January 2012
5 posts
The Other Elizabeth Taylor
I have been reading A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor, who is of course THE OTHER ELIZABETH TAYLOR, and I can’t think of anything worse than trying to publish in the late 50s, early 60s and having your name be the same as one of the biggest movie stars of all time. Even worse, it’s not even your real name, it’s your married name. I had never heard of Elizabeth Taylor...
Downton Abbey
Are you sick of hearing about Downton Abbey yet? Well, I’m not. I only just watched the entire first season on January 1st in one sitting. Yes, it is streaming on Netflix and I highly recommend watching it this way. The second season is currently showing on PBS on Sunday nights.
My boyfriend and I were discussing why we think the show is so popular. Aside from the writing, which is very...
“It’s like being screwed by a thousand guys and you can’t get pregnant.”
– Marilyn Monroe, when asked by the fashion photographer Laszlo Willinger, early in her career, why she thought she had such chemistry with the camera. From Lee Siegel’s piece “Unsexing Marilyn” in The New York Review of Books.
December 2011
6 posts
On Fear
Let me tell you something. Since I left home to go to college, I have been afraid of failure. So much so, that I have avoided doing things in my life that were worth doing. Friends and family say “you are doing great, look at all you’ve accomplished.” In many ways, they are right. Because I was not born into wealth, I accept that I must work and maintain employment to pay my...
Remember (Christmas) →
Graham and I have a new cover for you. It’s “Remember (Christmas)” by one of our favorites, Harry Nilsson. Happy Holidays! <3
All I Want for Christmas
… is to finish all the work I have to do before I go on vacation in ten days.
But seriously, if you want to get me something for Christmas, and God Bless You, you wonderful person you, then here are some little things that would bring me joy:
Kindle 3G with keyboard.
Shiny black Doc Martens (or the elusive original 90s florals - but beware, these are nearly impossible to find in my size...
November 2011
8 posts
NYT 100 Notable Books of 2011
The New York Times has released its list of 100 notable books of 2011.
On the list, I reviewed a few of them!
The Last Werewolf, by Glen Duncan.
The Stranger’s Child, by Alan Hollinghurst.
The Tiger’s Wife, by Tea Obreht.
I didn’t review 11/22/63, by Stephen King, but I really loved it. (I cried.) Out of all the books I read in 2011, however, I think my two favorites were...
Crowdest
Yesterday at brunch, in exhaustion, I commented that I had never seen the restaurant so “crowdest.” Yup. I’m tired.
I’ve been up to a few things. On TruTv.com, you can finding me blogging about conspiracy theories, everything from Princess Diana to the JFK assassination, to Sex Conspiracies and UFOs. There will be more to come, but if you’d like to talk about the...
Il faut travailler, rien que travailler
“Rilke had gone to Paris in 1902 to write a monograph on Rodin and this exhortation of the sculptor’s had a transforming effect on the twenty-seven-year-old poet. In letter after letter he repeated Rodin’s mantra-like injunction. Immerse yourself in your work: let life fall away, dedicate yourself to the great work. Il faut travailler, rien que travailler.
…
Though he was...
Paula Fox
“In my early twenties, that’s when I really began to write. Before that, I was too busy working, keeping myself going. I often thought of killing myself but then I wanted lunch. So I had to make a buck. And all my stories were rejected. I sent them out to various editors and they returned them. In fact, I had to wait until I was in my late twenties before I sold a couple of stories to what...
October 2011
20 posts
Kissing Dead Girls →
Hey, for a while there I wrote a column about women and horror for Bookslut called ‘Kissing Dead Girls.’ Here’s a link to all the pieces, from Rosemary’s Baby to Shirley Jackson. Check it out if you are looking to get into the Halloween spirit!
Acknowledgments
“My late beloved wife, Shirley Jackson, winnowed out books for me, discussed each book with me before I reviewed it, corrected each review as I wrote it, and proofread each galley. She is largely responsible for any virtue or felicity these essays may have, and they are necessarily and lovingly dedicated to her memory.”
- from Stanley Edgar Hyman’s acknowledgments to his 1966...
Mozza
“Yes, there was a platter of toasted artisanal breads of the type she pioneered in Southern California 22 years ago. There was a ramekin of soft butter topped with sea salt. There was Blue Bottle coffee, and very soon, once Ms. Silverton lost the sunglasses, there were some hard truths served along with the bread. A mother of three children, divorced since 2007 from Mark Peel, the executive...
Penelope Fitzgerald
For some reason all I want to do is read writers named Penelope lately. What the hell is going on?
Anyway, here is Penelope Fitzgerald (who did not start her career as a novelist until she was nearly sixty) from Human Voices:
“When middle E was set Annie left the spot where he had put her, the warmest place, close to the stove, and stood at his elbow, willing him to play the first trial...
You know what I support? Female friendships. Women supporting women and not being total assholes to each other. Creative women collarborating on their work. Not undermining each other, but talking, hanging out and giving each other advice.
WatchThis is adorable for many reasons, but I think the best is that girl’s daddy in the audience.
Just Kids →
This is a great piece and also a little weird, so you should probably read it if you’re at all interested in Jonathan Franzen, David Foster Wallace, Jeffrey Eugenides, or Mary Karr. It’s also just worth clicking through each page to see a photo of a very young Jonathan Franzen. Quite shocking.
Also: I think nuitnuageuse and I might be soul-friends. I love all of her posts and I...
Fitzgerald
Electric fans blew the smell of peaches and hot biscuit and the cindery aroma of travelling salesmen through the New Willard halls in Washington.
The nights, smelling of honeysuckle and army leather, staggered up the mountainside and settled upon Mrs. Edith Wharton’s garden.
A lone lady in tweeds drank martinis in the dingy bar.
- from “Show Mr. and Mrs. F to Number—”
I had no idea T.S. Eliot was ever poor. →
September 2011
9 posts
Oh, hey.
So this summer basically nothing happened, no one returned my e-mails, and then the last week of September suddenly I’m on a deadline for three pieces, have to memorize a monologue and prepare an aria by next Friday while Saturday I was struck down by the worst “virus” ever, in the sense that I would wake up in the middle of the night because my throat hurt so badly I...
Penelope Mortimer
“But finally she was resilient; she didn’t go the way of Sylvia Plath or Anne Sexton. She continued to write, came to New York to teach, and made it through to the age of 81, living on her own in a cottage in the Cotswolds, where she had become an avid gardener. ‘Owning land,’ she wrote at the close of her second memoir, which ends in 1978 (although it was only published in...
WatchSAW STACY THIS MORNING AT THE DELI ALMOST ASKED HER IF SHE HAD ANY TIME TO FIT ME IN FOR LIFE-COACHING
WatchKeep trying to get this damned video to embed, but I can’t see it. Can you? Just click on the link if all else fails.
Anyway, I can’t believe I haven’t heard of Connie Converse until about thirty minutesa go when I stumbled on this Kickstarter project. You should probably check it out, along with this great piece about her by Cord Jefferson at The Awl.
Also I will definitely be...
9/12/11
It being the 10th anniversary of 9/11,
and thinking back to sitting in Ms. Dixon’s English class that morning,
and where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing for the past five years here in New York,
and this post by my friend Lauren, Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
and seeing...
The End of the Affair
From “A Life in the Margins,” on the personal library of Graham Greene, by Robert McCrum, The New Yorker, April 11, 1994:
Greene had many important relationships with women—with his wife, Vivien (from whom he eventually separated); with Yvonne Cloetta, the companion of his later years; with his sister, Elizabeth—and the habit of annotation provides many insights into the...
August 2011
12 posts
6 tags
“When I was very young, I was encouraged — and when I say encouraged, I mean...”
– Romola Garai, actress on BBC’s The Hour