<![CDATA[Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

<![CDATA[Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum - Art & Music]]> https://www.scivillage.com/ Wed, 23 Sep 2026 18:11:34 +0000 MyBB <![CDATA[Annie Dillard (RIP)]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21356.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 20:46:47 +0000 Magical Realist]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21356.html
That creek was Tinker Creek, in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, where in the early 1970s Dillard spent a year walking, watching, and writing down what she saw. Readers often compared the result to Thoreau's "Walden," which made sense -- she had written her graduate thesis on Thoreau himself -- but she resisted being called a nature writer. What she was really after was God, and she was willing to stare directly at the brutality of the natural world in the search. She refused to prettify any of it. The beauty and the violence came tangled together in her pages -- a tree lit up like a burning bush one moment, a moth caught and consumed in a candle flame the next -- and she set them down exactly that way, in sentences that could move from precise observation to something close to prayer without missing a step.

The acclaim that followed unsettled her. Reporters treated her youth and her looks as though they were part of the story, and she came to guard her privacy fiercely, moving across the country and away from the attention so she could work. She had been born Meta Ann Doak in Pittsburgh in 1945, and grew up a curious, half-wild reader and roamer -- a childhood she would later turn into the best-selling memoir "An American Childhood." The other books came steadily and restlessly: "Holy the Firm," a short, burning meditation on suffering and faith; "Teaching a Stone to Talk," with its now-famous essay on a total eclipse; "The Writing Life," which working writers have pressed on one another for decades; and two novels, the last of them "The Maytrees," in 2007, after which she mostly laid down her pen.

Her real subject, underneath the moths and the eclipses and the weather, was attention itself -- the conviction that to look hard at anything is to begin to love it, and that most of us sleep through a world that is, on close inspection, almost unbearably alive. She spent her final years quietly, painting watercolors at her home on Cape Cod; in 2014 she stepped back into public view just long enough to accept the National Humanities Medal from President Obama.

Dillard asked a great deal of her readers, because she asked even more of herself. "You can't be anything else," she once wrote of the writer's vocation, in words that describe the whole of how she lived. "You must go at your life with a broadax."

To explore Annie Dillard's work, here are some of her most acclaimed books:

- "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" -- her Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork, a year of close watching along a Virginia creek that turns the natural world into a meditation on beauty, violence, and God, at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780061233326 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4iQmx1x (Amazon)

- "The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old and New" -- a career-spanning collection that gathers her finest essays in one volume, an ideal introduction for readers new to her work, at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780062432964 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4xXZx5b (Amazon)

- "For the Time Being" -- a searching, wide-ranging meditation on suffering, chance, and what it means to be human, weaving together sand, clouds, birth, and the divine, at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780375703478 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/3Vz3wqo (Amazon)

- "An American Childhood" -- her best-selling memoir of growing up curious and half-wild in 1950s Pittsburgh, and of a young mind waking up to the world, at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780060915186 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4hwaMvO (Amazon)

- "Teaching a Stone to Talk" -- a celebrated collection of essays, including "Total Eclipse," widely considered one of the finest American essays of the twentieth century, at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780060915414 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4j4uu2X (Amazon)

- "The Maytrees" -- her final novel, an unexpectedly tender story of love and long marriage set on the tip of Cape Cod, at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780061239540 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4h4sWn2 (Amazon)

- To read a tribute to Annie Dillard in The New York Times, visit https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/books...-dead.html]]>
That creek was Tinker Creek, in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, where in the early 1970s Dillard spent a year walking, watching, and writing down what she saw. Readers often compared the result to Thoreau's "Walden," which made sense -- she had written her graduate thesis on Thoreau himself -- but she resisted being called a nature writer. What she was really after was God, and she was willing to stare directly at the brutality of the natural world in the search. She refused to prettify any of it. The beauty and the violence came tangled together in her pages -- a tree lit up like a burning bush one moment, a moth caught and consumed in a candle flame the next -- and she set them down exactly that way, in sentences that could move from precise observation to something close to prayer without missing a step.

The acclaim that followed unsettled her. Reporters treated her youth and her looks as though they were part of the story, and she came to guard her privacy fiercely, moving across the country and away from the attention so she could work. She had been born Meta Ann Doak in Pittsburgh in 1945, and grew up a curious, half-wild reader and roamer -- a childhood she would later turn into the best-selling memoir "An American Childhood." The other books came steadily and restlessly: "Holy the Firm," a short, burning meditation on suffering and faith; "Teaching a Stone to Talk," with its now-famous essay on a total eclipse; "The Writing Life," which working writers have pressed on one another for decades; and two novels, the last of them "The Maytrees," in 2007, after which she mostly laid down her pen.

Her real subject, underneath the moths and the eclipses and the weather, was attention itself -- the conviction that to look hard at anything is to begin to love it, and that most of us sleep through a world that is, on close inspection, almost unbearably alive. She spent her final years quietly, painting watercolors at her home on Cape Cod; in 2014 she stepped back into public view just long enough to accept the National Humanities Medal from President Obama.

Dillard asked a great deal of her readers, because she asked even more of herself. "You can't be anything else," she once wrote of the writer's vocation, in words that describe the whole of how she lived. "You must go at your life with a broadax."

To explore Annie Dillard's work, here are some of her most acclaimed books:

- "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" -- her Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork, a year of close watching along a Virginia creek that turns the natural world into a meditation on beauty, violence, and God, at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780061233326 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4iQmx1x (Amazon)

- "The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old and New" -- a career-spanning collection that gathers her finest essays in one volume, an ideal introduction for readers new to her work, at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780062432964 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4xXZx5b (Amazon)

- "For the Time Being" -- a searching, wide-ranging meditation on suffering, chance, and what it means to be human, weaving together sand, clouds, birth, and the divine, at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780375703478 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/3Vz3wqo (Amazon)

- "An American Childhood" -- her best-selling memoir of growing up curious and half-wild in 1950s Pittsburgh, and of a young mind waking up to the world, at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780060915186 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4hwaMvO (Amazon)

- "Teaching a Stone to Talk" -- a celebrated collection of essays, including "Total Eclipse," widely considered one of the finest American essays of the twentieth century, at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780060915414 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4j4uu2X (Amazon)

- "The Maytrees" -- her final novel, an unexpectedly tender story of love and long marriage set on the tip of Cape Cod, at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780061239540 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4h4sWn2 (Amazon)

- To read a tribute to Annie Dillard in The New York Times, visit https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/books...-dead.html]]> <![CDATA[What 7 songs would be on the soundtrack of your life?]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21269.html Sat, 05 Sep 2026 19:29:30 +0000 Magical Realist]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21269.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8aNK3XMP5w

"Times Like These" Foo Fighters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhzmNRtIp8k

"Shout" Tears For Fears

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye7FKc1JQe4

"You Learn" Alannis Morissette

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye7FKc1JQe4

"Lazy Eye" SilverSun Pickups

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYd57rkvnpQ

"Counting Stars" OneRepublic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT_nvWreIhg

"Closer To Fine" Indigo Girls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUgwM1Ky228]]>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8aNK3XMP5w

"Times Like These" Foo Fighters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhzmNRtIp8k

"Shout" Tears For Fears

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye7FKc1JQe4

"You Learn" Alannis Morissette

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye7FKc1JQe4

"Lazy Eye" SilverSun Pickups

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYd57rkvnpQ

"Counting Stars" OneRepublic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT_nvWreIhg

"Closer To Fine" Indigo Girls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUgwM1Ky228]]> <![CDATA[What is the purpose, if any, of Art?]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21190.html Wed, 26 Aug 2026 18:58:24 +0000 Magical Realist]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21190.html
“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”---Banksy

"The truth of art lies in its power to break the monopoly of established reality to define what is real."---Herbert Marcuse

I concur with all three of the above. Art SHOULD provoke new feelings we don't normally have, even unpleasant ones, and its implicit goal is to expand our sense of what is real and what CAN be real.]]>
“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”---Banksy

"The truth of art lies in its power to break the monopoly of established reality to define what is real."---Herbert Marcuse

I concur with all three of the above. Art SHOULD provoke new feelings we don't normally have, even unpleasant ones, and its implicit goal is to expand our sense of what is real and what CAN be real.]]> <![CDATA[Hugh Laurie: When you audition without giving a flip]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21150.html Fri, 21 Aug 2026 20:45:55 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21150.html Doc Martin.) If they're not already a part-time expat in the US, then they get homesick before the max of their five or more years contract.

So that's the amazing thing about Hugh Laurie. He stuck around for all eight seasons, and those involved vastly more episodes per year than the eight that Andrew Lincoln did for The Walking Dead. Before the latter finally hit his "I just can't take it anymore" limit and bailed out within the first two episodes of the ninth season. (But Lincoln is still to be very much commended for a marathon run that surpassed three seasons.)

OTOH, Oceania actors (Australia, NZ, etc) -- seem to have a much greater endurance level for being divorced from their homelands. For whatever reason. Countless examples of them hanging around for the long haul and well beyond.

When you audition without giving a f__k ... https://youtu.be/crH2pS_CZto

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/crH2pS_CZto]]> Doc Martin.) If they're not already a part-time expat in the US, then they get homesick before the max of their five or more years contract.

So that's the amazing thing about Hugh Laurie. He stuck around for all eight seasons, and those involved vastly more episodes per year than the eight that Andrew Lincoln did for The Walking Dead. Before the latter finally hit his "I just can't take it anymore" limit and bailed out within the first two episodes of the ninth season. (But Lincoln is still to be very much commended for a marathon run that surpassed three seasons.)

OTOH, Oceania actors (Australia, NZ, etc) -- seem to have a much greater endurance level for being divorced from their homelands. For whatever reason. Countless examples of them hanging around for the long haul and well beyond.

When you audition without giving a f__k ... https://youtu.be/crH2pS_CZto

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/crH2pS_CZto]]> <![CDATA[The wisdom of great creative souls (video clips)]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21081.html Wed, 12 Aug 2026 16:14:01 +0000 Magical Realist]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21081.html
https://www.facebook.com/reel/4582754425304280

Alain De Botton on how being alone for too long can be dangerous:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IYVyC3T82u0]]>
https://www.facebook.com/reel/4582754425304280

Alain De Botton on how being alone for too long can be dangerous:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IYVyC3T82u0]]> <![CDATA[Christopher Nolan responds to rightwing bigots' backlash to his film "The Odyssey"]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20854.html Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:03:27 +0000 Magical Realist]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20854.html
Released later this week, The Odyssey boasts an all-star cast that includes the likes of Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson and Zendaya.

However, certain small-minded critics have taken issue with some of the movie’s casting choices.

Most notably, the decision to have Lupita Nyong’o play Helen Of Troy in Nolan’s take on Homer’s Ancient Greek epic was met with racist backlash, while some also slammed the choice for Elliot Page to appear in the cast, reuniting the director and actor for the first time since the latter’s transition.

During a new interview with The Telegraph, the Oscar-winning director made it clear that this kind of discourse doesn’t really get to him, as it “comes with the territory”.

“These conversations that happen before people see the film – they’re always irrelevant, because no one having them knows what the film actually is yet,” he claimed.

Nolan also pointed out that, earlier on in his career, he “spent 10 years of my life dealing with Batman”, meaning he’s well-versed in these kinds of debates.

“When I came on to Batman Begins, writers and artists had been working on this beloved character for almost 65 years, and a lot of freighted thoughts were out there about what he represents,” he said.

“And what I learnt over my time on that trilogy is you can’t worry about any of that at all. What you have to do is honour the original text by interpreting it in the strongest way you personally can.”

He concluded: “All I can do is make the best film I possibly can in the most sincere way. It’s very different from how anyone else would do it, but that’s what adaptation is.”

Praising Lupita Nyong’o’s work in his latest film, the Oppenheimer director told Elle earlier this year: “The strength and the poise were so important to the character of Helen. And Lupita makes it look effortless.

“I’m sure there’s a tremendous amount of discipline and training that goes into projecting that kind of poise and feeling the emotion bubbling beneath the character, the layers of the character right there underneath. She’s just an incredible person to work with, and I was absolutely desperate for her to do the part.”

More recently, he has also responded to the polarised takes on The Odyssey’s approach to historical accuracy – including the inclusion of modern dialogue in the film.

The Odyssey hits cinemas on Friday 17 July."

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/c...upqokZZQEg]]>
Released later this week, The Odyssey boasts an all-star cast that includes the likes of Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson and Zendaya.

However, certain small-minded critics have taken issue with some of the movie’s casting choices.

Most notably, the decision to have Lupita Nyong’o play Helen Of Troy in Nolan’s take on Homer’s Ancient Greek epic was met with racist backlash, while some also slammed the choice for Elliot Page to appear in the cast, reuniting the director and actor for the first time since the latter’s transition.

During a new interview with The Telegraph, the Oscar-winning director made it clear that this kind of discourse doesn’t really get to him, as it “comes with the territory”.

“These conversations that happen before people see the film – they’re always irrelevant, because no one having them knows what the film actually is yet,” he claimed.

Nolan also pointed out that, earlier on in his career, he “spent 10 years of my life dealing with Batman”, meaning he’s well-versed in these kinds of debates.

“When I came on to Batman Begins, writers and artists had been working on this beloved character for almost 65 years, and a lot of freighted thoughts were out there about what he represents,” he said.

“And what I learnt over my time on that trilogy is you can’t worry about any of that at all. What you have to do is honour the original text by interpreting it in the strongest way you personally can.”

He concluded: “All I can do is make the best film I possibly can in the most sincere way. It’s very different from how anyone else would do it, but that’s what adaptation is.”

Praising Lupita Nyong’o’s work in his latest film, the Oppenheimer director told Elle earlier this year: “The strength and the poise were so important to the character of Helen. And Lupita makes it look effortless.

“I’m sure there’s a tremendous amount of discipline and training that goes into projecting that kind of poise and feeling the emotion bubbling beneath the character, the layers of the character right there underneath. She’s just an incredible person to work with, and I was absolutely desperate for her to do the part.”

More recently, he has also responded to the polarised takes on The Odyssey’s approach to historical accuracy – including the inclusion of modern dialogue in the film.

The Odyssey hits cinemas on Friday 17 July."

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/c...upqokZZQEg]]> <![CDATA[The left has no response to this.]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20495.html Sat, 23 May 2026 03:00:12 +0000 Syne]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20495.html

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/BdhTfofNJhU]]>

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/BdhTfofNJhU]]> <![CDATA[The Mirror and The Dream Of Objectivity]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20490.html Fri, 22 May 2026 19:26:05 +0000 Magical Realist]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20490.html
If a mirror is a 2D reflection of a 3D reality, then maybe the world is a 3D reflection of a 4D reality.

https://iai.tv/video/the-mirror]]>
If a mirror is a 2D reflection of a 3D reality, then maybe the world is a 3D reflection of a 4D reality.

https://iai.tv/video/the-mirror]]> <![CDATA[Outdoor art installations]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20349.html Sat, 02 May 2026 23:54:02 +0000 Magical Realist]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20349.html
https://www.cnn.com/travel/olaf-elisasso...tar-desert]]>
https://www.cnn.com/travel/olaf-elisasso...tar-desert]]> <![CDATA[Songs or parts of songs that make you frisson]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20254.html Wed, 22 Apr 2026 23:13:30 +0000 Magical Realist]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20254.html
"Eclipse" by Pink Floyd

"Do You Feel Like I Do?" Live version by Peter Frampton (you know the part!)

"Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel (the last few refrains.)

"Lightning Crashes" by Live (when he really lets it out)

"Baker Street" by Jerry Raferty (when that sax and electric guitar kick in!)

"The Daily Mail" by Radiohead (about halfway thru)

"Fix You" by Coldplay
'
"No War" by Cari Cari

"Silent Lucidity" by Queensryche

"Dance For Me Wallis" by Abel Korzeniowski

"Opening" (From "Far from the Madding Crowd" Soundtrack)
by Craig Armstrong

"Test Drive" (From How To Train Your Dragon Music From The Motion Picture) by John Powell

"Fantasia On A Theme By Thomas Tallis" by Ralph Vaughn Williams (the whole thing!)

"Breakdown" by Alan Parson's Project (the chorus at the end!)

"Life In A Northern Town" by The Dream Factory]]>
"Eclipse" by Pink Floyd

"Do You Feel Like I Do?" Live version by Peter Frampton (you know the part!)

"Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel (the last few refrains.)

"Lightning Crashes" by Live (when he really lets it out)

"Baker Street" by Jerry Raferty (when that sax and electric guitar kick in!)

"The Daily Mail" by Radiohead (about halfway thru)

"Fix You" by Coldplay
'
"No War" by Cari Cari

"Silent Lucidity" by Queensryche

"Dance For Me Wallis" by Abel Korzeniowski

"Opening" (From "Far from the Madding Crowd" Soundtrack)
by Craig Armstrong

"Test Drive" (From How To Train Your Dragon Music From The Motion Picture) by John Powell

"Fantasia On A Theme By Thomas Tallis" by Ralph Vaughn Williams (the whole thing!)

"Breakdown" by Alan Parson's Project (the chorus at the end!)

"Life In A Northern Town" by The Dream Factory]]> <![CDATA[Favorite music artists by state]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20057.html Thu, 26 Mar 2026 02:47:13 +0000 Magical Realist]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20057.html

]]>

]]> <![CDATA[Timothee Chalamet sticks his foot in his mouth]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19967.html Fri, 13 Mar 2026 19:53:03 +0000 Magical Realist]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19967.html
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1463421128498493]]>
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1463421128498493]]> <![CDATA[Beautiful Sky Nebula]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19787.html Sat, 14 Feb 2026 04:54:55 +0000 Yazata]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19787.html
Here it is put to music by D. Wise of Nasaspaceflight.com (Watch on full screen with the sound on.)

https://x.com/dwisecinema/status/2022267244525375589

These sky shows occur when rockets launch before dawn or after sunset, when the Earth below is dark in Earth's shadow, but the rocket exhaust plume is still illuminated by the Sun far above. This one looks different than the more familiar "jellyfish" sometimes seen west of LA when rockets launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, because those rockets are moving perpendicular to the observers, while this one was moving both directly away (the second stage) and directly towards (the booster) observers at Cape Canaveral. So this was a straight-on view.]]>
Here it is put to music by D. Wise of Nasaspaceflight.com (Watch on full screen with the sound on.)

https://x.com/dwisecinema/status/2022267244525375589

These sky shows occur when rockets launch before dawn or after sunset, when the Earth below is dark in Earth's shadow, but the rocket exhaust plume is still illuminated by the Sun far above. This one looks different than the more familiar "jellyfish" sometimes seen west of LA when rockets launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, because those rockets are moving perpendicular to the observers, while this one was moving both directly away (the second stage) and directly towards (the booster) observers at Cape Canaveral. So this was a straight-on view.]]> <![CDATA[The Final Countdown]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19786.html Fri, 13 Feb 2026 23:31:17 +0000 Yazata]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19786.html
watch full screen with the sound on

https://x.com/VOLDEMORT2X/status/2022423826236400008]]>
watch full screen with the sound on

https://x.com/VOLDEMORT2X/status/2022423826236400008]]> <![CDATA[70's albums that were perfect thru and thru]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19639.html Sun, 18 Jan 2026 22:54:34 +0000 Magical Realist]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19639.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=070ecdv7vr0]]>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=070ecdv7vr0]]>