Main Entry: sot·to vo·ce

Pronunciation: "sä-tO-'vO-chE
Function: adverb or adjective
Etymology: Italian sottovoce, literally, under the voice
1 : under the breath : in an undertone; also : in a private manner
2 : very softly -- used as a direction in music

Monday, August 30, 2004

they're playing our song!

Ever have a song that was "your" song in a relationship and now you can't bear to hear it, or you find yourself changing the lyrics to nasty words? if so, this article is for you. Check it out on blogcritics>>>>http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/08/30/185351.php

Monday, August 23, 2004

like this to france?


get me to france! | the immigration update

this is an audio post - click to play

strange love | journeys as a cancer patient



on sotto voce grand mal

How do you thank the person who saves your life? How do you tell them, and what words do we have that truly express such a debt of gratitude...more>> http://grandmal.blogspot.com/2004/08/strange-love-journeys-as-cancer.html

also on blogcritics at http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/08/23/132232.php

Sunday, August 22, 2004

Mothman | Prophesize This



If you weren’t paying attention, you could easily have seen The Mothman Prophecies, and thought “interesting” and never thought about it again because you were expecting a more traditional “horror movie” or some such nonsense where a winged guy comes out of the woods all deranged and starts hacking up the locals. But that is not, anyway, what “Mothman” is about. It’s a film that on the surface anyway, doesn’t entirely bend to genre. Or you could have missed it entirely because a film about a moth, you thought, sounded really dull and boring. But it wasn’t about a moth per se either. So what is Mothman about? Ahhh, that’s where it gets interesting…more>>>http://grandmal.blogspot.com/2004/08/mothman-prophesize-this.html or >>>>>>http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/08/22/145141.php

blogcritics | leaderboard



This week, i've made the Leaderboard at our famous Cleveland Blogcritics, ran by our good and very dear Eric Olsen. Check out our latest news at http://blogcritics.org/leaderboard.php and be sure to check out Blogcritics over the next two days when yours truly is Blogcritic of the Day and on the Leaderboard. Check out Blogcritics every day, comment, join in. Go to http://blogcritics.org/ and join our sinister cabal of bloggers.


Saturday, August 21, 2004

sylvia plath & ted hughes Posted by Hello

love & lust on sotto voce | love warps the mind

love & lust on sotto voce because love warps the mind a little

http://alwaysthehours.blogspot.com/

Friday, August 20, 2004

avant paris | 1

i have been doing my research. not only have i been brushing up on my very recoverable (i tell myself) French that i knew so very well in college and high school, but i am also reading ridiculous books about Bringing Our Your Inner French Girl, which by the way, i highly recommend for a good laugh. You too can learn how to tie a scarf a thousand myriad ways and be tres coquette, kitten!

i've also been watching one French film a night - so last night was The Lover, tonight Betty Blue, tomorrow Jules et Jim, and all of course, will be reviewed on
www.blogcritics.org for anyone who is interested and cross-referenced here.

have to go now. must practice putting my lips in kissing position to get that fabulous "ewww" sound that sounds so very good when someone else does it. am determined. bonne nuit!

#1 audio blog - paris



#1 audio blog from Paris coming thisSeptember preBlogAmble random blogs before
bien sur!

37. 2 le matin | betty blue



Yes, you got it. Tonight it is 37.2 le matin, or Betty Blue, among the best French films and certainly with the most realistic sex scenes and a highly compelling story of a woman's descent into madness that is realistic, involving, and incredibly sad. One of the great love stories of all time if you ask me... review to follow soon.


When I first saw Betty Blue, or as it was originally known, 37.2 le matin in French, I was so moved by Beatrice Dalle’s performance. It seemed to me that either she was one incredibly good actress to pull of such an incredibly diverse and complicated role, or that perhaps a part of her went into the performance. Whatever the case, I spent many months afterward thinking about the film and having to endure friends in college tell me how much I reminded them of Betty, which wasn’t an entirely good thing, but then, wasn’t an entirely bad thing.

I mean, let’s face it, she was incredibly beautiful, I reasoned, incredibly sexy and here’s my boyfriend saying I remind him of her, but at the same time, I knew that she was incredibly nuts. Maybe nuts isn’t a fair word, though throughout the film she is told “vous etes fou”. How else would one respond, after all, to the many things that Betty does that are just not done.more>>>> http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/08/21/122901.php


sotto voce | the cabinetist | poems




here is the link to my newest poems. i'm hard at work on my second collection and hope to find a publisher soon. meanwhile, the poems are upated very regulary, so you always have something new to read. also, i'm taking input on the name of the collection; i'm thinking either The Cabinetist or Grand Mal. If you have a preference, please mark it in the comments section. It would be great to get your input. Follow this link for the full book. more>>>>http://cabinetist.blogspot.com/

sotto voce | grand mal

because genius & madness are not mutually exclusive

http://grandmal.blogspot.com/

Thursday, August 19, 2004

sotto voce | dinner party poems



check out our dinner party poems. take six random words, have everybody write a poem that uses every word. You can use the word as often as you like, but at least once - the poem can be about anything. check out our latest at http://dinnerpartypoems.blogspot.com/ Write, contribute, contact sadir_p@hotmail.com.

passport & visa hell | let the journey begin

this is an audio post - click to play

a beautiful mind | sparks of genius



The real John Nash, from the Nobel Museum Web site.


I keep watching the film A Beautiful Mind because I have this idea that to see it only once is to miss a great deal and would prevent any real understanding of The Great John Nash! It’s a phrase that is repeated often in the film – a film adapted from Nasar’s unauthorized biography, and it’s a phrase used by persons real and unreal and always mockingly.

The truth, the truth that would finally be acknowledged a great many years later in 1994, was that, in fact, John Nash is indeed great and a true genius. Winning the Noble Prize was simply the public acknowledgement of this and by then, no one was mocking John Nash anymore. It's hard to imagine though that anyone who took the time to know John Nash, could not see his brilliance, the beauty in the very way in which he thought. The film does convey this - that much one can say, but still, there is that underlying mockery and although this supposed to be, one gather's a "sympathetic" portrait, that's just it; it seems to look down on Nash, as though he were a child, incapable of taking care of himself and oh, gosh, thank god for Alicia, were it not for her, he'd never have achieved greatness. There's a real martyr thing going on here and at a price to John Nash.

I have to confess too, that part of my atttraction to the film is that all too often i've felt as i imagine Nash must have felt at times, because although the origin and cause are different, temporal lobe epilepsy can often make you "different" in ways that others cannot quite pinpoint. And although epilepsy is a neurological illness often caused by mesial lesions in the brain (such as I have), the effects are similar. More - when researching Nash for another article, I found a relation between Nash and my friend Ian, also a mathematician and also with roots in the South (suffice to say he not only resembles Nash, particularly in the ears, which i happen to like, but also in the way he thinks,) and so here I am, drawn in. More - click link http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/08/19/165922.php



sotto voce | auntie sadi's advice for girls

practical advice and random thoughts for girls of all ages. post a question to auntie sadi in the comments section and check back for your answer.

http://auntiesadisadviceforgirls.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

orion magazine | ray of light by srp



Sadi's article about surviving several bouts of malignant melanoma and the impact that the thinning of the ozone layer has on the skyrocketing increase in deaths from melanoma - one of the deadliest cancers there is. Check it out at the link below where you can purchase the magazine... If you are a melanoma survivor and would like a copy, please email me directly.
http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/index_03-3om.html

sotto voce | film




Over the past several years, I’ve started to notice this trend in films that features objects that could surely be called art.
more>>>>
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/08/29/132721.php

sotto voce | love & lust

love and lust on sotto voce http://alwaysthehours.blogspot.com


sotto voce | blogcritics




read more of my work regularly at www.blogcritics.org by clicking on this link. write, post, join, but visit blogcritics often.more work by sadi ranson-polizzotti>>>>http://blogcritics.org/author.php?author=Sadi%20Ranson-Polizzotti

Blogcritics.org

thurible dance | buzzwords uk | poem



click below for poem in buzzwords, poetry, united kingdom.

http://www.buzzwords.ndo.co.uk/ranson/thuribledance.html

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Which Way Now?



Van Gogh said, “The more ill I become, the sicker I get, the more I wish to take my revenge by painting.”

I had a friend a few years ago who told me to read this "great book." It was called The Path of Least Resistance or something. And because I trusted this friend and knew him to be well-read, well-educated, and generally quite wise, I read the book. Now, years later, I can't comment on the book too much because after a few pages, it struck me as crap. I suppose the path of least resistance is a good idea in theory - the idea that you follow where life leads you and put up little resistance. Instead of fighting with obstacles, you simply ignore them or walk around them, which seems wise on the face of it, but I’m not sure it's the way to be...(more)http://pathofleastresistance.blogspot.com/

The Lover | Duras, Politics, & Lust



The semi-autobiographical work, The Lover, by Marguerite Duras, was almost not published in America. How typical, then, that years later, it remains one of the best selling books and became a widely viewed film all these years later. American publishing has largely overlooked foreign authors until they reach the pinnacle of their fame and are then picked up years later. The Lover and most of Duras’s work falls into this category, as do other books like Betty Blue and authors like Jean Echenoz, and so many others. (more) http://duras.blogspot.com/

Monday, August 16, 2004

Mourning Dove's Dervish



Watch :
how carefully
her instinct is exacted.
predatory, protective
she builds nests, fused
with the refuse of others
she who collects
horsehair, feathers, strands
of weathered tinsel, the silver
glints that catch the eye. Watch
how she leans, her curved
slope of breast against
the rough hewsn mud.
She spins quick circles
smoothing the black rough
to velvet soft, where eggs
blue and fragile will rest
in next bound of bound spit
with curves that match exact.

http://cabinetist.blogspot.com/2004/08/mourning-doves-dervish.html


Sunday, August 15, 2004



Welcome to tant mieux

a cellphone & two laptops one woman on a mission
write watch record move softly write now welcome to tant mieux - sister site of sotto voce world sites


Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti has been published in many publications and books including Adagio Verse Quarterly where she am also an editor at large, Prism International, Ex Libris, Harvard Review, Red Cedar Review, Illuminations, The Boston Globe, Orion, Buzzwords UK, Adagio, Lit.org, and many others. Books include Eels, a novella, Biography & Source Studies, Vo. 5, Editor Fred Karl, First Fiction published by Macmillan and a Book of the Month Club selection and various anthologies.

I am presently working on several new books, some of the material for which appears on these sites. Be sure to see my column at the famous Cleveland
Blogcritics and sottovoce and Lit.org

http://tantmieux.squarespace.com



1.4 Posted by Hello

love & lust on film | bridge jones and scarface and lessons learned

Tony Montana has taken just so much shit his whole life. He’s been oppressed and repressed and mocked and called a spic and turned on by his own country (Cuba) that he’s just not going to take any shit anymore. He’ll shoot someone just for pissing him off, which is almost admirable, or at the very least understandable. I’m not advocating violence; all I’m saying is that we all have our limits and if someone treated me the way Tony Montana had been treated his whole life – if they spit on me, and degraded me, and mocked me and doubted any power I might have, I might want to prove them wrong... (more,)

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/05/27/124625.php

gettin busy | a look at adultery in fiction

It seems to me that under the right circumstances, it is possible to fall in lust, love, or attraction with almost anyone. That in some ways, attraction, love, infatuation, crushes, anything having to do with a sexual tension between two people, is possible if you follow the right recipe. There are, of course, many recipes that will bring two people together, a particular combination of situational, emotional, and other factors that come in to play in a particular situation. But it's important to understand that, under the 'right' circumstances, all of us are vulnerable, and love or lust ... (more, click below)

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/06/03/154437.php

Friday, August 13, 2004

Deer Summer | Poem

Deer Summer Poem

Still I can see it, Only
on certain nights. This last...
The Cabinetist
www.cabinetist.blogspot.com

Ode to Lo | Poem

she dances fast in the twilight
jazz swirling as she wiggles, winding
narrow hipped, bud of breast nipped
a fantastical jive...
http://cabinetist.blogspot.com/2004/08/ode-to-lo.html





The Dylan – Nelson Double Bill: Still Lookin’ For a Soft Place to Fall


We wait. This is what it has come down to. We are at a small baseball stadium somewhere south of Boston (Brockton; Campanelli Stadium). Usually, this is a local baseball field, but last weekend, the B-52s performed here, and tonight, so we hear, Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson will be performing. But that’s hours away, and I’m having trouble believing it’s really true. For now, it is us and a crowd that is growing considerably, winding our way around the stadium. Many people have brought chairs, picnic baskets, blankets etc. They hang out in groups, giving other people the eye-ball from beneath their leather hats. Those of us who came unprepared, sit on the hard dirt or cement, the unforgiving sun searing the skin, getting hotter and hotter and knowing what it must be like to be a hot dog or some kind of grilled food. Come to think of it, there is some weird funk in the air that smells a lot like grilled food, but I have this awful feeling that it is some collective BO from the sun, sweat, and frankly, what is an edgy and somewhat hostile crowd. It’s like an old photograph from the sixties – the women with their sort of blonde hair and leather hats and crochet tops; the men with knitted caps and tie-dyed shirts. Take that photograph and bump the contrast down and the brightness up so high that it is almost a white out: good. Now you begin to see the white heat of the sun. We wait here for hours. (more; click link) http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/08/13/094138.php


Wednesday, August 11, 2004


cab. image Posted by Hello

the cabinetist

new and selected poems by sadi ranson-polizzotti, copyright 2004. note, some of these poems have appeared in other journals, antholgies, and epublications. see other work, check out links...
http://cabinetist.blogspot.com/

1.3 Posted by Hello

adagio verse quarterly

http://www.geocities.com/adagioversequarterly/p37.html

summer


1.2 Posted by Hello

nymph | poem, adagio verse quarterly

At thirteen, she had desirable braids
And black licorice on her tongue.
A kite and conviction. She was paradise.
The corners of her plush territory cast
attractive shadows on her thigh.

My stamen knifed its cotton cage.
She was persimmon and luminous.
Pragmatic on the porch in Bakersfield.
Her intensities, punishment,
were smooth as sandalwood. (complete poem, click below...)
http://www.geocities.com/adagioversequarterly/p25.html

the last days of summer

My brother, who was, for very many years my best friend is now gone. One late January day when everything just got too much, he took a gun and locked himself in the bathroom with a few photographs, and after who knows how long, put the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger, killing himself instantly.. He had with him a picture of our sister and brothers, and one photograph of he and I with our dog, Turkey, when all of us were young. A photo of a time when summer days stretched out before us and the light didn't fade until almost bedtime, and in those endless summer days, we found happiness. We were young and full of energy and hope and, perhaps because our family situation left much to be desired for reasons too complicated and truthfully, banal and ordinary to list here, we felt that anything was possible. Ironically, since our home life was so unpredictable, so chaotic, we had a certain freedom. As they say, 'When you've got nothing, you got nothing to lose." (more..click below)

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/06/03/140731.php

Posted by Hello

the ring | can you hear me now?

Maybe it was that it was raining heavily and the sky was slate grey and dark. Or maybe I just don’t like Mondays. I don't know. But once again, I found that I was compelled to watch The Ring –a film I've seen countless times, yet for every time I have seen it, "I looked but I didn’t see." That there are Easter Eggs buried in nanosecond film clips – those ghost images you can spot if you really look hard. These little blips of footage have the same staccato effect as a strobe – the way things seem to move haltingly, so in a way, though you see less, you see more.

I came across a review that said, pithily, "The Ring will never be more than a pretty good movie."
...

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/08/05/172056.php

lies lies lies yeah | lauren slater's book Lying

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/06/11/140103.php

inbetween... Posted by Hello

broadcast new world | what price disclosure?

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/06/29/125607.php

down the rabbit hole | the dallas grand mal

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/07/12/152142.php

inbetween days

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/07/16/175701.php

better than well, a review of carl elliott's latest

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/06/09/102919.php

the necklace | buzzwords uk | poem



http://www.buzzwords.ndo.co.uk/ranson/ranson.html buzzwords uk
http://cabinetist.blogspot.com/2004/08/necklace.html the cabinetist, collection of new & selected poems

the cabinetist

http://cabinetist.blogspot.com/

The Lover: film review of the Duras novel


http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/08/17/095532.php

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Working Girl





http://cabinetist.blogspot.com/2004/08/partnership-agreements-level-fields.html

Partnership agreements,
level fields and books
I thought I’d never read.
I am sharing a subway car
with men at least twice
my age but with briefcases
at least twice as small
And me, I feel like the tallest-
short girl in the car who still young
has traveled into orbits I never
knew existed
when I stared at the Parliament
blue sky from a London
council-flat window.
Orbits, whole worlds, where I
can be a waif, or curvaceous in my
black tights, hips switching as
I walk from my sphere into yours.
I am a cat on the prowl, Pissing
and chewing and spitting out
your double-diplomas. Me —
the one you said never Could.
The one you said would be Plain
and the same and the same
as our Yorkshire cousins.
Pouring pints into half-wits
who’d father our children
and with a clip, Keep the Bitch in Line.
Well it’s high time now and my time now
and time and time again and Yet —
One person stops towing the family line
and that’s it: You are free as a sparrow
soaring on the first breath of Spring.