Pure and Easy (Book) http://www.Writing.Com/main/books.php/item_id/1483846-Pure-and-Easy Some time ago, I posted this survey on Writing.Com: [Link To Item #1577836] If you haven't already participated, feel free to offer your opinions. You can even do it anonymously, if you're shy. I was genuinely curious to know what people thought of nude male and female bodies--whether they believed them beautiful or repulsive. My own experience gave me the indication that many more people thought of women as beautiful and men as sli...[Read Full Post] Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:33:31 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/676501 Should have done it last week, but a classic poem is classic any time of year. Today I'll take a look at one of Edgar Allan Poe's finest works, "The Raven". Although many of us are at least familiar with the croaked chorus of "Nevermore", I doubt many people nowadays really understand the entire poem, or even try to. As an English...[Read Full Post] Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:34:26 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/674408 Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid , Douglas R. Hofstader. © 1979 by Basic Books, Inc. ****** Kurt Godel was a twentieth-century Austrian mathematician who proved that all systems of mathematics which are consistent will include undecidable propositions. M.C. Escher was a twentieth-century Dutch artist whose lithographs play with our pre...[Read Full Post] Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:25:00 EDT http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/673872 I'm blowing my own horn today. I had the idea for this story some time ago. I entered a difficult contest, [Link To Item #1273950] , knowing that if I made it all the way to the finals that I'd have to write two stories. One had to be "spec fic", or some form of fantasy/science fiction/horror story. The second could be any genre. Knowing goin...[Read Full Post] Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:50:46 EDT http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/670946 Adventureland , 2009, Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart. Directed and written by Greg Mottola. Rated R for drug use, profanity. ******* This is one of those movies that moves right into my heart and curls up for a long stay. Set in 1987, which is probably a good part of the reason why I love it so, Adventureland is a story that talks about young people without making fun of them or idolizing ...[Read Full Post] Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:45:56 EDT http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/669529 You may or may not be aware that the Beatles have just remastered their entire catalog for the first time on CD. They're still not on iTunes, but you can get brilliant sounding silver discs through Amazon, Best Buy, Target or that quaintest of relics, your local music store. Are there any of those left? It seems doubtful. Yes, friends, the Beatles...[Read Full Post] Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:47:29 EDT http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/668883 "Hello, this is Wanda Ellsworth with your Arts and Entertainment News. Our top story tonight: A major rennovation of Leonardo DaVinci's The Last Supper is now in the works to be unveiled sometime next year. Frank Noitall, the Milano curator in charge of the project, stated, "We feel it could look much better than it does now. We're redo...[Read Full Post] Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:33:18 EDT http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/666404 I'll admit, I have very little experience with today's young adult (henceforward referred to as YA) literature. I use the word quite loosely. Based on the books that my teenage daughter has taken out of the library, and my occasional browsing there, the vast majority of books in this category are pretty bad. My all-time favorite was the one about...[Read Full Post] Sun, 23 Aug 2009 07:53:54 EDT http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/664806 House M.D. . TV series, 2004-present. I am still trying to figure out just why I love this television show so much. OK, so this won't be one of this blog's deepest entries, and perhaps it's stretching the definition of Art to include something so immired emmired inmired enmired stuck in pop culture as a Fox TV show. I might argue...[Read Full Post] Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:09:54 EDT http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/663058 Throw Mama From The Train is not only a marvelous black comedy and homage/tribute to Alfred Hitchcock's work, it is a film that every writer absolutely must see. Not to learn anything much about writing as a skill, but to have a number of satisfying laughs when one recognizes situations that all serious writers have encountered. When we first meet the protagonist, Larry, he's seated at his ...[Read Full Post] Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:55:22 EDT http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/660351 Song of the Day: "Childhood", Michael Jackson. See below. ************ The tragedy that is Michael Jackson's life is so heartbreaking that it stands as one of the most compelling arguments I can imagine against child exploitation and abuse. I have absolutely no doubt that Jackson would have been far happier and better adjusted had he be...[Read Full Post] Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:06:17 EDT http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/656299 [Link To User soledad_moon] had an excellent Authors NL this week with lots of discussion about gender roles in fiction. Highly recommended. An interesting link she included: [Link: 'http://bookblog.net/gender/genie.php'] This "Gender Genie" will take samples of any writing and analyze it, then tell you what it believes the gender of the wri...[Read Full Post] Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:49:02 EDT http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/653316 Most people can usually agree on what constitutes a work of great art. How do we look at art in terms of the person who creates it? Some artists, although they created magnificent works, were (or are) not particularly shining examples of human beings. Richard Wagner, for example. His operas are groundbreaking in their scope, particularly the Ring cycl...[Read Full Post] Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:59:54 EDT http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/652906 I finally saw Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch a couple of nights ago. I had been looking forward to this film for a long time. After all, it's a classic movie, both as a Western and of all time. I expected it to be violent, and sure enough, it was. However, forty years of time passing has rendered the violence a lot less shocking, unfortunately....[Read Full Post] Fri, 15 May 2009 14:44:50 EDT http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/649923 Science fiction is one of my favorite genres because it does something consistently that so few genres do: it deals with ideas of the mind. What if? is the basic question of every science fiction story which isn't simply a space opera. What if humans encountered another intelligence? What if a crisis caused the destruction of human civilization? Wh...[Read Full Post] Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:03:24 EDT http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/646036 Song of the Day: The Beatles' entire catalogue. *********************** September 9th, 2009, I am going to be one very happy camper. I am also going to be one broke lady. If you haven't heard--and if you're an ordinary soul and not insane like me, you probably haven't--Apple and EMI are rereleasing the entire Beatles' catalogue on the abov...[Read Full Post] Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:48:35 EDT http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/644191 Most of the music I listen to, while excellent, is very professional. Most recording artists go into the studio and polish until they have songs that are musically impeccable. Rarely, however, do they let their true feelings show through on the final record. Even artists like Dylan and Townshend, whose writing allows a lot of emotional expression, don&#3...[Read Full Post] Sun, 05 Apr 2009 07:18:32 EDT http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/643775 Song of the Day: "When You Wish Upon A Star", Cliff Edwards. See below. ********** Disney's Pinocchio is, in my opinion, the studio's greatest masterpiece of animation and one of the greatest animated films of all time. Perhaps THE greatest. I used to think Fantasia , which came immediately afterward, was their best, but I've come to rethink that opinion. Fantasia has long stretches ...[Read Full Post] Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:57:43 EDT http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/640884 POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR WATCHMEN NOVEL FOLLOW I came to this much too late. I should have read it twenty years ago, when it first came out. I remember seeing it in bookstores and wondering what it was all about. I should have read it when I was still relatively young and impressionable with strong veins of cynicism running through my idealism. ...[Read Full Post] Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:34:04 EDT http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/639877 In the Rotten Tomatoes forum, I've been pursuing a thread on poetry. It made me long to share a classic poem with you, one of my favorites, perhaps my favorite (at least today). You get the joy of reading my impromptu analysis based on my degree in English literature over twenty years ago coupled with my own random thoughts. This poem is by T. S. ...[Read Full Post] Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:47:57 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/637318