November sun
Why do you leave me so to die
When needs you most
To question our sky
Thought of you at noon today
Tomorrow.
Must the winter come so soon?
Oper Frankfurt
.
.
* Any resemblances to life on earth living or dead on this website is totally co-incidental.
(C- The Warning Brothers)
Monday 30 October 2017
Sunday 29 October 2017
A monster calls....
You know what is my problem and frustration right now! That I created
out of what really were cherished but im-mouldable ashes of my family
life and created a garden for myself elsewhere. Independently. As always
I did. Never having to ask for help (kinda always knowing none would be
given). A Monster Calls in
a parallel universe. What I didn’t realize was that there was an
American pie in the sky Commander who ultimately had a key to the garden
gate and who could switch off the oxygen anytime. No individual malice,
simply an architecture still standing gone woefully wrong for those
'outside the box'. Foundations always flawed that no-one was ever brave
enough to question. Not that I chose the wrong place for my garden of
neuron and nature just the financial structure bears no relationship to
the organic. Tick all the boxes and that key is harder to grab. But you
need to know the boxes to tick. Equally, ticking them authorizes access
to that key. People either assume that you know or they care not that
you don't.
Tbc….perhaps...
Wizard of Lies
You are not going to like this NYC but what the heck do I care any more...my 'friend' keeps tellin' me to write. So that is what I shall try to do....stay tuned.
Initially I was angry at Richard Brody's review of Detroit in The New Yorker. Re-reading realized that it was all very well argued. What it lacked was something that has been a quandary of cinema all my life. The fact that all cinema is a representation of life. The first audiences of Lumiere's 1895 train ran for the exits in Paris in Étonnement . The fiction was absolutely real to them. They weren't idiots: it would be as if an amazing hologram of an alien invasion was somehow projected onto Times Square New York akin Orson Welles.
Even the greatest documentary film makers inevitably can't get it 'right' or indeed 'wrong'. Life will always get them. Fred Wiseman opts for no manipulative music and as much footage as possible. Yet always it will be an edit of reality. I (and YOU) could have had Google glasses from the age of whatever. Recording everything. But what about the other dimensions? The Rashomon angles? There is only a 'relative' truth.
Back
to my dialectic with Brody. I agree. And I agree that the power and
manipulation of the cinema image is problematic. Isn't it akin to music?
I mean you can rant and bang the instrument of choose. It has a
dramatic effect. But you can compose/play something that isn't the
reality yet becomes one through sheer force of talent and audience
reception. Many great compositions went the wayside in their day that
being said. I believe Detroit is an example of that displacement. It is a manipulative use of cinema. Would a documentary have the same effect? !
Joshua Oppenheimer totally nailed the quandary in The Act of Killing. Almost. When he asked the perpetrators of unspeakable acts to 'don' costume and re-enact the parts they played in the atrocity's of his childhood. Not sure that I could hug as he did, however. Real for Oppenheimer though. Life is a constant manipulation and wizardry of lies. New York is simply unbelievable. It is a cinema screen of lies. I am sure it is the same in Moscow, London (I know) etc. But everything is magnified in NYC let alone America.
I feel deep sympathy and sorry for Bernie Madoff's sons and wife. Everyone assumed they must have known. America is totally based on assumptions. That will be the country's ultimate narcissism and dare I say it: ultimate downfall. There's a scene in Gone Girl where Amy's husband is accosted by a stranger at the donut/coffee 'help find her' center. He agrees to a 'selfie' photo (very reluctantly). He quickly asks the said gal to erase. She is the bitch from hell thereafter for 5 sec. Next thing: the photo is all over the media claiming what an uncaring, arsehole husband is he. THAT is America.
I know/we know- De Niro is Madoff. You see the follicles of his nose and clever perspective reflection of son's death news in his glasses- yawn-hey I used that trick decades ago:) It works, though. Like actors upon a stage that you know isn't real something starts to happen inside our heads. Godard knows that and quick as a flash moves on. Most movies don't. They are (in Brody's argument) totally manipulative. Hate to quote an artist cliche but Picasso's art is a lie that makes us realize the truth is ever so true nowadays. Or should be so. You tell the truth (mostly dead or wounded) in the NY Post or whatever and people read and they move on. Few ever really listen. React. Object. Question. Camus' certitude of the daily round.
The lives of New York (nay America) are build upon and around that certitude of breakfast TV's assertion of life. Credit score and the credit card is all. Pay off your card every month but we know that you won't so that you will inevitably make us loads of money. Madoff was a crook/confidence trickster but no more so than many many many other Americans and the most cherished financial institutions of America. I mean how many Craigs List 'send a cheque' scams can one put up with. The police aren't interested. Murders happening everywhere. I could go on with the wholesale money laundering operations of one major American bank in South America over deacdes and few say boo to a goose. Not sure how to end all this....well I don't have to it isn't The New Yorker after all...;) Does fictional cinema manipulate us in a way that real life doesn't? I would argue yes. In a good way, depending on the product, a subliminal dialectic is born and we as humans may exit a cinema or a home screen and maybe question our life that little bit more.
I need to pee…'tis midnight and a monster calls...maybe I'll be alive to finish tbc
What makes Godard one of the most innovative movie directors of all time is that he saturates and interrogates the fictional moving image with cinema language to such an extent it neither becomes fiction nor reality. The habitat of a third dimension. You (and Godard sneakily) wants to immerse in Georges Delerue's Camille theme in Le Mépris (Contempt) then tossing you back upon the sea you are in a documentary. And then not. It's akin to art. Is Picasso's Guernica one of the greatest paintings? I would argue not. It has an enormous power but that power derives not from a multitude of rippling consent and dissent but from a singular tragedy, albeit abstracted. Visconti's use of music in Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) is not Godard. But Tancredi's theme never resolves abstracting rather than immersing and manipulating you into the screen image. Can documentary be art? Sometimes though rarely. Is Nikolaus Geyrhalter's Our Daily Bread akin to sitting in front of a Rothko or Strindberg's painting Inferno. No. Or Kevin Jerome Everson's films? Some would argue yes.
Poetry is a little the same. Some immerse and we are totally transformed. Others detach us and we weep. And sometimes the strangest most banal things in life totally crumple us. The crooked thrift shop flower frame in Dallas Buyers Club. The framed pressed flowers that Frank gives to Marla and is later reprised in Rules Don't Apply. Is that manipulation or dislocation?
....we could go on but the blue sky beckons.
.
.
.
.
Tbc….perhaps...
Wizard of Lies
You are not going to like this NYC but what the heck do I care any more...my 'friend' keeps tellin' me to write. So that is what I shall try to do....stay tuned.
Initially I was angry at Richard Brody's review of Detroit in The New Yorker. Re-reading realized that it was all very well argued. What it lacked was something that has been a quandary of cinema all my life. The fact that all cinema is a representation of life. The first audiences of Lumiere's 1895 train ran for the exits in Paris in Étonnement . The fiction was absolutely real to them. They weren't idiots: it would be as if an amazing hologram of an alien invasion was somehow projected onto Times Square New York akin Orson Welles.
Even the greatest documentary film makers inevitably can't get it 'right' or indeed 'wrong'. Life will always get them. Fred Wiseman opts for no manipulative music and as much footage as possible. Yet always it will be an edit of reality. I (and YOU) could have had Google glasses from the age of whatever. Recording everything. But what about the other dimensions? The Rashomon angles? There is only a 'relative' truth.
I once compared Jean Luc Godard's
efforts to Quantum physics. Wasn't crazy! As soon as you try to pin
something down it no longer is to be. The more documentary festivals the
better in my opinion. And yet: 'tis the same trouble I have with photo
journalism in exotic war torn or not zones. With no disrespect but you
can go and suffer a little and shoot your camera and you will inevitably
return with something that everyone over their lattes says wow! Salgado
is an amazing photographer more than most. I was very angry when
someone who clearly cared about photography said to me at a major photo
opening that S had 'sold out'. Well: the guy needs to make a living.
What is fascinating about Salgado (see the doc- no 'sold out' comments- see reality impinges;)
is that he not only photographed, he created reality by creating a
forest of trees where once there was only barren land. THAT is nothing
short of amazing. Antonioni painted grass but Salgado grew trees!
Joshua Oppenheimer totally nailed the quandary in The Act of Killing. Almost. When he asked the perpetrators of unspeakable acts to 'don' costume and re-enact the parts they played in the atrocity's of his childhood. Not sure that I could hug as he did, however. Real for Oppenheimer though. Life is a constant manipulation and wizardry of lies. New York is simply unbelievable. It is a cinema screen of lies. I am sure it is the same in Moscow, London (I know) etc. But everything is magnified in NYC let alone America.
I feel deep sympathy and sorry for Bernie Madoff's sons and wife. Everyone assumed they must have known. America is totally based on assumptions. That will be the country's ultimate narcissism and dare I say it: ultimate downfall. There's a scene in Gone Girl where Amy's husband is accosted by a stranger at the donut/coffee 'help find her' center. He agrees to a 'selfie' photo (very reluctantly). He quickly asks the said gal to erase. She is the bitch from hell thereafter for 5 sec. Next thing: the photo is all over the media claiming what an uncaring, arsehole husband is he. THAT is America.
I know/we know- De Niro is Madoff. You see the follicles of his nose and clever perspective reflection of son's death news in his glasses- yawn-hey I used that trick decades ago:) It works, though. Like actors upon a stage that you know isn't real something starts to happen inside our heads. Godard knows that and quick as a flash moves on. Most movies don't. They are (in Brody's argument) totally manipulative. Hate to quote an artist cliche but Picasso's art is a lie that makes us realize the truth is ever so true nowadays. Or should be so. You tell the truth (mostly dead or wounded) in the NY Post or whatever and people read and they move on. Few ever really listen. React. Object. Question. Camus' certitude of the daily round.
The lives of New York (nay America) are build upon and around that certitude of breakfast TV's assertion of life. Credit score and the credit card is all. Pay off your card every month but we know that you won't so that you will inevitably make us loads of money. Madoff was a crook/confidence trickster but no more so than many many many other Americans and the most cherished financial institutions of America. I mean how many Craigs List 'send a cheque' scams can one put up with. The police aren't interested. Murders happening everywhere. I could go on with the wholesale money laundering operations of one major American bank in South America over deacdes and few say boo to a goose. Not sure how to end all this....well I don't have to it isn't The New Yorker after all...;) Does fictional cinema manipulate us in a way that real life doesn't? I would argue yes. In a good way, depending on the product, a subliminal dialectic is born and we as humans may exit a cinema or a home screen and maybe question our life that little bit more.
I need to pee…'tis midnight and a monster calls...maybe I'll be alive to finish tbc
What makes Godard one of the most innovative movie directors of all time is that he saturates and interrogates the fictional moving image with cinema language to such an extent it neither becomes fiction nor reality. The habitat of a third dimension. You (and Godard sneakily) wants to immerse in Georges Delerue's Camille theme in Le Mépris (Contempt) then tossing you back upon the sea you are in a documentary. And then not. It's akin to art. Is Picasso's Guernica one of the greatest paintings? I would argue not. It has an enormous power but that power derives not from a multitude of rippling consent and dissent but from a singular tragedy, albeit abstracted. Visconti's use of music in Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) is not Godard. But Tancredi's theme never resolves abstracting rather than immersing and manipulating you into the screen image. Can documentary be art? Sometimes though rarely. Is Nikolaus Geyrhalter's Our Daily Bread akin to sitting in front of a Rothko or Strindberg's painting Inferno. No. Or Kevin Jerome Everson's films? Some would argue yes.
Poetry is a little the same. Some immerse and we are totally transformed. Others detach us and we weep. And sometimes the strangest most banal things in life totally crumple us. The crooked thrift shop flower frame in Dallas Buyers Club. The framed pressed flowers that Frank gives to Marla and is later reprised in Rules Don't Apply. Is that manipulation or dislocation?
....we could go on but the blue sky beckons.
.
.
.
.
Once upon a time in our sky...
An amazing BBC Proms concert today (Aug 27) by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (its Proms debut).
(you can listen for 30 days online) I've never been to Cincinnati or
any of those Ohio cities. What a bigger wondrous world it must be
outside New York;) ! Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony is so familiar
it now oft gets overlooked. What an orchestrator. And what soloists in
that orchestra bringing new life to what is an enormous dance. To be
both grounded and airborne is not so easy. The final movement is
Spielberg and composer John Williams before their time. I had a vision
of 100s of thousands of orphans rising into the air creating the most
awesome typhoon ever. But they danced not destroyed. The concert topped
and tailed by Bernstein (with a little Copland something in-between).
The encore: Candide of course. Any questions? !
Know what was interesting about that Tchaik 5 was that they fashioned it more in the style of Brahms and Berlioz than Shostakovich. The finale movement is always played that way by Bernstein, Karajan and most others. Louis Langrée's interpretation doesn't have that monumental movement effect. What it strives for I think is beauty. Tchaikovsky wasn't Shostakovich. But I am sure the latter heavily borrowed from the former. Most conductors morph Tchaik into Shostakovich. That's not such a crime. Just: Tchaikovsky wanted to dance. It is no coincidence that some of the world's greatest ballet scores are by Mr Tchaik. I have always thought of Tchaik's compositions as more French than Russian. There is a finesse, a fleet footardness. You may all disagree, that's Ok.
bit of a sketched argument but hey…it's my sketch….
[as a P.S. Aug 29: The Times (London) critic Geoff Brown wrote Blots on the blue horizon? Well, I’ve always found the Fifth’s finale “rather horrible” (it’s Tchaikovsky’s own phrase), and the orchestra’s finesse did not alter that.
Well we agreed about the orchestra just not Tchaik:) What Geoff Brown doesn't know about music.....!
And you know, I listened to Gergiev again and Langrée is very much in Gergiev's style. They both get the Finale's molto meno mosso and the maestoso. I stick to my guns that some of the greatest conductors are not stately nor solemn. Nor indeed meno. Langrée's maestoso arcs through to the very end of the finale. There is no expressive marking suggesting Tchaik wished for that. But methinks he did. It isn’t just a parade of life it’s also a parade of death’s scary beauty. Solemnity not triumphant. Resolute not defiant.
.
.
The encore: Candide of course. Any questions? !
Know what was interesting about that Tchaik 5 was that they fashioned it more in the style of Brahms and Berlioz than Shostakovich. The finale movement is always played that way by Bernstein, Karajan and most others. Louis Langrée's interpretation doesn't have that monumental movement effect. What it strives for I think is beauty. Tchaikovsky wasn't Shostakovich. But I am sure the latter heavily borrowed from the former. Most conductors morph Tchaik into Shostakovich. That's not such a crime. Just: Tchaikovsky wanted to dance. It is no coincidence that some of the world's greatest ballet scores are by Mr Tchaik. I have always thought of Tchaik's compositions as more French than Russian. There is a finesse, a fleet footardness. You may all disagree, that's Ok.
bit of a sketched argument but hey…it's my sketch….
[as a P.S. Aug 29: The Times (London) critic Geoff Brown wrote Blots on the blue horizon? Well, I’ve always found the Fifth’s finale “rather horrible” (it’s Tchaikovsky’s own phrase), and the orchestra’s finesse did not alter that.
Well we agreed about the orchestra just not Tchaik:) What Geoff Brown doesn't know about music.....!
And you know, I listened to Gergiev again and Langrée is very much in Gergiev's style. They both get the Finale's molto meno mosso and the maestoso. I stick to my guns that some of the greatest conductors are not stately nor solemn. Nor indeed meno. Langrée's maestoso arcs through to the very end of the finale. There is no expressive marking suggesting Tchaik wished for that. But methinks he did. It isn’t just a parade of life it’s also a parade of death’s scary beauty. Solemnity not triumphant. Resolute not defiant.
.
.
voice of the hidden waterfall
For most of us, there is only the unattended
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts. These are only hints and guesses,
Hints followed by guesses; and the rest
Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action.
The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is Incarnation.
Here the impossible union
Of spheres of evidence is actual,
Here the past and future
Are conquered, and reconciled,
Where action were otherwise movement
Of that which is only moved
And has in it no source of movement—
Driven by daemonic, chthonic
Powers. And right action is freedom
From past and future also.
For most of us, this is the aim
Never here to be realised;
Who are only undefeated
Because we have gone on trying;
We, content at the last
If our temporal reversion nourish
(Not too far from the yew-tree)
The life of significant soil.
T.S. Eliot
Voyager 1 (September 5, 1977- )
Through blizzards and desert heat, across torrents, through narrow passes.
But will he know where to find you,
Recognize you when he sees you,
Give you the thing he has for you?
Hardly anything grows here,
Yet the granaries are bursting with meal,
The sacks of meal piled to the rafters.
The streams run with sweetness, fattening fish;
Birds darken the sky. Is it enough
That the dish of milk is set out at night,
That we think of him sometimes,
Sometimes and always, with mixed feelings?
John Ashbery- At North Farm
Posted on September 5, 2017 .
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts. These are only hints and guesses,
Hints followed by guesses; and the rest
Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action.
The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is Incarnation.
Here the impossible union
Of spheres of evidence is actual,
Here the past and future
Are conquered, and reconciled,
Where action were otherwise movement
Of that which is only moved
And has in it no source of movement—
Driven by daemonic, chthonic
Powers. And right action is freedom
From past and future also.
For most of us, this is the aim
Never here to be realised;
Who are only undefeated
Because we have gone on trying;
We, content at the last
If our temporal reversion nourish
(Not too far from the yew-tree)
The life of significant soil.
T.S. Eliot
Voyager 1 (September 5, 1977- )
Through blizzards and desert heat, across torrents, through narrow passes.
But will he know where to find you,
Recognize you when he sees you,
Give you the thing he has for you?
Hardly anything grows here,
Yet the granaries are bursting with meal,
The sacks of meal piled to the rafters.
The streams run with sweetness, fattening fish;
Birds darken the sky. Is it enough
That the dish of milk is set out at night,
That we think of him sometimes,
Sometimes and always, with mixed feelings?
John Ashbery- At North Farm
Posted on September 5, 2017 .
what kind of fool am I .....
Know
what TRUST is: when 'my' lame deer limps past with her two children
only 15ft away. Unperturbed. She eat the green ground-level leaves of
the plant that almost died and rebirthed this summer. Ahhh...! She may
well outlive me. I remembered Haitink conducting the Mahler 4th a year or 2 ago at the Proms. My comment about all the animals gathering upon the cliff face for the funeral of their friend.
Apropos nothing at all....
.
Not sure that Dvořák’s Violin Concerto in A minor is a great concerto but every second Anne‐Sophie Mutter convinces all that it is! (27 days to listen).
There's a very very beautiful performance of Mahler's 1st Symphony by the Pittsburgh Sym. The First can so easily be played in hindsight as if a later work. Conductor Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh sculpt the magic of youth (guess that 28 isn't that young anymore- was it ever;) Sonorities ever so delicate. And an ever slow build to what is confidence not bombastic arrogance in the finale. All the flowers almost open at one point but can't quite commit (Fig 18/19-zurückhaltend). They were right. There was a higher calling. Finally: a cry from our soul.
Sad that Thomas Campbell 'left' the Met.
What could I possibly say but courage!
One of the very few honest individuals in New York! Mr Campbell single handedly (his vision) navigated that enormous vessel into the future. Our future. That is not nor ever will be an achievement to be scoffed at!
Who thought tapestry could,,,,
apologis for the color .....somtimes...
bastards everywhere Tom. Everywhere !!!
Context is one thing….but a song has wings of its own…..
.
.
Apropos nothing at all....
.
Not sure that Dvořák’s Violin Concerto in A minor is a great concerto but every second Anne‐Sophie Mutter convinces all that it is! (27 days to listen).
There's a very very beautiful performance of Mahler's 1st Symphony by the Pittsburgh Sym. The First can so easily be played in hindsight as if a later work. Conductor Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh sculpt the magic of youth (guess that 28 isn't that young anymore- was it ever;) Sonorities ever so delicate. And an ever slow build to what is confidence not bombastic arrogance in the finale. All the flowers almost open at one point but can't quite commit (Fig 18/19-zurückhaltend). They were right. There was a higher calling. Finally: a cry from our soul.
Sad that Thomas Campbell 'left' the Met.
What could I possibly say but courage!
One of the very few honest individuals in New York! Mr Campbell single handedly (his vision) navigated that enormous vessel into the future. Our future. That is not nor ever will be an achievement to be scoffed at!
Who thought tapestry could,,,,
apologis for the color .....somtimes...
bastards everywhere Tom. Everywhere !!!
Context is one thing….but a song has wings of its own…..
.
.
IRMA la douce
Earthlings: what have you done to your beautiful planet! WATCH THIS and you may learn something not available on your Americana LiveForever Fact Sheet.
Floridians: get out of the WAY! Irma will kill you! She doesn’t mean to but that alas is her destiny.
My lame deer appeared again at lunchtime. I dosed off and there she was even closer- 12ft. Is that a sign? I pointed the escape and she did indeed go left. Albeit 40ft beyond. Yet she and her children had 'nosed' straight ahead the other day against flimsy deer netting. She didn't even attempt that route. Co-incidence? The truth will always ever be stranger than fiction.
.
.
What is umm..a thing : is that unless you are a rich NYorker or a desperate on the make artist or a desperate gallerist;) most will never have seen Miami let alone anywhere else in Florida. I wrote about the Cincinnati Sym Orch and all the wondrous worlds I had never encountered. Well: Miami I know VERY well. And there are so so so many artists lesser and minor and major institutions who have fought long and hard for their place in an ever NY centric world. And a lot of very wondrous old/aging people who were absolutley major players and who are never cajoled into strutting song in NY. And Miami as a morphing city is an amazing story. Hello: Susan Sontag's son David Rieff in his book. And there are good property developers and evil property developers. Miami has and will have seen them all. And any developer who escapes building code regs and sent something into that sky without withstanding Cat 5 winds should be sent to prison. It is a crime. There is no excuse. No plea. Zilch! Man can't re-create nature. But algorithms are so so advanced now. I hope the late Zaha Hadid never let anyone down in that regard. I would find that unbelievable and if asked to, she would walk from the project.
You wanna build into the air: respect your opponent. They may forgive you.
There but for the grace go ...NPR's From The Top was recorded in Miami Dade on Tuesday this week.
I'd love to meet Juliet's snake- gives a great twist to The Magic Flute;)! Segue kill 2 story one stone...Stephen and the Chopin F mi Ballade... I danced in the award winning Graham Vick Royal Opera House Mitridate, re di Ponto (Mozart) and they had to fire the eagle. So if your constrictor gets firedJuliet don't be too....And Stephen re your comment from the teacher on not being mature enough for the F mi B, Mozart was 14 when he scribed Mitridate. Some of that music is just ungewöhnlich. Or is that unheimlich!
So: 3 years to go 'matey' before you write your symphony:) !
Young Mozart and a constrictor...hmmm..that should interest my Brooklyn apt's sale price...:)
My very best wishes....
Don't know how to keep IRMA happy...would she like to meet a lonely leopard seal..?
Venice is drowning also.....no hurricanes there...
Rome has its own probs (eh IRMA) - there is no greater or less performance.
It will always be the thing itself.
my guilty pleasure...I sing this well but not tonight Josephine.
George:...what do you see........
and: may I not resist this my guilty pleasure.....u know it already but as Aristotle wasn't the greatest singers (he's jealous as hell for those Frogs..) what the F.! he literally dissected them when in exile (having fled Trumpets...
one little day most beautiful cruel no fault nor manufacture of its own.
Yet the very same hours
Something unwanted. Unbelieved.
New.
Something still.
George:...what will you see........
so too many guilty pleasures before sunrise.....shouln'tv be tryin' save the world.....
You Don't Have To Say...
Posted on September 9, 2017 .
Floridians: get out of the WAY! Irma will kill you! She doesn’t mean to but that alas is her destiny.
My lame deer appeared again at lunchtime. I dosed off and there she was even closer- 12ft. Is that a sign? I pointed the escape and she did indeed go left. Albeit 40ft beyond. Yet she and her children had 'nosed' straight ahead the other day against flimsy deer netting. She didn't even attempt that route. Co-incidence? The truth will always ever be stranger than fiction.
.
.
What is umm..a thing : is that unless you are a rich NYorker or a desperate on the make artist or a desperate gallerist;) most will never have seen Miami let alone anywhere else in Florida. I wrote about the Cincinnati Sym Orch and all the wondrous worlds I had never encountered. Well: Miami I know VERY well. And there are so so so many artists lesser and minor and major institutions who have fought long and hard for their place in an ever NY centric world. And a lot of very wondrous old/aging people who were absolutley major players and who are never cajoled into strutting song in NY. And Miami as a morphing city is an amazing story. Hello: Susan Sontag's son David Rieff in his book. And there are good property developers and evil property developers. Miami has and will have seen them all. And any developer who escapes building code regs and sent something into that sky without withstanding Cat 5 winds should be sent to prison. It is a crime. There is no excuse. No plea. Zilch! Man can't re-create nature. But algorithms are so so advanced now. I hope the late Zaha Hadid never let anyone down in that regard. I would find that unbelievable and if asked to, she would walk from the project.
You wanna build into the air: respect your opponent. They may forgive you.
There but for the grace go ...NPR's From The Top was recorded in Miami Dade on Tuesday this week.
I'd love to meet Juliet's snake- gives a great twist to The Magic Flute;)! Segue kill 2 story one stone...Stephen and the Chopin F mi Ballade... I danced in the award winning Graham Vick Royal Opera House Mitridate, re di Ponto (Mozart) and they had to fire the eagle. So if your constrictor gets firedJuliet don't be too....And Stephen re your comment from the teacher on not being mature enough for the F mi B, Mozart was 14 when he scribed Mitridate. Some of that music is just ungewöhnlich. Or is that unheimlich!
So: 3 years to go 'matey' before you write your symphony:) !
Young Mozart and a constrictor...hmmm..that should interest my Brooklyn apt's sale price...:)
My very best wishes....
Don't know how to keep IRMA happy...would she like to meet a lonely leopard seal..?
Venice is drowning also.....no hurricanes there...
Rome has its own probs (eh IRMA) - there is no greater or less performance.
It will always be the thing itself.
my guilty pleasure...I sing this well but not tonight Josephine.
George:...what do you see........
and: may I not resist this my guilty pleasure.....u know it already but as Aristotle wasn't the greatest singers (he's jealous as hell for those Frogs..) what the F.! he literally dissected them when in exile (having fled Trumpets...
one little day most beautiful cruel no fault nor manufacture of its own.
Yet the very same hours
Something unwanted. Unbelieved.
New.
Something still.
George:...what will you see........
so too many guilty pleasures before sunrise.....shouln'tv be tryin' save the world.....
You Don't Have To Say...
Posted on September 9, 2017 .
Sir Peter Hall has died
Elaine Paige on Peter Hall: he was like a father to me
Writing this not in hope of any praise that many will ever read it. That may never be true. For anyone. More so nowadays. But because Sir Peter Hall supported writers as well as actors and indeed anyone who made the theater both tick and roar. Writing is a strange thing that indeed self absorbing, garners nothing great without its author somehow chaperoning his/her words into what always seems the abyss yet most often ends up in grace through belief in that other something. Simone Weil sort of.
Over the years I heard many derogatory comments about Sir Peter. Some from people I respected. I never asked director Jonathan Miller his thoughts (who did not fair well in the Diaries back in 1983). Someone I respect enormously. As a naive, passionate kid who soaked every night in anything theatrical (and filmic it must be said) those Diaries were almost like a Bible to me. There was someone who could rise to the top of that flea circus tent, speak his mind, and the knife-thrower still listened.
Sir Peter wrote: ''[Michael] Blakemore [director] said he admired me but couldn't stand my greediness - for work, for money, for success, for power, for position. And he couldn't stand the fact that I was so energetic.'' I think I've been accused of maybe a), c), e). Not sure of the others. Don't think I ever saw much of b) and d) but many others who I helped up the ladder did. I've been called opinionated- isn't that somehow 'the pot calling the kettle black' in America!
Why I attended one fringe theater show? Remember being introduced to Sir Peter by his newish wife Nicki Frei. An offspring involved? Can't remember. Someone asked what he thought: "It the worst thing I have ever seen." It was a VERY small reception area. Now some would argue that he should have shown a little more grace and support. Well: I've met some very great directors in my time and what they all have in common is honesty. And opinion. Not out of self-aggrandizement simply they have no interest in flanneling, 'pressing flesh', brown-nosing.
And many of the world's globe-trotting directors are not world-class in Sir Peter's league. There are dozens I can think of who are very unsung, in Sir Peter's league and indeed probably better directors. Don't think he'd deny that. Success is rarely a good bedfellow for passion. Sir Peter never kicked out the latter in the middle of the night.
He was so proud and supportive of his children. Again: people will say things. Often cruel about a family. Make judgements about things they know almost nothing about. Often convincing themselves that they do. That was certainly my family head-opening experience. And sometimes you are right there as a witness and still will never truly understand the why of it all.
If I was Rebecca Hall's Dad I would just drop to my knees after seeing that brave, brilliant and relatively unsung performance in the film Christine. And I would say in tears: it isn't the theater. I know. But I must have done something right over the years for that to happen.
I could hit Sir Peter over the head with a newspaper for this: a 1977 [diary] entry tells of a visit to A Chorus Line at Drury Lane. Having paid tribute to its brilliance, he goes on to describe the show as ''a sham, it's kitsch at heart,'' and adds: ''The girl who desperately wants the job and shouldn't get it does of course get it; otherwise the show itself would not be commercial.'' The show, he says, is ''reeking of double Broadway standards.''
A Chorus Line was also a bible as a kid. (Can't say that I disagree with Sir P's thoughts, though) That poster loomed over my little living room in Sydney. After I'd left to seek a career in the British theater it was saved for decades by my father in his garage. Not out of interest or anything except that I was his son. Then he died and the vultures came. That comment does a disservice to wings!
The world nowadays needs more Sir Peter Halls. People who can retain that passion for their art while dueling with the monsters always around us. Nothing is ever easy in life. And there are many who did do their very best and failed. And will fail through no fault of their own. And many who will never pick up that sword as did Sir Peter: a symbol of the resolute not the defiant.
A noble knight.
Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall CBE (22 November 1930 – 11 September 2017)
.
.
.
Writing this not in hope of any praise that many will ever read it. That may never be true. For anyone. More so nowadays. But because Sir Peter Hall supported writers as well as actors and indeed anyone who made the theater both tick and roar. Writing is a strange thing that indeed self absorbing, garners nothing great without its author somehow chaperoning his/her words into what always seems the abyss yet most often ends up in grace through belief in that other something. Simone Weil sort of.
Over the years I heard many derogatory comments about Sir Peter. Some from people I respected. I never asked director Jonathan Miller his thoughts (who did not fair well in the Diaries back in 1983). Someone I respect enormously. As a naive, passionate kid who soaked every night in anything theatrical (and filmic it must be said) those Diaries were almost like a Bible to me. There was someone who could rise to the top of that flea circus tent, speak his mind, and the knife-thrower still listened.
Sir Peter wrote: ''[Michael] Blakemore [director] said he admired me but couldn't stand my greediness - for work, for money, for success, for power, for position. And he couldn't stand the fact that I was so energetic.'' I think I've been accused of maybe a), c), e). Not sure of the others. Don't think I ever saw much of b) and d) but many others who I helped up the ladder did. I've been called opinionated- isn't that somehow 'the pot calling the kettle black' in America!
Why I attended one fringe theater show? Remember being introduced to Sir Peter by his newish wife Nicki Frei. An offspring involved? Can't remember. Someone asked what he thought: "It the worst thing I have ever seen." It was a VERY small reception area. Now some would argue that he should have shown a little more grace and support. Well: I've met some very great directors in my time and what they all have in common is honesty. And opinion. Not out of self-aggrandizement simply they have no interest in flanneling, 'pressing flesh', brown-nosing.
And many of the world's globe-trotting directors are not world-class in Sir Peter's league. There are dozens I can think of who are very unsung, in Sir Peter's league and indeed probably better directors. Don't think he'd deny that. Success is rarely a good bedfellow for passion. Sir Peter never kicked out the latter in the middle of the night.
He was so proud and supportive of his children. Again: people will say things. Often cruel about a family. Make judgements about things they know almost nothing about. Often convincing themselves that they do. That was certainly my family head-opening experience. And sometimes you are right there as a witness and still will never truly understand the why of it all.
If I was Rebecca Hall's Dad I would just drop to my knees after seeing that brave, brilliant and relatively unsung performance in the film Christine. And I would say in tears: it isn't the theater. I know. But I must have done something right over the years for that to happen.
I could hit Sir Peter over the head with a newspaper for this: a 1977 [diary] entry tells of a visit to A Chorus Line at Drury Lane. Having paid tribute to its brilliance, he goes on to describe the show as ''a sham, it's kitsch at heart,'' and adds: ''The girl who desperately wants the job and shouldn't get it does of course get it; otherwise the show itself would not be commercial.'' The show, he says, is ''reeking of double Broadway standards.''
A Chorus Line was also a bible as a kid. (Can't say that I disagree with Sir P's thoughts, though) That poster loomed over my little living room in Sydney. After I'd left to seek a career in the British theater it was saved for decades by my father in his garage. Not out of interest or anything except that I was his son. Then he died and the vultures came. That comment does a disservice to wings!
The world nowadays needs more Sir Peter Halls. People who can retain that passion for their art while dueling with the monsters always around us. Nothing is ever easy in life. And there are many who did do their very best and failed. And will fail through no fault of their own. And many who will never pick up that sword as did Sir Peter: a symbol of the resolute not the defiant.
A noble knight.
Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall CBE (22 November 1930 – 11 September 2017)
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.
.
Posted on September 12, 2017 .
WHY?
ASK . !?
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I just have to share this: very funny, fascinating interview with President Bush. What I dId always know was that he had indeed a sense of humour. And yes had learned to read too! I’d love to own one of those Frank Sinatra paintings: oh: u sold them already:(...;)
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Brit TV host legend Graham Norton: I have not read his novel...but he's one smartest guy on the planet!
Maybe a dram or two of Hogwarts single malt tonight!
Speaking of Uncle Frank, one of the saddest endings in all film history.
Arthur Miller — Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.
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What About Today
Once Upon A Time
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I just have to share this: very funny, fascinating interview with President Bush. What I dId always know was that he had indeed a sense of humour. And yes had learned to read too! I’d love to own one of those Frank Sinatra paintings: oh: u sold them already:(...;)
.
Brit TV host legend Graham Norton: I have not read his novel...but he's one smartest guy on the planet!
Maybe a dram or two of Hogwarts single malt tonight!
Speaking of Uncle Frank, one of the saddest endings in all film history.
Arthur Miller — Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.
.
.
CARING: the great America...commodity uber...get me there!
?
'Girls of the Dying West' ;) at Guggenheim tonight (Thurs/Fri) I've known that 'team' for 100 years. I'm not far away if u wish to cast a guy with a VERY large picket axe to return the 'specs' to the Rh'e'ine Maidens !
After all these decades, I do feel like the 'guy' in Only Lovers Left Alive...he doesn't really want to drink that water...but needs...
'Girls of the Dying West' ;) at Guggenheim tonight (Thurs/Fri) I've known that 'team' for 100 years. I'm not far away if u wish to cast a guy with a VERY large picket axe to return the 'specs' to the Rh'e'ine Maidens !
After all these decades, I do feel like the 'guy' in Only Lovers Left Alive...he doesn't really want to drink that water...but needs...
Our GLASS CASTLE
Aone day...
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I should not be 'doin this'- but if I don't last much longer: THIS was a song that gave me not only courage but JOY! as a kid...you (as YOUNG) don't know how GREAT it is to be young in 2018! BUT: I wonder if you you know what is 'young' anymore.......!
And then who knew: that I would be on the silver screen decades later as an actor with the great Joel Grey:) ! Come on Ms Liza: the chips are ...as Mr. Frank would ....
Oh btw: 'that' Joel Grey movie won the Cannes Film Fest Palme D'or in 1999 and opened the NYFF in 2000.
Let's talk about tiny parts for a moment. Graham Norton's favorite subject. Stephen Colbert's 'guilty pleasure';) Sir David Lettermen's wish:) Jay Leno's looking perplexed. ….
If you answer this question correctly and honestly (without recourse to IMDB or any other data base then you get to kiss the hand of both Greta Gerwig and Saoirse Ronan at the NYFF Opening tonight (well- u should have read the small print shouldn't u!) Bit like the Metropolitan Opera interval radio quiz. The 'greats' don't always get the answers. So: 'courage'.
What movie was Gérard Depardieu an 'extra' in? (Well- that is what they call my roles. When you become 'famous' they are termed …?!)
Q2- to kiss the hand of Andrew. That is a timed appointment;)
What movie was Harrison Ford an 'extra' in- featured in the to be erected Oliver Stone museum of 'small moving parts'? (NO IMDB there is an 'Emma Watson' drone watching you!) Don't want no 'riff raff'.
Q3- what director in the 2017 NYFF - cast Sylvester Stallone as an 'extra' . You might get to kiss the hand of god with the right answer!? (NO IMDB … you cheat WILL WILL KNOW!) We are watching everywhere….
And now: a break from our sponsor Vladimir Putin America Inc:
btw- I worked with that great conductor at The Royal Opera House 'Convent' Garden
Feel a bit like Billy Wilder when a young blood Hollywood studio rep asked him 'tell me about some of your movies'. Wilder replied: why don't you tell me what you have done, son!'
Would Kim Jong Un like a plastic plant pot of black walnuts as a peace offering? (Hidden agenda: I have a list of totally horrible people...could you like ...create....)...
Oh...Irma's here....
Saturday 28 October 2017
comme il faux
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where did u go:!
plus brave....
Can’t imagine what IndDy movie this was from Joe Swanberg;)
Well, beauty while it lasts!
L-R-E
i did do a totally unlawful Disney re-mix to R-R-E more than many moons ago. Methinks it got burnt in re-entry. Probably more fun to imagine:
something completely different...what will always..always have been...not merely begun...
tbc...
might have been....(Mathias Poledna. Imitation of Life included in the Whitney Dreamlands_
Once upon a time
there was a lonely wolf
lonelier than the angels.
He happened to come to a village.
He fell in love with the first house he saw.
Already he loved its walls
the caresses of its bricklayers.
But the windows stopped him.
In the room sat people.
Apart from God nobody ever
found them so beautiful
as this child-like beast.
So at night he went into the house.
He stopped in the middle of the room
and never moved from there any more.
He stood all through the night, with wide eyes
and on into the morning when he was beaten to death.
Fable - Janos Pilinszky
this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath
Not that this is an escapist festival, exactly. It is, instead, a heroic feat of counterprogramming, an assertion of the wonderfulness of movies in the face of a reality determined with each day to find new ways to be awful.
Wish I'd spaken that! Well: I have always done in a way. It was in fact the ever iridescent words of NYT critic A.O. Scott. How did the word 'awesome' ever get relegated to no more than a new ring tone. A new pair of sneakers. I mean: a new husband/wife/lover/whatever could be awesome. I'd buy that. But....
wake up
look around
memorise what you see
it may be gone tomorrow
everything changes. Someday
there will be nothing but what is remembered
there may be no-one to remember it.
Keep moving
wherever you stand is ground zero
a moving target is harder to hit.
Michael Dransfield
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In the first draft of his first will in 1829, Turner stipulated that he should be buried in the canvas of Dido building Carthage, but changed his mind to make a donation of the painting and The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire to the National Gallery, on condition that his two paintings should always be hung either side of Claude's Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba,
a painting that Turner first saw when it was part of the Angerstein
collection which later became the nucleus for the National Gallery. His
revised will of 1831 changed the bequest, so Dido building Carthage would be accompanied by Sun rising through Vapour, and the two works would be exhibited alongside Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba and Landscape with the Marriage of Isaac and Rebecca (also known as The Mill).
One pale mermaid
tankers and cruise ships are caught between motion and understanding
or the very least questioning
She seems so small
not even worthy of a capital f- polite or no
yet she straddles the safe harbor of that
and the allowance of nature's black, blue utterance in that small benign blue strip beyond
Her color no longer needs interpretation
And as if her plinth were there for sole human industrial scale
grandeur beyond the grayest means.
New Jersey sputters.
New York complains. as always
as Her canvas itself wasn't enough.
she maintains a presence of being not defiance
ready as if at will
prepared to jump over the wobbly pale line of reason into adventure.
her Wordsworth farewell of "how arrogant is she when HER parents and neighbors heart is heard no more."
the Dutch made you and defeated you
did she ever realize how arrogant was build against her forbears' beautiful line of reason
and then was the darkness
And she stood alone.
© Andrew Lucre
Wish I'd spaken that! Well: I have always done in a way. It was in fact the ever iridescent words of NYT critic A.O. Scott. How did the word 'awesome' ever get relegated to no more than a new ring tone. A new pair of sneakers. I mean: a new husband/wife/lover/whatever could be awesome. I'd buy that. But....
wake up
look around
memorise what you see
it may be gone tomorrow
everything changes. Someday
there will be nothing but what is remembered
there may be no-one to remember it.
Keep moving
wherever you stand is ground zero
a moving target is harder to hit.
Michael Dransfield
.
And from mine ashes let a conqueror rise,
That may revenge this treason to a queen
By plowing up his countries with the sword.
Betwixt this land and that be never league.
(Dido, Queen of Carthage, Act 5 Scene 1-Christopher Marlowe)
That may revenge this treason to a queen
By plowing up his countries with the sword.
Betwixt this land and that be never league.
(Dido, Queen of Carthage, Act 5 Scene 1-Christopher Marlowe)
J.M.W. Turner: Dido building Carthage, or The Rise of the Carthaginian Empire (1815, oil on canvas; National Gallery, London)
One pale mermaid
tankers and cruise ships are caught between motion and understanding
or the very least questioning
She seems so small
not even worthy of a capital f- polite or no
yet she straddles the safe harbor of that
and the allowance of nature's black, blue utterance in that small benign blue strip beyond
Her color no longer needs interpretation
And as if her plinth were there for sole human industrial scale
grandeur beyond the grayest means.
New Jersey sputters.
New York complains. as always
as Her canvas itself wasn't enough.
she maintains a presence of being not defiance
ready as if at will
prepared to jump over the wobbly pale line of reason into adventure.
her Wordsworth farewell of "how arrogant is she when HER parents and neighbors heart is heard no more."
the Dutch made you and defeated you
did she ever realize how arrogant was build against her forbears' beautiful line of reason
and then was the darkness
And she stood alone.
© Andrew Lucre
Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
I agree 100% with Mr. Woody Allen's comments to the BBC:
"The whole Harvey Weinstein thing is very sad for everybody involved," he added. "Tragic for the poor women that were involved, sad for Harvey that is life is so messed up.
"There's no winners in that, it's just very, very sad and tragic for those poor women that had to go through that."
Allen said he hoped the revelations, which emerged after an investigation by the New York Times, would lead to "some amelioration", but said: "You also don't want it to lead to a witch hunt atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself. That's not right either.
"But sure, you hope that something like this could be transformed into a benefit for people rather than just a sad or tragic situation."
I have something to say about wounding and hurt. Not to conflate an argument with the allegations against Mr Weinstein but the wounding of someone is not always physical. That is why Harvey Weinstein fought for the 2011-12 documentary Bully. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rated the film R preventing kids from attending who were bullied and who were the film's subject. Mr. Weinstein finally got a PG-13 rating after removing some profanities. Like most teenagers don't use profanities on a daily basis not to mention the NYPD or the LAPD and those who they law enforce! And of course 'the bleeps' on TV talk shows can't be words but that horrid bird song one sometimes breaks into when on camera. Gives a new meaning to Snow White's Whistle While You Work.
Quipping aside, the demeaning and demoralizing of both students and adults from the mean spirited happens more often than is ever mentioned throughout the world. And of course all the time in show business. Nobody ever questions it: no crime has been committed. One is told to "get over it" or "get a thick skin". It's happened to me more times than I can remember both in New York and London. Attending media film screenings there was a tabloid critic who found delight almost daily, weekly, monthly, yearly in belittling me. OK: a week, a few months maybe, but for 3-4 years! (And no, that person didn't write for the Murdoch press- they were very polite and distinguished.) It was nothing really. Slowly ever slowly, though, it does become something: something very hurtful.
It is nothing compared to the bullying that goes on the workplace nor at educational institutions. When suicides happen it is often almost impossible to delineate between those who were suffering from mental illness and those who were really no more abnormal than the average 'Joe'. Pushed off that 'cliff' by the bullying from others.
Nicole Katherine Orttung, 21, of Arlington, Virginia was writing for the Columbia Spectator (a student at the university and interning as a published reporter for the Christian Science Monitor.) I read her work. It was good. She seemed intrepid. A promising future. So why one day did she return home and hang herself?
Asking for a massage is clearly very different from rape. And according to the allegations, Mr Weinstein perversely enjoyed asking young women for the former. But when women make those former allegations it may well have been a very intimidating experience for them. Even scarring. For someone stronger they may have just been able to shrug it off. May I add that women can be intimidating as well. And what they deem mere 'flirting' and 'play' can hurt an adult as much as it can a teenager.
These are the things I took from Mr Woody Allen's comments: something like this could be transformed into a benefit for people rather than just a sad or tragic situation.
as a P.S.
I shouldn't write any more on this. But then I consulted my inner 'lion' and thought what the heck: what do I have to lose? The fact that many folk who benefited from Mr Weinstein's financial contributions are debating whether to give it all back/or to charity. With no disrespect to Meryl Streep, but if you call Mr HW 'God' in an Oscar speech then denounce him very quickly in earnest years later after a few high profile allegations emerge surely you should give back a percentage of that film's proceeds and the 'knock on' financial gain from Mr. Weinstein's clearly significant 'God' contribution to the film's success? Same goes for Gwyneth Paltrow and….That seems fair. I know: sounding like a devils' advocate. But fair advocacy. Come on, if you believe so strongly in what you are saying.
I was an overweight pimply kid who had no fear. One of Australia's top film casting directors did interview me. I had lost the weight but not the…."What can I do with a face like that?" she said in front of me. Not to be hurtful, simply musing.
Well: a fears years later I had also lost the 'ahumm' and was onstage in London with the greatest actors in the world. Now the problem was being Australian- even though I didn't sound so and could legally work there. They were prejudiced. A powerful producer invited me to a swanky lunch to discuss a project. Later: "have another drink". I said no. 'They' said "you want to get on in the world don't you". I had another drink. Now, this person never propositioned me. I could lie- nobody would know-but I am not going to. What if 'they' had done? You can't re-write history, though I wasn't that naive to know 'something' was going on. Times were different then. Different now? Yes most probably. But clearly many cases where not. I did rather go 'what?' when I read a NY news guy had used in legal defense: overtime he continued to hear the cracking of ice cubes in a drink because of an embarrassing bar meeting and was traumatized. Not like it was a provocative action with ice cubes every week. And I do not in any way want to belittle that guy. But there is a point when.. !!!!!
I guess I should stop writing now...they said I should sing no more...
"But the queen finds no rest. Deep in her veins. The wound is fed; she burns with hidden fire" Virgil -Aeneid (IV.1-2)
.
.
"The whole Harvey Weinstein thing is very sad for everybody involved," he added. "Tragic for the poor women that were involved, sad for Harvey that is life is so messed up.
"There's no winners in that, it's just very, very sad and tragic for those poor women that had to go through that."
Allen said he hoped the revelations, which emerged after an investigation by the New York Times, would lead to "some amelioration", but said: "You also don't want it to lead to a witch hunt atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself. That's not right either.
"But sure, you hope that something like this could be transformed into a benefit for people rather than just a sad or tragic situation."
I have something to say about wounding and hurt. Not to conflate an argument with the allegations against Mr Weinstein but the wounding of someone is not always physical. That is why Harvey Weinstein fought for the 2011-12 documentary Bully. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rated the film R preventing kids from attending who were bullied and who were the film's subject. Mr. Weinstein finally got a PG-13 rating after removing some profanities. Like most teenagers don't use profanities on a daily basis not to mention the NYPD or the LAPD and those who they law enforce! And of course 'the bleeps' on TV talk shows can't be words but that horrid bird song one sometimes breaks into when on camera. Gives a new meaning to Snow White's Whistle While You Work.
Quipping aside, the demeaning and demoralizing of both students and adults from the mean spirited happens more often than is ever mentioned throughout the world. And of course all the time in show business. Nobody ever questions it: no crime has been committed. One is told to "get over it" or "get a thick skin". It's happened to me more times than I can remember both in New York and London. Attending media film screenings there was a tabloid critic who found delight almost daily, weekly, monthly, yearly in belittling me. OK: a week, a few months maybe, but for 3-4 years! (And no, that person didn't write for the Murdoch press- they were very polite and distinguished.) It was nothing really. Slowly ever slowly, though, it does become something: something very hurtful.
It is nothing compared to the bullying that goes on the workplace nor at educational institutions. When suicides happen it is often almost impossible to delineate between those who were suffering from mental illness and those who were really no more abnormal than the average 'Joe'. Pushed off that 'cliff' by the bullying from others.
Nicole Katherine Orttung, 21, of Arlington, Virginia was writing for the Columbia Spectator (a student at the university and interning as a published reporter for the Christian Science Monitor.) I read her work. It was good. She seemed intrepid. A promising future. So why one day did she return home and hang herself?
Asking for a massage is clearly very different from rape. And according to the allegations, Mr Weinstein perversely enjoyed asking young women for the former. But when women make those former allegations it may well have been a very intimidating experience for them. Even scarring. For someone stronger they may have just been able to shrug it off. May I add that women can be intimidating as well. And what they deem mere 'flirting' and 'play' can hurt an adult as much as it can a teenager.
These are the things I took from Mr Woody Allen's comments: something like this could be transformed into a benefit for people rather than just a sad or tragic situation.
as a P.S.
I shouldn't write any more on this. But then I consulted my inner 'lion' and thought what the heck: what do I have to lose? The fact that many folk who benefited from Mr Weinstein's financial contributions are debating whether to give it all back/or to charity. With no disrespect to Meryl Streep, but if you call Mr HW 'God' in an Oscar speech then denounce him very quickly in earnest years later after a few high profile allegations emerge surely you should give back a percentage of that film's proceeds and the 'knock on' financial gain from Mr. Weinstein's clearly significant 'God' contribution to the film's success? Same goes for Gwyneth Paltrow and….That seems fair. I know: sounding like a devils' advocate. But fair advocacy. Come on, if you believe so strongly in what you are saying.
I was an overweight pimply kid who had no fear. One of Australia's top film casting directors did interview me. I had lost the weight but not the…."What can I do with a face like that?" she said in front of me. Not to be hurtful, simply musing.
Well: a fears years later I had also lost the 'ahumm' and was onstage in London with the greatest actors in the world. Now the problem was being Australian- even though I didn't sound so and could legally work there. They were prejudiced. A powerful producer invited me to a swanky lunch to discuss a project. Later: "have another drink". I said no. 'They' said "you want to get on in the world don't you". I had another drink. Now, this person never propositioned me. I could lie- nobody would know-but I am not going to. What if 'they' had done? You can't re-write history, though I wasn't that naive to know 'something' was going on. Times were different then. Different now? Yes most probably. But clearly many cases where not. I did rather go 'what?' when I read a NY news guy had used in legal defense: overtime he continued to hear the cracking of ice cubes in a drink because of an embarrassing bar meeting and was traumatized. Not like it was a provocative action with ice cubes every week. And I do not in any way want to belittle that guy. But there is a point when.. !!!!!
I guess I should stop writing now...they said I should sing no more...
"But the queen finds no rest. Deep in her veins. The wound is fed; she burns with hidden fire" Virgil -Aeneid (IV.1-2)
.
.
To overcome oneself is the greater victory
.
.
Vassar’s latest plans for renovations include building a large moat around campus, designed to further isolate the college from the surrounding community. It is expected to be completed by 2025. :))))
Could I be your 'King Arthur'? I can swim, oh, and I slayed the dragons of the 12th dimension at NY University! Those '!!&*^&*' mammals! Mortals need Bill Murray at their side to do that. He just wasn't available, so I did it all myself. And what thanks do it get? Hello?!!!
I can make 'coffee' and 'cocoa' ;()
.
 |
To wake
and go
would be so simple.
Morning ought not
to be complex.
The sun is a seed
cast at dawn into the long
furrow of history.
Yet
how the
first light
makes gold her hair
and go
would be so simple.
Morning ought not
to be complex.
The sun is a seed
cast at dawn into the long
furrow of history.
Yet
how the
first light
makes gold her hair
upon my arm.
How then
shall I leave,
and where away to go. Day
is so deep already with involvement. Michael Dransfield
How then
shall I leave,
and where away to go. Day
is so deep already with involvement. Michael Dransfield
some Tuesday Thursday April August…Winter..next..
What is the point, unless we dream!
.
Remember the old man who bought a spot of rum
Remember the old man his wave
rocking in the sun
Life strewn upon the front lawn
Bank eager now recoup
no blame
Did he not deserve more than
photos strewn as if in shame
He raised his kids
somehow why because
Something mattered
lives on someone else's table now
that could have been dust
Easy to judge
Not so easy to see
How one man's life
can mean more than a book of history.
© Andrew (Oct 25, 2017)- For 'Joe'
.
Remember the old man who bought a spot of rum
Remember the old man his wave
rocking in the sun
Life strewn upon the front lawn
Bank eager now recoup
no blame
Did he not deserve more than
photos strewn as if in shame
He raised his kids
somehow why because
Something mattered
lives on someone else's table now
that could have been dust
Easy to judge
Not so easy to see
How one man's life
can mean more than a book of history.
© Andrew (Oct 25, 2017)- For 'Joe'
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