I returned home from the holiday this year thinking about what awaits ahead, by reflecting on what lies behind. I thought of the the line from Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest. “The past is prologue.” Poetry by T.S. Eliot also comes to mind.
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
― T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets
Holidays, like the changing seasons or the pages of a calendar recur, and though we often follow rituals and traditions like templates, things change. Two of my favorite quotes address change, the first by the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, “The only constant is change” and the second by Henry David Thoreau, American author, philosopher and naturalist who wrote in his book Walden, “Things do not change; we change.” Both, I believe are true. Continue reading
“Am I blue, am I blue, ain’t these tears telling you, am I blue, you’d be too” —Billie Holiday
Blue Is the Warmest Color is the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or winning story of a young woman’s first love and loss. In an unusual move, the film’s French director, Abdellatif Kechiche, accepted the award alongside it’s two female leads, Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos. This was more surprising given the controversy surrounding the film and the working conditions for the actors who described the experience as “horrible.” Seydoux went even further when she said that Kechiche made her feel “like a prostitute.” Continue reading
Friday night, I had the pleasure to attend Madison Central Library’s new Night Light free monthly event, this month’s program the film Sign Painters, produced, written and directed by Faythe Levine and Sam Macon. Doors opened at 8:00 on the library’s third floor, home to a lobby gallery space and the community room, transformed into a 250 seat theater. Madison’s culinary star, Forequarter, served refreshments while the filmmakers signed copies of their book with the same title. The film was shown at 8:00, and the filmmakers and authors remained for a Q & A afterwards. In the audience were Madison’s own sign painters, commenting during the film in call and response form. Continue reading