I don't usually continue tags when people tag me, but I am at a complete loss of what to write about this week, so I'll do this one. It's a Favorites survey for the artistic type. I cut out some of the questions, as not to bore you too much, but here's a dozen or so. I won't tag anyone, but feel free to steal the survey and post it for yourself if you feel so moved!
Favorite Instrument: Cello, of course.
Favorite Piece of classical music: Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings-some say it's sad, but I think it's the most climactic, passionate piece ever written. It's so enthralling to play that it's hard not to fall into a deep trance...gorgeous.
Favorite Movie: Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful, in Italian, subtitled in English. One of the few times I've felt truly patriotic is whenever I watch this movie and that tank comes around the corner. I won't give it away, but if you've seen the movie, you know the scene to which I'm referring. I bawled like a baby the first time I saw this movie! It was the only movie I've been to where the entire audience-in the theatre-gave a standing ovation at the end.
Trailer Here: http://www.moviesbox.us/drama/la-vita-e-bella 1997.html
Favorite Novel Old: How old is old? Does East of Eden count as old? Older than that? Chopin's The Awakening, maybe. Favorites are hard for me, especially when it comes to artsy things! VERY much depends upon the season of life I'm in.
Favorite Novel New: How New is New? Too many to list...how about Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, or Graham
Greene's Travels with my Aunt.
Favorite Short Story: Anything by Jumpa Lahiri in Interpreter of Maladies, or the classic The Lady or the Tiger by Stockton. You can read it here: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LadyTige.shtml
Favorite Memory that influences your artistic work: Too personal to put on a public blog, but it has to do with love and freedom.
Favorite Literary Theme: Person vs. self
Favorite Childhood Tale: "In which Pooh invents a new game, and Eeyore joins in", from The House at Pooh Corner, Milne. Absolutely hilarious!
Favorite Shakespearean Play: Romeo and Juliet. Trite, I know, but it's perfection. A Mid-Summer Night's Dream is a close second.
Favorite Painting: The Dance Class by Degas, or Caillebotte's Floor Scrapers. Definately something Impressionistic since I spent so many hours sitting on the floor of the Musee d'Orsay studying it for so long, and one can only
really love a painting that one understands.
Favorite Artist: The Impressionists as a whole. If I had to pick one...Gaugain? Or Renoir? Then there's Degas... Not Monet. Let's go with Gaugain. He's the most intriguing.
Favorite Poem: Ode to a Chair, Pablo Neruda
Key lines: War is as vast as the shadowy jungle.
A single chair
is
the first sign
of
peace.
Though it loses the literary tools in English, especially the alliteration. Here it is in Spanish:
La guerra es ancha como selva oscura
La paz
comienza
en
una sola
silla.
Favorite Poet: Robert Frost
Favorite Literary Tool to use: Assonance
Favorite Literary Tool to read: Symbolism
Favorite Artistic Error to Criticize: Lack of parallel structure. That drives me nuts. Or just bad writing in general.
Favorite line in a novel: "I'm watchin' God," Miss Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Favorite Setting: Anywhere exotic and relatively unknown.
Favorite character: Jael, from the Bible (odd for a pacifist...). Or Celeste in The Known World. When she said, "I wonder if Moses done ate yet," my heart crushed. Amazing. Then there's Teacake, of course in Their Eyes Were Watching God...
Oh this survey is way too difficult for someone like me! Feel free to share some of your favorites with me. That'll be the redeeming value of this post; I'll learn about you!
4 comments:
The Velveteen Rabbit was my favorite story when I was a little girl. And I love Robert Frost too. In fact, I think The Road Not Taken may be my favorite poem. As for Favorite Artistic Error to Criticize, how about modern art in general!? It's terrible!
When it comes to "old novels" I have to say I am an Austen-ite. I own them all, even her works not completed at her death.
She understands people, and rather than show us how great we are, she shows us our own failings, often in a humorous way. She transcends time in her portrayal of human nature.
Pride and Prejudice will always be my favorite (I never fail to return to that hopeful suspense as Elisabeth and Darcy discover they love each other but don't quite know how to start to say so after having previously said such horrible things to each other...) but Persuasion is a close second.
I wish I knew a Darcy, although I think I might get along better with a Captain Wentworth.
Give me any painting by Degas. He brings back so many memories from my ballet days. As a child I loved AA Milne esp the one about the little boy kneels at the foot of his bed and have you seen my mouse (or something like that). I cant go past Enid Blyton and the Faraway Tree or the Famous Five. I love a bit of Shakespeare, a bit of Charles Dickins and for something a little more recent - Matthew Reilly - such escapism. For poetry a little Yeats and Burns and some good Aussie Banjo Patterson (the man from snowy river). Happy Australia Day.
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