forming a compelling jigsaw puzzle.










A nearly unrecognizable Kate Winslet stretches her considerable range and Jim Carrey finally feels natural in a serious movie after several years in purgatory for his early cinematic sins. : - ) The supporting cast is excellent and well-used, notably Mark Ruffalo (who I loved in the highly unrated You Can Count On Me, which you should see on DVD) and Tom Wilkinson (the father in In The Bedroom).

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And I Quote...

Hope you're enjoying the humorous quotations I 'mini-posted' late this week. I found a couple of good quote finders and random quote generators... Another follows below. This long week may extend into tomorrow, as I cram to prepare for my trip. But I'm relaxing tonight and seeing "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" across the street. Full report coming tomorrow. Picture at right by PixPopuli.

"You can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think." - Dorothy Parker

And our Wordspy nifty new word of the day...

encryptlish - noun - Encrypted english. Correspondence from a non-native English speaker that, although well-intentioned, makes creative use of English grammar and spelling. cf "I am you thanking for help is give me and hoping happiness is on you now."

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This is where I store my 'short takes' template

Two-Tone Title

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My Brazil business trip is set. I leave for Sao Paolo Fri. March 26, a week from today, at 10pm, and get back eight days later, Sat. April 3, at 6am. Details to follow..

"Climate is what we expect. Weather is what we get." - Mark Twain
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"The most affectionate creature in the world is a wet dog." - Ambrose Bierce
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I'd Rather Be Blue...

Bad Art Comin' At Ya...My 1998 visit to Greater Boston's Museum Of Bad Art was a memorable one. After hours of searching, we found MOBA "in the basement of the Dedham Community Theater, conveniently located just outside the men's room. The nearby flushing helps maintain a uniform humidity." At left is "Mama and Babe," of the of MOBA's many excruciating portraits! As the curator notes, "The flesh tones bring to mind the top shelf liqueurs of a border bistro. With an astonishing emphasis on facial bone structure, the artist flirts with caricature and captures features of Mamma's face which remind us of a former First Lady". More on MOBA to come - for background check my Tuesday March 16 post.

Today marks two months of blogging!
Woo-hoo!

Seeing An Art Film. Yes, Art Film. This week I watched "Mirror" by Soviet (remember that word?) director Andrei Tarkovsky, a classic 1970s Art Film. It mixes dramatic scenes from the director's life (out of chronological order), WW2 footage, poetry, and interesting camera shots. This hadn't often been done before 1974, so Tarkovsky's opus was received as brilliance and a breakthrough, and not self-indulgent as such films are often dismissed today. I didn't find it tedious, thanks to good acting, pacing, and the film's short length. But I can't imagine this movie getting wide release today. More on this topic later.
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"I have had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it." - Groucho Marx
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The End Has No End...

'Twas an underslept, cold, slushy, and work-filled St Patty's for yours truly... I did, however, enjoy a cupcake with green frosting... The photo at right is by PixPopuli aka Neil Baylis, whose photoblog I consistently like.

Interesting today: NYT article on how language and writing norms reflect contrasting attitudes of Chinese and Japanese. Also in NYT, why Diane Keaton's a movie star it's OK to like...

Go everywhere! And see everything with breaktaking sharpness and clarity! On Q.T. Luong's spectacular and beautifully organized site, you can click through amazing high-quality pictures of 57 US National Parks, all 50 States, unseen Southeast Asia, European Backcountry, and Tall, Pretty Mountains... I've been featuring his images here, but I have to stop - he wants to be visited, but not hot-linked... I just put him on the links in my left margin as "Earth On Film"
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Happy St Patrick's Day!

Aaron Go Bragh!






Scroll ye downe, and turn Emerald Green with laughter... : -)
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Museum Of Bad Art

You read correctly. Greater Boston, my hometown, is the proud home of the Museum Of Bad Art - MOBA, exclusively dedicated to "the collection, preservation, exhibition and celebration of bad art in all its forms..." But you won't find any velvet paintings, Elvis images, or well known kitchy motifs here. MOBA features the work of artist who clearly have painting skills but took a major wrong turn in the creation process. This masterpiece on the right is entitled "Sunday On The Pot With George." Pithy commentary parodies museumspeak: "This pointillist piece is curious for meticulous attention to fine detail, such as the stitching around the edge of the towel, in contrast to the almost careless disregard for the subject's feet." More on MOBA to come.

The World At Your Feet, Art In Your Face. You are indeed lucky to be living in these times. Most of the World's Greatest Museums have websites which literally let you browse thousands of works of art, in the comfort of your swivel chair. Here's another global museum gateway. Particularly user-friendly are the Met, Hermitage, and Rijksmuseum, but that's just the tip of the art-berg... More suggestions of things to do in your swivel chair to come... Thomas posted excellent museum photos today...

Wordspy Homegrown New Word Of The Day...

mental hairball - noun - A word or phrase coughed up at random.

I leave you with a the Mexican movie poster of an early 1960s US musical hit by Stephen Sondheim, one with a very long title. Can you guess what movie it is?



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Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx : - )

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It's snowing... 3-6 inches expected... It's not very cold, I like it. NYC looks great in white...
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I Shot An Arrow In The Air...

I feel like I've lived a lot in 48 hours, and slept very little... Nothing dramatic, just mental and social stimulation that left many insights to chew on. There were many interesting combinations at my party yesterday, I thank my friends again for converging and mixing it up. I also had a close-but-no-cigar date on Saturday in Park Slope, a late night heart-to-heart with a friend... Perhaps it was something I consumed, but I had a particularly bad tongue day:

bad tongue day - noun -
A day in which a person frequently mispronounces words and stumbles over sentences.

Bad tongue days are exacerbated by awkwords...

awkword - noun -
A word that is difficult to pronounce.

Shopping with Mrs. Suharto... The party's biggest surprise was the grand entrance of our colorful and flamboyant mystery neighbor, Greg Johnson, he of the tall boots, fur coats and dramatic scarves. Turns out he and his partner have been to Indonesia literally 100 times, every two or three months for over 25 years, as they have two second homes in Bali. Greg is a musician/minister/work in progress who kept my guests spellbound with his surprising narrative. Turns out he knew ex-dictator Suharto and his family quite well. He joked that Mrs. Suharto liked to invite him to go mining. They'd go into town and she'd point at things and say "that's mine.. that's mine... and that's also mine" : - )

And before I crawl into bed, I leave you my friends with this interesting photo from mused pixelflake...



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Silver and Gold

The party went well. It nice to see great friends from different orbits meet and break bread together (tortilla chips, really).

At Josh's good suggestion, I have shortened the page to the last 10 posts. For earlier posts, use the archive links in the left margin. I wish you good night, and leave you with some interesting photos from mused pixelflake:








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