Oh, and I keep forgetting to encourage you to check out the podcasts. For those of you who have read The Help (am I the only one who hasn't?), you can encounter Kathryn Stockett here.
"The getting stuck is a very important part of the process. I know younger people and students often feel that if they get stuck on something they're working on, that it's time to give up; that they don't have what it takes, they don't have the talent, they don't have the patience, whatever. But I have found that getting stuck is a very important part of the creative process. That when you're stuck, your subconscious mind is catalyzed and you actually do a lot of very good thinking that you wouldn't have done if you weren't stuck."
It’s getting to be that time of year. No, I’m not talking about the holidays, I’m talking about scent binge season. The madness always comes upon me in the depths of winter, and I can feel it building already. I’ve dabbed or sprayed on at least five different perfumes today. I’ve got scented candles burning and I just spritzed my bedroom with Bal a Versailles. I’ll probably dose the blankets with something else before I go to bed tonight. It’s not that I’m searching for just the right scent. I’m craving an olfactory smorgasbord. I want a little bit of everything, and then I want to go back for seconds. I’ll keep this up until I feel slightly queasy. Maybe I’ll scrub down and take a break for a few hours, or even a whole day. But restraint won’t last. Pretty soon I’ll be back to pawing through my collection like a fiend.
I would love to know something about the peculiar brain chemistry behind this weird behavior. I know I’m not the only perfume addict who goes on these benders, so I was surprised when a quick Internet search didn’t turn up much of anything. I checked Avery Gilbert’s blog (which is fantastic, btw), but came up empty. If anyone out there can direct me to information, I’d be grateful. Oh, and feel free to post a confession of your own perfume pigouts. It will make me feel better. Meanwhile, I need to get back to the juice. I’m thinking DSH Khyphi oil might be nice layered with a little Shalimar...
"A New Vice: Opium Dens in France", cover of Le Petit Journal, 5 July 1903.
There are several multimedia sites devoted to the Divine Comedy, but The World of Dante** is far and away the best I've seen. In addition to the full text and translation, it has comprehensive notes, a wealth of images, and best of all, recordings of the chants mentioned in "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso." It takes a little time and patience to get to all the material embedded each canto, but loitering on the site is part of the pleasure.
In one of those slightly disturbing instances of synchronicity, I went to Facebook right after visiting the World of Dante, and came across a comment on a friend's post that mentioned Dante's Inferno, a 2007 film that sends paper puppets through a Hell that looks like contemporary America. Dermot Mulroney, of all people, is the voice of Dante. The trailer below is very alluring. If any of you have seen it, let me know if it's worth hunting down the DVD.
**At noon today (Sunday), portions of the site were down for maintenance. Drat. Everything's been fine for the past few days, though, so I trust they'll be back up shortly.
I can feel she has got out of bed. That means it is seven a.m. I have been lying with eyes shut, thinking, or possibly dreaming, of how she might look if, at breakfast, I spoke about the hidden place in her which, to me, is like a soprano’s tremolo...
From "Rapture" by Galway Kinnell. The complete poem is at Poetry Foundation.
While doing a little research on traditional New Orleans jazz, I came across this great clip of Billie Poole singing "Sugar Blues." I'd never heard of Poole, and a quick Web search turned up almost nothing about her. That's a surprise, since one of the great things about the Internet is that you can usually turn up at least a little bio on almost any musician or singer, no matter how obscure. I can't believe one as gifted as Billie Poole doesn't have a clutch of fans out there somewhere. If any of you know about her, please comment or email me.
I haven't been posting a lot of music lately, and I actually wasn't planning to post this clip, but then I read Julie's post about the Victoria's Secret tv special, and realized that the beauty of Billie Poole is the perfect antidote to that soulless freak show.
Yes, it's that time again. There's a new crop of reviews and book news at Chapter 16, including Susannah Felts' interview with Sherrilynn Kenyon, and--continuing the supernatural theme--a review by Lacey Galbraith of Amy Foster's debut novel, When Autumn Leaves. My contribution this week is a short review of Life as We Show It, a terrific anthology of writing about film.
