It's a fun fact with a book review: December 24, 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of France and victor of the Battle of Marengo, had decided not to go to the theater to hear Haydn's The Creation oratorio. He changed...

 If you're familiar with the films of the 70s, you know I'm talking about Sinbad. I watched these two films during my workout sessions over the last couple weeks.   The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973), directed by G...

Prepare, prepare the iron helm of war,Bring forth the lots, cast in the spacious orb;Th' Angel of Fate turns them with mighty hands,And casts them out upon the darken'd earth!Prepare, prepare!--William Blake, "A War Song to Englishmen"Iron Helm sound...

   The Master of Ballantrae (1953) is based on Robert Louis Stevenson's book of the same name. It's directed by William Keighley and stars Errol Flynn, Roger Livesey, and Anthony Steel. If you're not familiar with...

 Showing without telling:When I was in grade school, we sometimes had show and tell. Somebody would have something cool to show, a new toy or a fossil or a new puppy, and they would show us the cool new thing and talk about it. Some of us ne...

Though you should build a bark of dead men's bones,And rear a phantom gibbet for a mast,Stitch shrouds together for a sail, with groansTo fill it out, blood-stained and aghast;Although your rudder be a dragon's tailLong sever'd, yet still hard with a...

 I'm trying something different today.Today's post can be found on my substack. Check it out. 

  I don't know why this book came to mind today. Maybe I've still got the Five Card Stud movie on my mind. I know the theme song comes into my head a couple times per day. Whatever the reason, I opened Justice Resu...

Souls of Poets dead and gone,   What Elysium have ye known,  Happy field or mossy cavern,  Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?--From "Lines on the Mermaid Tavern" - KeatsElysium, paradise, heaven, shangri-la - Well, I'm ins...

 I had a keen thought earlier to day. In fact it was so sharp that it cut its way completely out of my memory. In the struggle to recapture the fugitive notion, I believe it had something to do with music and how it-- That's where the void t...

  I don't think I've talked about this movie before, other than to mention it in passing, It's a western-mystery classic that I never get tired of. I watched it this week while my wife was out of state.First things first: The Blaste...

The wild winds weep  And the night is a-cold;Come hither, Sleep,  And my griefs infold:But lo! the morning peeps  Over the eastern steeps,And the rustling birds of dawnThe earth do scorn.--From "Mad Song" by William Blak...

  I suppose that's what writers tell their characters. I don't make a habit of offing my creations--at least not the ones who have become interesting and integral to the story. However, we occasionally fall upon times that try the w...

 The refit of Xanadu continues without help from Rush, Olivia, ELO, or Coleridge. A box of disappointment arrived today. I ordered it last week. I should've known better than to order through P. Andora Co. How did I come to request this deli...

The sunbeams are my shafts, with which I killDeceit, that loves the night and fears the day;All men who do or even imagine illFly me, and from the glory of my rayGood minds and open actions take new might,Until diminished by the reign of Night.--From...