Amazing.

What has been slowing me down with this blog post business, is that I am trying to write a review of my first read and (consequently) favorite book of the new year. It has been a long time coming, so I decided to give you a little sneak peek. Here is a quote from David Nicholls' marvelous novel, One Day:

"Above the bed is a semi-ironic mirror, and they stare up at it through heavy eyelids, admiring themselves as they sprawl beneath, heads resting in laps, hands searching around for other hands, listening to the music, young and smart, attractive and successful, in the know and not in their right minds, all of them thinking how great they look and what good friends they're going to be from now on. There will be picnics on the Heath, and long lazy Sundays in the pub, and Dexter is enjoying himself once more. 'I think you're amazing,' someone says to someone else, but it doesn't matter who, because they're all amazing really. People are amazing."

Gap's Ad with the cast of Spring Awakening

Riddle Me This #8

Sorry for my lack of posting lately! No explanation. No, I wasn't off jet setting in some fabulous place; I was lazy.

But here you go! Riddle Number 8. Good luck!

I am addictive
I am blue
I am a film
Everyone hates me when I am new.
You'd be a nobody without me.
I'd be nothing without you.
Who am I?

Leave your guess in the comments!

We are all in the gutter...

If you know me well, you know it is no secret that I am in unrequited love with Oscar Wilde. Unrequited because:
1. He is dead.
2. He is dyed in the wool gay. (All the best ones, ladies)

Anyhoo, I thought I would post some of my favorite Oscar Wilde Quotes for us all to ponder and enjoy.

"A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction."

"All that I desire to point out is the general principle that life imitates art far more than art imitates life."

"All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his."

"Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much"

"An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all." 

"Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative."

"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught."

"Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter."

 

"I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly."

 "I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies."

"I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best."

"It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious."

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."

"There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are either well written or poorly written, 

that is all." 

 

Image from Shoe String Artists

 "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars"

Riddle Me This #7 Answered

I posted this one last Saturday and now 'tis time for the answer! Even though one Gabe Mustin already guessed it! Curses. I'll get you next time.

But here is Riddle #7 one more time:

I am used for leaving
Overnight
A Long Weekend
Permanently
If small, I am overhead
If heavy, I am below
I am necessary only when you need me
Sit on me if I grow
Who am I?

Image courtesy of truemarmalade

A Suitcase.

When she brings her melancholy close to me...

SELF-PORTRAIT

BY CHASE TWICHELL

I know I promised to stop

talking about her,

but I was talking to myself.

The truth is, she’s a child

who stopped growing,

so I’ve always allowed her

to tag along, and when she brings

her melancholy close to me

I comfort her. Naturally

you’re curious; you want to know

how she became a gnarled branch

veiled in diminutive blooms.

But I’ve told you all I know.

I was sure she had secrets,

but she had no secrets.

I had to tell her mine.

 

 
Chase Twichell, "Self Portrait" from Dog Language (Copper Canyon Press, 2005). www.coppercanyonpress.org

Riddle Me This #7

This is my first Riddle written for the new blog and my first in months [I repeat, months] which should explain it's crappiness. Here goes nothing and leave your guess in the comments : )

RIDDLE 7

I am used for leaving
Overnight
A Long Weekend
Permanently
If small, I am overhead
If heavy, I am below
I am necessary only when you need me
Sit on me if I grow.
Who am I?

Hmmmm, any guesses from my three faithful followers? ;)

I have not been as others were

"ALONE"

EDGAR ALLAN POE

 

From childhood’s hour I have not been

As others were—I have not seen

As others saw—I could not bring

My passions from a common spring—

From the same source I have not taken

My sorrow—I could not awaken

My heart to joy at the same tone—

And all I lov’d—I lov’d alone—

Then—in my childhood—in the dawn

Of a most stormy life—was drawn

From ev’ry depth of good and ill

The mystery which binds me still—

From the torrent, or the fountain—

From the red cliff of the mountain—

From the sun that ’round me roll’d

In its autumn tint of gold—

From the lightning in the sky

As it pass’d me flying by—

From the thunder, and the storm—

And the cloud that took the form

(When the rest of Heaven was blue)

Of a demon in my view—

 

Alone by Buaiansayapanomali

 

There is something so intriguing about the poetry of Poe, don't you agree? 

So much mystery surrounding his tortured mind.