On Tom Buchanan: "'Now don't think my opinion on these matters is final,' he seemed to say, 'just because I'm stronger and more of a man than you'"--THE GREAT GATSBY
After finishing WHAT A YEAR! I decided to read THE GREAT GATSBY again. (I read it twice, when I was 19 and 24 respectively.) I guess I'm still interested in the 1920s. And a new movie of this oddly unfilmable novel is coming out soon, and Matthew may make it the subject of a book club event in his Meetup group. And I want to recite part of it when ROLT has an event involving love-related writing.
We've sold our copy online, so I found a cheap Penguin edition at Book City near the Bathurst station. I also picked up some well-discounted books: an issue of GRANTA about the American view of foreign countries, an illustrated guide to the history of ancient Greece, and Studs Terkel's survey WORKING. (I enjoyed HARD TIMES and 'THE GOOD WAR', his oral histories of the Great Depression and World War II.)
Fitzgerald's writing is delicate and sharply observed. Yet in a self-pitying moment he wrote, "There are no second acts in American lives." Yet all the most remarkable American lives are distinguished by their second acts: even his own life and writing had an interesting second act in the 1930s. (I may have posted that before, but it would take forever to confirm.)
Friday, January 18, 2013
Thursday, January 17, 2013
THE HOUSE I LIVE IN
"If you're a casual drug user, you're an accomplice to murder"--Nancy Reagan
Today I saw Eugene Jarecki's documentary THE HOUSE I LIVE IN at the Bloor. (The title comes from a Paul Robeson song performed over the closing credits, in which the "house" is the US.) It's about the War on Drugs and all its human casualties, including some in the family of a maid who worked for Jarecki's family.
Jarecki's made some fine documentaries before, like CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS (about a child-abuse witch hunt--the clown brother was the most interesting character) and WHY WE FIGHT (about the military-industrial complex), and this is another good one. It made me feel both sad and angry. There's intelligent commentary by people like David Simon, creator of THE WIRE, an HBO series about drug cops in Baltimore. As I know from reading WHAT A YEAR!, the questions now being raised about the War on Drugs were also being raised about Prohibition back in 1929.
I also saw a DVD (for the second time) of a PBS documentary about the country-music pioneers the Carter Family. What haunting melancholy music they made!
Today I saw Eugene Jarecki's documentary THE HOUSE I LIVE IN at the Bloor. (The title comes from a Paul Robeson song performed over the closing credits, in which the "house" is the US.) It's about the War on Drugs and all its human casualties, including some in the family of a maid who worked for Jarecki's family.
Jarecki's made some fine documentaries before, like CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS (about a child-abuse witch hunt--the clown brother was the most interesting character) and WHY WE FIGHT (about the military-industrial complex), and this is another good one. It made me feel both sad and angry. There's intelligent commentary by people like David Simon, creator of THE WIRE, an HBO series about drug cops in Baltimore. As I know from reading WHAT A YEAR!, the questions now being raised about the War on Drugs were also being raised about Prohibition back in 1929.
I also saw a DVD (for the second time) of a PBS documentary about the country-music pioneers the Carter Family. What haunting melancholy music they made!
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Another Huffpost moderation outrage
THE HUFFINGTON POST recently ran a report on ex-president George Bush Sr. being released from the hospital. The accompanying posts were a gush of sentimental praise for him. But I couldn't help thinking of his most famous quote: "Read my lips--no new taxes!" It's precisely the Republican Party's fidelity to his principle that's produced the US federal government's current fiscal crisis.
But the posts I read were like this one: "Look here! This Lib is wishing President Bush continued health improvement! Why? Because as an American, I wish nothing but the best for Presidents, past and present. I afford the office respect. Speedy Recovery President Bush." Another post had the temerity to respond with the question "Why?" so I wrote one saying: "Because too many Americans treat presidents like kings." And the Huffpost moderators wouldn't publish it! I can confirm that it wasn't an accident because I tried to post it later and it was blocked again.
No wonder the posts were all sentimental praise. (When one poster called him "decent," I did manage to publish the cryptic reply, "Decent is as decent does.") You know, it isn't like I used the expression "shut up" this time. So sad to learn that the Americans who treat presidents like kings include moderators at THE HUFFINGTON POST.
But the posts I read were like this one: "Look here! This Lib is wishing President Bush continued health improvement! Why? Because as an American, I wish nothing but the best for Presidents, past and present. I afford the office respect. Speedy Recovery President Bush." Another post had the temerity to respond with the question "Why?" so I wrote one saying: "Because too many Americans treat presidents like kings." And the Huffpost moderators wouldn't publish it! I can confirm that it wasn't an accident because I tried to post it later and it was blocked again.
No wonder the posts were all sentimental praise. (When one poster called him "decent," I did manage to publish the cryptic reply, "Decent is as decent does.") You know, it isn't like I used the expression "shut up" this time. So sad to learn that the Americans who treat presidents like kings include moderators at THE HUFFINGTON POST.
Back to choir practice
Today Coro Verdi had its first rehearsal in the New Year. With the Christmas concert finished, we've returned to rehearsing Verdi's MACBETH. (We spent a lot of time on the Cutthroats' Chorus.) I don't like to boast, but it's a fact that John George and Giovanni like to sit next to me because I'm a fast learner.
Giuseppe is worrying about not having enough singers, especially sopranos. TOR has lots of sopranos, but as a rule he doesn't lean on the TOR chorus people to join his other group. We're going to move rehearsals to the Villa Colombo building sometime, but not just yet.
Today I also finished WHAT A YEAR! In the last chapter Joe Alex Morris wrote "For better or worse, Americans who died in 1929 had never heard of..." then recited a long list of phenomena that he expected 1956 readers to be familiar with. I knew most of them, though not everyone remembers Gina Lollobrigida or Cinerama. There were a few I had to look up, however.
Dave Garroway: first host of THE TODAY SHOW. (That's one of those names that sound vaguely familiar to me.)
Economic royalists: FDR's 1936 term for robber barons.
Dacron: a brand of polyester.
Indirect lighting: A lighting system where flourescent tubes along the top of a living room's wall reflect their light onto the ceiling.
Fala: FDR's terrier.
Sulfanilamide: a germ-killing elixir that caused mass poisoning in 1937.
I'm still trying to figure out why he included Nashua.
Giuseppe is worrying about not having enough singers, especially sopranos. TOR has lots of sopranos, but as a rule he doesn't lean on the TOR chorus people to join his other group. We're going to move rehearsals to the Villa Colombo building sometime, but not just yet.
Today I also finished WHAT A YEAR! In the last chapter Joe Alex Morris wrote "For better or worse, Americans who died in 1929 had never heard of..." then recited a long list of phenomena that he expected 1956 readers to be familiar with. I knew most of them, though not everyone remembers Gina Lollobrigida or Cinerama. There were a few I had to look up, however.
Dave Garroway: first host of THE TODAY SHOW. (That's one of those names that sound vaguely familiar to me.)
Economic royalists: FDR's 1936 term for robber barons.
Dacron: a brand of polyester.
Indirect lighting: A lighting system where flourescent tubes along the top of a living room's wall reflect their light onto the ceiling.
Fala: FDR's terrier.
Sulfanilamide: a germ-killing elixir that caused mass poisoning in 1937.
I'm still trying to figure out why he included Nashua.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
DJANGO UNCHAINED
"My good man, I'm simply trying to ascertain..." "Speak English, goddammit!"--DJANGO UNCHAINED
Today I saw Quentin Tarantino's slave revenge saga DJANGO UNCHAINED at the Empress Walk. It was pretty fun but way too long. (On top of my sitting through almost three hours, the TTC had a problem so I was an hour getting home!)
Directed in Tarantino's customary Jacobean cartoon style, it borrows from spaghetti westerns and '70s blaxploitation like Fred Williamson in THE LEGEND OF NIGGER CHARLEY. (Think Tarantino uses the N-word a lot? Back then they put it in TITLES!) Even the dentist's wagon with the giant tooth is borrowed from Erich Von Stroheim's silent classic GREED.
I like many of Tarantino's movies, though they can be off-putting. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS left a rather bad taste in the mouth for all its brilliant elements. (Brad Pitt was a hoot, especially his tin-eared "Bon giorno.") Maybe it's just that some scenes were so real and convincing--especially the beginning-- and others so over the top, that they didn't go together.
On the subject of slavery dramas, I've always thought the '70s miniseries ROOTS to be overrated. It struck me as cheesy and relentlessly obvious, with scene after scene played to the rafters. Sure, several of the black performances were impressive, but Maya Angelou and OJ Simpson gave embarrassing performances even for non-actors, and the white cast was mostly weak. (Edward Asner, normally a superb actor, played the slave ship captain as if he had a severe hangover.) For a truly great miniseries, see Larry McMurtry's LONESOME DOVE.
Today I saw Quentin Tarantino's slave revenge saga DJANGO UNCHAINED at the Empress Walk. It was pretty fun but way too long. (On top of my sitting through almost three hours, the TTC had a problem so I was an hour getting home!)
Directed in Tarantino's customary Jacobean cartoon style, it borrows from spaghetti westerns and '70s blaxploitation like Fred Williamson in THE LEGEND OF NIGGER CHARLEY. (Think Tarantino uses the N-word a lot? Back then they put it in TITLES!) Even the dentist's wagon with the giant tooth is borrowed from Erich Von Stroheim's silent classic GREED.
I like many of Tarantino's movies, though they can be off-putting. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS left a rather bad taste in the mouth for all its brilliant elements. (Brad Pitt was a hoot, especially his tin-eared "Bon giorno.") Maybe it's just that some scenes were so real and convincing--especially the beginning-- and others so over the top, that they didn't go together.
On the subject of slavery dramas, I've always thought the '70s miniseries ROOTS to be overrated. It struck me as cheesy and relentlessly obvious, with scene after scene played to the rafters. Sure, several of the black performances were impressive, but Maya Angelou and OJ Simpson gave embarrassing performances even for non-actors, and the white cast was mostly weak. (Edward Asner, normally a superb actor, played the slave ship captain as if he had a severe hangover.) For a truly great miniseries, see Larry McMurtry's LONESOME DOVE.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
ROLT January
Today was January's ROLT Meetup event. We had a record turnout of nine people. The weather was unusually mild for January so we decided to sit outside, but as the event went on the weather got worse. Someone suggested a different locale but we'll see.
Our topic was Canadian writing. (I titled the event "The Maple Leaf Forever.") I read part of a chapter from Mazo de la Roche's JALNA, with Renny worrying about being in love with his brother's wife, then going out to the stable and trying to save a dying foal. Jane read part of a CODCO script. (That show was the predecessor of THIS HOUR HAS 23 MINUTES.) Someone read part of WO Mitchell's WHO HAS SEEN THE WIND, someone read poems by Irving Layton and Leonard Cohen, and someone read part of the Stephen Leacock sea-story parody "Soaked in Seeweed." (That's the one that ends with "I died. I buried myself.") Moira came and considered reading an Alden Nowlan poem, but decided against it.
I was going to make the February topic writing on love, since that's the time of St. Valentine's Day. But Moira preferred writing on science, so I've decided to combine scientific writing with science fiction. I'm considering future topics like biography & memoirs, travel writing, city life, closing passages, and a second poetry event since the first was so popular.
Our topic was Canadian writing. (I titled the event "The Maple Leaf Forever.") I read part of a chapter from Mazo de la Roche's JALNA, with Renny worrying about being in love with his brother's wife, then going out to the stable and trying to save a dying foal. Jane read part of a CODCO script. (That show was the predecessor of THIS HOUR HAS 23 MINUTES.) Someone read part of WO Mitchell's WHO HAS SEEN THE WIND, someone read poems by Irving Layton and Leonard Cohen, and someone read part of the Stephen Leacock sea-story parody "Soaked in Seeweed." (That's the one that ends with "I died. I buried myself.") Moira came and considered reading an Alden Nowlan poem, but decided against it.
I was going to make the February topic writing on love, since that's the time of St. Valentine's Day. But Moira preferred writing on science, so I've decided to combine scientific writing with science fiction. I'm considering future topics like biography & memoirs, travel writing, city life, closing passages, and a second poetry event since the first was so popular.
VERTIGO
"Come here!" "No, you'll muss me"--romantic banter in VERTIGO
Saw Alfred Hitchcock's VERTIGO for the third time, with Matthew's Movie Meetup group at the Yonge & Dundas Event Screen. There was some confusion about when to meet so I ended up getting there an hour early and waiting in the lobby. (Oh well, I got some more of WHAT A YEAR! read and had something more to blog about.)
VERTIGO is one of those movies that improves with repeat viewings. Indeed, you have to see it two or three times to appreciate it. (I can well believe that its initial reviews were not so good.) It's the one where detective James Stewart gets hired to put a tail on Kim Novak, who says she's possessed by the spirit of a girl who died a century before, but all is not what it seems...
It's a disquieting portrait of romantic obsession. Many people consider VERTIGO Hitchcock's masterpiece. (Myself, I'd choose NOTORIOUS.) Stewart and Novak have an eerie chemistry, helped greatly by Bernard Herrmann's haunting music and the San Francisco locations. Has any movie made better use of that city? I ought to see BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE, a romantic comedy with Novak as a witch out to put a spell on Stewart, not unlike in this movie.
In 1976 Brian de Palma, working from a Paul Schrader script, directed a curious reworking of VERTIGO unsubtly titled OBSESSION. That one had Cliff Robertson as a New Orleans businessmen whose wife (Genevieve Bujold) and daughter get kidnapped, then drown in the Mississippi River where their bodies are never found. Twenty years later he meets a young woman the same age as his daughter would have been, also played by Genevieve Bujold...
Saw Alfred Hitchcock's VERTIGO for the third time, with Matthew's Movie Meetup group at the Yonge & Dundas Event Screen. There was some confusion about when to meet so I ended up getting there an hour early and waiting in the lobby. (Oh well, I got some more of WHAT A YEAR! read and had something more to blog about.)
VERTIGO is one of those movies that improves with repeat viewings. Indeed, you have to see it two or three times to appreciate it. (I can well believe that its initial reviews were not so good.) It's the one where detective James Stewart gets hired to put a tail on Kim Novak, who says she's possessed by the spirit of a girl who died a century before, but all is not what it seems...
It's a disquieting portrait of romantic obsession. Many people consider VERTIGO Hitchcock's masterpiece. (Myself, I'd choose NOTORIOUS.) Stewart and Novak have an eerie chemistry, helped greatly by Bernard Herrmann's haunting music and the San Francisco locations. Has any movie made better use of that city? I ought to see BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE, a romantic comedy with Novak as a witch out to put a spell on Stewart, not unlike in this movie.
In 1976 Brian de Palma, working from a Paul Schrader script, directed a curious reworking of VERTIGO unsubtly titled OBSESSION. That one had Cliff Robertson as a New Orleans businessmen whose wife (Genevieve Bujold) and daughter get kidnapped, then drown in the Mississippi River where their bodies are never found. Twenty years later he meets a young woman the same age as his daughter would have been, also played by Genevieve Bujold...
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Dreams
I sometimes have vivid dreams. Last night I dreamed of pitching a movie script that started with a schoolboy finishing a school essay about predicting the weather, then finding that someone had changed it to talk about raising your hands to create a storm vortex above you. Then he found out about this parallel universe where people had such power over the weather, and met a group of scholars from that world eager to learn from him, including a big expert whom I suggested could be played in a Sacha Baron Cohen cameo. Then I started telling the story to Antonio Banderas, but stopped and apologized, saying "You must hear a lot of movie pitches!"
I also dreamed of roller skating along a long road that ended in a channel being dug down a slope for a waterfall with a lot of streams that would cancel each other out and dissipate, with big flakes of gold visible here and there. And I dreamed of being in the futuristic world of the movie SOYLENT GREEN, except that I was in the area of Seattle while the movie took place in New York City. And I dreamed of a jungle tribesman who came to the big city for the Olympics, didn't fit in and became a fugitive, and of having a girlfriend in the Royal Family, and of bicycling downhill on a slope that got faster and faster, and of ending up in a science fiction movie with Greg from THE BRADY BUNCH, and of going on a tour of the world except that we only spent a short time in China before flying to Vancouver where I was trying to figure out the time back in Toronto.
I dreamed all that last night. Some nights are more vivid than others.
I also dreamed of roller skating along a long road that ended in a channel being dug down a slope for a waterfall with a lot of streams that would cancel each other out and dissipate, with big flakes of gold visible here and there. And I dreamed of being in the futuristic world of the movie SOYLENT GREEN, except that I was in the area of Seattle while the movie took place in New York City. And I dreamed of a jungle tribesman who came to the big city for the Olympics, didn't fit in and became a fugitive, and of having a girlfriend in the Royal Family, and of bicycling downhill on a slope that got faster and faster, and of ending up in a science fiction movie with Greg from THE BRADY BUNCH, and of going on a tour of the world except that we only spent a short time in China before flying to Vancouver where I was trying to figure out the time back in Toronto.
I dreamed all that last night. Some nights are more vivid than others.
Movie trivia contest
Tonight I went to a Movie trivia contest hosted by Sash of the Toronto Friends Social Group Meetup. I was careless with the time and got Father to drive me to the subway station so I'd be there in time, but I should have realized it would start a lot later than scheduled. It isn't the first time I've inconvenienced Father when I didn't have to.
I finished third and chose a serving of cookies & cream cake for my prize. I also met a CBC science reporter who ultimately finished first. I actually finished first in these contests once, and I'm sure I'll do it again one of these months.
I'm pretty good with movie trivia, and even noticed a couple of mistakes in Sash's questions: ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK came out in 1982, not 1981; and Rooney in FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF was a vice-principal, not a principal. (I heard someone floated a proposal for a Ferris Bueller sequel, and I'd like to see one where Ferris is a fortysomething unemployed welfare bum who can't read or add and now says, "I shouldn't have skipped school." Rooney, meanwhile, has become Secretary of Education.)
I wish I knew how to quit Candy Crush Saga. I've said that it was addictive, and Pet Rescue Saga is too. (Did I mention I've been careless with time?) I'll just have to find a new game twice as addictive...
I finished third and chose a serving of cookies & cream cake for my prize. I also met a CBC science reporter who ultimately finished first. I actually finished first in these contests once, and I'm sure I'll do it again one of these months.
I'm pretty good with movie trivia, and even noticed a couple of mistakes in Sash's questions: ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK came out in 1982, not 1981; and Rooney in FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF was a vice-principal, not a principal. (I heard someone floated a proposal for a Ferris Bueller sequel, and I'd like to see one where Ferris is a fortysomething unemployed welfare bum who can't read or add and now says, "I shouldn't have skipped school." Rooney, meanwhile, has become Secretary of Education.)
I wish I knew how to quit Candy Crush Saga. I've said that it was addictive, and Pet Rescue Saga is too. (Did I mention I've been careless with time?) I'll just have to find a new game twice as addictive...
Wednesday, January 09, 2013
Back to the opera
Today was the first post-New Year's rehearsal for the TOR. Performances start next month, and now we're going on stage! I remembered to bring my checkbook to pay $50 of additional expenses, and my ticket money. (My parents and sister are seeing both shows, so I sold six tickets.) But I forgot to bring indoor shoes, so I went on stage in my sock feet.
We were rehearsing TALES OF HOFFMANN, and did the opening and closing scenes set in a pub. We also did the greater half of the scene with Olympia, but didn't get to the scene with Giulietta. (The chorus isn't in the scene with Antonia.) For the pub scene we get to hold metal mugs and long pipes.
I mentioned before that there were a few cameo roles that I was being considered for. It turns out that they decided not to include them. Part of me felt relieved at not getting the extra responsibility--I was too polite to admit it, of course--but I felt stupid about being the last to find out.
Speaking of Hoffmans, in the afternoon I saw Dustin in the William Goldman-John Schlesinger thriller MARATHON MAN at the Young&Dundas. It's one of the older movies they've been showing on the Event Screen there. That's the one where Nazi Laurence Olivier keeps asking Hoffman "Is it safe?" before torturing him with dentist equipment. I'd read that it was crude, and it was. (Did the book make more sense?) Frankly, I only saw it so I'd have something to write about here.
We were rehearsing TALES OF HOFFMANN, and did the opening and closing scenes set in a pub. We also did the greater half of the scene with Olympia, but didn't get to the scene with Giulietta. (The chorus isn't in the scene with Antonia.) For the pub scene we get to hold metal mugs and long pipes.
I mentioned before that there were a few cameo roles that I was being considered for. It turns out that they decided not to include them. Part of me felt relieved at not getting the extra responsibility--I was too polite to admit it, of course--but I felt stupid about being the last to find out.
Speaking of Hoffmans, in the afternoon I saw Dustin in the William Goldman-John Schlesinger thriller MARATHON MAN at the Young&Dundas. It's one of the older movies they've been showing on the Event Screen there. That's the one where Nazi Laurence Olivier keeps asking Hoffman "Is it safe?" before torturing him with dentist equipment. I'd read that it was crude, and it was. (Did the book make more sense?) Frankly, I only saw it so I'd have something to write about here.
Monday, January 07, 2013
Recent DVDs
I've been watching some more uncommon DVDs through zip.ca.
The Best of GUNSMOKE: I remember watching some of the later seasons of that "adult western" on Sunday mornings in the '80s. Now I've started a video collection of selected episodes from all over its 20-year run. (THE SIMPSONS has been on for a longer time, but this show made more episodes!) I've only seen the earliest ones, including an episode with Charles Bronson.
THE RED SKELTON SHOW: I got a disc with some early episodes of that show, which I watched faithfully in its last seasons. He was a comic genius, and well do I remember characters like Freddy the Freeloader and Clem Kadiddlehopper. (The disc also has some episodes of Groucho Marx in YOU BET YOUR LIFE.)
OF TIME AND THE CITY: An eloquent Terence Davies memoir of his postwar Liverpool youth, combining narration with archival footage of the city and eclectic music.
CLASSIC EDUCATIONAL SHORTS: The latest disc in a series of classroom films, this one is commercial films for salesmen and clients. The film about the blender was so well made that I wanted to go out and make a blender recipe!
I'll soon be seeing some early avant-garde films, a couple of Luis Bunuel productions, and a documentary about the American West in the 1860s!
The Best of GUNSMOKE: I remember watching some of the later seasons of that "adult western" on Sunday mornings in the '80s. Now I've started a video collection of selected episodes from all over its 20-year run. (THE SIMPSONS has been on for a longer time, but this show made more episodes!) I've only seen the earliest ones, including an episode with Charles Bronson.
THE RED SKELTON SHOW: I got a disc with some early episodes of that show, which I watched faithfully in its last seasons. He was a comic genius, and well do I remember characters like Freddy the Freeloader and Clem Kadiddlehopper. (The disc also has some episodes of Groucho Marx in YOU BET YOUR LIFE.)
OF TIME AND THE CITY: An eloquent Terence Davies memoir of his postwar Liverpool youth, combining narration with archival footage of the city and eclectic music.
CLASSIC EDUCATIONAL SHORTS: The latest disc in a series of classroom films, this one is commercial films for salesmen and clients. The film about the blender was so well made that I wanted to go out and make a blender recipe!
I'll soon be seeing some early avant-garde films, a couple of Luis Bunuel productions, and a documentary about the American West in the 1860s!
New computer games
It looks like I'm finally finished with Evony. I've brought all the non-residential buildings up to level nine and completed the wall defences, and this time I'm not really interested in conquering territory or starting new cities.
Now I've started on the game Megapolis, yet another city-planning game along the lines of Simcity and Cityville. What can I say? I love to plan virtual cities. But I don't know how long I'll last this time.
I've tried bubble-blasting games, but I can't really get into them. On the other hand, I've discovered an addictive strategy game called Candy Crush Saga. It involves an array of candy in different colors: jelly beans are red, lemon drops yellow, lozenges orange, gobstoppers blue, jujubes purple, and the green ones are mints or something like that. You have adjacent candy pieces trade places to get three in a row, then they disappear and some new ones come down. If you manage to arrange four or even five in a row, you get pieces with special powers. The part I don't like is that when you lose a game they show a little girl weeping, and I always feel bad for letting her down.
I also found a strategy game called Pet Rescue Saga--from the same company, of course--which involves dissolving sets of adjacent blocks of the same color. (You can make columns disappear with an occasional pyrotechnic rocket.) If you can dissolve a column all the way down to the bottom, the pet on top will be rescued!
I discover all these games by looking at the game apps my Facebook friends are using.
Now I've started on the game Megapolis, yet another city-planning game along the lines of Simcity and Cityville. What can I say? I love to plan virtual cities. But I don't know how long I'll last this time.
I've tried bubble-blasting games, but I can't really get into them. On the other hand, I've discovered an addictive strategy game called Candy Crush Saga. It involves an array of candy in different colors: jelly beans are red, lemon drops yellow, lozenges orange, gobstoppers blue, jujubes purple, and the green ones are mints or something like that. You have adjacent candy pieces trade places to get three in a row, then they disappear and some new ones come down. If you manage to arrange four or even five in a row, you get pieces with special powers. The part I don't like is that when you lose a game they show a little girl weeping, and I always feel bad for letting her down.
I also found a strategy game called Pet Rescue Saga--from the same company, of course--which involves dissolving sets of adjacent blocks of the same color. (You can make columns disappear with an occasional pyrotechnic rocket.) If you can dissolve a column all the way down to the bottom, the pet on top will be rescued!
I discover all these games by looking at the game apps my Facebook friends are using.
Sunday, January 06, 2013
THE SEARCHERS
"MOUNT! M-O-Y-N-T MOUNT!"--Ward Bond in THE SEARCHERS
Today I went to see the John Ford western THE SEARCHERS with the Classic Movie Meetup at the Fairview Cinema's screening room. (There were seven of us.) That's the one where rootless Confederate veteran Ethan (John Wayne) visits his settled Texas brother and family, who get murdered in a Comanche raid, except for little niece Debbie--what a '50s name!--who gets kidnapped and adopted by the tribe, so he goes off on a long, relentless pursuit...
What a powerful movie THE SEARCHERS is! That's one classic that's everything they say it is. John Wayne is at his antihero best as the obsessive, frightening loner motivated by hate and vengeance. Watch as he holds Debbie up by her armpits at the beginning: he'll do the same at the end. There's a great shot when he sees some other whites-turned captives-turned Indians.
Another character of interest is Martin (Jeffrey Hunter), the part-Indian youth adopted into the brother's family who joins Ethan's search, leaving behind sweetheart Vera Miles, but ends up anxious to prevent Ethan from killing Debbie when he finally finds her. Ethan treats him remarkably badly, never letting him forget his prejudice against half-breeds and even using him as bait in a deathtrap!
THE SEARCHERS is a rare western with a sense of tragedy. (Clint Eastwood's UNFORGIVEN and that AMC series HELL ON WHEELS also come to mind.) Sure, the comic parts are pretty broad, but the total effect is compelling, even beautiful.
I went home with Cecilia from Brazil again. I taught her the word "thief," which is one of those words that foreigners are slow to learn: "stealer" would seem more natural. I'd been telling her about WHAT A YEAR! and how JFK's father was a big investor who sold out before the 1929 crash and later was put in charge of the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate Wall Street, on the principle, "It takes a thief to catch a thief."
Today I went to see the John Ford western THE SEARCHERS with the Classic Movie Meetup at the Fairview Cinema's screening room. (There were seven of us.) That's the one where rootless Confederate veteran Ethan (John Wayne) visits his settled Texas brother and family, who get murdered in a Comanche raid, except for little niece Debbie--what a '50s name!--who gets kidnapped and adopted by the tribe, so he goes off on a long, relentless pursuit...
What a powerful movie THE SEARCHERS is! That's one classic that's everything they say it is. John Wayne is at his antihero best as the obsessive, frightening loner motivated by hate and vengeance. Watch as he holds Debbie up by her armpits at the beginning: he'll do the same at the end. There's a great shot when he sees some other whites-turned captives-turned Indians.
Another character of interest is Martin (Jeffrey Hunter), the part-Indian youth adopted into the brother's family who joins Ethan's search, leaving behind sweetheart Vera Miles, but ends up anxious to prevent Ethan from killing Debbie when he finally finds her. Ethan treats him remarkably badly, never letting him forget his prejudice against half-breeds and even using him as bait in a deathtrap!
THE SEARCHERS is a rare western with a sense of tragedy. (Clint Eastwood's UNFORGIVEN and that AMC series HELL ON WHEELS also come to mind.) Sure, the comic parts are pretty broad, but the total effect is compelling, even beautiful.
I went home with Cecilia from Brazil again. I taught her the word "thief," which is one of those words that foreigners are slow to learn: "stealer" would seem more natural. I'd been telling her about WHAT A YEAR! and how JFK's father was a big investor who sold out before the 1929 crash and later was put in charge of the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate Wall Street, on the principle, "It takes a thief to catch a thief."
Saturday, January 05, 2013
WHAT A YEAR!
Last week I finished the political issue of LAPHAM'S QUARTERLY. Since then I've started reading a book I picked up at a new used-book store a few blocks west of here. It's WHAT A YEAR!, a book about the US in the year 1929, written by Joe Alex Morris in the '50s.
It's an entertaining work of popular history, similar to Frederick Lewis Allen's ONLY YESTERDAY: AN INFORMAL HISTORY OF THE 1920s, which I read about a decade ago. It was the year of the big stock market crash, of course, but there was lots of other stuff happening. That was the year when Albert Einstein became world-famous with his announcement of a unified theory of physics or something. It was also a time when Prohibition was becoming more and more controversial, Charles Lindbergh was the big hero of the day, Hollywood had just converted to sound films, Herbert Hoover began his ill-fated presidency, and silliness was common. The popular new toy was the yo-yo. (I've also learned that the expression "Oh, yeah?" originated in the 1920s.) Lots of photo illustrations too.
I have a big headache. I'm running a bit short again, but this time I'll just let it be short.
Friday, January 04, 2013
THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE
Just saw the documentary THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE with a Meetup group at the Bloor. It's pretty disturbing: the NYPD basically grabbed the first suspicious teenagers who turned up and pressured them into false confessions. (It reminded me of the treatment of Omar Khadr.)
We had a discussion about it afterward. I thought it was really contemptible of Ed Koch to refer to "the alleged rapists," then add, "We have to call them 'alleged,' because of the regulation." (I've thought little of Koch since he pushed his support for the death penalty to get elected at the time of the Son of Sam murders.)
It was co-directed by Ken Burns, whose documentaries I've usually liked, though they can be sententious. (I was a bit disappointed by his World War II documentary THE WAR: it started out well, but by the final chapter they'd ended up playing it safe and turning it into a "tribute" to wartime America.) I've seen his THE CIVIL WAR many times over the years. It's very eloquent, though it lets Shelby Foote dominate perhaps too much: I would have liked more of Ed Bearss. I've also enjoyed Burns' documentaries on subjects like Mark Twain and Thomas Hart Benton.
Meanwhile, the parents and I have been downloading movies from Netflix. In the last week we've seen two big, colorful Cinemascope productions from Twentieth Century Fox in the '50s: A MAN CALLED PETER and LOVE IS A MANY-SPLENDORED THING. (Our big widescreen TV, which we got about a year ago, is suitable for such epics.) Unfortunately, the latter movie starred the terrible actress Jennifer Jones, miscast as a half-Chinese doctor babbling greeting-card profundities. And last week we saw Terence Davies' stunning film of Terence Rattigan's '50s play THE DEEP BLUE SEA: if you can't see it in a theatre, be sure to see it on a widescreen TV.
We had a discussion about it afterward. I thought it was really contemptible of Ed Koch to refer to "the alleged rapists," then add, "We have to call them 'alleged,' because of the regulation." (I've thought little of Koch since he pushed his support for the death penalty to get elected at the time of the Son of Sam murders.)
It was co-directed by Ken Burns, whose documentaries I've usually liked, though they can be sententious. (I was a bit disappointed by his World War II documentary THE WAR: it started out well, but by the final chapter they'd ended up playing it safe and turning it into a "tribute" to wartime America.) I've seen his THE CIVIL WAR many times over the years. It's very eloquent, though it lets Shelby Foote dominate perhaps too much: I would have liked more of Ed Bearss. I've also enjoyed Burns' documentaries on subjects like Mark Twain and Thomas Hart Benton.
Meanwhile, the parents and I have been downloading movies from Netflix. In the last week we've seen two big, colorful Cinemascope productions from Twentieth Century Fox in the '50s: A MAN CALLED PETER and LOVE IS A MANY-SPLENDORED THING. (Our big widescreen TV, which we got about a year ago, is suitable for such epics.) Unfortunately, the latter movie starred the terrible actress Jennifer Jones, miscast as a half-Chinese doctor babbling greeting-card profundities. And last week we saw Terence Davies' stunning film of Terence Rattigan's '50s play THE DEEP BLUE SEA: if you can't see it in a theatre, be sure to see it on a widescreen TV.
Wednesday, January 02, 2013
Emancipation Proclamation
THE HUFFINGTON POST has been a bit slow for me lately. After the deal that averted the US "fiscal cliff," I posted: "Time once again for liberals to present a defeat as a victory..." but I don't feel like saying much about that.
Then last night there was a column about Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which became official 150 years ago at New Year's. I know quite a bit about the Civil War and wrote several posts in that column's forum. I think some people were impressed by my perception.
Here's the longest post I wrote:
When Lincoln originally proposed the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet in July, 1862, he encountered less resistance than he feared, but one secretary--William Seward?--warned him that he should delay its announcement until after a Union battlefield victory, or he might be seen as grasping at straws.
Lincoln agreed and waited. In a famous letter to a New York newspaper the following month, he said that he'd be willing to save the union by freeing all of the slaves, by freeing none of them, or by freeing some and not others. In fact, this was his way of preparing the public for the Emancipation Proclamation. (Of course, the Emancipation Proclamation freed almost no slaves immediately, but most of them in the long run.)
In September the Confederate invasion of Maryland--a slave state but still Union territory--culminated in the battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg. In terms of casualties, it was a bloody standoff. But it was followed by a Confederate retreat back into Virginia, and the Northern newspapers did their best to present it as a Union victory. (There were also some minor Union victories around that time.) This was close enough for Lincoln's purposes, and he announced the Emancipation Proclamation, which became official at the end of the year.
***
When a subject like that comes up and I can write a lot about it, I get so excited I can't sleep!
Then last night there was a column about Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which became official 150 years ago at New Year's. I know quite a bit about the Civil War and wrote several posts in that column's forum. I think some people were impressed by my perception.
Here's the longest post I wrote:
When Lincoln originally proposed the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet in July, 1862, he encountered less resistance than he feared, but one secretary--William Seward?--warned him that he should delay its announcement until after a Union battlefield victory, or he might be seen as grasping at straws.
Lincoln agreed and waited. In a famous letter to a New York newspaper the following month, he said that he'd be willing to save the union by freeing all of the slaves, by freeing none of them, or by freeing some and not others. In fact, this was his way of preparing the public for the Emancipation Proclamation. (Of course, the Emancipation Proclamation freed almost no slaves immediately, but most of them in the long run.)
In September the Confederate invasion of Maryland--a slave state but still Union territory--culminated in the battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg. In terms of casualties, it was a bloody standoff. But it was followed by a Confederate retreat back into Virginia, and the Northern newspapers did their best to present it as a Union victory. (There were also some minor Union victories around that time.) This was close enough for Lincoln's purposes, and he announced the Emancipation Proclamation, which became official at the end of the year.
***
When a subject like that comes up and I can write a lot about it, I get so excited I can't sleep!
New Year's
"I blew another year"--Charlie Brown
Last night was New Year's Eve. As is my usual custom, I retired well before midnight, earlier than I usually do. (Noise out on the street wakes me up at midnight.) But in the morning I slept in as late as I usually do. I just don't feel like getting up.
Over the Christmas break, I finished the latest season of MAD MEN--not enough Betty for my taste--and saw the latest season of CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, one of my favorite TV comedies ever: I think my favorite character is Jeff's wife Susie, especially when she launches into profane rants. I liked the episode where Susie and Jeff's dog was about to be put down so she sent him and Larry to buy this brand of frozen yogurt for its last meal, but on the way back Larry took a bite from it, then Jeff took a bigger bite, which bugged Larry so he took a second bite, and Jeff did the same, and the pissing match ended with the whole thing eaten!
Sunday of last week I saw 56 UP at the Bloor: it's the latest installment in the British 7 UP documentary series that's been profiling a group of English people every seven years since their childhood. (I've been watching it since 28 UP.) Just today I saw the 3D release of MONSTERS INC., for the first time. Pretty cute.
Last Saturday I had dinner at Golden Thai restaurant with my Aspergers Meetup group. (We went to Spring Rolls nearby for dessert.) I went to another Karaoke Meetup at BarPlus afterward.
Do I have any New Year's resolutions? Well, I quit the jigsaw puzzle app: I enjoy them but I might spend the rest of my life doing them! Maybe I should wake up earlier, but I need to increase my motivation...
Last night was New Year's Eve. As is my usual custom, I retired well before midnight, earlier than I usually do. (Noise out on the street wakes me up at midnight.) But in the morning I slept in as late as I usually do. I just don't feel like getting up.
Over the Christmas break, I finished the latest season of MAD MEN--not enough Betty for my taste--and saw the latest season of CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, one of my favorite TV comedies ever: I think my favorite character is Jeff's wife Susie, especially when she launches into profane rants. I liked the episode where Susie and Jeff's dog was about to be put down so she sent him and Larry to buy this brand of frozen yogurt for its last meal, but on the way back Larry took a bite from it, then Jeff took a bigger bite, which bugged Larry so he took a second bite, and Jeff did the same, and the pissing match ended with the whole thing eaten!
Sunday of last week I saw 56 UP at the Bloor: it's the latest installment in the British 7 UP documentary series that's been profiling a group of English people every seven years since their childhood. (I've been watching it since 28 UP.) Just today I saw the 3D release of MONSTERS INC., for the first time. Pretty cute.
Last Saturday I had dinner at Golden Thai restaurant with my Aspergers Meetup group. (We went to Spring Rolls nearby for dessert.) I went to another Karaoke Meetup at BarPlus afterward.
Do I have any New Year's resolutions? Well, I quit the jigsaw puzzle app: I enjoy them but I might spend the rest of my life doing them! Maybe I should wake up earlier, but I need to increase my motivation...
Monday, December 17, 2012
My diary decade
About ten years ago I started writing a diary. (Call it mid-life crisis.) I started out with the quirky approach of writing to an imaginary 13-year-old girl called Dinah. When I saw GANGS OF NEW YORK, I wrote: "I know you want to see any movie with Leo DiCaprio in it, but I can understand your mother not wanting you to see this one." But that approach was unsustainable and I soon reverted to a more conventional approach.
This diary was a chance for me to write longhand regularly. I'd always write about what I'd eaten for dinner because I'd always eaten something and it gave me something to write about every day, if only something small. I figure that's why Samuel Pepys wrote about food so much.
I haven't written as much in recent years. There was a time when I'd write every day, or at least six times a week. But in the last year I wrote once or twice a week so I could be sure each entry would fill a whole page. I stopped writing it when I visited London this September, and turned to this blog when I returned.
I may have to take a break from this blog for the rest of December (I haven't been feeling much energy), or just write irregularly. But I hope to return to posting every day in the new year, which is barely a fortnight away!
This diary was a chance for me to write longhand regularly. I'd always write about what I'd eaten for dinner because I'd always eaten something and it gave me something to write about every day, if only something small. I figure that's why Samuel Pepys wrote about food so much.
I haven't written as much in recent years. There was a time when I'd write every day, or at least six times a week. But in the last year I wrote once or twice a week so I could be sure each entry would fill a whole page. I stopped writing it when I visited London this September, and turned to this blog when I returned.
I may have to take a break from this blog for the rest of December (I haven't been feeling much energy), or just write irregularly. But I hope to return to posting every day in the new year, which is barely a fortnight away!
Saturday, December 15, 2012
AIDA
Today I saw Giuseppe Verdi's AIDA yet again at the Met simulcast. It's one of my favorite operas.
It's the one where Aida and Radames love each other but Aida's a captured Ethiopian princess in Egypt's royal palace and Radames is a general whom the Egyptian king sends to defeat an invasion by Aida's father King Amonasro and Aida's mistress Princess Amneris loves Radames too and Radames achieves a big victory and captures Amonasro and the King makes Radames get engaged to Amneris and Amonasro pressures Aida into pressuring Radames into revealing which route the Egyptian army is taking and Radames agrees to desert and elope with Aida and unintentionally reveals the military secret and Amneris catches him and the priests convict Radames of treason and sentence him to be buried alive and Aida hides in his tomb and they face death together and Amneris prays to her gods to grant her peace.
It's one of Verdi's late works, composed a few years after the Risorgimento, and with its critical view of nationalism surely reflects the master's mixed feelings about Italian unification. (Sure, Verdi's name became an acronym for "Victor Emmanuel, king of Italy," but his own sympathies were republican.) I keep wondering if the Egyptian priests are symbols of the Catholic Church, but maybe I'm reading too much subtext into it.
It has one of the great opera finales: Amneris praying for peace sometimes gets me teary-eyed. One thing I like about Verdi's dramatic sense is the way he'll take an unsympathetic character like Amneris and give him or her a moment of grace, in a rather Catholic way. Other examples are Germont singing "Di Provenza il Mar il Suol" in LA TRAVIATA, di Luna's "Il Balen di Suo Soriso" in IL TROVATORE, and Macbeth's "Pieta, Rispetto, Amore" (all baritone songs I've been learning to sing).
Friday, December 14, 2012
MAD MEN
Now we have another mid-month gap between zip.ca DVDs, so I rented the fifth season of MAD MEN for a week. It's an unusually intelligent, existential show about a Madison Avenue advertising agency in the early and mid-1960s. It's funny--watching that show, I can see everything that was wrong with that time: the casual racism and sexism, the stifling conformism in much of the middle class, the heedless drinking and smoking, the littering! Yet I still feel the emotional pull of nostalgia for that time. People today may feel superior to the pre-1968 era, but I sense that we aren't so superior today.
When you think about the show's premise, it can seem almost as bleak as Matthew Weiner's previous series THE SOPRANOS. Sterling & Cooper reminds me a bit of Never-Neverland, with Don Draper as Peter Pan and Joan as Tinker Bell. You have a group of original writers, artists and thinkers basically whoring their talents to sell various products and overcome the general public's sales resistance. Yet that wasn't completely new: artists like Michelangelo created their great religious imagery basically to "sell" the Roman Catholic Church.
I think my favorite character is the glum, unpredictable senior partner Roger Sterling. (I was surprised to learn that John Slattery is only my age.) In one episode when they tried to work with a Japanese company he caused a big scene and made an issue of the Pacific War that he'd served in. I got a feeling that World War II was the only time when he really felt alive.
When you think about the show's premise, it can seem almost as bleak as Matthew Weiner's previous series THE SOPRANOS. Sterling & Cooper reminds me a bit of Never-Neverland, with Don Draper as Peter Pan and Joan as Tinker Bell. You have a group of original writers, artists and thinkers basically whoring their talents to sell various products and overcome the general public's sales resistance. Yet that wasn't completely new: artists like Michelangelo created their great religious imagery basically to "sell" the Roman Catholic Church.
I think my favorite character is the glum, unpredictable senior partner Roger Sterling. (I was surprised to learn that John Slattery is only my age.) In one episode when they tried to work with a Japanese company he caused a big scene and made an issue of the Pacific War that he'd served in. I got a feeling that World War II was the only time when he really felt alive.
Classical music Meetup
Another of my Meetup groups is Toronto Friends of Classical Music. Mary, the organizer, gave me the designation "Attendee extraordinaire" because I've been a member for years, going back to when she took over.
Tonight we had an event at the Mad Bean coffee house on Eglinton Avenue West, hosted by assistant organizer John D. The subject was Beethoven, whose 242nd birthday is this Sunday. He played for us his CDs of the Egmont Overture, the second and fourth movements of the Seventh Symphony and part of a late string quartet. (He brought new high-quality speakers.) He also played a CD someone else brought of Glenn Gould playing the Pathetique Sonata. But nobody else brought music to play.
I'm running short again. I'm still not over that cold. I've been playing that jigsaw puzzle app a lot. We've been eating stew the last two days, and I wish there'd been more potatoes. I still haven't finished writing out the TOR lines I'll have to have memorized soon. I've been watching a DVD of French and German avant-garde silent movies from the 1920s and '30s, but I have a feeling I won't understand any of them. Now I read that they didn't prosecute HSBC for money-laundering because they're afraid they'd bring down the whole financial system--maybe the financial system will collapse anyway!
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
SERPICO
Today I saw the DVD of Sidney Lumet's SERPICO, for about the third time. (I didn't get it from zip.ca but rented it from nearby 2Q Video.) It's a fine true-life story about Frank Serpico, a New York cop who exposed corruption among plainclothesmen. I think there was actually a cop who broke the code of silence before Serpico, but they wrote the book about him because his story was more dramatic, what with getting shot in the face and such.
SERPICO, released in 1973, is one of those realistic New York movies of the time that prided themselves on unfancy, "gritty" realism. The 1970s, especially the early years, was a good time for original, realistic American movies, partly because the studios were relatively uncertain about what they should be offering the public. Al Pacino is in great, often funny form as the principled but sometimes difficult title character. There's a lot of sharp dialogue. ("Frank, let's face it, who can trust a cop that won't take money?") I'm sure it was a big influence on the TV series HILL STREET BLUES, especially the show's undercover cop Mick Belker.
What got me interested in seeing it again was the Bradley Manning trial. Both of them had to deal with a code of silence protecting criminal activity and superiors who preferred to cover it all up. And both did the people a great service by showing what needed to be shown.
SERPICO, released in 1973, is one of those realistic New York movies of the time that prided themselves on unfancy, "gritty" realism. The 1970s, especially the early years, was a good time for original, realistic American movies, partly because the studios were relatively uncertain about what they should be offering the public. Al Pacino is in great, often funny form as the principled but sometimes difficult title character. There's a lot of sharp dialogue. ("Frank, let's face it, who can trust a cop that won't take money?") I'm sure it was a big influence on the TV series HILL STREET BLUES, especially the show's undercover cop Mick Belker.
What got me interested in seeing it again was the Bradley Manning trial. Both of them had to deal with a code of silence protecting criminal activity and superiors who preferred to cover it all up. And both did the people a great service by showing what needed to be shown.
Another persistent cold
I've had this cold for about a week. When I get a cold, I have a sore throat first, then nasal congestion, then finally a headache. I'm still in the headache stage.
The last few nights I've been going to bed around 7:00, then waking up at 10:00 or 11:00, then staying up to well past midnight. Then I sleep till about noon.
This isn't a good day for blog-writing. I have a few subjects to write about, but I just can't work up the concentration. I can barely even watch videos.
Just now I feel like Linus in that PEANUTS episode where he started writing a school composition about what he did on his summer vacation: "I played ball, and I went to camp." Then he said, "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight... Four hundred and ninety-two words to go!"
The effort of making these posts long enough always makes me think back to when I was fifteen taking high school courses by correspondence. The one who marked my history lessons was always making me do them over because I was too brief. The reason that I was too brief was because they never told me how long I was supposed to be. (They only decided after I'd written it.) Frankly, "Do over in more detail" is something any idiot could say. That period of correspondence courses is not something I look back at nostalgically.
The last few nights I've been going to bed around 7:00, then waking up at 10:00 or 11:00, then staying up to well past midnight. Then I sleep till about noon.
This isn't a good day for blog-writing. I have a few subjects to write about, but I just can't work up the concentration. I can barely even watch videos.
Just now I feel like Linus in that PEANUTS episode where he started writing a school composition about what he did on his summer vacation: "I played ball, and I went to camp." Then he said, "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight... Four hundred and ninety-two words to go!"
The effort of making these posts long enough always makes me think back to when I was fifteen taking high school courses by correspondence. The one who marked my history lessons was always making me do them over because I was too brief. The reason that I was too brief was because they never told me how long I was supposed to be. (They only decided after I'd written it.) Frankly, "Do over in more detail" is something any idiot could say. That period of correspondence courses is not something I look back at nostalgically.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Jigsaw puzzles
I've had a cold for the last few days. (I had to miss Coro Verdi's Sunday concert at Villa Colombo Sunday, but we're doing it again next week.) I've been killing time on the computer, so I've been looking for new games to play on Facebook.
As for my current games, I've lost interest in Farmville 2. Raising crops can only occupy me for so long. I started Cityville 2, but lost interest in that too. I've recently got into Evony and Stormfall, strategy-building games similar to Kingdoms of Camelot and Glory of Rome. And I'm still faithful to Hot Shot.
I found a new Facebook game that allows me to play online jigsaw puzzles. Some expert said that Aspies don't like jigsaw puzzles, but I enjoy them somewhat. But I wish I could do them so that they didn't show me what the complete picture was beforehand, so it would be a complete surprise.
This got me to thinking about the jigsaw puzzles we had when I was young. We had a couple of maps of Canada in jigsaw form. I also recall one of a canoer waking up in the morning and seeing a huge moose leaning over him, a rather disquieting image. And we had a huge British puzzle, whose shape was round rather than rectangular, showing half a dozen old English inns. (We must have got it when living in Brighton in the mid-'60s.)
As for my current games, I've lost interest in Farmville 2. Raising crops can only occupy me for so long. I started Cityville 2, but lost interest in that too. I've recently got into Evony and Stormfall, strategy-building games similar to Kingdoms of Camelot and Glory of Rome. And I'm still faithful to Hot Shot.
I found a new Facebook game that allows me to play online jigsaw puzzles. Some expert said that Aspies don't like jigsaw puzzles, but I enjoy them somewhat. But I wish I could do them so that they didn't show me what the complete picture was beforehand, so it would be a complete surprise.
This got me to thinking about the jigsaw puzzles we had when I was young. We had a couple of maps of Canada in jigsaw form. I also recall one of a canoer waking up in the morning and seeing a huge moose leaning over him, a rather disquieting image. And we had a huge British puzzle, whose shape was round rather than rectangular, showing half a dozen old English inns. (We must have got it when living in Brighton in the mid-'60s.)
Sunday, December 09, 2012
The one thing in THE NEW YORK TIMES worth paying for
I subscribe to the NEW YORK TIMES crossword puzzles. But I just do Friday and Saturday: I skip the Monday to Thursday puzzles, because they're too easy. (They put the easier puzzles early in the week, and they gradually get harder toward the weekend.) I used to do the Sunday crossword just in case it was one with rebuses, but I've got out of the habit lately. As for the second Sunday, I do the diagramless every six weeks. The puns and anagrams puzzle is a bit too easy for me, and the acrostic takes to long for the reward.
Back in 1992, the TIMES honored their first Sunday crossword's 50th anniversary by reprinting several from over the decades. The ones from the early years were really tough! I'd like to get a reprint of their early Sunday crosswords.
As for the rest of that newspaper, don't get me started. The TIMES has been in decline for the last three decades, since A.M. Rosenthal was in charge. They have the disease of thinking of themselves as "liberal enough," so when Judith Miller publishes stories promoting the coming invasion of Iraq, they think they're proving how balanced they are.
I remember one sentence from a SUNDAY TIMES "Week in Review" article back in 1988: "In countries that hated America eight years ago, American is chic today." I was impressed by the sheer condescending laziness that makes such an assertion possible. (The Sunday paper got a bit of flak back then when the editor admitted that an up-to-date "Week in Review" was less important than an up-to-date sports section.)
Another thing I recall was a report from the newspaper's Chile correspondent dismissing Chile before Pinochet's military takeover as "a backward banana republic." Never mind that Chile before 1973 was fairly developed and politically stable by South American standards. This is redundant rhetoric (aren't all banana republics backward?) better suited to THE NEW YORK POST than to the TIMES. But of course, it proves how "balanced" they are...
Was there once a time when I was capable of buying the SUNDAY TIMES? It's a barely portable ripoff. I don't even read it at the library anymore. Nothing to miss.
Back in 1992, the TIMES honored their first Sunday crossword's 50th anniversary by reprinting several from over the decades. The ones from the early years were really tough! I'd like to get a reprint of their early Sunday crosswords.
As for the rest of that newspaper, don't get me started. The TIMES has been in decline for the last three decades, since A.M. Rosenthal was in charge. They have the disease of thinking of themselves as "liberal enough," so when Judith Miller publishes stories promoting the coming invasion of Iraq, they think they're proving how balanced they are.
I remember one sentence from a SUNDAY TIMES "Week in Review" article back in 1988: "In countries that hated America eight years ago, American is chic today." I was impressed by the sheer condescending laziness that makes such an assertion possible. (The Sunday paper got a bit of flak back then when the editor admitted that an up-to-date "Week in Review" was less important than an up-to-date sports section.)
Another thing I recall was a report from the newspaper's Chile correspondent dismissing Chile before Pinochet's military takeover as "a backward banana republic." Never mind that Chile before 1973 was fairly developed and politically stable by South American standards. This is redundant rhetoric (aren't all banana republics backward?) better suited to THE NEW YORK POST than to the TIMES. But of course, it proves how "balanced" they are...
Was there once a time when I was capable of buying the SUNDAY TIMES? It's a barely portable ripoff. I don't even read it at the library anymore. Nothing to miss.
"In the beginning..."
Today was ROLT's December event. I chose children's writing as the theme and called it "In the beginning..." Almost a dozen people said they were coming, but only five showed up. (My sister Moira came for the first time, and enjoyed it.)
Unfortunately, I've had a cold for the last few days so I couldn't read as much as I intended. I did manage to do Humpty Dumpty's poem from THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. (Its last line is "I tried to turn the handle, but--") Coincidentally, Jane read a couple of other Lewis Carroll poems: "Jabberwocky" and "The Walrus and the Carpenter.")
There was a new member called Sebastian, who's an East Indian from Fiji. He read us a fine story he'd written himself, about a Fiji family with a small sugar cane farm and two bullocks, and even handed out copies! For next month I think we'll do Canadian writing.
Running short again! This reminds me of some thirty years ago when I was briefly living in England, where there was a TV critic with a weekly column in one of the Sunday newspapers. There was also a mediocre cop show called BERGERAC. One Sunday, at the end of his column, this critic wrote: "If I had more space I'd write about BERGERAC. I've been meaning to do that one of these weeks." (Ouch!)
Unfortunately, I've had a cold for the last few days so I couldn't read as much as I intended. I did manage to do Humpty Dumpty's poem from THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. (Its last line is "I tried to turn the handle, but--") Coincidentally, Jane read a couple of other Lewis Carroll poems: "Jabberwocky" and "The Walrus and the Carpenter.")
There was a new member called Sebastian, who's an East Indian from Fiji. He read us a fine story he'd written himself, about a Fiji family with a small sugar cane farm and two bullocks, and even handed out copies! For next month I think we'll do Canadian writing.
Running short again! This reminds me of some thirty years ago when I was briefly living in England, where there was a TV critic with a weekly column in one of the Sunday newspapers. There was also a mediocre cop show called BERGERAC. One Sunday, at the end of his column, this critic wrote: "If I had more space I'd write about BERGERAC. I've been meaning to do that one of these weeks." (Ouch!)
Friday, December 07, 2012
If I were really, really rich...
I mentioned that I was watching THE GRAND TOUR a TV documentary series following art critic Brian Sewell around Italy as he talks about the experiences of young eighteenth-century British grandees there. He's very hard to please: he didn't like Chianti wine, dismissed the Vesuvius crater as boring, and pettifogged that the modern version of the Turin Academy was showing something they wouldn't have shown the Grand Tourists (peasant dancing to hurdy-gurdy music). But the show is entertaining despite his efforts.
One place he stopped at was the sixteenth-century Bomarzo gardens near Rome. That actually wasn't a Grand Tour stop; interest in that place only developed in the twentieth century. But who cares? It's a piece of ground where some Orsini noble commissioned a whole set of grotesque, imaginative stone statues: stuff like a grimacing head whose mouth is big enough to step into.
Which brings me to the question of what I'd do if I were really, really rich. I'm not interested in fast cars (can't drive), fancy clothes or big mansions, but I would travel a lot. When I was about four in the mid-'60s my father, a physics professor at Mount Allison University, spent a sabbatical year in Brighton, England. That was about the time when Brighton was a big Mod centre, though none of us remember anything about that. Anyway, we sailed there and back on the Greek Line ship Arcadia. (The return, I recently found out, was its last voyage before being scrapped.) I'd like to cross the Atlantic by ship again. Also there are a few places I'd like to visit in my lifetime like Madrid's Prado art gallery and the pilgrimage mountain Tai Shan in northeastern China.
But I was also thinking, if I had the money I'd create a new Bomarzo. One of my statues might be of Glooscap, the Hercules-like hero of the Micmac, a native people in eastern Canada, showing him sailing away on a whale as they say he finally did. (Whale-riding is found in a lot of cultures: even Herodotus had a story about someone riding a dolphin.) Or I might have some famous Canadian explorers like Humphrey Gilbert (gesturing his palm toward heaven just before his ship was lost) or Lief the Lucky. Or theatrical heroes like King Lear (raging on the moor), or opera heroes like Rigoletto. Just so long as they're larger than life.
I've finished Herodotus!
Yesterday I finally finished Herodotus' history. This edition also has several appendices and an introduction, but I mostly skipped over that part. The eighth volume is largely about the sea war, culminating in the Battle of Salamis; the ninth and last is about the later land war, culminating in the Battle of Plataya.
You know those cheesy war movies where the sergeant gets orders to gather his men and retreat, and he says "The HELL we'll retreat!"? There's a scene like that in Herodotus' book from just before Plataya. In that version the non-retreaters relented when they realized they were on their own.
There's also a story near the end about how the Persian Emperor Xerxes fell in love with his brother's wife, and married off his son to the wife's daughter, then his fancy turned to his niece, then his jealous wife blamed the brother's wife and had her disfigured, then the brother ran off to a remote province to start a rebellion, then the Emperor's army caught up with him and killed him.... They should make that into an opera.
Seriously, the first place I remember reading about the Greco-Persian Wars was in a comic book where Uncle Scrooge and his brood used a time machine to land on the Plain of Marathon just as the Battle was about to start...
Now I've returned to the politics issue of LAPHAM'S QUARTERLY. My next big book will be the first volume of Mark Twain's century-delayed autobiography, which I've heard reads like a blog.
I also finished the first season of HELL ON WHEELS yesterday on Netflix. It's a powerful show, with an effect that builds cumulatively. One line goes, "Choose hate. It's easier." A quibble: How did the surveyor's widow manage to stay so gorgeous while living on the frontier? (Such visual license I can live with, of course.)
You know those cheesy war movies where the sergeant gets orders to gather his men and retreat, and he says "The HELL we'll retreat!"? There's a scene like that in Herodotus' book from just before Plataya. In that version the non-retreaters relented when they realized they were on their own.
There's also a story near the end about how the Persian Emperor Xerxes fell in love with his brother's wife, and married off his son to the wife's daughter, then his fancy turned to his niece, then his jealous wife blamed the brother's wife and had her disfigured, then the brother ran off to a remote province to start a rebellion, then the Emperor's army caught up with him and killed him.... They should make that into an opera.
Seriously, the first place I remember reading about the Greco-Persian Wars was in a comic book where Uncle Scrooge and his brood used a time machine to land on the Plain of Marathon just as the Battle was about to start...
Now I've returned to the politics issue of LAPHAM'S QUARTERLY. My next big book will be the first volume of Mark Twain's century-delayed autobiography, which I've heard reads like a blog.
I also finished the first season of HELL ON WHEELS yesterday on Netflix. It's a powerful show, with an effect that builds cumulatively. One line goes, "Choose hate. It's easier." A quibble: How did the surveyor's widow manage to stay so gorgeous while living on the frontier? (Such visual license I can live with, of course.)
Wednesday, December 05, 2012
Geeks like me
Today I had lunch with my Aspergers Meetup group at Spring Rolls just south of Yonge & Bloor. Tiffany, who lives in Hamilton, was in Toronto so she had an event. The others visited Allen Gardens first, but Bev and I weren't up to that and met up with them at the restaurant. Too bad it wasn't a day earlier when the weather was far milder.
The food is pretty good there: I ate Malaysian spicy chicken fried rice. At these events I tend to talk to Bev more than anyone else: we're the two oldest people in the group. She's twice as passionate about Bradley Manning as I am. (We've been talking a lot about that case at THE HUFFINGTON POST the last few days. I wrote of the bit in SERPICO where Al Pacino's girlfriend told the story of a king who was the only one in the kingdom who didn't drink from a well that made people crazy, so they thought he was the crazy one instead, until he drank too and they decided he'd come to his senses.)
In the evening I went to another Aspie event at the Geneva Centre. I used to go to an Aspergers support group there because I wanted to meet people, but then I decided I could do it through other means like Meetup.
Anyhow, this event involves a psychologist called Jonathan Weiss who got a research grant and wants to work with us Aspies on things like "mindfulness." We'll see how that works out. I've worked with a psychologist before: Liljana Vuketic interviewed me in researching her doctoral dissertation, and paid me $200 which I promptly squandered on books. BTW, they've now stopped calling it Aspergers and just call it high-functioning autistic spectrum disorder, or something like that.
Tuesday, December 04, 2012
Children's encyclopedias
When I was little we had Harwyn's THE ART LINKLETTER PICTURE ENCYCLOPEDIA FOR BOYS AND GIRLS, originally published in 1961. I read somewhere online that many of the artists who illustrated it also worked on EC's notorious horror comics. I remember being creeped out by the picture of Macbeth gleefully preparing to knife the king, and I guess that had an EC sensibility.
We also had Bobley's ILLUSTRATED WORLD ENCYCLOPEDIA. The entry on communism is a McCarthyite classic. Under the sub-heading "What makes people communists?" it says "In democratic nations, a communist is often a person with a sort of mental illness..." The item about rivers says "They can be damned [sic]..." (Was that REALLY a typo?) This edition had a last-minute addendum about the just-elected Richard Nixon.
And we had a 1930s edition of the British encyclopedia THE WORLD BOOK. (The entry on flags showed the Third Reich's swastika flag.) It had a special volume focusing on the British Empire's dominions. It was an incomplete set: the volume covering Irw to Mis somehow got misplaced. It had a last-minute addendum about the new king George VI.
And then there's THE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE. That started out being published in Britain around 1910 with the title CHILDREN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA, and Grolier published it in the US with its new title. THE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE has gone through many revised versions, but we had the first Canadian edition from the 1920s, substantially the same as the original British version, though it added some stuff about World War I and some specifically Canadian items. (I think there was a photo of Moncton, the city we lived closest to.) Mother's family bought it when she was a little girl.
THE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE in its early versions had an earnestly didactic style, not quite as manipulative as more recent counterparts. It was a 20-volume set, divided into lots of categories like "The Book of the Earth," "The Book of Things to Make and Do," and "The Story of Famous Books." "The Book of Wonder" had the "Wise Man" answering questions like "Did any of the Apostles visit Britain?" and "Will the last man die gasping for air?" a question characteristic of the time. "The Book of Life" had a section called "Alcohol, the enemy of life." (This was the age of Prohibition, of course.) And it had a lot of children's stories with some remarkable illustrations: I think Sir Arthur Rackham worked on it.
The pleasant mount
I'm not a big fan of cemeteries. My old home in New Brunswick was fairly close to the local cemetery, but I rarely visited it. Even when the subway between St. Clair and Davisville stations carries me past Mount Pleasant Cemetery, I tend to avoid looking at it. But I have visited that place several times with Meetup groups.
I've got to know some of the sights in Mount Pleasant cemetery: the Massey and Thompson mausoleums, Mackenzie King's grave, the Stavros tomb (it's a little much), the Salvation Army's memorial to the EMPRESS OF IRELAND shipwreck, and the lane with a whole lot of millionaire mausoleums like the Eatons. I've also discovered a few things for myself, like opera soprano Teresa Stratas' family plot (at least I think it's her--the epitath refers to music), and the graves of journalists Norman Depoe and Larry Zolf. I'd like to find a grave I've heard of there where the eccentric deceased chose a completely unmarked boulder as his headstone.
Saturday I visited it again as part of the Urban Explorers Meetup organized by Vik. (We also went southeast to the Discovery Walk loop, which took us past the brick works. On the way back, we took a wrong turn and had to take a precarious path, which was actually pretty fun.) Vik told us about some of the prominent trees there, and mourned a weeping willow that was a victim of a recent storm. I quipped, "They should have a cemetery for trees!"
In China they have something called "tree burial," where they cremate you and plant a tree over your ashes. I think I'd like to have that done with my body: I like the idea of having a living monument. On the other hand, Zoroastrians in India put you on a high tower and feed you to the vultures: a very eco-friendly method, for what it's worth.
Sunday, December 02, 2012
THE MASTER
Last night I finally went to see Paul Thomas Anderson's THE MASTER at the Revue. This time I had the wits to walk south from Dundas West station instead of waiting for the streetcar.
I'm not a big Anderson fan. I liked BOOGIE NIGHTS, but I couldn't take more than a few minutes of MAGNOLIA or PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE. (Moira liked MAGNOLIA, so maybe I should try it again, or maybe not.) THERE WILL BE BLOOD I found oddly off-putting, though Daniel Day-Lewis was worthy, if not as appealing as he got to be in LINCOLN.
Didn't care much for this one either. Before I saw it, Moira--who hadn't even seen the movie--predicted that I wouldn't like Joaquin Phoenix' performance, and she was right! I don't know where she got the gift of prophecy. He was rather annoying as the cult newcomer: I could see him "acting." (He might get an Oscar nomination.) Philip Seymour Hoffman was better as the cult leader: watching him just felt more comfortable.
I'm sometimes attracted to movies like this because of the 1950s setting, another example being Terence Malick's THE TREE OF LIFE. (Watching that movie was like doing a jigsaw puzzle where half the pieces are missing.) But this film could have been called "The World Is Full of Idiots."
Hoffman sings the song "I'll go no more a-roving" during an ORGY scene! (That reminded me of all the classic music A CLOCKWORK ORANGE ruined.) At least, it was sort of an orgy: the women got naked, but there didn't seem to be any sex happening. Not as self-important as the EYES WIDE SHUT orgy, but pretty slight.
It's the kind of movie that his this dialogue exchange: "I'll quit boozing." "Say it again." "I'll quit boozing." "Say it again." "I'll quit boozing." "Say it again." "I'll quit boozing."
("We'll quit repeating our lines." "Say it again.")
Query: In the scene where Phoenix sees Hoffman's boat for the first time, they're playing chacha music. Did they have that as early as 1950?
I'm not a big Anderson fan. I liked BOOGIE NIGHTS, but I couldn't take more than a few minutes of MAGNOLIA or PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE. (Moira liked MAGNOLIA, so maybe I should try it again, or maybe not.) THERE WILL BE BLOOD I found oddly off-putting, though Daniel Day-Lewis was worthy, if not as appealing as he got to be in LINCOLN.
Didn't care much for this one either. Before I saw it, Moira--who hadn't even seen the movie--predicted that I wouldn't like Joaquin Phoenix' performance, and she was right! I don't know where she got the gift of prophecy. He was rather annoying as the cult newcomer: I could see him "acting." (He might get an Oscar nomination.) Philip Seymour Hoffman was better as the cult leader: watching him just felt more comfortable.
I'm sometimes attracted to movies like this because of the 1950s setting, another example being Terence Malick's THE TREE OF LIFE. (Watching that movie was like doing a jigsaw puzzle where half the pieces are missing.) But this film could have been called "The World Is Full of Idiots."
Hoffman sings the song "I'll go no more a-roving" during an ORGY scene! (That reminded me of all the classic music A CLOCKWORK ORANGE ruined.) At least, it was sort of an orgy: the women got naked, but there didn't seem to be any sex happening. Not as self-important as the EYES WIDE SHUT orgy, but pretty slight.
It's the kind of movie that his this dialogue exchange: "I'll quit boozing." "Say it again." "I'll quit boozing." "Say it again." "I'll quit boozing." "Say it again." "I'll quit boozing."
("We'll quit repeating our lines." "Say it again.")
Query: In the scene where Phoenix sees Hoffman's boat for the first time, they're playing chacha music. Did they have that as early as 1950?
Saturday, December 01, 2012
Two months!
I've now been posting daily for two months without interruption. (It looks like I only posted 29 times in November, but that's because last night's post was published after midnight.) I'm getting an appreciation for ministers who manage to come up with a sermon every Sunday, week after week.
Blogger.com gives me an overview of how many views each post receives. I usually fluctuate between ten and twenty or so, but when I wrote about THE HUFFINGTON POST Wednesday, that got fifty views! That's what brings in the troupers. (I'm tempted to write about popular subjects all the time, but I have my integrity...) My post with recipes for fettucine alfredo and gingerbread also got a lot of views.
I'm still writing down subjects for future posts. One I haven't got around to is the children's encyclopedias I knew in my youth. And now that I've mentioned it, I'll have to write about it before long rather than keep my audience hanging.
I've run short again. Should I mention that we ate tacos last night? Or that I was a long time getting to sleep last night because I felt happy? Or that I dreamed about being an actor and having to deliver lines while running down a stairwell? Or that because it's now December I'm going to start taking my Cipralex daily instead of four times a week so winter won't get me depressed? Or that I've run out of razor blades and haven't got around to getting new ones yet? (I planned to stop using the last one at the end of the month, but nobody will die if I use it one extra time...)
Blogger.com gives me an overview of how many views each post receives. I usually fluctuate between ten and twenty or so, but when I wrote about THE HUFFINGTON POST Wednesday, that got fifty views! That's what brings in the troupers. (I'm tempted to write about popular subjects all the time, but I have my integrity...) My post with recipes for fettucine alfredo and gingerbread also got a lot of views.
I'm still writing down subjects for future posts. One I haven't got around to is the children's encyclopedias I knew in my youth. And now that I've mentioned it, I'll have to write about it before long rather than keep my audience hanging.
I've run short again. Should I mention that we ate tacos last night? Or that I was a long time getting to sleep last night because I felt happy? Or that I dreamed about being an actor and having to deliver lines while running down a stairwell? Or that because it's now December I'm going to start taking my Cipralex daily instead of four times a week so winter won't get me depressed? Or that I've run out of razor blades and haven't got around to getting new ones yet? (I planned to stop using the last one at the end of the month, but nobody will die if I use it one extra time...)
HUFFINGTON POST moderators, are you reading this?
I was going to post about the movie THE MASTER tonight. I got on a streetcar and went to St. Clair & Dufferin to take the bus south to the Bloor subway to Dufferin station, then go west to the Dundas West station, then take a streetcar south on Roncesvalles to the Revue Cinema. I could have walked to St. Clair & Ossington and taken the bus south to Ossington station, but I figured that the Dufferin bus was more frequent and less likely to be delayed.
As it turned out, the Dufferin bus did have a fairly long delay, so when I reached the Dundas West station I already had little time to spare. Then there was ANOTHER delay on the part of the Roncesvalles streetcar, and I couldn't get to the cinema on time, so I went home. (I wasn't so sure I wanted to see THE MASTER, but I'll definitely have to see it now that I've made you readers curious!)
What shall I write about instead? Yesterday at THE HUFFINGTON POST I read a post saying "Many posters say the Dems won the election. The Repubs, however, were given a strong House majority. No one won, so each side needs to bend." So I wrote a reply: "Of course, the Republicans lost the popular vote and had to win through gerrymandering..." (I like putting an ellipse at the end of my post. Gives it a bit of ponderous style.) So someone replied to me: "I live in a reality based world. Redistricting is reality. Whining is unbecoming."
Such snark I can't take lying down, so I replied to him: "In other words, 'We cheated and won, so just shut up.' (Same as Bush v. Gore.)" But the Huffpost moderators blocked this reply, and I later figured out that the words "shut up" automatically get a post blocked, even in the context of quotation marks. I confirmed this when I rewrote the post with "say nothing" in the place of "shut up," and it wasn't blocked.
Moderators, you need to make a public announcement of all the terms that'll automatically get you blocked. (I wish they'd send a message saying something like "You can't post this because it includes the words "shut up.") I know that a lot of the people who post at the site are bothered about their posts being blocked for reasons they have no idea of.
As it turned out, the Dufferin bus did have a fairly long delay, so when I reached the Dundas West station I already had little time to spare. Then there was ANOTHER delay on the part of the Roncesvalles streetcar, and I couldn't get to the cinema on time, so I went home. (I wasn't so sure I wanted to see THE MASTER, but I'll definitely have to see it now that I've made you readers curious!)
What shall I write about instead? Yesterday at THE HUFFINGTON POST I read a post saying "Many posters say the Dems won the election. The Repubs, however, were given a strong House majority. No one won, so each side needs to bend." So I wrote a reply: "Of course, the Republicans lost the popular vote and had to win through gerrymandering..." (I like putting an ellipse at the end of my post. Gives it a bit of ponderous style.) So someone replied to me: "I live in a reality based world. Redistricting is reality. Whining is unbecoming."
Such snark I can't take lying down, so I replied to him: "In other words, 'We cheated and won, so just shut up.' (Same as Bush v. Gore.)" But the Huffpost moderators blocked this reply, and I later figured out that the words "shut up" automatically get a post blocked, even in the context of quotation marks. I confirmed this when I rewrote the post with "say nothing" in the place of "shut up," and it wasn't blocked.
Moderators, you need to make a public announcement of all the terms that'll automatically get you blocked. (I wish they'd send a message saying something like "You can't post this because it includes the words "shut up.") I know that a lot of the people who post at the site are bothered about their posts being blocked for reasons they have no idea of.
Friday, November 30, 2012
Last TOR fall rehearsal
Tuesday was the last fall rehearsal for the TOR chorus. We'll be coming back in January, and then we'll be rehearsing on stage, and we'll need to have our lines memorized! (Coro Verdi is easier in that we can continue to use our scores while performing.)
I'm usually quick to get my lines memorized, but this year I've been a bit slower. I won't have much excuse for not learning them, because we have a piano I can use for practicing with. (It's a Yamaha baby grand we bought in the 1970s.)
One way I learn my lines is by writing them down syllable by syllable. (I indicate a rest by writing [_] for each eighth note. I actually use a more curved version that makes the length clearer, but [_] is all I can type in this post.) Most syllables last an eighth note, but if one lasts a quarter note I write a hyphen (-) after it. If it's three-eighths, I follow it with an equal sign (=). If it's a half note, I use both (=-). If two syllables last a sixteenth note each, I but a brace bracket under them, which indicates triples when it's under three syllables. If a syllable lasts three-sixteenths and the next one sixteenth, I put a slash (/) between them; if the first is one sixteenth and the next three, I use a backslash (\). And I use (|) to indicate barlines.
My approach can be useful for learning elision, which is common in Italian, one of our opera languages, but doesn't come so naturally to Anglophones. If we're given "che un" to pronounce as a single syllable, I write down "kyun." And "E il" as a single syllable can be written "E'l." (In one part of BARBER OF SEVILLE we pronounce "si e un" as one syllable, so I wrote "syen.") One part that goes "E il cervello, poverello, si riduce ad impazzar" I wrote down as "E'l/cer |vel_lo, ___po/ve| |rel_lo, ___si/ri|du-chad___im/paz|zar."
I have some other tricks. When a whole passage gets repeated, I put brace brackets ({) at the beginning and end, along with the number 2. If it's just a bar or two getting repeated several times, I put the brace at the top, making it long enough to show the beginning and the end. A big problem ends up looking smaller.
What a long post I've written! I wish I had a subject like this every night.
I'm usually quick to get my lines memorized, but this year I've been a bit slower. I won't have much excuse for not learning them, because we have a piano I can use for practicing with. (It's a Yamaha baby grand we bought in the 1970s.)
One way I learn my lines is by writing them down syllable by syllable. (I indicate a rest by writing [_] for each eighth note. I actually use a more curved version that makes the length clearer, but [_] is all I can type in this post.) Most syllables last an eighth note, but if one lasts a quarter note I write a hyphen (-) after it. If it's three-eighths, I follow it with an equal sign (=). If it's a half note, I use both (=-). If two syllables last a sixteenth note each, I but a brace bracket under them, which indicates triples when it's under three syllables. If a syllable lasts three-sixteenths and the next one sixteenth, I put a slash (/) between them; if the first is one sixteenth and the next three, I use a backslash (\). And I use (|) to indicate barlines.
My approach can be useful for learning elision, which is common in Italian, one of our opera languages, but doesn't come so naturally to Anglophones. If we're given "che un" to pronounce as a single syllable, I write down "kyun." And "E il" as a single syllable can be written "E'l." (In one part of BARBER OF SEVILLE we pronounce "si e un" as one syllable, so I wrote "syen.") One part that goes "E il cervello, poverello, si riduce ad impazzar" I wrote down as "E'l/cer |vel_lo, ___po/ve| |rel_lo, ___si/ri|du-chad___im/paz|zar."
I have some other tricks. When a whole passage gets repeated, I put brace brackets ({) at the beginning and end, along with the number 2. If it's just a bar or two getting repeated several times, I put the brace at the top, making it long enough to show the beginning and the end. A big problem ends up looking smaller.
What a long post I've written! I wish I had a subject like this every night.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Odds & ends
Today I got my hair cut. I do that every three months at a small barber shop on the other side of St. Clair Avenue. A Hungarian woman does a pretty good job for fifteen dollars. (She even trims my eyebrows!) This time I just got a small trim because the opera's coming up in February and Giuseppe says we should maximize our "plumage." I sometimes read THE TORONTO SUN while I'm waiting--the only time I ever read that newspaper--but this time the place was empty and I didn't have to wait at all!
Today I also saw the DVD of the Steve Martin comedy L.A. STORY, some twenty years after seeing it in a theatre. (I saw it again because I'm interested in Richard E. Grant, who has a supporting role.) It has some pretty good lines:
"I'm doing thirty-minute lipstick..."
"I don't think we should make love, OK?" "All right, we'll just have sex."
On Sarah Jessica Parker (who plays an aspiring spokesmodel): "She isn't so young. She'll be twenty-eight in four years."
I sometimes have unusual dreams. I went to bed early this evening because I had a headache, and dreamed of a non-existent episode of THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW about a station manager involved in drug smuggling, with an appearance by Eb (who was actually on GREEN ACRES!) The other night I dreamed about Julia Roberts being in the boxing ring with a midget, wearing a turtle-shell helmet like Bamm-Bamm on THE FLINTSTONES.
Today I also saw the DVD of the Steve Martin comedy L.A. STORY, some twenty years after seeing it in a theatre. (I saw it again because I'm interested in Richard E. Grant, who has a supporting role.) It has some pretty good lines:
"I'm doing thirty-minute lipstick..."
"I don't think we should make love, OK?" "All right, we'll just have sex."
On Sarah Jessica Parker (who plays an aspiring spokesmodel): "She isn't so young. She'll be twenty-eight in four years."
I sometimes have unusual dreams. I went to bed early this evening because I had a headache, and dreamed of a non-existent episode of THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW about a station manager involved in drug smuggling, with an appearance by Eb (who was actually on GREEN ACRES!) The other night I dreamed about Julia Roberts being in the boxing ring with a midget, wearing a turtle-shell helmet like Bamm-Bamm on THE FLINTSTONES.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
These days at THE HUFFINGTON POST
My interest in THE HUFFINGTON POST blows hot and cold. I read it every day, but there isn't always much for me to write posts about. (It doesn't help that the posts don't always get through the moderation stage. I have a feeling that their software has bugs that cause some posts to be scrubbed automatically without being considered.)
Lately I've been more active. The other day they carried a MOTHER JONES article by David Corn insisting that when Obama let the Bush tax cuts continue three years ago he wasn't really "caving" to the Republicans; because he got them to agree to a second mini-stimulus, that made it "jiu jitsu" in which he brilliantly forced a concession from them.
I have little patience with people saying stuff like "Obama is playing chess when everyone else is playing checkers." This happened even when he made the impressively inept decision to choose homophobic fundamentalist Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his first inauguration. He offended not just the GLBT community but everyone concerned about the power of American fundamentalists. And fundamentalists can't be appeased: give them what they want and they'll just take it as confirmation that they're in the right. Yet there were Obama-worshippers on THE HUFFINGTON POST who insisted it was actually a brilliant move.
And so I wrote several posts on this subject. One said: "Time once again for progressives to present a defeat as a victory." Another one was in response to someone who blamed the Democratic defeat in the midterm House of Representatives elections on the left not voting because they felt Obama had caved: "Could it be that the Republican victory of 2010 was due not to the perception of Obama caving, but to the ACTUALITY of Obama caving? (Perish the thought!)"
And today there was a report about Bradley Manning's upcoming trial. That subject always brings out haters saying things like "He's guilty of treason and should be shot!" Since they keep repeating their opinions, I keep repeating mine: Manning's real crime was exposing to the American people evidence of war crimes that the Pentagon keeps trying to cover up, and causing the US government embarrassment. It was totally predictable that the Pentagon would throw the book at him (and NOT at the war criminals he exposed), but that doesn't mean people should just accept it. If Obama doesn't pardon Manning, that'll be one of his more disgraceful betrayals of the American people.
And today there was a report about Bradley Manning's upcoming trial. That subject always brings out haters saying things like "He's guilty of treason and should be shot!" Since they keep repeating their opinions, I keep repeating mine: Manning's real crime was exposing to the American people evidence of war crimes that the Pentagon keeps trying to cover up, and causing the US government embarrassment. It was totally predictable that the Pentagon would throw the book at him (and NOT at the war criminals he exposed), but that doesn't mean people should just accept it. If Obama doesn't pardon Manning, that'll be one of his more disgraceful betrayals of the American people.
Learning Greek
I've finished another lesson in the book TEACH YOURSELF ANCIENT GREEK. Most recently I've been learning imperative and conditional verb moods, comparative and superlative adjectives, and some very odd verbs with an -mi form.
One difficulty I have is with the small Greek writing, so I've been writing it out on my computer using transliteration before translating it. From the Greek to the Latin alphabet is mostly simple, though I write eta as e^ and omega as o^ to indicate long accents, and this iota subscript used for dative endings (it's like adding an "i," but subtler) I indicate with ~.
Recently I was translating a famous passage from Xenophon's ANABASIS, about an expedition of almost 10,000 Greek mercenaries who tried to install a new emperor in Persia until their client was killed and they had to fight their way to the Black Sea coast whence they could sail home. It's the part where the vanguard reached some mountain heights and saw their sea objective below. They started shouting "THALATTA, THALATTA!" meaning "THE SEA, THE SEA!" and the news quickly spread back to the rear guard. When the others caught up even the officers were weeping and hugging each other.
I've also been translating a scene from Aristophanes' comedy THE WASPS, about a father who's so obsessed with serving on juries that his son arranges a trial for their dog, charged with eating all the Sicilian cheese!
In addition, I've been retranslating my Greek-to-English translations into Chinese and Japanese. Chinese is difficult to transliterate into, so I renamed the WASPS characters Philocleon and Bdelycleon Fuqin (Father) and Erzi (Son) respectively. But Japanese is better-suited for translation, so I called them Pirokureon and Buderukureon.
One difficulty I have is with the small Greek writing, so I've been writing it out on my computer using transliteration before translating it. From the Greek to the Latin alphabet is mostly simple, though I write eta as e^ and omega as o^ to indicate long accents, and this iota subscript used for dative endings (it's like adding an "i," but subtler) I indicate with ~.
Recently I was translating a famous passage from Xenophon's ANABASIS, about an expedition of almost 10,000 Greek mercenaries who tried to install a new emperor in Persia until their client was killed and they had to fight their way to the Black Sea coast whence they could sail home. It's the part where the vanguard reached some mountain heights and saw their sea objective below. They started shouting "THALATTA, THALATTA!" meaning "THE SEA, THE SEA!" and the news quickly spread back to the rear guard. When the others caught up even the officers were weeping and hugging each other.
I've also been translating a scene from Aristophanes' comedy THE WASPS, about a father who's so obsessed with serving on juries that his son arranges a trial for their dog, charged with eating all the Sicilian cheese!
In addition, I've been retranslating my Greek-to-English translations into Chinese and Japanese. Chinese is difficult to transliterate into, so I renamed the WASPS characters Philocleon and Bdelycleon Fuqin (Father) and Erzi (Son) respectively. But Japanese is better-suited for translation, so I called them Pirokureon and Buderukureon.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Fundraising
Today was the TOR fundraiser. I baked gingerbread for it Friday night, and I hope nobody noticed that I put too much salt in. (The recipe requires half a teaspoon, and I added half a tablespoon!) Actually, I just brought two-thirds of what I baked and kept the rest for the family.
The chorus doesn't have a huge function at these fundraisers. We performed in three of the numbers, while the rest were all soloists. One of the numbers we did was the famous Barcarolle from TALES OF HOFFMANN, which I've sung so often at Coro Verdi that I don't need to look at the score! (It helps that there are no words to learn, like the Humming Chorus in Puccini's MADAMA BUTTERFLY.) We also accompanied the septet from the Giulietta story in TALES OF HOFFMANN, and the second-act finale in BARBER OF SEVILLE.
Of course, there were eats afterward. (Some people, I'm told, come to these fundraisers just for the food.) We always bring more cookies and such than we need, so those who stay to the end get to take home a good share of the leftovers! I got a wide variety, including a bit of my gingerbread.
When I briefly went outside tonight, I saw snow for the first time since last winter. (It was only noticeable on the parked cars; the snow on the street had melted.) I miss the big snows we used to experience in New Brunswick. Another thing I miss about New Brunswick is getting up in September or October, looking out the window and seeing our lawn grey with the first frost since spring.
The chorus doesn't have a huge function at these fundraisers. We performed in three of the numbers, while the rest were all soloists. One of the numbers we did was the famous Barcarolle from TALES OF HOFFMANN, which I've sung so often at Coro Verdi that I don't need to look at the score! (It helps that there are no words to learn, like the Humming Chorus in Puccini's MADAMA BUTTERFLY.) We also accompanied the septet from the Giulietta story in TALES OF HOFFMANN, and the second-act finale in BARBER OF SEVILLE.
Of course, there were eats afterward. (Some people, I'm told, come to these fundraisers just for the food.) We always bring more cookies and such than we need, so those who stay to the end get to take home a good share of the leftovers! I got a wide variety, including a bit of my gingerbread.
When I briefly went outside tonight, I saw snow for the first time since last winter. (It was only noticeable on the parked cars; the snow on the street had melted.) I miss the big snows we used to experience in New Brunswick. Another thing I miss about New Brunswick is getting up in September or October, looking out the window and seeing our lawn grey with the first frost since spring.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
DOCTOR WHO
I just saw the DVD of the DOCTOR WHO story "The Robot." I've been watching quite a few episodes of that long-running BBC scifi series on video. Of course, it's about the Doctor, a super-intelligent but witty being who travels with various sidekicks into different planets and eras in the Tardis (Time And Relative Dimension In Space), which looks like a normal police phone booth from the outside. I especially like the early stories from the 1960s with William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton and wish more of them were available. (My favorite sidekick is Frazier Hines as the Troughton-era Scot Jamie.)
"The Robot" is a 1974 story, the first one with Tom Baker as the Doctor. He brought a special quirkiness to the role that brought the show to its peak of fame. (Catch him as Rasputin in NICHOLAS & ALEXANDRA or as the sorcerer in THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD.) The show back then had relatively low budgets, but it didn't need much money: the appeal was in the clever writing.
This story involves strange goings-on at a government think-tank and a morally conflicted robot that goes around stealing top-secret information and material to build a disintegrator ray. (It's the last several stories that had the Doctor earthbound in the 20th century, working with a British general: after this he returned to roving.) There's also a quasi-fascist group intent on nuclear blackmail. It got a bit goofy at the end when the general turned the disintegrator on the robot, only to have it grow into a King Kong-sized threat.
There's some good dialogue, as usual for the series: "I don't like the word 'impregnable.' It sounds too much like 'unsinkable.'" "What's wrong with 'unsinkable'?" "Nothing, said the iceberg to the TITANIC."
"The Robot" is a 1974 story, the first one with Tom Baker as the Doctor. He brought a special quirkiness to the role that brought the show to its peak of fame. (Catch him as Rasputin in NICHOLAS & ALEXANDRA or as the sorcerer in THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD.) The show back then had relatively low budgets, but it didn't need much money: the appeal was in the clever writing.
This story involves strange goings-on at a government think-tank and a morally conflicted robot that goes around stealing top-secret information and material to build a disintegrator ray. (It's the last several stories that had the Doctor earthbound in the 20th century, working with a British general: after this he returned to roving.) There's also a quasi-fascist group intent on nuclear blackmail. It got a bit goofy at the end when the general turned the disintegrator on the robot, only to have it grow into a King Kong-sized threat.
There's some good dialogue, as usual for the series: "I don't like the word 'impregnable.' It sounds too much like 'unsinkable.'" "What's wrong with 'unsinkable'?" "Nothing, said the iceberg to the TITANIC."
Friday, November 23, 2012
Recipes
Today I cooked dinner, which was fettucine alfredo. I use pre-cooked fettucine, which Ziggy now sells in tight clumps, so I make sure to boil it in a lot of water. (I miss the days when they sold it in nests.)
For the alfredo sauce, I use a recipe we got off a milk-themed calendar some twenty years ago. First you melt three tablespoons of butter, then whisk in three tablespoons of flour. (With a whisk I can take on the world.) Then you heat it till it's sizzling, and add three cups of milk, and half a cup of cream or of more milk. You heat it till it's boiling, then take it off the heat for five minutes. Then you add 125 grams of cream cheese, a teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of pepper, and a quarter teaspoon each of cayenne pepper and nutmeg. You heat it again, and when it's boiling you add a cup of grated parmesan cheese. It's now ready to add to the fettucine.
In the evening I've been baking gingerbread for the TOR fundraiser Sunday. For that I use a recipe from THE NEW YORK TIMES COOKBOOK. First you wax an 8" square pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then you add a tablespoon of vinegar to three-quarters of a cup of milk, and put it aside to curdle. Then you mix two cups of flour with two teaspoons of baking powder, a quarter teaspoon of baking soda, half a teaspoon of salt, two teaspoons (or a bit less) of ginger, a teaspoon of cinnamon, and a quarter teaspoon of ground cloves.
The next part is where it gets challenging. You cream a third of a cup of shortening, gradually adding half a cup of sugar and creaming all the time. Then you add an egg and whip till fluffy. (I personally use my whisk instead of beaters.) Then you add three quarters of a cup of molasses.
(A tip on the molasses: before measuring it out I put a little oil in the measuring cup--just enough to cover the bottom--and spread it about until it covers the whole inner surface. The molasses then comes out pretty easily.)
Now you take the milk and the flour and stir them in alternately, a quarter or less at a time. Then you put the batter in the pan: I stir it about clockwise, then counter-clockwise, then horizontally, then vertically, then diagonally both ways. You then bake it for 45 to 50 minutes.
For the alfredo sauce, I use a recipe we got off a milk-themed calendar some twenty years ago. First you melt three tablespoons of butter, then whisk in three tablespoons of flour. (With a whisk I can take on the world.) Then you heat it till it's sizzling, and add three cups of milk, and half a cup of cream or of more milk. You heat it till it's boiling, then take it off the heat for five minutes. Then you add 125 grams of cream cheese, a teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of pepper, and a quarter teaspoon each of cayenne pepper and nutmeg. You heat it again, and when it's boiling you add a cup of grated parmesan cheese. It's now ready to add to the fettucine.
In the evening I've been baking gingerbread for the TOR fundraiser Sunday. For that I use a recipe from THE NEW YORK TIMES COOKBOOK. First you wax an 8" square pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then you add a tablespoon of vinegar to three-quarters of a cup of milk, and put it aside to curdle. Then you mix two cups of flour with two teaspoons of baking powder, a quarter teaspoon of baking soda, half a teaspoon of salt, two teaspoons (or a bit less) of ginger, a teaspoon of cinnamon, and a quarter teaspoon of ground cloves.
The next part is where it gets challenging. You cream a third of a cup of shortening, gradually adding half a cup of sugar and creaming all the time. Then you add an egg and whip till fluffy. (I personally use my whisk instead of beaters.) Then you add three quarters of a cup of molasses.
(A tip on the molasses: before measuring it out I put a little oil in the measuring cup--just enough to cover the bottom--and spread it about until it covers the whole inner surface. The molasses then comes out pretty easily.)
Now you take the milk and the flour and stir them in alternately, a quarter or less at a time. Then you put the batter in the pan: I stir it about clockwise, then counter-clockwise, then horizontally, then vertically, then diagonally both ways. You then bake it for 45 to 50 minutes.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Translating Caesar
I first started learning Latin in the summer of 1977, when I was 15. (It was a difficult time in my life, but that's another story.) A pet project of mine has been translating Julius Caesar's famous COMMENTARIES ON THE GALLIC WARS. It has the famous opening "Greater Gaul is divided into three parts..." (I translated it as "Greater Gaul..." instead of the more common "All Gaul..." because I wanted to distinguish between that superregion and Gaul proper, which didn't include the Belgians in the northeast or the Aquitanians in the southwest.)
I put the translation aside for a few years after finishing the first section, which was about Caesar's war with the Helvetian Gauls, who staged a mass emigration out of what's now Switzerland and tried to overrun the rest of Gaul. About 300,000 people left on this trek, but after Caesar had defeated them only about 100,000 returned. (The rest were largely killed or enslaved.)
Recently I started translating the next section, which is about Caesar's conflict with German tribes from the east who'd been overrunning eastern Gaul. Their leader was Ariovistus, whose name is probably a Latinized version of the German for "Lord [Herr] of the West." I've just got to a tough part where Caesar's giving a pep talk to his officers because the German warriors' reputation as supermen has scared even the Roman soldiers.
Translation always involves issues of style. Caesar keeps referring to himself in the third person (there's a crook on BOARDWALK EMPIRE who does that too), but I use the first person for him. Also, I use the modern name for the places in the text whenever that's clear, one example being Besancon for Vesontio. And I refer to the province of Transalpine Gaul, the base for Caesar's operations, as a capitalized "the Province."
One thing to remember when reading the text is that it's only Caesar's side of things--no doubt he was writing it to justify himself against the charge that his wars were an unnecessary vehicle for his political ambitions. And he hasn't mentioned what the whole conflict was really about: gold. I learned from Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) in the TV documentary series BARBARIANS that Gaul at this time had become a major gold-producer and its wealth was now attracting conquerors from Helvetia, Germany and Rome.
I put the translation aside for a few years after finishing the first section, which was about Caesar's war with the Helvetian Gauls, who staged a mass emigration out of what's now Switzerland and tried to overrun the rest of Gaul. About 300,000 people left on this trek, but after Caesar had defeated them only about 100,000 returned. (The rest were largely killed or enslaved.)
Recently I started translating the next section, which is about Caesar's conflict with German tribes from the east who'd been overrunning eastern Gaul. Their leader was Ariovistus, whose name is probably a Latinized version of the German for "Lord [Herr] of the West." I've just got to a tough part where Caesar's giving a pep talk to his officers because the German warriors' reputation as supermen has scared even the Roman soldiers.
Translation always involves issues of style. Caesar keeps referring to himself in the third person (there's a crook on BOARDWALK EMPIRE who does that too), but I use the first person for him. Also, I use the modern name for the places in the text whenever that's clear, one example being Besancon for Vesontio. And I refer to the province of Transalpine Gaul, the base for Caesar's operations, as a capitalized "the Province."
One thing to remember when reading the text is that it's only Caesar's side of things--no doubt he was writing it to justify himself against the charge that his wars were an unnecessary vehicle for his political ambitions. And he hasn't mentioned what the whole conflict was really about: gold. I learned from Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) in the TV documentary series BARBARIANS that Gaul at this time had become a major gold-producer and its wealth was now attracting conquerors from Helvetia, Germany and Rome.
BOARDWALK EMPIRE
It's the mid-month gap in zip.ca shipments, so I've been watching DVDs of the second season of BOARDWALK EMPIRE. It's an awfully uneven show: it has some great elements, but the whole is somehow less than the sum of the parts.
Steve Buscemi as Atlantic City boss Nucky Thompson is the best thing in the show. I've liked that actor since he played Mr. Pink in RESERVOIR DOGS. ("Let 'em learn to type!") I also like the depiction of gangster politics: the show could use a bit more of the Al Capone character. Some of the dialogue is enjoyable. ("He's an easily bamboozled character.") And some of the soundtrack's period songs appeal to me, like "Look for the Silver Lining."
But I could live without Jimmy the punk's uncomfortably intimate relationship with his mother. And Van Alden the fed is an annoying prick. Lucy the sexpot was fun in the first season, but in the second they made her pregnant and miserable. I've always found that "two boats and a lifeguard" joke stupid, and in this show's context it seemed anachronistic.
But I could live without Jimmy the punk's uncomfortably intimate relationship with his mother. And Van Alden the fed is an annoying prick. Lucy the sexpot was fun in the first season, but in the second they made her pregnant and miserable. I've always found that "two boats and a lifeguard" joke stupid, and in this show's context it seemed anachronistic.
Really, the 1920s was a pretty depressing time, notwithstanding all that "jazz age" nostalgia. (The despair of the '30s and the horror of the '40s created a prism that made it look good in comparison.) The moralists enacting prohibition is just the start. It was the age of Warren Harding--the worst president in US history and also the most popular--stock speculation frenzy, and the Ku Klux Klan revival. And it was also a time when a lot of lamentable long-term trends got their real start: Madison Avenue manipulation, smoking, pro sports mass culture, love of big cars, women being obsessed with thinness.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Board games
Some of the Meetup groups I'm a member of are devoted to board games. I haven't been so active in them lately, but I used to be a regular and I may return someday. These groups have introduced me to several new games which Parker Brothers can't hold a candle to. (I've even bought some of them.)
Of course, the "gateway" game that got me into this new generation of games was Settlers of Catan. It's a strategy game where you start with a map of an island formed with hexagons representing areas that produce wheat, wool, wood, brick and metal ore respectively. You build settlements on vertices where three hexagons meet and they yield resources from these areas depending on dice rolls. You then spend resource cards to expand your network: wood and brick buy you a road; wood, brick, wool and wheat buy you a settlement; two wheat and three metal buy you a more productive city. It can involve intricate strategies.
Another game I like is Ticket to Ride, where you collect train cards of different colors and use them to lay rail lines between cities until you fill the routes on tickets you chose at the start. I prefer the Europe variation: it has extra-challenging tunnel routes and sea routes, and you can also buy stations to leap over a link when someone else has taken it.
Puerto Rico is another strategy game where you start plantations, introduce settlers (more like slaves), buy factories to make the plantations productive, and ship the goods home. I'm a big believer in the hospice card, which speeds up settlement.
Smallworld is a D&D-style game with fourteen different races and twenty special powers. You choose a race with a power and use it to conquer land until it's worn thin, then you put it into decline and choose a new race. There are 280 possible race-power combinations, and some of them are especially powerful: spirited ghouls, bivouacking amazons, flying wizards, pillaging orcs, seafaring tritons...
Of course, the "gateway" game that got me into this new generation of games was Settlers of Catan. It's a strategy game where you start with a map of an island formed with hexagons representing areas that produce wheat, wool, wood, brick and metal ore respectively. You build settlements on vertices where three hexagons meet and they yield resources from these areas depending on dice rolls. You then spend resource cards to expand your network: wood and brick buy you a road; wood, brick, wool and wheat buy you a settlement; two wheat and three metal buy you a more productive city. It can involve intricate strategies.
Another game I like is Ticket to Ride, where you collect train cards of different colors and use them to lay rail lines between cities until you fill the routes on tickets you chose at the start. I prefer the Europe variation: it has extra-challenging tunnel routes and sea routes, and you can also buy stations to leap over a link when someone else has taken it.
Puerto Rico is another strategy game where you start plantations, introduce settlers (more like slaves), buy factories to make the plantations productive, and ship the goods home. I'm a big believer in the hospice card, which speeds up settlement.
Smallworld is a D&D-style game with fourteen different races and twenty special powers. You choose a race with a power and use it to conquer land until it's worn thin, then you put it into decline and choose a new race. There are 280 possible race-power combinations, and some of them are especially powerful: spirited ghouls, bivouacking amazons, flying wizards, pillaging orcs, seafaring tritons...
Recent DVDs
Here are some DVDs from zip.ca that I've recently seen.
BRIAN SEWELL'S GRAND TOUR OF ITALY: A British documentary series in which art critic Brian Sewell retraces the journeys of eighteenth-century English gentlemen on the "Grand Tour" in search of Italy's cultural sophistication. Father considers Sewell an insufferable twit, but for me the show has historical interest.
ONCE IN A LIFETIME: THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE NEW YORK COSMOS: A documentary about the 1970s New York pro soccer team--part of the Warner Brothers empire--which created a brief sensation after hiring Brazilian star Pele.
ROSAMOND BERNIER: PARIS BY DAY AND BY NIGHT: A filmed lecture at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art about the impressionist movement in the key decade of the 1870s.
MILDRED PIERCE: Not the classic Joan Crawford potboiler but the miniseries remake with Kate Winslet. Still pretty fun, though it omitted the murder that was central to the movie. (Was it in James Cain's novel or not?)
NORTHWEST FRONTIER: An entertaining adventure movie about Brits in the Raj transporting a young prince to safety on a train during a rebellion, directed by J. Lee Thompson (who went on to make lots of Charles Bronson movies).
MARTHA GRAHAM: DANCE ON FILM: Three half-hour films of modern dance by Martha Graham's troupe, from the '50s, produced by a pre-PBS station. They include Aaron Copland's APPALACHIAN SPRING and a ballet based on the Oedipus myth called NIGHT JOURNEY. Graham was still in fine form for a dancer in her fifties.
BRIAN SEWELL'S GRAND TOUR OF ITALY: A British documentary series in which art critic Brian Sewell retraces the journeys of eighteenth-century English gentlemen on the "Grand Tour" in search of Italy's cultural sophistication. Father considers Sewell an insufferable twit, but for me the show has historical interest.
ONCE IN A LIFETIME: THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE NEW YORK COSMOS: A documentary about the 1970s New York pro soccer team--part of the Warner Brothers empire--which created a brief sensation after hiring Brazilian star Pele.
ROSAMOND BERNIER: PARIS BY DAY AND BY NIGHT: A filmed lecture at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art about the impressionist movement in the key decade of the 1870s.
MILDRED PIERCE: Not the classic Joan Crawford potboiler but the miniseries remake with Kate Winslet. Still pretty fun, though it omitted the murder that was central to the movie. (Was it in James Cain's novel or not?)
NORTHWEST FRONTIER: An entertaining adventure movie about Brits in the Raj transporting a young prince to safety on a train during a rebellion, directed by J. Lee Thompson (who went on to make lots of Charles Bronson movies).
MARTHA GRAHAM: DANCE ON FILM: Three half-hour films of modern dance by Martha Graham's troupe, from the '50s, produced by a pre-PBS station. They include Aaron Copland's APPALACHIAN SPRING and a ballet based on the Oedipus myth called NIGHT JOURNEY. Graham was still in fine form for a dancer in her fifties.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
My first auction
Today I went to an art auction. I'd never been to one before, though I do remember that scene in NORTH BY NORTHWEST. (The one where the spies are closing in on Cary Grant, and he saves himself by making ridiculous bids and turning himself into a spectacle at a high-class art auction.)
Lindsay, who organizes my Philosophy Walk Meetup, organized this auction at the Gladstone Hotel, where they were selling off framed photographic prints for her charity So Kids Can See. That's an organization that gives Third World children early eye examinations to correct conditions that can lead to blindness. (You can find more info at sokidscansee.org .)
The bidding for items at the live auction started at $150, so I just bought a $60 item in the silent auction. It's a photograph of a doorway in an old fort in India, taken by Lindsay herself. (I like doorway pictures.) I'm feeling guilty about spending even that much money, but it is close to Christmas time.
Once again, I'm running short. I could mention that I finished the book 50 MATHEMATICAL IDEAS YOU REALLY NEED TO KNOW, and started reading 50 PHYSICS IDEAS.... I've now learned about Mach's principle: mass in one place influences inertia in another.
Lindsay, who organizes my Philosophy Walk Meetup, organized this auction at the Gladstone Hotel, where they were selling off framed photographic prints for her charity So Kids Can See. That's an organization that gives Third World children early eye examinations to correct conditions that can lead to blindness. (You can find more info at sokidscansee.org .)
The bidding for items at the live auction started at $150, so I just bought a $60 item in the silent auction. It's a photograph of a doorway in an old fort in India, taken by Lindsay herself. (I like doorway pictures.) I'm feeling guilty about spending even that much money, but it is close to Christmas time.
Once again, I'm running short. I could mention that I finished the book 50 MATHEMATICAL IDEAS YOU REALLY NEED TO KNOW, and started reading 50 PHYSICS IDEAS.... I've now learned about Mach's principle: mass in one place influences inertia in another.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
THE ELIXIR OF LOVE
Today I saw another Met opera at the Sheppard Grande: Donizetti's famous comic opera THE ELIXIR OF LOVE. (Moira saw it too, but at the Scotiabank, a cinema I can't stand: the lobby reminds me of a Hieronymus Bosch-style nightmare.) It's one of the operas I've done with the TOR chorus, so I know it fairly well.
It's the one about the bumpkin peasant Nemorino who's hopelessly in love with Adina, a shameless tease who treats him badly (sort of like Archie and Veronica). When the soldier Belcore courts Adina, Nemorino gets desperate and buys a love potion from travelling mountebank Dulcamara, which tastes suspiciously like cheap wine. But just when he drinks a second bottle, the local girls find out (before he does) that he's inherited a fortune, and give him the sort of attention that makes him think the elixir is working...
This was a zippy, well-directed production that didn't seem long. I liked details like the tall grass set decoration. My favorite aria is "Una Furtiva Lagrima," which I've started learning in my desultory singing lessons.
Coincidentally, in the evening I started looking at our zip.ca DVD with highlights from LIVE FROM THE MET. (I think I saw it years ago.)
It's the one about the bumpkin peasant Nemorino who's hopelessly in love with Adina, a shameless tease who treats him badly (sort of like Archie and Veronica). When the soldier Belcore courts Adina, Nemorino gets desperate and buys a love potion from travelling mountebank Dulcamara, which tastes suspiciously like cheap wine. But just when he drinks a second bottle, the local girls find out (before he does) that he's inherited a fortune, and give him the sort of attention that makes him think the elixir is working...
This was a zippy, well-directed production that didn't seem long. I liked details like the tall grass set decoration. My favorite aria is "Una Furtiva Lagrima," which I've started learning in my desultory singing lessons.
Coincidentally, in the evening I started looking at our zip.ca DVD with highlights from LIVE FROM THE MET. (I think I saw it years ago.)
Friday, November 16, 2012
More on US electoral reform
John George, my friend at Coro Verdi, was asking me about my scheme for reforming the House of Representatives. Being the obsessive type, I checked the 2010 census results and figured out how the seats would be apportioned under my scheme.
The way I figured it, Washington DC, Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota and Alaska would each get one seat; South Dakota, Delaware, Montana and Rhode Island would get two; New Hampshire, Maine, Hawaii and Idaho three; Nebraska, West Virginia and New Mexico four. Each of these states would have nothing but category A seats, as they do today.
Nevada, Utah, Kansas, Arkansas, Missisippi and Iowa would get six seats; Connecticut seven; Oklahoma and Oregon eight; Kentucky nine; Louisiana, South Carolina and Alabama ten. These states would get two category B seats each and the rest would be A.
Colorado and Minnesota would get 11 seats; Wisconsin and Maryland 12; Missouri, Tennessee and Arizona 13; Indiana, Massachusetts and Washington 14. These states would get three B seats each, the rest A.
New Jersey would get 18 seats, North Carolina and Georgia 20. These states would get four B seats and one category C seat, the rest A.
Michigan/Ohio would get 21/24 seats each, including 15/16 A, 5 B and 1 C; Illinois and Pennsylvania would both get 27 seats, including 20 A, 6 B and 1 C; Florida/New York would get 40/41 seats, including 30/31 A, 8 B and 2 C; Texas would get 54 seats, including 40 A, 11 B and 3 C; California would get 79 seats, including 59 A, 15 B and 5 C.
Now consider the totals. There'd be 540 A seats (83.1% of the total), 92 B (14.2%) and 18 C (2.8%). Five-sixth of the seats would still be chosen in the old "first past the post" way, so the system would not be seriously destabilized. But a greater range of the public would be represented, and gerrymandering would have a much smaller effect.
The way I figured it, Washington DC, Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota and Alaska would each get one seat; South Dakota, Delaware, Montana and Rhode Island would get two; New Hampshire, Maine, Hawaii and Idaho three; Nebraska, West Virginia and New Mexico four. Each of these states would have nothing but category A seats, as they do today.
Nevada, Utah, Kansas, Arkansas, Missisippi and Iowa would get six seats; Connecticut seven; Oklahoma and Oregon eight; Kentucky nine; Louisiana, South Carolina and Alabama ten. These states would get two category B seats each and the rest would be A.
Colorado and Minnesota would get 11 seats; Wisconsin and Maryland 12; Missouri, Tennessee and Arizona 13; Indiana, Massachusetts and Washington 14. These states would get three B seats each, the rest A.
New Jersey would get 18 seats, North Carolina and Georgia 20. These states would get four B seats and one category C seat, the rest A.
Michigan/Ohio would get 21/24 seats each, including 15/16 A, 5 B and 1 C; Illinois and Pennsylvania would both get 27 seats, including 20 A, 6 B and 1 C; Florida/New York would get 40/41 seats, including 30/31 A, 8 B and 2 C; Texas would get 54 seats, including 40 A, 11 B and 3 C; California would get 79 seats, including 59 A, 15 B and 5 C.
Now consider the totals. There'd be 540 A seats (83.1% of the total), 92 B (14.2%) and 18 C (2.8%). Five-sixth of the seats would still be chosen in the old "first past the post" way, so the system would not be seriously destabilized. But a greater range of the public would be represented, and gerrymandering would have a much smaller effect.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
LAPHAM'S QUARTERLY
I recently put aside Herodotus and started reading the latest issue of LAPHAM'S QUARTERLY. That's a magazine published every three months by Lewis Lapham, longtime editor of the longtime highbrow monthly HARPER'S. Every issue has writing on a single subject, and I've been reading it faithfully since the first issue eight years ago (which was about war).
It's similar to HARPER'S in reprinting selections from a wide range of publications, but while that magazine usually focuses on recent writing, LAPHAM'S QUARTERLY publishes writers from ancient to modern times, from everywhere in the world. It also publishes a handful of original essays (including an introduction to each issue by Lapham).
The latest issue is about politics. I didn't care so much for the previous one, which was about magic, but this one looks pretty good so far. I've started out by reading the original essays. I found HW Brands' apologia for Ulysses Grant's notorious presidency rather weak. Brands goes into great length about Grant's thought process that led to his vetoing a bill that hoped to end a severe economic downturn by printing more money, but how does he judge the final decision? "Even in hindsight it is difficult to tell whether his action DID serve the country." But I did like the articles on Kenya's recent political strife, the use of humor in US presidential politics, political novels, Egyptian queen Hatshepsut, and a review of a biography of Savonarola.
The older writing, by people like Machiavelli, John Adams and Chairman Mao, is divided into sections under the sub-headings "Power," "Citizenship," and "Government." But I'm back with Herodotus, and when I've finished the last part of that book I'll return to LAPHAM'S QUARTERLY.
It's similar to HARPER'S in reprinting selections from a wide range of publications, but while that magazine usually focuses on recent writing, LAPHAM'S QUARTERLY publishes writers from ancient to modern times, from everywhere in the world. It also publishes a handful of original essays (including an introduction to each issue by Lapham).
The latest issue is about politics. I didn't care so much for the previous one, which was about magic, but this one looks pretty good so far. I've started out by reading the original essays. I found HW Brands' apologia for Ulysses Grant's notorious presidency rather weak. Brands goes into great length about Grant's thought process that led to his vetoing a bill that hoped to end a severe economic downturn by printing more money, but how does he judge the final decision? "Even in hindsight it is difficult to tell whether his action DID serve the country." But I did like the articles on Kenya's recent political strife, the use of humor in US presidential politics, political novels, Egyptian queen Hatshepsut, and a review of a biography of Savonarola.
The older writing, by people like Machiavelli, John Adams and Chairman Mao, is divided into sections under the sub-headings "Power," "Citizenship," and "Government." But I'm back with Herodotus, and when I've finished the last part of that book I'll return to LAPHAM'S QUARTERLY.
Lunch with Pui-tak
Yesterday our friend Pui-tak invited Moira and Me to lunch in Chinatown. We've known Pui for about twenty years, since Moira started teaching her English. She was born on the Chinese mainland before moving to Hong Kong, then to Toronto. She's worked as both a seamstress and a chambermaid.
We had lunch at a dim sum restaurant near Spadina Avenue. (She and her husband live in the Village by the Grange apartment complex northwest of the Osgoode station.) I'm afraid the food was on the oily side and disagreed with me, part of the reason I had to leave opera rehearsal early last night.
Some years back Pui gave us a clay jar of Guilin sauce, which went very well with things like fried chicken. I was talking about it at lunch, and afterward she took us to a Chinese grocery store where we found a sauce that looked pretty similar. (Of course, the eating will show how close it is.)
My post's a bit short today. That's what happens when I start writing about my friends. Should I let it stay on the short side, or should I think of something new to say to extend it to the usual length? Or should I just ramble on and on and on to make it just long enough? Well, what do you know? It just took a bit of extra rambling to make it as long as I wanted... (I can only do this once, of course.)
We had lunch at a dim sum restaurant near Spadina Avenue. (She and her husband live in the Village by the Grange apartment complex northwest of the Osgoode station.) I'm afraid the food was on the oily side and disagreed with me, part of the reason I had to leave opera rehearsal early last night.
Some years back Pui gave us a clay jar of Guilin sauce, which went very well with things like fried chicken. I was talking about it at lunch, and afterward she took us to a Chinese grocery store where we found a sauce that looked pretty similar. (Of course, the eating will show how close it is.)
My post's a bit short today. That's what happens when I start writing about my friends. Should I let it stay on the short side, or should I think of something new to say to extend it to the usual length? Or should I just ramble on and on and on to make it just long enough? Well, what do you know? It just took a bit of extra rambling to make it as long as I wanted... (I can only do this once, of course.)
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Measure of the man
Last week at the TOR the chorus finally started learning our BARBER OF SEVILLE part. It's pretty small compared to TALES OF HOFFMANN. Speaking of the latter, the other week I saw a zip.ca DVD of a Lyons production of HOFFMANN, with Nathalie Dessay as Olympia. It was an odd version, with the chorus kept backstage and numbers like the drinking song and "Scintille, Diamant" removed.
This week we got measured for our costumes. Costume rental is our biggest single expense, even with the generous discount Malabar gives us. This year they finally had a scale so I didn't have to guess my weight. (I'm never sure of it.)
I had to leave rehearsal early again today, because I'd got one of the severe headaches I occasionally suffer from. But I made sure to get my measurements first. I think my headache was caused by the sharp drop in temperature today. (I'm often sensitive to quick rises or falls in the temperature.)
A week from Sunday will be the TOR's annual fundraiser at Columbus Centre. What makes it especially fun is that the members bring a wide range of snacks for them and the audience to eat. (One donor has said she comes for the food.) Every year I bake some of my world-famous gingerbread for the big occasion. And there's often some good leftovers to take home.
This week we got measured for our costumes. Costume rental is our biggest single expense, even with the generous discount Malabar gives us. This year they finally had a scale so I didn't have to guess my weight. (I'm never sure of it.)
I had to leave rehearsal early again today, because I'd got one of the severe headaches I occasionally suffer from. But I made sure to get my measurements first. I think my headache was caused by the sharp drop in temperature today. (I'm often sensitive to quick rises or falls in the temperature.)
A week from Sunday will be the TOR's annual fundraiser at Columbus Centre. What makes it especially fun is that the members bring a wide range of snacks for them and the audience to eat. (One donor has said she comes for the food.) Every year I bake some of my world-famous gingerbread for the big occasion. And there's often some good leftovers to take home.
Monday, November 12, 2012
US electoral reform
What's the most underreported story from last week's US election? It's that the Republican candidates for the House of Representatives got a combined vote slightly smaller than their Democratic counterparts, but still managed to win more seats, thanks to the magic of gerrymandering. (If the situation had been reversed and the Democrats had gerrymandered their way to victory without winning more votes, you can be sure conservatives would be challenging their victory's legitimacy.)
If you don't like how things are done, it's important to suggest a better way. So I've come up with an electoral reform proposal for the US House of Representatives similar to my proposal for Canada's House of Commons. First of all, I'd increase the number of House seats from 435 to 650. (House districts are huge, and this change would bring the US in line with parliaments from smaller nations like Britain and Germany.)
As with Canada, I'd have Category A seats, chosen in the same "first past the post" way as before; Category B, allotted to the different parties so that the total of A and B would be distributed in proportion* to the popular vote in that province; Category C, going to the party with the largest statewide popular vote, except in states where a party scored a landslide and its A seats alone were greater than its proportional share of A and B seats, in which case these seats would be distributed between the other parties to allow their full proportion* of A and B. (If their totals are still below their proportional share, they'll lose out in equal* number.)
(*=or as close as possible)
Now for the distribution:
A state with 15 seats or less would receive no C seats; one with 16-30, one C seat; 31-45 two, 46-60 three, 61-75, four.
A state with 5 non-C seats or less would receive no B seats; one with 6-10, two B seats; 11-15, three, 16-20 four, 21-25 five, and so on.
Thus a state with 5 seats would have 5 A seats; one with 6, 4 A and 2 B; one with 11, 8 A and 3 B; one with 17, 12 A and 4 B and 1 C; one with 33, 24 A and 7 B and 2 C; one with 49, 36 A and 10 B and 3 C; one with 65, 48 A and 13 B and 4 C.
While I'm at it, I've also thought of how to reform US Senate elections. First, I'd raise the number of Senate seats from two to three, on the same principle as increasing House size. Instead of having each state choose Senate seats in alternating Congressional elections like today, I'd have it choose all three at the same time every six years. And I'd have them elected on a single ballot, with the top three candidates winning a seat. (You'd only need a quarter of the vote to get elected.) That would bring in some new blood where it's needed!
If you don't like how things are done, it's important to suggest a better way. So I've come up with an electoral reform proposal for the US House of Representatives similar to my proposal for Canada's House of Commons. First of all, I'd increase the number of House seats from 435 to 650. (House districts are huge, and this change would bring the US in line with parliaments from smaller nations like Britain and Germany.)
As with Canada, I'd have Category A seats, chosen in the same "first past the post" way as before; Category B, allotted to the different parties so that the total of A and B would be distributed in proportion* to the popular vote in that province; Category C, going to the party with the largest statewide popular vote, except in states where a party scored a landslide and its A seats alone were greater than its proportional share of A and B seats, in which case these seats would be distributed between the other parties to allow their full proportion* of A and B. (If their totals are still below their proportional share, they'll lose out in equal* number.)
(*=or as close as possible)
Now for the distribution:
A state with 15 seats or less would receive no C seats; one with 16-30, one C seat; 31-45 two, 46-60 three, 61-75, four.
A state with 5 non-C seats or less would receive no B seats; one with 6-10, two B seats; 11-15, three, 16-20 four, 21-25 five, and so on.
Thus a state with 5 seats would have 5 A seats; one with 6, 4 A and 2 B; one with 11, 8 A and 3 B; one with 17, 12 A and 4 B and 1 C; one with 33, 24 A and 7 B and 2 C; one with 49, 36 A and 10 B and 3 C; one with 65, 48 A and 13 B and 4 C.
While I'm at it, I've also thought of how to reform US Senate elections. First, I'd raise the number of Senate seats from two to three, on the same principle as increasing House size. Instead of having each state choose Senate seats in alternating Congressional elections like today, I'd have it choose all three at the same time every six years. And I'd have them elected on a single ballot, with the top three candidates winning a seat. (You'd only need a quarter of the vote to get elected.) That would bring in some new blood where it's needed!
Sunday, November 11, 2012
LINCOLN
Today I saw LINCOLN at the Varsity with the Sunday Afternoon Movie Meetup group, an appropriate movie for Remembrance Day. It was pretty good, with smooth, unostentatious direction by Steven Spielberg. Daniel Day-Lewis was convincing and likeable in the title role, and the depiction of his home life felt plausible. Tony Kushner's fairly intelligent script is so focused on political maneuvering that the Civil War may seem peripheral. (I don't recall any mention of General Sherman's march through Georgia and into the heart of the Confederacy.) Tommy Lee Jones was a hoot as Thaddeus Stevens, the radical Congressman with the obvious wig.
Of course, what with last week's election, people are sure to see a subtext about the Obama presidency. Kushner has said that Obama inherited a crisis bigger than any president faced since Lincoln. (Has he forgotten FDR's first hundred days?) Obama apparently wants to be a Lincoln--he spoke of appointing another "team of rivals" to his cabinet--and some of his admirers certainly want to see him as another Lincoln.
Yet deeds are more important than words, and when we consider deeds Obama pales next to the previous Illinois president. What did his "team of rivals" rhetoric mean in practice? This administration's leading domestic policy people all supported the banking deregulation that led to the 2008 crisis, while the leading foreign policy people all supported the equally ill-starred invasion of Iraq. People who had opposed either are conspicuous by their absence at the top level. In practice, the result was the dispiriting liberal phenomenon of "one-way balance," often seen in THE NEW YORK TIMES today.
If the Lincoln I saw in this movie had been dealing with health care reform, he would have stuck to the public option, forced a vote and won narrowly. The Obama people, on the other hand, were poor negotiators and abandoned the public sector early on, though they clearly had the votes to pass it. And Obamacare suffered from one compromise too many.
Of course, what with last week's election, people are sure to see a subtext about the Obama presidency. Kushner has said that Obama inherited a crisis bigger than any president faced since Lincoln. (Has he forgotten FDR's first hundred days?) Obama apparently wants to be a Lincoln--he spoke of appointing another "team of rivals" to his cabinet--and some of his admirers certainly want to see him as another Lincoln.
Yet deeds are more important than words, and when we consider deeds Obama pales next to the previous Illinois president. What did his "team of rivals" rhetoric mean in practice? This administration's leading domestic policy people all supported the banking deregulation that led to the 2008 crisis, while the leading foreign policy people all supported the equally ill-starred invasion of Iraq. People who had opposed either are conspicuous by their absence at the top level. In practice, the result was the dispiriting liberal phenomenon of "one-way balance," often seen in THE NEW YORK TIMES today.
If the Lincoln I saw in this movie had been dealing with health care reform, he would have stuck to the public option, forced a vote and won narrowly. The Obama people, on the other hand, were poor negotiators and abandoned the public sector early on, though they clearly had the votes to pass it. And Obamacare suffered from one compromise too many.
Rhyme and reason
Today I hosted another ROLT Meetup. This time the topic was poetry, so I called it "Rhyme and reason." Eight people came, our biggest event ever. Three of them were poets who read their own work! (In one case, I made the faux pas of applauding someone who hadn't finished his poem.)
Jane read TS Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." I like the part that goes "I grow old/I grow old/I shall wear the bottom of my trousers rolled." She also read the soliloquy from Shakespeare's OTHELLO that Verdi's "Dio, me potevi" aria is based on.
I started things by reading Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem "Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hill Battle." I hoped to get it from the library but in the copy I got the poem was supposed to be on page 224, and this edition repeated pages 187 to 210 instead of printing 211 to 234! (I found a printing mistake like that in a book reprinting recent articles from THE NATION.) So I had to print it off the web.
The other poems I read were Robert Frost's "After Apple Picking," Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Day Is Done," and William Butler Yeats' "The Stare in My Window," on the Irish Troubles which includes the classic lines "We've fed the heart on fantasies/The heart's grown brutal with the fare/More substance in our enmity than in our love..." You have the twentieth century right there! (I also printed out WH Auden's "September 1 1939," but didn't have time to read that one. Its theme is similar to the Yeats poem anyway.)
Next month our topic will be children's literature.
I also went to another Karaoke Meetup at Barplus. I sang Paul McCartney's "No More Lonely Nights," but it's a song which could use figuring out the best key shift for my voice.
Friday, November 09, 2012
JURASSIC PARK
Today I saw Steven Spielberg's 1993 blockbuster JURASSIC PARK at the Yonge & Dundas cinema's Event Screen. (They've been showing classic movies in that theatre.) Believe it or not, I'd never seen that movie before. I've actually seen few of Spielberg's post-SAVING PRIVATE RYAN movies: just CATCH ME IF YOU CAN and TINTIN.
What did I think of the movie? Meh. Spielberg knows how to deliver thrills, and it had some witty moments, but there was something not so important about the whole thing. (I felt the same way about the Indiana Jones series.) The "don't mess with nature" theme felt very familiar.
The cast did include Laura Dern, who's a bit like my brother John's girlfriend Kathrine. I've liked her since she played Sandy in BLUE VELVET, with her speech about the robins coming down. I also liked the scene where she was slow-dancing with Kyle Maclachlan and a shot with him on the left and her on the right faded smoothly into one with her on the left and him on the right--or was it the reverse order?--suggesting the two of them becoming one. (The role had originally been offered to Molly Ringwald, but Ringwald's mother read the script before she did and gave her daughter's agent an earful about the garbage he was sending them.)
BTW, we ate Chinese food today and my fortune cookie said, "Other people appreciate your expressiveness." Does that mean there are people who like reading this blog?
What did I think of the movie? Meh. Spielberg knows how to deliver thrills, and it had some witty moments, but there was something not so important about the whole thing. (I felt the same way about the Indiana Jones series.) The "don't mess with nature" theme felt very familiar.
The cast did include Laura Dern, who's a bit like my brother John's girlfriend Kathrine. I've liked her since she played Sandy in BLUE VELVET, with her speech about the robins coming down. I also liked the scene where she was slow-dancing with Kyle Maclachlan and a shot with him on the left and her on the right faded smoothly into one with her on the left and him on the right--or was it the reverse order?--suggesting the two of them becoming one. (The role had originally been offered to Molly Ringwald, but Ringwald's mother read the script before she did and gave her daughter's agent an earful about the garbage he was sending them.)
BTW, we ate Chinese food today and my fortune cookie said, "Other people appreciate your expressiveness." Does that mean there are people who like reading this blog?
Thursday, November 08, 2012
I'm an Aspie
I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome about ten years ago. I've heard a lot of talk about the full range of the spectrum of autism, but I'm not sure about it: compared to the low-functioning autistics, I don't feel like I have any important problems. But it's usually fun to be given a new category you can fit into.
To tell the truth, I'm not completely sure I'm a real Aspie. My sister Moira tells me she's met genuine Aspies, and I'm not like them. I trust her, but I also trust my psychiatrist.
I've been unemployed since finishing university, and I still live with my parents. I hope to get Ontario Disability Support Payments someday, but first I'll have to transfer certain bank deposits into Moira's name. (It's mostly my parents' money anyway.) That's a complicated business.
For a while I participated in an organization designed to get employment for Aspies, but it wasn't right for me. I found them to be micro-managers, better suited to lower-functioning Aspies. What I really needed was guidance about how to look for employment, but that wasn't their strong suit. (I'm not intimidated by the interview process like some Aspies are, but I do feel intimidated by the job-search process.) One thing they did do for me was find me a temporary position as a file clerk at the Toronto library's Human Resources branch--I did quite well in it--but it only lasted six months.
To tell the truth, I'm not completely sure I'm a real Aspie. My sister Moira tells me she's met genuine Aspies, and I'm not like them. I trust her, but I also trust my psychiatrist.
I've been unemployed since finishing university, and I still live with my parents. I hope to get Ontario Disability Support Payments someday, but first I'll have to transfer certain bank deposits into Moira's name. (It's mostly my parents' money anyway.) That's a complicated business.
For a while I participated in an organization designed to get employment for Aspies, but it wasn't right for me. I found them to be micro-managers, better suited to lower-functioning Aspies. What I really needed was guidance about how to look for employment, but that wasn't their strong suit. (I'm not intimidated by the interview process like some Aspies are, but I do feel intimidated by the job-search process.) One thing they did do for me was find me a temporary position as a file clerk at the Toronto library's Human Resources branch--I did quite well in it--but it only lasted six months.
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