Excellent Hunter

Excellent Hunter, Remo Savisaar

Listen Up — Daily Poem

The Daily Poem offers one essential poem each weekday morning. From Shakespeare and John Donne to Robert Frost and E..E Cummings, The Daily Poem curates a broad and generous audio anthology of the best poetry ever written, read aloud by David Kern. Some light commentary is included and the poems are read twice.

I really enjoy this podcast which says something since I often struggle with liking poetry. David Kern's commentary has gotten more in-depth as the show has gone on, but without making the episodes longer which I appreciate. Each episode is between 4 and 10 minutes.

Listen to episodes here or subscribe.

Fan - a solid thriller

Gaurav develops an obsession with a movie star who looks just like him. He goes to Mumbai to meet his idol, but he refuses to grant him five minutes of his time. Gaurav is enraged and plots to destroy his hero.

They had me at Shah Rukh Khan playing his own stalker. Normally I wouldn't care about this sort of movie but was curious to see how Khan carried off the dual roles. I'm happy to say this is a solid thriller and a real star vehicle for King Khan who proves he can really act. I also enjoyed the fact that this had some very tense moments but without indulging in the extremes that Hollywood would have included.

Rating — Bollywood Medium (mostly straight forward but with some concepts it is helpful to have come across before. Such as, in this one, knowing that Bollywood fandom is taken to ridiculous levels such as huge crowds waiting outside a star's house just to wave to him on his birthday ... or people having small shrines to their favorite stars.)

ALSO
Hannah and Rose discuss it at An American's Guide to Bollywood.
Scott and I discuss it at A Good Story is Hard to Find.

Staying Catholic at Christmas. A Gospel reading for the scandal in the church.

I'm a little behind on my blog reading but this piece works for any time of year, I think. I really liked this linking of the "begats" to the current scandal.

Anyway, I myself like it when we dig into the boring parts and pull out the plum of deeper meaning that speaks to us here and now. I need to be reminded of Christ's lineage and what it means ... and what the gospel writers were saying.

Go read the whole thing, but here's some of what I liked.

If you only know the Bible vaguely, this litany of names probably sounds a bit pompous, an attempt to elevate the infant Jesus by linking him to great patriarchs and noble kings. But the truth is roughly the opposite: The more you know about Genesis or Chronicles or Kings, the more remarkable it is that Matthew announced the birth of the son of God by linking him to a pack of egregious sinners.

[...]

Take a line like “Judah begat Perez and Zerah of Tamar.” Just a typical nuclear family, right? Here’s McCabe with the real story: “Judah slept … by mistake, with his daughter-in-law Tamar: She had cheated him by disguising herself and dressing up as a prostitute … [When] Judah heard that his daughter-in-law had prostituted herself and become pregnant, he ordered her to be burnt alive. He was disconcerted when he discovered that he himself had been the client and that the child, Perez, was his.”

[...]

Crucially, in claiming the divine is entering the world through this line of “murderers, cheats, cowards, adulterers and liars,” Matthew isn’t offering some particularly Christian innovation within the larger biblical story. He’s simply picking up what his own people, the Jewish people, already said about themselves: We’re the chosen people of the one true God, and to prove it to you here’s a long story about how awful and promiscuous and murderous and fallible we are, how terrible our leaders often turned out to be, and how we deserved every exile and punishment we received.

If you don’t find that message credible, well, I understand. But if you find it strangely compelling, then you’re close to the case for remaining Catholic at a time when the corruption of the church is driving a number of very public defections from the faith.

Ross Douthat, Staying Catholic at Christmas

Kahaani - a mother of a story

Vidya Bagchi arrives in Kolkata from London to find her missing husband Arnab. Seven months pregnant and alone in a festive city, she begins a relentless search. With nothing to rely on except her memories and a photo, all clues seem to reach a dead end and she slowly realises that nothing is what it seems.

We put off watching this for weeks because the description sounded depressing. Wow, were we wrong! This thriller blew our minds. Hollywood would be proud to have made this movie.

You might not want to take that recommendation seriously because it is foreign but just as in the French movie Tell No One, it is hard to convince people how good this is. Just watch it.

Rating — Introduction to Bollywood (come on in, the water's fine!)

Hannah and Rose discuss it in episode 48 of An American's Guide to Bollywood podcast.

Copyrighted Works are Entering Public Domain for the First Time in Over 20 Years

Woohoo! The drought is over!

For the first time in over 20 years, on January 1, 2019, published works will enter the US public domain.1 Works from 1923 will be free for all to use and build upon, without permission or fee. They include dramatic films such as The Ten Commandments, and comedies featuring Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. There are literary works by Robert Frost, Aldous Huxley, and Edith Wharton, the “Charleston” song, and more. And remember, this has not happened for over 20 years. Why? Works from 1923 were set to go into the public domain in 1999, after a 75-year copyright term. But in 1998 Congress hit a two-decade pause button and extended their copyright term for 20 years, giving works published between 1923 and 1977 an expanded term of 95 years.

Duke Law School Center for the Study of the Public Domain,
Public Domain Day 2019

This probably doesn't seem like a big deal in general. But to people who love LibriVox where you can get free audio books, Project Gutenberg where you can read or download free books, and the many podcasts which read books aloud this is big news. Those places, and many more, all depend on public domain books and that source has been shut off for a long, long time.

At my podcast, Forgotten Classics, there were many times when a book was just shy of that cut off date and it was terribly frustrating knowing that no one cared about it but me. And that I still couldn't share it with others.

I admit it gives me a certain gleeful feeling to know that Steamboat Willy's Mickey Mouse is now in the public domain.

We can blame Mickey Mouse for the long wait. In 1998, Disney was one of the loudest in a choir of corporate voices advocating for longer copyright protections. At the time, all works published before January 1, 1978, were entitled to copyright protection for 75 years; all author’s works published on or after that date were under copyright for the lifetime of the creator, plus 50 years. Steamboat Willie, featuring Mickey Mouse’s first appearance on screen, in 1928, was set to enter the public domain in 2004. At the urging of Disney and others, Congress passed the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, named for the late singer, songwriter and California representative, adding 20 years to the copyright term. Mickey would be protected until 2024—and no copyrighted work would enter the public domain again until 2019, creating a bizarre 20-year hiatus between the release of works from 1922 and those from 1923.

Smithsonian Magazine

At any rate, we will now add to the public domain year by year as each January 1 rolls around. And that makes it a Happy New Year for me!

Picture Miss Seeton — a delightful, cozy mystery

Picture Miss Seeton
by Heron Carvic

Miss Seeton is a retired, often bemuddled British art teacher with a slight psychic ability for drawing things more accurately than they appear. Picture Miss Seeton, the first in the series, is an absorbing novel in which an elderly and naive drawing mistress, finds herself suddenly involved in the baser side of life, becoming embroiled in a murder and its subsequent mayhem.

This was a delight to reread.

I'd forgotten just what an endearing character Miss Seeton is with her ever-present brolly and continual misunderstanding of what's going on around her. To balance that, though, there is the fact that she was a school mistress and you realize she must have been a good one because she brings that sense of judging people to different situations. If only she understood just what the situations were.

This would go in the "cozy mystery" category as well as the comic category, while still being a very  satisfying mystery.

Here's a bit of the beginning of the book in which Miss Seeton reflects on the opera she just saw.

"L'amour est tum tum

De something..."

So colorful. Not romantic—no, one couldn’t call it that; if anything perhaps a trifle sordid. Carmen, herself, for instance, no better than she should be. In fact, if one were frank, worse. And the other girl, the young one; it was difficult to feel sorry for her. Her fiancé, quite obsessed with his mother—obviously weak and easily influenced—would have made a most unsatisfactory husband in any case. Still, for him to stab Carmen at the end like that—so unnecessary. Almost contrived. Though, of course, one must not forget that foreigners felt differently about these matters. One read that people abroad did frequently get emotional and kill each other. Probably the heat.

Heron Carvic wrote the first five Miss Seeton mysteries. Although the series continued with other authors none of them really rang true. Those first five though are great fun.

Big in Bollywood

27-year-old American-born Omi Vaidya, a struggling actor in L.A., miraculously lands a dream role in the Bollywood film “3 Idiots.” Curious to better understand the world of Bollywood, four of Omi’s buddies armed with cameras fly to Mumbai to document his big premiere. Within a week of release, “3 Idiots” skyrockets to box office success, becoming the most successful Indian film in history and transforming Omi into an overnight megastar.

But being a national sensation in India is not all glitz and glamor. Aside from the language barrier, Omi struggles with the pressure of his newly acquired fame and continuing his career momentum while trying to maintain a healthy domestic life back in Los Angeles. Set against the backdrop of Mumbai, Big in Bollywood is a film about what it is to be successful in show business, seen through the eyes of Omi’s best friends, who witness his career transformation firsthand.

We watched this last June and it provided the impetus to watch 3 Idiots.

This was immensely helpful in our plunge into Bollywood and also just a fun documentary about an American's experience as part of a huge hit film in a foreign culture. I realized I never reviewed it and that it might be helpful for anyone else interested in trying movies from India.

2019 Resolutions — Reading and Viewing

  B O O K S  

Reread the books I own. Do I still love reading these books? Only one way to find out as I tend to buy them and keep them as treasures on the shelf, but often forget to reread them.

Also, though this goes along with rereading, I recently began rereading Charles Dickens' novels in order. Am only partway through The Old Curiosity Shop, but will be intermittently pursuing this goal during the year.

Reading "I'll get to them sometime" books I keep skipping over. I've been given gifts, made impulse purchases, and as so many of us do ... have them in a fairly small but growing stack of books that I always overlook for something else that grabs my attention. This seems to me to go hand in hand with rereading, since the ultimate goal is to enjoy the books I've got and to get rid of the ones I don't care for.

  M O V I E S  

More Bollywood! More Tollywood! More Indian movies in general ... as if that were possible. But the fascination continues.

Also, we have watched a couple of director William Wyler's early movies (1930s) and will continue with his filmography through the year ... whenever we need a bit of American culture to leaven the Indian movies.

Best of 2018 - Movies

In 10 words or less, my top picks from the movies we watched last year. As always, the movies may be old, but my viewing was brand new in 2018.

Paddington

Charmingly old fashioned, playful mystery.
(My review here.)

The Lost Weekend

Riveting story that surprised me with great performance.
(My review here.)

Black Panther

Fresh, exciting design with fascinating ideological point of conflict.
(My review here.)

Coco

Love, family, memory, and loss anchored in Mexican culture love letter.

(My review here.)

Jumanji: Return to the Jungle

The Rock and Jack Black make this tons of fun.
(My review here.)

A Foreign Affair

A forgotten Billy Wilder treasure. Romantic comedy with deeper commentary.

Indian Films

We tried Baahubali and went straight down the rabbit hole.
(Reviews of favorites/discoveries with newest on top.)

Our favorites:

- Baahubali 1 & 2 - 

- Lagaan - 

- Om Shanti Om -

- Tashan -

- Dhoom 3 -

-Omkara -
- Lootera -

- Barfi! -

- Bajrangi Bhaijaan -
-PK-

Tom wrote a reflection of our Year of Bollywood which may be read here.

PK

A humanoid alien (Aamir Khan) lands on Earth naked on a research mission in Rajasthan but is stranded when the remote control for his spaceship is stolen.

Tom describes this best:

2014 satirical comedy-drama about an alien who gets stuck on Earth - it is not E.T. Instead it is a lighthearted view of humans through the childlike PK, played by the always intense Aamir Kahn. (PK means tipsy in Hindi.)

Amazingly charming, it uses India’s religions (which is almost all of them) as a backdrop to finding his way home.

It is really much better than my description. Look at it this way: it cost $12 million to make and had a box office of $140 million.

This was unexpectedly delightful and would be a good introduction to Bollywood since it is a bit more Western in how the story is told, with a few songs and dances to carry the story along. I especially enjoyed the religious angle, as well as the ingenuity with which PK has to figure out how to live on Earth using language instead of telepathy. And, of course, there is Aamir Khan (my favorite of the Three Khans).

Scott and I discussed this on episode 205 of A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast.

Rating — Introduction to Bollywood (come on in, the water's fine!)

Best of 2018 - Books

In 10 words or less, my top picks from the books I read last year. You may find old books here but if they're on this list, then they were new to me!

The Man Who Was Thursday

by G.K. Chesterton

We were warned. The subtitle is "A Nightmare." Loved it! 
(My review here.)

Cool & Lam series 

by A.A. Fair (Earle Stanley Gardner)

Bad-tempered Bertha Cool and clever, attractive Donald Lam. Detecting perfection.
More here.

Big Book of Rogues and Villains

edited by Otto Penzler

Mostly good-hearted rogues or villains being foiled. Delightful!
(My review here.)

The Boys in the Boat

by Daniel James Brown

Inspiring, informative, historical. Going on my "best ever" list.
(My review here.)

The Best Cook in the World

by Rick Bragg

Personalities, old customs, and hard times — more memoir than cookbook.
(My review here.)

Brideshead Revisited

by Evelyn Waugh

I respect and admire but didn't love. Will definitely reread.  

(My review.)

The Black Swan / St. Martin's Summer

by Rafael Sabatini

Totally entertaining swashbucklers/romances.
(My reviews here.)

The Fellowship

by Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski

Far superior to other books I've read on the Inklings.

(My full review)

Mother Angelica's Answers, Not Promises

 by Mother Angelica with Christine Allison

Solid advice, instruction, inspiration.  
(My review here.)

A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament

 by John Bergsma and Brant Pitre

Informed opinion, trustworthy scholarship, fascinating reading.

 (My review here.)

Discovering the Catholic Herald

I received a copy of the Catholic Herald in the mail a few days ago. Occasionally I receive samples from different publications and usually find they don't add much beyond what I'm already reading on the internet.

In this case, however, every time I picked up this weekly Catholic news magazine to take a look through before tossing it out, I kept finding I was slowing down and reading it with attention. That in itself was rare but I also liked the features such as the global map showing what was happening in the Church worldwide. (Oh, right, the U.S. is not the center of the Catholic world!) I liked the schedule of daily mass readings tucked into a corner. I liked the blend of news analysis, editorials, and pieces looking at common elements with a Catholic eye.

You can read a lot of this online at their site. In fact, they say the reason they began a U.S. edition (this is originally a U.K. publication) is that half their website visitors were American. However, there was really something gripping for me in having a magazine to pick up and peruse for a few days.

My copy was from Dec. 7, not the gorgeous double issue whose cover I show above. And it isn't cheap. But that is the price of a decent magazine these days, I have a feeling. Anyway, take a look. You might like it as much as I do.

UPDATED — Thank You! The Bayeux Tapestry by Lucien Musset

There was no card or other acknowledgment in the package containing this treasure. I was going over my list — yes, checking it twice against the many treasures I have stacked in my closet. And then I opened it and ... found something filling me with great delight!

Early in our marriage Tom and I went to France and one of the places he was determined to go was Bayeux. You know, so we could see the tapestry.

"The what?" I said, which is how Tom found out my utter lack of English/French historical knowledge.

We toured it just ahead of a pack of English schoolchildren on a field trip. As I read the captions and followed the story this wonderful piece of art told, I became a fan just like Tom. I've never forgotten that experience.

Naturally I was dying to read this book which "presents a full-colour reproduction of the entire Tapestry, with a detailed commentary alongside each episode, equipping the reader to follow the story blow by blow and this marvellous work of art step by step."

And now, thanks to some kind person, I can! It looks simply fantastic now that I've had a chance to briefly glance through it and I can't wait for tonight when I can settle in and begin. Thank you so much!

UPDATE
I read it quite leisurely and it was everything I hoped for and more. Highly recommended.

Caught My Eye: Secular Advent, Muslim Youth Guarding Churches, Taiwan's Silent Majority

The Secular Christmas Season is Actually Secular Advent
From National Catholic Register comes a point of view to help counter frustration with the "Christmas too early" feeling.

Then one year it dawned on me: For most people the Christmas tree, Christmas lights, the music, the parties, the cookies, etc., are actually Advent activities. They call them Christmas decorations, but when they come down right after Christmas Day, they actually are Advent decorations. If they were really for Christmas, then they would stay up for the whole of the Christmas season. And realizing this changed my whole outlook.

Muslim Youth to Help Guard Indonesian Churches at Christmas
I love this story which you can read at the Catholic Herald.

More than 90,000 police and soldiers and a moderate Muslim youth group will help guard nearly 50,000 churches across Indonesia, including some previously attacked by terrorists, during the Christmas period.

How Taiwan’s ‘Silent Majority’ Blocked Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ Momentum
A fascinating story since I didn't know Taiwan's take on these issues.

Until local elections that were held Nov. 24, Taiwan was considered the San Francisco of Asia — the most “gay-friendly” country in the region, set to redefine marriage to include same-sex couples, as ordered by the country’s highest court.

What happened instead surprised even Catholic clergy deeply involved in defending pro-family laws.

In a set of five referendum questions, Taiwan overwhelmingly affirmed traditional marriage and voted to remove content reflecting gender ideology from elementary- and junior-high-school curricula; 66.1% of approximately 19 million eligible voters participated.

Read the whole thing at National Catholic Register.

I finished my Christmas shopping.

That calls for a warrior's celebration. Luckily, I've got it all lined up. There aren't any captions, but you can get the vibe of the thing.

(I love the YouTube comment on this: My cat and goldfish listened to this song, now the cat is a tiger and the goldfish is a shark.)

Watch it full screen.

Sweet Dreams

Marianne Stokes, Sweet Dreams

This Just In — Villains of the Church: And How They Made Us Better Christians by Mike Aquilina

This book just in. Here's why to read it:

The villains of the ancient world proved the mettle of heroes like Peter and Paul, Irenaeus and Athanasius. Treachery and adversity inspired the Fathers' clearest teaching, most entertaining invective, and more than a few memorable jokes.

I'm looking forward to learning some good lessons from this one. A full report after I've read it, but it's Mike Aquilina so I know it's going to be good.

Well Done Basics: Tweeting With God by Michel Remery

Rose is teaching 5th grade Religious Education (Sunday School) which has led to a lot of conversation about how to answer questions about basics/hot button topics. That sent us to this book. It is great for getting a handle on simple, logical explanations that will resonate with secular folks (or can inform someone answering 5th graders' questions). I myself used it when heading a small group for RCIA.

I reviewed this in 2015 here it is again in case you missed it.

Tweeting with God: # Big Bang, Prayer, Bible, Sex, Crusades, Sin, Career . . . 

by Michel Remery

I'm a sucker for books about the basics. Even if I know a lot about something, there's always some new detail to learn. I also often find food for thought when something is expressed in a new, imaginative way. Best of all, it can give me simple ways to explain something I might know so much about that it's hard to remember what it felt like to just need the basic scoop.

That's why I like Tweeting with God.

It has simple explanations to questions young people have asked about the Catholic faith but includes enough detail to show that these aren't just knee-jerk answers. The part I like best is that all questions are welcome and no topic is taboo. I can't stress enough how important that has been to my own faith as well as in answering others' questions.

There are almost 200 questions, grouped into four sections ranging from God to the Church to personal (prayer, etc.) to ethics. It's got a vibrant, inviting design and each spread usually has a box with examples or additional information on a topic.

The book acknowledges that these aren't intended to be absolutely complete answers. They are intended to answer young people's questions. With that in mind, each question has references for further, deeper reading in the Catechism or YouCat.

I was happy to see that every touchy topic I read about was presented charitably, with understanding of outsiders' possible misconceptions, and fully in line with Church teachings. It has an imprimatur so I suppose I didn't need to worry but it never hurts to check up for yourself.

Here are a couple of pdfs you can check out. It should open up so you can look at the spread first but be sure to zoom in to read the pages and get a real feel for the writing.

• 1.3 Evolution or creation?
• 4.23 If the Church wants to protect life, why is it against condoms in Africa?

I picked a couple of controversial questions for samples. Rest assured, there are plenty of basic questions also. Just the other day we grabbed this book to look into exactly who the apostles are.

This is the perfect gift for those with questions, new Catholics, or people like me ... who spend a lot of time answering questions about the faith. In short, just about everyone!

UPDATE
The Curt Jester has a review up which covers some things that I didn't include since my post was getting so long. Check it out also.

Hang up if you hear “Hello. This is St. Mary’s Prayer Center Ministry calling today to see if you need urgent prayer"

“Hello. This is St. Mary’s Prayer Center Ministry calling today to see if you need urgent prayer. If you would like to have someone from our center pray for you, please press 1. If you would no longer like to hear from us, please press 3.”

This is a pay-to-pray scam that has been around for a few years. My husband got a couple of these messages recently and then I saw The Curt Jester mention it on Facebook. So I thought I'd put a brief warning up here. Here's an article about how the scam works.

Harvest Festival "Grass"

Harvest Festival "Grass," Calligraphy in Japan.

"Grass" meaning "rice" in Japan in this context. There are several lovely photographs in the linked post so do go enjoy them at Calligraphy in Japan.

Lady Jim of Curzon Street by Fergus Hume

Lady Jim of Curzon Street 
by Fergus Hume

Lady Jim and her husband are a reprehensible pair. Their extravagance led to continual, mounting debt which turned them into aristocratic swindlers. Lady Jim is intelligent, beautiful, selfish, vain, and greedy. She's practically the perfect antihero except for occasional flashes of conscience, which usually are smothered by her baser instincts. After reading The Moonstone, Lady Jim comes up with a plot to fake her husband's death and claim his life insurance money. As her husband points out, the flaw in her plan is that the Moonstone's author can plan details just how he likes while they are left to the vagaries of real life. The plot soon gets very complicated and the reader is left in awe of the author's ability to twist and twist and twist the story as Lady Jim continually manipulates everyone around her.

I enjoy this sort of old story anyway but this one reached unexpected depths because of the occasional attempts of a minister to get Lady Jim to see spiritual reality. I took this as just part of the social setting and story until the end of the book where the plot takes really surprising turns and this element suddenly became very important.

Lootera

In a village, a young archaeologist falls in love with a landlord’s daughter. Their union seems doomed. But destiny brings them together a year later. Will they live happily ever after?

Loosely based on an O'Henry short story, The Last Leaf, so it is no surprise that this story is full of twists, turns, and reversals. With redemption in the end. I am loathe to say too much lest I reveal the surprises which caught all of us off-guard and filled us with suspense in the last third of the film.

The directing was highly confident and in a more Western style than you usually expect from Bollywood. There were silences creating space for us to think and wonder. Character development was subtle, mature, and believable. And the cinematography was simply beautiful, reinforcing the themes of each act.

Highly recommended and we're going to look for more from this director.

Rating — Introduction to Bollywood (come on in, the water's fine!)

Bajrangi Bhaijaan — a good starting place for trying Bollywood movies

A mute 6-year-old girl from a Pakistani village gets accidentally separated from her mother on their return from a trip to India. Stranded in India, she meets Pawan - an ardent devotee of Lord Hanuman - who tries to discover the girl's parents. The obstacles are seemingly insurmountable, beginning with the fact that they are a long way from Pakistan and so no one would ever guess she isn't Indian. However, Pawan is what the girl's parents, unable to get into India to search for her, have prayed for — a "god-sent man" who will protect their daughter. Pawan is simple, innocent, and determined to do the right thing. And therein hangs the tale, including a heckuva road trip.

This was a complete and wonderful surprise. Told with a light touch, this is a heart-warming story that really captivated me. I was especially intrigued by the main puzzle. How does a young child who can't write or talk communicate enough clues to show where she belongs? And, if they can manage to get her back to Pakistan, how do they find her home in a remote mountain village? Each step of the way we were invested in these questions.

We chose it because it was supposed to be Salman Khan's best film and we'd been underwhelmed by his "James Bond" turn in Ek Tha Tiger. In that film he reminded me of a wooden Sylvester Stallone. In this one, he was truly engaging as the honest and direct man who wants to do the task God has given him in helping this child. It could have been a preachy, schmaltzy story but it avoided that route, in part because the whole thing is leavened by solid humor and also the story is more complex than you might expect. My favorite storyline is of a Pakistani freelance reporter who can't get no respect.

In many ways this struck me as a perfect starting point for those who want to try a Bollywood film. Many of the things we have learned from watching a lot of Bollywood movies are touched on briefly here in a way that is easy for newcomers to understand.

• Good song and dance numbers. (Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor dancing like chickens is a memory I will treasure.) 
• Arranged marriage
• Caste
• Common contrasts and conflicts between India's many religions
• Pakistan and India's high level of hostility toward each other
• Unrealistic parental expectations
• India's surprising police approach to interrogations (at least as shown in Indian movies)
• The dark fate of orphans/lost children in India

However, as I mentioned, this is all done with a light touch because they are simply elements of the big story about reuniting a little girl with her family.

It made me happy when I watched it. And again the next day when I was thinking about it.

Rating — Introduction to Bollywood (come on in, the water's fine!)

Scott and I discussed this on Episode 201 of A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast.
Hannah and Rose discussed it on An American's Guide to Bollywood.

Droplets

Droplets, Remo Savisaar

Autumn Maples with Poem Slips

Autumn Maples with Poem Slips, c. 1675, Tosa Mitsuoki
via Chicago Art Institute

Japanese aristocrats engaged in the elegant custom of recollecting classical poetry while viewing spring and autumn foliage. In these delicate screens, premier court painter Tosa Mitsuoki meditated on the inevitable passage of beauty by depicting the melancholy hours after the departure of reveling courtiers. A cherry tree bursts into bloom on the right screen (seen here at top), while its mate displays the brilliant red and gold foliage of maples in autumn. Slips of poetry, called tanzaku, waft from the blossoming limbs, the lingering signs of a human presence.

Click through on the link above to see the screens large enough to appreciate their full beauty.

Om Shanti Om

An aspiring actor from the 1970s is murdered, but is immediately reincarnated into the present day. He attempts to discover the mystery of his demise and find Shanti, the love of his previous life.

As you can tell from the poster, Om Shanti Om is supremely entertaining. Everyone seems to be having a great time, giving it their all, the songs and dances are huge productions, and the director obviously loves movies because it is both an homage and a spoof in many ways.

This is a movie we didn't know enough to fully appreciate when we first saw it. Our first exposure to film star Shah Rukh Khan and director Farah Khan (no relation), we laughed, caught some of the secondary jokes, and enjoyed the singing and dancing. After seeing many more Bollywood movies we realized what a treasure Om Shanti Om really was.

Watching it for a second time with family members who are just joining us in our Bollywood exploration we could appreciate the skill and love that went into this piece of sheer entertainment. It also made me realized how much I love Farah Khan, not only for her choreography but for her sense of humor and the way she moves the story.

Rating — Introduction to Bollywood (come on in, the water's fine!)

An American's Guide to Bollywood podcast discusses it here.

God made two great lights ... He made the stars also. (Genesis 1:16)

The Veil nebula (NGC 6992) in Cygnus, Thierry Legault

You can see this image much better at Thierry Legault's site. I really appreciate his allowing me to share his wonderful images.

This makes me think of something I heard recently (can't recall where) which pointed out that God's overflowing creativity and generosity goes far beyond our ability to imagine. Because, the speaker said, think of the unbounded universe with all the stars and wonders we are just discovering. Just out there for its own sake, not for anything that we need.

Blew my mind.

There is Nothing Like a Dame: Fun mysteries featuring women

From my recent reading — these books are all about female crime solvers or, in some cases, criminals!


The Big Book of Female Detectives
edited by Otto Penzler

Otto Penzler gathers the most iconic women of the detective canon over the past 150 years, captivating and surprising readers in equal measure. The 74 handpicked stories in this collection introduce us to the most determined of gumshoe gals, from debutant detectives to spinster sleuths to groundbreaking female cops and contemporary crime-fighting P.I.s

This is a first class collection of short stories (mostly) ranging from Victorian times to the present. I liked all the time periods pretty well except, to my surprise, the pulp era stories. However, that is clearly a matter of personal taste. Otto Penzler serves up a wonderful selection and I discovered several new authors to investigate further. There are all sorts of detectives from the young and beautiful to the old and canny. Some have sidekicks (usually male), some have a gang of admirers/assistants, and some work completely alone. There is also a final section of stories featuring female villains which was a lot of fun also.

Highly recommended for anyone who likes this sort of thing as much as I do.


The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings 
by L.T. Meade and Robert Eustace

I was led to this via the collection above.

Madame Koluchy is beautiful, charismatic, and able to miraculously heal. Too bad that she is a diabolical master villainess. Only two men know the secret and are trying, behind the scenes, to expose her fiendish plots and bring her to justice. Meanwhile, she is plotting to destroy them.

Interestingly, L.T. Meade was a woman who wrote a ton of books and had several male co-authors who she worked with regularly.

Written in 1899, these are enjoyable, clever stories which take the reader on exciting adventures to try to foil evil. One of my favorite Librivox readers has a good audio version.

The Sorceress of the Strand
by L.T. Meade and Robert Eustace

From the moment Madame Sara arrived on the scene, she has taken London society by storm. Madame is both beautiful and mysterious, but it soon becomes clear to both Dixon Druce and his friend, police surgeon Eric Vandeleur, that there is something sinister about the woman and the goings on at her shop on the Strand. They soon become obsessed with proving her guilty of the many crimes that follow in her wake!

Obviously this is similar to the tales of the villainess from The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings by the same authors. It was also quite enjoyable though I liked the other book better as Madame Sara's plans were not quite as involved or diabolical as Madame Koluchy's. Still a lot of fun though! I also listened to these via Librivox.


Constance Dunlap 
by Arthur B. Reeve

I really enjoyed this book about a clever woman who turns forger to help her husband.

This is told as a series of short stories and after the first few Constance is not an anti-hero any more. She uses her skills and interest in new-fangled inventions like fingerprints, blood pressure machines, and audio recorders to help those who have inadvertently wound up on the wrong side of the law. Although the stories are short, each case is interesting and I was drawn into them eagerly to see what Constance would discover. I especially enjoyed seeing her outsmart the corrupt hired detective Drummond with whom she crosses paths repeatedly. Via Librivox.


That Affair at Portstead Manor 
by Gladys Edson Locke

An English country home during a house party becomes the scene of a double mystery. One of the three detectives employed on the case is a woman whose common sense, calm, and plain logic are skillfully employed in straightening the tangle.

Not the greatest from a mysterious point of view but worth reading (or listening to) for watching Mr. Clavering in his humorous detective attempts while Mary Gray is the obviously talented detective. I enjoyed their dynamic in this otherwise rather ordinary manor house murder mystery. Via Librivox.

Like all your birthdays came at once

She turned to face Lamb. "I'm wet," she said.

"Nice to see you too," said Lamb. "But let's not get carried away." He eyed her critically. "You look like all your birthdays came at once."

"I look happy to you?"

"No, old. Am I the only one round here speaks English?"

Mick Herron, London Rules

"My desire to keep adding books I can’t possibly all read, can only be satisfied if my soul is immortal."

On Owning More Books Than You Can Read is a piece that I'm grateful Jeff Miller wrote. So I don't have to.

Because I agree straight down the line. Except for the part about being a completionist. I have run into too many series that have lost their savor partway through.

On the other hand, the part about social media being wonderful for introducing me to new authors and books is especially true. Some of the best have been due to Jeff's reviews. And I tend not to have big stacks of books I haven't read. I guess that is my completionist element. If I own something I want to use it ... or read it, as the case may be.

What the weather should be ...

From my friend and podcast buddy Scott Danielson who lives in Utah. I love these!

Meanwhile here in Dallas it was 78° yesterday and we were digging out our short sleeved shirts. No worries though. I hear it will be in the 40s in a week or so.

The Anchoress: Amidst Our Apocalypse, Advent Asks Us to Stay

The Anchoress (Elizabeth Scalia) at Word on Fire blog makes a heartfelt plea to those who are heartsick, leaving the Church, "taking a break" from Catholicism. What is below is just a bit. Do go read it all.

And so this is what I want to say to my friends who have left, or who are struggling; those who are halfway out the doors, or think they soon will be:

My dear sisters and brothers, Hold on! Hold fast, and don’t run at the revelation!

Don't try to run through the fearsome darkness!

Stay for Advent and stand the watch with me, with your family, with all of us, including the saints.

Be willing, for now, to keep company with Christ, so deeply wounded by his own Bride.

Consent, for now, to share in the hard times before us (they will yet get harder, the darkness will grow deeper, still) and help us to hold, to hold fast!

Because the light is coming; the darkness will never overcome it.

Remember that Isra-el means “struggle with God.” We are all little Isra-els right now, wrestling, wrestling within his house and seeking our Jerusalem, our Abode of Peace.

Hold on! Hold fast!

Because an Advent promise has been made to us, and God is ever-faithful, so we may trust in it: Your light will come Jerusalem; the Lord will dawn on you in radiant beauty.

This is for all of us. It is for you, and for me. It's for every little Isra-el struggling.

Your light will come. Just hold fast.

And, maybe, based on a conversation that my daughter Rose and I had yesterday, we need to read Hosea. It is short but shocking as Hosea grapples with a wife who is a prostitute and children who I always wondered if they were his own. God does not forget Israel even they seem to embrace self-destruction, and teaches us that love is the strongest force of all, even when the sin seems unforgivable.

The Political Lady

The Political Lady, James Tissot

A better title translation might be The Ambitious Lady. Google Arts & Culture comments:

The political arena inhabited by this painting’s subject is a social one. The visual narrative Tissot unfolds throughout the composition implies that this young woman aims to improve her own position by making herself a stylish and vital guest in the ballrooms and salons frequented by the French upper class. As described in an exhibition catalogue published by the Arthur Tooth Gallery in London, where this work was shown in 1886, the central figure’s pink dress, “ . . . is a marvel of the dressmaker’s art, with its multitude of tiny flounces, its black girdle, its pink sash, and the color of her pink ostrich feather fan has been carefully studied and matched.”

And, of course, the dress is what caught my eye. It is a marvelous, frothy bit of fashion.

Flower Store and Dairy Store

Childe Hassam, La Bouquetiere et La Laitiere, c. 1888

I like the contrast of the obvious boredom (or is it complacency?) of the dairy clerk versus the earnest concentration of the kneeling florist. There is something about the way Childe Hassam portrays the scene that makes me feel the cobblestones beneath my feet and the slightly chilly, humid air.

It was great fun writing a book...

It was great fun writing a book. One lived with it. It became a companion. It built an impalpable crystal sphere around one of interests and ideas. In a sense one felt like a goldfish in a bowl; but in this case the goldfish made his own bowl. This came along everywhere with me. It never got knocked about in travelling, and there was never a moment when agreeable occupation was lacking. Either the glass had to be polished, or the structure extended or contracted, or the walls required strengthening. I have noticed in my life deep resemblances between many different kinds of things. Writing a book is not unlike building a house or planning a battle or painting a picture. The technique is different, the materials are different, but the principle is the same. The foundations have to be laid, the data assembled, and the premises must bear the weight of their conclusions. Ornaments or refinements may then be added. The whole when finished is only the successful presentation of a theme.

Winston Churchill, via The Art of Manliness

I love his description of writing the book. And also that he is using the skills which he uses for every thing else ... just differently. That is how life works but we don't often pull back from the details often enough to notice.

Young men are adventurous. It is extraordinary what they will rush upon sometimes.

"Come, come," said Nicholas, "I am all impatience to begin."

Tim Linkinwater shook his head with an air of mild reproof. Mr. Nickleby wass not sufficiently impressed with the deep and awful nature of his undertaking. Suppose there should be any mistake—any scratching out——

Young men are adventurous. It is extraordinary what they will rush upon sometimes. Without even taking the precaution of sitting himself down upon his stool, but standing leisurely at the desk, and with a smile upon his face—actually a smile; (there was no mistake about it; Mr. Linkinwater often mentioned it afterwards;) Nicholas dipped his pen into the inkstand before him, and plunged into the books of Cheeryble Brothers!

Tim Linkinwater turned pale, and tilting up his stool on the two legs nearest Nicholas, looked over his shoulder in breathless anxiety. Brother Charles and brother Ned entered the counting-house together; but Tim Linkinwater, without looking round, impatiently waved his hand as a caution that profound silence must be observed, and followed the nib of the inexperienced pen with strained and eager eyes.

The brothers looked on with smiling faces, but Tim Linkinwater smiled not, nor moved for some minutes. At length he drew a long slow breath, and still maintaining his position on the tilted stool, glanced at brother Charles, secretly pointed with the feather of his pen towards Nicholas, and nodded his head in a grave and resolute manner, plainly signifying "He'll do."

Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby

Somehow this paints such a great scene of tension, despite the relatively low stakes of making entries into an accounting book. And, yet, it also shows how much Tim Linkinwater cares about his life's work. Very sweet.

Shiva as Lord of the Dance

Shiva as Lord of the Dance (Nataraja)

You can't watch as many Bollywood movies as we do and not get used to hearing about Shiva ... which just makes me more amused that he is also Lord of the Dance. Perfect for Bollywood!

Starry Night over the Rhone

Starry Night Over the Rhone, 1888. Vincent van Gogh

Out for the Holiday!

Back next week!

Ladder of Divine Ascent

The 12th century Ladder of Divine Ascent icon (St. Catherine's Monastery, Sinai Peninsula, Egypt).

Via Wikipedia, where you may read much more about this icon, including what each rung of the ladder represents.

For me, I'm just fascinated by the imagery and surrounding elements ... demons pulling people off the ladder, the people on earth and in heaven all praying for those on the ladder. It is not only beautiful but makes us dig deeper, which is the point in the first place.

White-backed Woodpecker

White-backed Woodpecker, taken by Remo Savisaar

Homage as an act of self-realization

It is "meet and just" to do homage to Him who is the supreme greatness and glory; at the same time this act of homage is an act of self-realization for him who performs it. Man's real world is, as it were, above him. Praising God means ascending into that homeland of our spirit where, it might be said, we truly live.

Therefore we should practice giving praise to God. This discipline widens and edifies the spirit. The whole day assumes a different character. ...

Romano Guardini, The Art of Praying

I love this book and have been reading it (for the 3rd time, maybe?) very slowly as a devotional. The sections are very short so it is perfect, especially when I need that extra push to stop and pray (which is practically always, let's be honest). Taking this bit to heart yesterday changed my day, just as Guardini said.

Devoting life to proving there is no purpose

Those who devote their lives to the purpose of proving that there is no purpose, constitute an interesting subject for study.

A. N. Whitehead, The Function of Reason

Fog

Taken by Scott Danielson

I feel as if this would have been more appropriate for Halloween but I love the atmosphere no matter when it was taken.

Library Cat

Library Cat, Belinda DelPesco

Belinda says:

My trusty studio assistant, Scout. He’s all about being helpful, especially if you need things like fur in the paint, shoe laces untied while carving details on a block, paint brushes scattered to the floor, or a lap warmer.

She's always got interesting information about how each piece was created. Click on the link to go to Belinda's blog.

Camel and Rider

Unglazed camel and Sogdian rider, taken by I, Sailko

I love the realism in this with the camel trying to bite the rider and the rider's arm out to protect the child behind him.

Birch Forest

Gustav Klimt, Birch Forest, 1903
via Arts Everyday Living

The bitterness of boyish distresses lies in the fact that we do not know that they are small.

The bitterness of boyish distresses does not lie in the fact that they are large; it lies in the fact that we do not know that they are small. About any early disaster there is a dreadful finality; a lost child can suffer like a lost soul.

It is currently said that hope goes with youth, and lends to youth its wings of a butterfly; but I fancy that hope is the last gift given to man, and the only gift not given to youth. Youth is pre-eminently the period in which a man can be lyric, fanatical, poetic; but youth is the period in which a man can be hopeless. The end of every episode is the end of the world. But the power of hoping through everything, the knowledge that the soul survives its adventures, that great inspiration comes to the middle-aged; God has kept that good wine until now. it is from the backs of the elderly gentlemen that the wings of the butterfly should burst. There is nothing that so much mystifies the young as the consistent frivolity of the old. They have discovered their indestructibility. They are in their second and clearer childhood, and there is a meaning in the merriment of their eyes. They have seen the end of the End of the World.
G.K. Chesterton, Dickens

Water Lilies and the Japanese Bridge (Giverny)

Water Lilies and the Japanese Bridge, 1897–99, Claude Monet

We can see here what Claude Monet made of the bridge we saw him on yesterday.

Monet in his garden at Giverny

Monet, right, in his garden at Giverny, 1922

You live in an age that is twisted out its true pattern

...you must work to earn your salvation, in anxious fear. Both the will to do it and the accomplishment of that will are something which God accomplishes in you, to carry out his loving purpose. Do all that lies in you, never complaining, never hesitating, to shew yourselves innocent and single-minded, God's children, bringing no reproach on his name. You live in an age that is twisted out of its true pattern, and among such people you shine out, beacons to the world, upholding the message of life.

Philippians 2:12-15, Knox translation

This phrase, You live in an age that is twisted out of its true pattern, really struck me. Because there is nothing new under the sun. Paul lived in those times and so do we. I needed that reminder and also his encouragement, do all that lies in you, never complaining, never hesitating. Good stuff.