Sunday, May 16, 2010
On Poetry - Robert Hass’s Empathy and Desire - NYTimes.com
On Poetry - Robert Hass’s Empathy and Desire - NYTimes.com: "Hass’s greatest strength as a poet, however, is his equanimity, a quality that sets him apart from peers who rely on a sense of imbalance. That imbalance can register as pressure (that is, the language of the poem may seem inadequate to the task it’s asked to perform), or it can involve deliberate disjunctions in voice, tone, syntax and so forth. Reading a good Hass poem, though, is like watching a painter whose brush strokes are so reassuringly steady you hardly notice how much complex and unsettling depth has been added to the canvas."
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Video Review--A Dance to the Music of Time
A Dance to the Music of Time
I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.
Description from Netflix:
Based on Anthony Powell's literary opus, this miniseries centers on Brit Nicholas Jenkins (James Purefoy) who, over the course of decades, observes the upper crust's uncanny ability to maintain propriety while keeping their secrets and scandals under wraps. Tea cakes ar...e spread with infidelity, failure, scandal and politics in this epic tale that spans from the 1920s to the '60s. John Gielgud, Miranda Richardson and Simon Russell Beale co-star.
Based on Anthony Powell's literary opus, this miniseries centers on Brit Nicholas Jenkins (James Purefoy) who, over the course of decades, observes the upper crust's uncanny ability to maintain propriety while keeping their secrets and scandals under wraps. Tea cakes ar...e spread with infidelity, failure, scandal and politics in this epic tale that spans from the 1920s to the '60s. John Gielgud, Miranda Richardson and Simon Russell Beale co-star.
Enjoying this book about William Howard Taft
Let's face it--it would be tough for anyone to be sandwiched between the monumental and office defining presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Sadly, Taft was a very talented guy who just did not have the political temperament necessary to be President . Taft had distinguished career as an appellate judge, Governor of the Phillipines, and a Secretary of War before his Presidency. And, he was a very capable Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court following his one term. Perhaps, Taft serves as a cautionary tale for all of us that just because you are excellent at one thing, you may not be excellent at everything and the difficulty of taking a role that is just unsuited to your fundamental personality.
Trollope Quote
A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules. --Anthony Trollope.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
NYRblog - Girls! Girls! Girls! - The New York Review of Books
NYRblog - Girls! Girls! Girls! - The New York Review of Books
This piece by Tony Judt is interesting just as memoir. But it also raises the question whether our hyper-sensitive education and work environment has made mentoring more difficult. I often feel like I keep younger colleagues at greater arms length than my mentors did. This avoids the risk of being misunderstood, but my mentors knew a lot more about me as a person than I will ever learn about the younger people I coach. Knowing more about me as a person enbale them to give better advice.
This piece by Tony Judt is interesting just as memoir. But it also raises the question whether our hyper-sensitive education and work environment has made mentoring more difficult. I often feel like I keep younger colleagues at greater arms length than my mentors did. This avoids the risk of being misunderstood, but my mentors knew a lot more about me as a person than I will ever learn about the younger people I coach. Knowing more about me as a person enbale them to give better advice.
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