The Greatest Love Story of the 20th Century

I like just about anything that Sarah Vowell writes, but this piece about Johnny Cash and June Carter is probably my favorite.

 

Adam Gopnik from the Moth

I think I may have posted a link to the audio of this someplace in the past, but here is the video of Adam Gopnik's story from The Moth Radio Hour. He discusses instance messaging, and his relationship with his teenage son.

Other segments are available on The Moth YouTube Channel.

Everything Must Go

[Added 9/26/11: Read Why Don't You Dance?, the Raymond Carver short story this film is based on Here, until 11/15/11]

What better way to mark what would have been Raymond Carver's 73rd birthday than to see a movie based on one of his short stories. It would probably be more correct to say that the film Everything Must Go is inspired by the short story Why Don't You Dance. Both involve a man who drinks, and has all his furniture on the front lawn. The short story is only about 5 pages long, so you could not make that into a movie even if you wanted to.

I am always apprehensive about any film based on one of Carver's works, because his stories don't seem very filmable to me. Also I had seen the trailer for this film, and it did strike me a something I wanted to see. But being that today would have been Carver's birthday, I went anyway.

I ended up liking the film more than most of the critics. I do think the film had the tone of a Carver story, even if the story was not really one that he had written. A film like this is totally dependent on the actors, because if they don't give good performances, nothing else can save the film. In this case I thought all of the actors gave great performances, including Will Ferrell as the lead, in a more serious role than he usually takes.

Sometimes you just have to be in the right mood for a film like this, so I guess I was in the right mood tonight. This film has no chance to be a big box office success, but I am glad that I decided to see it.

Add to that I really liked the soundtrack, even though I have not been able to find a track listing for the film.

Bailey White's Thanksgiving Story

I always look forward to Bailey White's Thanksgiving story. She used to do short segments fairly regularly on NPR, but now she just does one longer piece a year that is broadcast on Thanksgiving. You can listen to this year's story here.

A Kind Of Love

Danny & Annie

StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit whose mission is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives. Since 2003, StoryCorps has collected and archived more than 30,000 interviews from more than 60,000 participants. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to share, and is preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

Now they have started to animate some of these stories, which are being shown on PBS. They are also available on the StoryCorps web site, including this one.

Danny & Annie from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

This French film adaptation of Ambrose Bierce's short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" won both an Oscar and a BAFTA for short film in the early 1960's. It is amusing to see French actors re-enacting the U.S. Civil War—as if they didn't have enough wars of their own to re-enact. However, I don't think the film is as good a the original short story. Bierce's writing style is very descriptive, and you would think that would be easy to translate onto film. A good deal of the power of his stories comes from his tight focus on detail, and that might not be so easy to recreate on film.

In three parts.

Baroness Blixen recites "The King's Letter"

In this two part video, from late in her life, Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) tells "The King's Letter", a story published in the book Shadows on the Grass. Here is a 1961 review of that book from Time Magazine.

In addition to being one of the greatest short story writers of all time, she was probably the last living writer with premodern sensibilities. Living until 1962, she was something of an ambassador from the past to the present.

The video starts with a famous photograph from her 1959 trip to the United States. The luncheon pictured was hosted by Carson McCullers so the Baroness could me Marilyn Monroe.

The Wedding Horse

Every Thanksgiving Bailey White reads one of her short stories on NPR. This years story, The Wedding Horse, was probably one of her best.

The Wedding Horse

A Worn Path

Today a short story. Eudora Welty's story "A Worn Path" was first published just over 70 years ago in The Atlantic Monthly.

Here is an interviews with her about the story.