Blogging-stuffers

Beginning tomorrow, we Meridians will be on the road more often than not for the holidays: first, a trip to Topeka for Christmas proper; then, next week, a trip down to Austin and thence over to Mobile. Thus, the next post will be some time after the 1st.

I imagine that my regular readers, all revelers of various sorts, will be few and far between for the next couple of weeks. But if you're not, if, in the abstract, you are generally of the opinion that Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All is a Good Thing but can no longer abide your particular tribe/brood, then below the fold I've placed some links to various sites that you might find pleasing.

Best wishes to all for the merriest of Christmases and a safe and joy-filled holiday season.

First of all: a quick movie recommendation: Unfaithfully Yours (1948; dir. Preston Sturges; starring Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Rudy Vallee, Barbara Lawrence). Sturges (whose film Sullivan's Travels I highly recommend, especially to fans of O Brother, Where Art Thou?), known for the rather cerebral quality of his films, is at his very best here (he also wrote and produced this one), and his material benefits greatly from Rex Harrison's slightly-mad performance as a symphony conductor highly suspicious of the faithfulness of his much younger wife (Darnell). One look at/listen to Darnell, absolutely ravishing in this film, and it's easy to see why he's watchful of the younger men about. Another interesting feature of the film is that much of its action actually occurs in Harrison's mind--as he's conducting an orchestra. He plots three very different scenarios for dealing with his wife's indiscretions, the pieces he's conducting serving as appropriate accompaniments for each of those plots. The plot proper, meanwhile, moves hardly at all, yet we don't even notice it. Terry Jones, who provides the introduction for the Criterion release, speculates that this film perhaps didn't do so well because structurally, it was a bit ahead of its time, and I can see how some might have gotten confused. Indeed, structurally it resembles and is not much less complicated than Run, Lola, Run. Fascinating and funny.

Other, bloggy things now:
Earlier this month, Ariel (he of the estimable blog BitterSweet Life) invited me to post on occasion at his other blog, the Vocabulary Reclaimation Project. I finally came up with something and posted it here. I hope you find it interesting.

Over in the Links column, I've added a section of sites dealing with Latin American culture and politics. If you have any interest in that region of the world, I hope you'll wander over there.

I also want to remind you of this, that I posted back in November:

[T]his idea comes from the excellent blog Watermark. As a public service to the blogosphere, Watermark provides a direct link to the "Insignificant Microbes" list of blogs (blogs to which no one yet links) that appear on The Truth Laid Bear Blogosphere Ecosystem along with the exhortation "Help them evolve." I've done the same; those interested will find the link just above my Directories list. To be sure, the ecosystem would be better off without some of what you'll find; but it's because of said list that I recently found a very well-written and entertaining law blog/personal blog, Sauce Box, one which, to my mind, richly deserves to evolve still further, beyond its current Lowly Insect status. Go visit and get all Darwinian on someone.

Nothing like perusing the 12,000 or so blogs listed there to pass the time over the holidays, no? A little time spent there does have its rewards, though: Yesterday, I found another blog in the blogosphere's primordial soup, State of the Arts, an artist blog accompanied by some of the most gnomic writing I've yet to read on the 'Nets. Go have a look. It's not for everyone, but hey--are you Everyone?

Add to the above some recently-added political blogs, a couple of law blogs in their own section, and some other new blogs added to the blogroll, and I hope that you'll find reasons to linger for more than 30 seconds.

And finally, another encouragement to those of you who consider yourselves regular readers to leave a pin on my Frappr map . . . unless, of course, you're too embarrassed to admit publicly that you read such drivel as this. In which case: how is it you've read this far, then? If you have, you might as well post.

Once again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Thanks as always for reading.

Technorati tags:
Film, Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, Blogosphere, TTLB Ecosystem, Frappr