All Things Are Too Small

A glorious call to throw off restraint and balance in favor of excess, abandon, and disproportion, in essays ranging from such topics as mindfulness, decluttering, David Cronenberg, and consent.

I feel like I became very close with each of the characters in this book. Tragedy strikes the small town of Stone Temple, and the whole town is turned upside down. You get to see how each person is handling the aftermath, and the revelation of Ava's gift. The various perspectives make for a very interesting story, that is also very touching and thought-provoking. I felt the book was very subtle in that many of the pivotal parts of the story are kind of slipped in, letting the reader react to it and interpret it on their own.

The Small Faces were an English rock and roll band from East London, heavily influenced by American rhythm and blues. The band is remembered as one of the most acclaimed and influential mod groups of the 1960s. Small Faces are also acknowledged as being one of the biggest original influences on the Britpop movement of the 1990s. Despite the fact the band were together just four years in their original incarnation, the Small Faces' music output from the mid to late sixties remains among the most acclaimed British mod and psychedelic music of that era. This digitally remastered and expanded reissue series of the British quartet featuring plenty of bonus material including rare and previously unreleased material.

Werner Herzog, director of such acclaimed documentaries as Grizzly Man and Little Dieter Needs to Fly, offers his unique perspective on the South Pole in this film profiling the Antarctic community of McMurdo Station. Located on Ross Island, McMurdo Station is the headquarters of the National Science Foundation. Whether offering a detailed study of the unique survival training regimen that newcomers to McMurdo are obligated to endure or pondering the majestic beauty of a landscape where the discovery of three new species in a single day is something worth truly celebrating, Herzog boldly offers viewers the opportunity to visit one of the most inaccessible and awe-inspiring landscapes on the planet.
Herzog dedicated this film to Roger Ebert.

A Real Golden Age of Jazz
Mention of a so-called “golden age” is nothing new in the arts. As a creed it says, in brief, that at some time in the remembered recent past things seemed good, even better in every way than they are now. It satisfies the longing that seems to live in every breast, for a simpler time when basic rules were clear and everybody worked comfortably within them. Imagine, a Wednesday afternoon call at the 802 union floor, with Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster or Illinois Jacquet among the available tenor players. No stars, these, at least not to bandleaders. Just guys available to do gigs, needing the money — some things, naturally, never change — and happy for the work. Now all three are gone. But that was New York in the late ’50s, in every important respect a golden age, when just about everyone was available, and could be hired with a phone call. Performers were at their best, audiences numerous and avid, for what they did, with money to be earned. Opportunities to record, additionally, came up frequently, with producers who invariably understood their music and allowed them lots of leeway, muscle room, for stretching