Let's Take it Easy

This week has been really hard y’all.  I mean, really. Fucking. Hard.  Two essays and a website with a dash of art-group drama: that kind of hard.

So today is just going to be some nice pic-spam, a sort of shooting the breeze entry. It’s October!  That’s one of my most favorite months!  Time to start it out on a nice note.

Good things about This week:

I got a package in the mail.

It included the Lo Scarabeo Art Nouveau tarot deck;

To which I say: Gah!  So pretty.  Art Nouveau is experiencing something of a comeback right now, which I love.  It’s a lovely style and a Tarot deck is well suited to it.  I should also mention that I collect decks– I have a Rider-Waite, Halloween, King Arthur, and Gothic themed decks already.

The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh edited by Mark Roskill;

Apparently, it’s a bit hard to come by a good version of Van Gogh’s letters.  There is a Complete collection, which has every one of them, is in multiple volumes, complete with art work, but costs several hundred dollars.  For $10.20, and based on the reviews, the Roskill edition is the best for the most relevant letters and best organization.

and The Saddest Music in the World.

Which is a pretty awesome movie, but I will save my praise for the next episode of Some Cast it Hot.

Meanwhile, in Russian Lit class, we have been reading A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermentov.

A Hero of Our Time is the sort of novel about a sociopath that Bret Easton Ellis wish he could write.  No one is at once creepy and sympathetic like Pechorin, who is able to exude charm and influence while at once acknowledging that he is a moral cripple.

Also, our book cover looks like this:

And if THAT isn’t awesome, I don’t know what is.  That is like, the best damn cover for a 19th Century Russian novel ever.  I defy the universe in finding a better one!

In related news, my life seems to becoming more and more Russian somehow.  I have Matroshka key doo-dads and Russian Ark is at the top of my netflix queue.  We’ll be watching Battleship Potemkin in film class next week.

I don’t know how to transition from that into this.

But here’s a picture of Cary Grant and a puppy.  YAY.

I have no idea what’s more adorable in this picture, seriously.