MONDAY READING

Yes, with no show + nothing scheduled, I zinged through my FT Weekend yesterday. Here’s some fun links for you.

Vanessa Friedman on Twitter as a communication accessory — I like the analogy, Twitter goes with everything I own.

From the House and Home section, an article on 12th century design and redecorating the medieval stone keep at Dover Castle.

Sarah Hemming (yes, at it again) profiles Brian Friel…oddly enough, I recently had a Friel conversation with a friend looking for a play to direct. I would love to see a good production of Translations; I’ve always been fascinated by how the language issues would play out on stage.

Harry Eyres ponders Galileo, his telescopes and the reach of science.

And today, an update on robots assisting with care of the elderly in Japan.

QUICK HITS REDUX

My new favorite thing about the internet: Kingdom of Loathing.

Fun photos I’ve been posting on Twitter.

Great column on poetry by Harry Eyres.

Sarah Hemming (we can add a thing to 10 Things I Hate About Sarah Hemming) reviews Arcadia.

New iCarly/new True Jackson…fun. Max is always fun; Gayle apparently loves when True tells Dad stories; and I want Max’s car. Now, what was the iCarly episode about — oh, DIngo Studios — great fun to see Sam whapping people with a sweat sock; Gibby always fun, little bit too taking a dig at a Disney/Fox mutant hybrid, but a fair to midrange episode.

Eureka — watched second half of Season 3 first two episodes. First one, airing on July 10th and dealing with Carter’s replacement as sheriff, was rocking with whimsical Eureka goodness. Second one totally tanked, although if you like Jo in a sexy red dress you won’t care that every science fiction show in this and every alternate universe has done that storyline (and many have done it better). So need a tie breaking episode.

And so good night. That should tide you over for awhile. I have an agenda full of sleep, showering and Shakespeare. I like it.

THINGS I READ IN THE PAPER

Good The Princess and The Frog coverage in the Washington Post this past Sunday.

Excellent Germaine Greer review of a bad Chaucer translation. I might buy the suggested alternate Bantam with both the original and a translation when I have some spare cash.

Vanessa Friedman’s bracing and fun warning about Earth Day hype.

David Hockney Lunch with the FT and Jackie Wullschlager…looked at the picture, thought won’t like him, but after reading the interview (he actually does some portraits using a Wacom tablet now), want to go tooling around somewhere in a fun gadget with him.

And Harry Eyres on technique, and how it can help in tennis (and other areas).

I’D BUY A DRINK FOR…

Jan Dalley, whatever she wants, up to the limit of the $20 currently in my wallet. Peter Aspden’s back on the culture beat and I will enjoy his insights, but I must admit to having had a pleasant month without him. Ms. Dalley, pick your topic and your drink, if you’re ever in the lonelypond environs. Thoughtful insights on e-altruism, opportunity and the internet business model. Loved her Kate Winslet wit and taking her Darwin/Picasso tangent transit. Thanks for the ride.

Harry Eyres also has an open invitation. Here’s his column listing Crow Chief Plenty Coups third way between despair and glory. I think this is the sort of thing that would make me a better Taoist (I’m bad at the invisible part — yes, yes, I know, major paraphrase; I’m good at the distracted by 10,000 things part).

There’s been a lot of fashion coverage in the FT recently, good tight writing, mostly tight pants, lots of Vanessa Friedman, tons of pictures, but nothing that will help me come up with a clothing theme/direction for directing Moliere. It always helps to have a style in mind (well, minor riffing on the classic me, but rehearsal indoors instead of out, with parents who aren’t used to me so slightly more formal (no shorts)). I think this situation requires a new hat.

Interesting interview with French artist Annette Messager concerning her puppet/Pinocchio pieces.

Book reviews and profile of maverick scientist and Gaia theory originator James Lovelock. Fascinating stuff.

And that’s probably enough for now, although I was glad several weeks ago when Luke Johnson admitted that perhaps he had erred in ignoring age and guile.

And I would, of course, buy Mr. Altucher or Ms. Hemming the drink of their choice any time they choose to call in my marker.

And now to sleep and dream of robots and bands and kittens and misers and jazz and if any of it is in French, I may be back. Bon nuit.

BEHIND THE TIMES(FINANCIAL)

Well, the Post Office has seemingly picked up some touch of my paper reading lag(or a holiday slowing germ) and now at least twice a week, no pink paper gets half shoved into the mail slot (so much fun to get the occasionally shredded FT Weekend front page). Which puts me even further behind in my reading. So now, here’s some of the things that stood out and/or annoyed me recently.

Cher — well, it’s the fault of the 11/29 11/30 Life and Arts article on the Auto-Tune (or how singers utilize technology invented by Andy Hildebrand a geophysicist (so why don’t the Big Bang nerds tweak Penny’s voice for her?) to fool you into thinking they can sing better than you do in the car) — that the default song in my head is now “Believe.” As one of the primal Loreleis – and like Cher, a born queen of the universe — would say breathlessly, “Thank you ever so.”

Vanessa Friedman, although she never mentions any product I can afford, has been doing interesting writing on price, luxury and value these past two weekends.

Good interview from the Wealth Page’s philanthropy window with David Rockefeller, Jr. It’s nice to see money matched with a sense of responsibility — or even just good common sense. Made me bump up return to Acadia and bike on the carriage trails on the potential vacation list — after Quebec, Seattle and New York City (Isamu Noguchi Museum).

The FT’s seasonal charitable appeal this year supports WaterAid, a very good cause addressing the roots of disease. One of the first articles was a profile of “The Professor” who transformed life in his village in Bangladesh.

The Slow Lane again scores with Harry Eyres’ support of leaving a little mystery in art and not requiring an artist to break down every detail, becoming his or her own critic. Great quote from Edward Hopper (used in a show curated by Gerald Matt). Hopper states: “Most of all the important qualities [of every art] are put there unconsciously and little of importance by the conscious intellect.” Eyres continues thinking through that concept to close his column. I think I now have a FT writing triumvirate + 1. Excellent review also by Eyres of an intriguing book about writers and illustrators.

Horrid Henry, yes or no..Ian Shuttleworth profiled Hull Truck Artistic Director John Godber and the description of Godber’s adaptation of Horrid Henry made me think I should perhaps e-mail the article to the powers that be at DreamWrights; Sarah Hemming’s accompanying review made me reconsider that. Have decided I should just read the original book and see what it’s all about. The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me sounds like fun though, both as a play and a book. But Roald Dahl rarely goes wrong.

Haven’t had a chance to sit down and enjoy the Best Books of 2008. Looking forward to sitting down with that and comparing to the Economist’s list.

Going to have to read the darn French horn book. I first heard about in an Economist review, but Hemming’s review of the stage adaptation has pushed me into the “read the book” camp. Isn’t that what winter’s for?

TWO WEEKEND MONDAYS

Yep, I actually took a day off — shocking, yes. Curled up with two Saturdays(delivered on Mondays) worth of the FT weekend. Very nice. Especially this week’s which also had the virtue of being almost timely. Then I followed up with the Big Bang Theory — very funny, especially when Facebook informed Leonard he had a girlfriend. The show is doing a good job of mixing up the characters used for humor focus, although we could use a Raj episode, and the surgical resident dating Leonard seems to work. I do miss Leslie Winkel stomping through spitting out the word “Dumbass” in Sheldon’s direction though. Then Gayle watched Top Gear — I always thought the things I didn’t do well in the car were me, but apparently no American cars do certain things well so new goal, drive a European car sometime.

Last week’s Slow Lane column discussed the Alexander technique, one of those simple things that make so much sense — it’s an acting technique; you usually find it mentioned in books that discuss Rolfing and bodywork, but I believe there are a few books by dancers that focus solely on it. The idea is to free up your voice by freeing up your posture and it makes sense. I have never done a full class, but I have tried to adopt a few of the basics.

This week, we had two of my FT writer triumvirate turning in excellently useful stuff. Stefan Stern had lunch with Tom Peters who humbly explained he was paid a lot of money to tell people things they already knew and his job was basically just to push them into the end zone. Very quick, practical read. And at the end of the article, Stern listed his topfive modern thinkers on management worth reading — Drucker, previously mentioned here, was one as was Gary Hamel, suggested to me by friend Sally at McGraw-Hill UK after my “yuck business speak” rant.

And Sarah Hemming now has me on a pantomine kick with my favorite interview yet, if only because Susie McKenna is the first person I’ve read about in my Hemming led tour of London theatre that I’d actually like to follow around, roll up my sleeves and learn by doing things with. The only trouble is I have no actual visual memory files for a pantomime — it’s not something easy to find in America. I have some imagined combinations of Ian McKellan and my grandmother’s housedresses and PG Wodehouse characters describing people as pantomime aunts (I think, will reference, any excuse to pull out the Wodehouse). Must check out the Hackney website and see if they have previous year video — which is of course nothing like being in an audience, but would still give me a feel. It sounds very like my sort of thing — a fast moving and very organized chaos of comedy.

And the Last Digital Business page threw off a comment about how Londoners had 37 words for clouds and I am going to need to find them. And the weekend’s big book review topic was weather, Gayle loves weather books and The Wrong Kind Of Snow sounds like fun (to read about, not shovel).

And now I must rescue my tea. Happy Tuesday.