Category: Arts and Letters

Seinfeld Writing Prompts

Kramer gets a ticket for Jaywalking and decides to paint cross walks in the middle of every road. Elaine finds a key on her key ring she doesn’t recognize and becomes obsessed with what it goes to. Jerry and George find out they’ve slept with the same woman and try to find out who pleased her more.

Elaine can’t tell if the Gen-Z girl in her building is complementing or insulting her new bag. George claims he’s a gay man who has had multiple sexual partners to get vaccinated for monkeypox. Jerry is convinced that his new girlfriend draws on her freckles.

Elaine falls asleep with a towel covering 1 side leaving half a tan. Peterman thinks it’s a political fashion statement/Banyan starts doing funeral gigs & Jerry thinks it’s wrong/A cop car keeps following Kramer’s car but never pulls him over/The Wal-Mart greeter always greets everyone except George

Jerry dates a woman that claims to be a food connoisseur and “knows all the best places in NY,” but it’s all chain restaurants. George realizes each waitress at Monk’s brings him something different every time he orders “his usual.” Kramer, with the help of Newman mails himself to a penpal.

via:
RedditWritesSeinfeld

Herbert Lee – Civil Rights Activist

Herbert Lee (1912 – 1961) Herbert Lee, born on this day in 1912, was an American civil rights activist who fought for voting rights in Mississippi, where black people had been disenfranchised since 1890. In 1961, Lee was assassinated by a state representative. Lee was a charter member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Amite County and had sought to enfranchise black Americans by encouraging voter registration.

In 1961, Lee assisted Bob Moses, a field secretary with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), in his efforts to persuade locals to register. His activities were met with threats of reprisal by the white community, and Lee became one of the movement’s earliest victims to white violence. On September 25th, 1961, Lee was murdered by Mississippi state representative E. H. Hurst (1908 – 1990) in broad daylight at the cotton gin while delivering cotton near Liberty.

Hurst killed Lee with a single shot to the head, but later claimed in court that he was defending himself after Lee attacked him with a tire iron. An all-white jury ruled that the killing was a justifiable homicide. In 1964, civil rights activist Louis Allen was killed after he informed federal investigators that his testimony in the case had been coerced on threat of violence.

Read more:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Lee_(activist) https://snccdigital.org/people/herbert-lee/

Bestsellers – Amazon Australia

https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/bestsellers/books

RecipeTin Eats: Dinner: 150 recipes from Australia’s most popular cook
Nagi Maehashi

150 dinner recipes. Fail-proof. Delicious. Addictive. The food you want to cook, eat and share, night after night.

Through her phenomenally popular online food site, RecipeTin Eats, Nagi Maehashi talks to millions of people a year who tell her about the food they love.

Atomic Habits
James Clear

People think that when you want to change your life, you need to think big. But world-renowned habits expert James Clear has discovered another way. He knows that real change comes from the compound effect of hundreds of small decisions- doing two push-ups a day, waking up five minutes early, or holding a single short phone call.

He calls them atomic habits.

Spare
The Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry

It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century- two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow – and horror. As Diana, Princess of Wales, was laid to rest, billions wondered what the princes must be thinking and feeling – and how their lives would play out from that point on.

For Harry, this is that story at last.

With its raw, unflinching honesty, Spare is a landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.

Lessons in Chemistry
Bonnie Garmus

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing.

But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one- Calvin Evans, the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with – of all things – her mind. True chemistry results.

Like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later, Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show, Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (‘combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride’) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.

It Starts with Us
Colleen Hoover

Before It Ends with Us, it started with Atlas. Colleen Hoover tells fan favourite Atlas’ side of the story and shares what comes next in this long-anticipated sequel to the #1 Sunday Times bestseller It Ends with Us.

Bestsellers – Amazon Germany

List via Amazon, translation via google:
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/bestsellers/2022/books

The Child in You Needs Home: The Key to Solving (Almost) Any Problem
Stefanie Stahl

Everyone longs to be accepted and loved. Ideally, we develop the necessary basic trust during our childhood that will carry us through life as adults. But the insults experienced also leave their mark and unconsciously determine our entire relationship life. Successful author Stefanie Stahl has developed a new, effective approach to working with the »inner child«: When we make friends with it, amazing possibilities arise to solve conflicts, to make relationships happier and to find an answer to (almost) every problem.

Mimic: Psychological Thriller
Sebastian Fitzek

Do not be afraid! Except for yourself…

Sebastian Fitzek’s outstanding psychological thriller about a mimic resonance expert who can no longer trust herself when she is in dire need

A tiny twitch in the corner of the mouth, the smallest change in the pupil is enough for her to “read” the true self of a person: Hannah Herbst is Germany’s most experienced mimic resonance expert, specializing in the secret signals of the human body. As a police advisor, she has already convicted a number of violent criminals.

But just when she is struggling with the consequences of memory loss after an operation, she is confronted with the most terrible case of her career: A previously completely blameless woman has confessed to having brutally murdered her family. Only her young son Paul survived. After her confession, the mother manages to escape from prison. Is she looking for her son to complete her “death mission”? Hannah Herbst only has the short confession video to convict the mother and save Paul. The problem: The murderer on the video is Hannah herself!

Her only way out leads deep inside her…

The Song of the Crayfish: A Novel
Delia Owens

The touching story of Kya the march girl, of the fragility of childhood and the beauty of nature

Chase Andrews dies, and the residents of the quiet seaside town of Barkley Cove agree: the march girl is to blame. Kya Clark lives in isolation in the marshland with its salt marshes and sandbars. She knows every stone and seabird, every shell and plant. When two young men become aware of the wild beauty, Kya opens up to a new life – with dramatic consequences. In an intense and atmospheric way, Delia Owens tells us that we will always be the children we once were. And cannot oppose the mysteries and violence of nature.

The Only Book You Should Read About Finance
Thomas Kehl

Better now than never!

From now on there are no more excuses to put off building wealth. Investing your money profitably has never been easier than it is today. The book by the creators of the successful YouTube channel “Finanzfluss” picks you up and gives you impulses to take responsibility for your own financial situation and to spark enthusiasm for personal wealth accumulation. Former investment banker Thomas Kehl and journalist Mona Linke explain how you can use stocks and ETFs to passively build wealth and how it works.

The Cafe on the Edge of the World: A Tale of the Meaning of Life
John Strelecky

A small café in the middle of nowhere becomes a turning point in the life of John, an advertising manager who is always in a hurry. He actually only wants to take a short break, but then he discovers three questions on the menu next to the menu of the day:
»Why are you here? Are you afraid of death? Do you lead a full life?” How strange – but once intrigued, John decides to unravel this mystery with the help of the chef, the waitress and a guest.

Questions about the meaning of life take him far away from his boardroom to the seashore of Hawaii. Along the way, his attitude toward life and relationships changes, and he learns just how much can be learned from a wise green sea turtle. Ultimately, this journey becomes a journey to one’s own self. A book that is as lively and humorous as it is touching.

Anthony Hopkins Celebrating Sobriety

Anthony Hopkins Marks 47 Years Sober with Inspiring Video Message: ‘Celebrate Yourself’ from entertainment

“I just want to wish everyone a happy new year and also to say I’m celebrating 47 years today of sobriety,” began Hopkins, 84. “This is a message not meant to be heavy, but I hope helpful. I am a recovering alcoholic. And to you out there — I know there are people struggling.”
…

“But if you need help with any addiction or problem, talk to someone. Talk to someone you respect, whether it’s a counselor or to go to a 12-step program,” he advised. “There are 12-step programs all over the world, every city. … Twelve-step programs that can help you identify what you are. It doesn’t cost a thing, but it will give you a whole new life.”

Hopkins went on to say he’s “not a do-gooder” and joked he’s “an old sinner, like everyone,” but he has “the best life he could [ever] imagine.”

Anthony Hopkins Marks 47 Years Sober with Inspiring Video Message: ‘Celebrate Yourself’ “Wherever you are, get help. Don’t be ashamed,” the actor and recovering alcoholic said in an inspiring New Year’s video message PEOPLE magazine

 

Alberto Giacometti Breaks Leg, Sartre quote

One evening, more than twenty years ago, Giacometti was hit by a car while crossing the Place d’Italie. Though his leg was twisted, his first feeling, in the state of lucid swoon into which he had fallen, was a kind of joy: “Something has happened to me at last!” I know his radicalism: he expected the worst. The life he so loved and which he would not have changed for any othe was knocked out of joint, perhaps shattered, by the stupid violence of the chance: “So,” he thought to himself, “I wasn’t meant to be a sculptor, nor even to live. I wasn’t meant for anything.” What thrilled him was the menacing order of causes that was suddenly unmasked and the act of staring with the petrifying gaze of a cataclysm at the lights of the city, at human beings, at his own body lying flat in the mud: for a sculptor, the mineral world is never far away. I admire that will to welcome everything. If one likes surprises, one must like them to that degree, one must like even the rare flashes which reveal to devotees that the earth is not meant for them.

The Words
Jean-Paul Sartre

Best Books I Read in 2022 that Weren’t Written in 2022

Selections mine. Descriptions from either Amazon or associated review or link. Listed in order of publication date.

English Journey – 1934
J. B. Priestley
Where I heard about it – David Bowie liked this and it was one of the books in Bowie’s Bookshelf: The Hundred Books that Changed David Bowie’s Life
Funnily enough, for all the bad news it imparts, English Journey is a consoling, optimistic read. This is down to Priestley’s tone, which, like his way with the mostly affectionately sketched characters he meets on his travels, is genial and uncontrived, or at least plays that way. Being a man of the people matters hugely to Priestley. He can’t resist a dig at “literary” writers who dismiss him as middlebrow but remain aloof from the poverty and suffering of ordinary folk. If T. S. Eliot ever wants to write a poem about an actual physical wasteland, he jokes, he should take a trip to North Shields.

Correlli’s Mandolin – 1995
Louis de Bernieres
Where I heard about it – This book was big in the 90’s.
The acclaimed story of a timeless place that one day wakes up to find itself in the jaws of history: “An exuberant mixture of history and romance, written with a wit that is incandescent” (Los Angeles Times Book Review).

The Smoking Diaries – 2001
Simon Gray
Where I heard about it – David Shields mentioned it in this NYTIMES interview
When he turned sixty-five, the acclaimed playwright Simon Gray began to keep this diary: not a careful honing of the day’s events with a view to posterity but an account of his thoughts as he had them, honestly, turbulently, digressively expressed. 

Stage Blood – 2013
Michael Blakemore
Where I heard about it – Amazon recommendation
Five tempestuous years in the early life of the National Theatre

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace – 2014
Jeff Hobbs
Where I heard about it – New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2014
A heartbreaking journey from a New Jersey ghetto to Yale to a drug-­related murder.

Surfing with Sartre – 2017
Aaron James
Where I heard about it – NYTIMES Book review from 2017
Meet Aaron James. He is a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Irvine, and an accomplished surfer. His new book, “Surfing With Sartre,” aims to articulate the distinctive philosophical value of the surfer way of being. His conclusion is bold: “What the surfer knows, in knowing how to ride a wave, bears on questions for the ages — about freedom, control, happiness, society, our relation to nature, the value of work and the very meaning of life.”

Five Minutes to Kill – 2017
Fred Stoller
Where I heard about it – Amazon Recommendation
In the 1980s and the 1990s, HBO’s annual Young Comedians Special was the ultimate launching pad for emerging comics looking to break into the world of show business. The Young Comedians Special produced some of the most recognizable—and bankable—comedic stars of all time, including Sam Kinison, Bob Saget, Jerry Seinfeld, and Judd Apatow. But what about the ones who didn’t exactly make it?

Three Girls from Bronzeville – 2021
Dawn Turner Trice
Where I heard about it – New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2021
A former columnist for The Chicago Tribune offers a textured portrait of her 1970s childhood on the South Side, where three Black girls with similar aspirations ended up with wildly divergent fates.

Rooftops in the Snow – Gustave Caillebotte

Caillebotte created many paintings showing urban Paris from unexpected perspectives, such as a streetscape seen from indoors in Jeune homme à la fenêtre (1875), or the exaggerated perspective of Rue de Paris, temps de pluie (1877). Vue de toits depicts snow-covered rooftops in Montmartre, Paris from a high vantage point, possibly a balcony. Here Caillebotte employs a largely monochromatic palette of grays, adding additional color to highlight building features.[3] This perspective was not at all common in French paintings, and in fact Caillebotte may have been inspired by the photographic works of Hippolyte Bayard.[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vue_de_toits_(Effet_de_neige)

Austin Powers as Metaphor for Change

‘This Fool’ (Hulu)
Season 1, Episode 5: ‘Sandy Says’

The closing seconds of this episode-long homage to “Austin Powers” were perhaps the most satisfying payoff I saw this year. “Sandy Says” exemplifies the tricky tone “This Fool” is able to strike, combining the structure of traditional sitcoms with the style of auteur comedies, hitting a sweet spot of goofy and clever. Luis (Frankie Quinones), newly out of prison, is in annoying-eighth-grader mode with his constant “Austin Powers” references, and the episode is packed with shagadelic Easter eggs before Luis explains part of why the movie means so much to him. “I’m tired of wasting time living in the past,” he says. “Ideally, we’ll change. The world is ever-changing, homey. I gotta change with it. That’s what ‘Austin Powers’ is all about. You know, I used to think that movie was a comedy. But now I know, it’s a tragedy.”

NYTIMES
The Best TV Episodes of 2022
TV in the streaming era is an endless feast. This year, series like “Barry,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Pachinko,” “Station Eleven” and “This Fool” offered some of the best bites.

RIP – Terry Hall

Here’s a rembrance at BBC:
Terry Hall of The Specials dies aged 63

From Wikipedia:

“Ghost Town” is a song by the British two-tone band the Specials, released on 12 June 1981. The song spent three weeks at number one and 10 weeks in total in the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart.

Evoking themes of urban decay, deindustrialisation, unemployment and violence in inner cities, the song is remembered for being a hit at the same time as riots were occurring in British cities. Internal tensions within the band were also coming to a head when the single was being recorded, resulting in the song being the last single recorded by the original seven members of the group before splitting up. However, the song was hailed by the contemporary UK music press as a major piece of popular social commentary, and all three of the major UK music magazines of the time awarded “Ghost Town” the accolade of “Single of the Year” for 1981. It was the 12th-best-selling single in the UK in 1981.

Best and Worst European Theater of 2022 – NYTIMES Critics

The Best (and Worst) Theater in Europe in 2022
The Times’s three European theater critics pick their favorite productions of the year — plus a turkey apiece for the festive season.

Matt Wolf – Four favorites from The Times’s London theater critic:
Blues for an Alabama Sky
Oklahoma!
The Seagull
A Number (no link given)
Mad House – Turkey

Laura Cappelle – Four favorites from The Times’s Paris theater critic:
Catarina and the Beauty of Killing Fascists
One Song
Fat People Skate Well. A Cardboard Cabaret
Free Will
Tartuffe – Turkey

A.J. Goldmann – Four favorites from The Times’s Berlin theater critic:
humanistää!
Oasis de la Impunidad
Verrückt nach Trost
Hamilton
Queen Lear – Turkey