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film, fairy tales, life

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Art is choosing what you want to include

My favorite art teacher, Ben Stahl, said that Nature is an artist but only [a human] can make art. Remembering more of my life allows me to make greater art of it. There's stuff I don't like, stuff I do, and every day I go through a process of recombining all the elements in ways that feel better and more meaningful to me. I woke up remembering the feeling of a snow day. That feeling is so good. Like, we're all gonna take a break from this charade we call school, we're gonna hang out, we're prob...

Why is imaginary tea even more fun than real tea?

Here I am at a lovely apothecary in Lyons, Colorado. I’m drinking magic tea with honey in it. In front of me is tiny tiny tea set. I pretended to make tiny tea. The invisible sugar, cream, spoon — how are those more real than the tea I’m drinking?

The magic and the obfuscation of writing

friendships from the early Internet

Thoughts on Island of the Blue Dolphins and The Call of the Wild

Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O'Dell, scared the shit out of me as a kid. The setting is often primal, wet, and chilly, the main character is isolated from everyone she’s ever known, and I was haunted by the image of her little brother being killed by the wild dogs that roamed the island, and the threat that they consistently present to her as each day turns to night. Only by recently revisiting the story was I able to appreciate its other dimensions and O'Dell's masterful storytelling. ...

storieswildness

"Money didn't help much." Isao Takahata on the roots of Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

And why I think this film belongs in the fantasy genre

I made this arrangement in appreciation of Sean Lock. Thank you for making me laugh when I really, really needed it.

How I got my body back from computers

plus a surprising revelation

The Atomic Center of JAWS (1975)

Why Jaws is so good: It's a subliminally effective war movie. Quint's monologue reveals a poetic displacement submerged deeply in the film.

On Macbeth, Barefoot Gen, and the Inner Dynamics of War

These stories are relevant to any modern person trying to find their own standpoint within a culture that thinks that war is a viable solution to its own illness.

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