I first read this book when I was in high school and I remember I thought it was alright, especially for a book I had to read in English class (I generally didn't care for my teacher's picks). I hadn't thought much about the book lately until my roommate was assigned to read it for her German class (unbeknown to me the book was actually first published in German).My roomie didn't like the book so much, and I was surprised as I had enjoyed it. Now that I'm graduated and have more time on my hands I decided to read it again and see if my opinion of the book would alter.
I still enjoyed the book. Siddhartha is the story of a boy who is seeking... I suppose enlightenment might be the best word, he wants to know and to understand things. Siddhartha is somewhat of a prodigy of his own religion, as a boy he has already reached the understandings of the grown men. Siddhartha wasn't satisfied with the knowledge he had and so he, accompanied by his good friend, go off and seek a different way.
I don't know that I really fully comprehend this book and all it's deeper meanings, however I enjoyed Siddhartha's quest for learning and some path of his own. I think maybe part of why my roomie didn't like it as much is because she was having to read it in German and the book can be a bit difficult to understand in English, I'm sure it would be even harder in a second language.
I recommend this book if religious philosophies interest you, or even if they don't.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Spiders
I REALLY REALLY HATE SPIDERS!!!!!!!
while I still dislike them, I don't mind them so much outside as long as they stay far away from me. Quite a lot of them live in my house, especially in the basement. I have started to keep a flip-flop in the bathroom as a spider killer. I don't know why I dislike them so much...well apart from having to share the shower with them on occasions and once even my towel.... Spiders, be ye warned, if you are in my house, I will make effort to end your lives. Do not crawl on me!
while I still dislike them, I don't mind them so much outside as long as they stay far away from me. Quite a lot of them live in my house, especially in the basement. I have started to keep a flip-flop in the bathroom as a spider killer. I don't know why I dislike them so much...well apart from having to share the shower with them on occasions and once even my towel.... Spiders, be ye warned, if you are in my house, I will make effort to end your lives. Do not crawl on me!
Friday, May 29, 2009
And once again as it is Friday, it's time for the movie report. This weeks stars are Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn and no, Sabrina, the one movie they star in together, is not one of the movies I saw this week (however I have seen it many times and could write about it if asked).
People Will Talk: Okay so this isn't actually Hepburn or Bogie, it's yet another Carey Grant movie. It's a fun movie with some interesting plot twists. I quite liked the part about the trains. It's a fun movie.
How To Steal A Million: I love this movie, it's very funny and in the crime thriller family. Audrey Hepburn plays a French girl who's father forges paintings, much to her dismay. Circumstances occur which force her to break into an art museum to protect her father from going to jail.
High Sierra: One of Bogie's big break through movies. A crime thriller, much more so than the previous movie. Love, crime, mountains, a lovable dog... Not my favorite but alright.
Two For The Road: Another Audrey Hepburn movie. The character she plays in this movie is more on the Holly Golightly side of things than the sweet innocent girls Hepburn quite often played. I liked this movie, I think, but it was very sad, it's the story (shown all out of cronolgical sequence) of a couple thorough their relationship together and their travles. It's a rocky marriage and it made me sad to wonder if many marriages out there are or have been like that and to wonder how being so in love isn't enough it would seem, to keep a marriage going.
Love in the Afternoon: Audrey Hepburn and Gary Cooper, Cooper is a big player. Hepburn's father is a private detective and she uses stories from his files to make Cooper jelous and become a one woman man. It's a cute movie.
Paris When it Sizzles: This movie is funny because of the way it portrays Hollywood, and how accuratly. Hepburn and William Holden. It's kind of a strange movie but that's part of what makes it so funny. It's also a chance to see Tony Curtis play a little bit part.
The Maltese Falcon: I'd heard about this movie, or perhaps the book, for years and I finally got around to watching it and seeing the famed Sam Spade. I though this was a really good movie, good mystery and acting and a very good ending. Another movie with Bogie.
The African Queen: This is only a partial report because the DVD was too scratched up to play the whole movie. I liked what I saw. It stars Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. I haven't seen any movies with Katherine Hepburn for a while and I'd forgotten what a wonderful actress she was. I'll try and get a better copy of the movie and report when I do.
People Will Talk: Okay so this isn't actually Hepburn or Bogie, it's yet another Carey Grant movie. It's a fun movie with some interesting plot twists. I quite liked the part about the trains. It's a fun movie.
How To Steal A Million: I love this movie, it's very funny and in the crime thriller family. Audrey Hepburn plays a French girl who's father forges paintings, much to her dismay. Circumstances occur which force her to break into an art museum to protect her father from going to jail.
High Sierra: One of Bogie's big break through movies. A crime thriller, much more so than the previous movie. Love, crime, mountains, a lovable dog... Not my favorite but alright.
Two For The Road: Another Audrey Hepburn movie. The character she plays in this movie is more on the Holly Golightly side of things than the sweet innocent girls Hepburn quite often played. I liked this movie, I think, but it was very sad, it's the story (shown all out of cronolgical sequence) of a couple thorough their relationship together and their travles. It's a rocky marriage and it made me sad to wonder if many marriages out there are or have been like that and to wonder how being so in love isn't enough it would seem, to keep a marriage going.
Love in the Afternoon: Audrey Hepburn and Gary Cooper, Cooper is a big player. Hepburn's father is a private detective and she uses stories from his files to make Cooper jelous and become a one woman man. It's a cute movie.
Paris When it Sizzles: This movie is funny because of the way it portrays Hollywood, and how accuratly. Hepburn and William Holden. It's kind of a strange movie but that's part of what makes it so funny. It's also a chance to see Tony Curtis play a little bit part.
The Maltese Falcon: I'd heard about this movie, or perhaps the book, for years and I finally got around to watching it and seeing the famed Sam Spade. I though this was a really good movie, good mystery and acting and a very good ending. Another movie with Bogie.
The African Queen: This is only a partial report because the DVD was too scratched up to play the whole movie. I liked what I saw. It stars Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. I haven't seen any movies with Katherine Hepburn for a while and I'd forgotten what a wonderful actress she was. I'll try and get a better copy of the movie and report when I do.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
More Reading
I read the book Love, Stargirl over the last few days. It's another book about, you guessed it, Stargirl. It was a fairly easy book and frankly it ought to be because I believe it's aimed at a pre-teen to teenage audience and I would hope that my reading level as a college graduate is higher than that.
Anyway, it's about what happens to Stargirl after she moved away from Mica, Arizona. It's an alright book but it was not as good or quite cohesive with the first book, that might be expected since this book came out recently and the first book came out when I was about half way through highschool. The charachter of Stargirl didn't seem the same to me, perhaps that's because she was telling not Leo but it didn't feel quite the same. After I read Love, Stargirl; I reread Stargirl. I think that Stargirl was written better, I liked the style better, maybe I could just relate far more to Leo than to Stargirl.
I don't know quite what to make of these books. When I first read Stargirl, I liked it except for the revolt against Stargirl. It seemed so strange to me that a community could be so similar, that diversity could be so frowned upon.
Reading the two together and having had years pass since the first, I just didn't really believe it anymore. I enjoyed the books but I found myself questioning Stargirl more and her motives and whether or not she really was this innocent and untouched girl she was made out to be in the first book. Maybe I'm just more cynical, who knows. Anyway that's what I've been reading and those are my thoughts about it.
Anyway, it's about what happens to Stargirl after she moved away from Mica, Arizona. It's an alright book but it was not as good or quite cohesive with the first book, that might be expected since this book came out recently and the first book came out when I was about half way through highschool. The charachter of Stargirl didn't seem the same to me, perhaps that's because she was telling not Leo but it didn't feel quite the same. After I read Love, Stargirl; I reread Stargirl. I think that Stargirl was written better, I liked the style better, maybe I could just relate far more to Leo than to Stargirl.
I don't know quite what to make of these books. When I first read Stargirl, I liked it except for the revolt against Stargirl. It seemed so strange to me that a community could be so similar, that diversity could be so frowned upon.
Reading the two together and having had years pass since the first, I just didn't really believe it anymore. I enjoyed the books but I found myself questioning Stargirl more and her motives and whether or not she really was this innocent and untouched girl she was made out to be in the first book. Maybe I'm just more cynical, who knows. Anyway that's what I've been reading and those are my thoughts about it.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Lost Horizon
So about a week or so ago, I watched the movie Lost Horizon and wrote about it here. The movie was based on a book and I quite liked the movie and so I got the book from the library and read it. Lost Horizion was by James Hilton and was apparently the first paperback book ever made. Lost Horizon is fairly similar in both book and movie form. I liked the book because there were more details available and I was able to understand things better, however in some things I liked the movie much better.
This book/movie have really been making me think a lot. In the book a group of people find themselves in Shangri-la the mythical paradise of Tibet. In Shangri-la there is peace and prosperity, long life and great culture to be had at the lamasery there. As I first watched and read I found myself in agreement with the main character who felt himself at home and never wanting to leave. It was boggeling to me that another one of the group would dislike the place and even go so far as to call it hellish. It made me wonder if such a thing could really be possible, that one could find such fault with a place that sounded so perfect to me.
One point in the plot that made me sad to see, was that the main character, after becoming very immersed in life at Shangri-la, is persuaded by one of his companions that the whole thing is madness, that he must be crazy and to leave the place. I wonder how many times people leave happiness or don't do something that makes them happy becase of what others may think or how it may look.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Ballet
So I won tickets to go and see the ballet and it was last night. When I was in middle school/ highschool my dad's work sponsered the ballet and so for a couple years we got season tickets in the fourth row. It was amazing, I got to see so many ballets: Swan Lake, Cinderella, Tameing of the Shrew etc. it was so cool and especially getting to sit in the fourth row. When they have fog on stage, after it drifts off the stage it goes out into the audience, into the fourth row. Fake fog smells a bit weird.
I guess my love of dance started with taking ballet when I was little, til I was in third grade and I quit cause it was too girly. But I still loved dancing, in middle school my best friend was still in ballet and with her and under some sort of delusion, I tried out for the Nutcracker. I didn't make it of course but it was still a fairly cool experience. I've dabbled in dance since then but mostly I like dancing through my living room, or whatever open space is available. I've come to terms with my not being a real dancer but I love to watch it, almost any kind of dance that's done well.
The ballet last night was a bunch of shorter and more contemporary pieces but it was great. There's something very beautiful about the movement of dancers, of the control and discipline they have over their bodies and the blur of white limbs through a dark background. I love it, dancers are artists, but I couldn't help thinking as I watched, that art is different. I can do a painting or drawing and make the final product by myself, but dance and other art forms are group efforts. There is choreography, which is unfathomable to me, as is composing music, I can plan pictures but I can't hold on to whole dances or works of music. Dancers quite often look better together than alone, they must be in sync with each other, they must have complete trust in their partners and fellow dancers as they can hold their lives as they lift and toss. When I have the means I believe that I will do what I can to frequent the ballet. Degas did many paintings and drawings of dancers, last night I understood why.
Okay onto movies
The Importance of Being Earnest: I love this movie, which is also a play by Oscar Wilde. I love Wild's works they are so wonderfully witty and satirical. I think this movie is excellent and has a wonderful cast: Judy Dench, Rupert Everett, Colin Firth and Reese Witherspoon. It is a very funny movie.
North and South: This movie is a mini series based off of Elizabeth Gaskill's book by the same title. I haven't read the book but I hope to soon. I like this movie, it's a bit like Pride and Prejudice in plot but I think it goes deeper into both pride and prejudice. The North and South are those of England around the beginning of the industrial revolution. It made me think about people and different points of view. I very much liked it.
The Charge of The Light Brigade: This is an old movie with Errol Flynn, and typical of his movies. This movie is about a historical event, one about England's glorious days of being an empire, which I'm not terribly familiar. This movie is about military actions in India and that general area. I have to say that I did not love this movie, I thought is was well made etc. but I disagree strongly with the events that took place and about revenge. I don't know how to tell this without giving away crucial plot so be warned. There was a massacre of mostly women and children and to avenge that 600 men, the Light Brigade, went into almost certian death to kill the man responsible. It made me sick to think of it, of course it was horrible what happened, but 600 men for one man hardly seems worth it, it just seems to me like more needless death.
Sargent York: This is another war movie, but where I hated Charge of the Light Brigade, I loved this one. I like this movie because it was not really a glorification of war, the main character didn't want to go to the war, but once he made his decision to go, he did the best he could and in doing so he found himself a hero.
Lost Horizion: I loved this movie, it was based off a book by the same title and I now want to read it. In this movie a group of people find themselves in Shangri-La and begin to adjust to how different things are there. I highly recommend it. An interesting point about the movie, apparently over the years it was cut down and the version I got was a restoration, they found the whole soundtrack of the movie and all but 7 minutes of the film. Because of this though there are some parts that are just stills with sound, others high quality and still others are fairly low quality.
Gunga Din: I haven't read the famous poem but I quite liked this movie. I loved the friendship between the three Sargent. I decided that the resemblance between Douglass Fairbanks Jr. and Carey Ewles is uncanny and that this is one of my favorite roles I've seen Carey Grant in. Carey Grant was wonderful at comedy and this movie proves it to a T. I think this role also works because it's not the typical Grant role of someone suave and debonair, I think it's more like the background that Archie Leach had before he became Carey Grant.
I guess my love of dance started with taking ballet when I was little, til I was in third grade and I quit cause it was too girly. But I still loved dancing, in middle school my best friend was still in ballet and with her and under some sort of delusion, I tried out for the Nutcracker. I didn't make it of course but it was still a fairly cool experience. I've dabbled in dance since then but mostly I like dancing through my living room, or whatever open space is available. I've come to terms with my not being a real dancer but I love to watch it, almost any kind of dance that's done well.
The ballet last night was a bunch of shorter and more contemporary pieces but it was great. There's something very beautiful about the movement of dancers, of the control and discipline they have over their bodies and the blur of white limbs through a dark background. I love it, dancers are artists, but I couldn't help thinking as I watched, that art is different. I can do a painting or drawing and make the final product by myself, but dance and other art forms are group efforts. There is choreography, which is unfathomable to me, as is composing music, I can plan pictures but I can't hold on to whole dances or works of music. Dancers quite often look better together than alone, they must be in sync with each other, they must have complete trust in their partners and fellow dancers as they can hold their lives as they lift and toss. When I have the means I believe that I will do what I can to frequent the ballet. Degas did many paintings and drawings of dancers, last night I understood why.
Okay onto movies
The Importance of Being Earnest: I love this movie, which is also a play by Oscar Wilde. I love Wild's works they are so wonderfully witty and satirical. I think this movie is excellent and has a wonderful cast: Judy Dench, Rupert Everett, Colin Firth and Reese Witherspoon. It is a very funny movie.
North and South: This movie is a mini series based off of Elizabeth Gaskill's book by the same title. I haven't read the book but I hope to soon. I like this movie, it's a bit like Pride and Prejudice in plot but I think it goes deeper into both pride and prejudice. The North and South are those of England around the beginning of the industrial revolution. It made me think about people and different points of view. I very much liked it.
The Charge of The Light Brigade: This is an old movie with Errol Flynn, and typical of his movies. This movie is about a historical event, one about England's glorious days of being an empire, which I'm not terribly familiar. This movie is about military actions in India and that general area. I have to say that I did not love this movie, I thought is was well made etc. but I disagree strongly with the events that took place and about revenge. I don't know how to tell this without giving away crucial plot so be warned. There was a massacre of mostly women and children and to avenge that 600 men, the Light Brigade, went into almost certian death to kill the man responsible. It made me sick to think of it, of course it was horrible what happened, but 600 men for one man hardly seems worth it, it just seems to me like more needless death.
Sargent York: This is another war movie, but where I hated Charge of the Light Brigade, I loved this one. I like this movie because it was not really a glorification of war, the main character didn't want to go to the war, but once he made his decision to go, he did the best he could and in doing so he found himself a hero.
Lost Horizion: I loved this movie, it was based off a book by the same title and I now want to read it. In this movie a group of people find themselves in Shangri-La and begin to adjust to how different things are there. I highly recommend it. An interesting point about the movie, apparently over the years it was cut down and the version I got was a restoration, they found the whole soundtrack of the movie and all but 7 minutes of the film. Because of this though there are some parts that are just stills with sound, others high quality and still others are fairly low quality.
Gunga Din: I haven't read the famous poem but I quite liked this movie. I loved the friendship between the three Sargent. I decided that the resemblance between Douglass Fairbanks Jr. and Carey Ewles is uncanny and that this is one of my favorite roles I've seen Carey Grant in. Carey Grant was wonderful at comedy and this movie proves it to a T. I think this role also works because it's not the typical Grant role of someone suave and debonair, I think it's more like the background that Archie Leach had before he became Carey Grant.
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