Summer reading...

Do you see a theme?...
Ever since I moved to Montreal, I've become very curious about the art of writing. I want to be a more informed blogger, improve my writing skills, and learn as much as I can from inspiring literary masters. 
Possible career change? (you ask). . .well, my intrigue is more for personal enrichment - for now. In the meantime, I'm surrounding myself with insightful (+ amusing) publications, and rounding up a wondrously selective palette of iconic storytellers from the colossal world of literature.

List above:

A Writer's Paris by Eric Maisel

The Other Paris and Montreal Stories by Mavis Gallant

The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman

Microscripts by Robert Walser

A quarterly magazine of art and culture, Cabinet (Issue 45, Games, Spring 2012)

The Elements of Style  by William Strunk Jr. + E. B. White  -  Illustrated by Maira Kalman

ZOETROPE ALL-STORY: Special One-Act Play Issue (Winter 2000) + The Horror Issue (Fall 2011)

zo·e·trope (noun /ˈzō-ēˌtrōp/): A 19th-century optical toy consisting of a cylinder with a series of pictures on the inner surface that, when viewed through slits with the cylinder rotating, give an impression of continuous motion...

I received these beauties in the mail a couple of days ago. . .
They are back issues of ZOETROPE: ALL-STORY, a quarterly magazine launched by Francis Ford Coppola in 1997. This curated jewel celebrates new short fiction, one-act plays, and reprints classic short stories that have influenced noteworthy films through the years.  Each ZOETROPE volume instantaneously becomes a collector's item not only because of the phenomenal selection of literary picks, but because each publication is also uniquely illustrated by a special guest designer. Past potpourri of invités have included: David Bowie, Julian Schnabel, Ed Ruscha, David Byrne, Kiki Smith, Wim Wenders, Guillermo del Toro and Mikhail Baryshnikov...marvelous assortment, right? 

By the way, sadly, several noteworthy back issues are sold out, but I did manage to get a copy of the following: 

• Winter 2000, VOL. 4  NO. 4: Special One-Act Play Issue with guest designer, Peter Sellers - Leading theatre, opera, and television director. 
• Summer 2005, VOL. 9  NO. 2 - Guest designer, Architect, Zaha Hadid.
• Fall 2011, VOL. 15  NO. 3: The Horror Issue with guest designers, Kate & Laura Mulleavy (RODARTE).

I'm so in awe with ZOETROPE that it is the first magazine I have subscribed to in years...

The images below are highlights from the Rodarte issue. If you're familiar with the Mulleavy sisters, then you will understand why they were so appropriately chosen to illustrate the horror issue...

Granger stood, looking back with Montag, ". . .everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said, a child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made or a garden planted, something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die. . ." Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

(Quote transcribed from the CAEDMON audiobook of Fahrenheit 451, read by Ray Bradbury, CD #5 - section 5) 

Remembering Ray Bradbury: 1920 - June 5,  2012
Every time I read Ray Bradbury's, Fahrenheit 451 or experience François Truffaut's film adaptation of the book, I'm reminded of my humanity. . . it is an inextinguishable story about a very mortal subject. 


Don't you agree?...Hmmm.


Photo Credits
(above) By photographer, Michel Fainsilber, borrowed from The New York Times slideshow here.

Phenomenally...

Dr. Maya Angelou received a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama earlier this week. Doesn't she look gorgeous in these shots? Photos by Paul Bishop, 1954. 


Every time I feel a little blue, her poem, 'Phenomenal Woman' always cheers me up...

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. 

I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size 

But when I start to tell them, 

They think I'm telling lies. 

I say, 

It's in the reach of my arms 

The span of my hips, 

The stride of my step, 

The curl of my lips. 

I'm a woman 
Phenomenally. 

Phenomenal woman, 

That's me.

I walk into a room 

Just as cool as you please, 

And to a man, 

The fellows stand or Fall down on their knees. 

Then they swarm around me, 

A hive of honey bees. 

I say, 

It's the fire in my eyes, 

And the flash of my teeth, 

The swing in my waist, 

And the joy in my feet. 

I'm a woman 

Phenomenally. 

Phenomenal woman, 

That's me.  

Men themselves have wondered 

What they see in me. 

They try so much 

But they can't touch 

My inner mystery. 

When I try to show them 

They say they still can't see. 

I say, 

It's in the arch of my back, 

The sun of my smile, 

The ride of my breasts, 

The grace of my style. 

I'm a woman  

Phenomenally. 

Phenomenal woman, 

That's me.  

Now you understand 

Just why my head's not bowed. 

I don't shout or jump about 

Or have to talk real loud. 

When you see me passing 

It ought to make you proud. 

I say, 

It's in the click of my heels, 

The bend of my hair, 

the palm of my hand, 

The need of my care, 

'Cause I'm a woman 

Phenomenally. 

Phenomenal woman, 

That's me. 

From the book, And Still I Rise, 1978: Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou.

Twickenham, London ... before the Beatles!

Fast Facts about the breathtaking film, AN EDUCATION
place*time: Twickenham-large suburban town in SW London, 1961.
by the Fabulous Danish director, Lone Scherfig
about a romantic interlude from the life of writer, Lynn Barber.


Carey Mulligan is just fabulous!


Thank you to the soundtrack of this film, my music library now includes Juliette Gréco,  Melody Gardot and Beth Rowley.   This movie took me back to when I was 16, when I was certain of everything, especially when it came to falling in love.  This movie is sophisticated and beautiful, but then again, what else can we expect from a Danish director from Copenhagen!

I love the Literary Bohemian!

I discovered the Literary Bohemian

(a website from the Czech Republic) a few months ago and today I share with you from the TRAVELOGUE section.
Breakfast in Helsinki by Susan Koefod:
"At Hostel Mekka at 9:00 a.m., the sun had already been up for five hours. Summer solstice was only a week away, and this close to the Arctic circle, twilight merged with dawn in a near endless day. I had traveled from Minnesota to Finland to visit my 22-year-old son, Ryan, who was concluding a year of study abroad at the University of Helsinki. He now easily conversed in Finnish and blended in, having inherited his father’s Norwegian genes: tall, thin, red-haired and fair-skinned..." READ MORE HERE