Sara Ryan

I didn’t come of age listening to WFMU. As a matter of fact, unless it was on without my knowing it at someone’s place sometime when I was within the range of its signal, I still haven’t listened (a situation I intend to remedy asap). But Best of LCD: the art and writing of WFMU-FM [...]

and found the Fraenkel Gallery. Fell in. So many gorgeous, haunting images. So many stories.
This is the one I was looking for –

doesn’t it look oddly like she has an iPod?

A few weeks back, after more than ten years in Portland, we finally made it to the Art Museum. The occasion: The Dancer: Degas, Forain, and Toulouse-Lautrec.
At first, I found myself oddly resistant to what I was seeing. Then I realized that in order to look at the ballet-related images, I had to overcome a [...]

I’ve been thinking a lot  about the sense, as you’re experiencing something, that you’re simultaneously outside of the experience, observing details, judging your own reactions and those of the people around you.
I’d always thought of it as being particular to writers, that quality of being an observer, and I’ve often found myself grateful for the [...]

…unsullied by spam, but I haven’t done the full upgrade to my WordPress software yet. Please email or comment if you see more evidence of spam in the posts, because rest assured that I have NOT decided that my blog would be a fine vehicle for promoting spammers’ sordid wares, or warez, as the case [...]

Last night capn_jil and I were perusing a collection of Swiss painting. We found this:

and also the names for our new hip-hop duo: MC Allegorical Horseman and DJ Anonymous Master.

I quote myself: “As the child of two librarians, one of whom worked in rare books and special collections, I don’t have family stuff so much as a museum and archive.”
So when I’m at my parents’ house, I dig around. This time I found some scrapbooks. Steve wrote about the contents of one of them [...]

Here at the Undisclosed Location (a.k.a. my parents’ house in Ohio), catching up on email, deleting comment spam (Why, why are the spammers so deeply attracted to the post about Rules being a Junior Library Guild selection? It’s harder hit than any other post, by far…) preparing for another small, low-key Thanksgiving, it’s hard to [...]

Earlier this evening I identified a Pieter Brueghel painting that was in service to swank up a wine label. I was vaguely displeased with myself for not remembering the name of the painting, and also surprised that I was the only one at the table who recognized it as Brueghel. I forget that not everyone [...]