Marginalia #2

An epic about change and organized around the history of the world. I can’t imagine any reader not knowing some of these stories. I had been meaning to read the whole thing for years, especially after coming across Samuel Beckett’s enthusiasm for it. I can only remember offhand Beckett celebrating Proust, Joyce, and Ovid. Beckett’s work certainly catalogs change, mostly disintegration, but with a dark humor.

This goes into the To Be Read Again stack. I read the Frank Justus Miller translation. If you have a preferred translation, let me know!

Also known as The Devil Within Her and Beyond the Door. From the director of The Visitor (1979)! That may be all some viewers need to know. For others, I’ll say that the Italian film industry has a marvelous history of rip-offs and unofficial remakes that are sometimes as glorious as their source material. This is Rosemary’s Baby meets The Exorcist. It predates The Omen–so maybe the Italians aren’t the only ones inspired by other movies.

I’ve been working a little on the famous Willie Weeks bass solo on this track. Overall, I haven’t been able to listen to a lot of new music this week because I have several projects and possibilities in process. This entire Donny Hathaway album is well worth a listen, though.

This 19-second clip of SRV telling a keyboard player his wah-wah don’t work has cracked me up so much this week and I don’t even know why. His phrasing? His hand sign for wah-wah? His mid-solo shrug? I don’t know.