Sounds like a worthy use of this blog space. I did something along the same lines a year (or maybe more?) ago... My attempt didn't last long. Hope you can make it work. It might inspire me to try again...

And now for something completely different... I only happened on your page when your profile pic caught my eye on the members list of the Droid group. I didn't expect to see anyone else use a Friedrich painting around here... nice choice.

I envy you that you got to stand face to canvas with some of his works. Very cool.

As for my blog, it lasted maybe 3 or 4 posts... real world stress & time constraints took over after that and I lost my juice on being creative on any level for a while. You seem to have more drive than I did. Get behind it and pull out all the stops.

I'm not familiar with any Dahl other than the one who wrote books for children. I'll look into Johan Christian Dahl when I have a bit of free time.

Fiction may not be easier, but it is more fun. Hope to read some here soon.

I have checked out Dahl... oh, man... same hauntingly beautiful quality that I love in Friedrich. Thanks for pointing me in his direction.

...and as far as Swype goes, I'm not sure which phones it's available for. It makes the touch screen incredibly easy to text with, though. My fingers aren't big, but they are still big enough that hitting the letters isn't always a precise business. With Swype, it makes it a whole lot easier.

Thanks. I'll enjoy Portland... I didn't really want to leave in the first place. Family emergency warranted it. Just wish I was returning in a better job market than the current one.

By the by, Dostoevsky is just one of the great reasons to learn Russian. Plus, with German under your belt, it shouldn't be too difficult!

I don't understand about Bulgakov. The Russians rave about Master and Margerite and I read it and I just didn't get it. Have you read it? Do you understand why they like it so much?

In M&M, I loved the scene where there is a song and dance show about giving up your foreign currency. that to me was pretty resonante. But I really really didn't understand the whole Pilate narrative. and the episodic nature of the novel i didn't understand why the author chose that structure. and while the MandM narrative was good, it wasn't great imho (and this also could be a translation problem). I would love to understand the relation of Pilate and Yeshua in terms of Soviet history. That would be great!

In terms of Russian lit, unfortunately nothing as I can't read fluently. BUT I love the Gannett translations of Dostoevsky. Notes from the Underground is the last thing I read completely through. I've been flirting with Brothers Karamazov for about as long as I've been flirting with the girl who owns the book. Not sure when I will get serious but its def in the crosshairs. Puskin's Onegin is another one I'm itching to read in the original so I haven't read it (the movies and the Tchaik Opera, yes).

What are you reading? Which are your favorites?

The Russians have yet to give me something concrete to think about in terms of Pilate in M&M... but I'm sure it is there. Pilate as Stalin, etc.

HAHAHA! Until yesterday, I had been abroad for two years. SO you can imagine that as I was coming back through customs I was praying praying praying there wouldn't be an otter in a cowboy hat. Shtyengart is LOLz!

hmmm. poetry. i have no ambitions there really. maybe some. but nothing i'm working on at the moment.