All posts by Eric Robert Nolan

Eric Robert Nolan graduated from Mary Washington College in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. He spent several years a news reporter and editorial writer for the Culpeper Star Exponent in Culpeper, Virginia. His work has also appeared on the front pages of numerous newspapers in Virginia, including The Free Lance – Star and The Daily Progress. Eric entered the field of philanthropy in 1996, as a grant writer for nonprofit healthcare organizations. Eric’s poetry has been featured by Dead Beats Literary Blog, Dagda Publishing, The International War Veterans’ Poetry Archive, and elsewhere. His poetry will also be published by Illumen Magazine in its Spring 2014 issue.
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“W. H. Auden — Tell Me The Truth About Love” (BBC Four)

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This is another superb documentary produced by BBC Four about W. H. Auden.

 

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Throwback Thursday: Frank Sinatra’s 1965 rendition of “It Was a Very Good Year”

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No, I wasn’t around in 1965, but I absolutely remember this song from when I was a tot in the late 1970’s.  My parents played it quite a bit; they had a few Frank Sinatra albums among their stacks of 8-track tapes in the living room entertainment center.  I wasn’t supposed to touch them, but I did.  (Hey, they were right at the bottom level, where I could fiddle with them.  And, as a kid,  would read anything — even album titles.)

Anyway, this Internet thingamajig tells me that the song was written in 1961 by Ervine Drake for the Kingston Trio.  Sinatra won a Grammy in 1966 for his rendition of it, as did Gordon Jenkins for his accompanying instrumental work.

 

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Cover to “Grendel: War Child” #3, Simon Bisley, 1992

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Dark Horse Comics.

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Helen Mirren reads from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses” to Stephen Colbert

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Damn.  Just … damn.

When she reads, “Come my friends …,” that’s when it first hits you in the heart.

 

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“Self-Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle,” Arnold Boecklin, 1872

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Oil on canvas.

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“Nixon Blasts ‘False Charges,'” cover of Daily News, 1973

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Cover to “Batman: The Long Halloween” #6, Tim Sale, 1997

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DC Comics.

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Sooooo … spring, then?

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Is that what these mean?

Because it was pretty cold last night and this morning the wind sounded as though it wanted to take the roof off.

 

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Chester Kallman, Rhoda Jaffe and W. H. Auden, Fire Island, NY, 1950

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Source: New York Public Library Digital Collections.

 

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Throwback Thursday: “Rappin’ Rodney” (1983)!

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Rodney Dangerfield actually was pretty damn funny, even if I was too young to appreciate his humor when I was a kid.  Not everything he touched turned to gold … I seem to remember a cheesy movie or two.  But this 1983 single was great.  It’s catchy, and its humor still holds up today.

There are a couple of 80’s-tastic cameos in the video, too.  One is Pat Benatar as the leather-clad prison executioner.  (Totally not my thing.)  The other Saturday Night Live’s chain smoking priest, “Father Guido Sarducci” (Don Novello).