Althouse: At the Hallway Café...

March 14, 2014

At the Hallway Café...

... walk straight in.

17 comments:

mccullough said...: Is that supposed to be magic carpet?; 3/14/14, 11:26 PM
Anonymous said...: The carpet crawlers heed their callers; 3/14/14, 11:29 PM
Bob Ellison said...: I've had "Dry the Rain" running through my head since before I woke up this morning. The usual cure is to listen to or play the song. Hasn't worked.; 3/14/14, 11:39 PM
David said...: That must be fun coming back after a few drinks.; 3/14/14, 11:40 PM
Roughcoat said...: I just saw "Inside Llewyn Davis" and I don't get it. Will someone please explain this movie to me? Is there really anything going on here or is this just another instance of the Coens goofing on cinastes?

P.S. I am 64 years old and well familiar with the Greenwich Village folk scene of the early 60s. I also know about the real-life people upon whom the characters were based. And I know that the movie was sort of inspired by Dave van Ronk's autobiography. I still don't get it.; 3/14/14, 11:49 PM
Roughcoat said...: Sorry, "cineastes."; 3/14/14, 11:50 PM
sunsong said...: THIS OTHER PARALLEL

And now this
other parallel,
this symmetry
inside
for everything
on the outside,
the writer in winter
at his desk,
caught in the light,
beneath the window,
bringing together
the last and the first,
the middle and the edge,
the near and the far,
and all the troubled lives
calling for the one line
and the one life,
for creation come together
in a central
unspoken wish,
to be held
and made one
like
a god’s blessing
out of nowhere,
the pen put down
so the open palm,
warm and full,
can touch a wound
that heals them all.

© David Whyte; 3/15/14, 12:45 AM
Bob R said...: @Roughcoat - Just saw it as well. Part of it is a pure goof on modern screenwriting conventions - in particular, the book, "Save The Cat." It's also about the tension between authenticity, entertainment, and commercial success. (Maybe in film making as well as music, given that they are made a movie with a deliberately unlikable protagonist who doesn't evolve. He isn't redeemed or degraded. He just stays an asshole.)

I think the connection to Van Ronk is an act of charity. They didn't use his book in any important way, but they still funneled some money to his heirs.; 3/15/14, 6:31 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: I believe we have within our midst those who reject the idea things happen for a reason.

This rejects all understanding of physics.

These unlucky few who don't believe in or acknowledge cause and effect are effective in causing effects, daily, which makes this observation of mine Ironic and hence hip/cool/down with it.

I suggest we think about the action/reaction concept and how there could be a reaction without an action.

Where does the "re" factor in?; 3/15/14, 7:25 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: At the risk of talking past each other, saying words in a cargo-cult manner with the expectation that word salad is Shakespeare, my first inclination is to ask if any thing has a reason for existing.

Next, assuming we can agree that some things happen for a reason, I would like examples of things happening without a reason.

My guess is, limited though I may be in all areas, I could still brainstorm reasons for whatever thing you claim has happened without any reason.; 3/15/14, 7:34 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Some people become enraged at the suggestion things happen for a reason.

They make "posters" or graphics on the computer (the royal "the"?) that say Everything happens for a reason? SLAP! And then some throwaway joke.

But the point is contained within the slapping reaction to the action of conveying the attitude everything happens for a reason. It is a self-refuting graphic if your theory is things happen without reason(s).; 3/15/14, 7:44 AM
Anonymous said...: Are there any vending machines around here?; 3/15/14, 7:49 AM
Jay Vogt said...: Ok, as I fashion myself something of a hotel hallway connoisseur, I'll play. . .

Let's start with the obvious. It's not a Hyatt and almost certainly not a Marriott. It's been recently redone in the neo-engergy conservation style. The pallet is late-ought mono with just a hint of acidic hued irony. The starkly scalloped lighting plan bespeaks a recent architecture grad from a southern public university as does the utilitarian (at best) treatment of the door jambs.

I'm going to say it's one of those new "Hey, we're not that uncool" Holiday Inns in southern Indiana or maybe northern Kentucky.; 3/15/14, 8:46 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: The big mom fad had been food. This food, that food, special diets, etc.

The new fad that's coming on fast is "essential oil." Actually oils. They're mentioned all the time in the social media mom chatter. "Put this on the baby's feet," "Put this in the child's bath," "Put this in a diffuser." Many comments open with, "I don't know if you do essential oils or not, but..."; 3/15/14, 1:31 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Jay, I don't think that hallway would seem strange in a Hyatt Place. But then, maybe I don't pay much attention to the hallways.; 3/15/14, 1:32 PM
rhhardin said...: First snake of spring.; 3/15/14, 2:04 PM
Jay Vogt said...: . . . Freeman Hunt said... But then, maybe I don't pay much attention to the hallways.

It's never too late start.; 3/15/14, 2:21 PM