Bryan Garner on rules and writing

“When it comes to supposed rules of writing, it’s good to know what’s at their foundation”: Bryan Garner on writing and rules, those to follow and those to ignore (ABA Journal).

Two related posts
Bad advice and misinformation : Ending a sentence with it

A thought for these days

Clickety clack, clickety clack,
Somebody’s mind done gone off the goddam track.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk, from the recitation “Clickety Clack,” recorded live at the Keystone Korner, San Francisco, June 1973. From the album Bright Moments (Atlantic, 1973).

The Fourth

[“Hartford, Wisconsin, Fourth of July.” Photograph by John Vachon. July 1941.From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Click for a larger flag, cone, and sign.]

A Chris Christie “Footprints”

"Footprints in the Sand," New Jersey-style. #ChrisChristie #Beachgate pic.twitter.com/hbaMG0DU2Y

— Sarshimus P (@snoodmonger) July 3, 2017

Our daughter Rachel’s husband Seth is a very funny guy. This tweet is his. If you like it, please share it.

[Puzzled? Context here.]

“Oração”

“Oração” [Prayer], music and lyrics by Leo Fressato, performed by the composer and A Banda Mais Bonita da Cidade [The Most Beautiful Band in Town].

A thing of beauty is a joy since 2011. I’m late to the show: in the last six years, “Oração” has had nearly twenty-seven million views on YouTube.

Here’s some background on the song and the band. And here are the lyrics, in Portuguese and in English translation.

“Dedicado à Você”

I heard this recording for the first time yesterday and was floored by its beauty: “Dedicado à Você,” sung by Zizi Possi. Music by Dominguinhos, lyrics by Nando Cordel. Dominguinhos is playing the accordion. I have the song on a compilation, Dominguinhos é de Todos (Universal Music). First released on the 1989 Possi LP Estrebucha Baby (Philips).

A related post
“Lamento Sertanejo”

Illinois, Illinois, Illinois

The New York Times reports what us locals know too well: Illinois is about to enter its third year without a budget.

A point that bears repeating: it’s a manufactured crisis. From the article:

“This impasse has been very cleverly designed to minimize the immediate obvious impact on middle-class families that don’t have a need for state-funded social services,” said Andrea Durbin, the chief executive of the Illinois Collaboration on Youth, an association for providers of youth and family services.

“The people who get impacted are the people who are sick, who need the support from the state to be safe and healthy and get back on their feet and become self-sufficient, or to live their final days in dignity,” Ms. Durbin said.

Add to that the people who work in or rely upon public higher education.

Related reading
All OCA Illinois budget crisis posts (Pinboard)

Recently updated

Roscoe Mitchell at Mills Not fired. His colleagues aren’t as fortunate.

Pocket notebook sightings

[Laird Cregar as Inspector Ed Cornell, Victor Mature as Frankie Christopher, in I Wake Up Screaming (dir. H. Bruce Humberstone, 1941). Click either image for a larger view.]

Inspector Cornell’s pocket notebook is a multi-tool in disguise, used for note-taking and for storing a hair sample from an amused suspect.

More notebook sightings
Angels with Dirty Faces : Ball of Fire : Cat People : City Girl : Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne : Dragnet : Extras : Foreign Correspondent : Homicide : The Honeymooners : The House on 92nd Street : Journal d’un curé de campagne : The Last Laugh : The Lodger : Mr. Holmes : Murder at the Vanities : Murder by Contract : Murder, Inc. : The Mystery of the Wax Museum : Naked City : The Naked Edge : The Palm Beach Story : Pickpocket : Pickup on South Street : Pushover : Quai des Orfèvres : Railroaded! : Red-Headed Woman : Rififi : Route 66 : The Sopranos : Spellbound : State Fair : T-Men : Union Station : Where the Sidewalk Ends : The Woman in the Window

[In the remake Vicki (dir. Harry Horner, 1953) Richard Boone’s Cornell is far more violent, but Cregar’s Cornell is far more frightening.]

Overheard

[The television was on for warmth.]

“I believe we have three hundred tins of ltalian sardines.”

Related reading
All OCA “overheard” and sardine posts (Pinboard)