tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217239782024-03-13T01:00:29.052-04:00Novel Eyenov·el /ˈnɒvəl/ –adjective/ of a new kind; different from anything seen or known before: a novel idea.
***
eye -noun/ 6. the power of seeing; appreciative or discriminating visual perception: the eye of an artist.
8. an attentive look, close observation, or watch
9. regard, view, aim, or intention
10. a manner or way of looking at a thingAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.comBlogger560125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-56251884614710657182018-04-08T12:27:00.002-04:002018-04-08T12:27:49.398-04:00Romance in the age of #METOOAlmost everyone who knows me post my relationship with my husband
knows the story of how we met: I stalked him at his place of work for a
month, and then finally got up the nerve to say, "Um, I saw you like
Doctor Who, and I like Doctor Who, and do you want to grab a soda and
talk about Doctor Who?" And we hit it off, and have been fairly
inseparable ever since, nearly thirty years.<br />
And we all say, "Aw, what a sweet, romantic story," right?<br /> But in the age of <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/metoo?source=feed_text"><span class="_5afx"><span class="_58cl _5afz">#</span><span class="_58cm">METOO</span></span></a>, I keep t<span class="text_exposed_show">hinking,
what if the situation were reversed? If I were a man who stood in the
paperbacks every day staring a female worker? That woman would have had
security walk her to her car every night. Or what if I were a man who
had stalked Nick (Nick's bi-sexuality not-withstanding)? <br /> I was
eighteen and weighed 105 pounds. Nick's age was unknown to me, and my
college roommate pointed out that he might actually have been in high
school making me the pedophile (he was actually twenty-three). </span><br />
<div class="text_exposed_show">
I just asked him if he would have been fine with the situation if I had
been a teen-age boy. He said yes. What if I had been a middle-aged man?
Maybe less so. He was ogled often. He was a pretty boy in eyeliner and
too tight pants. He also had a green belt in karate, and perhaps an
over-inflated, sense of his own ability to defend himself (he weighed
125 pounds at the time). But there are always guns, knives, clubs, crazy
people.<br />
I have been thinking about the problem of the "romantic
overture" vs. creeping. The flirt vs. harassment. The difference is in
consent, the wishes of the object of desire, but also in the
outcome--soul-mate vs. victim (or even just hot one-night stand)--but
the outcome cannot be known at the outset.<br /> Nick passively consented
and was attracted to me as well, but I couldn't know that when I was
taking the bus every night after class to stare at the man I believed I
had fallen in love with without exchanging a word. <br />
We have a
myth about finding true-love, the fairy-tale ending, love at first
sight. Prince Charming can kiss Snow White, or Sleeping Beauty without
her consent because it's "meant to be," they are destined to be
together. We look for it, both sexes. We want it. And we forgive creeper
behavior when it works out. <br />
Obviously someone like Harvey
Weinstein wasn't looking for true-love, or Anthony Weiner, or even Bill
Clinton. But how many stalkers, creepers, overly-aggressive harassers
justify their own actions because they know in their hearts that it's
"true love" and eventually the object of desire will realize it too--as I
did. How many victims passively allow things to progress beyond where
they are comfortable because this might be the one?</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-67114686659148216962016-04-14T18:00:00.000-04:002016-04-14T18:00:08.056-04:00On voting - I love Bernie (but I'm prepared to vote Hillary because Bernie might not make it)Sadly, although I think Bernie’s ideas are exactly what the country needs, and a long time coming, there is a piece of me that cannot see him in winning the White House.<br />
<br />
1) He’s a democratic socialist. For a large portion of the population over 60 the word ‘socialist’ disqualifies him from the office of the president no matter what words precede it. My father would have been one of them. Of course, for my father and many others, the fact he protested the VietNam war would have been enough to dismiss him. To argue that socialism, as described in the works of Marx and Engel and many earlier social philosophies, has never been practiced by any major government on the planet—the classic ‘well, it works on paper’ argument—falls on deaf ears. Or to point out that a democratic system of governance is as vital to a socialist system as it is to a capitalistic one—if not more so—will not be believed. There are those who still think that FDR’s socialistic policies led the United States down the wrong path.<br />
The dictatorship/oligarchies of the USSR, China, Cuba, and VietNam have forever, or at least for a generational lifespan tainted the words socialism and communism. A government may call itself anything without it being true. The United States has a record of propping up dictatorships around the world simply because they called themselves democracies and held sham elections. An election with only one possible outcome (and severe punishment for a dissenting voice) is not, to my mind, a democracy. Nevertheless, Bernie will never win their vote.<br />
<br />
2) He’s a bit…tetchy. Certainly not to the point of throwing a tantrum like the unfortunate creatures running on the Republican side, but after eight years of “No drama” Obama, a grumpy old white guy might not be the best choice on the international diplomacy scene. I imagine that he will snap at reporters who ask stupid questions, not deliver State of the Union addresses in measured and dulcet tones, but rather in the same outraged—I hesitate to call them bombastic—tone he has used from the Senate floor, and hold little back when talking to and about foreign leaders. But he could surprise us all.<br />
<br />
3) He’s a bit…disheveled. The mad professor from a northeastern liberal arts college look may delight us (especially those of us who went to a northeastern liberal arts college), but would look a bit odd shaking hands with the Queen of England. Again, throw a few stylists at him, and I’m sure he cleans up quite nicely. (I’m now picturing him in white-tie and tails—it could work).<br />
<br />
4) It don’t mean a thing if he doesn’t have the support of Congress. Short of implementing a stack of executive orders—something I doubt he wants to do or even would do as ironically, that would be somewhat anti-democratic (the system, not the party)—will he be able to pass any of what he proposes?<br />
Even with a Democratic (the party, not the system) Congress in his first years, President Obama was forced to make extensive compromises to achieve anything. This of course, disappointed, frustrated, and disillusioned many of his supporters. Will Bernie be able or willing to compromise, or will it be four years of impasse followed by a Republican win? There would have to be a massive reshuffling of the old guard on both sides of Congress in the fall along with his win for anything to happen.<br />
SIDENOTE: VOTE! Vote in all races this fall. The President, as established by our clever founding fathers (preventing, I think, a descent into the chaos and dictatorship of both the French, Russian, and other smaller revolutions with similar ideals which followed) is constrained by Congress, and much as we consider the President the leader, it is Congress who make laws. The President can no more issue an edict than he/she can wave a magic wand. They do not set the price of gas, the minimum wage, the interest rate, or anything else that is customarily laid at their door.<br />
<br />
5) He might serve the United States and further his policies better from Congress. (See VOTE NOTE above). With Elizabeth Warren, and a few others (who don’t send dick picks) on both sides of Congress change might actually begin.<br />
<br />
As to what I think of Hillary…<br />
<br />
I don’t think she’s evil or any more of a liar than anyone else in government, and a lot less than many. I think she does want to implement good policies and make positive changes. My fear is that like LBJ who had the best of intentions, she may have made so many deals to get to the White House and be beholden to too many that she will be severely constrained in what she can do once there. Hillary has a lot of secrets, big and small, significant and trivial, and the Right will do everything in their power to expose every one of them should she win the nomination. Hopefully the left will not allow Trump’s many, many sins go unmentioned.<br />
<br />
BUT let us remember:
Hillary may take us back to the 1990s, the time of cronyism, and blatant compromise, where Liberals are where Conservatives thought they were in 1970, but ANY of the Republican candidates will take us back to the 1890s on the state level if not the federal, but with federal approval.<br />
<br />
• Women will be voiceless, the property of their fathers and then their husbands.<br />
• To not be overtly racist is to be the derided minority.<br />
• Homosexuality or any other life-style outside of the mainstream will be punishable both by law and public opinion.<br />
• The poor will be relegated to unsafe and unsanitary cold-water tenements, overcrowded and exploited.<br />
• Education, and with it self-advancement, will be out of reach for most, with illiteracy becoming rampant again.<br />
• And without protections, children will be working and dying in factories alongside adults, the weekend and paid vacations will disappear and Dickensian misery will be the norm.
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-10880606434004803072014-07-13T14:33:00.000-04:002014-07-13T14:33:30.291-04:00Two new podcasts from Art and me.<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;">
Episode 8 - Young Adult Lit and Conservative Comedy</h3>
<br />
<a href="http://www.whatwasthatnow.com/2014/06/episode-8-young-adult-lit-and.html">Episode 8 - Young Adult Lit and Conservative Comedy</a><br />
<br />
Loann and Art, in true young boy and girl detective spirit, track down the arguments for and against grown-ups reading Young Adult literature.<br />
<br />
And, where are all the conservative comedians? Is the comedy industry a liberal stronghold?<br />
<br />
We also discuss our cultural consumption over the past few weeks.
<br />
(<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-was-that-now/id889382972" target="_blank">Now available on iTunes</a>)<br />
<br />
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;">
<a href="http://www.whatwasthatnow.com/2014/06/009-tom-cruise-dragons-underperform-and.html" target="_blank">009 - Tom Cruise & Dragons Underperform and 70's Political Paranoia Today</a></h3>
<div class="post-header" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;">
<div class="post-header-line-1">
</div>
</div>
<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4276176502882511934" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 546px;">
How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Edge of Tomorrow are getting great reviews, (and Loann and Art have each seen one of them.) However, they are not meeting box office projections, so what does that mean for the studios and the stars. </div>
<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4276176502882511934" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 546px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4276176502882511934" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 546px;">
And, 70's movies like The Conversation made audiences feel creeped out about the surveillance state, but where are those stories being told today?</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-88175689439486097622014-05-18T12:39:00.003-04:002014-05-18T12:39:43.281-04:00After a long hiatus, Art and I are back, talking about popular culture, current events, and stuff.<a href="http://www.whatwasthatnow.com/2014/05/episode-6-summer-movies-2014.html"></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-56467226718254463452013-09-09T22:10:00.000-04:002013-09-09T22:10:39.585-04:00Yay! Dystopia!So, I've been having a dystopia fest (this is not rare for me--I am fascinated by dystopian literature). I read Margaret Atwood's "Madadam," another book in the series that began with "Oryx & Crake." If you haven't read "Oryx & Crake," I can't recommend it highly enough. It just blew my mind when I read it several years ago. It is both dystopian--pre-apocolyptic, and post-apocalyptic.
And watched "Metropolis," and "Things to Come."
Then I consumed "The Hunger Games"--all three books--in three days.
I had never read "The Hunger Games" before, and I found the writing hard to slog through. I understand that it was supposed to capture the simple, plain speech of Katniss, along with the present tense, but 1st person, present tense is a hard sell for a long book, let alone three.
That said, the story was intriguing. I will be curious to see how they handle the horrifying violence of the last book. And yet, the writing, and even Katniss' tone kept me at a distance. I flinched in places, but I did not cry.
Thoughts? Any dystopian books or movies to recommend?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-77267181480760816992013-08-14T11:02:00.001-04:002013-08-14T11:02:56.478-04:00WWTNPodcast: Episode #3 - Even More Summer Movies and Netflix O...What Was That Now? <a href="http://www.whatwasthatnow.com/2013/08/what-was-that-now-episode-3.html" target="_blank">Episode 3</a><br />
<br />
Loann and Art discuss more summer movies, including Pacific Rim and the disastrous box office performance of The Lone Ranger.<br />
<br />
And we look at the emerging success of Netflix Original Series, such as House of Cards, Hemlock Grove, Arrested Development and the brand new Orange is the New Black.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-14955972142741219892013-08-02T11:10:00.001-04:002013-08-02T11:10:06.023-04:00On listening to music and the death of our idolsSomeone on the train was listening to “Bohemian Rhapsody” today. I could hear it, thin and tinny, from their headphones. I don’t know how people can do that, listen to music so loud. Or perhaps, their headphones are simply cheap and bleed the sound.
I’m feeling my age I suppose, but I’ve never been able to listen to music at high volume. I have fantastic earbuds at the moment. When I put them in, I can barely hear anything else. In some ways that’s what you want, but in others it’s almost disturbing. Am I missing announcements? People asking me to move aside? Telling me that there’s a stampeding rhino heading my way?
A couple of weeks ago I could hear the music from the woman next to me. Hear it well enough to recognize the songs: Whitney Houston chirpily singing, ‘How Will I Know?’ followed by Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” A playlist of dead people. Would Nirvana be next, or INXS? Joy Division? Or, like today, Queen? Someone newer, Amy Winehouse?
I suppose if you live long enough, most of your playlist will be dead people. Unless you cling—desperately—to the cutting edge, listening to music from people further and further from you in age.
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-23985482779923092382013-08-02T11:03:00.001-04:002013-08-02T11:03:14.529-04:00WWTNPodcast: Episode #2 Summer Movies, A Horror Master Passes O...<a href="http://www.whatwasthatnow.com/2013/07/what-was-that-now-episode-2.html?spref=bl">WWTNPodcast: Episode #2 Summer Movies, A Horror Master Passes O...</a>: In this week's episode, Art and Loann discuss the passing of horror writer Richard Matheson and how an artist deals with critics and fa...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-54907422656129558302013-01-14T22:44:00.001-05:002013-01-14T22:44:23.379-05:00One Month After Newtown Shooting, NRA Releases Shooting Game App With Coffin-Shaped Targets<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/01/14/1441701/newtown-nra-shooting-game/">One Month After Newtown Shooting, NRA Releases Shooting Game App With Coffin-Shaped Targets</a>: pWhen 20 children and 6 adults were gunned down in Sandy Hook Elementary School exactly one month ago today, the National Rifle Association rushed to blame video games, not guns, for inspiring such mass murders. But the gun lobby seemingly lost sight of its target in the past weeks, and over the weekend released a [...]/pAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-5205963187101223782012-11-22T19:28:00.001-05:002012-11-22T19:28:48.588-05:00SocialMe says I am spiritual and ambitious and talk about government, movies, and your community.<a href="http://www.zeebly.com/s/161831/e65ee4d8f0c#.UK7DOEH86Cc.blogger">SocialMe says I am spiritual and ambitious and talk about government, movies, and your community.</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-72726531698431741842012-08-24T01:01:00.003-04:002012-08-24T01:01:35.324-04:00This election and the future of democracy in AmericaI think this election is one of the most important in recent history. It will act as an assessment not just of Obama's administration, or even of Bush Jr.'s administration, but of the political policies that have been in place in this country for thirty to forty years--all of our lives for most of us here--an assessment of whether the American Dream is still alive and attainable for everyone, not just for those who start with many advantages such as money, social status of one's family, influence, etc. And it is a vote about two radically different views of how to make America a better place. The issues include: economic policies, the integrity of the politic parties, and America's place in the global economy and in global issues. What I keep hearing are attacks on whether one party or the other is actually "good." For the future of our democracy, I think we need to believe that both parties want America to be a better place in line with what they consider good, and we need to fight for that to continue to be true. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-82210770650679452462011-04-16T04:09:00.001-04:002011-04-16T04:09:15.460-04:00<p>Ah, Philip Larkin. Being shown Larkin in college was revelatory for me. I wrote my final paper on his poetry. Looking at it now I can see both what appealed to me then, but I can also see how amazing his writing is, what depths can be discovered. I think that I found him to be a bridge between the formal poetry of the past and the themes that would come to dominate poetry in the late 50's and 60's in free verse. <br />Larkin was a bitter and cynical man and his poems reflect a very post-war, British sensibility of austerity and change (in my American eyes). And while his poems reflect that cynicism, it is interesting to me that he was still able to produce this body of work--that nihilism and pessimism did not stop him from the need to write. Like Dorothy Parker, he flirted with suicide, wrote of it as a desirable thing, and yet staggered on creating.<br /><br />This is probably his most famous poem.<br /><br /><strong>This Be the Verse<br /></strong><em>~Philip Larkin<br /></em><br />They fuck you up, your mum and dad.<br />They may not mean to, but they do.<br />They fill you with the faults they had<br />And add some extra, just for you.<br /><br />But they were fucked up in their turn<br />By fools in old-style hats and coats,<br />Who half the time were soppy-stern<br />And half at one another's throats.<br /><br />Man hands on misery to man.<br />It deepens like a coastal shelf.<br />Get out as early as you can,<br />And don't have any kids yourself.<br /><br /><em>April, 1971</em></p>***<br /><br />And a much earlier one<br /><br /><strong>'Since the majority of me'<br /><br /></strong>Since the majority of me<br />Rejectts the majority of you,<br />Debating ends forthwith, and we<br />Divide. And sure of what to do<br /><br />We disinfect new blocks of days<br />For our majorities to rent<br />With unshared friends and unwalked ways.<br />But silence too is eloquent:<br /><br />A silence of minorities<br />That, unopposed at last, return<br />Each night with cancelled promises<br />That want renewed. They never learn<br /><br /><em>December 6, 1950</em><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-65423559642083495872011-04-05T15:56:00.007-04:002011-04-05T16:16:17.922-04:00Poems for National Poetry Month<strong>Kid </strong><br /><p><i>~Simon Armitage</i> <br /><p>Batman, big shot, when you gave the order <br /><p>to grow up, then let me loose to wander <br /><p>leeward, freely through the wild blue yonder <br /><p>as you liked to say, or ditched me rather, <br /><p>in the gutter…well, I turned the corner. <br /><p>Now I’ve scotched that ‘he was like a father <br /><p>to me’ rumour, sacked it, blown the cover <br /><p>on that ‘he was like an elder brother’ <br /><p>story, let the cat out on the caper <br /><p>with the married woman, how you took her <br /><p>downtown on expenses in the motor. <br /><p>Holy robin-redbreast-nest-egg shocker! <br /><p>Holy roll-me-over-in-the-clover, <br /><p>I’m not playing ball boy any longer <br /><p>Batman, now I’ve doffed that off-the-shoulder <br /><p>Sherwood-Forest-green and scarlet number <br /><p>for a pair of jeans and crew-neck jumper; <br /><p>now I’m taller, harder, stronger, older. <br /><p>Batman, it makes a marvelous picture: <br /><p>you without a shadow, stewing over <br /><p>chicken giblets in the pressure cooker, <br /><p>next to nothing in the walk-in larder, <br /><p>punching the palm of your hand all winter, <br /><p>you baby, now I’m the real boy wonder. <br /><p><br /><p><strong></strong><br /><p><strong>On Being a Woman</strong> <br /><p><i>~Dorothy Parker</i> <br /><p>Why is it, when I am in Rome <br /><p>I'd give an eye to be at home, <br /><p>But when on native earth I be, <br /><p>My soul is sick for Italy? <br /><p><br /><p>And why with you, my love, my lord, <br /><p>Am I spectacularly bored, <br /><p>Yet do you up and leave me--then <br /><p>I scream to have you back again? </p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-12787233867631350142011-04-05T15:47:00.003-04:002011-04-05T16:16:57.170-04:00Review of the two versions of FrankensteinBenedict <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">Cumberbatch</span> as the Creature, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">Jonny</span> Lee Miller as Frankenstein Alas, they put him in a loin cloth--probably to not have to rate it R over here. But the bum was still awesome and yes, I thought how uncomfortable those boys must be during--like puppetry of the penis. The play (IMHO): BC/Creature--11 (BC was perhaps a tad too funny--I'm dying now to see the reversal) <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">JLM</span>/Victor--10 (a little too one-note, but I think that was a fault of the script.) Karl Johnson/De Lacey--9 Rest of cast--5 (except the maid--she was cool) Text--8 Set--besides the big musical numbers (<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">Steampunk</span> Starlight Express and Brigadoon, the Zombie Version)--9 (the floor in particular was perfect) Music/sound (in our version)--too loud and inappropriate in some scenes Lighting--intriguing, prob. 8. I liked the use of <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">lightbulbs</span>--the subtle suggestion of industry and electricity--and there were enough of them to be very, very good. Some bursting flares that were a little odd. Reminded me of a recent production of Copenhagen I saw where there were lights whizzing around as if colliding electrons around a nucleus. Costumes--7, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-error">ok</span> but really boring and kind of cheap looking. The fur suit was nice. The designer in me has a couple of totally practical questions as the filming often did close ups and pans during the scene changes (close-ups were awesome <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" class="blsp-spelling-error">btw</span>, seeing them sweat) Were the walls plaster? Where did the grass come from? How did BC pop out of the bed? Were the poles he climbed on always on the stage? I may think of some others, but that's a start. Okay, and I'm probably going to get some arguments here. (I subscribe to the if you put a gun on stage theory and I'm a <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">minimalist</span> set designer--if the play wants to be stripped down to a good floor, then that's all it needs to be). Birth scene: FANTASTIC. Perfectly done. For some reason walking on his knuckles really got to me. The joy at each new thing. Perfect. Victor's entrance: necessary if only in the purely practical sense of giving him the cloak, felt like we might have explored the rejection better. Creature in the wild: What was with the GD <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" class="blsp-spelling-error">steampunk</span> train???? Yeah, it looked cool and stuff, and I guess it was supposed to show industrialization and the rejection of the cities, but seriously--<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_9" class="blsp-spelling-error">Steampunk</span> Starlight Express? We never see the crowds again, we never see industrialization again. Just a throwaway metaphor that might have worked if it had been embellished upon, but was an utter annoying waste the way it was. Do it big or don't do it at all. The countryside: Good, might have pushed further. Air, earth, fire, water. We had real fire (man, the fire codes on this thing must be intense--once had to get fire regulation approval on a curtain--pain in the ASS--and we didn't have any fire on stage). So we had real rain. I thought that unnecessary too. Later we have a whole thunderstorm, but no rain. I'm sure BC could have acted being in the rain. The fire I get because fire is important later. Oh, and the choir of angels? Not so much for me at any rate. De Lacey's cottage: Really, really good. Decoration on scrim a little odd, but that may have been because we were so close to it (there were naked people in the trees??). De Lacey's performance was beautiful. The kids were decent and the 'natural' desire and method of reproduction. There were some really funny bits--<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_10" class="blsp-spelling-error">BC's</span> mimicry of De Lacey--which made the heartbreak worse. "You <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_11" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">promised</span>!" Hated, hated, hated the wet dream ballet. It so felt like Zombie Brigadoon--Come to Me, Bend to Me. Really? That was the best you could come up with for sexual awakening? Death of William: <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_12" class="blsp-spelling-error">OMG</span> the set was so good here. The look of the water, the appearance of the dock--wow, minimal but perfect. The acting, not so much. Good lord, could George Harris possibly have been any worse? I'll talk really quietly for a bit and THEN I'LL SHRIEK A BIT and then get quiet and call it levels. Oh, and the murder of William was a bit abrupt. I'll get to Elizabeth a little later. In the house: Again, just feel like the scenes are rushed. Father useless, maid fun, Elizabeth weedy. Set, kind of like, kind of get, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_13" class="blsp-spelling-error">papercut</span> effect very, very nice. MAJOR sideways rake--why? Why that steep? Pain in the butt for the actors, added nothing--we're skewed? Saw a Hedda <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_14" class="blsp-spelling-error">Gabbler</span> kind of like it once--worked there because Hedda is all kinds of skewed. Elizabeth--oh, go under my maiden's skirts my love and make with me the babies--because you're not doing it right what with the playing God and stuff. (What was up with that dress? Just because she's <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_15" class="blsp-spelling-error">titless</span> doesn't mean you can't build out the dress a bit--it was a look at my boobs kind of era. And up close it was clear that they had cut the dresses very authentically, so just not sure why they couldn't have made it fit better. I mean, they gave <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_16" class="blsp-spelling-error">Kiera</span> Knightly tits in P&P!) Victor and Creature in the mountains: Excellent. Liked BC jumping on poles etc. but we didn't really get to see the entrance, which is why I wondered if they were always there. And here's my big thought--I could imagine this whole play being JUST Victor and the Creature (when I first heard about it, I hoped it would be), with maybe De Lacey, on a nearly empty stage, and some good sound effects and <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_17" class="blsp-spelling-error">gobos</span>. Victor arrives in the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_18" class="blsp-spelling-error">Orkneys</span>: Big old rainstorm with just lighting and sound and ACTING. Serious comedy relief in the form of...wait for it...grave diggers! Brother's ghost--I don't mind it. It was a nice reveal of Victor's character and exposition for what's coming. Again, the creature's joy and sensual desire. The mere touch of her hand was exquisite. And then the denial and the fury. Oh, and set--reversal of house with suggested roof--very nice. Back to Geneva: So, Victor's an ass to Elizabeth and we don't know why she loves him. Then HE JUMPS OUT OF THE BED--seriously, how was he hiding? I thought it was a fake bed somehow, but then they lay on it??? And she's not scared at all, nope not even a little bit, or concerned or puzzled at all. I'm just happy and chipper. And they sit and she's nice AND then despite this he rapes and murders her. (Annoyingly they showed this from above. Made it more weird than it needed to be.) The arctic: Am I remembering correctly that this is the Creature's only soliloquy? If you're going to do it once, you have to do it twice! Question--did Victor pull the sled on stage or did it appear when the house set went a way? Then, the really good (but too short)--I just wanted your love ending and pursuit across the ice. So--big themes. I read Frankenstein a long time ago, but I wrote a paper on it at the time and I've seen all the films, good, bad and ugly + hilarious and camp, as well as sort of meta-<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_19" class="blsp-spelling-error">ing</span> on the story of its creation (like Gothic, dear God, and The Stress of Her Regard. Like I said above, I'd rather have had more dialog between Victor and the Creature than anything else to explore the nature vs. nurture, what do we owe that which we create, power of hate, power of love. Going back to Copenhagen, it's very dialog heavy (some think too much so) and some of it is esoteric, but the themes are explored and re-examined, parallels made. The little teaser film was kind of limp too, but we did get to see them rehearsing--far too many cuts to montages, like they thought they couldn't talk over the rehearsal scenes or something--like a bad Oscars montage. Bits from the film, birds flying, nuclear reactors--yeah, we get it, science dangerous, nature good. Oh, and I love the original--I wept, wept for the Creature, silly as the make-up was. I thought that Karloff conveyed a world of dialog with no words at all. <br /><hr /><br /><br /><p><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_20" class="blsp-spelling-error">Jonny</span> Lee Miller as the Creature, Benedict <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_21" class="blsp-spelling-error">Cumberbatch</span> as Frankenstein</p>STILL cannot figure out the bed trick, and this time we saw the bed more completely. Friend and I were completely focused on the bed trying to figure it out. Heard other people on the train discussing it. Humorously someone in the theater screamed when the Creature <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_22" class="blsp-spelling-error">leapt</span> up. I would stick with my previous numbers. Both <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_23" class="blsp-spelling-error">JLM</span> and BC were excellent in both roles. And while each brought something to each character, I felt overall that <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_24" class="blsp-spelling-error">JLM</span> made a better Creature and BC the better Victor. It was interesting to see how <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_25" class="blsp-spelling-error">JLM</span> did approach it as a child, each thing learned, while BC approached it as someone recovering--a step forward, a step back. After the initial birth I liked <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_26" class="blsp-spelling-error">JLM's</span> pathos and his anger and dark actions seemed much more believable to me. The rape and murder was much more believable and frightening. (Also, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_27" class="blsp-spelling-error">JLM</span> is a fine figure of a man, perhaps not quite BC but certainly very good--really nice legs. He is also a perfectly able to act with his toes as well.) It was especially interesting to see how much was similar in each performance and how much their portrayal of one bled into the other. Again, I wish so much that it had been a two person show. I really do. BC has a great sense of comedic timing which is interestingly not something I would have thought from his two big roles over here. But going back and seeing even something as heartbreaking as "Hawking," you can see that he finds the joy in a role. I think it's part of what makes his "Sherlock" so much fun. There are funny lines, but his delivery is spot on. That said, he has certain mannerisms as an actor which become more apparent when you watch several of his roles back to back. This is not a bad thing. It's certainly true of most actors, but there was much of Sherlock in his Victor. There was also a great deal of comedy in his Creature and while most of it worked, some of it was distracting. As Victor, however, this slight comedic timing made Victor both a more ridiculous character and a more sympathetic one. BC is very, very good at finding levels between beats and at articulating each point with a gesture or a body movement. It's almost dance or mime or mask work. He made Victor's somewhat stilted lines interesting and showed a nice vulnerability with Elizabeth that was not apparent in <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_28" class="blsp-spelling-error">JLM's</span>. He made the initial beat of seeing the Creature and throwing the cape over him far more believable. There is also something very believably aristocratic about BC, either his stature and figure or his <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_29" class="blsp-spelling-error">Harrovian</span> schooling or something, but he owned the area more than <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_30" class="blsp-spelling-error">JLM</span>. (Someone commented on how BC seems like Sherlock is very <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_31" class="blsp-spelling-error">upperclass</span>, while poor <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_32" class="blsp-spelling-error">Gatiss</span> doesn't seem as well-born as <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_33" class="blsp-spelling-error">Mycroft</span>, more a middle-class image of the upper-classes). BC looked more at home in his boots and fine coat. On colorblind casting. I was less bothered this time because William was black. Go figure... You know, elder Frankenstein is a rich man from the plantations in the Caribbean and he married a white woman who already had a son and then started a younger family with her. Or something. Harris was marginally better this night. Very glad that I had the chance to see both. Would view them both again (with remote to skim some parts). Still wonder if it would be so overwhelmingly popular if the leads were not both famous--one for previous work and BC newly for Sherlock. Granted Danny Boyle returning to the theater also helps. Certainly Frankenstein in the theater is an interesting concept, but interesting concepts do not sell out extended runs. Quick question--the "womb" is onstage and visible at the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_34" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">beginning</span>, correct? Does that mean that the actor has to be in place before the house is opened? I've done shows like that, where the nature of the staging meant you had to get into position and stay there while the house filled, and it's...terrifying, so even more kudos to them.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-77959902275823086942011-03-14T00:01:00.000-04:002011-03-14T00:03:13.931-04:00Where do I look, where do I witness?My thoughts are with friends and their families directly touched by the earthquake in Japan and by the resulting tsunami.<br /><br />We run out of money and in many ways we run out of emotion as well.<br /><br />Peru, Australia, New Zealand, now Japan…<br /><br />In a different category, Wisconsin, Prop. 8…<br /><br />Each new and immediate catastrophe pre-empts the one before. Our money and our focus are needed elsewhere. New Orleans is still rebuilding, Iraq is still in pieces, but we must parcel out our love and our money in triage.<br /><br /><br /><em><blockquote><em>I can't help anyone cause everyone's so cold<br />Everyone's so skeptical of<br />everything they're told<br />And even I get sick of needing to be sold<br /><br />Though it's only half a month away, the media's gone<br />An entertaining<br />scandal broke today, but I can't move on<br />I'm haunted by a story and I do my<br />best to tell it<br />Can't even give this stuff away, why would I sell it?<br />Everybody's laughing, while at me they point a finger<br />A world that loves<br />its irony must hate the protest singer<br /><br />So I'll be leaving soon<br />I'll<br />be leaving soon<br />I'll be leaving soon<br />I'll be leaving soon<br /><br />~Helicopters, Barenaked Ladies </em></blockquote></em>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-29077754423292854222011-02-06T00:28:00.000-05:002011-02-06T00:30:12.963-05:00"...coming to terms with this permanent state of combat readiness..."A remarkable article by an American Iraqi veteran on being home:<br /><br /><blockquote>"Jumping back into civilian life headlong, like I'd originally attempted, proved<br />both disastrous and shortsighted. And coming to terms with this permanent state<br />of combat readiness has made me realize just how much I miss war (or parts of<br />it), and how lucky--and twisted--I am to be able to even write those words. I<br />miss the camaraderie. I miss the raw excitement."<br /></blockquote><br /><blockquote>"I miss that daily sense of purpose, survive or die, that simply can't be<br />replicated in everday existence. I miss standing for something more than myself,<br />even if I never figured out just what the hell that something was supposed to<br />be."<br /></blockquote><br />http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/19/pilgrims-progress/?scp=3&sq=matt%20gallagher&st=cseAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-36259609672815686742011-01-26T01:43:00.002-05:002011-01-26T02:03:01.341-05:00Le Carre - Our Kind of TraitorI always feel despair when I finish a Le Carre. At the state of the world. At the bastard who profit in it.<br /><br /><blockquote>All right, granted, the Service has a statutory interest in international<br />crookery and money-laundering. We fought for a piece of it when times were hard,<br />and now we’re landed with it. I refer to that unfortunate fallow period between<br />the Berlin Wall coming down and Osama bin Laden doing us the favor of 9/11. We<br />fought for a piece of the money-laundering market the same as we fought for a<br />larger slice of Northern Ireland, and whatever other modest pickings were<br />available to justify our existence. But that was then, Hector. And this is now,<br />and as of today, which is where we are living, like it or not, your Service and<br />mine has better things to do with its time and resources than get its knickers<br />caught in the highly complex wheels of City of London finance, thank you.<br /><br />…furthermore, we also have, in this country, a very large, fully<br />incorporated, somewhat over-financed sister agency that devotes its efforts,<br />such as they are, to matters of serious and organized crime, which I take it is<br />what you are purporting to be unveiling here. Not to mention Interpol, and any<br />number of competing American agencies falling over each other’s very large feet<br />to do the same job while careful not to prejudice the prosperity of that great<br />nation.<br /></blockquote><br />And to hell with the morality of it. To hell with the people who get hurt and die. They're just collateral to the greater good, or the greater profit, whichever it's more prudent to back at any time.<br /><br /><blockquote>He’d heard that the Empowerment Committee had its own war room these days. It<br />seemed appropriate: somewhere ultra, ultra secret, suspended from wires or<br />buried a hundred feet underground. Well, he’d been in rooms like that: in Miami<br />and Washington when he was trading Intelligence with his chers collegues in the<br />CIA or the Drug Enforcement Agency or the Alcohol, Firearms & Tobacco Agency<br />and God knew what all the other agencies had been. And his measured opinion was<br />that they were places that guaranteed collective insanity. He’d watched how the<br />body language changed as the Indoctrinated Ones abandoned themselves and their<br />common sense to the embrace of their virtual world.<br /><br /></blockquote>Sorry to be so dark here. Le Carre always does that to me.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-43246058626286354842010-12-31T03:28:00.002-05:002010-12-31T03:43:51.369-05:00What We LoseMy pets are old--one ancient and one a senior citizen.<br /><br /><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">Mephisto</span> (cat, 20 yrs. old) had a stroke and is blind and deaf. The other senses are fine--he can smell us when we come in and will scream to signal. He can feel and purrs loudly when we hold him in our laps--which he always wants to do as it is his only sensation. The stroke though has left him wandering in circles and he bumps into things, so he is not feeling space the way that he should as a cat.<br /><br />Guinness (dog, 13 yrs. old) is deaf in both ears. The ear canal has been removed from one, and the other is so blocked that it too will require removal. He does not wake when we call to him (he never came) but we use hand signals which seem to actually work better, but you must touch him first to get his attention. We have to be careful to touch him gently if coming up on him as he startles. <br /><br />We have always suspected that his vision and smell were not what they should be, as he would often jump upon encountering things outside, but his hearing was <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">acute</span>. Of course, now he does not go mad when the doorbell rings, or sirens go by outside or <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">Mephisto</span> screams in the night and he sleeps longer, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">undisturbed</span>.<br /><br />As a human these losses would be felt <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">acutely</span> as they came (as they are for some of my older relatives). We would know all that we had lost and would never have again. That would add to our sense of loss. <br /><br />I wonder, do they know what they have lost? Does <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-error">Mephisto</span> remember seeing and stalking outside? Does Guinness miss when he could hear us call? Did they suffer their own grief upon losing these senses, or feel just a temporary confusion and then readjustment? Do they wish their youth and health back? They are both so thin now for a variety of reasons. Are they aware? Do they see and hear in their dreams? Or, as scientists tell us, are their memories so short that this silence, this darkness seems to be all that has ever been?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-14801755569837789272010-12-10T00:07:00.001-05:002010-12-10T00:09:06.547-05:00Saving a poem here so that I don't lose itJust a little autumn haiku.<br /><br />A leaf drifted past<br />my window. Sadly it speaks<br />of Autumn's comingAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-87300489648591264642010-08-31T14:47:00.002-04:002010-08-31T14:54:18.847-04:00The Road by Cormac McCarthyNot all dying words are true and this blessing is no less real for being shorn of its ground.<br /><br />Query: How does the never to be differ from what never was?<br /><br />He thought that in the history of the world it might even be that there was more punishment than crime but he took small comfort from it.<br /><br />When you've nothing else construct ceremonies out of the air and breathe upon them.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-36319429137787554522010-07-31T17:05:00.004-04:002010-08-30T14:25:15.301-04:00The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David MitchellI love David Mitchell, the British author (as opposed to David Mitchell, the British comedian) of <a href="http://noveleye.blogspot.com/search/label/Cloud%20Atlas--David%20Mitchell?max-results=100">Cloud Atlas</a>, Ghostwritten, Number 9 Dream, Black Swan Green and now this, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">de</span> <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">Zoet</span>.<br /><br />Like Iain Banks/Iain M. Banks, Mitchell seems to write one "normal" or <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">linear</span> narrative in between the time and mind bending ones (someone is attempting to film Cloud Atlas. I think this is a very, very bad idea). That said, this is a good book, but not his best, which is rather like saying that The Magnificent <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">Ambersons</span> isn't Citizen Kane.<br /><br />This is, to a certain extent (which looking back over my blog is a phrase I use too much), a historical romance set at the very end of the 18<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">th</span> century and the beginning of the 19<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-error">th</span> on an artificial trading island off the coast of Nagasaki. Mitchell lived in Japan for many years and is very familiar with the culture.<br /><br />It is both a love story and a historical story--describing pretty factually as far as I have researched a true incident that took place in 1808. An English ship attempted to take the Dutch trading post by force and open Nagasaki to English trade. This was in part because the Dutch trading empire was in taters--the famous Dutch East India company had gone bankrupt, and Holland itself was occupied by Napoleon's army. The British ship failed, the lone Dutch port staggered on until Holland recovered and Japan was only finally opened by force when Perry sailed in in the 1850's.<br /><br />That said, it is better when it is a love story. There is also a side line story which kept reminding me of The Name of the Rose, although they are not really similar, except that they both take place in Abbeys where some terrible things are going on.<br /><br />Mitchell is a master at placing the person in time. The first section is a slow day-to-day of life in the tiny port (something like the size of a football field, as far as I can <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">gauge</span>, fan <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">shaped</span> with three warehouses, a main residence, lesser residences and an infirmary, perhaps 20 people all told, counting slaves) through the eyes of a young honest clerk, Jacob. Jacob falls in love with the slightly disfigured daughter of a Samurai doctor who is studying with the port's Doctor. Dutch studies became a staple of Nagasaki for many years. Whether she returns his love is a matter of conjecture throughout the book, so it is tragic, unrequited love, which sets in motion a variety of other things. The second half concerns Miss <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" class="blsp-spelling-error">Aibagawa</span> after her father dies and she is forced to retire to an Abbey despite or because of her skill as a mid-wife. The third part is about the British attempt. And in the last 5 pages we learn about the rest of Jacob's life--some thirty years back in Holland.<br /><br />It is something of a let down, and that is unfortunate. Had it remained more of a character study I would actually think it better. Perhaps the last thirty years only take five pages, because the real part of Jacob's life is in those few years at the port of Nagasaki. Like the moment in Joyce's The <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_9" class="blsp-spelling-error">Dubliners</span> when the protagonist realizes that his wife is still in love with her dead young man.<br /><br />No culture comes out unscathed. The lone American is a beastly captain who knows the way to deal with the "slave problem." It is one of Mitchell's few heavy handed missteps that EVERY time the American captain speaks of the lesser races and bringing civilization he does something <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_10" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">particularly</span> disgusting like pick his nose, fart or belch or examine the contents of his teeth. The Dutch are corrupt, the English arrogant, and the Japanese willfully blind--treasuring their sacred isolated culture over all else (detailed brilliantly in Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures about the Perry landing.) Locked into their code of honor which requires suicide to appease petty crimes. It was a pivotal time in the history of Japan, as the western inventions, such as the gun rendered Samurai little more than civil servants, but still required them to maintain a status that they could not afford, and prohibited the rise of the merchant class who had the money.<br /><br />But it is in the private stories of the lower orders that we really learn about this time--of the press ganging that brought most of them out, of orphanages out of Dickens and abusive relatives. Of the promise of wealth in the east Indies that most of them will never see, instead spending the rest of their lives half a world away from all they know. No wonder then that they are so cruel and so incapable of empathy for anyone else.<br /><br /><blockquote>"Act, implores the Ghost of Future Regret, I shan't give you another<br />chance...Damned fool, groans the Demon of Present Regret. What have you<br />done?"<br /><br />"Creation unfolds around us, despite us, and through us, at the speed of<br />days and nights, and we like to call it 'love'"<br /></blockquote>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-71740455708221025182010-07-23T14:07:00.000-04:002010-07-23T14:07:15.453-04:00James Baldwin quotes | Quotations at Dictionary.com<a href="http://quotes.dictionary.com/Perhaps_the_whole_root_of_our_trouble_the">James Baldwin quotes Quotations at Dictionary.com</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-7651149052353944502010-07-23T12:50:00.003-04:002010-07-23T14:09:58.869-04:00Extra! Extra! Loann Agrees With Sarah Palin (sort of)Oh, how it pains me to say this, but I don't hate the word <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">refudiate</span> or <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">Palin</span> for creating it. And, she is right, <a href="http://languagebooks.suite101.com/article.cfm/coined_by_the_bard">Shakespeare added a plethora of new words and phrases to the English language</a>, or at least solidified them from the spoken of the time to what we know and accept today. Any language is a moving, growing thing. A river that is different from second to second and possibly no more so than English which has become the closest thing to a global language (for no particularly good reason other than Imperialism and the British navy). Sometime ago now, I read <a href="http://noveleye.blogspot.com/2010/05/english-vs-world.html">The Story of English and wrote a little about it</a>--meant to write more and somehow didn't. To a certain extent, Shakespeare defined English. James Joyce gleefully broke it.<br /><br />So what makes them geniuses and <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">Palin</span> an idiot? Well, there is the fact that their writing is lyric and lasting. That they make sense (even Joyce if you are as learned as he--which I'm not) while <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">Palin</span> is famously incoherent in other ways. She is also a hypocrite--whinging about press attacks while happily jumping on band wagons to bash her opponents--but that's political and I don't mean this to be. Liberals forgave President Obama for saying he had been to 57 states on the campaign trail but the right waived their arms above their heads and spouted all kinds of conspiracy theories. So, perhaps we should give Sarah a little slack on this one.<br /><br />I am not <a href="http://www.signals.com/signals/Shop-By-Theme_5AA/Literature_5AI/Item_I-Am-The-Grammarian-Shirts_HF6961G_ps_cti-5AI.html">the grammarian about whom your mother warned you</a>. I admit to playing fast and loose with the English language. I can't spell worth a damn. I never learned to diagram a sentence and don't remember all the rules about punctuation or grammar but go with what seems right in my head at the time. A comma for a pause, etc. I have embarrassingly used irregardless. I mispronounce words that I have only read on the page and I am probably guilty of more malapropisms than I am even aware of (ending with a preposition).<br /><br />But what is "correct" English anyway. At the time of Shakespeare there were wide divergences in spelling from region to region, probably even from street to street in London. It would be almost 150 years before Johnson would write the first dictionary and many of his sources and usages came from Shakespeare. Some of the finest and most moving sentences in the language flout proper usage of their time--BUT become proper usage because of their power.<br /><br />There will always be those who pedantically try to stem the tide--akin to standing in sand and trying to stop a slow moving train. You won't get hurt but you won't hurt the train, and you <em>will </em>be pushed backwards. Even the least snobbish of us has something that just sets our teeth on edge in common usage. I cannot stand the New England "draw" for "drawer" especially since I have seen many people here write it as "draw" as in, "My socks are in the top draw of the bureau." I also despise <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">Aks</span> for Ask.<br /><br />But who am I to say--in 100 years time they may be accepted, if not in place of, at least alongside my preference in the dictionary (<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-error">Futurama</span> plays with this in one of its earliest episodes):<br /><br /><br /><br /><blockquote><p>An Englishman's way of speaking<br />absolutely classifies him,<br />The moment he talks he makes<br />some other Englishman despise him.<br />One common language<br />I'm afraid we'll never get<br />--Henry Higgins, My Fair Lady</p></blockquote>Whether high or low, someone will be annoyed by the way you speak.<br /><br />That said, I believe that we should all aspire to speaking accepted conventional English as well as we possibly can, not because its "right" in some absolutest way, but because it opens up more opportunities. Like learning English--although the same is true of us, English speakers, should try to learn other languages.<br /><br />I also despise the use of "<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" class="blsp-spelling-error">txt</span> <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" class="blsp-spelling-error">spk</span>" in non-text situations. But I continue to use <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" class="blsp-spelling-error">LOL</span>, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_9" class="blsp-spelling-error">LMFAO</span>, IMHO and <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_10" class="blsp-spelling-error">OMG</span>. And thus, these things enter the lexicon. When did email become the verb and not just the noun that one sends? When did it become understood that when one says they have too much spam they are probably not talking about the canned meat immortalized by Monty Python? Who decided that a device for moving a cursor about a windows environment should be called a mouse--why not a potato? At the turn of the last century there was a typewriting machine and the typewriter who used it. At some point the typewriter became the machine and the user a typist.<br /><br />I certainly prefer the loose conversational style of English to the stilted business or legalese like this fine example that came across my desk for editing the other day:<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>This is pursuant to a continuing Securities and Exchange Commission approved<br />program which permits the custodian to no longer retain the physical<br />certificates in representation of the positions...What renders the certificates<br />as nontransferable, in this case, is the lack of the transfer agent...It makes<br />for an efficient maintenance process of these positions by eliminating<br />statements for accounts holding only these nontransferable assets. </blockquote>Yer wot?<br /><br />Which I rewrote as:<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>This is part of a continuing Securities and Exchange Commission program which<br />allows the custodian to destroy the physical certificates. Lack of the transfer<br />agent can make the certificates nontransferable. This makes it easier to process<br />these positions by eliminating statements... </blockquote>I probably could have done even better if I'd taken more time. And if I'd managed to understand more fully what was being said (the party of the first part...).<br /><br />I think what annoys me most is a laziness in speaking. (And I am sure I am as guilty as I am condemning). Cliches last because they are true, but they are so often thrown out as a way of not thinking. Business gobbledygook pains me because it generally means nothing; it is as bland and <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_11" class="blsp-spelling-error">unchallenging</span>, herd <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_12" class="blsp-spelling-error">mentalliting</span> as it can be. Holistic and proactive are two words that make me furious and I replace as often as possible (only to have my boss put them back--<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_13" class="blsp-spelling-error">grrr</span>). Holistic, IMHO, belongs in the realm of homeopathic medicine and proactive in preventative care. <br /><br />But (there is always another side, isn't there) short-hand common terms, cliches and trite expressions exist to make communication easier, to put us all on the same page (hate that one too--we're all going to the same URL, we all <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_14" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">occupy</span> the same point in the space time continuum, we're all <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_15" class="blsp-spelling-error">friended</span>) so that we can seemingly understand one another quickly. All language is but a short hand, symbols for concrete things to allow us to work with our fellow man. No word is anything in and of itself except for the thing we define by it. <br /><br />And if you tell anyone that I forgive Sarah <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_16" class="blsp-spelling-error">Palin</span>, I will <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_17" class="blsp-spelling-error">refudiate</span> it to the best of my ability.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-86304880119121197492010-07-23T12:27:00.002-04:002010-07-23T12:38:55.686-04:00In For a Penny, in for a Pound--Twilight the MovieI wasn't going to do it. Oh, how I wasn't going to do it. And I didn't. Not really. I only watched part, and even then I was working on other things. Not <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">focusing</span>. But those are really <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">mea</span> <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">culpas</span>. <br /><br />I watched part of Twilight last night. It was not quite as bad as I expected. I suppose, if your expectation is 0, then a 1 is an improvement. Kristin Stewart was not quite as annoying as I expected. Robert <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">Pattinson</span> slightly more romantic. Which is to damn with faint praise. It's not a very well put together movie. How is it that this woman directed Thirteen and Lords of <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">Dogtown</span>? <br /><br />Only two things actually interested me enough to pay attention. One, the fact that when Bella and Edward are in the woods and she says Vampire all mysterious and sexy like, the camera cuts away to the tops of the trees and then breaks and comes back to them lying on their backs. That used to be cinema convention for a sex scene, but, as we all know, Bella and Edward don't have sex until they are properly wed. Is the director inserting something here (no pun intended)? And two, totally trivia. Is the Cullen's house the same one that was used in Ferris <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-error">Bueller</span>? And were the interiors sets or location. I did like the set up of the baddies which is not part of the book--at least we aren't entirely trapped in Bella's head. (I didn't watch the payoff, so not sure how that set up played out)<br /><br />Annoyances--why is it so blue? Why does Edward look like someone dumped glitter on him in the sun? Queen of the Damned was a terrible movie, but by God, the vampires glowed in that (probably with actual metal in the make-up or mica). Why is Mr. Cullen's <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">hair color</span> so fake? Why does Edward bounce around in the trees like some demented monkey, and why are the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" class="blsp-spelling-error">CGIs</span> of his speed and agility so bad? I mean we've come a long way in the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" class="blsp-spelling-error">CGI</span> department even from the First Hulk movie when he seemed to have no weight. Surely a movie this big could have done better.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21723978.post-75348993949886974752010-07-23T11:51:00.005-04:002010-07-23T12:27:44.298-04:00Writing....?Some mornings I wake up and think, "I want to write a story, start that novel, try something on the page." But rather than walk right in to my laptop which I named "Writer" for inspiration, I have to get ready for work, or if home alone and free, like today, there is the dog to be walked, both animals to be fed and medicated. After my own breakfast, perhaps, and, oh, there is a load of <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">laundry</span> to be started. And I should...<br /><br />If I am so unhappy and underemployed in my current job, then I SHOULD spend every spare moment actively searching for work. Right? But I didn't do it even when happily employed (although sometimes I think that I have never been happily employed--either I liked the work and not the people or liked the people and not the work, and have never until this job liked the money--but that is a topic I've beaten before.)<br /><br />And I write essays/blog posts. They are so easy for me--they're half written in my head before I even sit down at the keyboard. And sometimes I don't even manage that--once written in my head, the need to write passes.<br /><br />Perhaps that is the key--I need to write the essays--to get them out of my head, to enjoy the sound of my own voice, to keep my writing skills from rusting away altogether, so that I can do my day job better, and keep my vocabulary sharp. But unfortunately, it's not likely that anyone is going to pay me for my essays. The papers are laying off seasoned essayists and movie and book reviewers are an endangered breed. The editorial or weekly column has been replaced by the blog. Oh, sure there are some who manage to get paid over at <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">Huffington</span> or Salon, but I'm not really in line for those. And some <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">bloggers</span> manage to make money but they write on one topic and I, I am, as always, all over the place. The marketer in me knows that I could market myself better--have better <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">SEO</span>--if I made separate blogs for the different threads, one for book reviews, one for movie reviews and film discussion and one for general rantings like this, but even then there is so much noise on the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">internet</span> now. Once upon a time it might have been possible to stand out, but now, while there are numerous perfectly terrible writers on the web, there are also many, many very good writers.<br /><br />But, I don't seem to NEED to write fiction, but I long to. I sometimes need to write poetry, but that is a fool's game even more than writing essays. I am not such an egotist to think that my poetry is so revolutionary that it commands attention and adoration. It is fair to middling. I am not Eliot or Ted Hughes whose talent was so blazing and original that people bowed down to it. And is that even possible now--to stand out from the crowd that much now? And even then I need to write a poem perhaps once every 6 months...hardly enough to call myself a poet.<br /><br />Perhaps because it seems that all my friends are closet writers, and many are even published, I think that I should. Is it jealousy? Is it another 'should'? A sense that this is what my Amherst English degree was for, since it seems to not be helping me in any other way.<br /><br />The essays are also easy because they are done--I could edit them, tighten them, would if it mattered at all. But a story--you can work on a story for years before it's done, before it holds together and has a voice and is compelling for anyone but you. I'm all about instant gratification. Even when I manage to walk into my studio I turn to the crafts and sewing first because I can call them done at a certain point. The dress is finished. The necklace done. I am not an artist of paint or materials who will work forever on a sculpture. My pieces need to be practical. A friend suggested that maybe I need to do the crafting in a way that I do not NEED to do the writing. But I think it is mere fear of the time commitment. Not that I enjoy crafting and sewing more than the act of writing, because I don't.<br /><br />This friend has been religious in the last year in writing the morning 5 pages of brain dump and then the section of a novel. That's what it takes. Everyone says so. At least those who publish consistently, produce consistently. The commitment to treat the writing as a job, not as a flash of lightening. What I should do (again should--I am drowning in <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-error">shoulds</span>), is to treat the essays as a brain dump, and then turn automatically to the fiction. I certainly waste time--don't clean, don't look for work--in other ways, why not in something more meaningful, more hopeful than the next Hidden Object video game?<br /><br />I think I am also afraid that I don't have enough ideas for fiction. I only seem to have three stories that I interested in telling. Harlan Ellison and Neil <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" class="blsp-spelling-error">Gaiman</span> talk of having so many "What ifs" in there heads that they can't get them down fast enough. God, grant me that problem. Or would they come if I only opened the tap?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07199981339240227463noreply@blogger.com1