Author: Stacy Horn

I was just talking in December about the fact that Gian-Carlo Menotti was still alive, and sadly, he died today. Sigh.

I’ve got an opera of his on my wish list on Amazon. It’s called The Medium. From the Times, today: “The Medium, written in 1946, ran for 211 performances on Broadway the next year with another Menotti piece, The Telephone. The Medium was a compendium of the Menotti style — delicate orchestration, lyric writing and often a melodramatic theatricality.

Menotti was 95. I quoted Upton Sinclair’s wife in my book yesterday. It was something she said at the end of her life. “I look out across the world and it is peopled with strangers!” I was thinking, I wonder if Menotti had thoughts like this. But maybe not. He knew so many people. And he loved children. Maybe his world wasn’t filled with strangers at the end, but lots of friends.

Raise your hand if Barbaro broke you heart. Why is that?? I’m not even a horse person. I took one riding lesson and said, “Not for me.” I just really didn’t want Barbaro to die. And he did. Damnit to hell.

Well, Finney and Buddy are healthy. Here is Finn, making it impossible for me to work. I had to move the computer off the desk and onto my lap because he kept trying to snap off keys. Note the tail action.

This is normal.

This is with “vivid” turned on. Great word, vivid. Vivid, vivid, vivid. I have to put it in my book somewhere. I honestly don’t see using this effect a lot either. Maybe when I take a picture of a Christmas tree. You know what — now I’m not sure which one was the one with vivid turned on.

I found this letter written to J. B. Rhine, the director of the Parapsychology Laboratory, and it was a rundown of the mediums in New York at the time. I want to track each of them down, not for the book I don’t think. I’m just curious. I didn’t have a lot of luck yesterday, but I’ve just started. They are:

Beulah Brown. Fact I turned up: she was a reverend for a Spiritualist church called Little Cedar.
Mrs. Tellier. Fact I turned up: her husband was a professional golfer who HUNG HIMSELF while away at a tournament.
Miss Barit. Turned up nothing.
Eddie Mackay. Turned up nothing.
Thorne. I think he was famous, but the letter doesn’t list his first name so my first google pass didn’t turn up anything. The woman writing said he was totally a fake.

This is kinda pretty, isn’t it? I don’t see using this a lot, but still. Nice.

Movie update! The Departed. Completely engrossing. I had to go to the bathroom at one point, and I was so mad, but I ran there and back, and didn’t miss much. Leonardo Dicaprio — I always think of him as someone I’m not wild about except when I see him in a film, he’s always riveting. And I remember I always think that. I like him in everything I’ve seen him in.

I had a little problem suspending my disbelief. I didn’t research this kind of operation, maybe it’s more plausible than I know (I don’t really believe that) but part of me couldn’t help thinking the whole time that the whole thing never would have gone down like that. People are stupider, generally. Except at times I remember thinking they are not that stupid. Ha! Apparently I just disagree about how people are stupid. Doesn’t matter. This was great.

I can’t decide what to see today. It’s between, Children of Men, Pan’s Labyrinth and Catch and Release.

… in order to stave off Alzheimers. I learned how to use the macro function on my camera. His eyes are closed because I didn’t want to shoot this close with a flash with his eyes open. (I had to wait, oh, two seconds, for him to nap.) My camera has all these functions that I never use, so I’m going to go through and learn them all.

I’m also going to learn how to play the banjo I bought. My plan was to learn enough to play a Christmas carol last year, but I never got around to it. This year is the year!

Movie update. Dreamgirls. I’m sorry, but I didn’t like it. In fact, I found it excruciating. I don’t know why, everyone did a good job, and it had a few good moments, but otherwise I couldn’t wait for it to end, and of course it took freaking FOREVER to end.

The Painted Veil. Ah, this one I wanted to go on and on and on. My favorite movie in a long time. Tragic love story, absolutely incredible acting, scenery that made me want to move to rural China, I could have stayed in my seat and watched it again.