Her Morning Elegance

I was privileged enough to get to see a live showing of animator Nina Paley's "Sita Sings the Blues" last week and was watching it online today while doing other work (yes-multi-tasking). I was checking out her blog afterward and stumbled upon this awesome animation by Oren Lavie. The song is enchanting.

So, considering it's a yucky, rainy Monday, this should leave you with a smile.

Even a Grocery List... William S. Burroughs

Okay, first I'll say that the bulk of this post is not mine. It's snagged directly from the New Yorker. If you're going to quote, quote from the best I always say. I saw this while skimming through their blog this morning and thought it was bloody brilliant.

Yes-we're in the biggest recession since the Depression, but a book-lover and his money are still easily parted.

Now, on with the show.

"I’ve come to accept that, when an artist or a writer achieves a certain type of fame, anything he or she comes in contact with becomes extraordinarily valuable. Take, for example, the recent liquidation of Michael Jackson’s Neverland estate. Or this story about Picasso’s doodles on a napkin.

Of course, somewhere, a line must be drawn. And perhaps, for me, it’s the recent discovery that someone is trying to sell, for nearly five hundred dollars, the grocery lists of William S. Burroughs. The handwriting is guaranteed, by the seller, to be Burroughs’s, but even if that’s true, nothing in the requested inventory reveals anything interesting about him or his work. If anything, his need for items like plain buttermilk waffles, dry and wet cat food, and vodka is reassuring for any creative mind: even the wildest of writers can be mundane."

Post Script from Bookishredhead: I love that our grocery lists are so nearly identical. Mundane or not, everybody needs dry cat food and vodka on a Wednesday morning.