1. "Chicago icon Studs Terkel dies": Obit by Neil Steinberg of The Chicago Sun-Times. Click here for Studs' official site. UPDATE: The above photo is copyright Roger Ebert, whose remembrance of Studs Turkel is here. Apologies, Roger. I got the photo off of a Google search and didn't trackback to its site of origin.
["Studs Terkel turned the voice of average Americans into a font of history. The Pulitzer-Prize winning author, television pioneer, theatrical actor, long-time radio host, unrepentant leftie and friend of the little man, died peacefully at his home on the North Side of Chicago this afternoon. He was 96."]
2. "Anne Rice comes to Jesus": From CNN.
["In 2002, Rice broke away completely from atheism -- nearly four decades after she gave up her Roman Catholic faith as the 1960s started. It happened when she went off to college and found her peers talking about existentialism -- Martin Heidegger, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre. Religion, she writes, was too restrictive to the young Rice. Too out of step. Yet, religion had to come back into her life, she writes. For her, it was something she'd have to face up to again like an absent parent or a long-lost love child or Banquo the ghost in "Macbeth." By the late 1990s, when she went back to Mass, Rice -- the author whose books sold in the tens of millions and who had recharged Hollywood's appetite for vampire-inspired horror -- had fallen on hard times. Her husband, poet and artist Stan Rice, died of a brain tumor in 2002. And she had become victim to diabetes. Always over-the-top and beyond the rational, she writes that her return of faith was preceded by a series of epiphanies -- many while on travels to Europe's cathedrals, Israel and Brazil. In one episode, when she visited the giant Jesus statue above Rio de Janeiro, she writes that she felt "delirium" as the clouds broke and revealed the statue."]
3. House contributor N.P. Thompson reviews The Pool.
["In its theme of children functioning as adults (yet retaining their naïveté) The Pool summons to mind a slew of older foreign films. There are traces of certain Francois Truffaut French New Wave classics suffusing the tranquil mood that itself feels reminiscent of Satyajit Ray’s work; Venkatesh belongs to a genus recognizable from movies and literature—that of young men mesmerized by surfaces. The closer he advances to the beckoning pool of the film’s title, the closer a choice looms. By the time that choice comes, we’re so caught up in his ingenious resourcefulness that you hope and pray he’ll make the right decision. And yet you fear he won’t—that like Truffaut’s anti-heroes, he’s too much of a romantic dreamer to assert himself by any straightforward route."]
4. "X-Men pair reunite for Godot play": From BBC News.
["Sir Ian McKellen is to tread the boards next year with X-Men co-star Patrick Stewart in a new staging of Samuel Beckett's 1955 play Waiting for Godot. The production, which will be directed by Sean Mathias, will tour the UK before opening in London in April at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Stewart will play the tramp Vladimir, while Sir Ian will play Estragon."]
5. From Neil Gaiman's site, the unveiling of the poster for Henry Selick's adaptation of Coraline.
["Webgoblin here! Once again, Mr. G is hopping around the globe and it falls to me to post the latest Coraline treats from Focus Features. Today, the Coraline 1-sheet arrives in theaters! But you do not need to dash out to see it, my dears, because I have the exclusive debut sneek peek right here!"]
Quote of the Day: Louis Pasteur
Image of the Day (click to enlarge): Obituary for a Mr. George Orwell. Click to enlarge. 
Clip of the Day: Point Break, as performed by sock puppets.
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"Links for the Day": Each morning, the House editors post a series of weblinks that we think will spark discussion. Comments encouraged. Suggestions for links are also welcome. Please send to keithuhlich@gmail.com.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Links for the Day (November 1st, 2008)
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6 comments:
Studs was a giant amongst men - but he always walked among us, always bent down to take our hands and to listen to the lowest of us from his great height. The world is so much poorer for his passing.
RE: Orwell...it you haven't done so, I'd heartily recommend Why Orwell Matters, by Christopher Hitchens, as a worthwhile read. The different ways in which both the Left and the Right so freely invoke 1984 probably causes its author to spin in his grave.
Roger Ebert wrote a few pieces about Studs Terkel that I find worthwhile.
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081031/MEMORY/810319997
Studs Terkel had a large influence on me. I'm not a writer or anything like that. But lines and ideas from his oral histories have stayed with me forever. There is one line in particular from Working, a waitress who describes how she always attempts to set down customer's coffee cups so gently that not a sound is made. I have thought of that thousands of times over the years.
I'm pleased that you used my copyrighted photo of Studs, even if you ripped it off my website without a credit line, but under the circumstances you might have linked to my memorial:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081031/MEMORY/810319997
I love the House
My deepest apologies, Roger. I've updated the entry above with credit and explanation, as well as a link to your memorial piece. I neglected to track back the photo to its site of origin. I will be more cognizant in the future. Thank you for reading The House.
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