A Day With Gabe

Word of the day : laterite : a residual product of rock decay that is red in color and has a high content of of iron and aluminum
(I keep coming across this word in the William Boyd novel I'm reading)

Day two of my alone-time with Gabriel.  On today's agenda: school, Panera Bread, Walmart (briefly), the Wildlife Center, and speech therapy.  He might (but most likely might not) take a nap today and I'll watch another episode of the Secret Life of Masterpieces - I think Uccello is up next.  Pizza for dinner tonight, maybe another walk - and hopefully a better night sleep.

Movie Review:

A Dangerous Method isn't much of a movie.  It was hard to find any touches or trademarks of director David Cronenberg in it.  I didn't know that it was based on Christopher Hampton's play of the same name (which itself was based on John Kerr's book A Most Dangerous Method), which explains the film's relentless talkiness and its few, constrained locations (though it is well-shot).  It's kind of a boring film, but there are some pleasures to be had from it, most noticeably because of the cast: Michael Fassbender is Carl Jung, doing his revelatory work in psychoanalysis in Zurich; Viggo Mortensen is Sigmund Freud, not as financially well-off as Jung but seen as the father figure in Jung's field - dryly bemused, serious, sex-obsessed in Vienna; Keira Knightley is one of Jung's patients, at first crazy and haunted, but, due to his therapy, eventually a physician in her own right and one of the first female psychoanalysts.  She was also his mistress, an outlet for Jung's brutal, pent-up sexuality.  I enjoyed the actors a lot - especially Mortensen (Knightley is wired, a whirlwind, just this side of overacting) - and was interested in the history.  I found Jung's and Freud's relationship chewy and understated, full of respect and challenge, but the film is a bit too stiff for my taste, too canned.  (**1/2)

Paolo Roversi (#20)

Born in Ravenna in 1947, the Italian Roversi realized his passion for photography as a teenager after a family vacation to Spain.  One of his first assignments was covering Ezra Pound's Venetian funeral for the Associated Press.  His early work was in news photography - he had much respect for reporters.  It wasn't until later on that he discovered Avedon, Bourdin, etc. and fashion photography.  He later worked for Elle and Marie Claire and forged a long-term relationship with the Dior fashion empire.  His works are typically relaxed, casual, usually shot in color, using a 10x8 Polaroid, although of late he has experimented a lot.  He makes his home in Paris, where he has lived in since 1973. 

 
History lesson today:

Check out this etching:

  
What's goin' on?  Well, we're looking at the first ever assassination attempt of a U.S. president.  The year?  1835.  The prez?  Andrew Jackson.  The madman?  Housepainter Richard Lawrence, possibly driven insane by breathing in paint chemicals (at one time, he thought he was Richard III).  He thought the U.S. government owed him money (it didn't) and that Jackson killed his father (he didn't). 

On the day in question (January 30), Jackson attended the funeral of a South Carolina congressman at the U.S. Capitol building.  Carrying two flintlock pistols, Lawrence hid behind a pillar and waited for Jackson after the service.  He approached him and shot at a distance of about 13 feet. 

Miss. 

He fired again.  Miss. 

Using the second pistol, he took another shot.  Another miss. 

It was later determined by Smithsonian researchers that the odds of both guns missing from this distance was 1 in 125,000!  Was it the bad weather (Lawrence's specific weapons were not at their most effective in damp conditions) or just chance? 

Lawrence was wrestled to the ground by congressman, including one by the name of Davy Crockett.  The incident made Jackson paranoid; he thought Lawrence was hired by one of the members of the Whig party, his rivals.  Lawrence was ruled insane and spent the rest of his life in a government hospital.

Thanks: http://patriciahysell.wordpress.com/2011/01/30/4341/
              http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/andrew-jackson-narrowly-escapes-assassination


New Movies Opening This Weekend:

Wrath of the Titans    The same lousy reviews the first one got in 2010, perhaps fair since it looks like more of the same junk, with cheesy effects and the same slumming actors (Ralph Fiennes, Liam Neeson, Gemma Arterton). 

Mirror Mirror    Evidently it's the year of Snow White.  Lily Collins (she of the so-bad-it's-okay Abduction) is Snow and Julia Roberts is the Evil Queen.  Armie Hammer and Nathan Lane could liven things up in support, but the movie isn't getting good reviews, critics stating that the whole production is weirdly devoid of energy and muddled.

Bully    Good, glowing reviews for this edgy, of-the-moment, controversial documentary that follows the life of five tormented kids suffering because of the way they look, act, talk - or what?  Why are kids so horrible to one another?  Produced by the Weinstein Co, it is definitely a movie that has people talking, especially about the 'R' rating.

Goon    Surprisingly good reviews for what looks to me like a spin on Slap Shot with Seann William Scott in - what else? - goofy, ne'er-do-well mode as a black sheep who takes over a Halifax hockey team.  Critics like it so far.  Liev Schreiber, Eugene Levy, Jay Baruchel (who co-wrote the screenplay), and Alison Pill lend support.

The Intruders    I know, I know, if you've seen one kid-haunted-by-a-ghost story, you've seen them all.  But when the ghost is a specter who stands waiting at the bottom of your bed and is known as Hollow Face and the parents are played by Clive Owen (yes, please!) and Carice van Houten (spectacular star of the grand Black Book), I take notice.  The action shifts between London and Spain.  Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later), in obvious homage to Guillermo del Toro.   



Finally, let's give a thought and prayer to my dad.  I'm confident that he'll get through his surgery tomorrow with flying colors!  

Life Lists

 Okay, here are the definitive versions (and updates) of the lists I've made in the last week. 

50 Cities to See Before I Die

Non-U.S.
1) Paris
2) Nice
3) Athens
4) Barcelona
5) Madrid
6) Stockholm
7) Oslo
8) Moscow
9) St. Petersburg
10) Vienna
11) Prague
12) Dublin
13) Bruges
14) Bangkok
15) Phnom Penh
16) Ho Chi Minh City
17) Cairo
18) Sydney
19) Melbourne
20) Johnannesburg
21) Tokyo
22) Nairobi
23) Cape Town
24) Beijing
25) Kathmandu
26) Mumbai
27) New Delhi
28) Rome
29) Venice
30) Florence
31) Lisbon
32) Havana
33) Rio de Janiero
34) Buenos Aires
35) Santiago

Canada
36) Ottawa
37) Vancouver
38) Montreal
39) Quebec City
40) Halifax

U.S.
41) New Orleans
42) San Antonio
43) Austin
44) Santa Fe
45) Phoenix
46) San Francisco
47) Portland
48) Seattle
49) Boston
50) Missoula, Montana (why not?)



50 Things to Read Before I Die

1) The complete oeuvre of Richard Russo  (as of now, I only have 3 to go)
2) Something by each of the following international mystery writers: Rebecca Pawel, Peter Temple, Kerstin Ekman, Giles Blunt, Colin Cotterill
3) All of William Boyd's novels
4) By Hemingway: A Moveable Feast and For Whom the Bell Tolls
5) Magic Mountain and Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann
6) Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
7) something by Emile Zola
8) Ann Beattie's completer collection of stories for the New Yorker
9) every Pultizer Prize winner from here on
10) Carol Shields' The Stone Diaries
11) Ruth Rendell: A Sight for Sore Eyes and its follow-up, The Vault
12) something by Balzac
13) everything from Anne Tyler since 1982's Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
14) Herman Wouk's The Caine Mutiny
15) Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy
16) The Berlin Stories, by Christopher Isherwood 
17) by Pat Conroy: The Great Santini, South of Broad, The Lords of Discipline
18) one book by Martin Amis and one book by his son, Kingsley Amis
19) By Stewart O'Nan: Wish You Were Here and Emily, Alone
20) Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
21) The Thorn Birds
22) Tom Jones
23) something by Dickens
24) The Tenants of Moonbloom (by Edward Lewis Tallant), Daniel Woodrell's The Outlaw Album, Stefan Zweig's The Royal Game
25) Two books by Daphne du Maurier
26) by Richard Yates: The Collected Stories and Cold Spring Harbor
27) every novel by Patricia Highsmith
28) something by Stendhal
29) two novels by Georges Simenon
30) something by E.L. Doctorow and Russell Banks
31) something by T.C. Boyle
32) 5 art history books about either painters or periods of art history
33) one novel by Paul Theroux and one non-fiction travel book by him
34) two novels by William Maxwell
35) either Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford or The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell
36) one book by each of the following authors: John Fante, Ross Macdonald, Carl Hiassen, Ken Bruen
37) Daughter of Fortune by Isabelle Allende
38) Out of Africa and Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen
39) Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
40) A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
41) two books by Truman Capote
42) Tender is the Night and one other book by F. Scott Fitzgerald
43) By Willa Cather: O Pioneers! and The Professor's House
44) Three novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
45) five of National Geographic's 100 Best Adventure Books of all time
       Link: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0404/adventure_books.html 
46) two novels by John Banville
47) Middle Passage by Charles Johnson, a mystery novel by Chester Himes, and a novel by Albert Murray
48) At least one mystery novel by the following writers: Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Rex Stout, Eric Ambler, Wilkie Collins, Sara Paretsky, Val McDermid, Kenneth Fearing
49) More mysteries!  At least one work by each of the following: Jim Thompson, Jean-Patrick Manchette, Cornell Woolrich, Peter Robinson, Mickey Spillane, James Lee Burke, Scott Turow, Denise Mina, Deborah Crombie, and Erin Hart
50) Remembrance of Things Past - I own it, I'm young (well...) and i have no excuse not to read it!    

Sadness

Word of the day : doleful : causing grief or affliction ; full of grief

A good image of how I feel today.  Julia is gone and I am sad.  That is all. 


Book Review:

Stagestruck, by Peter Lovesey, is a fine mystery, well-crafted.  Chief Superintendent Peter Diamond, star of many previous Lovesey mysteries, has a fear of theater, which is unfortunate considering there is all sorts of intrigue at the historic Royal Theater in Bath - a real place, of course, whose nooks, grandeur, and history Lovesey has fun with.  There is one horrific maiming, two murders, a buttefly curse, and a ghost siting.  Lovesey lays out the plot with the precision of an old-hand and there are plenty of juicy characters, including a fallen pop singer, a 6'8'' wealthy mama's boy, a horny theater manager, and a heroin-addicted leasing man.  The revelation of the killer came as a surprise to me.
(***1/2)

Man Ray (#19)

The famous American surrealist Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitsky in 1890 Philadelphia) was largely self-taught (though he was influenced by Alfred Steiglitz) and became well-known in Paris in the 1920s for his 'Rayographs.'  Ray created these rayographs by putting everyday objects - such as thumbtacks - directly on a piece of photosensitized paper and exposing it to light.  Such a way of looking at the everyday - merging the representational with the abstract - influenced Dadaism and Surrealism.  Ray also made a name for himself in documentary films.  He painted as often as he had photographed - and was well-known for his work in each field. 

He represented the American branch, along with his friend Marcel Duchamp, of Dadaism.  He was also represented at the first Surrealist exhibition, along with Ernst, Miro, and Picasso.

In his photography, Ray commonly uses solarization, a type of manipulation of the picture that de-materializes the image, a thin black line appearing around the figure or image.

Man Ray was multi-talented, accomplished not only in photography and painting, but also performance art, sculpture, collage, assemblage, and 

     

Thanks to : http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/190017270

Another Life List! 

Today's list: 30 Cities I'd Like to Visit Before I Turn 60.


Non-U.S.
1) Barcelona
2) Madrid
3) Sydney
4) Melbourne
5) Berlin
6) Prague
7) Budapest
8) Vienna
9) Paris
10) Dublin
11) Bruges
12) Bangkok
13) Stockholm
14) Ho Chi Minh City
15) Cairo
16) Phnom Penh
17) St. Petersburg
18) Istanbul
19) Moscow
20) Athens

U.S.
21) Portland
22) Phoenix
23) New Orleans
24) Santa Fe
25) Memphis
26) Boston
27) San Antonio
28) Austin
29) San Diego
30) Missoula, Montana (why not?)

I'm off to tend to the big boy....

Julia's Leaving...Again!

Word of the day : knee-jerk : readily predictable, automatic

Gabriel and I are sad that once again Julia is leaving us for a few days.  She's off to Wichita to present a paper at a conference.  Gabriel and I will be on our own Wednesday through Friday and most of Saturday too.  Whatever will we do?

The Mad Men premiere was extraordinary.  There are obviously going to be multiple compelling storylines this year:

- Don Draper's inability to be happy with his new wife (Jessica Pare), despite how much she admires and loves him - and is willing to do things for him like, say, sing in French for him at his birthday party (a memorable moment, sexy and titillating)

- Roger (John Slattery) and Pete (Vincent Kartheiser) will continue to fight and punish each other, both of them uniquely, soddenly unhappy at home

- Joan's (Christina Hendricks) attempts at dexterously dealing with coming back to work and raising her new baby on her own

- And, of course, Civil Rights has come to Manhattan

I'm not sure which sequence I liked more.  Okay, well this is a highlight -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngf2zHq4FEI

But there was that extraordinary sequence with Lane (Jared Harris) finding a man's wallet in the cab and finding a picture of the man's woman within it.  Something about the image of the woman intrigues him and he calls the man's number.  The conversation that ensues, with Lane and the woman - with her tantalizing, uncertain answers and questions - is mysterious and striking.

What a season this is gonna be!

History Lesson:

Battles, Part 2

6) Siege of Vienna
When: Austria-Ottoman Wars, 1529
Who: Ottoman Empire (led by Sultan Suleiman) versus Austria (led by King Charles)
Winner: Austria
Result: This marked the beginning of the end for any designs of the Ottoman Empire in central and western Europe, in particular the spreading of the Muslim religion; Catholicism would forever populate these parts.  Vienna was just too hard of a city, too logistically impossible, to attack.

7) Waterloo
When: Napoleonic Wars, 1815
Who: Napoleon's French army versus the Coalition Forces - in this case, the Prussian army (led by Gebhard Von Blucher) and the Allied forces (the British army, Dutch and Belgium soldiers), led by the Duke of Wellington)
Winner: Prussians and British
Result: The defeat of Napoleon and the end of his tyrannical empire in France - and the fall of France as a world superpower.

8) Iwo Jima
When: World War II, Pacific Front, 1945
Who: America and its Allies versus Japan
Winner: America
Result: Not sure.  In theory, the island was important because it gave America control over the two airfields on the island, where Japan used (or could use) its fighter planes to attack America planes on their way to and from Japan.  This was a controversial battle.  It was bloody and costly and twenty-four years later, Lyndon Johnson gave ownership of the island back to Japan.

9) Battle of the Alamo
When: Texas Revolution, 1835-6
Who: Texas (led by Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett, William Travis) versus Mexico (led by Santa Anna)
Winner: Mexico
Result: Some memorable lines, for one thing: "Remember the Alamo," etc.  Provided impetus for the Mexican-American War a decade later.  The battle was important too, for it showed how fervently the Texans wanted Mexicans out of their territory, how strong the American desire was for Manifest Destiny.  Soon after, Sam Houston's troops attacked Santa Anna's army and routed them.  Texas soon after declared itself a Republic, independent of Mexico.

10) Agincourt
When: Hundred Years' War, 1415
Who: France versus England (led by Henry V)
Winner: English
Result: A crushing blow to the French, whose losses were rumored to be around 8000 or more, compared to the few hundred English casualties.  The English were heavily outnumbered.  Many historians credit this as the greatest "upset" or surprising victory in the history of war.       
          
Thanks to: http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/battleswars1800s/p/alamo.htm 
                  http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/battle_waterloo_01.shtml  
                  http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_of_iwo_jima.htm 


Aaahhh!  Look out! 
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/giant-nine-pound-gambian-rats-invading-florida-keys-210522485.html

Bruce Weber (#18)

The American Weber (b. 1946) went to Denison University for a while, before transferring to NYU.  He came to prominence working for GQ, Ralph Lauren, and Calvin Klein in the late 1970s.  He is known for his homoerotic images, high-profile advertising campaigns, nudes and portraits of male models.  He has an extensive catalog of documentary films on his resume as well.  His work has been featured in magazines such as Interview and Vogue as well.

  
You get the drift...

- Around the time Impressionism was big in Europe, Tonalism was coming to prominence as a movement in America.  It was inspired by the French Barbizon School, which emphasized shadow and atmosphere.  A color's softer, less contrasting middle values were often employed, creating a visual poem; dark, neutral hues were used too.  Nature is at the forefront, luscious and domesticated, evocative, full of spiritual truths (but not as overwhelming and grandiose as it is portrayed by the Hudson River School artists), almost abstract too,  Common Tonalism images: moonlit nights, soft greens and golds and greys, vaporous views invoking a clouded emotionalism.  These images provoked strong feelings of the psychological, the unconscious, the subjective.

Here are three works of Tonalism, by three of the movement's most well-known stylists:

George Inness - Twilight - 1875

 

James McNeill Whistler - Nocturne in Blue and Silver - 1871/2

John LaFarge - Moonlit Seascape - 1883(?)

And finally, everyone likes a good Life List, right? 
Well, here's my first Life List in quite a while. 
The subject: 30 Things to Read Before I Turn 50! 

1) The complete series of Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley novels.  (There are 17 of them - I've read one)
2) The complete ouevre of William Boyd (I'm on #2)
3) All the works of Richard Russo (only three to go!)
4) Hemingway's A Movable Feast and For Whom the Bell Tolls
5) Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
6) something by Emile Zola
7) every Pulitzer Prize winner from here on in
8) something by Balzac
9) everything by Anne Tyler (I'm doing good here)
10) Richard Ford's Sportswriter trilogy
11) Carol Shields' The Stone Diaries 
12) The Berlin Stories, by Christopher Isherwood
13) by Pat Conroy: The Lords of Discipline and South of Broad 
14) every pre-1970 novel by Patricia Highsmith (only 6 to go)
15) Tom Jones
16) Two books by Daphne du Maurier
17) Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
18) The Cider House Rules by John Irving
19) two novels by Georges Simenon
20) Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
21) James Salter's A Sport and a Pasttime 
22) The Red and the Black or Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal
23) The Collected Stories of Richard Yates and Cold Spring Harbor by Yates
24) The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk
25) something by Dickens
26) one book by Martin Amis and one book by Kingsley Amis
27) Stewart O'Nan's Wish You Were Here and Emily, Alone
28) The Thorn Birds
29) Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy 
30) A Sight for Sore Eyes and its follow-up, The Vault by Ruth Rendell

Stay tuned for more "30(fill-in-the-blank) to do before I turn 50" lists! 

Gabriel, a Puffy-Eyed Truant

Word of the day : hebdomadal : weekly ; occurring, appearing, or done every week

The fam had a nice day yesterday on St. Simons Island; beautiful, cozy little place.  Gabriel is still all puffy-eyed and runny-nosed today. so he'll go to the doctor's.  Julia, who just finished The Keeper of Lost Causes in two days and loved it as much as I did, is waiting for an important phone call this week; indeed, we all are.  She leaves for Wichita on Wednesday and will be gone until Saturday; shucks! 

What's new in our backyard?  Well - just a snapping turtle moseying his way on a rainy Saturday, rabbits, a broadheaded skink, and lots of holes dug by Super Spy Daisy!  

Me?  I'm just hanging out here with the boy and the dog and the cats, waiting for an opportunity to finish the sterling season five premiere of Mad Men.  God, I love this show.  It's been too long, old friend, I say: It's the little touches and details on this show that makes it so memorable.  I like how Don Draper's new wife (the charming Jessica Pare), planning his birthday party, mouths the word "forty" to Peggy (Elisabeth Moss), smarting and jealous, when asked how old Draper is going to be, causing a mocking, sly look from Peggy. 

Today's history lesson?  A quick, surface-level look at ten famous military battles in which it might not be clear to everyone (myself first and foremost) who exactly was fighting, who won, and why it mattered.  We'll do five today, five tomorrow 

1) Battle of Yorktown
When: American Revolutionary War, 1781
Who: the Americans (with French aid) and the British
Winner: The Americans
Result: Was, effectively, the end of the American Revolution.  Led to the acknowledged independence of the U.S.  Inspired the French to fight tyranny, leading, at the end of the decade, to their own Revolution.

2) Battle of Hastings 
When: 1066
Who: the English (led by King Harold II) and the Normans (led by William of Normandy)
Winner: the Normans
Result: Introduced the feudal system to England, a new language and culture, destruction of most of the English aristocracy.  The new England became a dominant superpower for the ensuing three centuries.

3) Stalingrad
When: World War II, 1942-3
Who: Germans vs. the Russians
Winner: Russians
Result: The Germans suffered an obscene amount of casualties and captured prisoners.  Though he had failed to do so at Moscow and Leningrad, Hitler was determined to take Russia.  Germany was so weakened that it could never against mount much of an offensive on the Eastern Front.  German morale was weakened too, and the confidence of the Allies' strengthened.  (Unfortunately, the Russians were fighting as much to stop Hitler as they were to preserve their own soon-to-be-defunct brand of Communism; hence, Stalingrad was later named Volgograd, to purge all traces of Stalin.)

4) Leipzig 
When: Napoleonic Wars, 1813
Who: France (with some Polish, Italian, and German troops) versus Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Russia - known as the Coalition
Winner: Coalition
Result: Napoleon's forces were immensely weakened, the beginning of the end for the emperor, who not too long after was defeated at Waterloo.  One of the largest battles in the history of the world.  France no longer had any presence east of the Rhine.  German forces joined the Coalition.  Napoleon's regime was more or less over.

5) Antietam
When: American Civil War, 1862
Who: North (under McClellan) versus the South  (under Lee)
Winner: North      
Result:  The South didn't get the recognition and support it wanted and needed from Europe in order to compete with the industrialized North.  If the South would have won, it is highly possible that Europe - specifically France, who already had troops in Mexico - would have given their support to the South.  And then, who knows?  It was the bloodiest single day of fighting in American history, and it gave Lincoln incentive to deliver his Emancipation Proclamation the following year.

Thanks to: http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/topten/index.html
                   http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/antietam.html

Garry Winogrand (#17)

A popular and influential street photographer, Winogrand (1928-1994) studied at City College of New York and Columbia University.  He was in the Air Force and, after getting out, worked in the 1950s and 1960s for, among others, Life and Sports Illustrated.  His style: wide-angle lens, 35mm camera, available light, unposed subjects.  He is a master of the ordinary, taking fast shots. 

1969

 

 

 

World's Fair, New York City, 1964

Thanks to:  http://www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/winogrand_garry.php  

I just started (and am already captivated) by William Boyd's debut novel, 1981's A Good Man in Africa.  It was made into a critically-panned bomb in 1994, starring Sean Connery, Louis Gossett Jr., and John Lithgow, with a screenplay by Boyd and direction by Driving Miss Daisy's Bruce Beresford.  I'll have to find it somewhere. 

Here are some really good books that would make interesting movies:
       

starring Greg Kinnear

starring Emily Mortimer

not starring Daniel Craig

starring Ciaran Hinds

starring Richard Jenkins

Boring Friday

Word of the day : nondescript : lacking distinctive or interesting qualities, drab, dull

Okay, so I was only right on three of my four picks last night.  Let's try for four tonight:

Kentucky over Indiana
Baylor over Xavier
North Carolina over Ohio
Kansas over North Carolina State

Julia and I are thinking about tramping down to St. Simons Island Sunday for our first trip to Georgia's Golden Isles.  (We've been to Brunswick before and liked it.)  Anything to get out of boring-ass Statesboro and get Julia's mind off Montevallo.

Book Review:

Okay, this is a tough one.  The plot: During the golden age of American invention and building, Martin Dressler, the son of a cigar-store owner, shows initiative and dream-like wonder even at a young age.  His first job is working as a bellboy in a faded hotel down the street.  Through the years, he advances to desk clerk and then personal assistant to the manager.  He breaks off his own and creates not one popular lunch-time restaurant, but two, then three, then four... Unable to connect with his equally caught-in-a-dream, strange wife, he focuses his energies on building a hotel - a grand, loony monstrosity.  But he can't stop at just one.  The book culminates in the unveiling (and failure) of Dressler's third (and possibly final)  creation: a hotel that contains about every type of pleasure on earth. 

First off: This is not a book for everyone.  If you like books with a fair share of dialogue, look elsewhere.  You could accumulate all the dialogue and it would take up maybe 25 of the novel's 293 pages.  The book is filled with long, fanciful paragraphs, endless, minute descriptions of New York City.  It's not a fun book and it tends to be boring. 

Millhauser has an imaginative mind and he lets his powers of imagination run wild.  The novel's pages tend to spill out like the ideas in Dressler's head.  

We get what Millhauser's doing.  The novel seemingly weaves in and out of Millhauser's mind - we're not always sure what is real.  And while Millhauser's imagination is startlingly fertile, the characters here aren't particularly ingratiating; they're kind of flat, unreachable.  And yet, Millhauser thrusts us right into the interior landscape of a visionary.  We get a great sense of what the men who built this country might have been like, how they might have thought.  There is no such thing as 'overboard' or 'too much.'  The novel becomes a portrait of obsession, of tunnelvision.  It's not always a pleasure to read but it is distinct.  Winner of the 1996 Pulitzer Prize.  (*** out of 5)   

                     
Missing, the new ABC show with Ashely Judd, is a fun romp through Europe with Judd playing a protective, resolute former CIA agent yanked out of suburban housewife-hood when her son is kidnapped.  (Could the alleged death of her husband, played by Sean Bean, ten years earlier play a part in all this  Hmmm?)  It's Taken meets Alias meets the Jason Bourne movies meets anything else that comes to mind.  Judd (an appealing actress) is playing a character a bit one-note (so far, anyway) but it's fun to see her kick the crap out of everyone in sight.  It seems like there will be just enough to sustain the ten-episode season.  The scenery is nice and the whole enterprise is played straight, humor-free.

Sweet 16

Word of the day : oppugn : to call into question ; to fight against

Okay, here are my sweet 16 picks for tonight:

Syracuse over Wisconsin
Louisville in an upset over Michigan State
Ohio State over Cincinnati
Marquette over Florida

Book Review: 

Douglas Kennedy's The Big Picture isn't a great thriller, but it is entertaining and compulsively readable (which I'm learning is a trait of Kennedy books), no doubt about it.  (It was made into a film in France, starring Romain Duris and Catherine Deneuve.)  The story: an unhappy Wall Street yuppie (this reader got tired of his whining, but alas) murders his wife's lover and then steals his identity, re-locating to small-town Montana and realizing his dream of being a photographer.  He starts a relationship with his photo editor/boss at a local newspaper and then is thrust into the spotlight when he, after a night of passion at her woodsy cabin, takes a series of photos of a raging forest fire.  (Got all that?)  The photo tugs him into the national spotlight, which brings out-of-towners into his Montana burg - more specifically, the ex-wife who thinks he's dead.

I generally liked Kennedy's wry, sour observations on American culture in the 90s and he knows how to work a plot.  He's a smart writer, but unfortunately I thought the story was hampered by too many implausibilities and tidy coincidences in its last act (and the final few pages felt rushed) to really work.  Still, though, a decent read.   (***)

There are only two movies of any note opening this weekend - perhaps you've heard of one of them.   

The Hunger Games    The good news for the billions of fans of Suzanne Collins' beloved series is that the first movie is getting splendid, across-the-board good reviews.  Which is almost besides the point, because the movie will make a fortune regardless of what even the few critics who matter say.  The story, if you don't know by now: The Capitol of the nation of Panem punishes each of its twelve districts (which tried to unite and revolt years ago) by having each district select two of its children to participate in the title sporting event, a nationally-televised fight-to-the-death brawl in which each of the fighters, known as "Tributes," must hide and hunt and kill until there is only one left standing.  The book was terrific, and I knew Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence (as Katniss, who elects to take the place of her younger, weaker sister in the Games) would be good, but the rest of the cast looks promising too: Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Josh Hutcherson (Laser in The Kids Are Alright), Toby Jones, Wes Bentley, and Lenny Kravitz.  Directed by Gary Ross, who last helmed Seabiscuit.

The Deep Blue Sea    Destined to make less money than The Hunger Games, this is nevertheless earning some wonderful reviews.  Based on a play by Terence Rattigan (whose work has made for some interesting films in decades past - The Browning Version - Julia and I liked the version starring Albert Finney - and The Winslow Boy but two of them) and directed by the always-creative Terence Davies.  We're in Post-War England, and Rachel Weisz (at her best) stars as a free spirit trapped in a loveless marriage.  She seeks erotic autonomy, fulfillment of every quality she thinks she needs to be happy in a troubled Royal Air Force pilot (played by Tom Hiddleston, of War Horse and Midnight in Paris, where he appeared all-too briefly as F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Looks good.

History lesson:

Should this be a daily feature?

Yes, I think so too.

Today's history lesson occurred to me as I was "putting in my eyes" this morning.  I wondered, who came up with the idea for contact lenses?

DaVinci did, that's who!  Well, he was the first one to sketch out an idea of them.  124 years later, in 1632, Descartes too suggested the idea of a corneal contact lens which could be placed in the eye.

It was the work of two men, though, who made the sketches and ideas a reality:  The first was the English astronomer John Herschel (incidentally, the man who discovered the planet Uranus), who, in 1827, suggested making a mold of the wearer's eyes so that a glass contact lens could then be ground and shaped in order to perfectly conform to the eye's surface.   So Herschel (a mathematician as well, also a studier of astigmatism, and an important player in the early days of photography) not only suggested molds of the eye but also contorting and shaping the contact lens to fit it.

In 1884, anesthesia was developed, which led to our second figure coming onto the scene, German glassblower F.A. Muller, who created the first glass contact lens.  Muller's transparent lens was meant to be seen through and tolerated, though it was heavy and meant only for a couple hours' wear, for it caused it excessive eye redness and tear production.   

Thanks to: http://www.coloredcontact-lenses.com/history.html
                  http://www.eyetopics.com/articles/18/1/The-History-of-Contact-Lenses.html
                  http://www.firstscience.com/SITE/editor/042_ramblings_06022004.asp
 
Later years and decades, of course, would the see the development of soft and hard contact lenses, etc.  But this is how it all kinda began!

Edward Weston (#16)

I'm surprised he's this low on the list.  Who hasn't heard of Weston?  (Well, I guess...)  Here's a recap:       
Born: 1886, Highland Park, Illinois
Childhood: Chicago
First studio: Tropico, California
Style at this time: Pictorialism - soft-focus, painterly, high-key portraits, dance studies, concerned less with the subject than the artistic quality of the image; in order to achieve Pictorialistic style, the photographers manipulated the negative (scratching it, painting over it)and used gum bichromate, which lessened the detail and produced a more artistic image 

Renounces Pictorialism: 1922, when he begins paying more attention to resolution and detail, though he focuses on abstract forms
1992-1923: meets Georgia O'Keeffe, Diego Rivera, Alfred Steiglitz, Jose Orozco, Charles Sheeler; opens studio in Mexico City
1927-1930: lives in California, creates work for which he is now renowned for:

Monumental close-ups of seashells, peppers, and halved cabbages; he was entranced by their sculptural forms.

1932: One of the founding members of photography group f/64 with, among others, Ansel Adams  
1936: series of nudes; receives first ever Guggenheim Fellowship awarded to a photographer 

Thanks: http://www.edward-weston.com/edward_weston_biography.htm

Okay, and here's a good example of a Pictorialist image, by Henry Peach Robinson:

    

We're all about recovery here...

Word of the day : weltanschauung : worldview ; a comprehensive conception or apprehension of the world especially from a specific standpoint

Cindy Sherman (#14)

There's a lot to write about about this influential American artist.  Here's a good, definitive biography of her from her own website:

http://www.cindysherman.com/biography.shtml

And here is an info about a current exhibition of her work at MOMA:

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1170

I'm getting excited at the (potential) prospect of moving to Alabama, especially after checking out this website: http://www.alabama.travel/

Carnage, Roman Polanski's adaptation of Yasmina Reza's Tony-winning play (Polanski co-wrote the screenplay with Reza), is light Polanski, savage and funny in turns, if not especially memorable.  It's about two couples who have come together to discuss an incident that occurred between their two sons: the son of the parents played by Kate Winslet (defensive, argumentative) and Christoph Waltz (ice-cold, tuned-out, always on his cell phone) struck another boy in the face with a stick, causing the boy to lose two teeth.  The parents of the injured boy are played by Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly.  Over the course of an hour or so, the couples bicker, argue, assign blame, deflect guilt, get drunk, turn on their respective others, defend themselves, lash out, strut their feathers, ignore each other.  This is a good subject for Polanski - the breakdown of modern discourse, the inability of four people to have a dialogue - and, as expected, he excels in making a staged play come alive, with his typical tight framing emphasizing a claustrophobic, stifling world without escape.  It's blissfully short and the performers do well: Waltz, with his reptilian visage, has a persnickety remove.  It's Foster's show, however, and she exhibits tremendous range playing an unlikable do-gooder, simultaneously pacifying and passive-aggressive, smart and annoying.  (***)

Judgement day for Gabriel Owen Fischer

Word of the day : tub-thumper : a vociferous supporter (as of a cause)

Everyone's in a good mood today.  I wonder what Gabriel's teachers will say about him today at his parent-teacher conference.

- So I've always liked the Scottish band Teenage Fanclub.  I used to have a few of their CDs.  I haven't heard any of their music in years - it's distinctly catchy power pop - but I now really like one of their songs, even though I didn't know it was them!  It's "The Concept," which plays a prominent role in Young Adult - it's the song on the mix tape Patrick Wilson made for Charlize Theron, which she later finds (to her disappointment) isn't "their" song at all, but now Wilson's and his wife Elizabeth Reasar's.  It's off the band's superb 1991 album Bandwagonesque.  Here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqYibZeafg8

Andreas Gorsky (#15)

The German-born Gorsky was the son of a commercial photographer - so his calling was in his genes.  He studied in Essen's Folkwang School, which was a major training ground for photojournalists.  He practiced within the documentary tradition.  In late-1980s Dusseldorf, Gorsky took part in the avant-garde movement and was hugely influenced by the Bechers (Bernd and Hilla), who were famous for their typologies (extensive series of photographic images), in which they presented a long series of images of landscape structures with similar functions (for example, winding towers that haul coal) in which viewers could then compare the forms and designs of the structures based on their functions, age, utility, etc. (Does that make sense?  Here's an example: http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/95)

Gursky eventually moved beyond the Becher School and started putting his own distinct touch on his photographs: his work is big, bold, full of color and detail.  He has worked all over the glove, on almost every continent, portraying the industrial landscape of the zeitgeist - apartment buildings, hotels, business towers, power plants, warehouses, stock exchanges, dance clubs.  He essays the modern world's structures with  

His 2001 photo 99 Cent II Diptych, about an overflowing, well-stocked convenience store, was at the time of its auction, the highest-priced photo ($3.3 million) in history.  Here it is:

May Day V (2006)

  
Thanks to: http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2001/gursky/
 
- Tower Heist is a fun movie that succeeds on the strength and fun of its cast of characters alone: the manager at the residential apartment tower which happens to be the highest-priced piece of real estate in the world (Ben Stiller); the fast-talking criminal (Eddie Murphy, coming on like a welcome gust of fresh air, ha-yuck, ha-yuck); the nervous, laid-off white collar nebbish (Matthew Broderick, who can play this role to perfection); the sleepy-voiced suck-up with a kid on the way (Casey Affleck, destined to always sound like a nasally sixteen-year old); the flirty Jamaican safecracker (Gabourey Sidibe, doing anything to string-out her career); the FBI agent on the trail of this inept gang of thieves (Tea Leoni, with her elastic, loopy gift for physical comedy); and the unctuous, condescending Bernie Madoff-type who has $20 million (or more) hidden somewhere in his apartment (Alan Alda, richly oily).  Brett Ratner directs, having a lot of fun with the material.  It's never hilarious, but there are pleasures to be found, including a well-staged sequence in which the gang tries to get a car out of the top floor of the high-rise during Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  (***)

Madness!

Word of the day : forebear : ancestor, forefather ; precursor

It's that magical Thursday, folks!  Although it's not as magical today because Gabriel is sick - rundown, tired, sinus-y, beset by allergies and slight cold-like symptoms.  Just like his dad!  Sick the day the tournament starts.

Here are my elite 8 teams: Kentucky, Baylor, Louisville, Missouri, Syracuse, Florida St, North Carolina, Kansas.  We'll see how these picks hold up a week from this coming Sunday.

Book Reviews:

I'm over a decade late to The Hours party, but I'm glad to have finally read it.  It's a beautiful novel - its exquisite, delicate prose and flowy, flowery stream-of-consciousness an impressive recreation of Virginia Woolf's.  It's a downer, to be sure, a weight of sodden sadness looming over the proceedings.  Who exactly is this book for besides college students, Woolf admirers, and critics?

In spite of the book's brevity, Cunningham has set up a formidable task: essaying the inner turmoil, desires, and outlook of three women in three different time periods, all of whom are in some way connected to Woolf and Mrs. Dalloway.  Of course, there's Virginia herself, gloriously contemplative during a day in the London suburbs in 1923.  Her sadness and curiosity color the entire novel.  In 1949 Los Angeles, Laura Brown, a recessive housewife unsure of the meaning of her existence, is reading Mrs. Dalloway.  In 1998 New York City, Clarissa, known as "Mrs. Dalloway" to her dying gay ex-lover Richard (the revelation of his genetic identity at the end giving the novel a full, poignant closure) is, like her literary namesake, spending the day planning a party, reflecting on the past, realizing how beautiful and sad life is.

Cunningham's novel is well-researched and respectful of his source, adding to one's appreciation of the often difficult Woolf.  In fact, I would rather read this book again than I would anything by Woolf herself.  I guess that's a compliment, right?  (**** out of 5)

 
I greatly enjoyed Michael Stanley's debut novel, A Carrion Death, which introduced the corpulent, jovial, whip-smart Inspector Kubu.  I remember learning a lot about Botswana, basking in Stanley's lovely, harsh descriptions of the Kalahari, the roads, the game preserves, the sensuous, aromatic foods.  The mystery was layered but exciting.

The second entry in the series, 2009's The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu, isn't as successful a read for me.  I discovered stuff here I didn't know - I knew next to nothing about the Rhodesian Civil War - and Kubu & co. were charismatic and colorful this time around too.  The initial - or should I say, first - mystery in the story here - an Agatha Christie-esque quandary about two brutal murders at a bush camp - is intriguing, but the plot was a little too convoluted and drawn-out for me and there was no reason  the book had to be over 460 pages.   (***)

Nick Knight (#12) 

A groundbreaking, visionary British fashion photographer who consistently challenges the notions of conventional beauty.  He has collaborated with many designers (including Alexander McQueen) and created campaigns for, among others, Christian Dior, Levi Strauss, and Calvin Klein.  He founded and (still directs) the award-winning fashion website Showstudio.com.

He has been quoted as saying: "I don't want to reflect social change.  I want to cause social change."  Hence, his work has often dealt with racism, disability, body issues, ageism.  He experiments with complex technologies: ring-flash photography, 3-D scanning, digital sculpture.  Fun fact: he orignally planned to study biology and be a doctor - but he was also drawn to the culture of skinheads.

Best Pictures

The 90s

Dances With Wolves (1990)   Should you watch it?  Yes.

The first of what would be a decade of no bad Best Pictures, Kevin Costner's lengthy, sensitive, sympathetic (some would say whitewashed) epic about a Civil War vet's adventures on the frontier is accessible, likable, easy to watch, shot beautifully.  (***1/2)

Silence of the Lambs (1991)   Should you watch it?  Yes.

Maybe the luster has worn off Hannibal Lecter's devilish insidiousness, but it's still a haunting, well-made genre pic, directed with flair and poise by Jonathan Demme.  Jodie Foster is perfectly fine, but it's Anthony Hopkins (and to a small degree, Ted Levine's hulking, bizzare Buffalo Bill) who lifts this film into another stratosphere.  (***1/2)

Unforgiven (1992)   Should you watch it?  Yes.

Clint Eastwood's finest hour as a performer and director.  David Webb People's script measures how hard it is to defy and deny one's true nature.  Gene Hackman's Little Bill is one of cinema's greatest villians: equally folksy, logical, sadistic, detestable.  Arguably one of the greatest, most rousing climaxes in modern film - nothing is forgiven.  No one is going to heaven.  And Eastwood's William Munny is certainly no better than the scum he has sent to hell. 

Schindler's List (1993)   Should you watch it?   Yes. 

Director Steven Spielberg's most profound, personal achievement - and that's saying something indeed.  Ralph Fiennes' SS officer Amon Goeth's is the heart of darkness.  I think this was a lot of audience's - including my generation - first immersion (via senseless, unfeeling, impersonal violence) into just how terrible and horrific the Holocaust was.  (****)

Forrest Gump (1994)   Should you watch it?   Yes.

I know, I know, Pulp Fiction should have won.  But this cozy, fanciful take on the whims of fate and history is one of the most beloved, quoted movies of all time for a reason.  A technical achievement for the time too, and who else but Tom Hanks could have made this simpleton so enchanting?  (***1/2)

Braveheart (1995)   Should you watch it?  Yes.

I know, I know, Babe should have won.  But this forceful, powerful, throat-clearing series of well-choreographed, suspensefully-staged battle scenes is one of the most beloved, quoted movies of its time for a reason.  The drama and characterizations - okay, not so much.  But its quite moving by the end, and doesn't bog down in unnecessary scenes.  What guy doesn't like this movie?  (***)

The English Patient (1996)   Should you watch it?  Why not?   

Yeah, and Fargo should have won this year.  But from an Academy standpoint, this has it all - a literary source, a love story defying circumstance, flashbacks involving World War II, beautiful British stars (and an Oscar-winning Juliette Binoche), long shots of undulating sand dunes, a lush, mournful Gabriel Yared score that tells you how to feel.  Anthony Minghella was an intuitive, intelligent director.  The film is overrated to be sure, far too long and dry at times, but very cinematic.  (**1/2)

Titanic (1997)   Should you watch it?  Like you haven't seen it. 

L.A. Confidential should have won.  But James Cameron showed us things we had never seen before.  Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, in the first flushes of their stardom, were appealing as imaginable, and so what that Cameron can't write dialogue and Billy Zane overacts like a cartoon villain?  (**1/2)

Shakespeare in Love (1998)   Should you watch it?  Eh. 

Cute and fun, with a literate, knowing script by Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman, but vastly overpraised.  Gwyneth Paltrow has never been put ti better use, and Judi Dench did deserve an OScar despite - what, 30 seconds of screen time?  It's Shakespeare for everybody!  Probably ages okay.  (***)

American Beauty (1999)   Should you watch it?  Absolutely.

Alan Ball and Sam Mendes's razor-sharp, tragi-comic portrait of malaise, longing, and fruitiness in the suburbs, with pitch-perfect work by Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper, and Mena Suvari.  This is darkness light enough for audiences to groove along with and find funny, but with characters dipped far enough in the real world for us to forgive them, love them, be embarrassed by them.  (***1/2)

Finally, let's look at the movies opening this weekend:

21 Jump Street   A possibly bad idea that is, to my shock, getting rave, first-class reviews.  Richard Grieco and Johnny Depp are updated as Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill.  Good notices too for Ice Cube and James Franco's brother Dave in support.  It's supposed to be funny and lively, and with a clever story - our heroes going undercover to expose a high school drug ring.  Go figure.

Casa de mi Padre   This just seems weird.  I know it's supposed to be ridiculous and threadbare and truly stupid, but Will Ferrell as a Mexican who returns to his father's ranch and finds himself embroiled in a war with a drug lord?  No, thanks.  Although the presence of Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal is certainly appealing.  Poor reviews, although some critics have given themselves over to the sloppiness of it.

Jeff, Who Lives at Home    Three of every four critics liks this film about a slacker (Jason Segel) who, to the chagrin of his more successful, cuckolded brother (Ed Helms), still lives in mom Susan Sarandon's basement.  Kind of loose, fractured, quirky, low-key.  Segel and Helms are almost always funny, though, and Judy Greer is here too.  Directed by the Duplass brothers, who directed Cyrus - if that gives you an idea of whether or not you should see this.

Seeking Justice    Yet another Nicolas Cage movie.  I'll be straight:  I want to see this.  The reviews aren't good.  It's kinda like Death Wish with Cage's wife (January Jones) attacked as she leaves her work.  Cage, encouraged by Guy Pearce's vigilante, does what the title says.  Cage is supposed to be super-intense and crazy here.  I'm getting a kick out of some of the reviews that disparage the Ghost Rider, saying that Cage has spent so many years and bad films turning himself into a cartoon that he no longer knows how to play a human being.  Directed by Roger Donaldson (The Bank Job).

Detachment   Director Tony Kaye hasn't made a film since 1998's American History X but is back here, recruiting Adrien Brody for an intense, sardonic, acidic look at the public school system.  Brody is a high school substitute teacher, awash in hopeless and helplessness, unable to get through to his indifferent students.  His burnt-out, fatigued, frustrated colleagues include Christina Hendricks (va-va-va-VOOM), James Caan, Lucy Liu, Blythe Danner, Bryan Cranston, Wiliam Petersen, and Marcia Gay Harden.  Better than average reviews, but some are saying it's slick and obvious, not really illuminating the problems it decries.   



  



 

 

Julia's First Full Day Back

Word of the day : nictitate : wink

Everyone's kind of tired today.  Maybe everyone needs a good nap.  Julia and I watched two movies last night, one of which, Young Adult, contained one of the best performances of last year.  I'm not quite sure why this film was completely snubbed by the Academy since the group portioned out so much love to Juno, director Jason Reitman's and scribe Diablo Cody's overpraised earlier collaboration, four years ago.  Everything about Young Adult is sharper, funnier, more precise and detailed, complex.  Charlize Theron's work is extraordinary.  Theron is different here - in body, soul - in a way that's hard to imagine.  She's unsympathetic, suffering through a painful delusion - a woman who has never emotionally grown up or evolved.  She's simpering and mean, hearing only what she wants to hear, sad, unable to be happy.  By all accounts, she should be insufferable, but there's something about her that we can't quite turn away from.  She's fragile, possibly crazy, but she's really funny too, impossible to pin down, charismatic despite her ugly, bruised behavior.  

Patton Oswalt more or less matches Theron as a bullied kid who went to high school with her - and suffered a horrible beating.  Their relationship - prickly, sarcastic, odd - anchors the film; they're lost souls who understand each other, both of them too in debt to the past.

There is a terrific scene in which Theron, who has been invited to a party at the home of the ex-boyfriend (Patrick Wilson, appropriately bland) she is trying to win back, has a meltdown in front of her parents and ex-classmates, Wilson and his wife (Elizabeth Reaser).  It's damned hard to watch, but the nakedness of the moment is quite startling, almost gratifying.

It's not an easy, tidy film by any sense of the imagination, but it has a good, simple lesson: The truth hurts and we all need to grow up.  Brilliantly written and performed, and director Jason Reitman's best film yet.  

History lesson:  The Bloomsbury group

This has been on my mind because of the William Boyd novel I just finished, in which the fictional character of Logan Mountstuart encounters the very real group at an artists' retreat near Oxford.

Bloomsbury itself is an area in central London.  Though there were rural cottages and homes the group retreated to during the summer, the the group was known as Bloomsbury because that is where the members lived and worked and got together to discuss life, art, their works.  It wasn't a group so much as an informal association of artists, many of whom knew each other from their student days at Cambridge.  It was a non-political association, without formal governing rules; they were mostly leftist, and they got together to enjoy each others' company and toss ideas off each one another.  Most of the Bloomsbury group weren't famous at the time of their association with the group (which went on from about 1910 to 1930); they didn't rebel against society, though a common idea amongst the group was the ridiculousness of monogamy (not to mention their pro-homosexuality stance).  They were anti-war, anti-conservative, but they didn't necessarily "stand" for anything.   

There was rarely, at any period, more than a dozen or so members.  So who were they?  Who were the most well-known of them? 

- Virginia Woolf - most famous, of course, as the author of To the Lighthouse, The Waves, Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando  

- Leonard Woolf - Virginia's husband, also a novelist, editor of the International Review, and, along with Virginia, founder of the Hogarth Press, which published, among other titles, Eliot's The Waste Land, works by Freud, and translations of Russian novels

- E.M. Forster - author of such classics as A Room With a View, Howards End, and A Passage to India

- Giles Lytton Strachey - journalist, poet, book and drama critic, author of the well-regarded Eminent Victorians, a landmark short collection of four Victorians, including Florence Nightingale

- John Maynard Keynes - arguably his generation's foremost economist, whose principles and ideas are still studied

The Group was the Fleetwood Mac Rumors album of their time.  The sexual relationships and partners were triangular, members often sleeping with each other; bisexuality was prominent.

Thanks to:  

http://bloomsbury.denise-randle.co.uk/intro.htm 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/sep/10/great-dynasties-bloomsbury-group-ian-sansom 
http://www.online-literature.com/periods/bloomsbury.php     

Juergen Teller (#11)

The German Teller (b. 1962) began his career as a bowmaker but switched over to photography in the mid-1980s, photographing musicians (such as an unknown Kurt Cobain) and, as a fashion photographer, the culture of grunge.  He's versatile - doing large ad campaigns for Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, Louis Vuitton, Hugo Boss, etc.  He doesn't particularly like modern fashion photography - "Most fashion photography is done by gay people finding women sexy, which is sort of not sexy at all," he has said - and his own images of fashion are grittier and more raw than you might be expecting and never ever retouched.  And he doesn't really care much for Kate Moss-type models, either.  Naked or near-naked women are common sights. 

Bjork

Thanks to http://nymag.com/fashion/08/fall/49257/

Best Pictures

The 80s

- Ordinary People (1980)   Should you watch it?  No way. 

One of the true travesties in the annals of Oscar is this Lifetime-worthy drama beating out Raging Bull for the big award.  The revelations here - mom Mary Tyler Moore can't forgive son Timothy Hutton because it wasn't he but his popular, beloved older brother who died - are puny.  Moore is closed-off, unlikable; as the dad, Donald Sutherland is okay, but is too angular, wolfishly-postured to replicate  an Everyman; Hutton's sensitive but overrated; only Judd Hirsch, as Hutton's shrink, cuts snappishly through all the b.s.  Robert Redford's direction is flat, almost impersonal.  Not terrible, but not special in any regards.  (*1/2) 

- I haven't seen 1981's winner Chariots of Fire

- Gandhi (1982)   Should you watch it?  I think so.

I need to watch this movie again, being that I've only seen in once (in high school) and hardly remember a thing about it, other than feelings of general awe and astonishment at Ben Kingsley's towering work.  It's long - about seventy-two hours.  (***)

- Terms of Endearment (1983)   Should you watch it?  Sure.

A common go-to tearjerker, James L. Brooks' cryfest has a sterling cast (Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, Jeff Daniels, John Lithgow) all in the grooves we associate as their most familiar and best - MacLaine brassy and headstrong; Nicholson louche, with his devil's grin, etc.  It has an earthy, sitcom appeal, full of sentiment and heart.   (***)

- Amadeus (1984)   Should you watch it?  Maybe.

I don't think this movie holds up as well as it used to, but it's still a good film, directed with a loose, unrestrained flair (in spite of the costumes and period trappings) by Milos Forman, with a truly striking turn by F. Murray Abraham - with his cold eyes and frozen, caught-off-guard grin.  Tom Hulce is memorable too as the giggling Mozart, and Jeffrey Jones is top-tier as the dilettante, smirking Emperor Joseph II.  The film tries to be as anti-costumey (read: boring) as it possibly can - I mean, there are fart jokes, for chrissakes! - and I suspect that's the reason for its goodwill from audiences.  (***)

- Out of Africa (1985)   Should you watch it?  No.

Best Pictures, by their very nature, tend to be any of the following: set in the past in a foreign country; overlong; full of sweep and bombast; heavily scored, with airs of prestige.  Sydney Pollack's film of Isak Dinesen's classic meets all the criteria.  That said, John Barry's score is good, but the film evaporates from memory fairly quickly, considering the scope, Meryl Streep's forceful work, and the folly of Robert Redford's miscasting as a Brit.  (**1/2)

- Platoon (1986)   Should you watch it?  If you're a guy, sure.

A good movie, probably the best thing Oliver Stone has done - personal, gritty, hard-charging, hard-feeling, violent.  The less said about Charlie Sheen the better, but Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe as, respectively, the bad mentor and the good mentor, are certainly vivid.  There are some over-scored, over-the-top iconography and images, but the film is gripping and holds one's attention.  (***)

- The Last Emperor (1987)   Should you watch it?  Yes.

Bernardo Bertolucci's epic (that terrible word: epic) of Pu Yi  has a porcelain beauty, and we're aware of the research, dedication, and respect gone into every scene.  That Bertolucci was able to shoot in the Forbidden City was remarkable.  The film is slow, careful, inspiring - maybe too slow, even closed-off, but it's a stunning achievement in almost every regard.  (***1/2)

- Rain Man (1988)   Should you watch it?   Yes.         

I love Rain Man.  There, I said it.  Maybe it's seen as camp today - Tom Cruise with his mullet, the "K-Mart sucks" and all that.  But I still get stirred up by Hans Zimmer's score and the turns in the story, particularly when Ray and Charlie go to Vegas and, later, part at the end at the train station.  Dustin Hoffman's performance (I know, I know, playing mentally handicapped but "not going full retard" will net you an Oscar) is still valiant and moving, obviously based on lots of research, but Cruise is every bit as good as a man who is able to change emotionally, unlike Hoffman's Ray; Cruise essays his character's evolution from slick detachment to genuine love and fraternity with grace.  (***1/2)

- Driving Miss Daisy (1989)   Should you watch it?  Yes.

The same sentiments about this one.  Okay, I know it's kind of campy and ripe for easy potshots ("Yes, Miss Daisy"), but there has never quite been a relationship like the one between Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman.  Neither gives an inch.  Neither lets their veneer down.  But by the end, they are true soulmates, the dearest of companions.  Tandy is perfection, and so is Freeman.  (***1/2)

Julia Returns

Word of the day : corker : one that is excellent or remarkable

Julia comes home today!  Jeez, we missed her.  We'll give her a nice homecoming, me and the Great Pee-er.

History lesson today:  Gandhi and the Salt March.

In 1930, India was still firmly under British control.  Mahatma Gandhi, famous in India for leading his non-cooperation boycotts, was sixty-one years old when he decided to lead a revolt on the British Salt Tax.  Salt was a major component in Indian diet.  The Salt Tax stipulated the following: It was illegal for any Indian to sell or produce salt.  It was also illegal for any Indian to collect salt from Indian coasts.  If an Indian wanted salt, they had to buy it (at raised, often unaffordable prices) from British merchants at British prices.  This was abominable, for obvious reasons.  In hot, scorching India, with laborers putting in long, endless days, salt was a necessary mineral for the body - and why should these Indians pay for a resource they could get for free?

On March 12, 1930 Gandhi and seventy-eight other male satyagrahis (exponents of nonviolent resistance) set out on the 240-mile journey from Sabarmati to the coastal village of Dandi.  It was a two-mile long procession that took a little over three weeks.  On April 6, with many reporters watching, he picked up a clump of mud and salt and boiled it in seawater to produce salt; the other satyagrahis followed his lead and did the same thing.  Gandhi, who had sent the Viceroy a letter claiming what he had intended to do, wasn't arrested until a month letter, as protest against the Salt Tax became more and more common.  Thousands of Indians were arrested and so, in early May was Gandhi.        

Eventually, of course, Gandhi's imprisonment led to (and was preluded by) further boycotts and protests and a long march by protestors to Dharshana in which many non-armed protestors were bludgeoned by police officers. 

(Women satyagrahis weren't encouraged by Gandhi because he felt they wouldn't incite and provoke law enforcers like males could.) 

(Thanks to: http://thenagain.info/webchron/India/SaltMarch.html
                   http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/gandhi_mohandas.shtml
                   http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Dandi.html)


Oscar winners

The 1970s:

- Patton (1970)   Should you watch it?  No.

George C. Scott is the whole deal here, and that's not a bad thing.  Scott, along with the actor in the next film, was one of the greatest actors in the history of the medium, and he's commanding here, as ever.  The film (**1/2) is logy, drawn-out, occasionally exciting, quotable, but with battle scenes that seem very old.

- The French Connection (1971)   Should you watch it?  Yes.

Very exciting, very modern, visceral and well-paced.  Gene Hackman, blunt and restless, in an iconic porkpie hat, is the very definition of an antihero, and the ending is so haunting not because of its inconclusiveness but because of what it says about Popeye Doyle.  The car chase is justifiably classic, and Fernando Rey is a dapper, detestable villain, William Friedkin's direction taut and forceful.  (****)

- The Godfather (1972)   Should you watch it?  Well, if given the choice between this and Oliver, opt for this one.

Simply, one of the greatest films of all time.  (****)

- The Sting (1973)   Should you watch it?  Yes.

It must have been a slow year for movies if this won.  Sure, it's fun, with undeniably chemistry between Robert Redford and Paul Newman, the ragtime music is catchy and well-suited to the period detail, the final twist at the end clever.  But it's very slight, throwaway entertainment, the kind of film they make better today: Could you see Ocean's Eleven winning Best Picture?  (***)

- The Godfather II (1974)   Should you watch it?  Yes.

There's a scene here with the young Robert DeNiro selecting fruit from a vendor's stand and you sit there in awe of the way he expresses himself with his hands, his words coming out in a mellifluous Italian, and you think - yeah, Coppola got it just right again. (****)

- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)   Should you watch it?  Absolutely.

Still a knockout entertainment, funny and poignant and pointed (I haven't read the Kesey novel, so I can't really size it up as an adaptation), and still one of the only films to win the five major Oscars.  Louise Fletcher, too - what a villain!  What a one act-wonder!  (****)

- Rocky (1976)   Should you watch it?  Maybe.

Director John Avildsen (The Karate Kid) isn't the subtlest or slyest of directors, and Stallone isn't the subtlest or most coherent of actors, but the story does have a tugging underdog force.  It helps to know, too, that this was Sly's one shot at glory - he wrote the damn thing, putting all his heart into it.  "Adrian!"  Running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  You've seen the images.  Talia Shire, Burt Young, and Burgess Meredith, along with Sly, all managed Oscar nominations in cliched roles, bringing depth and conviction to them.  (**1/2)

- Annie Hall (1977)   Should you watch it?  Yes.

To most people, this is still the Woodman's masterpiece, his autobiographical tour-de-force, his foray into drama - and it's still pretty funny too, though it is evidently a product of the 70s.  Diane Keaton is Woody's greatest muse, and there are memorable sequences everywhere: the shellfish; Marshall McLuhan cutting the pompous know-it-all down to size; Christopher Walken's zombie-like death wish. I've come to like other Allen movies more, but this is still an essential film.  (***1/2)

- The Deer Hunter (1978)   Should you watch it?  Not essential, but worth a look.

A great cast (DeNiro, Streep, Walken, Cazale, John Savage) in a surreal, loony, almost cartoonish Vietnam.  Director Michael Cimino wasn't a subtle guy either, and a lot of the big dramatic moments don't entirely work - mainly because we're aware of how moved we're supposed to be by them.  Way overlong, too, and I liked the pre-Vietnam portion of the film better than the actual war stuff.  The shot of Meryl, astonishingly young and assured in her fragility, sliding down the lane with her bowling ball in hand, about to throw, is a beautiful image. (***)
 .

- Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)   Should you watch it?  Yes.

I suspect a lot of the appeal of Robert Benton's film (***) is due to how novel the subject matter was - a newly-single dad raising his son and fighting for custody of him too.  Certainly Oscar-minted Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep have been better, but they are indeed very good.  Sensitive and intelligent, like most of Benton's work (Nobody's Fool, Places in the Heart) but overrated, to be sure.

Tomorrow: the 80s

Martin Parr (#10)

The Surrey-born Parr (b. 1952) was encouraged at a young age by his amateur photographer grandfather.  He studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic in the early 70's and supported himself throughout the decade and through the 80's with various teaching posts.  His work in the 80's captured ordinary English people, suffering through the Thatcher era.  Parr's images are striking, ironic, provocative.  He attacks consumer culture - the decline of communication, boredom, the preposterousness of modern life, vanishing values.  He charts the decline of the spiritual and existential crises of the middle and lower classes.  He does have a sense of humor, though.  He joined Magnum Photos in 1994. 

From his book Bored Couples:

And of course... (In 1992, Parr photographed in the first McDonald's in Moscow.) 

Book review: 

I finished William Boyd's masterful Any Human Heart.  What an outstanding book.  Every page indicates the intelligence and bravura of a great writer at work.  But it's not "great" in a showoff-y, exclusive, frustrating-to-read kind of way; it's accessible. 

The story is a fake biography recounted in almost a century of journal entries by Montevideo-born Logan Mountstuart, who is, at various times, a student at Oxford, a Naval Commander stationed to spy on King Edward VI in the Bahamas, prisoner of war in a Swiss villa,  under-the-radar novelist,  philanderer, cuckold, anti-Fascist spy, reporter, art dealer, gallery manager, English professor in Nigeria during the Nigeria-Biafra conflict - among other things. 

Throughout, Logan - whose life includes either acquaintances, friendships, or run-ins with Joyce, Woolf, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, the aforementioned Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson, Churchhill, Evelyn Waugh, Pollock, Picasso, Anthony Powell, Ian Fleming - maintains a sense of humor and striving.  Despite what could come across a literary stunt, Mountstuart remains complex, multi-faceted, simultaneously pitiful, charismatic, defeated, naive, intelligent, full of ambition, worthless, sharp-minded.  It's a freewheeling, well-researched history.  Throughout, you might wonder what is the point of this fake biography?  What is Boyd trying to say? 

I think a passage at the bottom of page 454, with Logan old and physically ailed in France, gives us a clue: 

That's all your life amounts to in the end: the aggregate of all the good luck and the bad luck that you experience.  Everything is explained by that simple formula.  Tot it up - look at the respective piles.  There's nothing you can do about it: nobody shares it out, allocates it to this one or that, it just happens.  We must quietly suffer the laws of man's condition, as Montaigne says.  

I want to stress how fun of a book this, a portrait of a lived life long and full and well.  The detail is extraordinary (it took Boys thirty months to research and write it), the picture of history clear-eyed, sympathetic, amusing.  It's the kind of book that gives reading a good name.  It's an affirmation of the joy and randomness of life, and it succeeds at a high very level.