Murph's Musings

Best Movie Themes - YouTube

2012-01-30T14:31:00.003-05:00

Midnight Cowboy

Indiana Jones

West Side Story Prologue

Gladiator

Chariots of Fire

The Last of the Mohicans

Rocky

A Beautiful Mind

3:10 To Yuma

The Crying Game

Lawrence of Arabia

Bridge on the River Kwai

More to come. What are yours?

Oscar Noms are in

2012-01-24T10:09:00.001-05:00

Oscar.com: 2011

Best picture -- I've seen 3 - Moneyball (Loved it) -- The Help -- Midnight in Paris (Off beat, funny and quirky) - Began Tree of Life, but couldn't hack it
Best Actor? Viola Davis in The Help, Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor
Best Supporting Actor? Plummer in Beginners (Wonderful film - great performance by Plummer), Actress: Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids, Octavia Spencer in The Help

What have you seen? Tell us in the comments section to this post

Lang Lang Bartok Piano Concerto #2

2012-01-20T09:34:00.001-05:00

Played again last night at The NY Philharmonic. NY Times Review HERE

Grandson Griffin Art Work

2012-01-19T16:29:00.002-05:00

He does loves his monsters/dragons.

Still makes me laugh - Classic Beyond The Fringe

2012-01-13T11:45:00.001-05:00

The End of the Earth:

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And here is another - Dudley Moore Beethoven Sonata Parody

Archbishop Charles Brown

2012-01-10T21:26:00.002-05:00

Some pictures on January 6 and 7 of my nephew, family, friends and the Pope at my nephew Archbishop Charles Brown's investiture in Rome (He will serve as the new Papal Nuncio to Ireland).

New Archbishop and Pope Benedict

Dave and Cheryl McCarthy, Archbishop Charles Brown

The Whole Family poses with Pope Benedict

My sister in law Pat Brown with the Pope

Peter and Susan Brown with Peter's brother, Archbishop Charles

Ronald Searle - the great cartoonist

2012-01-05T08:01:00.000-05:00

The Guardian on Searle

His wife - Mrs. Mole (Monica Searle):

Griff's Preparations for Santa

2011-12-28T16:38:00.002-05:00

December

2011-12-22T14:33:00.001-05:00

December by Gary Johnson

A little girl is singing for the faithful to come ye
Joyful and triumphant, a song she loves,
And also the partridge in a pear tree
And the golden rings and the turtle doves.
In the dark streets, red lights and green and blue
Where the faithful live, some joyful, some troubled,
Enduring the cold and also the flu,
Taking the garbage out and keeping the sidewalk shoveled.
Not much triumph going on here—and yet
There is much we do not understand.
And my hopes and fears are met
In this small singer holding onto my hand.
Onward we go, faithfully, into the dark
And are there angels hovering overhead? Hark.

"December" by Gary Johnson. Used with permission of the poet.

Golden Globe Nominations

2011-12-15T13:02:00.002-05:00

Golden Globe Nominations - Lots of favs there!

SAG Award Nominations

2011-12-14T11:35:00.003-05:00

Deadline.com: SAG Awards Nominations
Lots of favorites there for me. So glad for Kyle Chandler, Emma Watson, everybody in The Help....

Thomas Merton Advent quote

2011-12-11T11:31:00.001-05:00

We do not understand
That this business about the crib
is the real revolution that once for all turned
everything upside-down so that nothing has
ever been, or can ever be, the same again.

Thomas Merton

My Crowe News Page

2011-12-09T10:26:00.001-05:00

I've been updating and redesigning my Crowe News Page. Give it a look

Getting Ready for the Holidays

2011-12-03T08:09:00.001-05:00

J-I-N-G-L-E Bells - Frank Sinatra (used in a commercial for CBS holiday wishes.....)

Helene Grimaud Playing Liszt's Sonata in B minor

2011-11-29T16:11:00.001-05:00

Watch Helene Grimaud Plays Liszt's Sonata in B minor on PBS. See more from SOUND TRACKS.

Milos Karadaglic performs Granada

2011-11-29T16:07:00.001-05:00

Watch Milos Karadaglic performs Granada on PBS. See more from SOUND TRACKS.

PBS

100 Notable Books of 2011

2011-11-22T17:58:00.001-05:00

NY Times: 100 Notable Books of 2011

November Thoughts

2011-11-20T15:18:00.001-05:00

Sibelius Symphony #5

2011-11-19T07:42:00.001-05:00

Quote from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

2011-11-14T20:42:00.001-05:00

“George Smiley: [quoting an old letter from Bill Haydon about Jim Prideaux to Jim while they were at Oxford] He has that heavy quiet that commands. He's my other half. Between us we'd make one marvelous man. He asks nothing better than to be in my company or that of my wicked, divine friends, and I'm vastly tickled by the compliment. He's virgin, about eight foot tall, and built by the same firm that did Stonehenge”

Kindle Edition - Tinker Tailor

DVD at Amazon

Lang Lang Beethoven Piano Concerto #4

2011-10-27T09:25:00.001-04:00

Our 2 Beauties

2011-10-26T18:53:00.002-04:00

Our two beauties:

Watch Borgen on line

2011-10-21T09:55:00.002-04:00

Borgen

Next Episode of Downton abbey - Trailer

2011-10-17T19:41:00.001-04:00

I Love Mr Bates

2011-10-16T16:23:00.001-04:00

New Ep of Downton Abbey Tonight. Can't wait. Get it early thanks to a UK friend.

Mary Gauthier - Mercy Now

2011-10-15T17:34:00.001-04:00

Used as part of the soundtrack for ITV's Case Histories Starring Jason Isaacs

Thoughts for solitude

2011-10-15T15:57:00.002-04:00

Prayer

2011-10-14T20:33:00.001-04:00

If I should die and leave you here a while,
be not like others sore undone,
who keep long vigil by the silent dust.
For my sake turn again to life and smile,
nerving thy heart and trembling hand
to do something to comfort other hearts than thine.
Complete these dear unfinished tasks of mine
and I perchance may therein comfort you.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

BlogPress on iPad

2011-10-14T20:06:00.001-04:00

Testing my new app for blogger..

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Breaking The Code

2011-10-12T16:49:00.001-04:00

Funny and so true....

2011-10-08T18:21:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Alyson at Facebook

Trailer My Week With Marilyn

2011-10-06T11:36:00.001-04:00

My Week With Marilyn

Today: Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians

2011-10-05T11:09:00.002-04:00

Thanks to NPR: Chief Joseph surrendered to the United States Cavalry. He was the leader of aband of Nez Perce Indians in the Wallowa Valley in northeastern Oregon, andthey had been ordered by the United States government to move to a smallreservation in Idaho. Joseph resisted, and for a time it seemed he'd beensuccessful, since the government issued a federal order to remove whitesettlers from the Nez Perce lands, in support of their original treaty. Fouryears later, the government reversed its decision and backed up the reversalwith the threat of a cavalry attack. Joseph wasn't a war chief, and he believedthere was no point in resisting in any case; he reluctantly set out with about700 followers — fewer than 200 of them warriors — for the Idaho reservation. Aband of young men retaliated against the orders by attacking a whitesettlement, killing several people, and Joseph and his band were forced to fleefrom the pursuing Army. Though the warriors were outnumbered 10 to one by U.S.soldiers, they defended themselves during several battles for three months andover a thousand miles, through Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Josephtried to lead them to Canada, but they were finally trapped in the Bears PawMountains of Montana, only 40 miles from the border. They fought the Army forfive days, but eventually Joseph surrendered.

"I am tired of fighting. [...] It is cold, and we have noblankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them,have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows wherethey are — perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for mychildren and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among thedead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where thesun now stands I will fight no more forever."

Homemade Mayo in less han 2 minutes

2011-10-04T10:00:00.001-04:00

Dick Norton's memories of Charlie

2011-09-27T07:39:00.000-04:00

Be Not Afreard....

2011-09-25T12:17:00.002-04:00

Be not afeard, the isle is full of noises,

Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments

Will hum about mine ears, and sometimes voices

That if I then had wak’d after long sleep

Will make me sleep again; and then in dreaming

The clouds methought would open and show riches

Ready to drop upon me, that when I wak’d

I cried to dream again.

Caliban from the Tempest

Thomas Merton

2011-09-24T22:26:00.000-04:00

Solitude is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it.

I've just watched a remarkable film on the life of Thomas Merton. It is available from Netflix streaming: Merton: A Film Biography

It was produced some time ago, but its message about the mystic and poet, Fr Louis Merton, is timeless. It made me think about my doubting faith, and my emphasis on the outward problems of my church, rather than looking inside myself for the answer to what my life and beliefs should be about.

Losing my brother a few weeks ago made my search for the true meaning of my life even more important, and, indeed, at age 79, more pressing. We must keep our inner peace, while reaching out to our community and to our family and friends. I see now a lot of Merton's faith and happiness in my own dear brother. Charlie wouldn't have agreed with a lot of what Merton believed in, but both spread their arms and welcomed people into their hearts.

With or without you

2011-09-12T18:18:00.001-04:00

In Downton Abbey trailer - With or Without You - Scala Choir & Kolacny Brothers

911 Memories

2011-09-11T10:13:00.004-04:00

***************************

Read and performed at the 911 Ceremony 2011

....Names etched on the head of a pin.
One name spanning a bridge, another undergoing a tunnel.
A blue name needled into the skin.
Names of citizens, workers, mothers and fathers,
The bright-eyed daughter, the quick son.
Alphabet of names in a green field.
Names in the small tracks of birds.
Names lifted from a hat
Or balanced on the tip of the tongue.
Names wheeled into the dim warehouse of memory.
So many names, there is barely room on the walls of the heart.- Billy Collins

Turn Again To Life

If I should die and leave you here a while,
be not like others sore undone,
who keep long vigil by the silent dust.
For my sake turn again to life and smile,
nerving thy heart and trembling hand
to do something to comfort other hearts than thine.
Complete these dear unfinished tasks of mine
and I perchance may therein comfort you. - Mary Lee Hall

Heaven

2011-09-03T10:14:00.003-04:00

For those I love -- by Patrick Phillips

It will be the past
and we'll live there together.

Not as it was to live
but as it is remembered.

It will be the past.
We'll all go back together.

Everyone we ever loved,
and lost, and must remember.

It will be the past.
And it will last forever.

"Heaven" by Patrick Phillips, from Boy. © The University of Georgia Press, 2008.

No More Day Care!

2011-09-02T19:11:00.001-04:00

The twins graduate -- No more Day Care - Pre K starts in a few weeks

Cape May 2011

2011-08-23T12:04:00.000-04:00

Plus this one - Genny at Circus Day - Those Eyes!!!

The Fisherman

2011-08-21T08:53:00.001-04:00

My grandson catches a bluefish:

Brooklyn Brooklyn Take Me In

2011-08-16T15:45:00.001-04:00

We die rich with lovers and tribes...

2011-08-15T22:58:00.001-04:00

The English Patient

Katherine: The fire is gone, and I'm horribly cold. I really should drag myself outside but then there'd be the sun. I'm afraid I waste the light on the paintings, not writing these words. We die. We die rich with lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we've entered and swum up like rivers. Fears we've hidden in - like this wretched cave. I want all this marked on my body. Where the real countries are. Not boundaries drawn on maps with the names of powerful men. I know you'll come carry me out to the Palace of Winds. That's what I've wanted: to walk in such a place with you. With friends, on an earth without maps. The lamp has gone out and I'm writing in the darkness.

Worth reading

2011-08-12T12:04:00.004-04:00

The novel of a relative of mine is now available at Amazon. Check it out

Downton Abbey Satire

2011-08-02T13:49:00.001-04:00

Very funny.

July - the Longest Month

2011-07-25T09:50:00.002-04:00

July this year is the longest ......The days, one hotter than the other, go on and on. Thanks goodness we are now in the last week. August at least brings a promise of autumn, even though it can be HOT as well. And it is my birth month, and my oldest son's birth month.

"Summertime

And the living is easy

Fish are jumpin'

And the cotton is high

Oh, your daddy's rich
And your mama's good lookin'
So hush little baby now
don't you cry

One of these mornin's
You're gonna rise up singin'
Then you'll spread your wings
And take to the sky

But til that mornin'
Ain't nothin' can harm you
With your daddy
And your mammy
standin' by."

- George Gershwin and Dubose Heyward,Porgy and Bess

My Hunks

2011-07-21T10:49:00.003-04:00

I have a new page - Some of my all-time screen hunks. You may add your own choice in the comments section to that page. See tab at top of blog...

Homeland - Fall 2011 - Showtime

2011-07-19T10:59:00.003-04:00

The Story of Genny and Bridgey and Griffin's Gifts

2011-07-17T09:13:00.003-04:00

The Story of Genny and Bridgey's birthday gifts from Grandma and Papa (with another part on Griff's companion gift)

Early in the morning on your birthday, my doorbell rang. I went to see who it was, and there, out on the porch, was a beautiful lady in a flowing pink dress. The really odd thing about her, though, was that she had wings!!! Beautiful feathery wings that come out of her shoulders and hung all the way to her waist.
I was astonished at this site, but I wasn't afraid. She had the sweetest, kindest face, kind of like the good witch in The Wizard of Oz. Without a word, she handed me a lovely pink chest that she held in her hands. She said in a low and beautiful voice, "This is for Genny and Bridget Seibel from Fairyland. Give it to them with all our fairy love." Then she turned - and - just flew away! Up over the house and on into the sun. I waved goodbye.

****************************************************

As I did, another creature winged past me and flew into the house. He was quite different! He was a scaly green with webbed feet and flapping wings. Out of his mouth came a tongue of fire!!! He flew and scrabbled up the stairs and disappeared.

I wasn't afraid of him, because before he flew, he gave me a big wink, and said in a gravelly, scaly voice, "Tell Griffin to come find me. I'm his special surprise." So ---

Now I wait for my three to come visit, so they can collect their fairy and dragon gifts from the land beyond the stars.

Grandma - and Papa

To Build A Home

2011-07-15T07:56:00.003-04:00

Beautiful song and rendition. used at the end of a new film - The Tree

Robert Kennedy Speech Cape Town South Africa 1966

2011-07-13T11:06:00.002-04:00

From the Big Think Blog: This speech was delivered on the Day of Affirmation, at Cape Town University, in South Africa in 1966. You can listen to it here. It might not be the most celebrated speech of the twentieth century, or the most celebrated speech of the Kennedy canon, but it is uniquely eloquent, and delivered in that casual Kennedy-esque defiance of potential repercussions. The speech is confidence in an idea made manifest.

Kennedy said:

“In a few hours, the plane that brought me to this country crossed over oceans and countries which have been a crucible of human history. In minutes we traced migrations of men over thousands of years; seconds, the briefest glimpse, and we passed battlefields on which millions of men once struggled and died. We could see no national boundaries, no vast gulfs or high walls dividing people from people; only nature and the works of man -- homes and factories and farms -- everywhere reflecting Man's common effort to enrich his life. Everywhere new technology and communications brings men and nations closer together, the concerns of one inevitably becomes the concerns of all. And our new closeness is stripping away the false masks, the illusion of differences which is the root of injustice and of hate and of war. Only earthbound man still clings to the dark and poisoning superstition that his world is bounded by the nearest hill, his universe ends at river shore, his common humanity is enclosed in the tight circle of those who share his town or his views and the color of his skin.

It is -- It is your job, the task of young people in this world, to strip the last remnants of that ancient, cruel belief from the civilization of man.”

Three Tough Guys

2011-07-13T10:53:00.000-04:00

Griff and Company perform

2011-07-08T13:47:00.003-04:00

My grandson is the one in the red shirt and red and white print shorts.....

Sweetgrass

2011-07-06T17:17:00.002-04:00

Watch the full episode. See more POV.

Our 50th Wedding celebration

2011-07-03T09:37:00.002-04:00

The whole clan - First picture of ALL of us together. Thanks to my dear ones for a grand day. - July 1

Back row - left to right -Elaine and Chris Murphy, Paul and Kathy Murphy, Mark and Mary Beth Seibel
Front row - Genny Seibel on Sean Murphy's lap, me hugging Griffin and Bridget, Joe and his Murphy's, Julia Murphy, Charlie Murphy

Pre-Raphaeliste Millais - Striking

2011-06-22T09:43:00.003-04:00

Today

2011-06-22T09:42:00.000-04:00

Rumbling distant thunder, threatening skies, humid, the longest day is over. All down hill from here, day-wise

From the NY Times today: Celebration, and Mourning, on a Day With Lingering Sunlight

Over my bed

2011-06-13T12:13:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite paintings - Windflowers by J W Waterhouse. A print of it hangs over my bed

The Killing AMC

2011-06-13T10:16:00.000-04:00

What a series!! Here is a link to that shocking scene from Episode 12:. Anyone watching? Care to comment?

Charles Kingsley

2011-06-12T07:50:00.003-04:00

Charles Kingsley (Water Babies) wrote:

"I am not fond, you know, of going into churches to pray. We must go up into the chase in the evenings, and pray there with nothing but God's cloud temple between us and His heaven! And His choir of small birds and night crickets and booming beetles, and all happy things who praise Him all night long! And in the still summer noon, too, with the lazy-paced clouds above, and the distant sheep-bell, and the bee humming in the beds of thyme, and one bird making the hollies ring a moment, and then all still — hushed — awe-bound, as the great thunderclouds slide up from the far south! Then, there to praise God!"

Opening scene Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

2011-06-11T10:23:00.003-04:00

Buy at Amazon
IMO - The greatest mini-series ever, along with The Wire

New Page - Mystery Writers

2011-06-11T10:19:00.000-04:00

Mystery Writers
Afrer looking over mine, add yours here in the comments section

Studio 60 on the Suset Strip

2011-06-09T13:54:00.002-04:00

Today - The Writer's Almanac

2011-06-05T09:54:00.000-04:00

From the Writer's Almanac

Just after midnight on this day in 1968, Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, a 24-year-old Pakistani immigrant. Kennedy had just won California's Democratic presidential primary, and he was exiting through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel. Juan Romero, a 17-year-old busboy, was shaking his hand when Sirhan began firing. Several of the men with him tackled Sirhan, including writer George Plimpton, Olympic athlete Rafer Johnson, and football star Rosey Grier. Romero knelt by Kennedy, and put a rosary in his hand.

His brother Edward "Ted" Kennedy delivered the eulogy, his third for a dead brother:

"My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world. As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: 'Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.'

Happy June!

2011-06-01T12:24:00.004-04:00

Thanks to my Mary Engelbreit Calendar

The 3 at Wolf-Den in Poconos

2011-06-01T11:56:00.000-04:00

Weather Sick

2011-05-31T08:08:00.000-04:00

I am so sick of the heat and the breathlessness and the still air. Yet another day today with an ozone warning. Tomorrow, big storms and then a change will come.

I am not a fan of summer. Autumn is my time.....

Martin Luther King

2011-05-26T19:37:00.003-04:00

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction....The chain reaction of evil--hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars--must be broken,or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation." -- Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength To Love, 1963.

**************************************************************
The West Wing -- Bartlet recites the following in the Episode The Dogs Of War: 'The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral. Returning violence with violence only multiplies violence adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.'" "Dr. King."

I have been giving thought....

2011-05-25T07:31:00.003-04:00

I have been giving thought, Lord
-- you have a minute? - to getting old.
Natural enough, as the years pass.
DO the years pass more quickly, Lord?
Whatever happened to those longer
years we used to have?
Did you discontinue them? To speed up
the process, sort of? To replace us faster?
Hoping for improvement in the product?
Understandable.

However, getting old. Subject for today
- and I'm not talking about staying young.
Indeed not; I was young one and
wasn't mad on it. But to continue.
Getting old, a fellow said, is all in the mnd.
True. It's also inclined to get into the joints,
the digestion, and the poor old feet.
Spectacles appear, then a second pair.
Certain powers wane. Expected; allowed for.
But the fellow's right, or nearly right.

Now, Lord. To the point.
What if the mind gets stiff in the joints?
Where are you then?

What if the mind goes lame, needs two
pairs of specs?
Then it would seem, a person's got trouble.
I mean, if the mind is in charge, and
starts taking days off; loses grip.
Where are you then?
Seems it's time for a person to shut the office.

So, Lord, please, keep me young in the mind.
Let me enjoy, Lord, let me enjoy.
If creaky I must be, and many-spectacled,
And morning-stiff and food-careful,
If trembly-handed and slow-moving and
breath-short and head-noddy,
I won't complain. Not a word.
If, with your help, dear Friend, there
will dwell in this ancient monument,
A Young Mind. Please, Lord?

Jerusalem

2011-05-14T09:38:00.003-04:00

Wonderful Quote

2011-05-14T09:33:00.000-04:00

"I grew up in those years when the Old West was passing and the New West was emerging. It was a time when we still heard echoes and already saw shadows, on moonlit nights when the coyotes yapped on the hilltops, and on hot summer afternoons when mirages shimmered, dust devils spun across the flats, and towering cumulus clouds sailed like galleons across the vast blueness of the sky. Echoes of remembrance of what men once did there, and visions of what they would do together." — Hal Borland

Words to remember...

2011-05-04T16:22:00.001-04:00

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that"

~ Martin Luther King, Jr

Thanks to my niece Grace

Bin Laden's death

2011-05-02T09:55:00.003-04:00

Made me think of Yeats' poem - And what might happen in response to Bin Laden's death...

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert.

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Hazel Dickens - Great bluegrass singer, dies

2011-04-24T10:11:00.001-04:00

"You can tell them in the country, tell them in the town
Miners down in Mingo laid their shovels down
we won't pull another pillar, load another ton
or lift another finger until the union we have won

Stand up boys, let the bosses know
Turn your buckets over, turn your lanterns low
There's fire in our hearts and fire in our soul
but there ain't gonna be no fire in the hole

Daddy died a miner and grandpa he did too,
I'll bet this coal will kill me before my working days is through
And a hole this dark and dirty an early grave I find
And I plan to make a union for the ones I leave behind

Stand up boys, let the bosses know
Turn you buckets over, turn your lanterns low
There's fire in our hearts and fire in our soul
but there ain't gonna be no fire in the hole

There ain't gonna be no fire in the hole"

Obit at the NY Times

Daffodils

2011-04-19T07:54:00.000-04:00

Daffodils by May Swenson

Yellow telephones
in a row in the garden
are ringing,
shrill with light.

Old-fashioned spring
brings earliest models out
each April the same,
naïve and classical.

Look into the yolk-
colored mouthpieces
alert with echoes.
Say hello to time.

"Daffodils" by May Swenson, from Nature: Poems Old and New. © Houghton Mifflin, 2000.

My Eternal King - Palm Sunday

2011-04-17T09:28:00.002-04:00

April 10: Emily Dickinson Letters

2011-04-10T09:29:00.000-04:00

Knopf - Poem A Day: April 10: Emily Dickinson Letters

To Louise and Frances Norcross, November, 1882

Dear Cousins,

I hoped to write you before, but mother’s dying almost stunned my spirit.

I have answered a few inquiries of love, but written little intuitively. She was scarcely the aunt you knew. The great mission of pain had been ratified—cultivated to tenderness by persistent sorrow, so that a larger mother died than she had she died before. There was no earthly parting. She slipped from our fingers like a flake gathered by the wind, and is now part of the drift called “the infinite.”

We don’t know where she is though so many tell us.

I believe we shall in some manner be cherished by our Maker—that the One who gave us this remarkable earth has the power to surprise that which He has caused. Beyond all that is silence…

Mother was very beautiful when she had died. Seraphs are solemn artists. The illumination that comes but once paused upon her features, and it seemed like hiding a picture to lay her in the grave; but the grass that received my father will suffice his guest, the one he asked at the alter to visit him all his life.

I cannot tell how Eternity seems. It sweeps around me like a sea…Thank you for remembering me. Remembrance—mighty word.

“Though gavest it to me from the foundation of the world.”

Lovingly,
                           Emily

Letters: Emily Dickinson (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets) Ed. by Emily Fargos

New Exhibition at The Met

2011-04-09T10:56:00.000-04:00

New at the Metropolitan Museum of Art - Rooms With A View

Jeff Buckley singing Leonard Cohen's Hallelulah

2011-04-08T20:05:00.002-04:00

Web site - Great last lines in books

2011-04-06T11:12:00.003-04:00

Flavorwire: Great last lines in books. You can add yours there.

I've got some more in the link in the right column....

Nora Ephron: The 6 Stages of Email

2011-04-06T11:10:00.000-04:00

So funny - so true: Nora Ephron at Oprah.com -- The 6 Stages of Email

I recommend Get Glue

2011-04-05T11:23:00.000-04:00

Get Glue Sticker I earned as a movie buff

A new view for your blog

2011-03-31T14:00:00.001-04:00

To see other creative ways to view your blog, click on the link:

http://silvermurph.blogspot.com/view/sidebar

Go to choices on right top of page, And enjoy! You can enter any blog name on upper left to see other blogs

George Tooker, Painter Capturing Modern Anxieties, Dies at 90

2011-03-30T10:08:00.001-04:00

The NY Times: George Tooker, Painter Capturing Modern Anxieties, Dies at 90

Which book would you pass on to future generations?

2011-03-29T08:03:00.000-04:00

Which book would you pass on to future generations? Got the idea from The Guardian Books -

Mine off the top of my head, for knowledge of early pioneer America? - Conrad Richter's trilogy - The Trees, The Fort, The Town

Put your choice in the comments section.....

James Agee on Elizabeth Taylor

2011-03-25T10:28:00.002-04:00

The New Yorker: Why Julia Roberts Can’t Be Elizabeth Taylor -- Posted by David Denby

“Ever since I saw the child, two or three years ago, in I forget what minor role in what movie, I have been choked with the peculiar sort of adoration I might have felt if we were both in the same grade in primary school.” So James Agee wrote about Elizabeth Taylor (most likely referring to her performance in “Jane Eyre”) in The Nation, after seeing her in “National Velvet” in 1944. Agee went on: “She strikes me … if I may resort to conservative statement, as being rapturously beautiful.” But Agee limited his sense of her acting resources to “a mock-pastoral sort of simplicity, and two or three speeds of semi-hysterical emotion, such as ecstasy, an odd sort of pre-erotic sentience, and the anguish of overstated hope, imagination, and faith.”

Clift and Taylor were both at their most beautiful pinnacle in A Place In The Sun:

Agee loved his movies

2011-03-22T11:03:00.001-04:00

From David Thomson:

Agee wrote “like someone who had not just viewed the movie but been in it — out with it, as if it were a girl; drinking with it; driving in the night with it."

David Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Expanded and Updated)

Big Love ends tonight

2011-03-20T14:21:00.000-04:00

Be sure and tune in: The Daily Beast: "Big Love Series Finale: Its Ten Most Memorable Moments"

TEA AT THE RITZ WITH 3 DOWNTON MEN

2011-03-20T09:53:00.001-04:00

Comic Relief-- e Bay: TEA AT THE RITZ WITH 3 DOWNTON MEN ...MESSRS CRAWLEY, BATES & EARL OF GRANTHAM!

The Passion of Dorothy Day

2011-03-20T09:21:00.000-04:00

The NY Times Op Ed Page: The Passion of Dorothy Day

She has long been one of my favorite holy women - I sat near her at a lecture by Ammon Hennacy at the Catholic Worker many years ago. My brother and sister-in-law were with me. She came down from upstairs, and sat in an aisle chair across from us. She wore her signature braids wound around her head. I was in awe.

New book of her letters: All the Way to Heaven

Downton Abbey Parody

2011-03-20T07:49:00.000-04:00

Off Topic: If you enjoyed Downton Abbey, here is an hysterical parody done for Comic Relief - Uptown Downstairs Abbey Part One - Red Nose Day 2011 - BBC Comic Relief Night ---- Part Two

Why Worry?

2011-03-19T16:43:00.000-04:00

An Irish proverb:

There are only two things to worry about: either you are well or you are sick. If you are well, then there is nothing to worry about: but if you are sick, there are two things for you to worry about: either you will get well or you will die. If you get well, then there is nothing to worry about. If you die: then there are two things to worry about: either you go up or down. If you go up, then there is nothing to worry about. But if you go down, you will be so busy shaking hands with old friends you won't have time to worry.

LAURENCE OLIVIER BY DARWIN PORTER & ROY MOSELEY

2011-03-19T08:25:00.001-04:00

The Mail: "Frankly, my dears, I don't believe a word" -- DAMN YOU, SCARLETT O'HARA: THE PRIVATE LIVES OF VIVIEN LEIGH AND LAURENCE OLIVIER BY DARWIN PORTER & ROY MOSELEY (Blood Moon Productions £19.99) -- By Roger Lewis

Thanks Ian

LIFE: Famous literary drunks and addicts

2011-03-15T11:50:00.000-04:00

LIFE: Famous literary drunks and addicts - Jack Kerouac (1922 - 1969): Alcohol

"I'm Catholic and I can't commit suicide, but I plan to drink myself to death." And so he did.

Our pastor's message in this week's newsletter

2011-03-13T13:31:00.001-04:00

Dear friends,...Nine years ago, in this very season of Lent, the Church experienced the great suffering of coming to know the first words of the terrible suffering churchmen inflicted on her very own children in the abuse crimes that had been taking place for decades. It was with shock and horror that we came to know the pain of thousands of innocents whose lives were forever changed by these events. And it was with shame that I came to stand before you on Holy Thursday evening to acknowledge that brothers in the priesthood had so dishonored the high calling to which Jesus Christ had invited them. And to ask your forgiveness on behalf of a Church that, while wounded herself by such betrayals, could also have been complicit in the whole sordid episode.

It seems from reports that another Lenten scourge is upon us again. I
need not go into the substance of the stories; I am sure all of you have
read them. I feel that shame once again and, perhaps, even more so
that what was supposed to have been done, in virtue of the Dallas
Charter, was not. For the actions of those who should have known
better and done better, once again I ask forgiveness. Words on paper
cannot express the sorrow in my heart as we once again face this
calamity. First and foremost the sorrow I feel for those so injured in
their person. I pray for them daily. And the sorrow I feel because of
those who could not live up to the promises made in 2002.
I close by making my own the sentiments of Archbishop Gregory
Aymon of New Orleans. In answer to questioning on a radio
broadcast, he said the following. “What happened in Philadelphia is,
quite frankly, very embarrassing to us and it gives us, unfortunately,
once again, the opportunity to enter into the suffering of people who
have been sexually abused and gives us the opportunity, as a church,
to reach out and apologize to those who have been sexually abused
and those with whom we have shared a part of that.” And in answer to
a question whether to hold criminally responsible those responsible for
the cover-up, Archbishop Aymon responded, “I think so; we are not
above the law. We are accountable to the law just like everybody else
and if we do anything that is wrong criminally and sinfully, we should
have to pay for that. We should be held to the highest of standards
just like everybody else and there is no excuse for a cover-up, there
simply is no excuse because we are endangering the emotional lives of
people and of children.”

To which I say, “Amen.” Those who are responsible for this
continuing tragedy need to be held accountable. I cannot imagine
what could have been on their minds and in their hearts to allow this to
happen. Let us pray that among all the dioceses of the United States,
Philadelphia will be the only exception. But even one is too many.

God Bless,
Fr. Ron

A poster you can download

2011-03-10T10:34:00.001-05:00

Just right click to save to your computer... Poster thanks to Motivator

Aches and Pains

2011-03-09T11:19:00.001-05:00

My body must know there is a big rain storm coming --- I'm full of aches and pains....

A Beautiful Poem

2011-03-08T10:56:00.000-05:00

A beautiful poem by Elizabeth Bishop - Poem and information here