Dave G

“Get Together” — The Youngbloods

My go-to when I need a dash of hope for humanity.

Playing “blindfold chess” does look impressive, though pretty much any master-level player can do it.

Using an actual blindfold adds more of an aura to it.

When I was grocery shopping yesterday, the store’s audio system played this song.

I loved hearing it, but I wondered whether someone had decided that such songs are now “easy listening” music for the older shoppers (people like me).

Shirley is amusing, though readers must muddle through plot lines about the Luddite movement to reach the typical Bronte character studies.

I actually think Charlotte’s prose is at its most brilliant in Villette. I just find the story less captivating than Jane Eyre, and bits of it are in French.

I thought Hinds’s Rochester was too raging/tempestuous, even more than the book character. Maybe the screenwriter or director made that choice. I haven’t seen him in other films.

“Do not be too eager to deal out death and judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill … before this is over.” -Gandalf

Joni Mitchell
Carole King
Bonnie Raitt
Aimee Mann
Nanci Griffith

Gordon Lightfoot (my first concert, 1978)
Talking Heads (Stop Making Sense tour)
David Bowie (Serious Moonlight tour)
Prince (Sign O The Times tour)
Joni Mitchell (in her later performing years [2000-ish]; still awesome)

When I rented an apartment in the early 1990s, the lease agreement hadn’t been updated for a while; one clause forbade tenants from playing a Victrola after 9:00 p.m.

YouTube video by Young Marble Giants - Topic Music For Evenings

Something a bit different: “Music For Evenings”, from my favorite minimalist band, Young Marble Giants.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=G0xy...

That song is great on its own *and* as a reminder of “Freaks and Geeks” … my favorite TV series.

I also use Eno, but in my case it’s Neroli as an occasional low-key background working soundtrack.

I’ve started watching the recent documentary “Sly Lives!”. So far, Sly Stone is coming off as an even more fascinating person than I had realized.

Sometimes they don’t *want* it to sound OK. When I was on hold for a doctor’s office, they played these songs:

Michael Jackson - “Beat It”

Cheap Trick - “Surrender”

Heart - “Never”

I got the message and hung up.

YouTube video by Roberta Flack - Topic The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (2006 Remaster)

Poignant reminder that amid all the trouble and noise, there is beautiful simplicity in the world.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=uSrK...

Thanks for posting this. I only knew the Joy Division version, but I like Paul Young and was glad to hear his take.

Just imagine what Hunter S. Thompson would be writing about all of this.

Favorite moment: when the old man sees danger coming and yells “BOOK!!”

Where (and when) I come from, that means “Run!”

Big Daddy Kane, “Raw”

*So full of action, my name should be a verb*

“We read *Villette* by Charlotte Brontë discussing the world of Lucy Snowe over the phone, living within its atmosphere.”

-Patti Smith, in *Bread of Angels* (her recent memoir), regarding conversations with her sister

#PattiSmith #CharlotteBronte #Bronte #Villette

The lyrics contain many allusions to it that don’t use the word “chess”:

“my game”
“the match”
“a model of decorum and tranquility”
“the ultimate test of cerebral fitness”
etc.

Because it features a commanding white-bearded figure assisted by elves?

I get to spend time cheering for epic deeds in a fully developed fantasy world that feels very real, as if it’s an otherwise unrecorded time from our not-so-ancient past.

My favorite thing about that adaptation is Judi Dench, who steals every scene in which Mrs. Fairfax appears.

Amazing book, but it took me months to get through it! Hope you have a lot of free time available.

It’s an interesting and occasionally thought-provoking read. At the same time, it’s basically fan fiction in which someone made up a story that contradicts the original author. So I found it worthwhile, but not compelling enough to change my views on Jane Eyre.

“Perfect” overstates the case. Like all Jane Eyre movies, this one has foibles: too many extraneous plot changes; omission of much of Jane's childhood; and a different and sometimes unsatisfying spin on Rochester.

But it’s still my favorite, largely because Ruth Wilson is the most brilliant Jane.

Since you adore Jane Eyre [my favorite book], I warmly recommend Anne Bronte’s similarly sprawling novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Like JE, it centers on a woman battling her era’s sexist strictures. (It gets a bit heavy; Anne’s other book, Agnes Grey, is a shorter, lighter confection.)

As the new year begins, we despair
That our faults are beyond our repair.
We know resolutions
Provide no solutions;
They fall, like the ball in Times Square.

(Happy new limericking year to you!)