Sentential Links

Links!

:: When all writing is 144 characters long, there won’t be anymore books written in a generation or two – who would ever have the attention span left to read one?

:: Ray Bradbury made a transit as well. He moved from this world to the next — the Undiscovered Country from whose bourn no traveller returns. Whatever there is in that country — celestial figures with white robes and harps or a surfeit of nothingness — I’m sure he will have no trouble speaking the language.

:: It’s telling that we read Bradbury for his short stories. They are stylish glimpses at possibilities, meant for contemplation. The most important thing about writers is how they exist in our memories. Having read Bradbury is like having seen a striking glimpse out of a car window and then being whisked away.

:: “Looking back over a lifetime, you see that love was the answer to everything,” Ray said once, in an interview.

ASIDE: I haven’t said anything about Ray Bradbury because, well, many others have said it better, and I give a small selection of them above. Bradbury is yet another of those writers whose work I have not read enough of but whose work I’m somewhat familiar with; in his case, it’s mostly through his short fiction, which is invariably amazing, no matter what his subject matter at the time may be. Ray Bradbury lived long and he certainly prospered. If there are such things as souls, I hope his is among the stars!

Non-Bradbury links:

:: Here’s a simple rule: if you want to be a musical, you have to write original songs. (Well, let’s be careful here. Many of the most beloved film musicals of all time don’t have any original songs, as they are film adaptations of stage musicals. And two of the musicals most often cited among lists of greatest musicals ever, Singin’ in the Rain and An American in Paris, almost exclusively feature recycled, existing songs. There are two original numbers in Singin’, and none in American in Paris, which uses the songs of George Gershwin, who had been dead fourteen years when the film came out. The fact is, filmed musicals that recycle songs from earlier works have a very long pedigree.)

:: Batman has the Joker, G.I Joe has COBRA, Sheriff Roscue P. Coltran has the Duke boys and I have a guy that is the spitting image of Wilford Brimley at the county dump.

:: The truth is physical comedy is the most enduring. I LOVE LUCY will be funny 100 years from now. Last night’s hilarious DAILY SHOW will not.

:: The next transit is due on December 10, 2117. I suppose there’s always a chance that someone will develop a longevity serum in the next couple decades… (Nah. Cryogenics, man. That’s the way to go.)

More next week!