SnowPorn.

Light your fire, grab your coffee (or wine), snag your book…and cozy up to the warmth of this week’s great wintry space.
This studio right here…clean lines, spacious, sharp.  The snowy view is just the cherry on top. The brain would be primed for action in a space like this!  Enjoy. 

Storytime Saturday, featuring an excerpt from A Million Little Boxes – a work story.

I spent a great deal of time staring up at the sky. It was a lovely way to pass the hours. There was something about passing planes that sort of mystified me; it was their mystery that enveloped me and roped me in relentlessly. Who was flying? Where were they coming from, and where were they going? When I’ve flown, I’ve always looked down upon the houses, the buildings, the little towns, and wondered who was there…what their lives were like, what they did, and if they were looking up at me, wondering who I was and where I was heading. So when I look up, there’s that inherent desire to travel with them, the lofty anticipation of having a destination, and the inevitable excitement and adventure that seems to accompany it. It’s the excitement that was the allure there…it broke the monotony of the computer screen and scattered it to bits. Planes represented excitement…and tugged my mind away from the off key melody of keyboard clicks. And as a professional dreamer, it was just what the doctor ordered.

Library Lusting.

I look at this room, and I feel a sense of quiet.  A sense of peace.  There’s a stillness here that permeates the room.  The inlaid ceiling (an exquisite touch), soft natural light, and roaring fire add a comforting, mellow touch that would most certainly ripen any creative mind.  Add a slew of anonymous books, and boom….this room earns the week’s Library Lusting top billing.  This is indeed a book lover’s room. 

Theatrical Thursday, featuring Stalker (1979).

In honor of its limited theatrical re-release, I am duty bound to share my appreciation of this cinematic gem.  If you’re lucky enough to catch this one, please do.  It’s a journey that you won’t regret.   Thanks for reading…good day to all!

 

 

 

I’d fallen asleep on the sofa in front the TV one Friday night (years ago) and awoke on Saturday morning to this mysteriously surreal little Russian gem, a dreamy, thought provoking tale guaranteed to drum up a few intelligent discussions about man’s quest for knowledge and his insatiable hunger for the unknown. Directed by legendary filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky and adapted from the novel Roadside Picnic, it deftly explores the depth of human want and need and desire, and trails the journey of a Stalker (a hired guide) and the two men who call upon his expertise to lead them into the gritty bowels of “The Zone”. It is there that they intend to enter the fabled room within the ruins of The Zone that enables any wish to come true. The journey is not without its trials though. To gain entry into The Zone (a deserted city that fell victim to a mysterious incident), they must first bypass a thickly guarded military checkpoint; but the true challenge is navigating the desolation of The Zone itself, an entirely barren, ever changing landscape full of unseen and unbeknownst dangers that have tested the will, searched the souls, and claimed the lives of countless Stalkers and wish seekers.

A beautifully minimalist film, shot in unfortunately toxic, abandoned Russian industrial locations, is said to have contributed to the early cancerous deaths of several cast and crew, including the director Tarkovsky. But the often several minutes long takes, the haunting landscapes, the telling score, and the philosophically rich dialogue combine for a journey that will not soon be forgotten.