“Every time I paint a portrait, I lose a friend.” Sargent in his Paris studio, 1885. (Source. Via Exit Lines.)
Archives for January 2011
Laziness will not do
So avoid using the word very because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys: to woo women. And in that endeavor, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays.
Dead Poet’s Society
Zeppelin, 1924
“The LZ-126 departing Friedrichshafen, Germany on October 12, 1924 for its flight across the Atlantic. Upon its arrival in Lakehurst, New Jersey, the ship entered the United States Navy as ZR-3 USS Los Angeles.” — Airships.net
Empire State Building, opening day, 1931
Photo by Samuel H. Gottscho (via)
The embodiment of raw experience
I’ve never thought of writing as the mere arrangement of words on the page but the attempted embodiment of a vision; a complex of emotions; raw experience. The effort of memorable art is to evoke in the reader or spectator emotions appropriate to that effort.
Joyce Carol Oates, The Faith of a Writer (via)
Photo of the Day
Launch of the Frank J. Hecker. St. Clair, Michigan. September 2, 1905. Via Shorpy.
Salinger, 1952
J.D. Salinger, 1952. (via WSJ)
Late Traveler
Martin Lewis, “Late Traveler” (1949) (via)