Doves, Lost Souls Album..Oh.My.Gosh!! This is outstanding and a great cd to sink your soul into, especially "The Cedar Room": "a psychedelic slow-trance groove number, introduced by an electric, stutter-tremolo guitar."--The Big Takeover, 2000

I could try and write about just how great this album is, but I wouldn't be able to do is justice. As Lionel Shriver writes in the New York Times: Much like smell (it’s all very well to say that something smells “like an orange,” but how do you describe the smell of an orange?), music is notoriously difficult to evoke on the page. The fact that language has musical attributes — rhythm, melody, tone — isn’t much help when you’re trying to express Bartok or Captain Beefheart in words. Even when music has lyrics, its essence is antilanguage, or at least in another language — and an inability to translate explains why so many album and concert reviews are unreadable.

Jack Rabid of The Big Takeover, however, does a pretty darn good job of capturing the amazingness of Lost Souls:

Honestly, I sometimes think insomnia and a need to reach out and easy access to the Internet make for the worst possible combination.

You know that horrible half sleepy/half wired where you're too jumbled to get anything functional done, but too alert to fall asleep? And you want to talk with someone kind and interesting, but you don't have a cat (or any creature with a heartbeat, for that matter) so you do the next best thing. You watch Lucy! I will always be grateful for the legacy she left behind. Nothing cheers me up quite like a mini-marathon of I Love Lucy!

 

I love the episode ("Return Home From Europe") where Lucy smuggles cheese on board a plane so she doesn't have to pay fees for it being over a certain weight. Pretending it's a baby since she thinks they fly free, she is soon caught up in yet another wacky adventure. 



Reading Forbidden Passion I felt the characters come alive. I understood their situations and the feelings of liking someone you shouldn't all too well, of dealing with inappropriate feelings and desperately trying to channel them into something else entirely, something more productive and feasible. ("It was endless...and hellish," one woman thinks as she longs for someone who is emotionally and logistically out of reach.) Yearning for the impossible and having it somehow happen (eventually) is often a favorite theme of mine, especially in romantic fiction.

But everything here that makes this a gripping read also makes it a frustrating one: two completely different people connect unexpectedly and then spend the rest of the novel coming together and separating, coming together and separating, the one woman totally committed to understanding and accepting how aloof, and even cold-hearted, the other woman (the love of her life) is, both of them often behaving in a way that makes you want to yell a little.

We suffer for love, surely, and many of us would do most anything to get and keep it. Yet I found the dynamics between Kim and Sonja often very exhausting. Not a lot of people would put up with the nonsense Kim does. She's either a fool or exactly the kind of person you'd want to be in a relationship with.

Crisp yet heartfelt writing, great dialogue and fully fleshed out characters keep what should have been a ludicrous plot a very compelling one. Another selling point for me is the uncomfortably realistic attitude that desperately trying not to acknowledge how you feel about someone can be a twenty-four hour a day job. In a way the very things that made me uncomfortable with Forbidden Passions were the things that kept me reading.


........................................................................................

When I first read Forbidden Passion early last year, I didn't have much patience for the characters. But having just finished this novel a second time (and finding it to be a much better book than I had previously thought) I found (unfortunately) more than my share of quotes with which I could relate, not (of course) on a relationship level like the women's in Gogoll's novel (even if they don't know they both feel the same about each other until well into the story), but in a completely one-sided way.

Using Kindle Highlights more this time around, I saw a lot that struck me as emotionally familiar. You can see both what you like and what other readers favor when you activate digitally underling functions on ereaders, as well.

Seeing some people have picked the same passage can give you an eerie, but not unpleasant feeling, of being less alone...I also believe (however pathetic or 'nuts' this may sound) that a lot of the reading I've done this past year has somehow saved me (whether it be lesfic or mainstream.) Sometimes, without my choosing it at all, the right book seems to fall into my life and heal little part of me. 

Kim had nearly fainted. She immediately began working out a plan for how, “for reasons of strategic importance to the company,” she could move the department head’s office. (The main character is half joking/half serious about relocating when she realizes her new boss is someone she likes.)

She watched Sonja as much as possible without staring openly. I have got to stop doing this! Kim squared her shoulders and forced herself to look in the other direction. It made no sense whatsoever to become attached to a woman like that, or to even waste time thinking about it. She glanced over at her and enjoyed watching her laughing, relaxed profile. What a wonderful woman. (It made me feel slightly better this passage had been highlighted several times by other readers. It's awful when you catching yourself looking at someone, almost against your will.)

My God, she must be afraid of me! What did straight women really think of lesbians? That they had nothing better to do than pounce on unwilling partners. That's how it looked anyway. (This both saddened me and made me laugh because there are actually people out in the world who believe lesbians are out to "get" every woman in the world. Yikes!)

Kindle Highlights has helped me both personally and with research for book club related materials. Even though Sleep Donation by Karen Russell is about as far away as anything I've read this past year I found myself underlining many wonderful passages in it. Also, oddly enough, H.L. Mencken's In Defense of Women has some highlight-worthy lines in it, too! :)

"It is a special kind of homeless, says our mayor, to be evicted from your dreams."


 

Odds and ends...

I may have jumped the fence too soon on Songza the other day. I already find myself back to 8Tracks, especially because their opera playlists are so much better and more unique.

I have been impatiently waiting three years for an English translation to be released from one of my favorite (okay, my only favorite) German writers, but it looks like it's not going to happen so I bought the novel through iBooks and am painfully (it's literally quite painful) translating it myself.

In trying to do that I discovered that Siri can read your iBooks for you herself (or himself, if you switch the gender in your settings) and though her German is quite quite good, her performance is very understated. Siri, where , oh where, is your willingness to get into character?? You are certainly no Jim Dale!

If you would like Siri to read to you...

Last night I couldn't sleep and happened to be reading this past Sunday's New York Times which featured a rather interesting article on the newest in music streaming sites and Apple's foray into it all: read here. I've always been a big fan and user of the 8Tracks and Pandora apps, but after seeing Songza mentioned I had to check it out. Boy, is it amazing!

Similar to 8Tracks, Songza lets you find playlists based on different categories, such as moods, activities and genres. Let's say, you choose "Sleepytime Indie." You pick that and suddenly you're hearing really relaxing, but still insightful music from some of the best (relatively) unheard of musicians and singers around. Richard Hawley's quietly heartbreaking "Baby You're My Light" came on and his warm, deep enveloped my ears like a nice blanket.

I couldn't help but be amused that Norah Jones was filed under just "Sleepy." I have nothing against her, but there's a reason her nickname is "Snorah Jones."

 

 



 



 

I can't be the only person who used to leave her window open as a little girl, hoping maybe Peter Pan would show up and take her on magical adventures.

I didn't have a big fancy picture window like the Darlings had. Mine, in fact, wouldn't have left much room at all for anyone to fit through and they would have to bust through the screen. But, still, from about the age of five until eight I used to sometimes dream I'd be off to Never Never Land with the whole gang. It wasn't so much that I didn't want to grow up, but that it seemed like it would be a very exciting place to be.

I saw this variation on the "Keep Calm" sayings recently and laughed because surely whoever designed it might have some of the same memories, the same need now to find a similar way to escape into something less...ordinary. I used to think finding your happy place had to be finding an actual place (say Hawaii), but now I realize you could picture the most beautiful, exotic place in the world and still not find your spot, if you don't have inner place.

 

 

Then, one of my favorite songs, "Further" by Correatown, came on my iTunes shuffle and I really listened to the words as if I hadn't heard them only a few hundred times before.

 

I think part of the problem is that sometimes we don't want to leave our dark places behind because we're so used to them and the light seems too good to be true or we believe that we don't deserve it.

 

I wish everyone, even the most mean and thoughtless people in the world, true inner peace because if you don't have that, if you can't leave the darkness behind, how can you ever live, except mechanically?

 

 "Further" by Correatown

If I can't let this go

I'm telling you I won't make it another year

If I go all the way

I'm telling you I can see all these things coming clear

'Cause we have so much love

But we need so much more

'Cause we have so much love

But we need so much more

If we go on like this

I'm telling you we won't make it another year

But if we go all the way

I'm telling you we'll finally see all these roads coming clear

'Cause we have so much love

But we need so much more

'Cause we have so much love

But we need so much more

We have a fascination with the darkness

Although we're standing in light

We have the strongest sense of kindness

But still we can't treat our own selves right

We have so much love

But we need so much more

We have so much love

But we need so much more

We go further

We go further

We go further

We go further

'Cause we have so much love

But we need so much more

'Cause we have so much love

But we need so much more

We have a fascination with the darkness

Although we're standing in light

We have the strongest sense of kindness

But still we can't treat our own selves right

We have so much love

But we need so much more

We have so much love

But we need so much more

We go further
 

My Internet is fixed. I'm almost sorry it is because I kind of liked being detached from the online world and getting all my errands done quickly. And I'm also sorry because it's once again easy to hop on here and confess things I probably shouldn't.

I love people, I really do. Even if I'm not always good with them, I love them and I love the concept of connecting with others.

Yet, I'm often horrible at socializing. Shy people come in all forms and some of us may not seem seem shy but we really are and secretly quake a bit inside when we talk to certain people.

And when someone doesn't like me I only want to try harder, which really can get kind of unintentionally creepy on my end. I don't mean to, I don't.

It takes me a while to get the "leave me alone" message sometimes. But I do get it and I just wish this one particular person I'm thinking of all the best. 

She is a nice person, hard-working and decent so if she doesn't like me I can't help but think I've done something wrong. I long to ask her if I have, but I can't help but think it would make things worse.

So I just literally walk on by, sometimes with a smile if I can muster one, and hope this uneasiness is all in my head. With her, at least, I can't help but think of that saying attributed to Abraham Lincoln: "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/abrahamlin109276.html#Xstsidt6Xwf8qw8S.99

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/abrahamlin109276.html#Xstsidt6Xwf8qw8S.99

Happy Monday (and anniversary of the Rubik's Cube)! If you go to Google and click the cube, you can actually play with it.

My home Internet has been down for almost a week now and I've been typing posts at home, then uploading them here when I have a chance with a public computer. I may be away for a while since I've discovered not having wifi in my place is actually a good thing and I'm getting lots of non-electronic things done. 

Have a great week! :)

Back in the late 70s, every Friday night my sister, mom and I would put records on the turntable and dance in our living room. (Please don’t laugh, okay?) Chic’s C’est Le Chic was one of the LPs we constantly rotated, even more than the Bee Gees or Thelma Houston (other disco staples of the time). 

Six of the songs from that album appear here on Chic: The Definitive Groove Collection and of those, the most well-known are: "Le Freak," "Good Times," and "I Want Your Love," still sounding fresh all these years later. (Boy, does "Le Freak" sound good and "Good Times" seems like more than just a song you heard at Skateland at your tenth birthday party.)

Of particular interest is the second disc which contains songs I’m surprised didn’t become more famous when they first arrived on the scene. Among the strongest tracks are: "Real People" (about figuring out who your true friends are); " Will You Cry (When You Hear This Song)" (very pretty and quietly emotional); "You Can’t Do It Alone" (oh so smooth and relaxing); "Your Love is Cancelled" (once you stop laughing over the title, you’ll love it!); "Soup for One" (my favorite and coincidentally, I’m sure, the most disco-sounding one); "Hangin’" (very catchy in that way only your foot knows!) and the quite addictive "Your Love."

As a rule, I’m not big on nostalgia…but I have to say that as I played The Definitive Collection I welcomed the happy childhood memories that drifted back as I listened to the music and danced in my living room.

There's nothing especially remarkable about this book except for two things: that the narrator, Helene, is genuinely likeable and that it (uncomfortably and unfortunately) is easier than you would think to really like someone who is aloof and only likes you on her own terms (if she likes you at all.)

If I hadn't personally known what it's like to be attracted to emotionally distant women who are (when you get down to the nitty gritty of it) not worth one second of your suffering over them I might have been more irritated by The Illusionist.

Tamara, the older woman our narrator is hopelessly (and I do mean hopelessly) fascinated and possibly in love with, is a few shades shy of psychotic. She has never quite gotten over her affair with a woman named Emily so she takes out most everything that makes her miserable on other people, especially Helene.

Like anyone else who understands that indifference, not hate, is the complete opposite of love, Helene appreciates it more when Tamara treats her badly. Rather than think the older woman just doesn't care, Helene decides she is hurtful so she can "reduce her to despair." Malice is far preferable to nothing.

Tamara is so unpredictable that Helene never knows which version of her she is going to encounter each day: "I wondered if she would have the closed look of her bad days, or the charming look of melancholy which sometimes clouded her eyes, or a smile that I had never seen, but which would be my revenge if I could glimpse it for a moment, that shameless smile of a woman..."

Later on, an understanding and surprisingly sympathetic outsider advises Helene: "Listen, there are people who are in love, miserable and worthy of pity...say what you will, there's nothing very loving and gentle about her." 

Sometimes you need an outsider (or maybe a book that speaks to you) to remind you that not everyone is worth falling in love with, no matter how oddly appealing she may be. Easier to listen to than follow, but this kind of advice (so starkly laid out here and with Tamara as such a good example of what not to like) can stand out when you distance yourself a bit from it all.

On a side note: different covers for the same book can be so intriguing, especially when used from different eras. The top picture covers the spirit of the book far better than the older one which only seems to focus on the forbidden nature of it all and how the subject was seen at the time the book was first published. And another stark difference is that Tamara never once (that I can recall) looks so openly at Helene. Helene could only dream of being looked at that way.

The Death of Ganymede by Clayton Kinnelon Greiman is surprisingly good. It's almost too good. The author writes so intelligently and has so much to say that I read more slowly than I usually do a book. But I think his ideas, though possibly too controversial for some, are worth taking the time to digest fully.

Steeped in both Greek mythology and Christian religion, his first two tales, especially "The Handmaid's Prophecy," inspired me to find the source material. The famous painting "Sacred and Profane Love" by Giovanni Baglione is featured in the beginning of the book and is key to many of the ideas scattered throughout Greiman's work.

This collection of stories, thoughts and vinaigrettes had me furiously underlining in my Kindle. His sometimes harsh, but hard-to-argue with insights on sex vs. love are far more than entertainment. If I'm understanding him right, Greiman is reminding the gay community (particularly the gay male community) that sex without love is about as low as a person can go, both for their salvation and their soul.

Fidelity is also critical: "Honor Thy Partner. Promiscuity is not to be tolerated. A breach of fidelity is a breach of faith, and a breach of faith is an unpardonable act. Love must not be defamed by debauchery." These are all ideas that anyone who values love and their own self can follow.

With its borderline esoteric approach and Godly advice, The Death of Ganymede may not always be for everyone, but for anyone lost and searching, there is comfort to be found here. I found myself nodding at some points: "Language has fallen. Beauty has become synonymous with Lust and is trampled in the dust."

I cannot believe how wise and helpful this book is at times. It's so much more than I thought it would be and much easier to decipher than it was in the beginning. Maybe it's me just reading into what I want to read, but I also think Greiman is saying love is worth waiting for and being celibate and patient is far better than jumping into something casual and convenient out of nothing more than sheer physical need or loneliness.

He also addresses another universal truth, one regarding society's insistence we all pair off: "It is the great lie we are all told, foremost by our parents, born of the belief we'll be miserable alone. Yet, it's fundamentally untrue." To those of us who choose to be alone or are alone or (even better) do not mind being alone, this is one of the best sentences in the whole book. While Clayton Kinnelon Greiman's writing may need a closer, slower reading than other authors, he is always sincere and passionate and, never, dull.

There are books that skillfully handle sensitive topics and there are mysteries that pull things together and totally surprise the reader in the end; rarely are both of these books the same one as is Marie Drake's wonderful Three Rules.

Right from the start I was pulled in, though I was a bit worried about reading the book because of its subject matter. Marie Drake is an amazing writer and makes Hope Wellman someone the reader truly cares about, sympathizes with, admires, but never pities. The reader probably has more faith in Hope than she does herself. Her horrific past has left Hope with lots of doubts and fears, but she is much more mature and ready to handle them than she gives herself credit for in her life.

Besides being a talented writer who makes every page one to turn quickly, Marie Drake also creates fully fleshed out secondary characters and manages to make a highly suspenseful read remain a believable one. What could have been a big problem (having to wrap up many loose threads at the end without making it seem like everything but the kitchen sink had been thrown in) became something even the most jaded mystery reader would not see coming.

I look forward to more fiction from Marie Drake. Deep, well-thought out page turners are hard to come by these days. Three Rules is not only a very sincere and touching read (I love the deep friendship Joey and Hope share) it is an unforgettable one as well.

Books and music are such a wonderful refuge...

Ghost Trio is simply amazing! It twists and turns and then twists again. One minute you are sure our main character Lee is not quite right in the head, devastated so badly by losing her one true love that she can't tell the difference between reality and fantasy. The next you agree with her that Devorah, her partner of fifteen years, IS still alive, being kept prisoner high up in a castle tower, off the Pacific Coast Highway.

Lee's friends become worried when they realize she is perfectly serious about trying to rescue her beloved Devorah from the evil clutches of one singular and very wealthy patron of the arts, Annajean Eggers. Along the way Lee reconnects with an enchanting old friend named Lily who makes her question everything she thought she knew about her own heart. Part of the suspense, a lot of the emotional anxiety you feel as the reader, comes from wondering where this is all going to go, both as a romance and a mystery.

The novel gets its name (and aptly so) from Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Trio (Opus 70, #1), often referred to as The Ghost due to the spooky mood of the second movement, Largo. It's clear that Lillian Q. Irwin (actually two women who have been together for over forty years!) really know their stuff. Their love and devotion to music and each other comes through so well in every page of Ghost Trio.

I loved Ghost Trio for so many reasons: it's loaded with lots of music references that will delight classical and opera fans, it will make you want to read up more on the things that are new to you (I'd never heard of lied singing before and was charmed by all the passion behind the music) and (most importantly) it has _the_ best love story you could ever ask for in a book.

When I finished the last page my heart pretty much broke, at the fact this lovely novel was over and because while this kind of love borders on the fantastical it is not any less pretty or magical for it.

I would probably give The Marriage four stars if I hadn't read Ann Bannon's outstanding Beebo Brinker Chronicles, next to which this book kind of pales.

The most amazing thing about The Marriage is how much you feel for Page and Sunny, how you actually hope they can work out their situation, even though the last thing they should be is together.

Controversial to say the least, Ann Bannon's novel deals with what happens when two people in love (and married) discover they are actually brother and sister.

"We don't have to apologize for it, we have to do _something_ about it," Page yells at Sunny after his father drops the bombshell on them.

Page, once known as "Roger" to his birth parents, cannot deal with knowing his sister is also his wife. Sunny, his other half, wants to try and overcome everything so they can stay together. Complicated doesn't even begin to describe all the emotions, debates and heartache that goes on.

How Bannon manages to keep you reading despite the incest factor, how she keeps everything from becoming too melodramatic testify to her talent as a writer.

It makes me rather uncomfortable that she constantly compares incest to homosexuality, but I have to remember the time in which this novel was written and that Bannon is never less than compassionate in how she handles things.

There is understandable and intense discomfort on the part of those few who discover Page and Sunny are so closely related. But as Page's adoptive mother says to her her outraged husband: "It's your moral duty to mind your own affairs!"

Format: MP3 Music

Maybe it's super silly for a 40something woman to be so excited about the digital release of Shaun Cassidy's first solo album on vinyl, but, boy, am I!! My inner 70s child is thrilled to hear that almost all of the songs sound as good as ever. ("Take Good Care Of My Baby" isn't nearly as sad or deep as I remember it being when I was a girl, but, hey, that's what time does to your mind!:) )

Off and on over time, I have been hoping _Shaun Cassidy_ would be released in MP3 form. I still have the album, but my LP player died a while ago so it's been ages since I heard the wonderful (and awfully sweet and endearing) sounds of "Morning Girl" (very Davy Jones-lie), "It's Too Late" (an 'I told you so' attitude never sounded so polite as it does here) and "Holiday" (very dreamy as only a 70s song can be.)

"I Wanna Be With You" holds up surprisingly well, even kind of seems edgier than when my eight-year-old ears first heard it. "That's Rock 'n' Roll" has long been accessible in digital format, as has "Da Doo Ron Ron," but I'm still going to go on about how great they both are!:)

For anyone who grew up with Shaun instead of David, this is a must buy! It brought pure, nostalgic happiness to my lips and ears tonight and my iPod even seems to glow a little brighter, too!

If the playlist fits...

 

 

"Someone To Love" by George Michael is such a pretty song. It's off his fifth studio album Patience. I love his voice. While he shares very little in common with Karen Carpenter, his clear, beautiful and sincere singing style sometimes makes me think he should be on the same list with her of great singers within the past fifty years.



Some people said, "If I could only care for you"

Some people said, "He will never love again"
Some people said, "You can see it in his eyes
He keeps it all inside and yet"
Some people say, "In time, we all teach ourselves to live this way"

And for a thousand days, I was lost
I thought never, never, never to be found
Underground
And don't you think I'm ready now?
So please send me someone to love

Please send me someone, someone to love
As much as I loved you
(The way I loved you, darlin')
Please, please send me someone, someone to love
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Any time, any day, any time, any day now
Someone to love
Any time any day, any time, any day now
Please, please send me someone
Yeah, yeah someone
Just to hold me, now that you're gone

Some people say, "I hope you know I'm there for you"
Some of the people said, yeah yeah,
"Nothin' and nothing was just fine
You know how I get sometimes"

And for a thousand days, I was lost
I said, "Heaven knows I'm ready to be found"
Underground
But I think I'm ready now
So please send me someone to love

Please send me someone, someone to love
As much as I loved you
Please, please send me someone, someone to love
Please send me someone
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Any time, any day, any time, any day now
Someone to love
Any time any day, any time, any day now
Please, please send me someone
Someone, someone, someone to love

So say that you will, because the nights are long
Without our song to sing
Just search the clouds until', until'
So say that you will
Show me right from wrong without our song to sing
Just search the clouds until', until'
Hey baby

Darlin' darlin' though I can't replace you, there's a
Space in my heart
A space that you left in my heart
Just give me somethin' that will pull me back from the blue
Oh send me someone like you

Darlin' darlin' no I can't replace you, there's a space in my heart
A space that you left in my heart
Just give me somethin' that will pull me back from the blue
Please send me someone to love

Read more: George Michael - Please Send Me Someone (Anselmo's Song) Lyrics | MetroLyrics

"Shivers" is the kind of song that really can give you shivers. I love the Divine Fits sound. And minus the first line, the track also speaks to how someone can make you feel, almost against your will.

I've been contemplating suicide,
But it really doesn't suit my style,
So I guess I'll just act bored instead
And contain the blood I would've shed?
And she makes me feel so ill at ease
My heart is really on its knees
But I wear a poker face so well
That even mother couldn't tell
And my baby's so vain
She is almost a mirror

And the sound of her name
Sends a permanent shiver
down my spine
down my spine

I keep her photo against my heart
Cause in my life she plays a starring part
All alcohol and cigarettes
There is no room for cheap regrets
She makes me feel so ill at ease
My heart is really on its knees
But I wear a poker face so well
That even mother couldn't tell
But my baby's so vain
She is almost a mirror

And the sound of her name
Sends a permanent shiver
down my spine
down my spine
down my spine
down my spine.

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Read more: Divine Fits - Shivers Lyrics | MetroLyrics

Darn you, romantic dramas! No One finds love like this. Ever.

 

Pocket-size plot summary: Boy sees girl in an old photo from the early 1900s. Boy wants to meet girl so he goes back in time, meets girl, loses girl...the rest is up to you to discover.

(WARNING: This movie IS for the faint of heart and those who weep openly! You will cry so get those tissues out now! No shame need be involved as this will remind you of all the joys and sorrows of being in love. You might need a little aspirin for the paradoxes of time travel, but that's what makes this fun and keeps those tissues from getting completely soaked.)

Back in 1982, "Somewhere in Time" aired on network television. I sat through the film spellbound by the beautiful scenery and sincere acting. Critics in 1980 (when the theatre-run movie first opened) did not like it nor could they understand why anyone else would. At the time I was only 12, at an "impressionable" age where B movie fare such as "Xanadu" and "Grease 2" made me ooh and ah. Twenty-two years later, I still love this romantic fantasy as much as ever, even though I tend to go for more mind-bending work such as "Mulholland Drive."

What the critics don't get and what is just plain wonderful is that "Somewhere in Time" no longer carries a "bad movie stigma." The Richard Matheson-scripted film enjoys a strong following among people who love lavish cinematography and lush film scores. Quirky movie guides often list "Somewhere in Time" as a must-see. 

You don't need a book or a critic, though, when you've got that magic feeling you get from this Jeannot Szwarc-directed piece. Movies today may be a lot smarter, charge your brain better and depict our often cruel world with frightening clarity, but can you honestly remember the last time your heart was tugged at with gooey-free innocence and yearning? If not, give "Somwhere in Time" a chance.

Many who enjoy Christopher Reeve's varied film career cite "Superman" as the work that made them take notice. For me, it was his role as the good-hearted Richard Collier who goes the distance for true love and is unwilling to face its loss. Jane Seymour, the 80s tv-miniseries darling and now a beloved celebrity, proved she could lend an understated touch to her acting and a modesty that suited the 1910 setting of "Somewhere in Time."

......


No matter who you love (or hope to love someday) the below can speak to the romantic in all of us! I kind of blame "Somewhere In Time" for my ridiculous ideas about love, especially this impassioned speech character Elisa McKenna breaks out into during the middle of a play she is starring in:

The man of my dreams has almost faded now.
The one I have created in my mind.
The sort of man each woman dreams of in the deepest and most secret reaches of her heart.
I can almost see him now before me.
What would I say to him, if he were really here?
Forgive me, I have never known this feeling -
I've lived without it all my life.

Is it any wonder, then, that I failed to 

recognize you?

You - who brought it to me for the first time.
Is there any way I can tell you how my life has changed?
Any way at all to let you know what sweetness you have given me?
There is so much to say . . . I cannot find the words.
Except for these -
I love you.
Such would I say to him, if he were really here.

No one knows how to hurt a woman like another woman does.

I first read this book in 1986 and have read it twice more since then. Joyce Carol Oates is the first contemporary American author I remember impressing me enough to linger with me long after I'd read her work. "Solstice," like other works by Joyce Carol Oates, does not paint a pretty picture. 

Great fiction is often about complex, sad, scary, bitter relationships. Happy relationships are better left to the Harlequins of this world. Sometimes when you're in a weird, complex mood you want weird, complex reading, catharsis and all that...

"Solstice" lingers like someone's presence after she's left the room. If you look at some reviews written about this book, there is mention of everything from stormy psyches to lesbian subtext. Whatever the motivation behind Monica and Sheila's relationship, fascination and even some kind of subtle hatred works into it.

Monica is transfixed by Sheila and Sheila seems to need Monica as some kind of dumping ground. They'd probably just as soon want to walk away from each other with a clean break, but they can't. As Shelia says, "we'll be for friends for a long, long time...unless one of us dies." Probably a normal thing to say, but still sort of creepy.

They behave more like people in love than friends; what they have is not exactly chemistry, but it has drawing power. I always thought this novel was more about hatred than love, but sometimes hatred is love in confusion.

I am not proud of who I sometimes am, especially the past year and a half. Prayer, meditation and grounding myself more help a little, but not as much as I would like. I thought I was becoming stronger emotionally and working harder at getting rid of unwanted feelings, but they always manage to creep back in.

Even knowing this person I like thinks I'm an idiot, I still continue to wish I were capable of even just one cogent conversation with her. My guilt makes me worry she knows when in reality there's no way she could tell. Ironically (or not?) she is the model of composure I long to emulate.

But it's not just this crush that's been plaguing me, it's what at heart of the crush and what has always been my downfall. Being an emotional person is not all that great a thing to be. I'd much rather be like Spock and not react to anything, the bad or the good.

Once again I turn to Wiki How and its sound advice for help:

Don't Let Your Emotions Rule Your Life

What a difference one word makes. Two slightly different quotes attributed to Havelock Ellis. One sounds more hopeful ("Dream are real while they last.") while the other is more pragmatic ("Dreams are only real while they last.")

I found The World Of Dreams for free through Google Play books and am already enmeshed in it. A wonderful alternative to Freud, Ellis is willing (or was) to explore other possibilities regarding dreams besides the sexual aspect and so far I don't see him blaming the mother at all, which is kind of refreshing. :)

I've just begun, but already I am loving the book. I'm hoping to use it to help with getting rid of my nightmares.

Lots of great articles in today's New York Times...

All of the below are from today's New York Times:




You don't have to live in New York City to appreciate this article about houseguests:

http://nyti.ms/1jXLalI



...

I think a lot of us have done something in our past that still haunts us to this day, something that we long to apologize for, but aren't sure if it would do more harm than good. What follows below sounds like very good advice!


From today's Workologist column in the New York Times:

Question:

About 20 years ago, I served in a management position. I had great employees — but I was a horrible boss.

 

I’d like to write an apology to one person in particular who really stuck out his neck for me, but whom I treated badly. He’s retired now, and 83 years old. I don’t want to upset him by bringing back bad memories. On the other hand, I’d like to tell this man

how lucky I was to work with him, and how much I learned from his example. 

 

Bad supervision can scar the soul. I’d be immeasurably pleased if even one of the managers who wronged me in the past took the time to apologize.

 

Should I let this go or send the letter? MARCIA MACINNIS, MASHPEE, MASS.

 

 

Answer:

I think you should send it. And even if you don’t send it, you should certainly write it.

 

In fact, you may want to write it twice. First, write a version for you: Articulate whatever helps you reach catharsis about your past actions and regrets. Then start fresh or revise the original to send to the person you supervised. No need to dwell and co-workers, on the specifics of your past sins in this version —  he probably won’t need to be reminded. Focus on the apology and the positive effect he had on your life.

 

You seem sincere, and that’s the key: Anything that comes across as contrived or having an ulterior motive would be worse than no apology at all. Just make sure that what you send isn’t overly focused on you; that risks coming across more as self-pitying or even excuse-making, rather than representing real contrition.

 

With those caveats, this sounds like a good thing for him, for you — and maybe for the rest of us. We have all had regrettable moments as bosses and employees, Maybe we need an annual day of apology to all slighted colleagues.



also from today's NYT:

He will always be "Walter" from Fringe to me, but no matter who he is playing, I love him so much!:

John Noble in "The Substance of Fire"

 

Freshman year of high school, I played Michael Damian's 1984 Love Is A Mystery so much my sister told me she knew every word of it even though she could not stand the sound of his voice. I had to buy it from Canada the album was so hard to find in the United States.

Lost and obscure almost from the beginning, Love Is A Mystery is even harder to track down today and a cd copy from Japan will cost you well over $100.

It always seemed to me that Michael Damian's singing style took a turn for the worse when he tried to go more commercial in the late 80s (his cover of David Essex's "Rock On" was his first and only #1 Top 40 hit).

I got to see him at Hammerjack's ages and ages ago and he is one of those singers who is much better live than on a recording. He's a super nice person and though many of his songs from other albums sound very dated these days, much of what is Love Is A Mystery isn't half bad.


Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kuWPipyEeQ


track listing: Love Is A Mystery

 

 

The Eagles are better for my nerves than almost any other band I love. With the exception of Bach, no other music soothes me when I'm troubled. There's something about Don Henley's soulful voice (especially) that makes me feel things are going to get better. I've always found him more sincere and easier to take seriously than Glenn Frey, though Frey sounds so yearning and earnest on "Lyin' Eyes" and "After The Thrill Is Gone" (where Henley joins him) I like his voice, too.

top ten most underrated Eagles songs

As if there isn't enough out there to read, I keep finding links to "forgotten classics" of the 19th century:

"forgotten classics" to put on your Kindle or Google Play  (English As She Is Spoke by Pedro Carolino is a truly funny read. Buried within this thread are mentions of books that provide interesting insights on how the mind and things like melancholy were once regarded. Those titles are not necessarily classic, but compelling in their take on life.)

20 Classic Novels You've Never Read  

Most of the titles referenced can be found for free in the Kindle or Google Play Books store!

The Missed Connections of their time...

Does your mind ever get scrambled when you think of all there is to do in the world, both what you want to do and what you have to do? All the books you want to read, the sights you want to see, the places to go?

Like many book lovers, I have a TBR list I'm sure I won't finish even if I live to be 99. Whenever I think of all there is to do, especially the exciting things, I'm usually able to snap myself out of my funk.

I just downloaded The Agony Columns of The Times 1800-1870,free from my Google Play Books app. It's fascinating stuff and not only because it's reproduced exactly as it would have looked to 19th century readers but also because it's a collection of columns from what seem to be the Missed Connections of their time. The above is just one of many examples.

The "agony" is supposedly taken from the writer's despair of ever again seeing the person he (though sometimes women would post an ad) found so fascinating, though other ads are more laments or thinly veiled messages that hint at illicit affairs or something from a spy novel. 

Alice Clay's introduction to the book could have been written today it has such modern insight into the human heart. Just one of the passages from her intro:

With hearts that are breaking, men and women can go through the duties of every-day life, wearing calm and even smiling faces. He knew human nature well who wrote 'Broken hearts are dumb or smile.' What is there to tell us that such smiles are only on the surface?

But not all of the ads are missed connections of the first encounter kind. Many repeat names and are mysterious and signed in code. You'd need a degree in cryptology to decipher them.

In one striking ad, someone refers to Cenerentola and writes: Until my heart is sick, have I tried to frame an explanation for you, but cannot. Silence is safest if the true cause is not suspected: if it is, all stories will be sifted to the bottom. Cenerentola is Italian for Cinderella, but it (if you add a "La" in front) is also the name of a 19th century opera.

For a book having an editor, it doesn't offer much source material or any footnotes (marvelous introduction aside!) You have to figure out references and codes yourself (if the codes can even be cracked.)

Despite these problems, you can have fun looking up things or recognizing them because you already know some of the popular culture at the time. There is sadness yet familiarity and comfort in the general malaise of the human condition always present in The Agony Column. Take out the dates and the formal language and you could almost be reading the best of Craig's List.