Aug 25, 2022·edited Aug 25, 2022Liked by Sherman Alexie
Hey Sherman. I wanted to turn you on to this video, in case you've not seen it, so i'll include it's url. It is of Prince jamming with Tom Petty and others, doing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." But what is so impressive is how well Prince plays lead guitar in it. I had no idea he could play like that! Blew me away!
Oh, also... Aliens is one of my favorite movies of all time. I think Blade Runner still beats it though. Sigourney is good but still can't displace Rutger Hauer saying,
"All those moments will be lost in time...like tears in the rain. Time to die." For me it was sublimely disturbing on a heart spirit level. I hadn't yet grasped his Christ like gesture that first time I saw it. So that first response still reverberates down.
Hey Sherman I got an idea for a series, it would called " The Trustee" during this period in the US. the greatest transfer of wealth is happening" Mo money, mo problems....
I think the show is more about Rupert Murdoch and his clan, at least in its creation, but it certainly has other resonances now. Then again, when has any royal family in human history ever been good?
This link goes to very funny set of horrible reviews for Mar-a-lago. Most refer to a horrible smell ‘everywhere’…a là Succession: raccoons in the chimney !
Ah yes, James Wright's "The Blessing"--good choice. Couple days ago I responded to a cousin's Facebook images of a football game in Martins Ferry, Ohio, with the notion that if I'd taught English at that high school . . . you know which poem I'd have had everyone memorize. Well, I guess I've not QUITE "wasted my life"!
I love your choice of poet and musician. I just learned that James Wright's son was also a poet and they are the only father-son duo to have each won the Pulitzer prize. Likewise I think Prince was a magician non pareil, never to be replicated. I'm ignorant of both your film and television choices -- I just haven't watched either.... but your favorite novel puzzles me. While I see your affection for the theme which broadly parallels your own life, I don't understand the fondness for Fitzgerald. The world he portrays is so shallow and synthetic, his characters mere sketches and gestures, feeble motions in margins. The world you have shared with your readers is never banal.
I disagree strongly with your take on Gatsby. The novel is heavy with loss, regret, grief, deception, and ruin. O, the masks all of us wear/as we try to elude despair.
Yes! I love INVISIBLE MAN. And I have decided to reread GATSBY because of your affection for it. Maybe I missed something. It has been years and taste changes although I have always loved INVISIBLE MAN and NATIVE SON and THE BLUEST EYE and THE SOUND AND THE FURY all broke my heart. I think a book has to make me weep for me to love it- I am definitely a melancholy reader.
Presently I am rereading MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN which I think is an amazing book (albeit a confusing one). I an NOT a fan of THE SATANIC VERSES although of course I am sorry about the fatwa and the stabbing. I thought it was a shoddy book and a cynical one; the man who wrote MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN had no need to write a salacious novel just to garner sales. Have you read any of Dickens? Sometimes your characters remind me of his --your pal, Rowdy, from the Rez could be one of Oliver's buddies.
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.
Yes to all of these, especially Prince 💜
Thank you, Tammy! The Purple One!
Hey Sherman. I wanted to turn you on to this video, in case you've not seen it, so i'll include it's url. It is of Prince jamming with Tom Petty and others, doing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." But what is so impressive is how well Prince plays lead guitar in it. I had no idea he could play like that! Blew me away!
http://youtu.be/6SFNW5F8K9Y
Oh, also... Aliens is one of my favorite movies of all time. I think Blade Runner still beats it though. Sigourney is good but still can't displace Rutger Hauer saying,
"All those moments will be lost in time...like tears in the rain. Time to die." For me it was sublimely disturbing on a heart spirit level. I hadn't yet grasped his Christ like gesture that first time I saw it. So that first response still reverberates down.
A late response to this: Rutger apparently improvised those lines!
The Trustee is a good title!
Hey Sherman I got an idea for a series, it would called " The Trustee" during this period in the US. the greatest transfer of wealth is happening" Mo money, mo problems....
The Trustee is a good title.
Thanks for the "Succession" reco! This is altogether a great list--makes me ponder my own and the why-s of it.
You're welcome, Alison!
You are correcto mundo.
Is there a ‘best way’ to send you a photo? Tried Facebook And Insta messages…in pics, our dog, Roo, is perusing Indian Killer and Ten Little Indians.
ps…in ‘Inappropriate’. I laugh everytime I even think about “All Alexie was, was funny.” So funny! And !’s are superb.
Yes, you can fill out the contact form on my website and we'll get back to you.
Also, you made me laugh with my own damn joke! "All Alexie was, was funny." A college professor wrote that on a comment card! Hahahahahaaha
Muchas Garcias…
Just binged SUCCESSION and man, sure has an evil-doer (not Dubya) ex-potus vibe from main man and throughout his family.
I think the show is more about Rupert Murdoch and his clan, at least in its creation, but it certainly has other resonances now. Then again, when has any royal family in human history ever been good?
This link goes to very funny set of horrible reviews for Mar-a-lago. Most refer to a horrible smell ‘everywhere’…a là Succession: raccoons in the chimney !
https://socialnewsdaily.com/82840/14-mar-a-lago-reviews-that-will-keep-you-far-far-away/
Ah yes, James Wright's "The Blessing"--good choice. Couple days ago I responded to a cousin's Facebook images of a football game in Martins Ferry, Ohio, with the notion that if I'd taught English at that high school . . . you know which poem I'd have had everyone memorize. Well, I guess I've not QUITE "wasted my life"!
Yes!!!! English professors don't really retire, do they?
I love your choice of poet and musician. I just learned that James Wright's son was also a poet and they are the only father-son duo to have each won the Pulitzer prize. Likewise I think Prince was a magician non pareil, never to be replicated. I'm ignorant of both your film and television choices -- I just haven't watched either.... but your favorite novel puzzles me. While I see your affection for the theme which broadly parallels your own life, I don't understand the fondness for Fitzgerald. The world he portrays is so shallow and synthetic, his characters mere sketches and gestures, feeble motions in margins. The world you have shared with your readers is never banal.
I disagree strongly with your take on Gatsby. The novel is heavy with loss, regret, grief, deception, and ruin. O, the masks all of us wear/as we try to elude despair.
I can see why you feel that. Many would agree with you. To me the characters were too meager to be capable of genuine tragedy.
"Meager" is such a great word! Does it help to say that Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" is my second-favorite?
I don't think I have the ability to criticize The Great Gatsby in any sense of the word criticize—I thought it was a masterpiece.
Yes! I love INVISIBLE MAN. And I have decided to reread GATSBY because of your affection for it. Maybe I missed something. It has been years and taste changes although I have always loved INVISIBLE MAN and NATIVE SON and THE BLUEST EYE and THE SOUND AND THE FURY all broke my heart. I think a book has to make me weep for me to love it- I am definitely a melancholy reader.
Presently I am rereading MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN which I think is an amazing book (albeit a confusing one). I an NOT a fan of THE SATANIC VERSES although of course I am sorry about the fatwa and the stabbing. I thought it was a shoddy book and a cynical one; the man who wrote MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN had no need to write a salacious novel just to garner sales. Have you read any of Dickens? Sometimes your characters remind me of his --your pal, Rowdy, from the Rez could be one of Oliver's buddies.
Yes, Rowdy is something like a Dickens orphan, isn't he?
Yes, absolutely! Lovely and brave and struggling for digbjty
Love the poem. There has always been a certain amount of magic for me with horses
My runner-up poem is "Because I could not stop for death," by Dickinson. And my second runner-up is "Good Times" by Lucille Clifton.
Not what I expected! Very cool insight. 🤗
Maybe I should do a list of the things I detest most. That would probably give more insight!
Yes. Yes, you should.
I concur. Although kale needs to be a close second.
I love kale.
I'm neutral about kale.
#1 most detested thing: Black licorice.
F.Scott Fitzgerald " there are no second acts in American lives"
!!!!
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.
I love James Wright. My early poems were, at heart, about grief. When I read this poem I understood that I could also write about beauty.