I am glad no one has said an STD.
Oh, and the link is here:
Oops, the link isn't appearing for me, either. Well, you can go to my profile and find it there.
Great job, IdleHands. I am very flattered that you chose my little story for your first recording.
I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine - Bob Dylan
Every Time You Vote Republican God Kills A Kitten
Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) - Casablanca
The Pogues - Waltzing Mathilda
I write like Chuck Palahniuk.
Reminds me of another joke. A newlywed couple are on their honeymoon. The more experienced groom tells his blushing, inexperienced wife, "I know you are bashful talking about sex, so I have worked out a system where you can let me know when you are in the mood without embarrassing yourself in having to tell me. When we retire for the evening and are lying in bed next to each other, if you are in the mood to make love just reach over, grip my penis in your hand, and give me a tug."
The wife says, "That is marvelous, Honey, and eases my anxiety and embarrassment very much. But, what shall I do if I'm not in the mood to make love?"
The groom replied, "In that case, Darling, reach over, grip my penis in your hand, and give me about 235 tugs."
Gimme All Your Lovin' - - Z Z Top
You Can Leave Your Hat On - Randy Newman (and later, Joe Cocker)
"We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give." Sir Winston Churchill
I Ain't Superstitious - Jeff Beck
You Never Give Me Your Number - The Beatles
I've read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which I enjoyed. I want to read Ulysses because it is such a frequently cited influential work and I want to see what the fuss is about. I did the same with Moby Dick - - if it is "the great American novel," then dammit I should read it. I was surprised how much I enjoyed Melville's writing, and that there was much humor in it, dry as it was.
I have read The Odyssey and The Iliad a few times as well (I believe the translator was Robert Fitzgerald). Loved it. I listened to an audio version of The Iliad as well. It was interesting to hear the epic poem read aloud.
How many here have read Joyce's Ulysses, and what did you think? I haven't read it yet, but it is a task I have set for myself for this Summer.
I read every night before going to sleep, but seldom fall asleep while reading.
Two. Patricia Highsmith. I have always heard terrific things about her work and how she was the master of psychological suspense. She wrote the novel upon which Hitchcock's masterpiece (in my view) Strangers On A Train is based. I haven't read that novel yet, but I have read The Talented Mr. Ripley. I saw the film and enjoyed it as a piece of art unto itself, but Highsmith's novel is superb. It is a terrific character study of Ripley, essentially a sociopathic chameleon-like character, easily able to justify committing horrible crimes in order to make the life for himself he deserves. I highly recommend it. I am starting in on Highsmith's short stories, well, shortly.
The second is Flannery O'Connor. I am a big fan of the short story (among my favorite short story authors are Raymond Carver, John Cheever, Richard Ford, John Updike, Paul Theroux) and O'Connor is considered by these masters of the genre to be a giant. I am in the middle of her complete collected short stories and it is easy to see why she is so highly acclaimed. She had a perfect ear for her time and place - - the deep south in the 1940s and 1950s. It takes a writer of great skill to create a comprehensive and vivid world in the span of 6 or 7 pages, inhabit it with characters with whom we can identify (and from whom we will recoil), and to subtly cast light on a truth of the human condition. O'Connor did it consistently.
Oh, and while this isn't a recent discovery to me at all, I say this in the hope that someone not acquainted with this author will discover him: Tim O'Brien. I saw that this is the 20th anniversary of his great collection of stories about the Vietnam War called The Things They Carried. Hard to believe it has been 20 years. The Things They Carried is one of the best short stories I have read, and the rest of the stories are also very strong. O'Brien has written other novels, some having to do with his experiences in Vietnam some not, but you absolutely have to read The Things They Carried. It is MahlerSymphony's pick of the day.