…stay for the clips.

Well, not exactly "quips." Just fine writing and cultural insight over at critic and biographer Terry Teachout’s blog. That’s not news to many of you, but what you might not have noticed is that Terry has a very lengthy sidebar of  links to archival video clips of various luminaries – mostly musicians, but a few writers scattered throughout – including a 10 second, silent  clip of Willa Cather I found absolutely mesmerizing. From our vantage point, so much of what we see from the past seems so stiff – they were more formal times, after all. But in this clip, Cather is so marvelously natural, just chatting with someone, laughing at the end. I was also painfully fascinated by a clip from Oscar Levant’s old television show (aired in LA from ’58-60, taken off because he was wont to make inappropriate remarks) in which he is such a mess – but an articulate, brilliant mess, with his wife on one side, Fred Astaire on the other, shoring him up, it seems, mentally willing him to forge on and get through it – no matter how many cigarettes it takes.

Another time, indeed.

Terry Teachout – mining for gold so you don’t have to!

Oh, and while we’re all multimedia – check out Those Catholic Ads by Mary Kochan, at Catholic Exchange, in which she looks at 2 recent ads and discerns:

My point in mentioning these ads is not to endorse the companies. What is pertinent here is that these short TV spots are miniature examples of how to put Catholic doctrine on film without so much as a mention of God or the Church or faith.