Arts & Culture

  • The Women

    “Anger and resentment can stop you in your tracks. That’s what I know now. It needs nothing to burn but the air and the life that it swallows and smothers. It’s real, though – the fury, even when it isn’t. It can change you… turn you… mold you and shape you into something you’re not.… Continue reading

  • From the Page to the Screen: Revolutionary Road

    Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road is a novel that has been lauded by critics and adored by other writers, but it has not garnered the same attention it deserves from readers. Sure, readers keep discovering Yates, but he doesn’t get the same kind of name recognition as other American writers like John Updike and John Cheever.… Continue reading

  • Last Minute Gift Ideas: Best Musicals

    Need help finding a last-minute gift for Broadway-loving friends? Here are a few suggestions of recent original cast recordings that should brighten their holidays! Three of these shows were nominated for the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical and the fourth one is in the running for a nomination for 2009. “In The Heights”, by… Continue reading

  • Loving in Limbo

    In the movie Wristcutters: A Love Story we find Zia, played by Patrick Fuget, who is severely depressed after his girlfriend breaks up with him and decides to commit suicide by slitting his wrists. Too bad the pearly gates are not his afterlife, but rather a rundown desert limbo with fellow suicide committers. When Zia finds… Continue reading

  • Off The Map

    “William Gibbs’ first painting was twenty inches high and thirty-one feet wide, one foot shy of the perimeter of my room. The dimensions suited the subject, the ocean’s horizon. He hung it so that when I lay on my bed, I could stare out fourteen miles to the horizon any way I looked. Encircled by… Continue reading

  • Lost and Found

    One of the most attention-getting displays we have ever done at the Central library was an exhibit of things we’ve found in library books. You’d see even the most harried or preoccupied patrons stop to peer into the Plexiglas case with its odd assortment of scribbled notes, old Polaroids, postcards, ticket stubs and bookmarks ornate… Continue reading

  • Napoleon on the Nile at the Frye

     How did 19th century artists and scientists come to rediscover Egypt and the Middle East? How did the images and explorations of those artists and scientists spark “Egyptomania” as a cultural phenomenon? Two museums in the Puget Sound area try to answer those questions with complementary exhibitions that look at Egypt and the Middle East… Continue reading

  • Too Much Coffee & Lots of Books: Missing the Gilmore Girls

    The Fall 2008 TV season has begun, and while there are many new and returning shows that look interesting, all I can think of is how much I miss The Gilmore Girls. Created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, the show centered around the mother-daughter duo of Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and her namesake daughter, Rory (Alexis Bledel) in… Continue reading

  • All That Is Sarah Polley

    “You pray that this is your life without you. You don’t know who or what you’re praying to, but you pray. You don’t even regret the life that you’re not gonna have, because by then you’ll be dead. And the dead don’t feel anything. Not even regret.” From her role as little Sara in The… Continue reading

  • Left on the Shelf

    Nothing left on that DVD shelf at your local branch library?  You might want to take a closer look. I decided to try an experiment in serendipity with the DVD shelves at the branch where I work.  I would select a movie to watch from what was left on the shelf, and, to make things a… Continue reading

  • Before Autumn Leaves

    Before autumn leaves, settle down into a bounty of words, sights and sounds that crackle with the color and energy of the season.  Then, take a few moments to take in an eclectic array of books and CDs that’ll bring an extra spark to warm the chill heading up that frosty hill. Let’s start with some… Continue reading

  • Top Ten Things to Do in our Music Practice Rooms

    Drumroll Please! You’ll have to imagine you are hearing one of those amazing announcer voices reading the list below (with no apologies to any TV show): #10 Play 1 piano 4 hand duets with a friend. #9 Play your favorite song with different keyboard sounds. #8 Improvise on that tune you can’t get out of… Continue reading

  • The Russians Are Coming

    Seattle is a city of communities – neighborhoods, ethnic groups, churches, schools, clubs, etc. And even if you don’t belong to a particular group, they often sponsor events throughout the year that may be of interest to you. One of my favorite annual smaller events is the St. Spiridon (Russian) Orthodox Cathedral Annual Bazaar, which… Continue reading

  • The Piano: A Romance on Three Legs

    Few other instruments equal the piano for beauty, simplicity, engineering and sensitivity. For more than one hundred years pianos have been found in homes all around the world. It is the easiest instrument to make music on, but also fiendishly difficult to master. Our love affair with the piano has grown over the years. In… Continue reading

  • Record Industry a bunch of Luddites?

    While riding the bus a while ago I noticed a fellow bus rider was reading an article in Entertainment Weekly. I had trouble remembering what the article title was but I remembered it was about the recording industry and also about their resistance to modern technological breakthroughs that enable music to be shared. I decided… Continue reading

  • Nightstand Reading: Eric Liu

    Editor’s note: Whether he’s interviewing Daniel Schorr at Town Hall, inspiring leadership or talking about patriotism, local author Eric Liu manages to get us thinking—and to get the conversation going. In The True Patriot, a book written in the pamphleteering style of Thomas Paine, Liu and co-author Nick Hanauer offer a lively challenge to look… Continue reading

  • Daddy’s Little Girl: Extreme Edition

    Being a daddy’s girl myself, I find the dynamics between fathers and daughters very fascinating. We rely so heavily on them to help mold us into the women we will become, and when they are not there or depend on us too much it can affect us for the rest of our lives. These are… Continue reading

  • Pacific Northwest Ballet Previews at The Seattle Public Library

    Plan now to attend the free lunchtime previews of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s wonderfully adventurous 2008-2009 season. PNB’s Education Programs manager, Doug Fullington, will offer entertaining insights on the ballets, complete with video excerpts. These lecture/video previews take place at noon, in the Central Library’s Microsoft Auditorium, First floor,1000 Fourth Ave. Everyone is welcome! Tuesday, September 23… Continue reading