Line(s) of the Day #CanneryRow

Early morning is a time of magic in Cannery Row. In the gray time after the light has come and before the sun has risen, the Row seems to hang suspended out of time in a silvery light. The street lights go out, and the weeds are brilliant green. The corrugated iron of the canneries glows with the pearly lucence of platinum or gold pewter. No automobiles are running then. The street is silent of progress and business. And the rush and drag of the waves can be heard as they splash in among the piles of the canneries. It is a time of great peace, a deserted time, a little era of rest.

The charming style of gifted Californian writer John Steinbeck from his acclaimed novel Cannery Row (1945). Winner of the Nobel Prize of Literature in 1962, the literary titan also wrote other masterpieces such as Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden.

Line(s) of the Day #YouveGotMail

[via email] The odd thing about this form of communication is that you’re more likely to talk about nothing than something. But I just want to say that all this nothing has meant more to me than so many somethings.

Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) in the sweet romcom You’ve Got Mail (1998), which tells of two people who fall in love via anonymous email despite fighting as business rivals.

Line(s) of the Day #WhentheGamewasOurs

My high school coach George Fox used to tell me to never take my talent for granted.

“You’re special, Earvin,” Fox used to say. “But you can’t stop working hard. Just remember there’s someone out there who is just as talented as you, and he’s working just as hard. maybe even harder.

When Coach Fox told me those things I’d nod my head, but in my mind i was thinking, “I’d like to meet this guy because i haven’t seen him.” Truthfully? I wasn’t sure anyone like that existed.

That changed the day in 1978 when I walked into a gym in Lexington, Kentucky, and met Larry Bird for the first time.

As said by Earvin “Magic” Johnson in the brilliant biography When the Game was Ours. Written by Johnson, Larry Bird and Jackie MacMullan, it is filled with insight and anecdotes of the engrossing rivalry between the two stars of the LA Lakers and Boston Celtics that peaked in the 1980s.

Line(s) of the Day #ForeverYoung

Let’s dance in style, let’s dance for a while
Heaven can wait we’re only watching the skies

Taken from the song Forever Young from the 1984 debut album of the same name by the German band Alphaville. Though not a success in either the UK or US, the song has been covered numerous times and was memorably used in the film Napoleon Dynamite.

Film Quizzes: Teenager Movies

Time for another quiz. I’ve always had a soft spot for the whole teenager/adolescence genre, and unlike last time’s 2018 quiz, have seen all of the ones listed below. Do you have a favourite? How many can you get? As always feel free to share your score, offer any thoughts about the genre or recommend any others that you like.

 Film 1  – (1950s)

 Film 2  –  (1970s)

 Film 3  – (1980s)

 Film 4  – (1980s)

 Film 5 – (1980s)

 Film 6  –  (1980s)

 Film 7  – (1990s)

 Film 8  – (1990s)

 Film 9  –  (2000s)

 Film 10  – (2000s)

 Film 11  –  (2000s)

 Film 12  – (2010+)

 Film 13  –  (2010)

 Film 14  –  (2010+)

 Film 15 – (2010+)

Answers below

Line(s) of the Day #TheOldManandtheSea

Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with that there is.

As said by the elderly fisherman Santiago in the maritime novella The Old Man and the Sea (1952) by American literary giant Ernest Hemingway.  Widely considered to be one of the all-time great works, it won Hemingway a Pulitzer Prize and was instrumental in gaining him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.

Gr8at: Good Grief Charlie Brown

I quoted Charlie Brown recently, with a photo from the very fun exhibition at Somerset House, Good Grief,Charlie Brown! But i just had to add some more to give you a sense of how great it was to see the Charles M. Schulz’s characters brought to life again.

And a bonus message

Line(s) of the Day #TheThirdMan

I had paid my last farewell to Harry a week ago,when his coffin was lowered into the frozen February ground, so that it was with incredulity that I saw him pass by, without a sign of recognition, among the host of strangers in the Strand.

The lines of inspiration for the film that became The Third Man. In a rather unique turn of events, these lines never made it into the book, the film was set in Vienna and Graham Green’s book (never meant to be anything other than a draft to help plan the screenplay), was published after the success of the 1949 British film noir. It’s still my favourite film. Feel free to share any examples of any time you have preferred the silver screen adaptation to the original novel.

Line(s) of the Day #BraveNewWorld

Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly — they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.

As said by Helmholtz Watson, an Alpha-Plus lecturer at the College of Emotional Engineering, in the dystopian novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Published in 1932, the literary masterpiece tells of a future where genetically modified citizens have their future careers programmed, war and violence has been removed and the government assisted drug Soma is encouraged to remove any thoughts of unhappiness.

Photography #WhirlwindCloud across a blue sky

Out on a walk, I saw this gorgeous combination of colour, shape and outline and just had to share it with you all.