Weblog 281
July 3, 2011~ 12:00 am
My God! It's the fourth of July weekend already; this year is motoring past at a hundred miles an hour. Usually my extended family on my mother's side has a reunion picnic, but I haven't attended in about 20 years, so this weekend, two full days- Sunday and Monday both, are mine to indulge in extreme sloth.
(That may look austere and kinda creepy to you, but to ME, silence with its comforts and privacy are things to be enjoyed utterly.) I will read, snooze, keep my earplugs in place and simply disappear for 48 hours. Ahhhh... heaven.
Saturday evening Wayne and I watched 'The Last Station', which is a movie about the last days of Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy, played by Christopher Plummer, with Helen Mirren playing his wife, Countess Sofya.
The Russian writer had introduced a whole new philosophy to late nineteeth century sensibilities which involved a total sharing of the wealth, vegetarianism, as well as celibacy. (Much to Mirren's chagrin. Doubtless this 'closing of the tap' happened much later in their lives.) The two of them had THIRTEEN CHILDREN before his conversion to celibacy. Something tells me 'age' had as much to do with his change of attitude as his new-found lack of carnality.
My favorite scene of the film is the one pictured above, as Tolstoy's wife tempts him to her bed by reminding him of their old pet names and games with the two of them cackling like rooster and hen, laughing uproariously, and rolling about. It was the most human, as well as the most touching scene in the film.
The movie itself is awkwardly told. (I'd love to get my hands on the script to see how it was written and what had been cut.) For the life of me I could not figure out its lack of impact despite two veteran and hugely talented actors. If I had to pin it down, I suppose I'd say it lacked focus. The whole question of Tolstoy's 'movement' and his 'legacy' meant nothing to this viewer.... I was interested in plumbing the depths of the PEOPLE involved, yet the simultaneously running storyline of the 'Tolstoyan movement' with his rabid followers using their machinations and craftiness to get him to sign a new will thereby giving rights to his works to the Russian people rather than as a bequest to his own family, I found distracting and rather tiresome. (Perhaps it was the job of the writers to make us care, but they certainly didn't succeed.)
The other subplot, the two young people in love-- Tolstoy's own male secretary and a young woman who introduces him to the joys of love and the flesh, was a pleasant diversion, but that too stole some focus from Plummer and Mirren who, let's be honest, should have carried that movie home in a basket given half a chance.
I'm now interested in finding out just how wide a swath of influence Tolstoy cut in his time. According to the movie, he was the most famous and the most beloved author of his day, and his death, a large event of late 19th century. I love the way Plummer was able to capture the physicality of the man....
and his charm. (At least the beard is correct, if you look at photos of the author himself, a sort of Whitmanesque presence.)
I'm glad we watched the 'extras' at the end of the DVD. It featured an interview with Christopher Plummer discussing his career and his new autobiography (which I do very much want to read) that profiles his drinking with Jason Robards, being a part of New York City theater in the fifties, as well as 'swinging London' in the sixties. He's a fellow has lived a colorful life to be sure, and he oozes charm.
The other extra was 'out-takes' from the making of the film that were hilarious and SO entertaining to watch. I just love to see actors flubbing their lines, then laughing or monkeyshining or cursing angrily, breaking up when they do that. The film had an awesome cast, but still... it didn't quite reach its potential. Focus. It needed ONE point of focus, not three.
At the end of that 'lion of letters' life, given his ENORMOUS impact on the world and the people around him (and with a hellfire, spirited wife) this film should have ended up more of a 'Lion In Winter' sparks and fur-flying character study and less of a Ken Burns documentary.
Though as I told Wayne, I'd watch Plummer and Mirren doing vaudeville and find satisfaction in it. Those are two wonderful performers, and though the movie wasn't all I'd hoped for, they were.
July 3, 2011~ 8:15 pm
This has been my 'schedule' thus far... (she said, laughingly) ... the most slothful of days. Sleep four hours, up four to read, eat, browse the internet, back to sleep. In that order. Since last evening. LOL!!
I did a lot of art and photography site-browsing, and though it's yet way too early for Halloween- (but never for nightmares) I found a a site that makes me cringe from its brilliant, gothic creepiness.
It's the work of Norwegian photographer, Erlend Mørk who will disquiet you with digitally manipulated and enhanced dark photo studies. He's without question, a thrilling young artist. Art should 'disrupt' something inside and shake it awake, and his does. (If only to draw the covers over your head, he WILL raise the shivers. I guarantee it.)
July 7, 2011~ 7:15 pm
Whatever shall America do with itself now that the Casey Anthony Murder Trial Is Over?
I have to say I've had only peripheral exposure, and most of it in the last two days of this 3 year long ordeal, and I suppose the media hype will not only NOT slow down, it will become even MORE ravenous and MORE inappropriate.
(Given the young woman's proclivities before her child went missing, and in particular, DURING the month long interval until the toddler was actually reported missing) and given this society's HUNGER for all things gauche and its LOVE of 'reality entertainment' (irregardless of its untastefulness) -- and given the HUGE BILLS the accused and pronounced not-guilty will see ballooning what with law suits and restitution for the $112,000.00 spent on wasted search efforts, I'd say there's a book in the offing. Maybe a reality TV show or at the very least- a 'mini-series'.
We are living in Caligula's ROME, folks, no doubt about it, and Casey is smack in the middle of a three-ring Circus Maximus. Perhaps there's a new career in the offing for the 'shot girl'-
Oh, I can picture a PLAYBOY spread for sure because we love our scandals and our tweets. This country adores a bad girl if she's pretty...... and the truth? We'll never know the truth in this awful case. I tend to think it was immaturity combined with alcohol and/or drugs and bad company, and the way the young feel immortal (and the people around them should be immortal too) and they don't think things through, or they pretend a thing never happened.... and however it played out, there was a ghastly attempt at a cover-up (or a cover story.) It's a tragedy of something gone horribly, horribly wrong, and we'll never know the facts. Never.
The thing I do know is that in this society, sometimes...... crime does indeed pay. Very very handsomely-- and that's the worst truth of all.
***
(Return To Weekly Archives)
My God! It's the fourth of July weekend already; this year is motoring past at a hundred miles an hour. Usually my extended family on my mother's side has a reunion picnic, but I haven't attended in about 20 years, so this weekend, two full days- Sunday and Monday both, are mine to indulge in extreme sloth.
(That may look austere and kinda creepy to you, but to ME, silence with its comforts and privacy are things to be enjoyed utterly.) I will read, snooze, keep my earplugs in place and simply disappear for 48 hours. Ahhhh... heaven.
Saturday evening Wayne and I watched 'The Last Station', which is a movie about the last days of Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy, played by Christopher Plummer, with Helen Mirren playing his wife, Countess Sofya.
The Russian writer had introduced a whole new philosophy to late nineteeth century sensibilities which involved a total sharing of the wealth, vegetarianism, as well as celibacy. (Much to Mirren's chagrin. Doubtless this 'closing of the tap' happened much later in their lives.) The two of them had THIRTEEN CHILDREN before his conversion to celibacy. Something tells me 'age' had as much to do with his change of attitude as his new-found lack of carnality.
My favorite scene of the film is the one pictured above, as Tolstoy's wife tempts him to her bed by reminding him of their old pet names and games with the two of them cackling like rooster and hen, laughing uproariously, and rolling about. It was the most human, as well as the most touching scene in the film.
The movie itself is awkwardly told. (I'd love to get my hands on the script to see how it was written and what had been cut.) For the life of me I could not figure out its lack of impact despite two veteran and hugely talented actors. If I had to pin it down, I suppose I'd say it lacked focus. The whole question of Tolstoy's 'movement' and his 'legacy' meant nothing to this viewer.... I was interested in plumbing the depths of the PEOPLE involved, yet the simultaneously running storyline of the 'Tolstoyan movement' with his rabid followers using their machinations and craftiness to get him to sign a new will thereby giving rights to his works to the Russian people rather than as a bequest to his own family, I found distracting and rather tiresome. (Perhaps it was the job of the writers to make us care, but they certainly didn't succeed.)
The other subplot, the two young people in love-- Tolstoy's own male secretary and a young woman who introduces him to the joys of love and the flesh, was a pleasant diversion, but that too stole some focus from Plummer and Mirren who, let's be honest, should have carried that movie home in a basket given half a chance.
I'm now interested in finding out just how wide a swath of influence Tolstoy cut in his time. According to the movie, he was the most famous and the most beloved author of his day, and his death, a large event of late 19th century. I love the way Plummer was able to capture the physicality of the man....
and his charm. (At least the beard is correct, if you look at photos of the author himself, a sort of Whitmanesque presence.)
I'm glad we watched the 'extras' at the end of the DVD. It featured an interview with Christopher Plummer discussing his career and his new autobiography (which I do very much want to read) that profiles his drinking with Jason Robards, being a part of New York City theater in the fifties, as well as 'swinging London' in the sixties. He's a fellow has lived a colorful life to be sure, and he oozes charm.
The other extra was 'out-takes' from the making of the film that were hilarious and SO entertaining to watch. I just love to see actors flubbing their lines, then laughing or monkeyshining or cursing angrily, breaking up when they do that. The film had an awesome cast, but still... it didn't quite reach its potential. Focus. It needed ONE point of focus, not three.
At the end of that 'lion of letters' life, given his ENORMOUS impact on the world and the people around him (and with a hellfire, spirited wife) this film should have ended up more of a 'Lion In Winter' sparks and fur-flying character study and less of a Ken Burns documentary.
Though as I told Wayne, I'd watch Plummer and Mirren doing vaudeville and find satisfaction in it. Those are two wonderful performers, and though the movie wasn't all I'd hoped for, they were.
July 3, 2011~ 8:15 pm
This has been my 'schedule' thus far... (she said, laughingly) ... the most slothful of days. Sleep four hours, up four to read, eat, browse the internet, back to sleep. In that order. Since last evening. LOL!!
I did a lot of art and photography site-browsing, and though it's yet way too early for Halloween- (but never for nightmares) I found a a site that makes me cringe from its brilliant, gothic creepiness.
It's the work of Norwegian photographer, Erlend Mørk who will disquiet you with digitally manipulated and enhanced dark photo studies. He's without question, a thrilling young artist. Art should 'disrupt' something inside and shake it awake, and his does. (If only to draw the covers over your head, he WILL raise the shivers. I guarantee it.)
July 7, 2011~ 7:15 pm
Whatever shall America do with itself now that the Casey Anthony Murder Trial Is Over?
I have to say I've had only peripheral exposure, and most of it in the last two days of this 3 year long ordeal, and I suppose the media hype will not only NOT slow down, it will become even MORE ravenous and MORE inappropriate.
(Given the young woman's proclivities before her child went missing, and in particular, DURING the month long interval until the toddler was actually reported missing) and given this society's HUNGER for all things gauche and its LOVE of 'reality entertainment' (irregardless of its untastefulness) -- and given the HUGE BILLS the accused and pronounced not-guilty will see ballooning what with law suits and restitution for the $112,000.00 spent on wasted search efforts, I'd say there's a book in the offing. Maybe a reality TV show or at the very least- a 'mini-series'.
We are living in Caligula's ROME, folks, no doubt about it, and Casey is smack in the middle of a three-ring Circus Maximus. Perhaps there's a new career in the offing for the 'shot girl'-
Oh, I can picture a PLAYBOY spread for sure because we love our scandals and our tweets. This country adores a bad girl if she's pretty...... and the truth? We'll never know the truth in this awful case. I tend to think it was immaturity combined with alcohol and/or drugs and bad company, and the way the young feel immortal (and the people around them should be immortal too) and they don't think things through, or they pretend a thing never happened.... and however it played out, there was a ghastly attempt at a cover-up (or a cover story.) It's a tragedy of something gone horribly, horribly wrong, and we'll never know the facts. Never.
The thing I do know is that in this society, sometimes...... crime does indeed pay. Very very handsomely-- and that's the worst truth of all.
(Return To Weekly Archives)
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