[av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Tennyson-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’77’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] RUUD RATING Magic In The Moonlight 3 TENNYSONS [/av_image] Lonely and laconic bartender Bob Saginowski’s life seems to take a turn for the better when he finds a wounded puppy in a trash can in the yard of a woman named Nadia. He… Continue reading Movie Review: The Drop by Michaël R. Roskam
John Milton’s “Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint”
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Contest Question for September 10
Mary Wollstonecraft died on this date in 1797 at the age of 38, 10 days after giving birth to her daughter, who would become the author of Frankenstein. Wollstonecraft wrote novels, a children’s book, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, and philosophical treatises, and is remembered today chiefly for her Vindication of… Continue reading Contest Question for September 10
Wallace Stevens’ “The Emperor of Ice Cream”
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Contest Question for September 3
DON’T START WITH ME: What famous novel by what important writer begins with this paragraph (in English translation): On May 20, 1859, a hatless gentleman somewhat over forty years old, wearing a dusty coat and checked trousers, came out on to the doorstep of a little country inn on the X— Highway and inquired… Continue reading Contest Question for September 3
A Review of Calvary by John Michael McDonagh
[av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Shakespeare-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’76’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] RUUD RATING Calvary 4 SHAKESPEARES [/av_image] John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary, the follow up to his 2011 triumph The Guard, finally made it to central Arkansas after some weeks of limited release in the United States. The film premiered at Sundance early in the… Continue reading A Review of Calvary by John Michael McDonagh
William Butler Yeats’ “The Second Coming”
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William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 116: Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds”
Contest Question for August 27
DON’T START WITH ME: What famous novel, by what famous novelist, begins with this passage? When Caroline Meeber boarded the afternoon train for Chicago, her total outfit consisted of a small trunk, a cheap imitation alligator-skin satchel, a small lunch in a paper box, and a yellow leather snap purse, containing her ticket, a… Continue reading Contest Question for August 27
A Review of Boyhood by Richard Linklater
[av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Shakespeare-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’76’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] RUUD RATING Boyhood 4 SHAKESPEARES [/av_image] I’ll admit up front that when I heard about how Richard Linklater’s new film, Boyhood, had been filmed over a period of twelve years to follow the life of a fairly typical American boy, Mason (played by… Continue reading A Review of Boyhood by Richard Linklater