Happy 71st Birthday Connie Francis!

Born December 12, 1938

"I go now before the milk of human kindness goes sour for me."

Boo, Forever

Richard Brautigan - Portrait by Dave McKean

Boo, Forever by Richard Brautigan

Spinning like a ghost
on the bottom of a
top,
I'm haunted by all
the space that I
will live without
you.

Happy 179th Birthday Emily Dickinson!

Born December 10, 1830
Died May 15, 1886

"Dwell in possibility."

Film Scene I Love - Annie Hall

Diane Keaton and Woody Allen in the lobster scene from Annie Hall

I adore Diane in this scene. Her reactions and facial expressions are so funny and I love that Annie has to grab her camera! Will Diane Keaton ever be anything OTHER than Annie? It's such an iconic role. . .

Happy 75th Birthday Dame Judi Dench!

Born 9 December 1934

"The more I do, the more frightened I get. But that is essential. Otherwise why would I go on doing it?"

First Fig

Edna St. Vincent Millay in 1914, photo by Arnold Genthe

First Fig by Edna St. Vincent Millay

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends-­
It gives a lovely light!

Wes Anderson gets me every time. . .

Wes Anderson has this knack of choosing a song and pairing it with a simple scene so that your heart is suddenly pulled by nostalgia and you feel almost a little bit devastated by it. In The Royal Tenenbaums he did it by pairing Vince Guaraldi’s Christmastime is Here from A Charlie Brown Christmas to the scene where Royal takes Margot out for ice cream. In his new film Fantastic Mr. Fox, he did it by pairing the song Love as sung by Nancy Adams from Disney’s animated film Robin Hood with the lazy afternoon scene where Mr. Fox is lolling under their tree while Mrs. Fox paints a picture and the young foxes are diving and swimming in their tiny pool. The song was playing so quietly in the scene that it was almost unnoticeable, but I was immediately struck by its haunting familiarity and my brain scrambled to identify it. I couldn’t stop thinking about that song for the rest of the film. I knew it was Disney, but I couldn’t place from which film it came. I thought maybe it was from The Fox and the Hound, which would make sense, but the fact that it comes from Robin Hood, where the classic hero is played by a fox, makes even MORE sense. Even though Mr. Fox is a creation of Roald Dahl, Wes Anderson’s version of him could definitely be a direct descendant from Disney’s foxy Robin and with the inclusion of this song, I like to think that Wes is admitting that. I loved Fantastic Mr. Fox. It was unique as an animated film, but fully, wonderfully, obviously a Wes Anderson film. He may have found his true medium.

Here is the scene in Disney’s Robin Hood that features the lovely song:

Happy 94th Birthday Eli Wallach!

Born December 7, 1915
And still kicking!

"Even if I don't want to slow down, I'm slowing down."

Happy 109th Birthday Agnes Moorehead!

Born December 6, 1900
Died April 30, 1974

Photo I Love

Alfred Hitchcock and Ingrid Bergman (sorry, I don't know the photographer)

What could he possibly have said to make her laugh so?
I like to think it was something dirty. . .