The Hero With a Thousand Faces

In the absence of an effective general mythology, each of us has his private, unrecognized, rudimentary, yet secretly potent pantheon of dream. The latest incarnation of Oedipus, the continued romance of Beauty and the Beast, stand this afternoon on the corner of Forty-second Street and Fifth Avenue, waiting for the traffic light to change.
- Joseph Campbell

the dead and the art of surprise

Film/theater critic Steven Vineburg has a great article on the art of surprise, which he describes as "the turn you don’t expect just because it’s so true to life, and life is never predictable, yet when you see it or hear it you think, 'Of course.' "

His description of the end of James Joyce's "The Dead" had me tearing up a little bit, I'll be honest. Looks like its time to give that one another go-round.

Gretta cries herself to sleep remembering this old love, and Gabriel moves, in a breathtaking arc, from bitterness and resentment at being closed out of the grand passion of her life, to an acceptance—the first he’s ever felt—that he belongs to something greater than himself, to a commonality that includes everyone he’s known, both the living and the dead.

Sleep

Apparently, Salvador Dali used to take a nap while holding a spoon in his hand. As soon as he would drift off into sleep and lose consciousness, the spoon would fall to the floor and make a loud clanging sound. Dali would wake up from the sound with the beginnings of his dream fresh in his mind - and then paint whatever he was dreaming about.

Couples

Is it strange that Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman remind me, in theory, of Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner?

Measuring cups that look like tiny pots

Meghan calls this "metakitchen."

Mark Twain without his moustache

Makes me uncomfortable.

Hundertwasserhaus

"Hundertwasserhaus is a low-income apartment block in Vienna, which features undulating floors ("an uneven floor is a melody to the feet"), a roof covered with earth and grass, and large trees growing from inside the rooms, with limbs extending from windows."

The architect designed it for free, in order to "prevent something ugly from going up in its place."

Kay Nielsen

I don't really know what's going on in this, but the colors made me feel comfortable.

Antony Gormley

Field for the British Isles, 1993


Another Place, permanent installation at Crosby Beach, Merseyside, England, 2005

There is so much more here.

Forty Stories

"I always say to myself, 'What is the most important thing I can be thinking about at this minute?' But then I don't think about it."

Donald Barthelme