Friday, June 04, 2010

Why have a mind if not to question why?

OK. So once upon a time Smithsonian magazine was a big, thick wonder of goodness. Beautiful pictures, stories that went on for pages, thought-provoking content. Then I subscribed. In 2001 or 2002 or so. And the magazine's quality began to plummet. Fast. I began to be bored with it and I subscribed to Harper's for a year or two. Until I realized that I hadn't read Smithsonian in a couple of years, and that I was really only interested in about 25% of the content in Harper's. I finally let both of the subscriptions run out in about 2007 or 2008. And I have not subscribed to a magazine since.

Until this evening. (Or writing about my magazine subscription history would be very anti-climatic, wouldn't it?) Tonight I subscribed to Lapham's Quarterly. Hooray! Writing culled from across civilization, juxtaposed in thought-provoking ways. Clever charts and the warmth of general smarminess about being literary. One topic per magazine. And I have spent hours reading the content they have posted on their website. So I did it. A one-year trial.

Will it be worth it? Stay tuned...

Tonight's song is old. From the soundtrack to Yentl, but all I can say is that since I was very young this song has been infused into my soul. I should wake up to it every morning so I don't forget the purpose of my life so easily. Forgive the sound quality on the embedded copy, but the movie is gorgeous. To hear it with better sound quality but with visuals of poorly transcribed lyrics, catch it on YouTube here.

Barbra Streisand - Where Is It Written?



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