My Muse ~ Movies, Music & Books
Journeys and words inspired by the arts...
While we’re still fresh with images of butterflies… ‘How does one become a butterfly?’ she asked pensively. ‘You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.’ ~ Trina Paulus, from Hope for the Flowers I posted this as a note on […]
This post in response to a now defunct post, “Jack spews the truth and nothing but” in which the author lauds Nicholson’s memorable line from A Few Good Men… “You can’t handle the truth!” and a few other memorable film quotes. I’d add to that list Jack Nicholson’s delivery of […]
The Vinegar tasters is among my favourite allegories and provides an excellent introduction to the three philosophies that dominated China through thousands of years: Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. For me, the most important of these is Taoism, a gentle, soulful and luminous philosophy. I’m going to be lazy and let […]
The Butterfly I remember one morning when I discovered a cocoon in the back of a tree just as a butterfly was making a hole in its case and preparing to come out. I waited awhile, but it was too long appearing and I was impatient. I bent over it […]
While posting the last couple of articles about young Gabriella Cilmi, this song intruded … “on the edge of seven teen”. Stevie Nicks, another young singer songwriter with a massive presence, though her fairy-like soulful countenance is nothing like Cilmi’s old soul, simmering sexuality.
I’d watched this video a few dozen times before learning that Cilmi was just 17 when it was produced. Oh, my, God! A Nabokovian nymph leaving a wake of men so enthralled they hardly notice or care for their sad state of bondage. Uhhhhmmm…. Excuse me….. I seem to be […]
A while back I ran across the image below, The Gate Keeper, which made me think of a song of the same name, by Feist. It’s the first song of hers that I was able to put her name to, though I’m sure I’d heard her music before, and I […]
Among the best documentaries ever made, Errol Morris’ The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, compellingly examines Robert Strange McNamara’s disturbing look back at the 20th Century’s greatest global conflicts: World War II and the Cold War. The result is a chilling set of […]
Some weeks ago I watched a documentary about a piano prodigy. In his young teens, the boy spoke about music with a profound wisdom. One thing he said, in particular, stayed with me. I’m paraphrasing, but it went something like: “The more you work with a piece of music, the […]
This song’s been running around in my mind the last 24 hours. I’ve been thinking about the name for this site, thinking we’re not likely going to be able to keep Muse, since there’s already a magazine published under that name. So a variation’s been playing out in my thoughts, […]
