Better Than Friday - 42 (Patreon)

Good afternoon everyone, hope you're well. 

Thanks as always for the generous support. 

1. Book I'd like to read - The Palm-Wine Drinkard 

A recently recommended book from a Nigerian author.

The Palm-Wine Drinkard (subtitled "and His Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Dead's Town") is a novel published in 1952 by the Nigerian author Amos Tutuola. The first African novel published in English outside of Africa, this quest tale based on Yoruba folktales is written in a modified Yoruba English or Pidgin English. In it, a man follows his brewer into the land of the dead, encountering many spirits and adventures. The novel has always been controversial, inspiring both admiration and contempt among Western and Nigerian critics, but has emerged as one of the most important texts in the African literary canon, translated into more than a dozen languages.

- From Wikipedia

2. Trouble in Paradise 

Terrific Pre-Code Comedy from Ernst Lubitsch about two thieves who fall in love. 

3. Siempre en mi Corazon 

Great song recorded by Los Indios Tabajaras, two brothers from the Tabajara tribe in Northeast Brazil. 

Found this not too long ago, been loving the ghostly guitar. 

4. Fantasia's 'Night on Bald Mountain' 

I saw this when I was 4 or so. 

It must have had an influence. They don't make them like they used to. 

Easily the best sequence in any Disney film. 

Night on Bald Mountain was directed by Wilfred Jackson. Its story closely follows the descriptions that Mussorgsky had written on his original score of the tone poem.[62] Chernabog was animated by Vladimir Tytla, his design inspired from a pencil sketch by Swiss artist Albert Hurter of a demon sitting atop a mountain unfolding its wings. Despite Hurter never producing animation for Disney, the studio temporarily hired him to produce pencil sketches for the animators to gain inspiration from.[62] Chernabog and parts of the segment were developed further by Danish-born illustrator Kay Nielsen.[62] Tytla conducted research on all the characters he had animated and being Ukrainian, was familiar with the folklore that the story detailed.[62] Actor Béla Lugosi, best known for his role in Dracula (1931), was brought in to provide reference poses for Chernabog, but Tytla disliked the results. He then got Jackson to pose shirtless which gave him the images he needed.

- From Wikipedia

Modeling for the demon Chernabog

5. Nabokov's Opinions On a Bunch of Authors 

A compiled list from Strong Opinions shared with me by a Patron. Thanks Ben!

Hemingway, Ernest. A writer of books for boys. Certainly better than Conrad.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Even more awful than Camus.

But how do you really feel, Mr. Nabokov?

Though, he had this to say:

Borges, Jorge Luis. A favorite. How freely one breathes in his marvelous labyrinths! 

An underwater poem I found in the park.