The upcoming tournament for the Monty Waterbury Cup, which begins in Aiken, S.C., on September 19th, calls to mind one of America’s greatest polo players and the evening he dined with Evelyn Nesbit.
James “Monty” Waterbury was a 10-goal player and a finesse player, always composed, in perfect control of himself, his pony and his mallet. [...]
Archive for July, 2008
Polo, Oysters and Evelyn Nesbit
Posted in Art, Photography, Polo on July 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Never Mind
Posted in Literature on July 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest.”
– Beatrix Potter, quoted on The Writer’s Almanac by Garrison Keillor
Simple Goals
Posted in Literature on July 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“I want to be an honest man and a good writer.”
– James Baldwin
Listen
Posted in Music on July 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I cannot remember the last time I heard something as right, as perfectly soulful as John Cadley’s The Closer I Get. It’s available on iTunes or Amazon.com as an mp3 download, or you can get it on CD at cdbaby.com.
On Paying Attention
Posted in Literature on July 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“I teach my students that writing requires paying attention. Be attentive. Develop an attitude toward existence, an awareness. And this requires honesty. I require it of myself. But it’s a helpless thing. I have paid attention. And I’m bound to tell about what I’ve seen. When I close my eyes and remember my childhood, the [...]
On Sin
Posted in Literature, Religion on July 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“I don’t like gloomy sinners, but the merry ones charm me.”
– Katherine Anne Porter in “St. Augustine and the Bullfight” (1955)
On Reading & Writing
Posted in Literature on July 16, 2008 | 1 Comment »
“To read what one liked because one liked it, never to pretend to admire what one did not — that was his only lesson in the art of reading. To write in the fewest possible words, as clearly as possible, exactly what one meant — that was his only lesson in the art of writing. [...]
Apart from Words
Posted in Art, Literature on July 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“All artists — by which I mean, of course, all good artists — are shy. They are trustees of something not entrusted to us others; they bear fragile treasure, not safe in the jostling crowd; they must ever be wary. And especially shy are those artists whose work is apart from words. A man of [...]
On Honesty
Posted in Literature on July 12, 2008 | 1 Comment »
“Honesty for a writer is rather different from honesty for others. Honesty, outside literature, means not lying, establishing trust through honorable conduct, absolute reliability in personal and professional dealings. In writing, honesty implies something rather different: it implies the accurate, altogether truthful reporting of feelings, for in literature only the truth is finally persuasive and [...]
Monster
Posted in Commentary, Literature on July 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.”
– James Baldwin, “Stranger in the Village” from Notes of a Native Son (1955)
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