Sunday List #1
Being a list of five things that I love
My favorite novel:
The tragic tale of a poor small town boy betrayed and destroyed by the rich careless elite? The guy who wears masks in the doomed effort to belong but then gets shot to death in the swimming pool? Yeah, I know that story.
My favorite movie:
Do you mean the independent art house classic that I’m supposed to love the most? Or do you mean the one that I’ve watched the most often? Or the one that I could perform for you by memory—the one with the female action hero who serves as a mother surrogate for me…oops, I mean, she serves as a mother surrogate for little Newt.
Favorite TV show:
I thought about The Wire, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, or Mad Men. All works of genius. I could also with Friday Night Lights or The Wonder Years. And, yes, I almost decided it was Game of Thrones until I remembered the massive disappointment of the final episode.
But it’s an upstart that has quickly become my favorite. And I just now realized that this show has a lot of Great Gatsby in it and I also just realized that, in the show, Cousin Greg is Jay Gatsby, aka James Gatz.
Favorite poem:
Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota, Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass. And the eyes of those two Indian ponies Darken with kindness. They have come gladly out of the willows To welcome my friend and me. We step over the barbed wire into the pasture Where they have been grazing all day, alone. They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness That we have come. They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other. There is no loneliness like theirs. At home once more, They begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness. I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms, For she has walked over to me And nuzzled my left hand. She is black and white, Her mane falls wild on her forehead, And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear That is delicate as the skin over a girl’s wrist. Suddenly I realize That if I stepped out of my body I would break Into blossom.
Favorite song:
Of all the poems you could have chosen, I am blown away by your pick. It has been a favorite of mine since college, and I always teach it to my HS students as a perfect example of imagery. It shows them how the perfect combination of descriptive words transports the reader to that field where they indeed feel blessed. "And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear
That is delicate as the skin over a girl’s wrist." Truly powerful.
Just binged SUCCESSION and man, sure has an evil-doer (not Dubya) ex-potus vibe from main man and throughout his family.