Edmund

Joy

I very much like the cover art of Novalis’ Living with Christ missalette for July: a watercolor by the artist Gisele Bauche entitled Lived Joy Is Contagious. It is a beautiful reminder of the fact that next to love, joy is the mark of a true believer in Jesus, and that Christians should infect other people—believers and non-believers alike—with the happiness, cheerfulness, positivity and radiance that they possess in the Holy Spirit. There’s nothing worse and more awful than gloomy-looking and negative-thinking Catholics who bring other people down. They are not Christians. They are simply the children of their father, the devil.

Cramming!

I’ve got until 10 June—when the fifth season of True Blood begins—to watch all these, so I can get into and catch up on the Sookie Stackhouse universe:

Mon Dieu—he’s scared of bleu!

My knowledge of van Gogh derives primarily, I guess, from the Don McLean song Vincent and from the Kirk Douglas film Lust for Life—I dropped out of Art School before the class even got into Impressionism. More non-factual information will be added to the van Gogh database inside my mind as soon as I begin reading Christopher Moore’s new novel—nay, “comedy d’art” (sic)—Sacré Bleu:

The book’s physical attractiveness alone is enough to keep me interested. It almost looks and feels like a Folio Society book—sans the slip case. The main text is printed in a certain hue of blue—in keeping with one of the story’s theme. The tragic painter’s phobia of a certain shade of the color blue, I believe, is discussed at length in the story. Also, the book is laden throughout with interesting public domain images “courtesy of the author”:

In Sacré Bleu a baker-painter, along with Toulouse-Lautrec, tries to unravel the mystery behind van Gogh’s “suicide.” I heard that Manet, Monet, Renoir and Gauguin have cameos in the narrative, so I should be able to finish this book in two to three sittings.

Success

. . . is taking the Jello-O out of the gelatin mold undamaged—and without incident. I love my molder, which I got for nothing at one of the many yard sales in town last weekend.

Stung

1. I thought that Somebody That I Used to Know was a new song by The Police. When I saw the music video, I even thought that Gotye actually looks a bit like the young Sting—and his duet partner like Katy Perry:

I picture films by Godard and/or Truffaut inside my head, and I can see the faces of Jean Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg and Anna Karina every time I listen to Somebody That I Used to Know with eyes closed. Maybe it’s because the entire Making Mirrors CD has a ’60s vibe to it.

Most of the songs in the record are good, but I particularly dislike the avant-garde-sounding State of the Art. Also, I was quite disappointed when I learned that the song Bronte is about a pet dog and not about the Brontë Sisters or any of their writings. However, I do like the artwork featured in the album—the CD package looks like a greeting card.

2. It’s official: Carly Rae Jepsen’s Curiosity EP is the soundtrack of my life this summer. The 6 songs in the set are all great and very catchy—they’ll never leave your head. I learned to sing the words to Call Me Maybe last Sunday:

3. Kris Allen’s new CD is entitled Thank You Camellia (sic). The title should be properly written as Thank You, Camellia. Note the comma! How come people don’t know how to use punctuation marks properly and anymore? (For a very interesting article regarding the correct usage of the comma, click this.)

Now where was I? Oh, yes, Kris Allen’s new CD. Well, I haven’t listened to all of its 11 songs yet, but from what I’ve heard so far I can say that it’s a major improvement from his debut CD, which had only 3 good songs in it. But then again, whether it’s a good or bad thing, Kris Allen is one of those singers that you “look at,” not “listen to”: