Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Coen Brothers and Evil: Parts I-IV

Poster from Coen Brothers film:
O Brother Where Art Thou

I've reproduced the long article The Coen Brothers and Evil into four shorter posts. I've slightly modified some of the posts to stand alone from the original long piece.

The links are below.

- The Coen Brothers and Evil - Racial Ambiguity in True Grit
- The Coen Brothers and Evil - Beauty as Camouflage for Violence in True Grit
- The Coen Brothers and Evil - Violence in True Grit
- The Coen Brothers and Evil - Christmas Release of True Grit

The Coen Brothers and Evil - Racial Ambiguity in True Grit

Left:Hailee Steinfeld, the Jewish/Filipino/African-American/
European-American actress in True Grit
Right: Kelly MacDonald, the ChineseScottish actress in No Country for Old Men

The Coen brothers use ambiguous racial characteristics both in No Country for Old Men, and in True Grit is . In No Country for Old Men, the lead female is played by someone who is clearly a white/Asian mix. I write in the blog entry "Authenticity in Movies":
The second [instance of inauthenticity] one, which disturbed me more than the first, was Llewelyn Moss' wife, Carla Jean, who looked like a Chinese, most likely mixed Caucasian/Chinese, to me. I would have expected a southern red-neck type wife, or even a Mexican (or 1/2 Mexican.) Someone who looked like she came from there.
When I saw photos of the young girl in True Grit who hires Jeff Bridge's character, my first thought was that she was mixed black/Chinese. Maybe Filipino. It was her nose that suggested this mix to me. The Wikipedia entry on her says about her background:
[Hailee - what kind of name is that?] Steinfeld's father is Jewish and her mother is of Filipino, African-American and European-American descent.
I get the feeling that the Coen bros. like to mix it up. None of their lead male actors has any racial ambiguity, which leads me to wonder if much of their racial cross-overs are sexually tinged.

The Coen Brothers and Evil - Beauty as Camouflage for Violence in True Grit

Left: The colors in the original True Grit
Right: Deserts and barren landscapes 
predominate in the 2010 True Grit

The Coen's films have been described as aesthetically superior by almost all the critics, even those who gave the film a low score. But that seems to be the Coen's mode of entrapment; making even gory blood something to contemplate in terms of form and color. They could be pardoned for this, since after all, we keep forgetting in this age of slickly reconstructed movies, film has always aspired to be an art form.

Here's what I wrote about the aesthetics in No Country for old Men which is used to seduce us into watching the most horrifically violent scenes:
I’m sure it was the slow-moving, often still camera which is especially good at defusing anxiety in the midst of the story’s madness and mayhem that abetted me into watching scenes from No Country for Old Men. Imagine if the shots had been done in fast motion, with guns rattling away, bullets flying, and bodies falling and writhing. The director chose just the right kind of filmic device--an after-the-fact survey of the chaos--to seduce his viewers to keep on looking. I was even reminded of that great film aesthete, Robert Bresson, who constructed his austere scenes of pathos and nihilism with long, still tableaux, as though beauty would excuse what we saw.
In an article on aesthetics used well to depict violence, License for Asthetics in Wilders' "Fitna", I wrote:
And Wilders makes a bold and correct decision with his film. He decides to go for the aesthetic effect. He places the translations of the Koranic verses on sepia toned pages of the Koran itself with its beautiful script and gilded borders. His images of newspaper, film and photographic footage are placed within diffused frames in soft-focus, once again on the sepia-colored background. Even the terrible scenes of the Nick Berg’s beheading, whose final horror Wilders spares us by substituting the images with the muffled, bone-chilling, sounds of his gagged screams, are presented within these blurred frames on this softened background. The music is two classical pieces by Tchaikovsky and Grieg.
After reviewing photos of the original True Grit, I found them to be superior. And although the landscape is rugged, it is greener and more varied. The Coen's seem to like barren lands and deserts. That was their signature cinematography in No Country for Old Men. This is what passes for beautiful cinematography these days.

The Coen Brothers and Evil - Violence in True Grit

Left: The original John Wayn, in the original True Grit.
Right: Jeff Bridges, shady character, in the 2010 True Grit remake.  
Changing his eye patch around won't make him any better...


True Grit is a Western in which [Jeff] Bridges plays a U.S. Marshall hired by a young girl to find her parents' murderers. True Grit is a remake of an old Western with the same name, starring John Wayne who won an Oscar for his role.

Some of the reviews for the film looked good, even impressive. The critic at the New York Times gave the film a perfect 100%. Yet, the New York Observer gave it a 25%. I have never seen such a low score alongside a perfect 100. But I trusted the one or two which described the violence in the film. The reviewer from the San Francisco Chronicle, who gave the film an unimpressive 25%, writes:
If there's one big difference between this version and the old, it's in the attitude toward violence. The new version may be more graphic, but it doesn't present violence as inevitable or necessary, just ugly.
I had already seen the matter-of-fact way in which the Coens incorporate brutality (even evil) into their films, where they determine horrific violence as "inevitable or necessary".

The last film I watched by the Coen brothers was No Country for Old Men in 2008. I included it in the article License for Aesthetics in Wilders' "Fitna", where I compare its gratuitous (awful, terrible) violence with Geert Wilders's calculated and intelligent manipulation of violence in Fitna, which Wilders uses to make his point on Islam. Here is what I wrote:
Then there’s "Fitna," Geert Wilders’ film on the Koran. More precisely, Wilders’ film on the violence prescribed by the Koran, as followed by Muslims. Juxtaposing footage from newspaper, television, and photographic sources with Koranic verses, "Fitna" documents the destruction of the World Trade Center, beheadings, train and subway bombings, child suicide bombers, female genital mutilations, gun-executions of women, hangings of gays, and much more, to show how Muslims are mandated to act in violence. And with a license to kill and destroy.
This 21st century seems to relish violence. More so than the previous one. Or maybe we're just getting immune to it, and we need to up the ante. Many shows and movies have their standard violent fare - audiences seem to need that fix. But we're subtly entering into the domain of excessive (the journalist-speak is "unnecessary") violence, which I think only leads to evil.

The Coen Brothers and Evil - Christmas Release of True Grit

The Coen brothers with Jeff Bridges

It is telling that True Grit came out around Christmas time. And not surprisingly, No Country for Old Men [another Coen film] was released near the end of November in 2007, anticipating the holiday (Thanksgiving and Christmas) crowd. The films are a raw contrast to what we would expect from these peaceful and joyous seasons, especially Christmas. Aggressive deconstructionists/reconstructionists don't want peace, joy, and least of all truth.

As Jesus' imminent death even at his birth (through Herod's decree) anticipated his later death, we should be wary of this violence that presents itself during this holiday season. We may be in for an even bigger battle, a war between Good and Evil, in which everyone of us will have to participate. We better chose our side early, and prepare ourselves by fighting the many small battles along the way in anticipation of our imminent, eminent war.

One simple way would be to boycott and renounce films like True Grit. We are, after all, the audience, and voluntarily (so far) either go or not go to such films. Word of mouth, letters to the editor, blog posts, also do go the extra mile. The worst we can do is allow filmmakers like the Coen brothers to think that they can produce these kinds of films with impunity.

Needless to say, I skipped True Grit.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Skating at Nathan Phillips Square

Skating at Nathan Phillips Square
(Photo by KPA)

Christmas may be over, but the festive mood continues throughout this week as we anticipate the New Year. Skaters at the City Hall's rink in Nathan Phillips Square (named after Toronto's first Jewish mayor) keep the spirits high. Some try their hockey moves (without sticks), others are just beginning.

The old(er) and the new are juxtaposed in the buildings. The new City Hall , which I don't like and which I refrained from photographing, stands near the "Old City Hall" (that's what it's called), seen in the above photo.

Notes:
1. The high rise is part of the city's skyline, and not the new City Hall.
2.The City of Toronto flags are waving in the background. Needless to say, in line with my critical nature, I do not like the flag design. Part of my dislike is that the lifeless new City Hall is the focus of the design (one bad idea always leads to another). But more on that later.

Monday, December 27, 2010

The Coen Brothers and Evil

The Shady Characters of True Grit

Once again, I have written a long post. What can I say, it's my blog, and I'll write what I want to!

Editors keep asking for "short" articles - 750 words seems to be the magic number. I think this is a reflection of the frenetic, short attention span of our society, which has been molded usually by the media - television, films, and of course article editors. Sometimes it is difficult to make one's point, or points, in 750 words; sometimes only five may suffice.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Like the parasites they are, the Coen brothers have zoomed in on Jeff Bridges and convinced him to act in their latest venture, True Grit. Bridges won a well-deserved Oscar for his role as a fading country music star (he sings the songs himself, no less) in Crazy Heart. The Coen brothers must have been impressed with the rugged, independent character that Bridges portrayed as a country western musician, and correctly, I think, assessed that this would pass over to a role in a Western.

True Grit is a Western in which Bridges plays a U.S. Marshall hired by a young girl to find her parents' murderers. To continue with their parasitic tendencies, the Coen brothers' True Grit is a remake of an old Western with the same name, starring John Wayne who won an Oscar for his role.

Some of the reviews for the film looked good, even impressive. The critic at the New York Times gave the film a perfect 100%. Yet, the New York Observer gave it a 25%. I have never seen such a low score alongside a perfect 100. But I trusted the one or two which described the violence in the film. The reviewer from the San Francisco Chronicle, who gave the film an unimpressive 25%, writes:
If there's one big difference between this version and the old, it's in the attitude toward violence. The new version may be more graphic, but it doesn't present violence as inevitable or necessary, just ugly.
I had already seen the matter-of-fact way in which the Coens incorporate brutality (even evil) into their films, where they determine horrific violence as "inevitable or necessary".

The last film I watched by the Coen brothers was No Country for Old Men in 2008. I included it in the article License for Aesthetics in Wilders' "Fitna", where I compare its gratuitous (awful, terrible) violence with Geert Wilders's calculated and intelligent manipulation of violence in Fitna, which Wilders uses to make his point on Islam. Here is what I wrote:
Then there’s "Fitna," Geert Wilders’ film on the Koran. More precisely, Wilders’ film on the violence prescribed by the Koran, as followed by Muslims. Juxtaposing footage from newspaper, television, and photographic sources with Koranic verses, "Fitna" documents the destruction of the World Trade Center, beheadings, train and subway bombings, child suicide bombers, female genital mutilations, gun-executions of women, hangings of gays, and much more, to show how Muslims are mandated to act in violence. And with a license to kill and destroy.

And Wilders makes a bold and correct decision with his film. He decides to go for the aesthetic effect. He places the translations of the Koranic verses on sepia toned pages of the Koran itself with its beautiful script and gilded borders. His images of newspaper, film and photographic footage are placed within diffused frames in soft-focus, once again on the sepia-colored background. Even the terrible scenes of the Nick Berg’s beheading, whose final horror Wilders spares us by substituting the images with the muffled, bone-chilling, sounds of his gagged screams, are presented within these blurred frames on this softened background. The music is two classical pieces by Tchaikovsky and Grieg.
The Coen's films have been described as aesthetically superior by almost all the critics, even those who gave the film a low score. But that seems to be the Coen's signature entrapment; making even gory blood something to contemplate in terms of form and color. They could be pardoned for this, since after all, we keep forgetting in this age of slickly reconstructed movies, film has always aspired to be an art form.

Here's what I wrote about the aesthetics in No Country for old Men which is used to seduce us into watching the most horrifically violent scenes:
I’m sure it was the slow-moving, often still camera which is especially good at defusing anxiety in the midst of the story’s madness and mayhem that abetted me into watching scenes from No Country for Old Men. Imagine if the shots had been done in fast motion, with guns rattling away, bullets flying, and bodies falling and writhing. The director chose just the right kind of filmic device--an after-the-fact survey of the chaos--to seduce his viewers to keep on looking. I was even reminded of that great film aesthete, Robert Bresson, who constructed his austere scenes of pathos and nihilism with long, still tableaux, as though beauty would excuse what we saw.
Another element the Coen brothers use is in both No Country for Old Men, and in True Grit is ambiguous racial characteristics. In No Country for Old Men, the lead female is played by someone who is clearly a white/Asian mix. I write in the blog entry "Authenticity in Movies":
The second [instance of inauthenticity] one, which disturbed me more than the first, was Llewelyn Moss' wife, Carla Jean, who looked like a Chinese, most likely mixed Caucasian/Chinese, to me. I would have expected a southern red-neck type wife, or even a Mexican (or 1/2 Mexican.) Someone who looked like she came from there.
When I saw photos of the young girl in True Grit who hires Jeff Bridge's character, my first thought was that she was mixed black/Chinese. Maybe Filipino. The Wikipedia entry on her says about her background:
[Hailee - what kind of name is that?] Steinfeld's father is Jewish and her mother is of Filipino, African-American and European-American descent.
I get the feeling that the Coen bros. like to mix it up. None of their lead male actors has any racial ambiguity, which leads me to wonder if much of their racial cross-overs are sexually tinged.

These days, I'm noticing a preponderance of mixed Asians - it is often white and Asian, but black and Asian is cropping up. It could just be people's tendency to follow trends - yes even in marriage. Or, it might be the subtly aggressive Asians (Chinese) women, both new immigrants and several generations down, who pursue white (and now blacks, who are acquiring their own prestige - just look at the President of the United States of America) partners to dominate society with their offspring and mates. "Whites" still get the most tickets in our divisive multi-culti society. And a white/Chinese mix can get the best of both worlds. The mixed Chinese I've met may appear to live Western lives, but they seem to have their heart (and a foot) back in their (Asian) motherland. I noticed this especially in art, where Chinese - mixed, first generation immigrants, fifth generation, it didn't matter - would almost always incorporate an "Asian" element in their work.

And white men are going for it, even in movie-making, abandoning their less "demure" white women; women, who after all participated in establishing their (the white men's) place in the hierarchy of races (and art-making). Perhaps violence and racial mixing go together, even if only in artistic endeavors. Forcing together unexpected elements is an aggressive, if not violent, act. And, at the end of the day, art is partly an expression, or a representation, of the society around it.

This 21st century seems to relish violence. More so than the previous one. Or maybe we're just getting immune to it, and we need to up the ante. Many shows and movies have their standard violent fare - audiences seem to need that fix. But we're subtly entering into the domain of excessive (the journalist-speak is "unnecessary") violence, which I think only leads to evil.

It is telling that True Grit came out around Christmas time. And not surprisingly, No Country for Old Men was released near the end of November in 2007, anticipating the holiday (Thanksgiving and Christmas) crowd. The films are a raw contrast to what we would expect from these peaceful and joyous seasons, especially Christmas. And aggressive deconstructionists/reconstructionists don't want peace, joy, and least of all truth.

As Jesus' imminent death even at his birth (through Herod's decree) anticipated his later death, we should be wary of this violence that presents itself during this holiday season. We may be in for an even bigger battle, a war between Good and Evil, in which everyone of us will have to participate. We better chose our side early, and prepare ourselves by fighting the many small battles along the way in anticipation of our imminent, eminent war.

One simple way would be to boycott and renounce films like True Grit. We are, after all, the audience, and voluntarily (so far) either go or not go to such films. Word of mouth, letters to the editor, blog posts, also do go the extra mile. The worst we can do is allow filmmakers like the Coen brothers to think that they can produce these kinds of films with impunity.

Needless to say, I skipped True Grit.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Christmas Day at Dusk

(Photo by KPA)

After all the flurry of festivities, including the long preparation towards the Holy Day, Christmas day always surprises me at how calm it is. I went for a walk at my beloved park, Allan Gardens, at dusk. I took my camera, since I knew there would be something magical to capture. A couple of noisy men walked hurriedly through the park to their pressing engagement (or so it seemed), and all was quiet. I was the only one there.

Allan Gardens, and especially its Victorian conservatory, sits in an oasis apart from the rest of the city, both in time and location. High rises are visible in the distance, reminding us that the park is not so far removed from the city after all. As I took the photo, the lights in the park and in the distant buildings were just going on.

Merry Christmas!


Friday, December 24, 2010

Coventry Carol

The Coventry Carol, sung by Charlotte Church

I think Charlotte Church's voice is perfect for this piece. Often, it is sung by women or boy sopranos. I think neither capture the lament of the young Mary, and when Charlotte sang this, in her more popular days, she was also barely a teenager. She released the track album "Dream a Dream", an album of Christmas carols in 2000 when she was just fourteen. Here are the lyrics.

I remember reading somewhere that the nativity story anticipates the crucifixion. The young innocent Jesus faces death, even at birth. And this cloud follows him to his actual death at Easter, still and always innocent.

We should just be thankful we had him for those few years, when in a flurry of responsibility, he disseminated so much of his message to us and his disciples.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Polar Bears in the Snow?

Cute Furry Friend? I wouldn't
want to get too close to him.

What's so unusual about polar bears in the snow?

Below is more of Drudge sensationalizing the Christmas news. But, I get the feeling that he doesn't like the Christmas season much. At least I wrote about polar bears in the summer heat! But, I've noticed the trend, subtle but present, of the shift away from celebrating Christmas in general.

Here are some of Drudge's current snow-scare headlines:

- Snowstorm Threat Shifts South...

- Dangerous Christmas Weekend Winter Storm

- Atlanta first snowy Christmas Day since 1882?

- Syracuse smashes snow records for December...

- Forecasters: Colorado faces most dangerous avalanche conditions in state history...

- Freak diversion of jet stream paralyzing globe with freezing conditions...

Still, he's mellowed out a little the day before Christmas Eve. Maybe he's getting a lot of mail...

Under the heading "Christmas Miracle":

- Firefighters save one of their own...

- 51-year-old recipient of 16-year-old's heart...

- Person leaves nugget of gold in SALVATION ARMY kettle...

- Mother Gives Daughter One Of Her Kidneys...

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Winter Wonderland

(Photo by KPA)

At the Allan Gardens.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

A Generic Christmas , I mean Holiday, Season

(Photo by KPA)

Cars, buildings and storefronts light up at dusk on Yonge Street, making a messy cluster, which nonetheless has a "big city" attraction to it. Despite this being the main stretch in Toronto, there is minimal Christmas decoration. And what is up is an odd combination of somber purples and blues, rather than the traditional greens, reds and golds. Even the decorative pieces are strange. I think they're meant to represent crystals (of ice?). Why not real stars, candles, ornaments, mistletoe - and the list goes on? Even the retail stores are empty of decoration, except for a few. This makes for a rather glum walk down this street during the most festive season of the year.

In a previous post, I opine that the reason retail stores are devoid of decorations is that their owners are just not interested to do so. One reason for this is that they could be members of the non-Christian, non-white, multicultural community - Chinese, Muslims, non-Anglicans, etc., who do not celebrate Christmas.

I think that Christmas is slowly being pushed aside in Toronto, and presumably throughout Canada, diminishing its festive nature, and reducing the traditional celebrations surrounding it such as decorations in public places. Of course, there are places which still emphasize Christmas, but they are few and far between. The department stores are such places [1, 2], but perhaps their reason is as much economic, in order to attract shoppers, as maintaining some semblance of tradition.

There is always a surge in "Holiday" spirit around this time of year, but it is rarely called a Christmas spirit. The sign directly above the Acrtic Tree in the busy Dundas Square it is not "Christmas Wish" but "Holiday Wish." Even the beloved Christmas tree gets short-changed in this square, where a pile of round objects, presumably mounds of snow, replace giant fir - unsuccessfully, in my assessment.

Multicultural Toronto (and Canada, I presume) is doing away with this tradition, and replacing it with generic terms and objects.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Snow Dust

(Photo by KPA)

I had meant to title this blog "a dusting of snow." Just to make sure of the terminology, and thanks to a Google search, I found this:

Dust of Snow
By Robert Frost

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

Here's what one commentator (from the link above) says about the poem:
A beautiful and deeply ambiguous poem. The image of the act of nature reviving the poet's spirit is lovely but hardly serene. Crows are noisy and, because of their tendency to eat carrion, are thought in literature and mythology to forecast death. The hemlock bush (not the tree) is poisonous and, of course, dust is what we all return to. So death hovers here. Yet the poet's day is saved and so is ours. It is interesting the the New York subway system has chosen to put this poem on a poster in many cars this winter.

Christmas Photos

- Christmas Domes
- Christmas Storefronts
- Christmas Windows II
- Arctic Tree
- Christmas Windows I
- Christmas Homes
- Christmas Crystals



Sunday, December 19, 2010

Christmas Domes

Allan Gardens Conservatory: Christmas Domes
(Photo by KPA)


I passed the Allan Gardens Conservatory from a distance last night, and saw the looming conservatory in the dark, with its glowing glass domes. The conservatory hours are extended until 7pm to view the Christmas decorations. As Christmas decorations go, they are very muted. A few giant wreaths here, a Christmas tree with lights there, and a clever floral "sculptor" of a polar bear with cubs near the entrance. There is a carpet of lovely deep red poinsettias, and yellow ones which don't have the festive feeling. But otherwise the decorations don't take away from the other flowers and plants.

But who need extra decoration when the conservatory itself is so impressive. The above scene evoked the spirit of Christmas for me, with the pine trees, the snow on the ground, the bright lantern lamp, and of course the glowing glass domes and windows.

Christmas Storefronts

Store front Christmas decorations at the
historic Ryrie Building on Yonge Street
(Photo by KPA)

I posted recently on Christmas window displays, mostly the domain of department stores which decorate with nativity scenes, fireside Christmas trees, and carols emanating from hidden speakers. Whole busloads arrive on busy Saturdays to celebrate Christmas with a visit to the Bay's windows.

But storefront decorations take it all to another level. Storefronts, which are part of the "main street" of towns and cities, feature more elaborate designs of lights, tinsels and baubles. There are no Christmas "scenes" but rather an explosion of sparkle added to the store's merchandise. Clothes, furniture, toys, book are surrounded by Christmas cheer. Winter days end early, and by 5pm, the lights go up and the spirits are lightened.

Toronto is trying to revive and restore historic "main street" storefronts, and Yonge Street is nothing but the Main Street of Toronto. Despite the seedy dollar and convenience stores that dominate the long stretch, often with owners who have no inclination to celebrate Christmas, there are stores which maintain the tradition, and give a Christmas cheer (and greeting) with their enthusiastic decorations.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Ryder's Return

Winona Ryder is now starring (albeit a supporting role)
in the hit movie The Black Swan.

I wrote a pretty harsh comment on Winona Ryder, the actress who was caught shoplifting a few years ago. My post was on her interaction with Angelina Jolie, the aggressive, narcissistic "we are the world" children collector, who clearly intimidated Ryder during their film Girl, Interrupted.

While I do think Jolie is psychologically unstable, this might be excusing her for what must be premeditated behavior from odd to sinful, including adultery, adoption of the world's children, and her bizarre tattoo collection.

Ryder is now in the recently released film The Black Swan and plays a supporting actress role. In the film, she is forced to relinquish her prima ballerina post to a younger dancer. This reviewer writes a glowing article on her, saying that she has several other films yet to release. The director of The Black Swan, Ron Howard (whom I will always associate with Richie Cunnigham in Happy Days - there are still reruns!) says of Ryder:
She's definitely doing it smartly by focusing on roles that show she can act, so people remember her as an actress rather than someone who got arrested for shoplifting in 2001.
Ryder says of her shoplifting/presciption drugs mishp, and it rings true:
I got really wiped out, and I had a semi-breakdown. I wasn't sleeping, I didn't know who I was because of different roles.

Those things. I think they're more powerful than people think. People think, 'Oh, heroin's the hardest,' but pills can be...

I broke my arm in two places. For about a month, I had to take it. But then I just kept taking it for, like... maybe three more weeks. But the thing I do remember is that once my arm was OK and they were still there, you kind of like...
I can never see Angelina Jolie saying, "I didn't know who I was because of different roles." Jolie doesn't let a role take over her, she takes over a role (or plays roles where she can do so).

Ryder is getting unanimous praise for her acting, which is after all what Hollywood is about. I'm still waiting for Jolie's redeeming role, but I don't expect it to happen. Hollywood has never been a sane place, and hopefully Ryder will go on to fulfill expectations.

Merry Christmas!


Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Lovely

Sarah Jessica Parker's signature
perfume "Lovely"

Here is a review for "Lovely", Sarah Jessica Parker's signature perfume, a "floral, woody musk" :
Lovely opens with soft citruses (nectarine and bergamot) and woody (rosewood) notes, with a touch of lavender, which is very discrete and not at all sharp. The fragrance develops further with notes of apple martini, white daffodil and orchid. The base unites white amber, cedar, woody notes and white musk.
I don't really get the apple martini - can't smell it, and don't even know how it should smell. This is how SJP gets her reputation as a little flakey.

There are just too many celebrity perfumes around. I suppose one way to solve the dilemma of which to buy is just to go for your favorite star's concoction. But how can anyone buy Jennifer Lopez's sticky and clingy "Glow" and any of its off shoots? The reason why Lopez has to keep re-introducing newer versions of "Glow" is because none of them are any good.

SJP, on the other hand, has had "Lovely" on the market since 2005. She has upgraded it (probably to keep up with the competition) only once to "Lovely Liquid Satin" which is quite a different perfume, described as a "chypre floral":
Lovely Liquid Satin was launched in 2006...Top notes are rosemary, lavender, mandarin orange and apple; middle notes are patchouli and orchid; base notes are musk, cedar and white amber.
I think SJP is a good actress. She just got stuck in that role with those other three women. She's a lot better than the over-driven Kim Cartrall, and the other two don't even merit mentioning. Still, Parker has to enjoy, or agree with, the image she's portraying, otherwise she wouldn't have franchised into two Sex and the City movies.

Creating a perfume is not simply an olfactory exercise. It requires an ability to anticipate different smells, and how they would blend with each other. In a really good perfume, the whole should be greater than the sum of its parts. And not only that, the parts should be indiscernible, and only their occasional whiffs are to be detected amidst the full bouquet. It is work for an imaginative and smart mind. SJP certainly has that. I suppose, like all liberals, she loses this mind as she views the world through the opaque glasses of her ideology. Perhaps the "apple martini" is a give away.

Nonetheless, this slightly heavy perfume is perfect for winter, and for the Christmas smells and scents of spiced hot punches, rich Christmas cakes, and warmth all around.

Angelina Jolie Movie Tanks - I Wonder Why?


I watched a Jolie movie a while ago - released on TV - where she plays the supporting actress role as an institutionalized woman in Girl, Interrupted with the pathetic Winona Ryder in the star role. I admit that she does steal the movie away from Ryder, which is not hard to do since Ryder plays herself in the film's lead, as a character with zero self-confidence, who is bedazzled by the aggressive Jolie.

Acting is a talent which Jolie doesn't have. She simply resorted to hyperbole in her "psychiatric patient" role in Girl Interrupted, over-exaggerating and forcefully attacking what could have been a subtly interesting character.

I watched a film of hers again recently - The Changeling - but walked out of it and I really can't remember any of its details.

Well, here is a much-touted movie with star actors - Jolie and Johnny Depp - which has tanked according to the movie statistics. Film critic Roger Ebert writes:
[I]t doesn’t matter that the plot is absurd. That goes with the territory. But if it’s not going to be nonstop idiotic action, then the acting and dialogue need a little style and grace and kidding around.
He continues:
In theory, these two should engage in witty flirtation and droll understatement. In practice, no one seems to have alerted Depp that the movie is a farce.
I've always found that Jolie (and Depp, but especially Jolie) take themselves very, very seriously as actors. Jolie does so to the extent that instead of acting, she just plays an inflated, self-conscious version of herself. I suppose that is what all narcissists do, which is to blow themselves up so much that all that is left is helium.

Of course, the adoring fans (critics and movie goers alike) didn't figure this out until it was too late. Now, they are forced to backtrack on all that adulation, and are deserting their heroin/heroine [I added heroine after I spotted what could have been a spelling mistake. But Jolie as the heroin-gone-bad for these star-addicted fans actually works!] in hordes either by simply not attending her movie, or canning it with their reviews. Top critics at Rotten Tomatoes gave it an incredible 7% rating. At least it scored higher than Madonna's painful foray into acting in Swept Away which got hit with 5%. But Madonna's excuse can be that she's only a singer. What excuse does Jolie have?

I think something else it at play than mere bad acting. I think fans are tired of Jolie's relentlessly bad personality. After all, there are many films with many bad actors who still garner enthusiastic support. Fans are usually forgiving, as long as they sense some kind of remorse for a marriage gone bad, for raising difficult children, and even the occasional drunken arrest - it is incredible that Robert Downey Jr. is making a comeback. But Jolie has crossed that "forgiveness" line.

Let's not forget that Jolie seduced Brad Pitt from his wife, the much-loved Jennifer Aniston, who played the ordinary but lovable Rachel on the highly popular comedy series Friends. But Aniston is actually a good, solid actress, and this gives her a double edge when alongside Jolie, who has no off-screen popularity to fall back on. And when comedians come to your rescue rather than to toast you, as did Chelsea Handler in a tirade of support for her friend Jennifer, recounting the horrendous treatment Aniston received both from her cheating ex-husband and his live-in, you have surely gained a huge place in the public's sympathy. And Chandler has no sympathy for Jolie's "charity" work either.
"She's a homewrecker, she is," Handler, 35, said of Jolie, the current of love of Aniston's ex Brad Pitt. "She can rescue as many babies from as many countries as she wants to..."
I think the public has also had it with Jolie's smorgasbord of a family. There is only so far "international" adoption will take a star. Western people are generous with their money, and Americans lead the world in charitable contributions, yet there is always a limit to people's kindness.

Collecting children from the four corners of the world just looks weird, if not cruel. Jolie's adoptions are now being seen as a psychological imbalance rather than as a quest to really help the world's poor. It didn't do Mia Farrow any good. The camouflage that Jolie enclosed herself behind is slowly eroding, and we are seeing her for what she really is. A bad actress, with personality problems who is harming the innocents that get in her way.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Bay Store Christmas Window Displays


The Bay department store continues with the tradition of decorating its windows during Christmas with seasonal scenes. Even the mice get to enjoy this holiday- the "underground" scene in the image above is the mice quarters, replete with matchbox beds. (Click on the image to view a larger version). The bottom image with what look like Salvation Army carolers has a realistic dog (more so than the humans) sitting by the paper boy. Everyone, animal and human, gets to participate - or is at least placed in the created scene by a generous artist. The scenes evoke Victorian Toronto, traditional and confident.

Both these scenes are filled with comfort and color. Yet in the real world of Toronto, despite adorned Christmas trees coming (sprouting) up everywhere, and carols filling every space we walk in, there still isn't the sense of a holiday. But, I've already talked about the multi-culti aura that permeates the city, which seems to affect even this most vigorous of our Christian holidays.

In front of the Bay yesterday, there was a bus load of people who looked like out-of-town Canadian tourists. They had made it part of their itinerary to stop and look at the windows. Parents with small children in tow are also frequent visitors to these windows. This will be a special memory for these small children to have: going all the way to Queen and Yonge on a cold winter's day, just before Christmas, to look at the window displays with carols sounding from the speakers. The Victorian era is an apt time for a return to tradition. It evokes nostalgia. Yet it is not too far gone, since the tradition is still practiced, and it still affects our modern spirit. The Bay (and Eaton's) haven't given up on continuing the tradition of Christmas, at least in their modest store decorations. We will have to wait and see if that is enough.


(Photos by KPA)

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Arctic Christmas Tree

Tree in the square by the Eaton Centre
(Photo by KPA)

This is not a very attractive Christmas tree. It is too sparse. The warmth and color of the previous "crystal" tree is much more attractive. But I understand what the designers were trying to do with this one. The circular shapes are mounds of snow, piled up to form a sort of Arctic Christmas tree. After all, Canada is often called "The Great White North" despite that being a myth diligently kept up by some Canadians. It's been very mild these last few days in Toronto, and next week touted as the coldest yet, has a wind chill factor of only -10 centigrade.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Christmas Windows

Christmas sparkles at the Bay department store window display
(Photo by KPA)

The Christmas tradition of decorating department store windows is now in full progress. The Bay department store has started its yearly display. I managed to photograph the above picture. But the crowd was more interested (as I was, but couldn't get through) in the mechanical shows of Christmas elves and perfect Victorian interiors with decked out Christmas trees, which were displayed in the windows around the corner.

The displays in the crowd-less side windows are nonetheless beautiful. The above window is adorned with shimmering glass Christmas trees surrounded by perfume flasks, gold jewelry and large sparkling crystals. The purple band running through the photo, and the purple tint on the silver candle sticks and the Christmas balls, are from external lights.

While walking along the displays, we are rewarded with Christmas carols from solid choirs - none of those pop star renditions. I asked a sales attendant if I could get the CD. I will try again when I can spare more time to meander through the maze of departments that might help me acquire their Christmas cheer.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Snow for Christmas

Cabbagetown Christmas decorations
(Photo by KPA)

The Cabbagetown neighborhood has some of the most impressive Victorian home architecture in Toronto. I am always surprised at the restraint the residents show when decorating for Christmas. Perhaps it is proper that they show moderation with tinsels, since that would detract from the beautiful homes. Still, a Christmas tree with a few lights is enough to set the mood, especially when there's snow.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Christmas Crystals

Photo by KPA

Swarkovski crystals decorate the Christmas tree at the downtown Toronto Eaton Centre. The tree rotates very slowly, to view of the whole tree, and also to let the light catch the crystals which emanate multi-colored sparkles.

The wonderful think about this tree is its location. Despite being in the downtown core, the mall has none of the burrowing, underground feeling one often has in malls. The glass roof above gives directly into the outside, and indoor lighting is minimal since the most of the light comes from the ceiling.

Photo by KPA

Friday, December 3, 2010

Vdare's Woes

Photo of Peter Brimelow posted at VDARE.Com
during their current fund raising drive

I wonder why Peter Brimelow decided to post the above photo for his fund raising drive at Vdare? Is it because it is the most current? It looks it. But, how "old" are photos which are a year or two old? Isn't better to have a complimentary photo, taken a year or two ago, rather than an uncomplimentary one taken recently?

I believe that people demonstrate their inner conflicts and troubles in their expressions. Trying to cover them up only results in conflicted manifestations. Also, I believe that people with inner conflicts have a hard time deciphering their (and others') expressions. What looks strong may be weak, what looks attractive is subtly devious.

I don't mean to malign people, but Brimelow is a leaders of some kind who is asking us, mere plebs, to be his followers of sort. Brimelow wants us to read his online magazine Vdare. I recently wrote about his marriage to a woman almost forty years his junior, whom he met...through his online magazine! And now they have an infant daughter together. A sixty-some-year-old man with a twenty-something wife, and a new baby. Old enough to be the grandfather of his daughter is one unpleasant factor. But I wonder how this young girl will grow up, with an aging father who by the time she is ready to get married - the norm being in her twenties, like her is mother now - will be a real senior citizen who should be getting ready for his last rites?

My understanding is that Brimelow is a libertarian. Libertarians' overriding motto seems to be "don't harm anyone" which gives them license to do whatever they desire, as long as it doesn't violet their sacrosanct motto. I write here [1, 2] about my email interactions with another libertarian, Ilana Mercer, and her sly revelations (they never come out with it directly, do they?) that I had to glean from her abusive emails to me that absolution through the miraculous grace of "not harming anyone" seems to be the way out for libertarians to allow the supreme individual to triumph.


Monday, November 29, 2010

St. Joseph and the Infant Christ

As we near Christmas, and we hear the lovely stories of Jesus's birth and his young mother Mary, I always feel that we keep his earthly father, Joseph, a little on the side-lines.

I am re-posting a segment I did on St. Joseph, and on the artists who painted him. These are purely subjective choices. I don't know if the paintings are masterpieces, or if some of the painters are even recognized in the roster of the Western canon. But, in many of the paintings, I found the gentleness with which Joseph interacted with his young infant touching.

Here is the website where I found most of these images.

[I've removed some works where Christ is already a young man in my original blog post. To view the complete post, you can go here.]



Jesus's Earthly Father
Saturday, November 27, 2010

Left: St. Joseph. By Rudolph Blattler, Switzerland, 1899
Right: St. Joseph with the Christ Child.
By Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Italy, 1600s


Left: St. Joseph and Child. By Enrico Reffo, Italy, 1800s
Right: Saint Joseph and Jesus. By Enrico Manfrini, Italy, 2000

Left: St. Joseph, The Holy Child.
By Bartolome Esteban Murillo, Spain, 1600s
Right: Holding Heaven. By Ron DiCianni, USA, 2004


Left: Saint Joseph with Child. By Brother Simeon, USA, 1900s
Right:Joseph with Infant Christ. By Bartolome Esteban Murillo,
Spain, 1655-56


The Joseph in Enrico Reffo's painting appears the oldest. But, perhaps that is true to the reality. Joseph was quite likely a mature man when he married Mary, who was half his age. Perhaps that is where his gentleness came from, entrusted as he was with a baby in his mature years. But, I don't think God would have given Jesus a harsh father. Joseph's gentleness is part of the beautiful design.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

St. Joseph and the Infant Christ - Correction of previous painting of Joseph

St. Joseph and Child.
By Enrico Reffo, Italy, 1800s


I have corrected a double posting of an image in the previous post: St. Joseph and the Infant Christ. The correct image for "St. Joseph and Child" by Enrico Reffo is now up in the original post, and above too. Other than Brother Simeon's painting of Joseph, the Joseph in Reffo's appears the oldest. But, perhaps that is true to the reality. Joseph was a quite likely a mature man when he married Mary, who was half his age. Perhaps that is where his gentleness came from, entrusted as he was with a baby in his mature years. But, I don't think God would have given Jesus a harsh father. Joseph's gentleness is part of the beautiful design.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

St. Joseph and the Infant Christ

As we near Christmas, and we hear the lovely stories of Jesus's birth and his young mother Mary, I always feel that we keep his earthly father, Joseph, a little on the side-lines.

I am re-posting a segment I did on St. Joseph, and on the artists who painted him. These are purely subjective choices. I don't know if the paintings are masterpieces, or if some of the painters are even recognized in the roster of the Western canon. But, in many of the paintings, I found the gentleness with which Joseph interacted with his young infant touching.

Here is the website where I found most of these images.

[I've removed some works where Christ is already a young man in my original blog post. To view the complete post, you can go here.]



Jesus's Earthly Father
Saturday, November 27, 2010

Left: St. Joseph. By Rudolph Blattler, Switzerland, 1899
Right: St. Joseph with the Christ Child.
By Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Italy, 1600s


Left: St. Joseph and Child. By Enrico Reffo, Italy, 1800s
Right: Saint Joseph and Jesus. By Enrico Manfrini, Italy, 2000

Left: St. Joseph, The Holy Child.
By Bartolome Esteban Murillo, Spain, 1600s
Right: Holding Heaven. By Ron DiCianni, USA, 2004


Left: Saint Joseph with Child. By Brother Simeon, USA, 1900s
Right:Joseph with Infant Christ. By Bartolome Esteban Murillo,
Spain, 1655-56



Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving

George Washington
The Athenaeum Portrait
, 1796.
By Stuart Gilbert.
[Click here to view a larger version]

Happy Thanksgiving



Sunday, November 21, 2010

Sarah Palin’s Lost Opportunity At Change

Bristol, finalist in Dancing with the Stars
                              *
"These days, it is quite acceptable for a
seventeen-year-old girl to parade her
out-of- wedlock pregnancy, and to have
her mother’s (and family’s) full support."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sarah Palin's Lost Opportunity
By Kidist Paulos Asrat
06/21/2009
Chornwatch.com

These days, it is quite acceptable for a seventeen-year-old girl to parade her out-of- wedlock pregnancy, and to have her mother’s (and family’s) full support.

About fifty years ago, such young girls would have been sent to a secret location, given birth, and had their babies taken for adoption.

This wasn’t just a prudish precaution. Almost every culture in the world abhors out-of-wedlock births. Whole families and societies are at risk of instability if illegitimate children are nonchalantly and openly accepted in their midst. This is nothing against illegitimate children, they are hardly at fault, but against the environment which could allow illegitimate children to be the norm.

All successful cultures depend on stable families. This is a long, ritualized process, which begins with the marriage of two people, and continues with their giving birth to their children within the confines of that marriage. Each step of the family-building process has its own ritual, from the marriage of the parents, the birth of their children, their baptism and spiritual initiations, their upbringing and education, all culminating with the marriage of these same children so that they can continue with the long and intricate saga of life.

When Sarah Palin paraded her young pregnant daughter Bristol and her boyfriend Levi Johnson at the Republican National Convention, she broke this ritual, and forced us to accept this strange spectacle as normal behavior.

And the conservative world consented. No conservative media reported on the non-conservative nature of the situation. When the liberal media became critical about Palin’s unorthodox family life, which also included her new-born Downs syndrome baby, conservatives descended on them with furious op-eds and commentaries.

A group of conservative women even participated in a video called “I am Sarah Palin”, supporting her working mother role, and daring anyone to say otherwise. One cannot help but wonder if this video title was alluding to an earlier militant feminist phrase, “I am woman (hear me roar).” These Palin women certainly roared.

The Huffington Post is describing the reaction to the most recent Palin incident, involving David Letterman’s jokes and the consequent fallout, as a “new wave of feminism.” I believe this new wave started when Palin went on the grand stage of the RNC as a conservative candidate, bringing her pregnant daughter and her boyfriend, and an infant child along with her. She presented herself as the epitome of the working mom, balancing teenaged children, a special needs child and a demanding career. She was the poster for the modern woman who is not content to stay at home and take care of her family, but who thinks she can do it all.

Letterman’s critique – in the form of acerbic jokes rather than articles - of Palin’s family was met with the roaring force Sarah Palin herself. Palin went on a media blitz, doing her rounds with the morning and evening shows in New York calling, demanding, for Letterman’s apology. How could he attack a young girl with such cruel jokes? she loudly lamented. This is nothing but harmful to the self-esteem of young girls, to be the brunt of “rape” jokes by lecherous old men like Letterman, she continued.

And women around America supported her. There was no longer the Democratic and Republican divide that was still strong when Hillary, the First Potential Woman President was running for the presidency. The self-esteem of young girls eroded by sexist and lecherous old men trumped all that. Here was a movement that was a continuation of the “I am Sarah Palin” pioneer group.

Letterman apologized profusely. In fact he apologized twice. And CBS, his station, still continues to receive threats of sponsorship withdrawals after The Olive Garden and the Embassy Suites Hotels already removed their ads.

In a normal world, the sharp tongue of a comedian would have revealed the truth of a situation, forcing the targeted individual to reassess his situation and either make things better, or just leave town.

Palin remained in Letterman’s town, and attacked him instead, absolutely oblivious to the situation she had created. Her headlong immersion into her political career had obviously left gaps in her family life. Levi Johnson gave a glimpse of that in his own round of talk shows a few months earlier. He revealed that he was coerced into attending the RNC with Bristol, unlike the happy family image we were being fed. He also said that he was often allowed to stay overnight at the Palin house, in Bristol’s bedroom. Bristol must have been out of control for Palin to concede to such arrangement. Family dynamics must have been pretty bad for Palin to have taken such drastic measures.

In the end, rather than face up to her failures as a mother, Palin readily took on the “victim’s” role, and entered the world of new wave feminism. She took no responsibility for her daughter’s condition, a situation which only a few decades ago would have brought shame to such a family, and especially the mother. She sacrificed the harmony of her family for an ambitious political life, with no guarantees that she will get the prize of presidentship. After all, her RNC debacle didn’t earn her anything but the airing of her family’s secrets.

Fifty years ago, it wouldn’t have been just a popular comedian who would have made those disparaging jokes. The whole attitude of the community and the neighborhood would have made it very clear to Palin that she had erred.

Now, all she has to do is call on her sisterhood of conservative and liberal new wave feminists, and talk about low self-esteem and young girls as victims of (lecherous), sexist men in the guise of comedians. This is such weak language coming from someone who hopes to lead the country sometime in the future.