Now that I am older and digitally literate, I decided to search for some audio back-up, as it were, for The Raven since you-know-what is almost upon us. And guess who I found? The visual isn't much, but kick back and close your eyes. Or, get up and clean your office while listening to a great rendition of this nevermore.
Every now and then I take out my ancient, dog-eared, dirty copy of Edgar Allan Poe's stories. Prose, poetry, it's all weird, let's face it. It is easy to forget how incredibly creative, if not bizarre, that mystical man was. So, when I crawl into bed with Lenore (you know what I mean) I am reminded of why this tome, that I paid 25 cents for at a yard sale back in the early 80s, still sits on my book shelf in a central and easy-to-reach location. Especially at this time of year. Now that I am older and digitally literate, I decided to search for some audio back-up, as it were, for The Raven since you-know-what is almost upon us. And guess who I found? The visual isn't much, but kick back and close your eyes. Or, get up and clean your office while listening to a great rendition of this nevermore. And lest you think my appreciation for Walken ends here, then clearly you've never met the J Man. From one of my favorite all-time movies (the Jack Black theme continues here)...a favorite scene.
WakeUpAmerica
10/17/2012 01:10:25 pm
I LOVE Poe, and "The Raven" is my favorite. Thank you for posting this!
Laura Novak
10/18/2012 04:25:08 am
Thanks Wake Up. I love it too. Especially this version of it.
Ottoline
10/19/2012 01:59:33 am
Whenever I see Poe, I wonder about the great dissimilarity of the left and right sides of his face. One side so angry, the other so hopeless. The assumption being that it corresponds to his mind, but of course it could be that there is no correlation whatever (of face and mind).
Laura Novak
10/19/2012 05:31:34 am
Interesting, Ottoline. They say that no one's face is perfectly symetrical. I can see that. With such profound writing, it's appropriate to see specific personalities in Poe's face, as you point out. 10/20/2012 04:10:16 am
Poe is a central character in Rudy Rucker's novel "The Hollow Earth", described as "historical science fiction". Although "Software" is, in my opinion, Rucker's masterwork, "The Hollow Earth" has its particular pleasures - see http://www.rudyrucker.com/thehollowearth/.
Laura Novak
10/20/2012 08:58:35 am
Thanks, Mistah Charley. We can always count on you to educate and enlighten us!
V-A
10/20/2012 10:35:30 am
I CANNOT wait to see this movie. Never seen in and love everybody in it. Need I say cowbell?
Ottoline
10/20/2012 04:07:20 pm
Speaking as someone whose house was built on a cattle pasture, which before that was just open land, I beg to differ with you V-A. I often try to imagine the stuff that happened here: Native Americans traveling over the land, perhaps setting up camp here briefly. A hung over idiot Billy the Kid straggling along between shoot-outs, a mom stopping enroute to bury a child, . . . . They had all the same drama that we do, only more severe hazards. But no one wrote it up. Just like the medieval baker, who lived and worked and died. I guess I think about this because when people consider past lives they might have had, they think Cleopatra! But I think I might have been the baker woman in a little village somewhere. Or the milkmaid/cheese maker. But no one wrote me up.
V-A
10/21/2012 03:34:46 am
Today the Indians run casinos. The whites landscape the desert with Hawaiian palms. Canyon ranches are housing developments with houses that won't last 30 years. Evidence of the past comes down to a few Missions, where the signs never mention slavery.
Ottoline
10/21/2012 05:16:51 am
You're right as usual, V-A. Up in Northern CA we landscape the desert with mowed grass lawns and English water-loving plants -- even more ridiculous than palms.
Laura Novak
10/21/2012 08:50:00 am
I am enjoying this conversation between V-A and Ottoline. I don't want to get in the way of it. You're both so smart and I learn from you every time you post! Keep on if you wish.
Ottoline
10/21/2012 11:40:46 am
You are such a kind host, Laura. I have almost zero interest in Ethel, so much so that until just now I never even read the reviews of that film. But now I did. From a lesson-in-how-to-live perspective, I've always been interested in Jackie's wisdom, wit, smarts, aesthetics, discipline, earthy common sense -- and therefore in Caroline and JFK, Jr. But Ethel had none of this. I have no interest in the film, although it's sweet of her daughter to make it.
V-A
10/22/2012 01:51:35 am
Ethel Kennedy. . . I saw her once in person. She drove up to Dulles Airport when it was in the middle of nowhere. I had just stepped out of a taxi to catch a flight, and EK drove upin a station wagon and hundreds of children spilled from the car. They ran into the airport, straight to the gift shop to buy candy. I figured it was the closest "fun" place to where they lived in No. Virginia. I've carried that image all these years as my one glimpse of Kennedyness. I think EK's daughter may have made this homage to her mother because EK has been so normal and sturdy in a family steeped in drama. And wasn't Rory the filmmaker the one who never knew her father? That in itself makes the project interesting. . . I'll catch it later on netflix.
Ottoline
10/22/2012 07:56:02 am
EK "normal and sturdy"? Not my take on her at all. Apparent from the time of the JFK presidency, her children were in a chaotic household with a lot of potential for disaster. Ethel was spoiled (poor impulse control) and volatile. She was cheap and harsh with her help, who were always quitting, and no wonder. Seemed she was not there that much with her children. Cooking bananas in vaseline? The tossing of guests in evening clothes into her pool at parties never appealed to me. Jackie kept her two away from Ethel's family. The behavior of her son toward Mary Richardson Kennedy (i.e. stiffing her re money, leaking discrediting info about her after her death, moving the coffin after the burial to a remote location) doesn't make me like Ethel any better.
V-A
10/22/2012 11:28:02 pm
Thanks for setting me straight. My mistake. Because she was never in the news for drug addiction or marrying rich Greeks for their money, I just assumed she was sturdier. Of course, I know her childrens' woes but they didn't seem much different from those in the rich families I knew growing up (including my own).
Laura Novak
10/22/2012 02:04:38 am
Fun anecdote, V-A. For those of us who grew up around the aura of this fabled family, these stories are fun. But I do wonder who they think will watch this or care. And I'm not sure why anyone thinks that she is now going to reveal her feelings about that murder. Yet, it was touching to hear her say that she did it so that she could spend more time with her child. Still, the NYTs points out the mythology behind all of it and how damaged the children are who gloat about EK's partying and shenanigans. Perhaps on DVD, you're right! Comments are closed.
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Laura NovakReporter, Author, Blogger, and Mother...
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