Once a week (or thereabouts) is a little long for so many things that caught my attention this week. So here is a compilation of short posts .
 |  |
Right: JMW Turner's
Phryne Going to the Public Baths as Venus: Demosthenes Taunted by Aeschines, 1838
[Click pictures to view larger versions]
Removals from the Blog list : I'm removing a couple of Canadian blogs from my list since neither has contributed for more than two months, and they are always sporadic anyway.
I emailed The Ambler, who stopped about four months ago, about this hoping that he is well (he mentioned that he had been sick about a year ago), and asking him to continue his duty - yes it is a strong word, but I hate it when really good bloggers decide to close shop - to provide us with non MSM news and views on Canada. The Ambler got my respect at his incisive and clear-headed commentary on the Conrad Black case.
Dispatches from the Hogtown Front is an immigration blog by a Torontonian. The blogger did a great job of providing information from regular media - usually the infamously liberal Toronto Star - on incriminating facts on the immigration debacle here in Canada.
Fortunately, Hogtown now has his own community blog, and another blogger has started an immigration watch blog which he calls Canadian Immigration Reform Blog, and which I've added to my blog list.
Long discussion on "what can we do?" about Islam over at Gates of Vienna: But it unfortunately got hijacked by a few posters who were intent on being the loudest; to defame others and to present ill-though out, childish proposals. And Baron Bodissey simply posts another thread, equally childish and unproductive: "You are a bunch of complete cranks." As one commentator puts it: "Don't they know there's a war on?"
Vision TV hosts Islamic program on Sundays: I was shocked to find that Vision TV, "Canada's Multi-faith and Multicultural broadcaster", hosts Sunday Islamic programs. Given its description of its services, this should come as no surprise. But, it is still a shock to hear Koranic verses read and discussed on the holy day of the week.
The Louvre's new Islamic section is funded by the Saudis: and one of the architects, Rudy Ricciotti, made an ambiguous statement that "here we're in a much more intimate approach, less symbolic, less monumental." Ricciotti goes on to describe the roof of the new addition by saying: "The veil-like structure, which plays with the metaphor of the Islamic veil, even if it is rather a 'liberated' veil, blown and lulled by the wind, or rather a cloud, or a flying carpet, is light, modern, transparent..."So much for lack of symbols.
How British producers are ruining American culture: and the main culprit is Simon Cowell, judge of "American Idol." I am convinced that Cowell knows nothing about music, and pressures the singers to sing in his favorite sound - blasting and bombastic black style. So all the singers sound the same. "Canadian Idol" on the other hand is much more varied, with great individual interpretations, based on the vocal strengths of the singers rather than a formula they all have to follow. I've always said that these aggressive British reality TV promoters are actually helping in the decline of American culture.
Here's a short and sweet song by a talented young Albertan contestant. Just forward to about the 40 second spot for the song.
The Big Country vs. No Country for Old Men: are both about the coming of age of younger men, when older men no longer can, or want to, set the standards. What a difference a mere half a century makes (in the long course of art history). No Country for Old Men gives us a bizarre character, touting an even more bizarre weapon on a nihilistic killing spree - a fine example for the younger generation of the 21st century. In The Big Country, Gregory Peck actually does make the world a better place.
Brideshead Revisited, the movie version: I haven't read the book (which I will start today), but I have watched the mini-series. Watching the beautiful country estate, and all those gorgeous period costumes on the big screen in full color is really a pleasure.
But, only in our multi-culti brave new world do we see an actor who looks Indian (I think Ben Whishaw is mixed white and Indian) take on the role of a British aristocrat. The homosexual Catholic character in the Brideshead Revisited TV series - who ends up in a monastery in Morocco - is sharp, sardonic, yes hopelessly romantic, but never self-pitying.The movie's Ben Whishaw plays Sebastian Flyte like a victim. He absolutely misunderstands the pride (snobbery?) and staunch individuality of the British aristocrats, and acts like the perennial supplicant for sympathy with his pathetic eyes and flimsy acting. Can an Indian really channel the soul of an English aristocrat? I think it is actually possible, although by a long stretch. But, he has to overcome his insecurities - yes, he has to deal with that giant of the British Empire, and he has to surmount whatever second-classness he might feel. If he cannot, he has no business acting that role.
I think, though, that Matthew Goode's distant and slightly undecipherable film version of Charles Ryder is much more credible than Jeremy Irons' in the TV series. Jeremy Irons was the Ben Whishaw of the TV series. They even look alike. The TV Julia Flyte was too beautiful, considering Julia says that she was "the family shadow," but the movie version found the perfect actress in Hayley Atwell. Surprise! Atwell is actually part Native American (Indian), although she grew up with her mother in England. So channeling is what actors are supposed to do!
I've already written too much on this. I will explore one theme further later - why couldn't a semi-English looking Indian actor channel the spirit of an English aristocrat?
Here is The Ambler's article on Evelyn Waugh.
Turner's Estates: Brideshead was filmed on one of the many English country estates. The actual estate in the film and TV series was Castle Howard. Along with spectacular buildings, these estates also designed elaborate landscapes of gardens, lakes, hills (yes, artificial ones) forests and dotted them with statues, mausoleums and other architecture and sculptures. Turner painted many country estates and used some of them to paint his mythological and antiquity masterpieces. In fact, the many mythological and classical themes of these estates would certainly have been a creative force in his works.