Gellage No.49
Gellage No.53
Here's a joke I heard:
A man is caught in a traffic jam when someone taps on the car window. The driver lowers the window and asks what he wants. The other man says, "President Bush has been kidnapped and the ransom is 50 million dollars. If the ransom is not paid, the kidnappers are threatening to douse the president with gasoline and set him on fire. We are taking up a collection. Do you wish to contribute?" The man in the car asks, "On average, what are people donating?" The other man replies, "About two to three gallons."
Ha, Ha, oh. That's dark.
If you're not already a fan of Scottish writer Alasdair Gray, you should think about becoming one. His phenomenal novel Lanark, published in 1981, ranks as one of my personal favorites. I'd call it a hodgepodge of literary sci-fi, magical realism, allegory, mystery, and experimental fiction. As great as that sounds, for some reason I never hear people mention him or this great book. It's like one of those "Best Books You've Never Heard Of" type things. I was therefore surprised and more than pleased to recently come across his website, where I found storyboards for a film adaptation of the legendary Lanark:
You can go here to learn more.
Or you could click here to see the Wes Anderson American Express Commercial. And click here to read what the good people at Slate have to say about it.
You know, I keep seeing these meme things on other blogs where people list a bunch of questions and then answer them to give insight into their personhood. It makes me think of two things: 1) The James Lipton questions from Inside the Actor's Studio (which my students usually enjoy answering) and 2) the The Proust Questionnaire, which shows an interesting glimpse into Marcel's character, and displays an adroit wit quite uncommon amongst contemporary question answerers. Here's an example of his response to the same question at different ages in his life...
At age 13
Q: What is your favorite occupation?
A: Reading, dreaming, and writing verse
At age 20
Q: What is your favorite occupation?
A: Loving
