Thanks, readers, for giving me the incentive to keep this blog going for the couple years!
Unfortunately, I will be ending this blog for the time being... Sad, I know.
The fam is moving to SE Texas for the wife's work, and it will take a few months to settle in, acquaint ourselves. Once my son is in school and everything is humming along, I'll start this blog back up or give all you faithful friends and readers the link to a new blog.
Farewell!
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Monday, July 15, 2013
Penultimate Post?
Well, it's Monday the 15th. We had a very nice weekend with my parents in Chattanooga, a city I had never been to (only driven through) and knew very little about. I really liked it! I thought the city's downtown's district was great, the waterfront nice, and the zoo was small but not crowded and nicely designed.
More importantly, we now have our dog Daisy back! (Although she is limping... Have to keep an eye on that.)
What else happened this weekend? The death of Cory Monteith from Glee. Sad. George Zimmerman going free? Absurd.
Tonight, Julia and I are going to watch Dark Skies, the 2013 sci-fi thriller with Keri Russell and Josh Hamilton. Hope it's creepy.
Not really sure what else to write about.... I'm kind of bored, maybe even over this blog. I appreciate those of you who read it, but I don't really know what else to do with it...
Tomorrow, I'll either be rejuvenated and try to really get this thing going again, with some new features and columns, or I'll just nix it for good. We'll see...
More importantly, we now have our dog Daisy back! (Although she is limping... Have to keep an eye on that.)
What else happened this weekend? The death of Cory Monteith from Glee. Sad. George Zimmerman going free? Absurd.
Tonight, Julia and I are going to watch Dark Skies, the 2013 sci-fi thriller with Keri Russell and Josh Hamilton. Hope it's creepy.
Not really sure what else to write about.... I'm kind of bored, maybe even over this blog. I appreciate those of you who read it, but I don't really know what else to do with it...
Tomorrow, I'll either be rejuvenated and try to really get this thing going again, with some new features and columns, or I'll just nix it for good. We'll see...
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Yawn
Nothing much has been going on around here - just taking Clive to the vet, wrapping up things around town, etc.
We go to get Daisy on Saturday. Can't wait! Nor can I believe it'll be almost two months since I've last seen her!
Julia and I will try out new summer shows tonight - the FX drama The Bridge, starring Diane Kruger and Demian Bechir, which looks like it's going to be a layered border drama/mystery ala The Killing; also, NBC's Camp, with Rachel Griffiths, which looks like a breezy throwaway show about a summer camp.
I started a new book, James Clavell's 1981 blockbuster Noble House, which, if I finish, will be the longest novel I have ever read - the paperback copy has 1370 pages.
I've also been addicted to Smarthistory.org lately too, trying to expand my knowledge of art history.
I know, I know, kind of a boring post. But it's something...
We go to get Daisy on Saturday. Can't wait! Nor can I believe it'll be almost two months since I've last seen her!
Julia and I will try out new summer shows tonight - the FX drama The Bridge, starring Diane Kruger and Demian Bechir, which looks like it's going to be a layered border drama/mystery ala The Killing; also, NBC's Camp, with Rachel Griffiths, which looks like a breezy throwaway show about a summer camp.
I started a new book, James Clavell's 1981 blockbuster Noble House, which, if I finish, will be the longest novel I have ever read - the paperback copy has 1370 pages.
I've also been addicted to Smarthistory.org lately too, trying to expand my knowledge of art history.
I know, I know, kind of a boring post. But it's something...
Monday, July 8, 2013
Thoughts
Well, well, the weeks until Moving Day are dwindling away, aren't they? 23 more days in Georgia and then it's Texas, here we come!
This weekend, we kept it simple and low-key and watched movies - Mama and This is 40 among them. Mama wasn't bad until the last third, when it dissolved into too much whirling-CGI silliness. This is 40 was a loose, overlong blast, with plenty of funny bits and some scathing, possibly autobiographical moments that were easy to relate to.
This week, our goal is to start crossing things off our list of Things to Do Before We Leave: cancel cable services, take the pets to the vet, etc. Oh, yeah, and finishing the Jeffrey Archer novels we are reading would be nice, too: Julia's reading Paths of Glory (about George Mallory, the ill-fated Everest climber), while I've started his recent, Follett-esque saga that kickstarts with Only Time Will Tell.
We went up to 2nd and Charles, the used bookstore in Augusta, this weekend and bought 26 mostly longish fiction titles - John Jakes, Dan Simmons, Archer, James Clavell, etc. Can't wait to start reading them.
Finally, let's briefly mention the recent copy of Entertainment Weekly list of the Greatest Ever:
Movies: It's simply too easy and too unoriginal to call Citizen Kane the best movie ever. And what is The Sound of Music doing on this list? Only about 12 or 13 foreign films - are you kidding me? World cinema has only accounted for less than a sixth of cinema's greatness? Not much from the last 20-25 years, either: Rushmore (overrated), Titanic, All About My Mother, Toy Story, There Will Be Blood, Pulp Fiction, etc. The comedies on the list were too predictable, too - the films that are "supposed" to be there. Two Woody Allen movies in the top 40? Where's Raging Bull? Where's The Godfather Part II? I could go on about the foreign directors neglected, but what about Groundhog Day, Unforgiven, L.A. Confidential, Rio Bravo, etc?
Music: Not too m any qualms here, but there is far more hip-hop than I would have on my own list. It's funny, because back when I, you know, owned music, I had most of these albums. Revolver probably is the greatest album ever, people - inventive and groundbreaking, sure, but such an eclectic assemblage of great songs - my favorite Beatles song, "Eleanor Rigby," the great ballad "Here, There, and Everywhere," the sublimely goofy "Yellow Submarine," the chugging, angry "Taxman," etc. Even the artists I don't particularly like or I haven't listened to in a long time on here deserve to be on the list. And kudos to EW for including my favorite soundtrack of all time - The Harder They Come, the great reggae accompaniment to a little-seen (and certainly not by me - I don't even know what it's about) Jamaican film of 1973.
Books: Can't argue with too many of the books that were included that I have read (39, to be exact), but I am mystified by what isn't on the list: 1984, Brave New World, Graham Greene or Evelyn Waugh, Ulysses, The Grapes of Wrath (oh, come on!), Don Quixote, Revolutionary Road, Pillars of the Earth, The Good Earth, to name but a few no-shows. Never read Anna Karenina, their top pick, but I hear it's not bad.
TV: Look, I really liked The Wire - superb on every level - but by the end of the series, I was just tired of the unrelenting bleakness of its vision of Baltimore. I never got tired of The Sopranos, so that would be my top pick, but that's to-may-to, to-mah-to. Who cares? I don't watch any shows that were on before I was born, but I wasn't sure why Friday Night Lights was below Gilmore Girls, do you? And no Dexter? That's just cruel.
This weekend, we kept it simple and low-key and watched movies - Mama and This is 40 among them. Mama wasn't bad until the last third, when it dissolved into too much whirling-CGI silliness. This is 40 was a loose, overlong blast, with plenty of funny bits and some scathing, possibly autobiographical moments that were easy to relate to.
This week, our goal is to start crossing things off our list of Things to Do Before We Leave: cancel cable services, take the pets to the vet, etc. Oh, yeah, and finishing the Jeffrey Archer novels we are reading would be nice, too: Julia's reading Paths of Glory (about George Mallory, the ill-fated Everest climber), while I've started his recent, Follett-esque saga that kickstarts with Only Time Will Tell.
We went up to 2nd and Charles, the used bookstore in Augusta, this weekend and bought 26 mostly longish fiction titles - John Jakes, Dan Simmons, Archer, James Clavell, etc. Can't wait to start reading them.
Finally, let's briefly mention the recent copy of Entertainment Weekly list of the Greatest Ever:
Movies: It's simply too easy and too unoriginal to call Citizen Kane the best movie ever. And what is The Sound of Music doing on this list? Only about 12 or 13 foreign films - are you kidding me? World cinema has only accounted for less than a sixth of cinema's greatness? Not much from the last 20-25 years, either: Rushmore (overrated), Titanic, All About My Mother, Toy Story, There Will Be Blood, Pulp Fiction, etc. The comedies on the list were too predictable, too - the films that are "supposed" to be there. Two Woody Allen movies in the top 40? Where's Raging Bull? Where's The Godfather Part II? I could go on about the foreign directors neglected, but what about Groundhog Day, Unforgiven, L.A. Confidential, Rio Bravo, etc?
Music: Not too m any qualms here, but there is far more hip-hop than I would have on my own list. It's funny, because back when I, you know, owned music, I had most of these albums. Revolver probably is the greatest album ever, people - inventive and groundbreaking, sure, but such an eclectic assemblage of great songs - my favorite Beatles song, "Eleanor Rigby," the great ballad "Here, There, and Everywhere," the sublimely goofy "Yellow Submarine," the chugging, angry "Taxman," etc. Even the artists I don't particularly like or I haven't listened to in a long time on here deserve to be on the list. And kudos to EW for including my favorite soundtrack of all time - The Harder They Come, the great reggae accompaniment to a little-seen (and certainly not by me - I don't even know what it's about) Jamaican film of 1973.
Books: Can't argue with too many of the books that were included that I have read (39, to be exact), but I am mystified by what isn't on the list: 1984, Brave New World, Graham Greene or Evelyn Waugh, Ulysses, The Grapes of Wrath (oh, come on!), Don Quixote, Revolutionary Road, Pillars of the Earth, The Good Earth, to name but a few no-shows. Never read Anna Karenina, their top pick, but I hear it's not bad.
TV: Look, I really liked The Wire - superb on every level - but by the end of the series, I was just tired of the unrelenting bleakness of its vision of Baltimore. I never got tired of The Sopranos, so that would be my top pick, but that's to-may-to, to-mah-to. Who cares? I don't watch any shows that were on before I was born, but I wasn't sure why Friday Night Lights was below Gilmore Girls, do you? And no Dexter? That's just cruel.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
July 3rd
 |
| Fra Bartolomeo's portrait of the crazed monk Savonarola (who plays a significant part in The Agony and the Ecstasy), as seen in Florence's San Marco Museum, 1498. |
It's 4th of July weekend, and all I really wanna do is sit around and watch TV, read Ben Fountain's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, and listen to music and dance with Gabriel. All this rain!
I read nine books while I was in Italy, did I mention that?
- Tess Gerritsen's The Surgeon, the first entry in the Rizzoli & Isles series, a solid outing - though Isles isn't in it.
- Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, an overlooked, underread novel involving a certain painting in the Louvre. Fun stuff, though undeniably silly. But, yes, I do want to read Brown's Inferno.
- Pat Barker's Regeneration (1991), the first in her acclaimed WWI trilogy. Strong stuff. A canny, probing interweaving of history and fiction, this book centers on the real-life psychiatrist Dr. William Rivers and his relationship with other soldiers home from the front, including vocal anti-war poet Sigfried Sassoon.
- Irving Stone's last biographical novel, 1985's Depths of Glory, which charts the life - in minute detail - of Camille Pissarro. You definitely learn a lot when you read a Stone book, I'll say that much. More non-fiction than fiction, the book is a tribute to Stone's fanatical research skills. As a novel, it's clunky, of course, but, hey, if you want to learn about everything Impressionism...
- Laura Lippman's first Tess Monaghan mystery, 1997's Baltimore Blues, a well-written, engaging novel that lets a reader unfamiliar with the well-regarded author bask in her knowledge of all things Baltimore.
- Simon Kernick's Relentless (2007), a fast-paced but forgettably dumb thriller about a meek British man hunted by thugs.
- Jeffrey Archer's 1979 blockbuster Kane & Abel, one of my favorite books of the year and the main reason I'm now an Archer fan for life. It's an epic that charts the collision course set upon by two men born on the same day, of vastly differently environments and circumstances. Fun, soapy, incapable of being set aside. If you like Ken Follett, you'll like Archer.
- Ruth Rendell wrote as Barbara Vine for the first time in 1986's stunning A Dark-Adapted Eye, a stew of hothouse Vine themes: adultery, murder, troubled pasts. Impeccable prose, convoluted backstories, remorseless characters, that cold, cold tone that has been described as "an alien touch in the dark."
- Harlan Coben's No Second Chance (2003), my favorite novel by him outside of Tell No One. An action-packed grabber about a man whose wife is killed and daughter abducted, it's a page-turner, a mystery that isn't back-heavy with twists, which Coben tends to employ with overkill. This one's good from start to finish.
Ah, Italy. Thanks for the reading...
Italy for me in 100 words? Hills, David, Pozzo, brie and crackers, Trevi Fountain, Conad, students, Giotto, Angelico, Hart of Dixie, croissants, air drying, Irving Stone, cats, Botticelli, ATMs, Duccio, calf muscles, small glasses, buttered noodles, Daft Punk, views, Pienza, Martini, San Popolo, fleece, sorted trash, Il Sasso (don't ask), TUCs (again... don't ask), Auto Grille, waiting, bathroom searches, tuna, shower seats, Caravaggio, metro strike, Fortress, De Chirico, Signorelli, first course, stroller, Saint Francis, Camposanto, Michelangelo, forced bonding, alcohol, gelato, butt bleeding, Cinque Terre, salt tax, Pisano, Bernini, yogurt, Pink's "Try," sweat, late busses, Piazza Grande, duomos, Cortona, chess, Yahtzee, pizza, Sistine, "I'm hot," cups, Bagno, Fanta, Raphael, Maestas, baptisteries, chocolate.
Bad reviews for the new Lone Ranger movie, with Johnny Depp apparently trotting out his Jack Sparrow-schtick for that franchise's director Gore Verbinski. It's really long, too - 2 hours and a 20 minutes - for nostalgic escapist summer "fun." But, really: Who is the audience for this thing? Who under the age of, say, 50, remembers - let alone, likes - anything about the Lone Ranger?
Image courtesy of:
http://www.friendsofart.net/static/images/art1/fra-bartolomeo-portrait-of-girolamo-savonarola.jpg
Monday, July 1, 2013
Catching Up
Well, it's the first of the month, the start of our last here in Statesboro. Julia is hard at work on her dissertation, her goal being to defend it in November, and be Dr. Fischer by Christmas.
Gabriel is off summer school this week. Next week is his last week.
It'll be a month of waiting and packing, selling off some of the furniture we're not taking with us.
Daisy? Well, she's still in Cincinnati, having a blast. We'll have her back in less than two weeks.
What else? Well, the new Entertainment Weekly is something I need to pick up. It's their 10 Best of Everything list: greatest movies, plays, books, music, TV shows, musicals, etc. of all time.
Tonight, Julia and I will watch The Words again, that fine literary mystery with Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana that came out last fall.
We have been watching the sixth season of Mad Men together and enjoying it. Don is still being a cad, making a mockery of his marriage to nice Megan Draper, and there have been interesting storylines about Pete's up-to-his-eyeballs frustration with his addle-brained mother, the ego-laden tension between Don and his new partners, etc. Nothing will ever top the first couple of seasons of Mad Men but the show is consistently excellent.
The final season of Dexter started last night on Showtime. When we move, we'll make sure we get Showtime, so that we are able to catch the show mid-season and catch up on what we missed.
The Heat ruled the box office this weekend. No surprise there - Sandra Bullock and, yes, Melissa McCarthy are B.O. gold.
Having (finally) finished Irving Stone's The Agony and the Ecstasy this morning, I started searching Goodreads for a good list of long books I want to tackle sometime in the near future. Here's what I came up with :
- Hawaii (James Michener)
- Shogun (James Clavell)
- Proust's Remembrance of Things Past - John Jakes' North and South trilogy
- Of Human Bondage (W. Somerset Maugham)
- Whistle (James Jones)
- Sarum (Edward Rutherford)
- As the Crow Flies (Jeffrey Archer)
Gabriel is off summer school this week. Next week is his last week.
It'll be a month of waiting and packing, selling off some of the furniture we're not taking with us.
Daisy? Well, she's still in Cincinnati, having a blast. We'll have her back in less than two weeks.
What else? Well, the new Entertainment Weekly is something I need to pick up. It's their 10 Best of Everything list: greatest movies, plays, books, music, TV shows, musicals, etc. of all time.
Tonight, Julia and I will watch The Words again, that fine literary mystery with Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana that came out last fall.
We have been watching the sixth season of Mad Men together and enjoying it. Don is still being a cad, making a mockery of his marriage to nice Megan Draper, and there have been interesting storylines about Pete's up-to-his-eyeballs frustration with his addle-brained mother, the ego-laden tension between Don and his new partners, etc. Nothing will ever top the first couple of seasons of Mad Men but the show is consistently excellent.
The final season of Dexter started last night on Showtime. When we move, we'll make sure we get Showtime, so that we are able to catch the show mid-season and catch up on what we missed.
The Heat ruled the box office this weekend. No surprise there - Sandra Bullock and, yes, Melissa McCarthy are B.O. gold.
Having (finally) finished Irving Stone's The Agony and the Ecstasy this morning, I started searching Goodreads for a good list of long books I want to tackle sometime in the near future. Here's what I came up with :
- Hawaii (James Michener)
- Shogun (James Clavell)
- Proust's Remembrance of Things Past - John Jakes' North and South trilogy
- Of Human Bondage (W. Somerset Maugham)
- Whistle (James Jones)
- Sarum (Edward Rutherford)
- As the Crow Flies (Jeffrey Archer)
Friday, June 28, 2013
What's Out
Hey, hey, it's the weekend here in Shitsboro and we're looking for something to do. Any suggestions?
Didn't think so. Since you've got nothing and I've got nothing, we might as well catch up on movies.
I've been completely out of touch for the last six weeks or so. I don't know what's out, what's getting good reviews, what's doing well at the box office.
On the planes from Atlanta to Frankfurt and back, I was able to watch 5 movies:
- Parker, a generic-and-then-some actioner starring Jason Statham, with Jennifer Lopez the only thing worth a damn in it
- Identity Thief, the very funny box office hit with Jason Bateman's incomparable straight-guy act stealing the show from Melissa McCarthy
- The Last Stand, a surprisingly sturdy and well-made comeback for Arnold Schwarzenegger as a border cop in a small town that finds itself in some Rio Bravo-like trouble
- Jack Reacher, one of the most forgettable films Tom Cruise has ever been a part of; dumb, dumb, dumb
- Stand-Up Guys, a decent vehicle for Al Pacino and Christopher Walken (refreshingly vulnerable) as a couple of old criminals; Alan Arkin's in it too.
But what has been out at the theaters the last month or so? According to Entertainment Weekly, this is what I've missed:
(I've categorized the movies into what I want to see and what I don't)
Looks Good
Before Midnight - the best-reviewed American movie of the year so far (along with Mud), it's the final entry in an unforgettable trilogy. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are now married and living in France with kids. That's all I want to say or ever read about. For intelligent moviegoers, the Before films are priceless and unforgettable.
Black Rock - a tough, nervy actioner about three women (including Lake Bell and Kate Bosworth) who find themselves stuck on a remote Maine island with some creepy, hyper-sexual guys. Preview looks good.
The Hangover III - all right, one more time won''t kill me...
World War Z - based off Max Brooks' best-selling humor book, this is anything but a comedy. Yes, it's blood-thirsty zombies run amok in the future, with Brad Pitt as a humanity's last chance. I like our odds.
Now You See Me - A group of Las Vegas magicians (Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, and Woody Harrelson) pull up on-stage bank robberies that confound an FBI agent (Mark Ruffalo). Looks like it might be a lot of visual, convoluted fun - the cast includes the enchanting French actress Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds), Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Common.
I'll Pass
I'm sorry, but despite Man of Steel's solid reviews, I think I'm just done with Superman. Though Michael Shannon as the villain, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, and Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as the Clark Kent's parents all make tempting offers.
Fast & Furious 6 is about five too many of those movies for my taste.
After Earth, the big-budgeted sci-fi movie directed by M. Night Shyamalan and starring Will and Jaden Smith, looks awful. Critics thought it was awful too.
The Internship is a comedy that re-teams Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson as a pair of aging failures who compete with a bunch of brilliant college students for an internship at Google. Blah.
This is the End is a loose, self-referential movie about a group of Hollywood actors (Jonah Hill, James Franco, etc, all playing themselves) whose wild night of partying is ruined when... a catastrophe hits L.A. Got great reviews - critics say it's funny as hell and unpredictable. Okay, I'll see this one.
The Bling Ring is Sofia Coppola's newest movie, a based-on-true-events tale about a group of L.A. teens (including Emma Watson) who break into the homes of celebrities. All style and not much substance, according to reviewers.
Here's the box office winners so far...
The Great Gatsby, Fast &Furious 6, Hangover III, Star Trek Into Darkness, Iron Man 3, The Purge (no idea what this is), Monsters University, This is the End
After Earth was a huge flop, and The Internship and The Man of Steel haven't done as well as expected.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Moving
Well, we have only five more weeks left in Statesboro, Georgia. On July 31st, the Fischer family moves to their next stop on the Road of Life - Beaumont, Texas!
We're all excited about the move. The new (luxury) apartment we're going to be in (for a year or two) looks super-spiffy and the apt. community has a gorgeous-looking pool, seems clean, has a gym, clubhouse, looks well-maintained and energy efficient (as opposed to the heat-and-bug trap we're in now) and is close to a bunch of amenities/stores/restaurants we like.
It'll be fun to "start over" again and it seems like there will be more recreational and career possibilities for everyone - and fine special-needs schooling for Gabriel. It will be hot as hell there, but, hey, it's hot here - it's not like we're moving from Manitoba. The pets should like it - there's a dog park for Daisy too!
Seeing Dan and Sally and the kids will be nice - it will be good to have family close, since it now seems almost certain that I won't see my family again for a long, long time.
Overall, it will be a good fit for all and likely our last stop.
The rest of this summer will be spent getting our ship (or shit) together, Julia working on her dissertation, and us trying to make the most of Georgia - which, at this point, basically entails staying indoors and watching TV, maybe popping up to Augusta to go to 2nd and Charles, walking around historic Savannah one more time, and getting some movies on Redbox.
The plan is for me to keep this blog up even when we move, though I'm in the process of trying to make changes (for the better!) to it, attempting to drum up some new ideas to make it more interesting in terms of content and visuals.
Well, that's all for today. I leave you with this image...
...the Piccolimini Library in Siena's Duomo - one of Julia's favorite stops on our Italy stay - and a discovery for her as well.
Image courtesy of:
http://www.wga.hu/art/p/pinturic/siena/003siena.jpg
We're all excited about the move. The new (luxury) apartment we're going to be in (for a year or two) looks super-spiffy and the apt. community has a gorgeous-looking pool, seems clean, has a gym, clubhouse, looks well-maintained and energy efficient (as opposed to the heat-and-bug trap we're in now) and is close to a bunch of amenities/stores/restaurants we like.
It'll be fun to "start over" again and it seems like there will be more recreational and career possibilities for everyone - and fine special-needs schooling for Gabriel. It will be hot as hell there, but, hey, it's hot here - it's not like we're moving from Manitoba. The pets should like it - there's a dog park for Daisy too!
Seeing Dan and Sally and the kids will be nice - it will be good to have family close, since it now seems almost certain that I won't see my family again for a long, long time.
Overall, it will be a good fit for all and likely our last stop.
The rest of this summer will be spent getting our ship (or shit) together, Julia working on her dissertation, and us trying to make the most of Georgia - which, at this point, basically entails staying indoors and watching TV, maybe popping up to Augusta to go to 2nd and Charles, walking around historic Savannah one more time, and getting some movies on Redbox.
The plan is for me to keep this blog up even when we move, though I'm in the process of trying to make changes (for the better!) to it, attempting to drum up some new ideas to make it more interesting in terms of content and visuals.
Well, that's all for today. I leave you with this image...
...the Piccolimini Library in Siena's Duomo - one of Julia's favorite stops on our Italy stay - and a discovery for her as well.
Image courtesy of:
http://www.wga.hu/art/p/pinturic/siena/003siena.jpg
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Back
 |
| Poussin's Martyrdom of St. Erasmus |
Well, this is my first blog in over a month and a half.
Where do I start?
Okay, so we were in Montepulciano, Italy for five weeks. Monte-P (as I heard students calling it) is a gorgeous Tuscan hill town with panoramic, sweeping views. Alas, it's also boring and out of the way, without a train station but with a rather crappy, unreliable local bus system. Needless to say, we were often bored. Field trips, thankfully, took us to Rome (twice for Gabriel and I, three for Julia), Florence (twice), Assisi, Perugia, Pisa, and Siena. Nearby towns also visited include Chiusi, Pienza, Cortona, Orvieto, and San Quirico.
Rather than going in to detail about every single day and event, I'll provide an overview of the experience.
Worst moment: The final day(s). Try this one on for size: Get two hours of sleep, wake up at midnight, trudge down with all your luggage to the bus stop, take a three hour group bus jaunt to Rome's Fiumicino Airport, wait a couple hours in the earrrr-ly morning, take a two-hour flight to Frankfurt, wait another two hours there, take a sleepless, student-filled 10-hour trip to Atlanta, wait at customs, be one of the last to retrieve your suitcases from baggage claim, take a cab ride over to a local hotel to retrieve your car, drive three hours home to Statesboro, and get to bed by 10:30. Yuck.
Food: Well, the pizza was good. The bread (which the Italians don't salt or apparently flavor) was horrible. Rome had tremendous, unforgettable gelato, Other than that, I wasn't too impressed by any one thing. I'm sure if we were in Rome more, I would have had more memorable culinary experiences.
Favorite sights: Pisa's Camposanto Cemetery, St. Peter's (and its square), the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, Orvieto's dome, San Marco Museum in Florence, Pantheon, San Ignacio Church and San Popolo in Rome.
The apartment: Undesirable. Dank and poorly planned. I got tired of spending time in it, honestly.
Gabriel: Loved Italy. Didn't want to leave. Loved the "staples" from the grocery store: shortbread cookies, pasta, pretzel sticks, farfalini (sp?) soup, yogurt, bananas. He thoroughly enjoyed the various means of travel - bus, train, plane, shuttle, car, stroller... Fantastic in museums and churches and about town. Never less than 100% happy.
Julia: The program really pushed her to the limit. We were both ready to go fairly early on, but she had so much work to do and the field trip days were so hectic, that it was more of a job than a vacation or pleasure trip for her. We had our moments, though. We came to - not to sound too corny - some wonderful, tender, bonding realizations that we can't imagine spending our lives with any one other than the three of us.
Works of art seen: Well, I had a lofty goal of trying to see 103 works of art - if you remember me posting a list before I went. Well, because of impracticalities of traveling to and fro Montepulciano, we didn't get up to Padua, Ravenna, and Venice, I obviously fell short of my goal. I think I saw about 44, give or take. Here are 10, in particular, that I loved:
- Giotto's fresco cycle of the life of St. Francis in Assisi's Basilica
- anything I saw by Michelangelo: the David, the Sistine Chapel, the Prisoners, Moses, the Risen Christ, Saint Paul
- Lorenzetti's Allegory of Good and Bad Government in Siena
- Signorelli's end-of-days fresco cycle in Orvieto
- Caravaggio's paintings in San Popolo and San Luigi Francesi in Rome
- Pozzo's marvelous ceiling and fake dome at San Ignacio
- Fra Angelico's Annunication and frescoed cells in San Marco in Florence
- Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch in the Uffizi
- Parmigianino's Madonna With the Long Neck in the Uffizi
- Buffalmacco's Triumpf of Death and Last Judgment in Pisa
Artists I'm now more interested in: Giotto, Pinturrichio, Cimabue, Pozzo, Martini, Perugino, Fra Angelico.
Do I ever want to go back to Montepulciano: No.
Well, where do I want to go if we go back to Italy: Florence and Rome, obviously. Venice, Ravenna, Verona, and Padua. Maybe Milan and the Lake Como district. (Inside joke alert...) Not the Dolomites.
Favorite part of the trip: Just being with the family during a weekend in Rome. We walked ourselves ragged. What a day. Our calves and arms got buff, we got plenty of sun, and it was just great to be in the city Julia loves so much, being shown around. If only the program were there instead of Monte-P.... We took plenty of pictures and saw a lot - a lot, really, in terms of the big picture. I wish we could have got up to Ravenna or Venice, but it was nice to all be together, a little out of comfort zone. And, no, our travel bug is not yet quenched. Not remotely.
Overall, it was a good experience.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Bye...for now
Well, it's going to be a busy week around here. Julia's brother is coming in a few days to housesit for us while we're abroad, and various things around here need to be attended to before we leave. That said, this is a notice that this will be my last blog post until the end of June, when we get back from our trip.
Enjoy your summer, readers!
Enjoy your summer, readers!
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Goals
Word of the day :
decussate : to intersect or cross
One week until Italy!
Here are 100 works of art I plan to see while I'm there:
(this is a continuation of the preview I provided yesterday...)
(also, this doesn't take into account the arches, fountains, fora, and other monuments and outside architecture we'll see)
(In Rome)
Vatican City Museums
- Sistine Chapel (Michelangelo)
- Entombment of Christ (Caravaggio)
- Martyrdom of St. Erasmus altarpiece (Poussin)
- St. Jerome in the Wildnerness (DaVinci)
- Madonna With Child and Saints (Titian)
- Transfiguration (Raphael)
- School of Athens (Raphael)
- Niccoline chapel fresco paintings (Fra Angelico)
- Stefaneschi triptych (Giotto)
- San Francesco al Prato Resurrection (Perugino)
St. Peter's- Pieta sculpture (Michelangelo)
- Bernini's baldacchino
Galleria Borghese- Sacred and Profane Love (Titian)
- marble Apollo & Daphne (Bernini)
- marble Rape of Prosperina (Bernini)
- marble David (Bernini)
- Danae (Correggio)
- Venus and Cupid (Cranach the Elder)
- The Deposition (Raphael)
- Madonna and Child with St. Anne (Caravaggio)
- Susanna and the Elders (Rubens)
- Young Sick Bacchus (Caravaggio)
- Boy With a Basket of Fruit (Caravaggio)
- John the Baptist (in the Wilderness) (Caravaggio)
San Pietro in Vincoli- Moses (Michelangelo)
Capitoline Museum
- Dying Gaul
- Capitoline Venus
- Cupid and Psyche statue
- Lo Spinario bronze sculpture
- Colossus of Constantine
- Rape of the Sabine Women (Cortona)
- She-Wolf sculpture
- The Fortune Teller (Caravaggio)
- bust of Commodus as Hercules
Santa Maria del Popolo- Crucifixion of St. Peter (Caravaggio)
- Conversion of St. Paul (Caravaggio)
Doria Pamphili Gallery
- Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (Titian)
- St. John the Baptist (Caravaggio)
Santa Maria della Vittoria- Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Teresa sculpture
Palazzo Barberini - Et in Arcadia Ergo (Guercino)
- Madonna with Child Enthroned (Lippi)
- Venus and Adonis (Titian)
- La Fornarina (Raphael)
- Narcissus (Caravaggio)
- Judith Beheading Holofernes (Caravaggio)
San Luigi dei Francesi
- Calling of St. Mtthew
- Inspiration of St. Matthew - Martyrdom of St. Matthew (all by Caravaggio)
(In Florence)
Uffizi Gallery
- The Birth of Venus (Botticelli)
- Primavera (Botticelli)
- Adoration of the Magi (Botticelli)
- Annunciation (DaVinci)
- Holy Family/Doni Tondo (Michelangelo)
- Ognissanti Madonna (Giotto)
- Bacchus (Caravaggio)
- The Battle of San Romano (Uccello)
- Madonna of the Long Neck (Parmigianino)
- Venus or Urbino (Titian)
- Annunciation altarpiece (Martini)
- Rucellai Madonna (Duccio)
- Judith Slaying Holofernes (Gentileschi)
- Duke and Duchess or Urbino (della Francesca)
- Madonna With Child and Two Angels (Lippi)
- Venus of Medici sculpture
- Madonna of the Goldfinch (Raphael)
- Santa Lucia de' Magnoli altarpiece (Veneziano)
- Adam and Eve (Cranach the Elder)
San Marco
- Deposition From the Cross (Fra Angelico)
- San Marco altarpiece (Angelico)
- St. Peter of Verona triptych (Angelico)
Bargello Museum - David (Donatello)
- Bacchus (Michelangelo)
Accademia fi Belle Arti di Firenze- Michelangelo's David (original)
- Michelangelo's Prisoners
Santa Maria Novella
- The Holy Trinity (Masaccio)
- Tornabuoni Chapel frescoes (Ghirlandaio)
Pitti Palace- Holy Family (Raphael)
- Madonna and Child (Lippi)
- Veiled Woman/La Velata (Raphael)
- Mary Magdalene (Titian)
Santa Croce (Home of Michelangelo's, Galileo's, Dante's, and Machiaveli's tombs)
- Crucifxion (Cimabue)
- Death of St. Francis (Giotto)
Brancacci Chapel- The Expulsion From the Garden of Eden (Masaccio)
(At Pompeii)
- Startled Woman
(In Siena)
Duomo- Bernini chapel
- Pisano pulpit
- Pinturrichio's frescoes
Palazzo Publico- Lorenzetti's allegory frescoes
- Guidoriccio da Fogliano (Martini)
(In Ravenna)
San Vitale
- Justinian and Theodora panels
(In Venice)
Galleria d'Academia
- The Crucifixion and the Glorification of 10,000 Martyrs... (Carapaccio)
- St. George (Mantegna)
- The Tempest (Giorgione)
- Madonna and Child (Bellini)
- Christ in the House of Levi (Veronese)
- St. Mark Rescues a Slave (Tintoretto)
- St. Mark Rescuing a Slave From a Saracen From Shipwreck (Tintoretto)
- Legend of St. Ursula paintings (Carpaccio)
- Coronation of the Virgin (Veneziano)
- Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple (Titian)
Guggenheim Collection- Materia (Boccioni)
- Bottle and Fruit Bowl (Morandi)
- Red Tower (de Chirico)
- Bird in Space (Brancusi)
- The Robing of the Bride (Ernst)
- Sea Dancer (Severini)
Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari- Assumption of the Virgin (Titian)
- Pesaro Madonna (Titian)
(In Padua)
Scrovegni Chapel
- Life of Christ/Life of the Virgin cycle frescoes (Giotto)
Okay, that was 103, but who's counting? We'll see how I do!
decussate : to intersect or cross
One week until Italy!
Here are 100 works of art I plan to see while I'm there:
(this is a continuation of the preview I provided yesterday...)
(also, this doesn't take into account the arches, fountains, fora, and other monuments and outside architecture we'll see)
(In Rome)
Vatican City Museums
- Sistine Chapel (Michelangelo)
- Entombment of Christ (Caravaggio)
- Martyrdom of St. Erasmus altarpiece (Poussin)
- St. Jerome in the Wildnerness (DaVinci)
- Madonna With Child and Saints (Titian)
- Transfiguration (Raphael)
- School of Athens (Raphael)
- Niccoline chapel fresco paintings (Fra Angelico)
- Stefaneschi triptych (Giotto)
- San Francesco al Prato Resurrection (Perugino)
St. Peter's- Pieta sculpture (Michelangelo)
- Bernini's baldacchino
Galleria Borghese- Sacred and Profane Love (Titian)
- marble Apollo & Daphne (Bernini)
- marble Rape of Prosperina (Bernini)
- marble David (Bernini)
- Danae (Correggio)
- Venus and Cupid (Cranach the Elder)
- The Deposition (Raphael)
- Madonna and Child with St. Anne (Caravaggio)
- Susanna and the Elders (Rubens)
- Young Sick Bacchus (Caravaggio)
- Boy With a Basket of Fruit (Caravaggio)
- John the Baptist (in the Wilderness) (Caravaggio)
San Pietro in Vincoli- Moses (Michelangelo)
Capitoline Museum
- Dying Gaul
- Capitoline Venus
- Cupid and Psyche statue
- Lo Spinario bronze sculpture
- Colossus of Constantine
- Rape of the Sabine Women (Cortona)
- She-Wolf sculpture
- The Fortune Teller (Caravaggio)
- bust of Commodus as Hercules
Santa Maria del Popolo- Crucifixion of St. Peter (Caravaggio)
- Conversion of St. Paul (Caravaggio)
Doria Pamphili Gallery
- Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (Titian)
- St. John the Baptist (Caravaggio)
Santa Maria della Vittoria- Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Teresa sculpture
Palazzo Barberini - Et in Arcadia Ergo (Guercino)
- Madonna with Child Enthroned (Lippi)
- Venus and Adonis (Titian)
- La Fornarina (Raphael)
- Narcissus (Caravaggio)
- Judith Beheading Holofernes (Caravaggio)
San Luigi dei Francesi
- Calling of St. Mtthew
- Inspiration of St. Matthew - Martyrdom of St. Matthew (all by Caravaggio)
(In Florence)
Uffizi Gallery
- The Birth of Venus (Botticelli)
- Primavera (Botticelli)
- Adoration of the Magi (Botticelli)
- Annunciation (DaVinci)
- Holy Family/Doni Tondo (Michelangelo)
- Ognissanti Madonna (Giotto)
- Bacchus (Caravaggio)
- The Battle of San Romano (Uccello)
- Madonna of the Long Neck (Parmigianino)
- Venus or Urbino (Titian)
- Annunciation altarpiece (Martini)
- Rucellai Madonna (Duccio)
- Judith Slaying Holofernes (Gentileschi)
- Duke and Duchess or Urbino (della Francesca)
- Madonna With Child and Two Angels (Lippi)
- Venus of Medici sculpture
- Madonna of the Goldfinch (Raphael)
- Santa Lucia de' Magnoli altarpiece (Veneziano)
- Adam and Eve (Cranach the Elder)
San Marco
- Deposition From the Cross (Fra Angelico)
- San Marco altarpiece (Angelico)
- St. Peter of Verona triptych (Angelico)
Bargello Museum - David (Donatello)
- Bacchus (Michelangelo)
Accademia fi Belle Arti di Firenze- Michelangelo's David (original)
- Michelangelo's Prisoners
Santa Maria Novella
- The Holy Trinity (Masaccio)
- Tornabuoni Chapel frescoes (Ghirlandaio)
Pitti Palace- Holy Family (Raphael)
- Madonna and Child (Lippi)
- Veiled Woman/La Velata (Raphael)
- Mary Magdalene (Titian)
Santa Croce (Home of Michelangelo's, Galileo's, Dante's, and Machiaveli's tombs)
- Crucifxion (Cimabue)
- Death of St. Francis (Giotto)
Brancacci Chapel- The Expulsion From the Garden of Eden (Masaccio)
(At Pompeii)
- Startled Woman
(In Siena)
Duomo- Bernini chapel
- Pisano pulpit
- Pinturrichio's frescoes
Palazzo Publico- Lorenzetti's allegory frescoes
- Guidoriccio da Fogliano (Martini)
(In Ravenna)
San Vitale
- Justinian and Theodora panels
(In Venice)
Galleria d'Academia
- The Crucifixion and the Glorification of 10,000 Martyrs... (Carapaccio)
- St. George (Mantegna)
- The Tempest (Giorgione)
- Madonna and Child (Bellini)
- Christ in the House of Levi (Veronese)
- St. Mark Rescues a Slave (Tintoretto)
- St. Mark Rescuing a Slave From a Saracen From Shipwreck (Tintoretto)
- Legend of St. Ursula paintings (Carpaccio)
- Coronation of the Virgin (Veneziano)
- Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple (Titian)
Guggenheim Collection- Materia (Boccioni)
- Bottle and Fruit Bowl (Morandi)
- Red Tower (de Chirico)
- Bird in Space (Brancusi)
- The Robing of the Bride (Ernst)
- Sea Dancer (Severini)
Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari- Assumption of the Virgin (Titian)
- Pesaro Madonna (Titian)
(In Padua)
Scrovegni Chapel
- Life of Christ/Life of the Virgin cycle frescoes (Giotto)
Okay, that was 103, but who's counting? We'll see how I do!
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
5/8/2013
Word of the day :
diseuse : a woman who is a skilled and usually professional reciter
With Baz Luhrman's atrociously-reviewed revamp of The Great Gatsby opening in theaters this weekend, it's time to re-examine why the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel has long been considered the Great American Novel (an honor I, however, would bestow upon Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road.)
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2013/05/07/why-the-great-gatsby-is-the-great-american-novel/2130161/
**
Camilla Lackberg's third Swedish crime novel featuring cop Patrik Hedstrom and his girlfriend Erica is a terrific page-turner. What starts out as a mystery involving the death of a 9-year old girl (the daughter of a friend of Erica's) found drowned and with ashes in her lungs turns into an intriguing saga of various Fjallbacka families with demons in their closets. Though it's longer than most novels within the genre, it's never boring and always engaging. Lackberg isn't a particularly inventive writer, but she can definitely spin a plot and she creates some memorable characters here. I really liked the backstory here, and the revelation at the end (even if you might see it coming down the pipeline) provides a disturbing glimpse of human evil. I found this to be a richer novel than the previous Lackberg novel I read a few years back, The Ice Princess.
**
With our trip to Italy merely a week away, here are five works of art I want to see while I'm there:
(Part 1 of 5)
Caravaggio: Saint Matthew Cycle (Rome, San Luigi dei Francesi)
Caravaggio: Crucifixion of Saint Peter (Rome, Santa Maria del Popolo)
Caravaggio: The Entombment of Christ (Rome, Vatican Museum)
Michelangelo: David, original sculpture (Florence, Galleria dell' Academia)
Giotto: frescoes at Capella degli Scrovegni (Padua)
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Rainy Day
Word of the day :
fathom : to penetrate and come to understand
: to probe
: to measure by a sounding line
Things just aren't - and can't possibly be - the same when Julia is not here. It's inevitably a rainy, dreary day here in Statesboro, and Gabriel and I will somehow try to pass the time.
* Here are my predictions for the 2nd round of the NBA playoffs. I correctly predicted 7 of the 8 first round winners:
San Antonio Spurs over Golden State Warriors (6 games)
I love the way the Warriors are playing, but I'm not sure they can keep it up.
Memphis Grizzlies over Oklahoma City Thunder (6 games)
No Russell Westbrook = no chance of getting to the conference finals for OKC.
Miami Heat over Chicago Bulls (5 games)
The depleted Bulls made one of the great, gutsy stands in playoff history by willing an injury-and-illness plagued victory over the Brooklyn Nets in the first round. And now they'll bow out of the playoffs and get ready for next season.
New York Knicks over Indiana Pacers (6 games)
I just like NY in this series. They shoot better and they won't get pushed around inside.
BTW, this book looks great:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Darkling-Novel-B-Chesterton/dp/1605984582/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367755232&sr=8-1&keywords=r.b.+chesterton
fathom : to penetrate and come to understand
: to probe
: to measure by a sounding line
Things just aren't - and can't possibly be - the same when Julia is not here. It's inevitably a rainy, dreary day here in Statesboro, and Gabriel and I will somehow try to pass the time.
* Here are my predictions for the 2nd round of the NBA playoffs. I correctly predicted 7 of the 8 first round winners:
San Antonio Spurs over Golden State Warriors (6 games)
I love the way the Warriors are playing, but I'm not sure they can keep it up.
Memphis Grizzlies over Oklahoma City Thunder (6 games)
No Russell Westbrook = no chance of getting to the conference finals for OKC.
Miami Heat over Chicago Bulls (5 games)
The depleted Bulls made one of the great, gutsy stands in playoff history by willing an injury-and-illness plagued victory over the Brooklyn Nets in the first round. And now they'll bow out of the playoffs and get ready for next season.
New York Knicks over Indiana Pacers (6 games)
I just like NY in this series. They shoot better and they won't get pushed around inside.
BTW, this book looks great:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Darkling-Novel-B-Chesterton/dp/1605984582/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367755232&sr=8-1&keywords=r.b.+chesterton
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Texas!
Word of the day :
exiguous : excessively scanty, inadequate
Well, Julia leaves tomorrow for her last job interview of the year - at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. Hope she gets it, I really, I really do. Gabriel and I will go about our business here - fighting off allergies, playing, reading, watching the NBA playoffs and art history docs.
Julia and I had a double feature last night: Alex Cross and The Guilt Trip.
Alex Cross, the third James Patterson tale to hit the screen, is most notable for its swapping of Morgan Freeman's Dr. Cross for Tyler Perry's. Perry isn't that bad in this film, doing the best he can with some really risible dialogue. Honestly, no one is served well by the dialogue or some of the ludicrous plotting, which has Perry and his partner (Edward Burns) racing around Detroit trying to stop a crazy assassin (Matthew Fox, crazy-eyed and pumped-up) from killing important businessmen. It's a serviceable action film, a long way from great, but watchable enough, with the enjoyably over-the-top Fox easily stealing the show. It co-stars Cicely Tyson (Cross's mom), John McGinley (Cross's boss), and Jean Reno.
The Guilt Trip features Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand as the Jewish son-and-mother combo we've been waiting for our whole cinematic lives - even if we didn't know we were waiting for it. It's a perfect set-up for a road comedy from hell: Rogen is an inventor who has to drive cross-country to try and sell the cleaning product he has invented, and Babs joins him, nattering in his ear the entire time. Babs is the whole show here. At 70, she looks great and her comic-timing is still spot-on; she manages to be charismatic even when her character is supposed to overbearing. She has terrific chemistry with Rogen, but at times I wish the movie around them was a little better. It's never quite as hilarious as you want it to be, though the mother and son encounter some amusing obstacles along the way, including a nearly five-pound steak. It's a thumbs-up nevertheless - good but not great. I've liked all of director Anne Fletcher's films so far: Step Up, 27 Dresses, The Proposal, and this one, although they've all been critically panned!
*
Three new movies opening this weekend:
Iron Man 3 Perhaps you've heard of this one?
What Maisie Knew An 1897 novella by Henry James is the basis for this modern-day film about a child caught in the middle of her parents' nasty, complicated divorce. Julianne Moore is the rock-star mother who is poison for her daughter (6-year old newcomer Onata Aprile, reputedly incredible) to be around; narcissistic, self-absorbed, philandering dad (Steve Coogan) isn't much better. True Blood's Alexander Skarsgard is Moore's new boyfriend, the one sympathetic figure for the girl to relate to. A painful movie about divorce and the young people caught in the wake of it, it's getting good reviews. (Yes)
The Iceman Michael Shannon is supposed to be Oscar-worthy and riveting in this violent drama about real-life Richard Kuklinsky, a hitman for the mob who was arrested in 1986 and later claimed to have killed 100 people for the mob over two decades. Winona Ryder is his wife, Ray Liotta a crime boss, Chris Evans a competitor hitman who works in an ice cream truck by day, James Franco as a victim, and David Schwimmer as a dim-bulb mobster. Critics are mostly approving of it, though it's a tough sled to want to follow - let alone relate to - such an irredeemable man.
*
Julia and I have noticed a lot of dead armadillos down here along the sides of the roads and highways. Before moving to Georgia, I don't think I had ever seen an armadillo outside of a zoo. Now I see them quite frequently. Here are 5 facts about them:
1) They have very poor eyesight, relying more on their noses and ears to detect predators and find food.
2) They are very good swimmers, able to hold their breath for four to six minutes.
3) They have strong claws and very few teeth.
4) They have low metabolic rates and almost no body far, reasons why they don't live in cold climates. Most armadillos can't survive in a cold climate (even if it's only cold for a few days) and don't conserve or store their food and must forage for food every day.
5) Only one of the 20-plus varieties of armadillos is able to roll itself up into a ball to defend itself from danger. All others scuttle away or dig a hole for themselves to escape in.
Image courtesy of:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBeD3CcPIOg1M-JKdtI3BcSjph-wG6B1nNoSykb6LZyqe1K09R8Q18-fGbLpxU35Wc2OEUX_m1TyXF9yelOGIYSGKtY__a76zylaohlc1DoFpkUDdYgoMk8AW-fx07Wouw2mozgss5mgcR/
/armadillo.jpg
Information courtesy of:
http://armadillo-online.org/facts.html
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Wednesday
nepenthe : something capable of causing oblivion of grief or suffering
: a potion used by the ancients to induce forgetfulness of pain or sorrow
It's rare to see a good movie that's actually as good - and award-worthy - as advertised. Silver Linings Playbook sure fits the bill. Adapted from Matthew Quick's novel, it's David O. Russell's follow-up to The Fighter, and it's a marvel of emotions and shapes - a little screwball, a little poignant, a little silly, a lot frantic, a lot moving. It's a film that comes at you from all angles. As the bipolar man who says "more inappropriate things than appropriate things," Bradley Cooper is outstanding - likable and infuriating. Robert DeNiro, in his best role in years, adds humor and gravitas and looms large over an askew, choked household. Jennifer Lawrence is a hurricane of an actress, and deservedly won the Oscar as the damaged soul who turns out to be perfect for Bradley. It's a great cast of characters that includes Jacki Weaver's flustered but supportive mother, Chris Tucker's toned-down friend, Anupam Kher's tailgating shrink, and Julia Stiles as Lawrence's level-headed sister. Once you get on the film's wavelength, you'll go right along with it to its crowd-pleasing ending. Well-shot and with a terrific soundtrack, which includes the great Dylan-Cash classic "Girl From the North Country."
*
On this date in 1825, George Inness was born. An American landscape painter influenced by both the Barbizon School (the French realist movement that included Millet and Corot) and the Hudson River Schoo, Inness is best known for his landscape paintings which documented the progress of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad (who commissioned Inness) in Industrial America. As seen in the above work, The Coming Storm (1878), Inness increasingly focused on wilderness and, more importantly, the spiritual elements within it.
Here's more about the painting:
http://www.albrightknox.org/collection/collection-highlights/piece:inness-coming-storm/
Image courtesy of:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL7LGg_VdyeyqIrDbH_TA921DimiKmgX8DtRiRqYpnIOSvvkPJMe5kSIVrqlfotPa5vbbdgYNWjXW2YUE1MlnefgED84xHP5gBF2FLzRcuaS8ocBZbRGBjtdN6xTfUAo2VquFFLSZg8dA/s1600/The+Coming+Storm+%2528c.+1879+-+George+Inness%2529.jpg
Monday, April 29, 2013
New Week
Word of the day :
ceorl : a freeman of the lowest rank in Anglo-Saxon England
A new week in Stinksboro, but why think about this town? Let's talk instead about this list:
http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20483133_20694515,00.html
Here's what looks good to me:
Definitely:
Love is All You Need
Black Rock
Before Midnight
The Way, Way Back
The Conjuring
Fruitvale
Blue Jasmine
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
You're Next
Don Jon
Possibly/Probably:
Iron Man 3
Peeples
Frances Ha
The Hangover Part III
Now You See Me
Man of Steel
World War Z
The Bling Ring
The Heat
White House Down
I'm So Exited!
Grown-Ups 2
R.I.P.D.
Girl Most Likely
Only God Forgives
We're the Millers
Austenland
Ain't Them Bodies Saints
Always worth a look:
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/traveler-magazine/photo-contest/2013/entries/gallery/outdoor-scenes-week-2/?source=hp_dl4_travel_photo_contest_20130429
ceorl : a freeman of the lowest rank in Anglo-Saxon England
A new week in Stinksboro, but why think about this town? Let's talk instead about this list:
http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20483133_20694515,00.html
Here's what looks good to me:
Definitely:
Love is All You Need
Black Rock
Before Midnight
The Way, Way Back
The Conjuring
Fruitvale
Blue Jasmine
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
You're Next
Don Jon
Possibly/Probably:
Iron Man 3
Peeples
Frances Ha
The Hangover Part III
Now You See Me
Man of Steel
World War Z
The Bling Ring
The Heat
White House Down
I'm So Exited!
Grown-Ups 2
R.I.P.D.
Girl Most Likely
Only God Forgives
We're the Millers
Austenland
Ain't Them Bodies Saints
Always worth a look:
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/traveler-magazine/photo-contest/2013/entries/gallery/outdoor-scenes-week-2/?source=hp_dl4_travel_photo_contest_20130429
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Movies, Movies, Movies
Word of the day :
lamia : a female demon
Well, it's Saturday - grass to cut (?), work to do, basketball and art history programs to watch, walks to take, potty training lessons to begin, itineraries to plan...
Here are the movies opening this weekend:
At Any Price
Dennis Quaid is reputedly at his best as an esteemed, ambitious Iowa farmer who wants his son (Zac Efron) to take over the family business. Zac wants to ride, though - race cars. Roger Ebert, in one of his last reviews, called this drama a great American film. It's about family and the toll the economic crisis has had on the small farmer. Directed by American-born Iranian filmmaker Ramin Bahrani.
(YES)
Pain & Gain
No, thank you, and here's why: it's a Michael Bay (Transformers) film. Cue the hyperkinetic visuals and sensory assault. This one is "inspired" by a true story - about three Florida personal trainers (Mark Wahlberg, The Rock, Anthony Mackie) who get involved with a local criminal millionaire (Tony Shalhoub). Ed Harris and Ken Jeong co-star. Critics are calling it really dumb.
Mud
One of the best-reviewed American movies of the new year, Jeff Nichols' follow-up to the terrific Take Shelter (whose star, Michael Shannon, has a role here) is a relatively short (90 minutes), Arkansas-shot-and-set, Huck Finn-esque tale about two boys who find a mysterious guy (Matthew McConaughey) hiding out on an island in the Mississippi River. The man needs the boys to help him get back to the love of his life (Reese Witherspoon). She is waiting in town for the man - Mud - but is Mud what he seems? Has he killed a man?... This could be McConaughey's long-overdue Oscar nomination - he has a cracked front tooth, dirty hair - and he's supposed to be outstanding.
(YES)
The Big Wedding
Dreadful reviews for this all-star comedy. Robert DeNiro, Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton, Katherine Heigl, Topher Grace, Amanda Seyfried, and Robin Williams are all here, in a remake of a French comedy about an acidic divorced couple (Bob and Diane) forced to play nice at the wedding of their adopted son.
Also:
Love is All You Need, a comedy-drama starring Pierce Brosnan as a lonely Danish architect who meets a hairdresser on his way to Italy to attend a wedding. Good reviews. (YES)
Kon-Tiki, an Oscar-nominated Norwegian film about Thor Heyerdahl's famous voyage by raft from South America to the Polynesian Islands. (YES)
Arthur Newman, a low-key road movie about a depressed man (Colin Firth) who tries to change his identity and meets up with a bruised, down-at-the-heels suicidal woman (Emily Blunt) who becomes his companion. Filmed in North Carolina - average reviews.
*
Bachelorette (2012) wants to be a female version of The Hangover but, honestly, it's not even as good as The Hangover 2. Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan, and Isla Fisher (appealing comic actresses all) are three nasty, drunken, bitchy and slutty bachelorettes who come together for the wedding of their friend (Rebel Wilson). Stop right there: Why cast Wilson in this underdeveloped straight role if you're not going to give her any good lines? There's not a likable character around - not even the usually dependable James Marsden or Adam Scott as two of the best men. Some funny parts here and there, but someone forgot to inform or notify director Leslye Headland (who wrote the screenplay and the play (!) the film is taken from) that the background music she employs in almost every single sequence drowns out most of the dialogue. Which might actually not be that big of a loss. Not terrible, but disappointing indeed.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Buffalo
Word of the day :
occlusion: a shutting off or obstructing of something
Waiting... waiting... waiting...
Always waiting for something here in SE Georgia. Waiting for the weekend, waiting to get out of town, waiting to her back from a job, waiting to get out of the country... Always waiting...
But, hey, that's why we invented books, right?
Here are some recent reviews:
The Street of a Thousand Blossoms (2007), Gail Tsukiyama
A poignant, delicately-written (a phrase you can but probably shouldn't mistake for 'slow-paced') novel that follows the lives of two brothers through about twenty-five years of Japanese history. One brother is interested in being a sumo wrestler and eventually does, becoming the highest-ranked (a yokozuna, which may ring a bell to some wrestling fans of old), while the other brother becomes a highly-skilled mask maker, in demand by the Noh theater actors and artists. Tsukiyama traces these tight-knit brothers as well as some other characters and does so with skill and command. It's just an easy novel to read, never quite a soap opera, and it was nice to see the WWII experience and aftermath from the non-western side.
Drawing Conclusions (2011), Donna Leon
Leon has kept her Inspector Guido Brunetti mystery series going for twenty-years now, with this year's The Golden Egg the 23rd entry in the bestselling, critically-admired series. I'm a newbie to the mysteries, and I was rewarded for my efforts with drew me to the book to begin with: a smart, lived-in portrait of Venice. All the books take place in "The City of Water," and, to Leon, it's both a magical and mundane city, a city of dreams and transients, tourists and thieves, enchantment and faded glory - all of which, I suppose, is what makes it so compelling. I'm definitely going to read more of these books, even though this one is never anything more than a solid effort - not great, not bad. Brunetti is investigating the murder of an old woman who housed battered foreign women. What kind of seamy stuff eventually did her in? Or does it have something to do with an old will she knew was fake? Brunetti is an appealing, level-headed character.
Black Irish, (2013) Stephan Talty
Nonfiction author Talty (who has written books about Napoleon's ill-fated army, Captain Morgan - the pirate, not the liquor - and mulattoes in America, among others) sets his fiction debut in his hometown of Buffalo. And boy does he know the streets and highways and beliefs of Buffalo inside and out, particularly the clannish neighborhood of Irish Town, which is where his main character, Absalom Kearney, grew up, raised by an Irish cop father. Kearney, after a stint in Miami, is a detective in faded Buffalo now, working its depressed, often-hostile streets. A series of gruesome murders has the city panicked, and Kearney is tasked with solving them. Seems the victims were all members of a nationalist Irish group with ties to the NRA. Who is picking them off? And is Kearney's father, a looming, decorated officer now on his last legs, on the list? Talty is a smart writer and the convincing milieu he limns is the most absorbing part of the novel. We've seen this plot before - the brilliant serial killer who mutilates his victims and leaves a calling card behind - a hundred times. Still, the final-act revelation is triumphant. Stephan Talty, you've hooked for me life now!
*
Crime novel readers, try this quiz:
http://www.sporcle.com/games/Mavis_Cruet/pen-names
It's hard! If you can get half right, you really know your stuff!
(I won't tell you how many I got, but I will say that I am a mystery-novel expert, so I expected to do well...)
Monday, April 22, 2013
4-22-13
 |
| The Cyclops, 1898 |
Happy birthday, Odilon Redon!
Redon (1840-1916) was a French Symbolist painter. Born in Bordeaux, Redon started painting at an early age. After serving in the Franco-Prussian War, he moved to Paris, where he worked in charcoals and lithographs. In the 1890s he began using oils and pastels and did so for the rest of his life. Throughout his life, Redon (who was also a printmaker and draughtsman) was interested in literature and architecture. His charcoal work, called his Noirs, were not publicly successful, but hugely influential on the Parisian avant-garde of the time. Redon - an artistic ally of the writers Baudelaire and Mallarme - was arguably the greatest Symbolist painter of his generation. In the 1890s, his works became brighter, more decorative, but still featured dream-like imagery and suggested intense internal states of mind, improbable and invisible beings.
Symbolism was both an artistic and literary movement, an attempt to see through Realism, to look at the world subjectively, to express reality through artists' spirit and intuition. Color, line, and shape were not in alignment with the visual, optical image, but at the mercy of personal emotion and insight. The images were dream-like, fantastic, mysterious. Symbolist artists - Redon, Gustave Moreau, even at time Henri Rousseau - proved influential to writers of the time and later artists such as the Fauvists and Edvard Munch.
*
Word of the day :
transpire : to take place, occur, or develop
*
Well, it's Monday morning in Statesboro, which means back to school for everyone. Only a few more weeks before our Big Summer Trip and there's plenty to do around the house before we go, plenty of lose ends to knot up, a few necessities to buy, a few TV shows to watch, etc.
Not much on the news front this weekend, nothing Too Horrible happened... oh, wait, I'm reading about a shooting in Seattle... (let's just skip over that for the minute...)
E.L. Konigsburg, the young adult writer best known for the engaging YA classic From the Mixed-Up Files of Basil E. Frankweiler (a book I highly recommend), died this weekend at the age of 83. She won two Newberry awards, for Mixed-up... and 1997's The View From Saturday.
*
I love this National Geographic article by historian Hampton Sides on Wrangel Island (a place I had never heard of), which is sort of the Northern, colder version of the Galapagos Islands.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/wrangel-island/sides-text?source=hp_dl1_ngm_wrangel-island_20130417
Image courtesy of:
http://silverandexact.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/cyclops-odilon-redon-1914.jpg
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Don't Touch That Fish!
Word of the day
xenophobia : fear and hatred of foreigners or strangers or anything that is foreign and strange
Julia and I saw a frightening, alarming eco-thriller last night, Barry Levinson's The Bay, a found-footage, faux-documentary about some very scary organisms coming out of Chesapeake Bay. The Maryland-native Levinson - Rain Man, Diner, Sleepers - gets back to his indie roots and combines real-life problems (the fact that 40% of the Bay is lifeless, isopods - the film's spooky, insidious monsters - have found their way from the Pacific to the Atlantic, etc.) with an inventive narrative technique: the film is told solely from Podcasts, computerized images, security cameras, home footage, I-Phones, etc. Using a no-name cast, Levinson is able to summon up quite a horrific scenario: A July 4th weekend festival in small-town Maryland is ruined as its citizens, all of whom have been exposed to the Bay's waters (and the steroid-aided parasitic organisms infesting them), begin to bleed and vomit and lose body parts. A movie with a conscious, it's a smart throwback to the sci-fi/ creature-films films of the 50s. Check it out.
*
Playing For Keeps (2012) is a decent if demeaning rom-com starring nobody's favorite hunk Gerard Butler. Cast here as a once-famous soccer star now living in suburban Virginia, trying to have a relationship with his young son, Butler is his usual sloppy, slobby, messily-"charming," slurry-brogued self. If, like me, the appeal of Butler eludes you, don't worry, because this is a good role for him. Butler's poorly-groomed George has never been much of father, but his son and ex-wife (Jessica Biel, who gives the movie's one grounded, likable performance) still believe in him. Where the movie takes a brief foray into the disastrous and puzzling is when George starts coaching his son's soccer team and the mothers of the kids start desperately throwing themselves at him. I wasn't sure why, for George doesn't particularly seem to incite or welcome such attention. Filling in some of these caricatures are actresses who should know better: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Uma Thurman, Judy Greer. Dennis Quaid plays the pushy, obnoxiously "friendly" husband to Thurman's bored housewife. The last half-hour of the film (shot in Shreveport) is the best, when all these crazy women are left behind (or just written out of the picture) and Butler-Biel get back down to the reuniting business. Directed by Gabriel Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness).
*
The NBA playoffs start today: a two-month long affair bound to be full of excitement, trash talk, hyperbole, and few upsets. Here are my picks for the first round:
New York Knicks over Boston Celtics (7 gms.)
Denver Nuggets over Golden State Warriors (6 gms.)
Chicago Bulls over Brooklyn Nets (6 gms.)
Memphis Grizzlies over L.A. Clippers (7 gms.)
Indiana Pacers over Atlanta Hawks (5 gms.)
San Antonio Spurs over L.A. Lakers (6 gms.)
Miami Heat over Milwaukee Bucks (4 gms.)
Oklahoma City Thunder over Houston Rockets (5 gms.)
Images courtesy of:
http://blogs.bet.com/celebrities/what-the-flick/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/110112-celebs-the-bay-movie.jpg
Thursday, April 18, 2013
4 Weeks Until Italy!
 |
| Persee et Andromede |
*
Word of the day : milieu
: environment ; the physical or social setting in which something occurs or
develops
Well, the hits just keep on coming:
- A tragic explosion at a fertilizer plant outside Waco has, according to the most recent reporting, killed 15 and injured at least 175.
- The Senate voted not to pass gun-control legislation yesterday. Although it's only a first setback, it was still shameful and disgraceful and an embarrassment to anyone in this country with half a brain. I'll take that back: Most gun-owners should have rights and are responsible, and I have no problem with them owning guns. I do have a problem - and I think everyone should - with a Congress that willingly ignores what the majority of Americans want done, the same Americans that voted them in, Reps and Dems alike. Disgusting.
Here are the new movies opening this weekend:
Not much. There's Oblivion, Tom Cruise's new sci-fi epic, co-starring Morgan Freeman. Directed by Joseph Kosinksy (the Tron sequel), it's getting average reviews. There's also director Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem, a disturbing-looking movie about a radio DJ in Salem, Mass. troubled by eerie visions of the past.
*
Vamps, Amy Heckerling's campy, affectionate tale about two members of the undead (Alicia Silverstone and Krysten Ritter) trying to be young and romantic in New York City, is a vampire movie that - thank God! - doesn't take itself too seriously, unlike the Twilight movies. It's a jokey, silly movie with mediocre-at-best CGI but there's actually an affectionate, nostalgic undercurrent here - about living outside your time, watching the world (and history) go by without being able to do anything about it. It's a movie about aging, folks. Lot of pop culture references, of course (would you expect otherwise from the Clueless scribe?), and plenty of familiar faces, all of whom are in the cheesy spirit of the thing: Sigourney Weaver, Wallace Shawn (as a Van Helsing), Justin Kirk, Richard Lewis.
Image courtesy of:
http://art-magique.blogspot.com/2011/04/gustave-moreau-1826-1898.html
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Orphaned
On a sad day in America, let's turn our focus instead to the newest Pulitzer Prize winner- the first in two years. (Remember that there was no winner last year.)
The Orphan Master's Son
What it's about :
Well, an orphan, as you can imagine. Pak Jun Do is a parentless kid in North Korea who grows up in an orphanage and eventually goes to work for the state, as a kidnapper (!) and fishing boat signal operator. For unknown reasons, Jun Do eventually assumes the identity of a North Korean national hero and is assigned to a highly risky, dangerous assignment by Kim Jong II.
Who wrote it:
45-year old, South Dakota-born Adam Johnson. Johnson earned his PhD in English from Florida State in 2000. He is currently an associate professor in English at Stanford University. Johnson had previously written the novel Parasites Like Us (2003), the 2002 short story collection Emporium, and numerous other stories that have been published, in among other periodicals, Esquire, Harper's Weekly, The Missouri Review, and The Paris Review.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Monday
Word of the day :
heinous : hateful or shockingly evil
Top of the week to you, readers! Julia has an extremely busy week at school, Gabriel returns to school after his spring break, and hopefully I have a busy week too. Will this be the week we get good news - or will be next week... or the week after? We've learned that one of the great truths about life in small-town SE Georgia is that you're always in limbo, always waiting for that one opportunity that will take you elsewhere.
I'm finally going to watch Lincoln this afternoon - I'm expecting a lot of acting and a lot of facial hair.
NBA Playoffs start next weekend. It's hard to envision anyone beating the Miami Heat. Watching them play yesterday, I realized - if I hadn't already - how deep they are. It's hard to make up any ground when their second unit is in: Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis, Norris Cole, Birdman Anderson, Mike Miller. From the West, it sure looks like it's going to be the Thunder - maybe a Thunder-Grizzlies conference final.
Total Recall (2012), the Len Wiseman-directed remake of the Paul Verhoeven 1990 adaptation of the Philip K.Dick short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale," is atrocious - atrociously bland, unoriginal, and forgettable. There's nothing in here you haven't seen done better in The Bourne Identity and Minority Report, movies this one apes. Rather than talk about the tedious staging, the boring plot or the overreliance on unexciting CGI-digitially enhanced futuristic worlds, I'll instead pose some questions: Has director Len Wiseman, in his third collaboration with wife Kate Beckinsale, actually done anything to enhance her career - all he does is direct her in junky movies where she is often in a provocative state of undress. Does Jessica Biel ever make any good movies? And, more importantly, how irreplaceable is Arnold Schwarzenegger? In the last five years or so, three Schwarzenegger sci-f tentpoles from his heyday have been re-booted - Terminator, Predator, and now this, all with superior actors (Christian Bale, Adrien Brody, and Colin Farrell, respectively) - and yet they've all stunk and the lead actors have all been less successful in the parts than Arnold was. Goes to show you can't replace an icon with an actor.
Animal of the week:
Fennec Fox
What it looks like: The smallest fox in the world, but with Big Ears, the fox is cream-colored, with a black-tipped tail. It has thick fur and hairy feet and those ears both radiate body heat and keep the fox cool.
Where it lives: The sandy Sahara and throughout North Africa, in small, territorial communities.
What it does: A nocturnal creature, the fox forages for insects, rodents, reptiles, and eggs. It can go long periods without water.
Is it endangered: Likely. Although its population is unknown, its adorable appearance has made it a favorite of the illegal-trade hunters and sellers - deplorable people all.
(Information courtesy of: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/fennec-fox/)
*
Finally, an overdue selection to my list of the 500 Greatest Performances of All Time list
Irrfan Khan
as Ashoke in The Namesake (2007)
The great Indian actor Irrfan Khan is probably best known to American audiences for his small parts in Slumdog Millionaire, A Mighty Heart, or Life of Pi. But his best role, his most rounded part, is in this intelligent, overlooked adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's fine novel. Khan and Tabu (also superb) play a young couple who emigrate to the U.S. in the late 1970s to raise a family, and throughout the course of the movie we see this relationship evolve from its cold, scary early days - where the arranged couple hardly knew each other - through the formation of their family. Khan is mesmerizing here, a lifetime of wisdom and accumulated knowledge - disappointment, happiness, comfort - in his eyes and voice, and he breaks your heart too when he tells his son Gogol (Kal Penn) why he was named after the Russian author.
Images courtesy of:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/files/2013/03/fennec-fox-baby.jpg
http://thisdistractedglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/namesake-2007-tabu-irrfan-khan-pic-3.jpg
heinous : hateful or shockingly evil
Top of the week to you, readers! Julia has an extremely busy week at school, Gabriel returns to school after his spring break, and hopefully I have a busy week too. Will this be the week we get good news - or will be next week... or the week after? We've learned that one of the great truths about life in small-town SE Georgia is that you're always in limbo, always waiting for that one opportunity that will take you elsewhere.
I'm finally going to watch Lincoln this afternoon - I'm expecting a lot of acting and a lot of facial hair.
NBA Playoffs start next weekend. It's hard to envision anyone beating the Miami Heat. Watching them play yesterday, I realized - if I hadn't already - how deep they are. It's hard to make up any ground when their second unit is in: Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis, Norris Cole, Birdman Anderson, Mike Miller. From the West, it sure looks like it's going to be the Thunder - maybe a Thunder-Grizzlies conference final.
Total Recall (2012), the Len Wiseman-directed remake of the Paul Verhoeven 1990 adaptation of the Philip K.Dick short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale," is atrocious - atrociously bland, unoriginal, and forgettable. There's nothing in here you haven't seen done better in The Bourne Identity and Minority Report, movies this one apes. Rather than talk about the tedious staging, the boring plot or the overreliance on unexciting CGI-digitially enhanced futuristic worlds, I'll instead pose some questions: Has director Len Wiseman, in his third collaboration with wife Kate Beckinsale, actually done anything to enhance her career - all he does is direct her in junky movies where she is often in a provocative state of undress. Does Jessica Biel ever make any good movies? And, more importantly, how irreplaceable is Arnold Schwarzenegger? In the last five years or so, three Schwarzenegger sci-f tentpoles from his heyday have been re-booted - Terminator, Predator, and now this, all with superior actors (Christian Bale, Adrien Brody, and Colin Farrell, respectively) - and yet they've all stunk and the lead actors have all been less successful in the parts than Arnold was. Goes to show you can't replace an icon with an actor.
Animal of the week:
Fennec Fox
What it looks like: The smallest fox in the world, but with Big Ears, the fox is cream-colored, with a black-tipped tail. It has thick fur and hairy feet and those ears both radiate body heat and keep the fox cool.
Where it lives: The sandy Sahara and throughout North Africa, in small, territorial communities.
What it does: A nocturnal creature, the fox forages for insects, rodents, reptiles, and eggs. It can go long periods without water.
Is it endangered: Likely. Although its population is unknown, its adorable appearance has made it a favorite of the illegal-trade hunters and sellers - deplorable people all.
(Information courtesy of: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/fennec-fox/)
*
Finally, an overdue selection to my list of the 500 Greatest Performances of All Time list
Irrfan Khan
as Ashoke in The Namesake (2007)
The great Indian actor Irrfan Khan is probably best known to American audiences for his small parts in Slumdog Millionaire, A Mighty Heart, or Life of Pi. But his best role, his most rounded part, is in this intelligent, overlooked adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's fine novel. Khan and Tabu (also superb) play a young couple who emigrate to the U.S. in the late 1970s to raise a family, and throughout the course of the movie we see this relationship evolve from its cold, scary early days - where the arranged couple hardly knew each other - through the formation of their family. Khan is mesmerizing here, a lifetime of wisdom and accumulated knowledge - disappointment, happiness, comfort - in his eyes and voice, and he breaks your heart too when he tells his son Gogol (Kal Penn) why he was named after the Russian author.
Images courtesy of:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/files/2013/03/fennec-fox-baby.jpg
http://thisdistractedglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/namesake-2007-tabu-irrfan-khan-pic-3.jpg
Thursday, April 11, 2013
5 Weeks Till Italy!
Word of the day :
indissoluble : incapable of being dissolved or disintegrated
: permanent
: incapable of being annulled, undone, or broken
Well, Julia's back - interview went well. Pray that she gets the job, we move to Chicago, and say sayonara to fuckin' Statesboro!
The Louvre closed its doors yesterday - too many "aggressive" pickpockets.
Massive thunderstorms, storm system in the midwest, tons of snow up in Minnesota and Canada. Guess we should be grateful we live down here in Georgia, but how thankful can you really be when every time it rains hard and long, the septic tanks act up? If you want great weather and no calamities, move to New Mexico.
Animal of the week: (new feature)
Pangolin
What it is: "A scaly anteater."
What it looks like: Covered in brown scales. Dark grey to black sin, no scales in its underparts. Small head.
Where it lives: Mostly in Africa and Asia. Bush and savanna country. Rocky hills and open flood plains where there is sandy soil and, hence, plenty of anthills.
What it does: Forages nocturnally. It uses its long, viscous claws to dig ants out of their holes and slurp them up with its tongue. It moves slowly and has a repugnant odor to ward off predators. When in danger, it folds itself up into a ball, its head tucked beneath its tail.
Is it endangered: Yeah, because Asians are slaughtering them for "traditional" medicine. Did you expect anything different?
*
New Movies Opening This Weekend:
42 A square, old-fashioned biopic with newcomer Chadwick Boseman as the boundary-breaking Jackie Robinson, the Dodgers second baseman who became the first African-American professional ballplayer. Harrison Ford is said to be gruffly entertaining as Robinson's manager Branch Rickey. Critics are saying it's fine, not great. Written and directed by Oscar-winning screenwriter Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential).
Scary Movie 5 Um, nope.
Disconnect Richard Roeper gave this one four stars. It's a tale of modern alienation, composed of different stories, all of which revolve around the dangers of the internet: from identity theft to online gambling and prostitution to cruel teenage pranks. From the director of the fascinating doc Murderball, the film has a terrific cast: Jason Bateman, Paula Patton, Alexander Skarsgard, and Hope Davis.
(Yes)
To the Wonder Terrence Malick (Tree of Life) has to be one of the most overrated directors in the history of cinema. He is a great pictorialist, has a great eye (with the help of his recent, brilliant cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki), but that's it. His mystical films have nothing to say. Some love him. Some hate him. Some are bored silly by him. This new one is a largely wordless (!), vague exercise in which Ben Affleck (who has almost no lines) and Olga Kurylenko are an unhappy couple somewhere in the Midwest. Javier Bardem (as a priest) and Rachel McAdams have some voiceover, but it seems Malick is slowly on his way to discarding actors altogether.
*
After finishing and loving Robert Kurson's nonfiction book Shadow Divers, I thought that it was about time I sought out other true-life adventure books. Here's as good a list as any:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0404/adventure_books_1-19.html
No post till Sunday. Have a nice weekend!
Image courtesy of:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/files/2012/02/pangolin.jpg
http://collider.com/wp-content/uploads/disconnect-hope-davis-jason-bateman.jpg
Information courtesy of:
http://www.wildlifesafari.info/pangolin.html
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Interview
Word of the day : doxology
: a usually liturgical expression of praise to God
Well, Julia is in Chicago today for a job interview - and God if I don't hope that she gets it. It will be Gabriel and I all day, which equals A LOT OF FUN. (Swinging - not that kind, pervs - cartoons, walks, Honey Bunches of Oats...)
I was so glad Louisville won the Tourney. I like Michigan a lot, but I was glad Louisville prevailed: what a terrific game it was, one of the best Championship games of the last decade or so. All Hail Luke Hancock!
Too bad I thought Michigan would win - my tourney predictions were as follows: Correct 45 ; Incorrect 22
Brief Reviews:
- Phil Spector (2012), David Mamet's HBO film about the relationship between Spector and his defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden in the days before Spector goes on trial for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson in 2003, is an intelligent but at times pointless examination of the ambiguity of a deluded man. The movie suffers from writer-director Mamet's typical elliptical, stagy dialogue. As Spector, Al Pacino is flamboyantly watchful and can mesmerize when he gets some great dialogue to chew on; ass Baden, Helen Mirren is intense and focused, with a spot-on American accent. The movie is short, but I never really figured out what the point of it was.
- North Face (2008),a German film that follows the true-life 1936 exploits of four mountaineers (one German pair, one Austrian pair) to climb the notorious, intimidating north face of the Swiss Alps - the Eiger. The first hour of the film, which features a subplot involving a newspaper reporter who grew up with the German climbers Kurz and Hinterstoisser and hopes to write a breakthrough story of the pair's ascent up the Eiger, is more involving, at least for me, than the second half. The sound effects, production design, and location shooting are all first-rate; the film's rugged, muscular second half, in which Bad Things Happen, actually was a little boring for me. If anything, it will give promising director Philipp Stolzl, a chance to make English-language films.
*
I want to start getting more into classical music. I used to be more into it and had more classical CDs (when I actually owned CDs) but, thanks to Liberal Arts, I have a goal - to be able to successfully identify these:
http://www.greatestclassicalmusicever.com/50GreatestPieces/
: a usually liturgical expression of praise to God
Well, Julia is in Chicago today for a job interview - and God if I don't hope that she gets it. It will be Gabriel and I all day, which equals A LOT OF FUN. (Swinging - not that kind, pervs - cartoons, walks, Honey Bunches of Oats...)
I was so glad Louisville won the Tourney. I like Michigan a lot, but I was glad Louisville prevailed: what a terrific game it was, one of the best Championship games of the last decade or so. All Hail Luke Hancock!
Too bad I thought Michigan would win - my tourney predictions were as follows: Correct 45 ; Incorrect 22
Brief Reviews:
- Phil Spector (2012), David Mamet's HBO film about the relationship between Spector and his defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden in the days before Spector goes on trial for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson in 2003, is an intelligent but at times pointless examination of the ambiguity of a deluded man. The movie suffers from writer-director Mamet's typical elliptical, stagy dialogue. As Spector, Al Pacino is flamboyantly watchful and can mesmerize when he gets some great dialogue to chew on; ass Baden, Helen Mirren is intense and focused, with a spot-on American accent. The movie is short, but I never really figured out what the point of it was.
- North Face (2008),a German film that follows the true-life 1936 exploits of four mountaineers (one German pair, one Austrian pair) to climb the notorious, intimidating north face of the Swiss Alps - the Eiger. The first hour of the film, which features a subplot involving a newspaper reporter who grew up with the German climbers Kurz and Hinterstoisser and hopes to write a breakthrough story of the pair's ascent up the Eiger, is more involving, at least for me, than the second half. The sound effects, production design, and location shooting are all first-rate; the film's rugged, muscular second half, in which Bad Things Happen, actually was a little boring for me. If anything, it will give promising director Philipp Stolzl, a chance to make English-language films.
*
I want to start getting more into classical music. I used to be more into it and had more classical CDs (when I actually owned CDs) but, thanks to Liberal Arts, I have a goal - to be able to successfully identify these:
http://www.greatestclassicalmusicever.com/50GreatestPieces/
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Go Cardinals!
Word of the day : gest
: an adventure or exploit ; especially, a romance in verse
Happy birthday, Rene Lalique (1860-1945). The most famous jeweler of his generation and a titan in both glassmaking an Art Deco deign. (I just learned about him the other day.)
Information on Lalique: http://rlalique.com/rene-lalique-biography
Well, it's Arts Fest day for Julia (oh no!), a torridly boring, pointless affair/festival thrown by Georgia Southern to try and reach out to the indifferent local community of hicks. Good thing Gabriel and I get to stay home and play and read and get ready for the Final Four tonight.
Picks:
Louisville over Wichita St.
Michigan over Syracuse
(So far: Correct - 43 ; Incorrect - 21)
*
I watched Shame (2011) yesterday, an often harrowing, often ponderous account of an N.Y.C. man (Michael Fassbender) in the throes of sexual addiction and forced to confront his own isolated, emotionally hollow existence when his needy artist sister (Carey Mulligan, in a sharp, vulnerable performance). Director Steve McQueen (no, not that one) hampers himself with his own script, which gives no background and depth to Fassbender's Brandon, a white collar, handsome worker who thinks about and pursues sex around the clock. Fassbender's otherwise riveting performance is shackled by his character's unlikable vagueness; he's contemptuous, cold. The film is sleekly shot, but the film is drably moralizing at times too. Because this is an Addiction, we can't revel in any of Brandon's behavior or consider its plusses. (Hollywood couldn't have us enjoying sex.) When Brandon does find someone he has a slight emotional connection to (Nicole Beharie's Marianne), he naturally can't get it up. Very graphic.
Image courtesy of:
http://9.asset.soup.io/asset/1415/1161_d885_960.jpeg
: an adventure or exploit ; especially, a romance in verse
Happy birthday, Rene Lalique (1860-1945). The most famous jeweler of his generation and a titan in both glassmaking an Art Deco deign. (I just learned about him the other day.)
Information on Lalique: http://rlalique.com/rene-lalique-biography
Well, it's Arts Fest day for Julia (oh no!), a torridly boring, pointless affair/festival thrown by Georgia Southern to try and reach out to the indifferent local community of hicks. Good thing Gabriel and I get to stay home and play and read and get ready for the Final Four tonight.
Picks:
Louisville over Wichita St.
Michigan over Syracuse
(So far: Correct - 43 ; Incorrect - 21)
*
I watched Shame (2011) yesterday, an often harrowing, often ponderous account of an N.Y.C. man (Michael Fassbender) in the throes of sexual addiction and forced to confront his own isolated, emotionally hollow existence when his needy artist sister (Carey Mulligan, in a sharp, vulnerable performance). Director Steve McQueen (no, not that one) hampers himself with his own script, which gives no background and depth to Fassbender's Brandon, a white collar, handsome worker who thinks about and pursues sex around the clock. Fassbender's otherwise riveting performance is shackled by his character's unlikable vagueness; he's contemptuous, cold. The film is sleekly shot, but the film is drably moralizing at times too. Because this is an Addiction, we can't revel in any of Brandon's behavior or consider its plusses. (Hollywood couldn't have us enjoying sex.) When Brandon does find someone he has a slight emotional connection to (Nicole Beharie's Marianne), he naturally can't get it up. Very graphic.
Image courtesy of:
http://9.asset.soup.io/asset/1415/1161_d885_960.jpeg
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Evil Dead!
Well, it's a rainy Thursday in Statesboro, which is fine by us, since I don't have any great plans for today. Just spending the morning in my wife's office, taking Gabriel out for ice cream, catching up on Justified, starting the nonfiction book Shadow Divers, and doing God-knows-what-else.
Here are the new movies opening this weekend (besides the 3D original Jurassic Park):
Evil Dead Director Sam Raimi and star Bruce Campbell approved (and produced) the remake of their cult 1981 original, one of the craftiest, funniest, most terrifying horror films ever made. The new film is getting good reviews, critics saying that director Fede Alvarez honors the goofy spirit of the original - and serves up plenty of scares. The story's the same, of course: five friends hole up in a remote cabin and stumble upon the Book of the Dead. Beware.
(Yes)
Trance A new Danny Boyle film is always an occasion, and this one is supposed to be twisty as all-get-out. James McAvoy stars as a London art auctioneer who teams up with a gang of thieves to steal a Goya painting. Things go wrong, of course, and McAvoy finds himself knocked out. Upon awakening, he can't remember where he hid the painting. Some critics find it too dizzying, too hallucinogenic, too much flash and style. Rosario Dawson, Michael Fassbender, and Vincent Cassel co-star.
(Yes)
The Company You Keep A good week for movies continues with Robert Redford's all-star drama/thriller about a former Weather Underground militant (Redford) who has been successfully hiding out for three decades until a nosy reporter (Shia LaBeouf) discovers his true identity. A cast of Oscar winners and nominees: Chris Cooper, Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte, Julie Christie, Terrence Howard, Stanley Tucci, and Richard Jenkins.
(Yes)
*
Jussi Adler Olsen's The Keeper of Lost Causes, which introduced Danish detective Carl Morck and his understaffed, overburdened Department Q, was my favorite thriller of 2012 and one of my favorite thrillers ever, really. Relentlessly exciting and scary, original, tense as anything, leavened with offbeat humor, it was a knockout - Scandanavian crime lit at its best.
The second Olsen book, the next in the Morck series, The Absent One (2012) is a major comedown, a truly preposterous book that is full of bad writing and translation. Nevertheless, I still breezed through it, enjoying it despite myself.
The story involves another cold case: The murder of two teens at a summer cottage in 1987. It seems that the man serving a sentence for the murder was one of an elite group of wealthy boarding school students - the members of which, Olsen reminds us repeatedly, grew into the "jet set" of Danish society: wealthy, amoral, violent, soulless criminals.
Morck and his assistant Assad are joined by a new partner, Rose, who seems to exist solely as lame comic relief, consistently annoying Carl; although I must say that Olsen's writing is so bad here that I wasn't sure what exactly Rose was doing to annoy Carl. She seemed helpful and idiosyncratic.
Anyway, as Carl narrows in on the "jet set" group, it appears that a lost member of the group - the group's lone female member, Kimmie, who has been hiding on the street for years, carrying around her aborted fetus (!!!!) - is also stalking her old comrades, for reasons to be discovered.
Everything comes to a head at a hunting weekend on one of the criminal's lavish estate. The ending was ludicrous but rousing. There is a lot of animal cruelty in the book; the one-dimensional villains hunt endangered game for sport. In fact, the villains are so over-the-top in their villainy that it almost defies belief: they watch A Clockwork Orange for kicks, get blowjobs from their illegally-employed workers, rape and beat on the weekends, kill without remorse. Has Olsen a subtle bone in his body? You wouldn't think so based on this book.
So why did I like it? I'm not sure. I still Carl and Assad compelling enough characters (though we learn nothing more about them this time around) and Olsen's style is so your in-face and he can grip with you his plot machinations like a pro.
It's a good Bad Book.
But I hope the next one's better.
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