I have had several discussions this week about the elements of filmmaking and what makes a film work. Of course it is subjective and each person I spoke with had a different point of view – but Gil Bettman in the opening chapter of his book basically nailed it for me. The first time director must understand and take to heart the fundamental truth that if the audience is transported into the drama of the film, they will sit there […]
Categories: Jennifer Dean, ZiR • Tags: film
This is the first of two reviews of Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods. This review is about Bryson’s use of humor, the second about his concern for the ecology surrounding the Appalachian Trail “That’s the trouble with losing your mind; by the time it’s gone, it’s too late to get it back,” said Bill Bryson in A Walk in the Woods, Bryson’s narrative of his and pal Stephen Katz’s hike on the Appalachian Trail (AT). Bryson was in a “state of […]
Categories: Tucker Cox, ZiR • Tags: travel
I confess that reading Julia Kasdorf’s poem “What I Learned from my Mother” this past Sunday made me teary. But, if there is a day for no-holds-barred sappiness it’s Mother’s Day. In many ways it was my first Mother’s Day as a mom. My son is now eighteen months old so I fully understand what it is to be a mother. The work and patience it requires, but also the great joy it generates. Instead of feeling like I needed […]
Categories: Ana Maria Caballero, ZiR • Tags: books, literature, poetry, writing
Jennifer A. Reich’s Fixing Families: Parents, Power, and the Child Welfare System is best know for its robust and compassionate analysis of child protection as a system. Yet in many ways, her book is also about the (ever-changing) value of parenting, families, childhood and childrearing. In just a few lines Reich, introduces the possibility that children’s value, once strictly economic, is now tied to emotional markers. She deconstructs current assumptions about family relationships to explain that: In the last one hundred years, children […]
Categories: Alexia Raynal, ZiR • Tags: childhood, children, families, family court, law, parenting
An extract from an article by D.W. Winnicott has become lodged in my consciousness, and I believe for good reason. Like memories of a dream, Winnicott’s thoughts await events or a moment of inspiration to reveal why they are speaking to me (and perhaps others) now, and what they now have to say. In this article, “The Use of an Object and Relating through Identifications,” Winnicott was speaking to fellow psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, but my sense is that the sentences […]
Categories: William Eaton, ZiR • Tags: Adam Phillips, D.W. Winnicott, psychology, psychotherapy, T.S. Eliot
Having worked in the restaurant industry for the past 10 years, I can say that Mother’s Day is certainly the cash cow of Sunday brunches for all employees. Mimosas are a-flowing and tips are a-plentiful. Today I’ve come across this surprising history of the holiday, worth sharing before we all run off to send out our last minute flowers and hallmark cards! National Geographic writes in Mother’s Day Turns 100: It’s Surprisingly Dark History, of Anna Jarvis, founder of a holiday formed […]
Categories: Caterina Gironda, ZiR • Tags: consumerism, National Geographic
Some colleagues and I were having a discussion this morning about the idea that many people in the arts and entertainment have tendencies towards the extremes of self-loathing and arrogance. It got me thinking and thanks to the wonders of the internet and some free time waiting for a meeting with my smartphone I started to do some searching and reading on the subject. I came across a salon.com article which explores many issues surrounding the subject, Literary self-loathing: […]
Categories: Jennifer Dean, ZiR • Tags: film, gender, women, writing
This is the second of two reviews. Part I (April 24) is about Stevenson’s desire to travel. In Part II RLS learns to love Modestine, his donkey and comments on religion. In 1878, R.L. Stevenson and Modestine, his donkey, trekked through the Cevennes region of southern France for 12 days, covering 120 miles. Stevenson wrote about their trip in Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes. It is a classic travelogue, among the first to celebrate hiking and camping. The Kindle edition is currently free on Amazon. To carry his cargo, Stevenson needed something “cheap […]
Categories: Tucker Cox, ZiR • Tags: Robert Louis Stevenson, travel
There are good reasons why Billy Collins is probably the most-loved U.S. Poet Laureate in recent history. For one, his poetry speaks, talks, chats us up. It is like The Simpsons. You can zone out, read and enjoy. Or you can dig a little and discover that each word is rooted in mindful soul. Here is a great example of his relaxed work: Creatures Hamlet noticed them in the shapes of clouds, but I saw them in the furniture of […]
Categories: Ana Maria Caballero, ZiR • Tags: literature, poetry, writing
ZETEO