Archives for September 27, 2005

I didn’t know how tired I was until I got back to my Manhattan apartment, spent a long time grappling with my accumulated snail mail, fell into bed for what was supposed to be a brief, refreshing nap…and awoke five hours later. I think I’ll call it a day. Instead of trying to write, I’ll sit and contemplate the newest addition to the Teachout Museum, an exquisite little Vuillard etching that came in the mail while I was in Chicago. (The online image only suggests the fineness of detail.) I knocked it down for a price so modest that I’m still giggling.

A hell of a week lies before me–three deadlines, three plays, a night at the ballet, and a drunken birthday bash for a friend–but comparatively normal blogging will resume tomorrow, somehow….

I didn’t know how tired I was until I got back to my Manhattan apartment, spent a long time grappling with my accumulated snail mail, fell into bed for what was supposed to be a brief, refreshing nap…and awoke five hours later. I think I’ll call it a day. Instead of trying to write, I’ll sit and contemplate the newest addition to the Teachout Museum, an exquisite little Vuillard etching that came in the mail while I was in Chicago. (The online image only suggests the fineness of detail.) I knocked it down for a price so modest that I’m still giggling.

A hell of a week lies before me–three deadlines, three plays, a night at the ballet, and a drunken birthday bash for a friend–but comparatively normal blogging will resume tomorrow, somehow….

– Commissioning fee paid to Henri Matisse by Dr. Albert C. Barnes in three installments between 1930 and 1933 for painting The Dance, a mural installed at the Barnes Foundation: $30,000

– The same amount in today’s dollars, courtesy of Inflation Calculator: $406,389.23

(Source: Hilary Spurling, Matisse the Master)

– Commissioning fee paid to Henri Matisse by Dr. Albert C. Barnes in three installments between 1930 and 1933 for painting The Dance, a mural installed at the Barnes Foundation: $30,000

– The same amount in today’s dollars, courtesy of Inflation Calculator: $406,389.23

(Source: Hilary Spurling, Matisse the Master)

“It’s hard for me to believe that people who read very little (or not at all in some cases) should presume to write and expect people to like what they have written, but I know it’s true.”

Stephen King, On Writing

“It’s hard for me to believe that people who read very little (or not at all in some cases) should presume to write and expect people to like what they have written, but I know it’s true.”

Stephen King, On Writing

Monday was a pretty bad day. First I had to send Terry off, to return who knows when, and then, in my excitement for one of our first truly autumnal days, I unwittingly donned what soon revealed themselves to be cruel shoes. It was a small catastrophe. I’ve just redressed the backs of my heels and am headed to bed, pausing only to share with you a blog entry that actually managed to make me laugh through some of the pain. The first line is a grabber:

Ah, to be young enough that it is still possible to lose one’s shoe in a tree.

Today seemed to be the day for precocious kids on the web. This also appeared, in the Slate diary of writer-director Judd Apatow, who will always be held in esteem around these parts for having executive-produced Freaks and Geeks:

My daughter Maude was 5 when she realized that Barney had only one expression. She couldn’t stop laughing when she noticed this. She ran around the living room with this psychotic Barney smile which never changed, and then started saying, “I’m happy. I’m sad.” She laughed some more and then screamed, “Help me! I don’t know how to feel.”

Stop being so knowing and adorable, children. You’re making your elders feel prematurely obsolete.

Monday was a pretty bad day. First I had to send Terry off, to return who knows when, and then, in my excitement for one of our first truly autumnal days, I unwittingly donned what soon revealed themselves to be cruel shoes. It was a small catastrophe. I’ve just redressed the backs of my heels and am headed to bed, pausing only to share with you a blog entry that actually managed to make me laugh through some of the pain. The first line is a grabber:

Ah, to be young enough that it is still possible to lose one’s shoe in a tree.

Today seemed to be the day for precocious kids on the web. This also appeared, in the Slate diary of writer-director Judd Apatow, who will always be held in esteem around these parts for having executive-produced Freaks and Geeks:

My daughter Maude was 5 when she realized that Barney had only one expression. She couldn’t stop laughing when she noticed this. She ran around the living room with this psychotic Barney smile which never changed, and then started saying, “I’m happy. I’m sad.” She laughed some more and then screamed, “Help me! I don’t know how to feel.”

Stop being so knowing and adorable, children. You’re making your elders feel prematurely obsolete.