13 May 2012

Notes - feel the lines / NNW /

        Mid-morning. Kim called to wish Carol, “Happy Mother’s Day”. Owen said, “Hi, Papa,” and you responded, “How are you, Owen?” and he responded, “Good,” and that was that he was back watching “Thomas the Train Engine”. You have been resting as much as anything but Carol has been on the phone with her sisters so dusting is next then the cat litter box and the kitchen floor.

         1013 hours. Cloudy and light rain so far. Light sleeping last night and was up in the chair a couple of times, about a half hour each time. I am somewhat ‘sluggish’ as Bob used to say about himself at times. It is a bluesy sort of day – could do my exercises.

         Jadah the Cat is the active spirit this morning. She is busy hunting and chasing her imagination after toying her with the laser dot. She is full of being a cat in full pretend with grand spurts of energy that eventually will wear her down to twenty-two hours of rest and intermediate sleep. A quick chirp and she is off down the hall in a fun and frisky gallop.

         1134 hours. I did my aerobics for forty minutes; the pops in the eighties music kept me going. I remember now. Last night music as a leveler popped into mind in terms of heartansoulanmind. “Music sooths the savage breast,” came into mind and a quick recall check on Wikipedia lead me to three quotes by William Congreve.

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William Congreve
Literary career
William Congreve wrote some of the most popular English plays of the Restoration period of the late 17th century. By the age of thirty, he had written four comedies, including Love for Love (premiered 30 April 1695) and The Way of the World (premiered 1700), and one tragedy, The Mourning Bride (1697)
Famous lines
Two of Congreve's turns of phrase from The Mourning Bride (1697) have become famous, albeit frequently in misquotation:
"Music has charms to soothe a savage breast," which is the first line of the play, spoken by Almeria in Act I, Scene 1.;

"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned," spoken by Zara in Act III, Scene VIII.

Congreve coined another famous phrase in Love for Love (1695):
"O fie, miss, you must not kiss and tell."

Edited from Wikipedia: Wm. Congreve
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         I remember “The Way of the World” from John Coulter’s “World Literature II” class my sophomore or junior year. If I remember right the play was put on at Indian Hill High School in 1983-1984, one of the stars was my student office worker, Kym S. and my office mate all those years was Mary Lou Berwanger who had the AP English classes as well as being in charge of the theatre productions. She was an interesting person and excellent teacher. It seems to me I saw a selection of the dress rehearsal of that farce at IHHS. Very funny. The humor of Wm. Congreve is that his lines are remembered though misquoted. “Hey, Will, better misquoted than not remembered at all.”

         Congreve is not listening, boy. – Amorella

         I know. Just a tip of the beret to the old fellow, that’s all. In class I liked to think of the authors wandering in and out of the room listening as we read their works and also exploring the old high school. Checking in on all the students’ classes – an imaginary friendly connection, that’s all. Falstaff-like, I can still say, “I am but mad north-northwest: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw,” Amorella.

         You can write it only because Wikipedia reminded you of the full quote, old man. – Amorella

         Alas, yes. All those years of Hamlet in and out of the classroom and I cannot remember words or word order. I do feel the lines though, when I read or listen to them.

         Yes, you do. Post. - Amorella



         All these years and it just dawned on me – “North by Northwest”. One of my favorite ‘thriller’ films of all time.

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North by Northwest is a 1959 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason. The screenplay was written by Ernest Lehman, who wanted to write "the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures".
North by Northwest is a tale of mistaken identity, with an innocent man pursued across the United States by agents of a mysterious organization who want to stop his interference in their plans to smuggle out microfilm containing government secrets.
Author and journalist Nick Clooney [George’s dad] praised Lehman's original story and sophisticated dialogue, calling the film "certainly Alfred Hitchcock's most stylish thriller, if not his best".

From: Wikipedia
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