Times change, and we change with them

"Americans can't be whipped!"--How the West Was Won

Today I used our Metropass for the second-last time, went to Shoppers Drug Mart and bought a Presto card. (The last time was later when I went to Ali Baba's and bought falafel wrap takeout.  I've been getting their Tuesday special so often that they're getting to know me there!) Now I'll be able to get an annual subscription and even get the ODSP discount.

While I was at Shoppers Drug Mart I also renewed my Cipralex prescription and had another 20-minute wait.  This time I went to Wells Hill Park and read more of the Polish history book.  I've finally got to the all too exciting 20th century part.

Saturday night I downstreamed the Cinerama western How the West Was Won, a guilty pleasure of mine.  The HD picture was so crisp that I could often see the seams between the picture's three sections! Gregory Peck is amusingly cast against type as the gambler.  George Peppard is so (uncharacteristically) good in the Civil War sequence John Ford directed, and so weak in the rest of the movie, that he's like two different actors! Great musical score by Alex North.  Of course, Jimmy Stewart was too old for Carroll Baker...

Sunday was the Classic Book Club, where we discussed Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  I argued that Jekyll is actually worse than Hyde:  while Hyde acts evil because it's his nature, Jekyll makes a free choice to turn into someone he knows will do bad things, while maintaining "plausible deniability"!

Under the weather

"Nothing wrong with 'dead reckoning' navigation'--except for the name!"--The Spirit of St. Louis

"When grownups say something is "for your own good," don't trust them!"--Revolutionary Girl Utena

I have a bit of a cold, which has slowed me down. (I've been eating pomelo grapefruit for it.) I had to leave last night's opera rehearsal early, but before I did there was a fun bit where we walked around singing the Nabucco chorus, to get us used to singing and walking at the same time!  We've been rehearsing in the choir seats at St. Matthew's, but for this we walked among the pews.

I've finished two seasons of Dragon Ball and the first two-thirds of Revolutionary Girl Utena that I'd seen before.  But now I'm going to take a break before seeing the rest, and focus on finishing that book of Polish history before the Meetup a week from now.

Tuesday night I saw The Wife with Anne.  It's about a Nobel Prize-winning writer whose wife (spoiler alert!) has always been rewriting his drafts.  Seems to me they should do that more often:  two literary heads can be better than one.  I was thinking that I'd be good at the wife's job! Christian Slater has a good role as a nosy biographer.

Tonight I watched Billy Wilder's The Spirit of St. Louis for maybe the fourth time.  I streamed it through Google Play for just $5.00, and used Chromecast to watch it on our downstairs set in high-def, in all its Cinemascope glory! (Earlier versions I recall seeing with the sides cut off.)

Granted that the movie's uncharacteristic of Wilder, lacking most of his usual acerbic wit. And of course James Stewart was a lot older than the real Lindbergh.  It's more Lindbergh as Stewart than Stewart as Lindbergh, like Lisztomania was Franz Liszt as Roger Daltrey.  (That's a rather understandable choice, considering that the real Lindbergh wasn't big on personality:  as someone with Asperger's Syndrome, I think he had it too.) But I still greatly enjoy the movie, whose second half is mostly a Stewart monologue during his flight.  High adventure, with a striking musical score by the great Franz Waxman.

Don't go in the woods!

Today was the latest Reading Out Loud Meetup, and the topic was scary writing:  the event title was "Don't go in the woods!"  We ended up going on for a full two hours!

I read the chapter in Huckleberry Finn where they find a corpse in a floating house and the one in Tom Sawyer where they're digging for buried treasure; Hemingway's "On the Quai in Smyrna" (about Greek refugees leaving Turkey); Robert Louis Stevenson explaining how Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde came out of his dreams; Christina Rosetti's poem "Goblin Market"; and T. Coreghessan Boyle's "Greasy Lake." (About which, remind me not to move to the U.S.!) The others were reading Poe poems, part of T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land," and some Kafka.

We used Chromecast to watch a Youtube video of Pacific Overtures on our downstairs TV.  That's a 1976 kabuki-style Stephen Sondheim musical about Japan being opened to the west in 1853, and this video is of the original production!  We saw the first part, but couldn't make the Chromecast thing work later on.

Thursday at the opera rehearsal we were getting measured for costumes amid much confusion.  This year they're giving The Marriage of Figaro a Pop Art look, with everyone wearing wigs that are black on one side and white on the other, and it looks like I'll be the Andy Warhol type! We've been learning our few numbers from that show, along with the opening number from Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, for the fundraising show the week after next.

We got the DVD miniseries The Night of... from the library, but couldn't get past the first episode!  It's about an Arab student in New York City who meets a fast girl and ends up getting charged with murder. Reminded me of the New York movie A Most Violent Year, which I couldn't sit through either: we get to watch things get worse and worse... (Remind me too not to move to New York.)

I've finally quit those Vikings and Throne games, and started another town-building game called Golden Valley.  And I finally gave up on getting past Level 1880 in Candy Crush Saga and went back to playing the early levels. (I see myself as the Son Goku of Candy Crush Saga--that's the young martial-arts prodigy in Dragon Ball.)

THE BLUE MAX

This evening the History Meetup screened The Blue Max, a mid-'60s movie about German pilots in World War I. (Once again, Malcolm provided the DVD.) The flying scenes were realistic, but George Peppard was a hopelessly lightweight lead!

I've started putting some compost on the garden.  It's pretty dry.  John's planning a big expansion of the garden next year!

A few days ago I saw some episodes of Dragon Ball where Goku visited Penguin Island, setting of the earlier Akira Toriyama anime Dr. Slump.  A couple of the characters looked familiar, and I found the intro of the show's second version on Youtube.  (For the record, Dr. Slump is a comedy about a scientist inventing a robot that looks like a little girl, like that low-budget '80s sitcom Small Wonder with the ear-worm theme song.) I'd seen this intro before.

Back in 1999, I came over to brother Donald's house to print out a draft of my Ph.D. thesis on his computer.  It took a long time to print, and to pass the time Donald showed me some anime videos he had. (He compared them to the "chaser" acts they put on at the end of vaudeville shows, encouraging the audience to leave.) One of them was that Dr. Slump intro, one of the stranger things I've seen in my 56 years.

Now you've seen it too, o reader!

REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA

The other day I finished the second season of Sailor Moon and for a change started watching the smashingly bizarre series Revolutionary Girl Utena, a gender-bending "magical girls" anime about a lass who was orphaned at an early age but comforted by a "prince" who gave her a ring and promised they'd meet again. She was so inspired by him, however, that she decided to become a prince herself! "But was that such a good idea?" 

Now Utena's attending the prep school Outori Academy, where she wears a male uniform, plays sports with the boys and generally acts the tomboy.  Check out the names:  her surname, Tenjou, means "the heavens," while Outori means "phoenix"--though there's a good chances that it's also a reference to Outori Ran, who achieved stardom playing male leads in the Tarakazuka theatre's famous all-female musical shows. (The Japanese love those multiple meanings!)

At the school there's this mostly male Student Council who fight secretive fencing duels, whose winner becomes "engaged" to the Rose Bride (dark-skinned student Anthy) which means she has to serve him and do whatever he wants.  But Utena wins a duel and the Rose Bride belongs to her--why yes, the show does have lesbian overtones!-- and she ends up in successive swordfights...

Verbal description only scratches the surface of this show's remarkable style.  Directed by the flamboyantly gay Kunihiko Ikuhara, who directed much of Sailor Moon--with several of that show's animators here--it has an incredibly imaginative look, from the late-Meiji time a century ago when Japan's elite was superficially westernized, with lots of rose imagery. (The music is also impressively eclectic.) I also like the shadow puppets who comment on the story midway through! My favorite character of all is Nanami, a bitchy little blonde usually making trouble with her three-girl posse.  

I saw the first part of this show on video almost twenty years ago, but haven't seen the last third. (I've also seen the feature movie, which I recall was rather confusing.) BTW, that photo is of Sailor Pluto, my new favorite sailor senshi whom I mentioned in the last post.

Anime

"The problem with the world isn't the existence of evil, it's the existence of good--otherwise nobody would care"--Fargo

I've almost finished rewatching the second season of Sailor Moon.  I used to think that my favourite Sailor Scout was Venus, but now I think I prefer Pluto, the one in black boots who perpetually guards the doorway to time. (Saturn would really have been a better name for her.) I'll soon be looking at later seasons I didn't see back at the time!

I really like the song they play over the end credits of the Japanese version of the second season.  I even came up with a translation of the lyrics. (Translating Japanese into English isn't as hard as some translation, since they tend to say in ten syllables what we say in five and it's easier to stretch lines longer than squeeze them shorter.) Allcaps indicate an accented syllable, dashes one that's stretched out.

DON'T give UP, NO matter WHERE you are, whatEVer preDICament YOU may SEE!
THAT'S-ME, that's WHO I AM, that's the PRETty young MAIDen's POliCY.
SOME-DAY I'LL meet the SPEcial one, for HIM I'll do ANything, I won't FLEE,

FOR-HIM I'll RAISE my CHIN and LEAP inTO the FIGHT!

Down IN my BE-ING,
There's A sad YEARN-ING,
But LOVE will SOON come OUT aGAIN!

I'm aFRAID of NOThing FEARsome, of COURSE,
It's BETter to LIVE with PASsion, of COURSE,
I have DREAMS that are MANY and BIG ones, of COURSE.
THAT'S-WHY I'll BE a courAGEous GIRL!

ALL will COME, MONsters, DisASters, I'm GOing to FACE it all MANfulLY!
IN these TESTS-IS my CHANCE to SPREAD out my WINGS and fly GRACEfulLY,
For EVeryONE-LOOKS twice as BEAUtiful WHEN they apPROACH their task MINDfulLY.
I'LL beLIEVE-IN mySELF as I TAKE on the FUTure PLIGHT!

In SIDE my NA-TURE
Is A strong CREA-TURE,
And SOMEday OUT she'll POUR like RAIN!

I'll beCOME whatEVer I'm SEEKing, of COURSE,
It's BETter to conTINue perSISTing, of COURSE,
There will ALso be SORrow and WEEping, of COURSE,
But ANyWAY, I'll BE a courAGEous GIRL!

(So what if "continue persisting" is redundant and "everyone" is singular rather than plural?  It fits the rhythm.)

I've also started the second season of Dragon Ball.  As I said before, it's really a show for little boys, but I do find it fun.  My favorite character is the teenage girl Bulma, probably because she's usually getting pissed about something. (Siegfried the enemy agent was my favorite Get Smart character, for much the same reason.) She generally has reason for her annoyance:  Japanese men seem to treat women a lot worse than in the west! (Even when a Japanese lady gets appointed to a corporation's Board of Directors, she's still expected to serve the tea for the men...)

I finished harvesting the potatoes the other day and brought in the carrots today. Today I also gave our lawn a last mow. (Unusually warm weather for October!)

Finished Fargo.  I got caught up through seeing two episodes a day--the closest I can get to binge-watching--and we saw the last episode together.  The third season may be the best of all, though the Hollywood episode and the bowling alley scene were pretty odd.  It got rather Lynchian, to the point of having Ray Wise (the possessed lawyer on Twin Peaks) show up both times!

The greatest people of the 16th century

I shall now make my incomplete list of the greatest people of the 16th century:

Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) and Vasco da Gama (1460s-1524): Explorers who greatly widened the scope of the world as seen from Europe. Columbus, a Genoese working for Spain, discovered the sea route from Europe to America in 1492 and claimed Caribbean lands for his king, setting a precedent for brutal colonialism; da Gama, sailing south around Africa for Portugal, reached India in 1497, transforming world trade and starting a golden age for his kingdom.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), and Rafael (1483-1520):  the three greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance, towering figures in Europe's art legacy.

Francisco Pizarro (1471-1541) and Hernan Cortes (1485-1547): The two most successful Spanish conquistadors.  Cortes conquered Aztec Mexico in 1521; Pizarro Inca Peru in 1532.  These conquests, both greatly aided by the accidental introduction of European smallpox, greatly increased gold and silver production in the Spanish empire.

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543): Polish astronomer who published (on his deathbed) a theory that replaced the classical view of a geocentric universe with a heliocentric solar system.  This theory, resisted by the Roman Catholic Church, is central to modern astronomy and ultimately led to the theory of a universe with NO center.

Martin Luther (1483-1546):  German heretic whose 95 Theses started the Reformation, which resulted in most of northern Europe breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church.

Babur (1483-1530) and Akbar (1542-1605):  The two greatest rulers of Moghul India.  Babur, starting from today's Afghanistan, established the Moghul Dynasty in India with his 1526 conquest of Delhi; Akbar brought the empire to its pinnacle, dominating northern India.

Ismail I (1487-1524):  First Safavid Shah of Iran, unifiying the nation for the first time in centuries under the Shi'ite sect distinct from its Sunni rival the Ottoman Empire.

Saint Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556): First Superior General of the Society of Jesus.  The Jesuit order he founded, with an emphasis on intellectual rigor and assertive salesmanship, became one of the leading organs of the Counter-Reformation and is still active today.

Henry VIII (1491-1547) and Elizabeth I (1533-1603):  England's two great Tudor monarchs, father and daughter, who reigned for over eighty years between them.  Their age was a turbulent time for England, marked by the Reformation, cultural advances and the beginnings of England's overseas empire.

Suleiman the Magnificent (1494-1566):  Long-reigning Turkish Sultan who brought the Ottoman Empire to its peak with the conquest of eastern Hungary, dominating the eastern Mediterranean and posing a challenge to Christian Europe.

William Tyndale (ca. 1494-1536): Reformation scholar known for his work translating Biblical scripture into English. Though put to death by Imperial officials, his legacy lives on in the greater part of the King James Bible.

Gustav I (1496-1560): First king in the Vasa dynasty, establishing Sweden's independence from the Danish-Norwegian union and overseeing the society's conversion to Lutheranism.

Charles V (1500-58): Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain for almost forty years.  He assembled a huge realm but faced increasing pressure from the Reformation in northern Germany, and ultimately bequeathed the Empire and the Spanish kingdom to different heirs.

John Calvin (1509-64): French-born theologian who became a Reformation leader in Geneva.  He founded the tradition of Dissenter sects that would be carried on by churches such as the Baptists, the Presbyterians and the Dutch Reformed Church.

Andreas Vesalius (1514-64): Flemish physician whose publication De Humani Corporis Fabrica established modern anatomy.

Philip II (1527-98):  Habsburg king of Spain for over forty years, ruling an empire that included much of the Americas, Italy, the Netherlands and eventually Portugal.  His challenges included the Counter-Reformation, economic absorption of inflationary bullion from the colonies, new English rivalry and a persistent insurgency in Holland.

Ivan the Terrible (1530-84): First Tsar of Russia, he turned the Grand Duchy of Muscovy into an empire, defeating Tartars and rebels and starting the eastward expansion into Siberia.  During his long reign he became notorious for tyrannical methods and explosive rage.

William the Silent (1533-84): Prince of Orange who led the Dutch rebellion against Spanish Catholic rule, becoming first Stadtholder of the United Provinces.

Michel de Montaigne (1533-92): French philosopher whose essays stand as an early example of modern thinking.

Domenikos

Theotokopolous "El Greco" (1541-1614): Greek-born painter who became the greatest artist of Habsburg Spain.

FARGO

"'If he be Mr. Hyde,' he had thought, 'I shall be Mr. Seek'"--The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

"Surmise!"--Fargo

We've started watching the library DVDs of the third season of Fargo, the loose and surprisingly adept reworking of the 1996 American gothic absurdist movie.  We started watching it together but I fell behind the others. (Usually, I'm the one who's ahead.) This one has Ewan MacGregor playing two brothers!

I'm in the last part of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  We get shown surprisingly little of Hyde, like Kurtz in Heart of Darkness. (Less can be more.) There's something Nietzschean about this double character!

Monday night I went to the Celtic Culture Meetup.  We were discussing Samuel Johnson's account of visiting the Scottish Hebrides, which I hadn't got around to reading. But it was still a good discussion, with a full turnout! (My mother was very interested in Samuel Johnson.)