Sunday 25 August 2013

Pinching someone else's idea

Isabel Losada, the writer, posted something on Facebook which appealed to me. A friend of hers is starting on a three year plan (and I do love a plan).

Her friend Bill Murphy says:

I've decided to begin a three-year project that will introduce me to some of the world's greatest creative achievements. A couple of years ago, I did something similar. I listened to everything Mozart composed (180 days), watched all 81 Oscar-winning movies (81 days), read all of Hemingway's novels (70 days), and spent 30 days with Aristotle's Poetics. It was grueling. But I had fun, and earned a priceless education.

This time, I'm going to mix it up even more on a schedule that looks like this:

YEAR ONE
Hadyn (complete works)...............................................150 days
Woody Allen films (complete directorial filmography)....46 days
Brahms (complete works)..............................................60 days
The Great Gatsby (both novel versions + 2 movies).......21 days
Beethoven (complete works)..........................................87 days

YEAR TWO (12 classic works of literature, one per month)
1847 - Jane Eyre
1850 - David Copperfield
1865 - Alice in Wonderland
1866 - Crime and Punishment
1870 - Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
1884 - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1887 - A Study in Scarlet
1921 - The Age of Innocence
1931 - Brave New World
1932 - Tender is the Night
1951 - The Catcher in the Rye
1958 - The Dharma Bums

YEAR THREE
Bach (complete works)...................................................172 days
Marilyn Monroe (complete filmography).........................33 days
Verdi (complete works)...................................................75 days
Jane Austin (all six novels + one short story)..................68 days
The Beatles (complete stereo + mono albums)...............16 days

I'll commence as soon as I get a web site up and running to chronicle my explorations and observations."


Its a bit much for me, plus I am not good with rules but I am going to try a slightly more 'me' way of doing something similar. I am comfortable with the classic a month theory and am loading my phone up with the musical classics. I might also work through a filmography or two. Not sure whose yet, but I am thinking.

4 comments:

  1. Wow. I couldn't do it. The books that I had to read in high school ruined it for me. I didn't like half of them and they seemed like a wast of time. I'm really lazy now. If I want to know what something is about I just read the synopsis on wikipedia.

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  2. Doesn't it make it seem so straight forward and "easy"? I like the concept.

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  3. good plan. always good to have a plan..... and then let life happen too. I think I may draw up a list for film club, which has dwindled of late

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  4. It does seem more manageable like this. We shall see. I the idea that I don't miss cultural references in other, less worthy, things that I watch or listen to as well. Plus a change is always good and a plan too, as long as you are happy when life happens to it!

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