Alex Kudera's Blog, page 76

'Twas Milton's

"Free Library of Philadelphia’s rare Shakespeare First Folio appears to have been poet John Milton’s" by Bethany Ao

Release

I have been storing up so much inside;
when will it be time to let it all go,
and how unburden myself of it all?
Dashing through the snow, wolves snap at my heels,
supplies that I had been transporting home
distract them when I toss them behind me--
one wolf yelps and snarls when I hit its nose,
but it stays behind to rip it openand eat it, gulping it down greedily
and not worrying about digesting.
Over my lifelong journey home, I have
collected many exquisite things,
and many just of personal value.
As the signs say, though, Everything Must Go!
~~ "Release" by Don Riggs

Goncharov's Oblomov

Goncharov's Oblomov greeted me as I stepped off an elevator during a recent visit to a research library.

Junk is fragile. . .

“Junk is fragile. I ruined tons of stuff, never on purpose. The thought of antiques still makes me sick, but that was our bread and butter. The scrapings of time are sad. . . lousy, sickening. We sold the stuff over the customer's dead body. We'd wear him down. We'd drown his wits in floods of hokum. . . incredible bargains. . . we were merciless. . . He couldn't win. . . If he had any wits to begin with, we demolished them. . . He'd walk out stunned with the Louis XIII cup in his pocket, the openwork fan with cat and shepherdess wrapped in tissue paper. You can't imagine how they revolted me, grown-ups taking such crap home with them.”

~~ from Death on the Installment Plan by Louis-Ferdinand Celine

Nine Eleven

I'm 73, and I live in a van.

Opinion piece inspired by Jessica Bruder's Nomadland: "I'm 73, and I live in a van. I feel like there's no place for me in California anymore."

Death on the Installment Plan

"The fairy tales people tell each other. . . they make a certain amount of sense, but they're a pack of filthy, stinking lies. . ."

~~ from Death on the Installment Plan by Louis-Ferdinand Celine

If you're looking for a bargain. . .

Paperback copies of Auggie's Revenge are priced under $10 with free shipping.

impulse purchase rescue mission

I couldn't resist this six-dollar Exley from the local used store.   

Easy Rider

If I'm not mistaken, back when Paris was full of movie theaters, it was said that you could find Easy Rider playing somewhere in town any night of the week. Which makes it fitting that I first saw Easy Rider in a movie theater in Paris, and in fact, it's the only film I've ever seen in a theater in Europe. (I suppose I should hop across the pond to bus dishes more often.) Since that initial viewing, I've rented Easy Rider a couple times--good film even if the Southern stereotyping is over-the-top. I've never even heard of the other Peter Fonda film the cool kids on here are mentioning, but I liked Ulee's Gold, and I have no recollection of any Fondas in The Limey, which to me, was okay, not great. I miss previous versions of America, some of which are presented in various Fonda family films although I'm not thinking of Jane Fonda's Barbarella, which my father, accidentally or not, took me to see when I was nine years old. R.I.P, Peter.