Remington Roundup: The #Classics, #Art, & #Writing

IMG_0702Clickety-clack, copy and paste.

Here’s your February round up of articles and essays on lessons from a classic, making art until the end, and why I carry a stack of paper & pens in my backpack every day.


#Classics

28 Lessons We’ve Learned from Pride and Prejudice on Bluestocking Salon, which mentions Colin Firth three times. But that’s not the (real) reason I love this post.

12592293_10208681678268381_5700226019705664968_n“2. Be persistent in the face of rejection.

19. “Obstinate, headstrong girl!” really is a compliment.

21. When it comes to a man’s library, size matters.”


#Art

Elizabeth Gilbert’s post on David Bowie’s death, which shares the link to his music video, “Lazarus.” I didn’t grow up a die-hard Bowie fan (hey, don’t hate me…only because I was very religious when I was young), but I certainly appreciate his art and what Gilbert says about him and his work.

“[He spent] his final months dying doing what he’d done his whole life–making outrageously original, beautiful, complicated art. . . . This is what it means to be a great artist.”

As a bonus, read Richard Z. Santos’ “A Partial List” about David Bowie on Barrelhouse Magazine.


#Writing

On Keeping a (Writing) Notebook (or Three) by Randon Billings Noble in Brevity Magazine. Noble opens her essay with a few quotes from Joan Didion’s “On Keeping a Notebook,” and that could be enough. But in the end Noble herself explains why she (and I) have more than one notebook within reach on any given day.

12390869_10208342498749105_771019349669136394_n“there’s a difference between a diary and a journal…in a diary you record each day’s events and in a journal you write whatever you want about your day whenever you want to write about it. . . . my writing notebooks keep me writing – through rejection, triumph, inspiration, and disenchantment…on the crests and in the troughs; at home and away….”

What have you bookmarked lately?

Loved. Lost. Found. The Reading

image: Loved. Lost. Found. the anthologyLast Saturday, nine women and men over the age of 70 gathered in front of a room at Harwood Place in Wauwatosa to share essays and poems they’d written during the past year.

They looked entirely at ease, despite the looming podium and microphone. I, on the other hand, trotted back and forth before the event began, shuffling papers, asking if anyone wanted water, working up a good sweat and rapid pulse. I could have used some of their serenity (even if they were faking it).

But while our levels of anxiety differed and our ages spanned miles apart, there was so much more that connected us that day.

Jacqui Banaszynski says, “Stories are parables. . . . Stories are history. . . . Each one stands in for a larger message…a guidepost on our collective journey.” When people gather together, writers or not, it doesn’t matter where we come from. Our stories–our histories–connect us. Each of us is daughter or son, husband or wife, old hat at this or novice at that. In the essays and poems read from the podium last Saturday, we heard about first loves, found objects, and failed knitting attempts. I am generations apart from the Harwood Place Writers, but I can relate.

This event is one of the highlights of my year and one of the reasons I continue to lead their class. These writers come to the table every month with open minds, tales to share, and a genuine fellowship that begins with a smile.

IMG_3285Congratulations to the Harwood Place Writers on another year of fantastic stories!