Art – Page 65 – commonplacebook.com

100 Best First Lines from Novels

Post author:HFM
Post published:February 2, 2006
Post category:Reading Lists

According to the American Book Review:
1. Call me Ishmael. —Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)
2. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
3. A screaming comes across the sky. —Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow (1973)
4. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. —Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967; trans. Gregory Rabassa)
5. Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. —Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)

Which Serenity Character Am I?

Post author:HFM
Post published:February 2, 2006
Post category:Television What Am I?

Your results: You are Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)

Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)		80%
Jayne Cobb (Mercenary)		80%
Wash (Ship Pilot)		65%
Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)		50%
Derrial Book (Shepherd)		50%
Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic)		45%
Alliance		40%
River (Stowaway)		35%
Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)		20%
Inara Serra (Companion)		10%
A Reaver (Cannibal)		5%

Honest and a defender of the innocent. You sometimes make mistakes in judgment but you are generally good and would protect your crew from harm.

Take the Serenity Personality Quiz

Corett Scott King Quotes

Post author:HFM
Post published:February 2, 2006
Post category:Favorite Quotes GLBT Issues

“I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice,” she said. “But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people” – Coretta Scott King
“Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood,” – Coretta Scott King

Institutionalized

Post author:HFM
Post published:February 1, 2006
Post category:Music

From the album Suicidal Tendencies, by Suicidal Tendencies

Sometimes I try to do things and it just doesn’t work out the way I wanted to.
I get real frustrated and I try hard to do it and I take my time and it doesn’t work out the way I wanted to.
It’s like I concentrate real hard and it doesn’t work out
Everything I do and everything I try never turns out
It’s like I need time to figure these things out
But there’s always someone there going

The L-Word and Hot Sex (or lack thereof)

Post author:HFM
Post published:February 1, 2006
Post category:GLBT Issues Television

While we were watching this weeks episode of The L-Word, (episode 4, season 3) we noted that so far this year, there has been a distinct lack of hot sex such as existed in previous seasons. In the past, the characters were shuckin’ clothes and doing the deed several times an episode, whereas this season has been quite tame. Shockingly so, in fact. Every episode, we wait breathlessly for the Parental Warnings screen, hoping against hope for Adult Content and Adult Situations, and every week, the screen reports only “Brief Nudity.” (“Only brief,” Stephanie says bleakly, each time.) They are apparently not participating in my new years resolution campaign.

I’m not saying the show is boring, or anything. I enjoy character-driven drama. But there are some advantages to being on cable, and this show should be taking advantage of them.

Kerasotes Theaters (Glendale) 5 Buck Club

Post author:HFM
Post published:January 31, 2006
Post category:Movies

Kerasotes Theaters is offering a five dollar club, with a discount card that you can use to see movies for five dollars any time for movies that have been playing at least two weeks.
That’s a pretty nice deal for movies when the regular matinee price is $6.25. And the theater at Glendale is one of my favorites (stadium seating, comfy flip-up arms on the chairs).

Mini-Derby Cars

Post author:HFM
Post published:January 30, 2006
Post category:Brain Food Journal My Photos

My dad made me three of these kick-ass cool cars when I was in elementary school, as part of the YMCA Indian Princesses Mini Derby race. They’re carved out of a block of wood and then painted. The idea was to race them down a track, and prizes would be awarded for the winners, and for best design. Of course we always won the second, and usually the first prize, too, because my dad would insert lead weights into the wood block at the center of the car. Other kids had generic blocks of wood on wheels, while I had these awesome real-looking cars. I need to take photos of the other two; one of them is a cool hot wheels crazy car, and the other is an early Indy race car.
Boing Boing recently had a post about some folks who put a webcam on their mini derby car. I’m sure if we had such a thing back when I was a kid, my Dad would have done it. And I still think my cars are cooler, btw.

Saved!

Post author:HFM
Post published:January 30, 2006
Post category:Movies

I caught the 2003 movie Saved! this weekend. There was a lot of controversy when it came out because it a comedy that depicts a Christian school in a less-than-flattering way. After watching it, though, it’s clear that the comedic critique in the movie is of hypocrisy, not of Christianity, and of people who pay lip-service to religious beliefs without investing themselves in the spirit of them. And the movie is just hilarious.
It’s the story of Mary, who’s on track to have a have a perfect senior year at her Christian school, what with her membership in a perky Christian pop group, her hot-popular clique of friends, and her handsome, devout Christian figure-skater boyfriend Dean. Until Dean comes out to her, of course. Then she hears what she thinks is a vision from Jesus telling her to save Dean, which she interprets as a command to change his homosexuality by sleeping with him. Silly girl. Of course she does, and of course, he doesn’t. But she gets pregnant as Dean is hauled off to a brainwashing camp for a cure. And suddenly Mary loses not just her boyfriend, but her friends, her pop-group and (temporarily) her faith as well, as she struggles through her senior year with the help of the school’s other outcasts: the lone Jewish girl and her boyfriend the paraplegic.

Oscar Classic Movies on TCM

Post author:HFM
Post published:January 30, 2006
Post category:Movies Television

Beginning February 1st, Turner Classic Movies will air 360 “Oscar winner and nominee” movies, 3 per evening, until the Academy Awards (which airs March 5th). All of them are uncut and commercial free.

Of course, the criteria to qualify as an “Oscar winner or nominee” is pretty open; they’re not talking all “best picture” noms here, but including any movie that was nominated in any category. Which means that Benji and The Karate Kid are among of the selections. (I will be DVR’ing Benji, because I haven’t seen that in years.)

But there’s more than enough great films to jam up your DVR; see TCM’s list here. It’s a bit frustrating that they don’t have a single page with the complete listings to link to. Entertainment Weekly magazine has a great pull-out page with all the movies, times and air dates.

There are quite a few movies on my “to watch” lists, which is really bad considering it’s also sweeps month and the Olympics will be on, too. Good thing I have this new TV, since I’ll be parked in front of it for all of February.

World of Warcraft and GLBT Guilds

Post author:HFM
Post published:January 30, 2006
Post category:Art

Interesting… Blizzard Entertainment, the company that produces the World of Warcraft MMORPG is penalizing players for identifying themselves as gay in the game, saying that they are doing it for the “protection” of gay players:

While we appreciate and understand your point of view, we do feel that the advertisement of a ‘GLBT friendly’ guild is very likely to result in harassment for players that may not have existed otherwise.

So rather than deal with the people who do the harassing, they’re just not letting gay people be openly gay inside the game.