20 posts tagged “culture”

What soon-to-be-published book are you excited to read?

This is the new book coming out from one of my favorite Voxers, R.G. Ryan.  The book is due to be published in September, and contains many of the best of R.G.'s observations from a seat at St. Arbucks.  Please watch out for this book, and support a fellow Voxer by buying it when it comes out.  If you are not familiar with R.G.'s writing, here's a sample.

A few more Wordles for your consideration:

Richard III - Shakespeare

Ulysses - James Joyce

I Sing the Body Electric - Walt Whitman

Taking this parameter of the top 100 books from Hapa Love.  She suggests using the Modern Library list.  So, here goes:

1) Bold: I have read.
2) Italics: Those I intend to read.
3) Underline: Books I love.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated. 
5) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track dow these people who’ve read 6 and force books upon them

1. ULYSSES by James Joyce
2. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS  A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
4. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
5. BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
6. THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
7. CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
8. DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler
9. SONS AND LOVERS by D. H. Lawrence
10. THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
11. UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry
12. THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler
13. 1984 by George Orwell
14. I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
15. TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
16. AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser
17. THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
18. SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
19. INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
20. NATIVE SON by Richard Wright
21. HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow
22. APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O'Hara
23. U.S.A.(trilogy) by John Dos Passos
24. WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson
25. A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E. M. Forster
26. THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
27. THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
28. TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
29. THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T.  Farrell
30. THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford
31. ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell

32. THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James
33. SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser
34. A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh
35. AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
36. ALL THE KING'S MEN by Robert Penn Warren
37. THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton  Wilder
38. HOWARDS END by E. M. Forster
39. GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
40. THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene
41. LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
42. DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
43. A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) by Anthony Powell
44. POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley
45. THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
46. THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad
47. NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
48. THE RAINBOW by D. H. Lawrence
49. WOMEN IN LOVE by D. H. Lawrence
50. TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
51. THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer
52. PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth
53. PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
54. LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
55. ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
56. THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
57. PARADE'S END by Ford Madox Ford
58. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton
59. ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm
60. THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy
61. DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather
62. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones
63. THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLE by John Cheever
64. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J. D. Salinger
65. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
66. OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham
67. HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
68. MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis
69. THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton
70. THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell
71. A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes
72. A HOUSE FOR MR. BISWAS by V. S. Naipaul
73. THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West
74. A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
75. SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh
76. THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark
77. FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce
78. KIM by Rudyard Kipling
79. A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E. M. Forster
80. BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh
81. THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow
82. ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner
83. A BEND IN THE RIVER by V. S. Naipaul
84. THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen
85. LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad
86. RAGTIME by E. L. Doctorow
87. THE OLD WIVES' TALE by Arnold Bennett
88. THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
89. LOVING by Henry Green
90. MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie
91. TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell
92. IRONWEED by William Kennedy
93. THE MAGUS by John Fowles
94. WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys
95. UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch
96. SOPHIE'S CHOICE by William Styron
97. THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
98. THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain
99. THE GINGER MAN by J. P. Donleavy
100. THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington

Total read: 59

Total read and loved: 23

Total intending to read:  17

Total no interest in reading:  8

Total either don't know, or ambivalent about reading:  16. 

Here are a few more I've done today:

Hamlet's soliliquy

Trojan Women by Euripides

Marcus Aurelius Meditations

Julius Caesar Gallic Wars

Thanks a lot, Cori.  I have wasted at least the last hour on Wordle.  Just so you can share my obsession, here is the word cloud for Wuthering Heights.  Yep, the whole book.

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte.

Enjoy.

What's your favorite soundtrack?

There are some great ones out there.  Wizard of Oz, Jaws, Lawrence of Arabia, Fistful of Dollars; the list is endless.  But I can think of no movie where the score is more important than the following (written by Prokofiev):

This man is a role model for me.

What's your favorite play and why?

Well, that took a while to figure out.  My final list was:

Lion in Winter

12 Angry Men

Inherit the Wind

Our Town

Death of a Salesman

Master Harold and the Boys

Equus

Richard III

Trojan Women.

I suppose I could have had more Shakespeare on the list, but I chose my favorite Shakespeare as a representative, just as I chose Trojan Women as my favorite Greek drama.  While as a group, the Shakespearean and Greek plays represent the highest quality, I can't honestly say that I love one of those more than one of the more modern plays.  I suppose that is to be expected, since I am a product of my environment.  For the sake of disclosure, Hamlet is my second favorite Shakespearean play, and my second favorite Greek play is Antigone.

As you can also tell from the list, I am a bigger fan of drama than musicals or comedy.  Were I to pick my favorite of each of those genres, I suppose that I would choose The Fantasticks and The Odd Couple.

My final choice is:

The truest depiction of what really happens in jury rooms ever. 

Show us something that's so ugly it's beautiful.

Vincent Van Gogh:  The Potato Eaters

Which cultural festivals will you be attending this summer?

There are so many in Philadelphia, that I couldn't begin to list all of the options.  So, let me just concentrate on the events at  at the Great Plaza at Penn's Landing:

 

Last week, I took my son to the Art Star Craft Bazaar.  This was about 150 booths of arts and crafts by folks from all over the country.  Except for the moment when my son got loose and sat fully clothed in a wading pool in front of one of the booths, it was a total gas.

This coming Saturday night at 8PM, as a kickoff to the LGBT Pride Festival, there will be a showing of the Wizard of Oz at 8PM.  I am thinking of taking my boy.  It's not often one gets to see this movie on a big screen, and it's an important movie in my family.  (My mom was at the World Premiere in LA.  Really.) 

The following Saturday is the Islamic Heritage Festival.  Should be great food and crafts.

That Sunday will be the Portuguese festival.  I love Portuguese food.  And there will be a cement truck filled with candy for the kids.

Saturday June 21st brings the Asian Festival.  This is a Pan Asian events, with food, crafts and performances representing many different Asian cultures.

Sunday the 22nd is my birthday, so I may be busy.  But if I have time, I will drop by the Irish Festival.  I would love to find some Connemara green marble, or perhaps a t-shirt for the hurling team from county Donegal.

Saturday June 28th brings Saturday Night Alive, a celebration of gospel music.  And believe me, here in Philadelphia, the gospel music is kickin'.

Of course, the July 4th weekend is a non-stop festival.  This years, the Penn's Landing fireworks will be on Saturday the 5th, after a concert by Boyz II Men.  Earlier in the day, there will be a food festival, combined with an ice cream tasting event.

I will be out of town the following weekend, but if you're here, go to the Hispanic Festival, which will flow over both weekend days.

The Saturday after that will be the Global Fusion festival.  One thing I am looking forward to with this is that there will be a trolley giving tours of several neighborhoods and their murals.  Philadelphia has more murals than any city in the country, so this should be exciting.

Sunday brings the Southeastern Cherokee celebration.  My boy will love the music and dancing.

I could go on.  In August we'll have an African festival, a DooWop festival, an Indian festival, Caribbean festival, Unity Weekend, Smooth Jazz Summer nights, Screenings Under the Stars...

Philadelphia is called the City of Brotherly Love.  Folks make fun of that.  But, for real, the name fits.