I've spent the last week battling a cold and medicating heavily to attend a few cultural events. This weekend: a concert by the countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, performing with Apollo's Fire, singing Handel and Vivaldi arias. It was Karen who first turned me on to Philippe while living in New York. "Why aren't you listening to anything while you do calligraphy?" she'd ask. (She is a supreme multitasker, and can often be found with knitting needles, on a treadmill, watching tennis on mute, with Philippe in the background, while pawing at an iPad). And so I'd spend the days with this extraordinary voice. How magical and rare is it to be in the presence of an artist bestowed with a divine gift. Capital D. Capital G. I love ~3:00, in the video above, when the conductor looks over at him with an astonished look, impossible to repress. The best part of the current tour is that all of the performances are at intimate college or church halls. Toronto! Boston! Ann Arbor!

And then, "Bitter Rice," the Italian neo-realist film in which Doris Dowling and Silvana Mangano practically set the screen ablaze.

And finally, watching the Patriots lose, sadly, but always laughing at running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis' nickname: The Law Firm. So much so that I requested this t-shirt for a holiday gift.