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The title of this site is taken from the essay “Inspiration” by the Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabokov, who marked his favorite stories in anthologies “in order to choose instantly what to reread on a night of Orphic thirst”—in other words, when he craved poetic exhilaration and inspiration. (Orpheus is a legendary musician, poet and prophet in ancient Greek myth.) This website is a collection of inspired and inspiring things.
The Orphic Thirst logo is a bookwheel designed by the 16th-century Italian engineer Agostino Ramelli. The engraving appeared in his 1588 book Le diverse et artificiose machine del Capitano Agostino Ramelli (The various and ingenious machines of Captain Agostino Ramelli).
Stone Cold Steve Austin Doesn’t Like William Regal’s Reading of Hamlet
A.C. Fifield Perfectly Parodies Gertrude Stein
Fran Lebowitz on the Outdoors
Stone Cold Steve Austin Doesn’t Like William Regal’s Reading of Hamlet
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: “The Glass Eye”
The Johnson Treatment
Isaac Albéniz: Granada (Serenata) from Suite Española, Op. 47
Julia Kristeva: “A noncommunicable grief”
Sinead O’Connor: “Three Babies”
Willie Nelson: “City of New Orleans”
“Irrefutably the most incredible, brilliant jazz vocal performance ever put to wax.”
Magnetic Light Switch Plate by Jake Frey
“Four Jewish ladies sit down on a bench…”
Woody Allen: “The Moose”
Johnny Cash Impersonates Elvis
Herman Melville: “The Masthead”
Victor Martinez Blind Flip to First Base
David Beckham Perfect Cross to Ronaldo
Chicara Nagata: Art 1 Classic Motorcycle
Amália Rodrigues: “Vou dar de beber à dor”
Sofa by Gio Ponti
Fela Kuti & the Afrika 70: “Zombie”
Ric von Schmidt: “Fair and Tender Ladies”
Fresh Step on Letterman
Prince vs. Charlie Murphy (from Chappelle’s Show)
John Berryman: “1st Address to the Lord”
Leo Tolstoy: Levin Skates with Kitty (from Anna Karenin)
Riccardo Marzi: River Stones Bowl
Augusto Monterroso: “The Dinosaur”
Swinburne Hears “Three Blind Mice”
Frankie Smith: “Double Dutch Bus”
The Sundays: “Here’s Where the Story Ends”
John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton: “Parchman Farm”
Dolly Parton: “I Will Always Love You”
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Chopin: Berceuse in D-flat major (Op. 57)
Thomas Carlyle: “An Actual Authentic Ghost”
Ricky Jay: Card-Throwing Tricks
Miles Davis: Concierto de Aranjuez (Adagio)
John Jacob Niles: “Go ’Way From My Window”
Tiptoes Trailer
Drawings by Demetri Martin
The Allman Brothers Band: “Statesboro Blues” (Live)
Big Walter Horton: “Easy”
Book Rest Lamp by Sang Jin Lee
L’esprit d’escalier
Dear Ann Landers
William Blake: “Eternity”
Mumpsimus
Wallace Stevens: “Doc, I just don’t understand women.”
Paula Poundstone: “The guy who shot Robert Kennedy…”
Fania All Stars: “Estrellas de Fania”
Harry James & Helen Forrest: “I’ve Heard That Song Before”
“Honey Badger Don’t Care”
Bobby King: “I Can’t Win”
John Belushi & Dan Aykroyd take Brian Wilson Surfing (1976)
“The Modern Hiawatha” (Anonymous Parody of Longfellow)
Phyllis McGinley: “Squeeze Play”
The Kinks: “Apeman”
Jerry Lee Lewis: “Boogie Woogie Country Man”
Beatty Zimmerman: “Every mother should have such a son.”
Van Morrison: “Carrickfergus”
De La Soul with Chaka Khan: “All Good?”
A man with one watch always knows what time it is.
Etta James: “At Last”
“Good Day, Mr. Kubrick”: Brian Atene Auditions for Full Metal Jacket
Guy de Maupassant: “A curtain of glistening snowflakes descended toward the earth…”
Matthew Arnold Threatens a Six-Year-Old Girl
David Beckham Goal from Midfield
Ji Lee: Word As Image
Nelcy Sedibe: “Holotelani”
Shakespeare: Cressida’s Philosophy of Love (with Modernization)
Carole King: “So Far Away”
Jackie Mason: “My grandfather always said, “Don’t watch your money, watch your health…”
Ron Simonsen of How’s Your News? Meets Chad Everett
Alexander Pope Deals With a Fraud
The Mighty Sparrow: “Russian Satellite”
Henry James: Art vs. Life
A Postcard from John Lennon
Emo Philips: “I was walking across a bridge one day…”
Secretariat wins the ’73 Belmont by 31 lengths
Ice Cream Posters by Renata El Dib
Ezra Pound: “These people don’t know a thing about rhythm.”
Isak Dinesen: “The Roads of Life”
The Book Detective (Seinfeld)
Saturday Night Live: “More Cowbell”
Reservoir Dogs & City on Fire
The Definitive Winnebago Man
Palmer McAbee: “McAbee’s Railroad Piece”
Ichiro Suzuki: “The Throw”
Sarah Hughes’ Gold Medal–Winning Free Skate
Coron Wool Felt Bulbshade by Nahoko Koyama
Franz Kafka: “The New Lawyer”
Mario Vargas Llosa: “The Tapeworm” (from Letters to a Young Novelist)
Bottle Opener by Brendan Ravenhill
Jelly Roll Morton: “Black Bottom Stomp”
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K.488, II. Adagio
Koko Taylor: “Wang Dang Doodle”
Bobby Short: “I Happen to Like New York”
Dr. John: “Junko Partner”
B.B. King: “Nobody Loves Me But My Mother”
Johnny Cash Trivia
The Andrews Sisters: “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B”
The Onion: “Living Out of Your Car Is a Dying Art”
Willie Mabon: “I Don’t Know” (with Mick Jagger on Harmonica)
Dusty Springfield: “Just a Little Lovin’”
Ted Hughes Gives Up English Lit
WIND fans by Jasper Startup
Curb Your Enthusiasm: Bowling Alley Shoe Thief
John Milton’s Morning Milking
Walter Raleigh: “There are no synonyms…”
The Swan Silvertones: “My Rock”
Sade: “By Your Side”
TWIG Sidetable & Stool by Russell Pinch
The Flatlanders: “Dallas”
Christopher Marlowe: Faustus’ Damnation (Comment by George Saintsbury)
Søren Kierkegaard: The Dwarf’s Seven-League Boots
Fleetwood Mac: “Landslide” (Live)
Triumph at Star Wars Premiere
OOCH Armchair by Sam Sannia
Junior Wells & Buddy Guy: “Hound Dog”
Kelly Clarkson: “Stuff Like That There”
Herman Melville: “The First Lowering” from Moby-Dick (Comment by D.H. Lawrence)
George Orwell: “Where’s the omelette?”
Aussie Partier Battles Newscaster
Stalinist Terror: “The First to Stop Applauding”
Wei T’ai: “Poetry presents the thing in order to convey the feeling.”
Process Chair by Scott Garcia
Rousseau on Love Letters
Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco: “Quimbara”
“Two brothers were sitting outside the Tivoli Fountain…”
George Jones & Tammy Wynette: “We’re Not the Jet Set”
Evelyn Waugh Hogs Bananas
“An old blind cowboy wanders into an all-girl biker bar…”
Don Quixote on Translation
Watering Can by Nicolas le Moigne
Sylvia Plath Reads “Daddy”
Robert Doisneau: “Picasso and the Loaves” (1952)
The Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir: “Svatba”
James Joyce Recommends a Critic
A Neurotic Quibbles With a Straw
Wayne Newton: “(Won’t You Come Home) Bill Bailey” (Live)
Bounce Passes
Nod Bedside Table & Lamp by Andrew Lang
The White Stripes: “Rag and Bone”
Ironman Ironing Board by Shane Inder
Woodenheap Cabinets by Boris Dennler
Thomas Jefferson, Flies & the Declaration of Independence
Banksy (Slideshow)
Samuel Johnson: The Madness of William Collins
Frank Sinatra: “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” (Live)
G.K. Chesterton on Broadway
“A man tried to sell his dog to a neighbor…”
J.S. Bach: Harpsichord Concerto No. 5 in F Minor (Largo)
Clopen Shelf by Torafu Architects
Scarface: “My Block”
Chris Farley as Matt Foley (Saturday Night Live)
Edward Gibbon’s Baby Cheeks
Baker’s Edge Brownie Pan
Salty Holmes & Mattie O’Neil: “I Found My Mama”
“A guy joins a monastery…”
Log Bowls by Doha Chebib
Vladimir Nabokov: “Let us bless the freak…”
Morris Bishop: “We Have Been Here Before”
Chopin: Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23
Incredible Pool Shots by Efren “The Magician” Reyes
A.J. Ayer vs. Mike Tyson
Rainy Day in Far Rockaway, from Woody Allen’s Radio Days (1987)
Charles Darwin Perfectly Expresses the Agnostic Dilemma
Jerry Reed: “She Got the Goldmine, I Got the Shaft”
Shakespeare: Sonnet 90 (Commentary by George Wyndham)
Two Sublime Mozart Passages
Coleridge the Know-It-All
Love Letters
Samuel Johnson: “If obedience to the will of God be necessary to happiness…”
Gabriel Fauré: Requiem, In Paradisum
“The Bris” (Seinfeld)
Stan Getz & João Gilberto featuring Astrud Gilberto: “Corcovado”
The Staple Singers: “Let’s Do It Again”
17-Century Con Sir John Suckling
Monty Python: “Candid Photography” aka “Nudge Nudge” (Live in Glendale, CA)
Dan Marino: Behind-the Back Pass to Mark Clayton
Entertaining Racetrack Calls
John Gardner: “To read or write well…”
“The highest energy thing that has ever been.” James Brown at the T.A.M.I. Show (1964)
Tony Sheridan & The Beatles: "My Bonnie"
Paul Butterfield Blues Band: "Born in Chicago"
Lonnie Donegan: "Rock Island Line"
Bob Dylan: "Brownsville Girl"
Asimov’s Auto Mechanic’s Riddle
George Bernard Shaw: “I pity the man who cannot enjoy Shakespeare…”
Charlie Chaplin’s Handwriting Analyzed
Emily Bronte: “Remembrance”
John Cage: Overcoming Boredom
Chicago: “Colour My World”
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